Robotics

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETDuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused browser and search engine, has released a new setting on its search engine that allows users to hide AI-generated images. “Our philosophy about AI features is ‘private, useful, and optional.’ Our goal is to help you find what you’re looking for. You should decide for yourself how much AI you want in your life – or if you want any at all,” the company said on X last week.Also: I test AI tools for a living. Here are 3 image generators I actually use and howTo that end, the company has added a feature that makes it easy to filter out AI images, so you don’t have to see them. The new filter works with open-source blocklists (such as uBlockOrigin’s “nuclear” list and uBlacklist’s “Huge AI Blocklist”) to give users control over the kinds of images they want to see.This new feature doesn’t eliminate AI-generated images from the search, but rather, vastly reduces the number of such images that appear in your searches. More

Philip Thurston/Getty Images Agentic AI is one of the fastest-emerging technologies in business, with the potential to generate $450 billion in economic value through revenue uplift and cost savings across surveyed countries by 2028, according to the Rise of agentic AI: How trust is the key to human-AI collaboration. The new report from Capgemini Research Institute reveals insights […] More

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETThe next time you get an alert on your Android phone, it might just be life‑saving information.Google researchers report that since rolling out the Android Earthquake Alerts System in 2021, it has detected and issued warnings for over 2,000 earthquakes, delivering anywhere from 10 to 60 seconds of advance notice before the strongest shaking arrives. In total, about 790 million alerts have been sent to phones worldwide.Also: Storms and bad weather? How to prep your tech ahead of possible emergenciesFor instance, during a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in the Philippines in November 2023, Google’s system sent out the first alert just 18.3 seconds after the quake started, notifying nearly 2.5 million people.Last fall, Google expanded its earthquake alert system — Android earthquake alerts are now available in all 50 US states and six US territories. And in June, Samsung introduced its own version. Here’s how these critical alerts work and how you can enable them.How to turn on Google’s earthquake alerts on AndroidEarthquake alerts are often on by default. To check, follow the steps below. Also, be sure that your device is connected to Wi-Fi or mobile data and that location services are enabled. More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Viture Pro XR glasses are available for a retail price of $459 in black. The display is larger, brighter, and smoother with the same form factor, fit, and excellent construction. An additional accessory is needed for devices without USB-C and multiple pieces are required for gaming. –> Right now, you […] More

Disconnected marketing tools bring more challenges than results. If you’ve got customer data scattered all over, it’s nearly impossible to keep track of every conversation with each new lead across different channels.Customer relationship management, or CRM, software is supposed to help with that. But sometimes it just adds to the pile of things to keep pace with. Constant switching between your CRM, social network, and email marketing tool wastes time and creates gaps that leads can slip through.Also: The best CRM softwareI’ve been spending a lot of time looking at CRM tools with built-in email marketing components that can save you time and money. You get both for the price of one, plus the benefit of having everything in one place. What is the best CRM software with email marketing right now?My top pick for this list is ActiveCampaign. This platform combines powerful marketing automation with a CRM that works for both marketers and sales teams. It’s also got a very smooth no-code automation builder, so you can create complex email sequences that respond to customer behavior.Also: The best email marketing softwareWhen selecting the vendors for this list, I focused most on how well the CRM component plays together with the email marketing tools. It’s not worth having them together on the same platform but still at a great remove. Automation capabilities came next, since any modern marketing campaign needs emails that are triggered based on customer actions and data changes. I also looked into data management, testing how well each platform handles segmentation and personalization at scale.The best CRM software with email marketing in 2025 ActiveCampaign is my top choice for this category, mainly because of its visual automation builder that makes even the most complex workflows feel intuitive. The drag-and-drop interface requires virtually no training to understand, which is rare in the marketing automation space. This platform is great at creating personalized customer journeys based on user behavior and business data.ActiveCampaign has the most sophisticated segmentation and tagging system I’ve seen — it works kind of like digital sticky notes for each contact. You can automatically assign tags based on actions, behaviors, and integrations. Then all you have to do is use those tags to trigger highly targeted campaigns.ActiveCampaign’s pricing starts at just $15 per month, making it accessible for small businesses and scaling all the way up to enterprise needs. Whether you have just a couple of customers or a couple million, it offers world-class deliverability and error-free contact management.ActiveCampaign features: Marketing automation | Email segmentation | Lead scoring | Predictive content | Site tracking | SMS marketing | Machine learning insights
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<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Tineco Pure One Station 5 vacuum cleaner normally retails for $459; now it’s on sale for $339. It’s a powerful cordless vacuum with a self-emptying base station, perfect for pet owners and parents. Some parts can be finicky, like lining up the floor brush on the base station, or its […] More

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETIf you’re running into problems with ChatGPT this morning, you’re not alone.Just after 8:30 a.m. ET, reports began surfacing that paid users were experiencing quite a few errors when trying to converse with the chatbot. In some cases, ChatGPT responds with an error message; in others, it doesn’t respond at all. OpenAI confirmed the issueThe outage‑tracking website DownDetector showed a spike in reports about that time. Reports were declining but still present by 9:45 a.m. ET. ZDNET’s parent company, Ziff Davis, also owns DownDetector. Also: My 8 ChatGPT Agent tests produced only 1 near-perfect result – and a lot of alternative factsOpenAI confirmed the issue on its status page, saying there were “Elevated errors on ChatGPT for all paid users.” It added that it was working on mitigation. At the time of this writing, the issues had persisted for about 90 minutes. The status page noted that the “Conversations” component was experiencing the most elevated error rates. More

TCL Nxtpaper 11 Plus <!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The TCL Nxtpaper 11 Plus is available for $249. This tablet can switch from full color to an E Ink-like display with the press of a button, it has 256GB of storage, and an eye-catching matte display with 120Hz refresh rate. The Nxtpaper 11 Plus can get […] More