Consumer News

XPANCEO, a deep-tech company developing smart contact lenses, has unveiled a passive eye-tracking system that achieves industry-level measurement precision using standard cameras. The system employs microscopic patterns embedded in contact lenses that enable high-accuracy passive gaze tracking without requiring active electronics or dedicated power sources.... Read more

Travelers will soon face restrictions on how many portable chargers they can carry on a flight as airlines continue to try to reduce the risk of another lithium battery fire aboard their jets.... Read more

Imagine tapping your thumb and index finger together twice to skip to the next song or clicking around your laptop or desktop computer without a mouse, using discreet finger motions. New first-of-its-kind wearable technology from researchers at Cornell and KAIST, in South Korea, brings that vision closer to reality. The... Read more

Samsung is saying goodbye its namesake texting app. According to an end of service announcement published on the tech giant's U.S. support website, Samsung Messages will be discontinued in July. Impacted owners of Samsung smartphones and other gadgets are being asked to switch to Google Messages in the meantime, "to... Read more

Voice-activated, conversational artificial intelligence (AI) agents must provide clear explanations for their suggestions, or older adults aren't likely to trust them. That's one of the main findings from a study by AI Caring on what older adults expect from explainable AI (XAI).... Read more

In a landmark decision, a Los Angeles jury has found that social media company Meta and video streaming service YouTube harmed a young user with addictive design features that led to mental health distress, including body dysmorphia, depression and suicidal thoughts.... Read more

AI companions are always available, never judge, never tire and never demand anything in return. If someone is struggling with loneliness, this frictionlessness can seem profoundly appealing. However, new research shows that in the long term, seeking emotional support from an AI companion can pull users away from important human... Read more

US courts have ruled against platform providers for failing to protect children, and the debate over age restrictions for social media has gained momentum. An international group of experts from academia, children's rights organizations and non-profit institutions is convinced that bans would be the wrong approach. In the journal Science,... Read more

A new app developed by Yun Huang, associate professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, aims to make navigating conferences less work and more fun, so that attendees can meet others, discover fresh ideas, and "experience academic life as an exciting adventure."... Read more

Despite the hype about streaming services, traditional broadcast television still dominates advertising dollars. This year, advertisers will spend $139 billion on "linear" TV—where viewers watch programs at scheduled times—compared with $33 billion on streaming or "connected" TV.... Read more

A scrawny hippie and a nerdy engineer who became prank-playing friends vowed to change the world when they founded a Silicon Valley startup on April Fools' Day 50 years ago and then—no joke—pulled it off.... Read more

A QUT study of 20 popular paid and free apps for children aged 5 to 8 years found that most contained deceptive design patterns aimed at attracting children to paid content, increasing their time spent using the app, or encouraging them to watch advertisements for other products. Corresponding author Professor... Read more

In the early 1970s, the idea of an ordinary person owning a computer sounded absurd. Computers back then were more like aircraft carriers or nuclear power plants than household appliances—vast machines housed in data centers operated by teams of specialists, serving governments, universities and large corporations.... Read more

Augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) headsets let us see the world around us with virtual elements superimposed on top. For example, many modern AR/MR headsets use hand-tracking cameras to detect hand gestures in the air, which allows users to type on a virtual keyboard that appears to be... Read more

iPhone maker Apple celebrates its 50th anniversary on April 1 having marked pop culture and the tech industry like few other firms since its beginnings in 1976.... Read more