Robotics

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways Amazon’s base model Kindle retails for $110 and promises quicker page-turning, a brighter display, and a fun matcha green colorway (alongside the classic black). The e-reader is more reactive and vivid, and reading anything on the lightweight, portable device is convenient. This model has the shortest battery life out of the […] More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Oukitel RT3 Pro is available for preorder now on Oukitel’s site. This tablet is a rugged little beast that will take a beating and still perform as well as any mid-range Android. The RT3 Pro’s performance will not blow you away. –> I’ve become a fan of Oukitel phones and […] More

mdesigner125/Getty Images The hustle and bustle of the holiday season is here, and with it comes…errands! From traveling to loved ones’ homes to running to stores for last-minute gifts, ingredients, or decor, much of the season is spent on the road. To help make the experience as easy as possible, Google unveiled some features for […] More

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETOne of the most practical applications of generative AI is enhancing voice assistants, which have remained relatively unchanged for years — and have notoriously not been the best at communicating. With Gemini Live, you can finally have human-like conversations with AI. Also: I downloaded Google’s Gemini app on the iPhone for free – and it nearly replaces Siri for meIn May, Google unveiled Gemini Live, a conversational AI-powered assistant that can be interrupted, have multi-turn conversations, and revisit conversations later. Initially, Gemini Live was only available to Gemini Advanced users, requiring a $20 monthly membership to access. Then, it was made available for free, but only to Android users. Now, free iOS users have been looped in, too. Getting started is easy, and having a conversation with Gemini, even if just once, is worth a try. It supports many languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, ensuring that certain people can have a worthwhile experience. Keep reading below to learn how and what to use it for. How to access Gemini Live on Android Downloading the Gemini app from the Google Play Store More

PAU BARRENA/Getty Images SALT LAKE CITY – At KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2024, Red Hat announced more updates to its OpenShift Kubernetes platform than you can shake a stick at. Most focused on AI integration, edge computing, and enhanced security features. Here, without further ado, are OpenShift’s crème de la crème. First up, Red […] More

Max Buondonno/ZDNETPhone scams are on the rise, and thanks to AI, they’re more convincing than ever. That’s why Google is stepping in and offering one last line of defense for Pixel users — a feature that listens in, on your phone calls, and alerts you if a scam is going down.Also: Gmail users, beware of new AI scam that looks very authenticHere’s how the feature works.When you place or make a call, the onboard AI listens to your conversation. On the Pixel 9 series, Gemini Nano conducts the detection, while for the Pixel 6 and above, it’s an older learning model. Furthermore, the AI will listen for conversation patterns commonly associated with scams, like a caller urgently requesting funds, asking for account login information, or claiming to be from your bank. Also: 1 in 4 people have experienced identity fraud – and most of them blame AIIf the AI detects a potential scam, you’ll hear an audio alarm, your phone will vibrate, and your phone will show a warning that says, “Likely Scam” and “Suspicious activity detected for this call.” You’ll have the option to choose “Not a scam” or “End call.”  More

sjvn/ZDNETSALT LAKE CITY – If your business recently posted a job ad on LinkedIn, you may have received — in addition to the usual influx of resumes and cover letters — a very unexpected response: the threat of a lawsuit from Edge Networking Systems LLC.Edge Networking is a patent troll. This means it buys up patents — not to use them but to extort money from anyone who might want to use the patent.  Let’s say you’ve posted a job listing for a Kubernetes engineer. An Edge bot will spot this, assume you must be using Kubernetes, and then slap you with a cease-and-desist note claiming you’re violating its Kubernetes patent and you must pay them a licensing fee. Welcome to the wild, wonderful world of 21st-century patent trolls!Also: How Netscape lives on: 30 years of shaping the web, open source, and businessWhat’s the logic behind this? According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a “patent troll uses patents as legal weapons, instead of actually creating any new products or coming up with new ideas.” They collect their patents for pennies on the dollar from companies down on their luck. Since the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) grants very broad patents for ideas that are neither new nor revolutionary, it’s easy for a patent troll, which typically has no other business, to send out threatening letters to anyone who might conceivably infringe their patents. These letters usually threaten a lawsuit unless the alleged infringer agrees to pay a licensing fee. These charges can range from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.Because it’s far more expensive to fight a lawsuit than to pay off the troll, patent trolling is a very successful business model. Over half of all patent lawsuits are initiated by trolls. In particular, businesses that use open-source projects, such as Kubernetes, are being targeted more often.Also: We have an official open-source AI definition now, but the fight is far from overThe Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), the Linux Foundation, and United Patents have had enough of this latest attack. At KubeCon North America 2024 this week, CNCF executive director Priyanka Sharma said in her keynote, “Patent trolls are not contributors or even adopters in our ecosystem. Instead, they prey on cloud-native adopters by abusing the legal system. We are here to tell the world that these patent trolls don’t stand a chance because CNCF is uniting the ecosystem to deter them. Like a herd of musk oxen, we will run them off our pasture.”CNCF CTO Chris Aniszczyk added: “The reason trolls can make money is that many companies find it too expensive to fight back, so they pay trolls a settlement fee to avoid the even higher cost of litigation. Now, when a whole herd of companies band together like musk oxen to drive a troll off, it changes the cost structure of fighting back. It disrupts their economic model.”Also: Technologist Bruce Schneier on security, society, and why we need ‘public AI’ modelsHow? Jim Zemlin, the Linux Foundation’s executive director, said, “We don’t negotiate with trolls. Instead, with United Patents, we go to the PTO and crush those patents. We strive to invalidate them by working with developers who have prior art, bringing this to the attention of the USPTO, and killing patents. No negotiation, no settlement. We destroy the very asset that made patent trolls’ business work. Together, since we’ve started this effort, 90% of the time, we’ve been able to go in there and destroy these patents.””It’s time for us to band together,” said Joanna Lee, CNCF’s VP of strategic programs and legal. “We encourage all organizations in our ecosystem to get involved. Join the fight, enhance your own company’s protection, protect your customers, enhance our community defense, and save money on legal expenses.” Also: World Wide Web Foundation to close, as Berners-Lee shifts focus to Solid ProtocolWhile getting your company and its legal department involved in the effort to fend off patent trolls is important, developers can also help. CNCF announced the Cloud Native Heroes Challenge, a patent troll bounty program in which cloud-native developers and technologists can earn swag and win prizes.They’re asking you to find evidence of preexisting technology — referred to by patent lawyers as “prior art” — that can kill off bad patents. This could be open-source documentation (including release notes), published standards or specifications, product manuals, articles, blogs, books, or any publicly available information.Also: How open source is steering AI down the high roadAll entrants who submit an entry that conforms to the contest rules will receive a free “Cloud Native Hero” t-shirt that can be picked up at any future KubeCon+CloudNativeCon. The winner will also receive a $3,000 cash prize.In the inaugural contest, the CNCF is seeking information that can be used to invalidate Claim 1 from US Patent US-11695823-B1. This is the major patent asserted by Edge Networking Systems against Kubernetes users. As is often the case with such patents, it’s much too broad. This patent describes a network architecture that facilitates secure and flexible programmability between a user device and across a network with full lifecycle management of services and infrastructure applications. That describes pretty much any modern cloud system. Also: Can AI even be open source? It’s complicatedIf you can find prior art that describes such a system before June 13, 2013, you could be a winner. Some such materials have already been found. This is already listed in the “known references” tab of the contest information page and doesn’t qualify. If you care about keeping open-source software easy and cheap to use — or you believe trolls shouldn’t be allowed to take advantage of companies that make or use programs — you can help. I’ll be doing some digging myself. Open Source More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is available for $200. I’ve been testing the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, which features the fastest performance yet and up to 12 weeks of battery life; alternatively, the 16 GB Kindle Paperwhite is available for $160. Remember that Amazon’s promise of up to 12 weeks of […] More