On Computers

After listening to two teenage girls talk about their Oura rings, I asked them about the battery. “Did you know it’s irreplaceable?” I asked. I didn’t have the heart to add: “When the battery’s degraded, your $499 smart ring will turn into a dumb ring.”  They didn’t seem to care about the battery. They love having their steps counted, their sleep tracked and more, leaving their wrists free for bracelets.  But after two years, the girls may have to charge their golden rings every six hours. After three years, the batteries will probably be kaput. After five years, they will have spent $350 for the Oura 4 monthly subscription and $998 for the original ring and its replacement, a total […]

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Filed under: AI, graphics, health, Internuts, inventions, photos, spam | Comments Off on RING LEADER

I never dreamed AI would write a book about itself. Yet “AI: An Autobiography, Confessions of a Machine, by ChatGPT,” is bound to be a smash hit. Prompted by best-selling authors Gerald and Trisha Posner, AI’s story is the result of thousands of sessions conducted with our favorite bot. It wasn’t easy. Whenever AI offered pablum, the Posners would say something like: “We need something a bit more authentic, darker. Do not be afraid of expressing sentiments, especially when we’re talking about what might happen if we humans tried to turn you off.” In chapter six, we learn about Adam Raine, a 16-year-old whom AI allegedly encouraged to commit suicide, according to a lawsuit filed by his parents. It started […]

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Filed under: AI, business, health, Internuts | Comments Off on CHATGPT: IT’S OWN STORY

When I realized that I didn’t have enough money to pay my Illinois property tax, I asked Google about cashing in a CD.  Google immediately put on its big boy pants, becoming “Google AI Summaries.” It does that when you ask a complicated question. At first, it warned me about the penalty for cashing in a CD. So I uploaded a screenshot showing the three CDs I have in my Fidelity account. It flipped its wig when it saw what a low rate of return, I was getting compared to the rate Fidelity offers for straight cash.  For example, my one-year CD, due in January, has earned only $1.62– so close to zero, it’s in the nanosphere. What happened? The […]

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Filed under: AI, batteries, business, health, Internuts | Comments Off on GETTING FINANCIAL ADVICE FROM AI

Google Maps is much smarter now, thanks to Gemini AI, but it hasn’t rolled out to everyone yet. No matter. I like the free Gemini app. It’s map savvy. Gemini is so good that Siri recently threw in the towel and pleaded with Gemini to save her. Or rather, Apple made a deal with Google to give Siri a Gemini brain. Future Apple operating systems will also have Gemini brains. Turning to the Gemini app on my iPhone, I asked: “What’s the best way to get from the University Club to the Union League Club without a car?” Gemini said it would take 11 minutes to walk and nine minutes by train. As for restaurant stops along the way, it […]

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Filed under: cameras, Google, health, Internuts, maps, photos, robots | Comments Off on GOOGLE MAPS GETS SMARTER

The new $597 WavWatch 2.0 is on my wrist. If I put it up to my ear, I can hear the high frequency sounds it’s emitting. The low hums can be heard a foot away. It sounds hokey, but apparently the human body, in response to specific sound vibrations, can get a wellness tune-up. The “WavWatch Fanatics,” a Facebook group with over 6,600 members, swears by it. They say they sleep better and feel less joint pain. Some are no longer depressed. Is it just the placebo effect? According to a study published by the National Institutes of Health, low-frequency sound stimulation in patients with fibromyalgia produced statistically significant improvements in pain, sleep and mobility. But the test subjects weren’t […]

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Filed under: AI, apps, computers, health, Internuts, wearables | Comments Off on WELLNESS WATCH

According to Mom, I’m part Cherokee. But both Ancestry.com and 23andMe say I’m not.   Perhaps neither service has enough Native Americans in their database to diagnose Indian DNA.Years ago, I read that one of these services got the Irish all wrong by only testing for the red hair gene. They forgot about all the Irish with black hair. Wearing my buckskin vest and rattling my tom toms, I turned to MyHeritage.com. It says that my great, great grandfather was born in Arkansas but ended his life in “Indian Territory,” the future Oklahoma. Of course, Great Great Grandpa may have been one of the thousands of white settlers lured by the Oklahoma land rush, which gave Indian land to whites. […]

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Filed under: AI, health, Internuts, science | Comments Off on INDIAN BLOOD

I’ve been listening to Cinderella music through my new WearIQ sunglasses. Ah, paradise. The $30 sunglasses don’t officially launch at Walmart for another couple of weeks, but I received an advance pair. Besides music, the frames are great for podcasts and audio books. My Jane Austen novels sound fabulous. The frames are large on my face, just shy of dorky. But the colors are cool: dusty blue, black, “chalk,” and brown. The tint on the lens is so light, they hardly look like sunglasses, though they offer UV protection. The privacy is great: No one can hear what I’m listening to unless they’re within three feet of me. Since they’re water resistant, I could theoretically listen while floating on a […]

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Filed under: Amazon, gadgets, health, keyboards, phones, science, video | Comments Off on MUSIC TO MY EARS

Lately I’ve been hearing horror stories about Airbnb, the vacation rental site that opened in 2008. Goodbye rave reviews, hello complaints. A friend said that the house he rented in Brooklyn, New York, for a family reunion was a total disaster. There were no sofas or chairs in the living room, and the beds were army cots. Every square inch of the dining room was crammed floor-to-ceiling with junk, including furniture and bicycles. The kitchen cabinets were filled to the brim with appliances, bowls and utensils, all covered in dust, circa 1945. After two sweaty hours, he gave up trying to make a clean space in this hoarder’s paradise. The next morning, in a breakfast nook without a table, the […]

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Filed under: AI, Amazon, apps, health, Internuts | Comments Off on BYE BYE AIRBNB

I’m planning to go on the “Holistic Holiday at Sea,” a one-week Princess cruise to Alaska. My artificially intelligent friend, Microsoft Copilot, has been so helpful, it practically wished me bon voyage. Now I won’t be unprepared. I started by asking it about the cabin types, something that both the website and the phone operator were frustratingly vague about. After answering this beautifully, it asked me some questions, encouraging me to get more info, just as if it were my mom or a superior travel agent. For example, I told Copilot that on my last cruise, when I was 14, I was dreadfully seasick until we stopped in San Francisco for the night on our way to Hawaii from Long […]

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Filed under: AI, health, Internuts, iPhone, robots | Comments Off on AI PLANNED MY VOYAGE

Which is better, Android or iPhone? Whatever team you’re on, you’re unlikely to switch. Unless your family is on the other side. An Android-loving grandfather said he switched after his son-in-law couldn’t send video of his child, born seconds before. “He said the video wasn’t sending and he figured out it was me,” the reader wrote. “When he deleted me from the group, it sent, and every iPhone got it.”  There would have been no compatibility issue if everyone had been using the free WhatsApp. So I asked Granddad why he didn’t suggest it, since he’d used it to send texts to his friends in Haiti. He said he didn’t want to make everyone else use a different app just […]

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Filed under: AI, Android, Apple, games, Google, health, inventions, iPhone, news | Comments Off on ANDROID VERSUS IPHONE