Camera support could be the boost Matter needs
Camera support could be the boost Matter needs The Matter smart home standard is adding cameras to its latest spec. It’s finally happening. Three years after Matter launched, the interoperability standard now includes the most popular smart home devices: cameras. The Matter 1.5 spec, announced today, adds support for all types of video cameras – […]
Google’s new Scholar Labs search uses AI to find relevant studies
Google's new Scholar Labs search uses AI to find relevant studies Google has announced it’s testing a new AI-powered search tool, Scholar Labs, that’s designed to answer detailed research questions. But its demonstration highlighted a bigger question about finding “good” science studies. How much will scientists trust a tool that forgoes typical ways of gauging […]
This viral AI pen didn’t help me cheat
This viral AI pen didn't help me cheat This “AI scanner pen” promised answers to test questions. A college student recently told me about the latest tech designed to help students cheat – and it wasn’t ChatGPT. It was an actual, physical gadget marketed in YouTube ads as the workaround to physical, hardcopy tests, which […]
Screw it, I’m installing Linux
Screw it, I'm installing Linux Penguin not actual size. This time I’m really going to do it. I am going to put Linux on my gaming PC. Calling it now. 2026 is the year of Linux on the desktop. Or at least on mine. Linux has been a perfectly viable desktop OS for ages. But […]
AI, my unexpected daily travel companion
AI, my unexpected daily travel companion There’s gold at the end of those AI travel queries. | Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge I was starting to doubt it would ever happen, but I finally found a regular, helpful use for AI: vanlife travel planner. I’m not a student and I don’t code. I […]
Cloudflare outages aren’t a matter of if — but when
Cloudflare outages aren't a matter of if — but when Cloudflare has become the latest web infrastructure giant to collapse in the span of a month, replacing entire sites, including X, ChatGPT, Spotify, Canva, and even the outage-tracking DownDetector, with an error message for hours this morning. It’s the latest in a string of outages […]
Talking to Windows’ Copilot AI makes a computer feel incompetent
Talking to Windows' Copilot AI makes a computer feel incompetent It’s not hard to understand the AI future Microsoft is betting billions on – a world where computers understand what you’re saying and do things for you. It’s right there in the ads for the latest Copilot PCs, where people cheerfully talk to their laptops […]
How Jeffrey Epstein used SEO to bury news about his crimes
How Jeffrey Epstein used SEO to bury news about his crimes On December 11th, 2010, Jeffrey Epstein was fretting about what came up if you Googled him. By this time Epstein had already pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution with a child and was a registered sex offender, and just a few days earlier he had […]
Your online reservations are telling restaurants all about you
Your online reservations are telling restaurants all about you Are you a red wine drinker? A high spender? Or perhaps you’re a slow eater, the sort who takes up a restaurant’s table for longer than they’d like. You might not even know – but OpenTable does. Those are just a few of the notes that […]
I looked into CoreWeave and the abyss gazed back
I looked into CoreWeave and the abyss gazed back Hello, my friends. Have you been feeling too sane lately? Have I got something for you! It is a company called CoreWeave. You may not have heard of it because it’s not doing the consumer-facing part of AI. It’s a data center company, the kind people […]