Robotics

Amazon’s October Prime Big Deal Days event is just around the corner: The Amazon sale is returning — and is set to be bigger than ever this year — ahead of the holiday season, running Oct. 8-9. If you’re hoping to start your holiday shopping early and you have Apple products in your sights, we’ve found early October Prime Days deals that will interest you. Apple products are rarely on sale, but if you know where to look, you can save on devices including iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, AirPods, and Apple Watches. Also: The best October Prime Day deals live nowAt ZDNET, we’ve scoured the web to find the best deals on Apple products. As Apple deals are historically rare and discounts may be lower than for competing products, our usual savings threshold of around or over 20% doesn’t always apply — but we are still keen to list any worthwhile discounts on Apple products we find to save you some cash.These are the best early Amazon October Prime Days deals on Apple devices available now.Our favorite early Amazon October Prime Day Apple dealsApple AirPods 4 for $119 (save $10) More

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Google has unveiled plans to invest a total of $3 billion in Malaysia and Thailand, where the US cloud vendor says there is growing demand for cloud and artificial intelligence (AI).  The funds include $2 billion toward Google’s first data center and cloud region in Malaysia, located in Sime Darby Property’s Elmina Business […] More

Just_Super/Getty Images Singapore is eyeing to uncover advancements in healthcare with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), with a special focus on four clinical areas including mental health, elderly frailty, and cancer screening.  A new Centre of AI in Medicine has been established to “bridge the gap” between AI innovation and practical applications in medicine, […] More

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETEven though AI chatbots seemed the most cutting-edge technology just two years ago, multimodal AI assistants are the latest frontier, with companies rushing to release AI-supported voice assistants. Microsoft is the latest to join the race. On Tuesday, Microsoft unveiled an updated Copilot, with one of its biggest highlights being the addition of Copilot Voice, a voice assistant that can be interrupted to have multi-turn conversations with you and respond to your emotions.Also: Every new Microsoft Copilot feature and AI upgrade coming soon to your Windows PCCopilot Voice has four different voices: Wave, Meadow, Grove, and Canyon. It is available across all platforms that you can access Copilot, including the app, standalone site, and Windows. The biggest perk? It is free for all users. This means that, unlike ChatGPT’s Voice Mode, you don’t need to spend $20 per month on a premium AI membership to use it. Even though Google’s counterpart, Gemini Live, is free with the Gemini app, it is limited to Android users, whereas Copilot Voice is not. So, how well does it actually hold up in conversation? I had the opportunity to demo it today at the NYC Microsoft Copilot and Windows Event and was left impressed.Also: Gemini Live is finally available for all Android phones – how to access it for freeWhen chatting with the voice option “Wave,” an upbeat male-sounding voice, I was surprised by how enthusiastic the assistant was from the get-go. Despite there being noise in the background, it understood every word I said clearly, even without me annunciating every word like I typically would with a voice assistant. It also carried out conversations well with quick, witty, and, perhaps most importantly, timely responses, never skipping a beat. The responses were also contextually relevant, which is often an issue with voice assistants as they don’t always understand the intent of what you are saying and, as a result, output bizarre answers.  More

Get a Babbel lifetime language subscription at a big discount right now.  StackSocial Learning a new language can be daunting. But right now, you can buy a lifetime subscription to Babbel Language Learning from Stack Social that lets you choose from 14 languages and access more than 10,000 hours of online language education for just $150 […] More

picture alliance/Getty Images Microsoft is officially ending production for the HoloLens 2 mixed reality headset, and it doesn’t look like there will be a successor in the future. The company has been emailing this information to its business partners during the past week. Jens Lauritsen, chief product officer at the Danish XR company Virsabi, shared Microsoft’s […] More

Score a Microsoft Office license now at a big discount. StackSocial Whether you’re setting up your new laptop or using a machine you’ve had for years, access to Microsoft Office is a necessity for many of us to get things done. Right now, you can buy a lifetime license to the 2019 version of Microsoft Office Professional […] More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The AirPods 4 are available for $129 (or $179 with ANC). The fourth-generation lineup features significant improvements to sound quality, noise cancellation, and comfort. The headlining improvements are incremental, which may leave some consumers feeling uninspired to upgrade. more buying choices During Apple’s annual September hardware event, the company released two […] More