This is a problem that’s likely to become more common as all kinds of companies embrace the concept of “ambient computing” – computing capabilities that move seamlessly between every facet of your life. As you move from your smart home to your smart car, with your smart ear buds in hand, different brands are likely to have their own AI assistants ready to help you. SEE: The 4 best smart hubs: Get smart about home control So in the scenario above, if your teenager turned on their atrocious music with Alexa, you should still be able to say to your Sonos speakers, “Hey Sonos, stop,” and the music should stop....

The new Fire 7 is available to preorder right now, but deliveries aren’t expected until June 29. Again, you can get the Fire 7 for $59, which comes with 16GB of storage. Or you can double the storage amount to 32GB for $79. Either model comes in black, denim, or rose color options. The Fire 7 isn’t going to be the most impressive tablet on the market when it comes to its display quality or performance, but at $60, it’s a fantastic tablet for kids, or for someone who needs a device to browse the web or watch an occasional video....

Developers are mostly keen to move on for more money, new challenges or for more flexible-working options. But now a survey has come up with another reason why your engineers might want to quit – their fellow developers’ terrible code. Software engineers have long struggled with ’technical debt’ created by past coding practices that might have been clever but also were undocumented and exotic. At a high level, technical debt is the price paid by supporting legacy systems rather than overhauling them or implementing a better, new system....

On Wednesday, the iPad and iPhone maker published a new paper (.PDF) on sideloading, a process allowed by other mobile OS developers – such as Google, albeit with some friction – to install apps on devices outside of official app repositories. Sideloading can be useful when users want access to software that is not available in official stores. Users may want to install apps that have been discontinued or when newer versions are not compatible with an existing handset, or for whatever reason – such as legal battles – an app has been pulled from an official source....

As is tradition with an Apple event invite, trying to decipher what the invite means is a fun game to play. The light-speed travel look to the invite is leaving me confused, however, or maybe it’s something else entirely. And the tagline of “Unleashed” could, maybe, relate to the performance of its M1X MacBook Pros that have been rumored for a few months now. The latest rumors pointed to a MacBook Pro launch in October of this year, and we’re still expecting to see a new pair of AirPods....

Apple’s homemade chips would also eventually replace Qualcomm chips, which power the iPhone’s cellular connectivity capabilities. Late last year, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo noted that Apple had been attempting to make a 5G chip for years, but recent efforts were futile. As a result, Apple was forced to continue to rely on Qualcomm’s 5G chips for this year’s iPhone releases, according to Kuo. Bloomberg News reported that Apple’s chips experienced problems with overheating, battery life, and component validation....

Simply put, you can tie almost everything of substance Apple announced into a competitive bucket with a heavy dose of privacy as air cover. Here’s a tour of what Apple announced. Dear Google and Facebook… Apple will never name Google and Facebook directly, but its “privacy leadership” is often about those two foes. Apple’s privacy push, which was layered throughout the company’s software updates, is looking to thwart cross-site tracks as well as pixels that can help monetization....

There are seemingly no limits to what you can do with a MacBook, especially with Apple’s next-generation M2 chip. Compatible with all your Apple devices, this MacBook Air allows you to keep up with your text messages, make phone or FaceTime calls, as well as instantly sync your photos so you can view them on a bigger screen. Read the review: Apple MacBook Air review A 13.6-inch Liquid Retina Display features one billion colors, 500 nits of brightness, and P3 wide color for vivid colors on movies, games, or even work....

As first spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple added the new Car Key Tests app to the App Store this week. Since launching in 2020, only some BMW models – and some of Hyundai’s Kia and Genesis-brand vehicles – support the iPhone Car Key feature. Also: How to add your driver’s license to the Apple Wallet app The feature requires adding a car key to Apple Wallet for users to unlock and start the ignition of a car....

Face down and in considerable pain. Suddenly, a man’s voice: “Right, now I’m going to gun you.” “You’re going to what?” “You’ve never had this before?” said the man. “It’s really good.” And so it was that buzzing began and incited a very strange sensation. I should point out that the man was a physical therapist and no one was harmed in the making of this column. I had a hamstring injury, thank you for asking, and my physical therapist was committed in his gun-toting faith....

The dramatic shift to online learning was possible because students, schools, and employers respect online degrees. Even before the pandemic, online learning was on the rise because of its flexibility, accessibility, and convenience. Let’s dive into why employers value online training and what students should look for. For extra insight, we spoke to Jeffrey Williams, senior director of career and student services at New Horizons Computer Learning Centers. Williams coaches students in using their education to reach their career goals....

These are some of the observations of Nathan Benaich and Ian Hogarth, prominent investors in artificial intelligence, who released their fourth annual and densely packed “State of AI” report reviewing developments in the field over the past year. While the report focuses on AI academia and specific advancements in medicine and other areas, there are important developments raised for those seeking to leverage AI and machine learning to move forward in building intelligent enterprises....

Following a six-week pause on its original launch plans, another two-week delay, and a last-minute agreement to halt any launches near airports to alleviate Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) fears over C-Band’s interference with radio altimeters, the service is finally going live. AT&T’s newest 5G technology is now available in a total of eight metro areas: Austin, Chicago, Dallas Ft. Worth, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville, Orlando, and South Florida. The new technology is expected to improve upon AT&T’s existing mmWave-based 5G by providing “a great combination of ultra-fast speeds and wide geographic coverage....

During those six months, both Sydney and Melbourne were in extended lockdowns with the highest daily COVID case numbers the country had experienced in the entire pandemic, and much of the rest of Australia dipped in and out of lockdown conditions. In that timeframe, 13 people uploaded to the system, 330 new handshakes were added, for a total of nine potential encounters. Since the inception of the app, it has received 792 uploads, 1....

The federal government committed to reforming these laws earlier this year after a review into Australia’s intelligence community found comprehensive legislative changes were required, specifically in repealing existing powers and combining them to avoid duplication, contradictory definitions, and any further ad hoc amendments to existing laws. “In short, we conclude that the legislative framework governing electronic surveillance in Australia is no longer fit for purpose,” the review said. The review said that problems with the framework have accumulated after 40 years of continued amendments....

“We have large numbers of devices in our stores that are largely shared between all staff in that store and that creates some challenges around sanitising those devices between usage and at the end of the day,” Australia Post technology business partner Ben Llewellyn said during the virtual VMware 2021 conference. “So, what we’re looking at doing is to create a situation where every staff member has their own device from the start of issue to the end of the issue and isn’t sharing those devices....

“I’ve been saying research is the superpower to be able to make any society … to be able to weather any changes that come across us, and we’ve seen our fair share in the last few years,” she said, speaking during the virtual Collaborate Innovate 2021 event. “But what we have in Australia is about AU$12 billion … in research and yet to be able to read that, we’re paying … between the order of AU$400 million to probably AU$600 million a year in order to be able to see this – and it’s only able to be read by people who are either paying for a page by page or a journal article by journal article, or being able to have a subscription through their organisation....

As part of the trial, DSO will focus on entry-level data analysts as well as necessary general digital skills. “The Morrison government’s economic plan to secure Australia’s recovery from the COVID-19 recession has digital skills at its centre. This pilot is doing the work to ensure those qualifications are fit-for-purpose so we can improve our skills pipeline and bring more Australians into our digital workforce,” Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business Robert said....

The backdrop to all this is that open source Redis is an incredibly popular platform. Ranked among the top 10 databases by db-Engines, according to Sumologic, it is also the most popular database deployed on AWS. And pouring it on, Stack Overflow surveys of its community listed Redis as the “most loved” database by developers for the last five years running. Each of the major cloud providers offer their own Redis-based caching services based on the open source version....

Ultimately, drivers should see the benefits from this kind of system in a variety of ways – carmakers will be able to spot safety concerns and issue recalls more quickly. They should be able to provide consumers with smarter infotainment systms, as well as better autonomous driving and driver-assistance systems. “Now, with AWS IoT FleetWise, customers can easily pinpoint the exact vehicle data they need and analyze it in a standardized format to gain actionable insights into the vehicle’s health status and performance,” said Mike Tzamaloukas, general manager of IoT automotive at AWS....