There are some telling comments in a report about artifical intelligence that was published in the Guardian last October that has given me pause to think frequently about that place where AI and human intelligence intersect and/or collide: It is relatively easy to create a learning brain but we don’t yet know how to create a heart or a soul. In a recent talk at the New Yorker festival MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito asserted that “humans are really good at things computers are not.” It's a pair … [Read more...] about What will become of empathy in a world of smart machines?
Gadgets
Samsung (and Facebook) raise the mobile game
The smartphone market continues to rapidly evolve. Who thinks about a smartphone these days as simply a device to make phone calls and send text messages? I don't - a smartphone is a powerful computer that also makes phone calls and sends text messages. That thought came to me more than once or twice while I watched and listened to Samsung's press event via live video stream from the Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona on Sunday evening. The company announced their next smartphones in the … [Read more...] about Samsung (and Facebook) raise the mobile game
Still waiting for the smartwatch tipping point
If I left my smartwatch at home one day, I wouldn’t drive back to get it, says Walt Mossberg in his weekly column in Re/code. It's a statement that I'm sure would be reflected by many smartwatch owners, me included. Why? Because all the things that current smartwatches can do - messages from Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, for instance; or monitoring your heart rate and how many steps you've done today; perhaps streaming music from your phone; taking and making phone calls; and … [Read more...] about Still waiting for the smartwatch tipping point
Small is the new big with the Raspberry Pi Zero
Do you remember the days when computer magazines came with cover disks? And then with CDs that progressed to DVDs? All with must-have utilities and often free programs that were part and parcel of the PC enthusiast experience from the 80s through to the early 00s. That fell by the wayside with the advent of the modern internet and growing broadband connectivity along with worries about malware and viruses and greater knowledge and sophistication in using computers. Among many other … [Read more...] about Small is the new big with the Raspberry Pi Zero
Apple Watch: How desirable and disruptive will it be?
For the past six months, I've been wearing a smartwatch, the Samsung Gear 2 Neo you see pictured here. As I have a number of Samsung mobile devices, this smartwatch is ideal for me as it's geared, so to speak, to work with a wide range of Samsung smartphones including all the ones I have. Currently it's paired with my Galaxy S4. The Gear 2 Neo does everything I expect a device like this to do as I mentioned in my initial review of its features and functionality last November. Things … [Read more...] about Apple Watch: How desirable and disruptive will it be?