Retailers are not wasting any time in pushing the gen AI agenda. However, they may be moving a bit too fast by overlooking some valid concerns about unrecognized risks.
E-Commerce Returns' Billion-Dollar Burden on Business and the Planet
Online shopping returns cost retailers billions of dollars, pump tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and dump billions of pounds of waste into landfills, according to a global plastics cleanup company report.
Loxx Boxx Prevents Porch Piracy With Secure, Smart Storage
Security cameras can catch a porch thief in the act, but they probably won't prevent the snatch-and-grab from happening. Loxx Boxx offers a more proactive solution by securing your deliveries in a bolted-down metal box under digital lockdown.
6 Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Revolutionizing E-Commerce
AI is swiftly and significantly transforming the retail landscape and everything within it. Here are six AI trends and how e-tailers can capitalize on each.
Gartner Predicts 25% Dip in Search Volumes by 2026
Virtual agents and AI chatbots will be eating into search engine volumes over the next two years, causing them to decline by 25%, according to a recent Gartner report.
Yeah, it's not just Nintendo prepping new console hardware for 2024. Insider Gaming reports details for the PS5 Pro come from documentation Sony recently sent to third-party developers.
Hold onto your skepticism. Based on the reports, the PS5 Pro will offer a more consistent frame rate (fps) at 4K and a performance mode for 8K resolution. It's also expected to render games up to 45 percent quicker and have ray tracing capabilities two to three times faster than current PS5 consoles.
The report says Sony may target a holiday release for the PS5 Pro, to target those heightened sales. Can it make Baldur's Gate 3 look pretty like it does on PC? Please?
ISPs must now offer 100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up to slap the coveted label on their services.
At the end of last week, the FCC raised the speeds required to describe internet service as "broadband" for the first time since 2015. The agency's annual high-speed internet assessment concluded that 100 Mbps downloads and 20 Mbps uploads will be the new standard. The FCC's report also broke down several areas where the country's online infrastructure falls short, with broadband not being deployed quickly enough, especially to those in rural areas and those living on Tribal lands.
The FCC can't force ISPs to boost their speeds, but it can prevent them from marketing their services as "broadband" internet if they don't meet these new thresholds.
LinkedIn may soon offer puzzle-based games to give its users something to do besides networking. App researcher Nima Owji posted a series of screenshots on X this weekend showing some games. Employees' scores will reportedly affect how the companies they work for rank in the games, which suddenly sounds stressful.
Starbucks is pulling the plug on Odyssey, its Web3 rewards program that gives members access to collectible NFTs. The company updated its FAQ on Friday to let members know the beta program is closing on March 31 and they have a little over a week to complete any remaining activities (called journeys). Those will shut down March 25.
Don't worry, Nifty Gateway will continue to host the priceless Stamps (Starbucks' NFTs). And they will remain priceless. I mean… worthless.
Aside from who'd win in a fight between Elon Musk and the ghost of Steve Jobs, the question I'm asked most is how to find the best budget-friendly smartphone.
As an insufferable early adopter/power user, I'm used to spending $1,000-plus on my daily addiction, but you don't have to get a great capable phone in 2024. This time around, our top picks cost between $100 and $300, so we truly mean cheap. (In fact, our picks undercut my go-to recommendation of the Pixel 7A, which is hovering above $400.)
The parent company blocked access to all its other adult entertainment websites.
You'll have to get your kicks elsewhere, Texas. Pornhub is now inaccessible in the state, after the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled Texas can enforce its age-verification regulations for porn websites. If you try, you'll be met with a message: "Dear user, as you may know, your elected officials in Texas are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website." As you might have guessed, Texas now tops the list of states for VPN searches as its residents look for a workaround to access their favorite adult content.
Google revealed the date for this year's I/O conference in really annoying fashion. It asked folks to complete a tedious logic puzzle. Once enough people finished all 15 levels and got a marble to its destination repeatedly, they got the date.
The keynote will give us a look at upcoming Pixel and Android features — and maybe a bit of hardware. Please?
The third time's the charm as SpaceX attempted another test of its Starship rocket. The Starship launched at 9:25AM ET on Thursday morning. Shortly after launch, it completed the hot-staging separation from its Super Heavy Booster, and the Starship successfully ignited the second-stage Raptor engines. While SpaceX said both the booster and Starship were going to return to Earth at "terminal velocity," thus making any recovery of them impossible, it looks like Starship didn't make it to splashdown, breaking up on re-entry (according to initial data).
A bill that could force a sale or outright ban on TikTok passed the House of Representatives just days after it was first introduced. It now goes to the senate.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (no, we're not calling it PAFACAA) is the latest attempt by the government to constrain TikTok. If it passes, it could have one of two outcomes: The parent company sells TikTok to a US-based owner, or it faces a ban from US app stores and web hosting services.
Of course, TikTok opposes the bill, saying it's unconstitutional. But they're not the only ones: Free speech and digital rights groups also object to the bill, with many noting that comprehensive privacy laws would be more effective at protecting Americans' user data rather than trying to single out one app.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Fight for the Future and the Center for Democracy and Technology argued the bill would "set an alarming global precedent" for government control of social media.
It earned $4.4 billion and gave its executives $2.5 billion.
A detailed Guardian report said 35 major US companies, including Tesla, T-Mobile, Netflix, Ford Motor and Match Group, paid their top five executives more than they paid in federal income taxes between 2018 and 2022. Tesla was the worst offender. It earned $4.4 billion in those five years and gave its executives $2.5 billion. Despite that, Tesla not only didn't pay any federal taxes, but it received $1 million in refunds from the government. Tesla boss Elon Musk is the second richest person in the world.
I'm sorry, more Musk. X has canceled a high-profile partnership with former CNN host Don Lemon to stream a video talk show on the platform. Lemon said the company canceled his contract hours after he interviewed X's billionaire owner Elon Musk for the first episode of The Don Lemon Show. "Elon Musk is mad at me," Lemon said in a video posted to X on Wednesday. "Apparently, free speech absolutism doesn't apply when it comes to questions about him from people like me." How's that "video first" push going, Linda?
The fifth edition of Summer Game Fest takes place this year on Friday, June 7 at 5PM ET. Expect a two-hour stream of trailers and hype with… around a 10 percent success rate. With E3 officially dead, SGF is poised to take the expo's place as the major gaming event of the year.
Join our NICE Talks to hear answers to questions you ask about AI for CX. In this session we will take a deep dive into the question: How should I do workforce management in the digital era? Industry analyst Donna Fluss, Founder and President at DMG Consulting, and Andrea Matsuda, Senior Product Marketing Manager at NICE, will discuss:
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Join us on Thursday, March 21st at 11 am EDT.
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Neil Young is back on Spotify after boycotting the platform over two years ago, he said in a new blog post. The Canadian singer ditched the platform over vaccine misinformation on the Joe Rogan podcast. He's returned because Rogan's podcast is no longer exclusive on Spotify. "My decision comes as music services Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at Spotify," he said – which isn't really the stance he thinks it is.
When Young dropped his catalog from Spotify, he added he was fed up with Spotify's "shitty" sound quality. Nothing has particularly changed there.
Days after Apple started allowing iOS users in the EU to use third-party app stores, the company has announced more changes to how developers can distribute their apps. Most significantly, those who meet certain criteria can let users download apps from their websites. The Web Distribution option, available this spring, will effectively let developers bypass the app ecosystem entirely for their own apps. To be eligible, devs must opt in to new App Store rules and pay a fee for each user install after a certain threshold.
AI-powered visual search features arrived to Ray-Ban's Meta sunglasses last year with some impressive (and divisive) tricks — but a new one in the latest beta looks quite useful. It identifies landmarks and tells you more about them — a sort of tour guide for travelers. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth explained in a (Meta-owned) Threads post with a couple of sample images explaining why the Golden Gate Bridge is orange (easier to see in fog), a history of the painted ladies houses in San Francisco and more.
Users can subscribe to third-party labeling services too.
Bluesky, the open-source Twitter alternative, is about to start testing one of its more ambitious ideas: allowing its users to run their own moderation services. The change will bring Bluesky users and developers together to work on custom labeling tools for the budding social media platform.
Bluesky is seeing a surge in growth after it removed its waitlist and opened to all users in February. The service has added about 2 million new users, bringing its total community to just over 5 million. It might need the extra moderation.
