We’re not sure exactly when it happened, but hoverboards have officially gone from a curious toy to a legit mode of transportation. You can see them zooming around the streets of almost any city now, but where did they come from all of a sudden? They’ve likely gone mainstream for the same reason any tech finally breaks through: The performance has gotten better and the price has gone down. There’s no better example of that than the Hover-1 Electric Self-Balancing Scooter Ranger, which is now available for less than $130 as a factory remanufacture....

Today’s chief marketing officers must consider the bigger picture: how can their company stand out in a competitive field? How does customer experience play a role in their company’s success? What do customers want throughout the entire lifecycle and buying journey? And, can the company meet those buyers’ needs? These questions go beyond marketing efficiency, pushing the boundaries of marketing innovation to move the needle on sales, customer loyalty, and lifetime customer value....

Also: The best e-readers aren’t all Kindle What is Kobo Plus? Kobo Plus is an e-book subscription service with three tiers: Kobo Plus Listen, Kobo Plus Read, and Kobo Plus Read and Listen. Kobo Plus Listen gives users access to over 100,000 audiobooks for $7.99 per month. Users can listen to audiobooks with the Kobo App or with compatible Kobo e-readers. Also: How to get (great) free books on Kindle Kobo Plus Read supplies users with over 1....

The minister responsible for innovation and IT Don T Punch believes Western Australia should be at the forefront of digital change globally. He said the Digital Strategy for the Western Australian Government 2021-2025 will change the way the community interacts with government. The strategy [PDF] supersedes the DigitalWA: Western Australian Government ICT Strategy 2016-20, which the government considers laid the foundations for it to now “reimagine the role of digital in how government serves people, businesses, and communities”....

One might look at the quarterly results and see a company that’s struggling to meet its own targets, but as mentioned previously, the numbers can be misleading – particularly in this current macro environment. Here are the most important points gleaned from Cisco’s quarterly report: Cisco’s business has never been stronger. Despite the “meh” revenue numbers, Cisco’s business is stronger than ever. It is being held back by ongoing component shortages....

Also: How to set up two-factor authentication (2FA) and for what The problem with 2FA is that third-party apps aren’t always set up to authenticate with the added layer of security. That means that when you have 2FA enabled for your Google account, connecting a third-party application or service won’t work. So Google created a feature to get around this problem, called App Passwords. An app password is a password that is generated so that a third-party app can connect to your Gmail account....

If you have used ChatGPT, you probably gave thought to the construction of your query – but no thought at all about the construction of its supporting infrastructure – servers, databases, networks, or even its large language models. Also: How to use ChatGPT to write code Welcome to the age of abstraction. And the pace of abstraction for both technology and business professionals is accelerating just as quickly – to the point where one no longer requires in-depth knowledge of the plumbing underneath applications and devices – or, increasingly, even the data science....

The new Game Pass widget is rolling out in the Windows 11 Insider preview build 25174 for the Dev Channel, offering a visual shortcut to Xbox games in the Windows 11 widget panel. “This widget is a window to the extensive PC Game Pass library – it will show the latest additions, games leaving soon, and others from highlighted categories and then take you to the Xbox app where you can install them, see reviews, and go all in,” Microsoft said....

There were relatively few complaints when Microsoft added these new rules for Home users – maybe because most of the outcry was focused on the new TPM/CPU requirements for the product. Or maybe the power users who typically would bristle over these requirements had found workarounds that kept them from kicking and screaming all that much. In any case, Microsoft may or may not make the Internet connectivity/MSA a permanent thing for Pro variants of Windows 11....

The survey of more than 2,000 UK workers by PwC found that 18% are ’likely’ or ’extremely likely’ to change jobs within the next 12 months, while a third (32%) are ‘moderately’ or ‘sightly likely’ to switch. The professional services firm warned that growing polarization between what employees want versus what their bosses are willing to offer means that more workers are willing to “assert their power” and “vote with their feet” if their expectations are not met....

To help you decide if Xfinity home security is a good fit for you, we will cover other criteria, including Xfinity’s security plans, availability, contract and pricing details, and customer service history. Pros: Financing option for equipment available with a long-term contractSecurity camera detects people, vehicles, and pets to send smart notifications and minimize false alarmsBundled price when combined with internet or cable service Cons: Professional monitoring is required, and monthly rates are not cheapVideo surveillance increases your monthly rate by $10Only one smart device offered – limited smart devices supported...

That day has come. Starting Thursday, March 9, you can now visit your local Best Buy store or visit BestBuy.com to buy a Roku TV. That’s right, Roku’s TVs are a Best Buy exclusive. Also: The best Roku TVs and players If you didn’t catch the CES 2023 announcement, here’s a quick rundown of what to expect from the two different Roku TV lines, the Roku Select and Roku Plus series....

Now that the watch is running Wear OS, we can also look closer at the fantastic hardware. I purchased the Watch 4 Classic with the lovely spinning hardware bezel and the display that is inset from the front of the bezel. This offers some protection of the display, but if you wear your watch daily you may want even better protection. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve tested out a couple of screen protectors from ZAGG, the InvisibleShield GlassFusion and Ultra Clear....

The new products will play a big part in what the company calls the “uncarpeted enterprise”, places such as manufacturing facilities that have been relatively less connected. “Over the last nine to twelve months, we have seen really tangible demand in manufacturing, warehouses, oil fields – places where the concept of digitization is nowhere near what we are used to,” said Celona co-founder and CEO Rajeev Shah in an interview with ZDNET via Zoom....

AI-powered tools can be valuable for brands that want to reach customers with personalized marketing campaigns across multiple channels. Effectively reaching customers becomes even more daunting at large scales. Also: Adobe rolls out new Acrobat Sign integrations for faster workflows Here’s a rundown of some of the new ways to leverage AI within the Experience Cloud: Identifying prospective customers: Organizations using Adobe’s Customer Data Platform (CDP) can now use Predictive Lead and Account Scoring to compare prospective buyers to actual buyers and determine when to engage with them....

To be clear, my professional education is in software. My friends used to joke that if it (regardless of what “it” was) required the use of a physical tool, I should stay as far away as possible. But ever since I started exploring 3D printing, I’ve been learning my way around tools and the workshop. My skills have been improving, and I’ve been taking you folks along for the ride so we can learn together....

There is a powerful feedback loop going on. In the center of that loop sits software technology that converts neural net programs to run on novel hardware. And at the center of that sits a recent open-source project gaining momentum. Apache TVM is a compiler that operates differently from other compilers. Instead of turning a program into typical chip instructions for a CPU or GPU, it studies the “graph” of compute operations in a neural net and figures out how best to map those operations to hardware based on dependencies between the operations....

LEARN MORE: Google Cloud vs. AWS: Two vastly different profit picturesTop cloud providers in 2021: How the leaders stack up Bezos, who is planning a transition to Executive Chairman of the company in Q3 2021, shouldn’t have anything to hide. AWS is a major contributor to the American economy in several significant respects (one notable exception being federal taxes), partly due to its being bonded to a company with colossal revenue from e-commerce....

The e-commerce giant has long said its ultimate aim is to build warehouse robots that work “alongside” humans rather than replacing them. Unlike other warehouse robots, Proteus can actually safely work “alongside” humans. With advanced safety, perception, and navigation technologies, Proteus can autonomously move around people while doing its work, so it doesn’t have to be limited to restricted areas. 

Attempting to fly around America recently – on more than one local airline – has been akin to volunteering to eat only Cheetos in a windowless room for 10 consecutive days. The champion, perhaps, has been Spirit Airlines, which seems to have undergone a painful implosion. In the same explosive discussion, however, is American Airlines. It’s canceled hundreds of flights. It’s claimed the weather has been severe in its inclemency....