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technology

technology

The 6 ‘worst’ CES 2024 products revealed — from earbud duds to an AI shopping cart

The best CES products pierce through the haze of marketing hype to reveal innovations that could improve lives. The worst could harm us or our society and planet, experts say.

AI is not your lawyer

Technology The Big Story AI models ‘hallucinate’ law, study finds Generative artificial intelligence (AI) models frequently produce false legal information, with so-called “hallucinations” occurring between 69 percent and 88 percent of the time, a recent study found. © iStock Large language models (LLMs) — generative AI models, like ChatGPT, that are trained to…

New York’s weak right to repair bill is now in effect, and changes almost nothing

New York was the first US state to pass a Right to Repair bill, which is now law, but it so weak and watered down, it is to effectively worthless for consumers.Apple Repair ProgramFollowing its passage through the New York State Senate in 2021, and passage in the last days of 2022, New York has now officially enacted an electronics Right to Repair bill. It concerns electronic devices, with certain exceptions, that were sold for the first time in New York after July 1, 2023.”As technology and smart devices become increasingly essential to the lives of New Yorkers,” New York governor Kathy Hochul wrote in a public memo in 2023. “It is important for consumers to be able to fix the devices that they rely on in a timely fashion.” Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Terrifying AI beauty mirror predicts when you’ll DIE, your risk of a heart attack and other chronic illnesses by analyzing the blood in your face

The 21.5-in. AI tablet ‘MagicMirror’ can tabulate 100 health parameters from blood circulation data – including diabetes risk, fever, mental stress, and more, its makers promise

The Finals on PC: genuinely awesome destruction tech without sacrificing performance

Embark Studios is a game development house with a lot of promise. Founded and staffed by many ex-DICE Frostbite tech gurus in 2018, the studio has exhibited a hardcore tech focus since its inception with tech demos and presentations into machine learning for animation and AI, open-source code repositories and of course ray-traced graphics. I always wondered what kind of game they were really making with all of this technology, and now I have the answer with The Finals. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the heritage of its designers, this is a class-based FPS in the vein of Battlefield with objective-driven combat, released free-to-play on current-gen consoles and PC shortly before the holiday break in 2023. Its focus on level-busting destruction makes it a rather unique game from a tech perspective, so it seemed only natural to focus on the PC version for this article. I’ll cover what it does differently to other games, which optimised settings we recommend and how it compares to the PS5 console version. Before I get into any comparisons, let’s go over the basics of the game’s mechanics. In The Finals, the levels you play through are typically made up of prefabricated buildings that can be cracked open and destroyed with explosive weapons or abilities, clearing a path to maneouvre or deny an opponent cover and concealment. The game is about staying on the move to get to the next objective area with your team, and sometimes the best way forward is to just tear down the wall right in front of you. You can start a match with a pristine level and end with one where buildings are collapsed, burnt-out husks of what they used to be. Read more

The Finals on PC: genuinely awesome destruction tech without sacrificing performance

Embark Studios is a game development house with a lot of promise. Founded and staffed by many ex-DICE Frostbite tech gurus in 2018, the studio has exhibited a hardcore tech focus since its inception with tech demos and presentations into machine learning for animation and AI, open-source code repositories and of course ray-traced graphics. I always wondered what kind of game they were really making with all of this technology, and now I have the answer with The Finals. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the heritage of its designers, this is a class-based FPS in the vein of Battlefield with objective-driven combat, released free-to-play on current-gen consoles and PC shortly before the holiday break in 2023. Its focus on level-busting destruction makes it a rather unique game from a tech perspective, so it seemed only natural to focus on the PC version for this article. I’ll cover what it does differently to other games, which optimised settings we recommend and how it compares to the PS5 console version. Before I get into any comparisons, let’s go over the basics of the game’s mechanics. In The Finals, the levels you play through are typically made up of prefabricated buildings that can be cracked open and destroyed with explosive weapons or abilities, clearing a path to maneouvre or deny an opponent cover and concealment. The game is about staying on the move to get to the next objective area with your team, and sometimes the best way forward is to just tear down the wall right in front of you. You can start a match with a pristine level and end with one where buildings are collapsed, burnt-out husks of what they used to be. Read more