Hardware

When it was first unveiled in the summer of 2021, Xiaomi's CyberDog design was best described as a more nightmarish version of Boston Dynamics' Spot. I had to comb through dozens of versions of the same “Black Mirror” joke on my timeline that day. Announced this past summer, Cyb

As humans spend increasing amounts of time indoors, we lose access to the sun's natural benefits. Recognition of season affective disorder has grown accordingly. While the actual occurrence of the condition is low (around 5% — or 10 million or so Americans), it's led to increasing awa

The back of your phone is useless. There. I said it. Sure, the cameras are back there, but what about all of that blank real estate monopolizing 90% of the surface area? Honestly, it needs to start carrying its weight around here. A fully functioning screen isn't the answer, however. That's

Hardware is difficult, to paraphrase a famous adage. First-generation products from new startups are notoriously so, regardless of how much money and excitement you've managed to drum up. Given all that, it's likely few are too surprised that Humane's upcoming Ai Pin has been pushed bac

Google said Thursday it plans to roll out the SoundPod, its portable speaker designed to instantly validate and announce successful payments, to small merchants across India over the coming months. The Google Pay expansion in India, where the company is among the mobile payment market leaders, come

Samsung is bringing its Galaxy AI features to more devices through a new One UL 6.1 update coming in late March, the company announced today. The features are coming to the Galaxy S23 series, S23 FE, Z Fold5 and Z Flip5, as well as Tab S9 Ultra, Tab S9+ and Tab S9. The AI features were first introd

Chris Power, founder and CEO of industrial automation startup Hadrian, is a student of history. And in his studies, he observed that history repeats itself: In particular, the cycle of empires ascending and descending, nearly all of them outsourcing core industries to lower-cost countries and payin

In a little over a week's time (February 26-29) around 85,000 or so attendees will descend upon the Fira de Barcelona for Mobile World Congress 2024. Over the past few years, the show has become arguably the most important mobile event of the year. Phone makers, telecoms and a variety of other

There have been many attempts at open source AI-powered voice assistants (see Rhasspy, Mycroft and Jasper, to name a few) — all established with the goal of creating privacy-preserving, offline experiences that don’t compromise on functionality. But development’s proven to be extr

The road to the home robot is one fraught with peril. The number of success stories it's delivered can be counted on a single hand. The reasons for this massive disconnect are nuanced and complex — much like the insides of our homes. Twenty-years after the first Roomba arrived, the robot

There's no such thing as a future-proof career. This is something I consider nearly any time I write about advances in generative AI. Is there a sense in which I'm contributing to the propagation of my eventual replacement? Probably! But don't worry, that's a me problem. As for you,

After two years of flying high, industrial robot orders dropped by nearly one-third last year. Per the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), 31,159 industrial robots were purchased by North American companies in 2023, down from 44,196. That marks a 30% drop for this key market. The number is a

In March 2008, a roboticist in winter wear gave Big Dog a big kick for the camera. The buzzing DARPA-funded robot stumbled, but quickly regained its footing amid the snowy parking lot. “PLEASE DO NOT KICK THE WALKING PROTOTYPE DEATH MECH,” pleads the video's top comment. “IT WILL REMEMBER

Since Apple launched the Vision Pro last Friday, I've been hammering home the importance of immersive content. This isn't a radical suggestion by any means. At this point we're all keenly aware that hardware platforms live and die by content offerings. Remember all the way back, for a m