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I don’t have a knee-jerk desperation to have my light switches controlled by external forces. Other than, you know, electricity. And I don’t often believe a robot will automatically do something better than a human. In our house, we have a couple of HomePods. They’re better at playing music than I am. Other than my twin Siris, however, that was it for the longest time. First a cat, then a descent into fish For reasons that still remain murky, I recently weakened and a robot cat entered....

“Optus and TPG were charging these people for internet speeds they could not get,” ACMA chair O’Loughlin said “These customers were left in the dark and denied the option to move to a cheaper contract or walk away.” Under ACMA rules, telcos must verify maximum internet speeds when migrating customers to the NBN and notify them when speeds cannot meet those that were originally advertised to them. According to the ACMA, Optus admitted in July last year that over a period of two years, it kept more than 34,000 users on the same internet plan and TPG similarly fessed up in October for doing the same thing to more than 4,400 of its customers....

With the end of third-part cookies on the horizon, Adobe said marketing teams will be challenged to find ways to scale personalized consumer experiences without the use of cookie data. Part of the solution to that problem, according to Adobe, is for retailers to focus on the data they already own and optimize it for insights. “Scaling personalized experiences in a world where customers have control over how brands use their data is the next big thing for marketers in any business to tackle,” Adobe said in a blog post....

Some of the tracking activities that the AFP carry out using these platforms include determining or monitoring the location of a person who they identify as a “target”, and determining or monitoring the location of friendly forces including AFP personnel, partner agencies, and the assets they control and protect. In a request for tender (RFT), the AFP said the single management solution would replace the multiple applications the agency uses, including commercial-off-the-shelf and in-house development systems, which currently are only able to support devices that connect to the diminishing 3G network....

Airbnb last month outlined its vision for the future of work for the 6,000 employees at the vacation home rental platform: staff can choose to work remotely or in the office, they won’t be subject to location-based salaries, and they will have regular off-site and team gatherings. It was perhaps a shrewd move by the company, which claims to be benefiting from people being more flexible about where they live and work, as reflected on Airbnb through longer-term stays of a week to a month....

Consumers cut their retail spending in May as the US Census Bureau reported that monthly retail and food services sales fell 1.3% from April. Compared to a year ago, retail sales were up 28.1% in May. Another takeaway is that email marketing delivers on Prime Day with flat to down performance from other channels like search and social networking. 58% of consumers say they plan to shop online during Prime Day....

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....