Robotics

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETOne of the most important annual events in the field of artificial intelligence kicks off this week in Singapore: the International Conference on Learning Representations. As usual, chip giant Nvidia had a major presence at the conference, presenting over 70 research papers from its team.Also: Nvidia launches NeMo software tools to help enterprises build custom AI agentsThe papers cover topics ranging from generating music to creating 3D-realistic videos, robot training tasks, and the ability to generate multiple large language models at the push of a button. More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Soundpeats Pop Clip earbuds are avaialble on Amazon for $39. While these earbuds might not offer the best sound, they do have very good battery life and are comfortable enough to wear for very long durations. The bass in the Pop Clips isn’t well defined and isn’t capable of reaching […] More

Synology / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETSo, Synology dropped a bombshell on its users this week. After some back-and-forth with company officials, I can confidently say it’s not quite as bad as it seems. It’s not ideal, but it’s not the end of the world either.OK, let’s back up. Synology is a company that makes network-attached storage (NAS) systems. The company makes prosumer, small business, and enterprise-level gear. In my evaluation of their small business NAS devices, compared to most of the other major contenders, I’ve found Synology’s devices to be the best solution. Also: The best NAS devices: Expert testedI am currently running four Synology NAS servers, with 142 terabytes stored across 23 drives. It’s fair to say I’m pretty invested in Synology. More to the point, since Synology gave me two of those servers, I’m invested in the drives running on my Synology devices. Yes, I know it’s a lot of storage for a two-person company. But video production files, VMs running data center simulations, mirrors of my web servers, and diagnostic telemetry data from tens of thousands of users do take up space. Plus, we use the servers to store backups. One also functions as our business and family file share server. That brings us to the bombshell. On April 18, Ars Technica reported that Synology is making a major change in its drive support policy. As of 2025, all new Plus-tier devices will require Synology-branded hard drives and will not support any non-Synology-branded devices.Also: I retested Copilot’s AI coding skills after last year’s strikeout and now it’s a sluggerThe implications of this for the storage strategy of current and future Synology users are not to be underestimated. But after considerable back-and-forth discussions with Synology executives, it’s not quite as catastrophic as most of us originally feared. Let me break it down for you.2025 and later devices: This new restriction applies to Synology Plus-tier NAS devices released this year and into the future.Plus tier: Devices in the Plus tier, like the 4-bay DS923+ More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Sharge Icemag 2 power bank is available on Amazon now around $55. With a perfect size, a powerful battery, RBG lighting, and a tiny fan to keep things cool, this power bank is ideal for those on the go. The Icemag 2 isn’t exactly the fastest charging power bank on […] More

jgroup/Getty Images There’s been a ton of buzz about how AIs can help programming, but in the first year or two of generative AI, much of that was hype. Microsoft ran huge events celebrating how Copilot could help you code, but when I put it to the test in April 2024, it failed all four […] More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The HP OmniBook Ultra Flip sells for as little as $1,199 with sales. It’s a lightweight, convertible work laptop with a solid battery life and a booming speaker system. However, the model isn’t a powerhouse as some might find its performance a little disappointing. more buying choices When I first tried […] More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is typically sold for $150. The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus offers a clear head-to-toe view of your front door, a removable rechargeable battery pack, reliable motion detection alerts, and seamless integration with Alexa. Ring continues to keep most features behind its Ring Home subscription; though the […] More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways NixOS is an open-source operating system that is available to install and use for free. It offers several desktop environments to choose from, is as rock-solid as any OS on the market, and performs quite well. However, there’s a fairly steep learning curve for installing non-free software. –> Before we get […] More