On Computers

Tesla recently announced the Cybercab, a driverless car without steering wheel or pedals. In 2026, this futuristic beast will cost less than $30,000. CEO Elon Musk previously said he would operate a fleet of these robotaxis, and individuals could use their own cars as cyber cabs. But he didn’t mention this at the launch. He did say that the new Cybercab won’t need to be plugged in, thanks to inductive charging. He also announced a new driverless minivan capable of carrying 20 people. But what about Google’s Waymo? It already provides 100,000 rides a week in self-driving Jaguars located in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and has been operational since 2009. Soon, you’ll be able to order a driverless […]

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Filed under: AI, cheap calls, health, robots, spam, word processing | Comments Off on DRIVERLESS CARS

I often write emails to myself, leaving them in the draft folder where I can easily find them. So now I have a build-up of 22 notes. “Why not use Google Keep?” a friend asked. I’d forgotten all about Keep. It’s like a bulletin board, with notes pinned to it. When I first went to the Keep site on my computer, I immediately saw a picture of me, my mom and my sister, pinned years ago. By adding a photo to each note, a Keep page begins looking like a scrapbook. But I’m mainly using it for my to-dos and grocery lists. Everything you do on Keep’s desktop version shows up in the free Keep app on your phone. This […]

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Filed under: AI, Amazon, apps, Google, Internuts, robots, video, word processing | Comments Off on KEEP YOUR NOTES

“Private Space” is coming to Android 15, the next version of the Android operating system. It gives you a secret compartment for all of your apps, photos, documents and more, similar to Samsung’s “Secure Folder.” I enrolled in the beta version of Android 15 to try it out. Setup was easy. To start using Private Space, I tapped the word “Private” at the bottom of my app list. Private Space is like having an extra phone. It includes separate versions of Chrome, Gmail, Photos, Camera, Files and the Play Store. You can add more apps directly to the private area. To test it, I typed up a list of passwords on my computer, then took a picture by tapping the […]

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Filed under: Android, games, robots, security, troubleshooting, word processing | Comments Off on NEW SECRET COMPARTMENT IN ANDROID 15

It breaks my heart to hear about lonely seniors. Perhaps a robot would help. The “ElliQ” is smaller than a desk lamp but inspires great testimonials. Some say it’s better than a dog. “She keeps me on my toes,” said one 69-year-old man. “It’s like I’m living with somebody.” Besides playing music and showing you photos on its companion tablet, it records your health vitals and remembers how you felt yesterday before asking you how you feel today. In an emergency, it will call your closest contact. One senior said that the ElliQ got her to exercise and feel appreciated. Others said they started laughing more, because the robot is funny. It engages you in trivia games, displays inspirational quotes […]

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Filed under: kids, math, phones, robots, word processing | Comments Off on ROBOT TO THE RESCUE

My sister says her co-workers spend their whole lunch hour scrolling on their phones. Kids also do that from what I’ve heard. A smart watch could be the answer. A Lyft driver told me he bought T-Mobile’s SyncUp Kids Watch for his 10-year-old daughter on their $10-a-month plan so she won’t become a tech zombie. She can call, text and play a few games, but is not on social media. Plus, he gets real-time location tracking and text alerts if she ventures beyond his limits. The watch costs $174, but is free for those who sign up for the service. It comes in pink or blue or you can add your own watchband. But that’s just one of many smart […]

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Artificially-intelligent bots are plagiarizing known authors. It happened to author Jane Friedman, who reports on the publishing industry. A copycat version of her work was reviewed on Goodreads. Friedman told ZDnet that an author she found on Twitter.com has been plagiarized by AI bots 29 times. It could be a growing problem. Suppose, for example, that you insert the text of a published novel into a site like ChatGPT, and ask for it to be rewritten in the bot’s own words. Next you run the result through an AI content detector. If it scores 100 percent, it’s 100 percent fakey-sounding. So you tweak it a bit before uploading to Kindle Direct Publishing. I decided to test this idea myself. I […]

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Filed under: AI, environment, games, Google, health, Internuts, kids, security, text messaging, video, word processing | Comments Off on PLAGIARISM BY CHATBOTS

I just pasted 63,226 words into a search bar and got a great summary in a flash. In 14 sentences, Claude AI listed all the major events and themes of a book I edited called “A Woman from Iran.” “This is a revolution!” the author said. “A book that took me so long to write can be summarized in less than one minute by AI.” I agree. Claude AI is amazing. ChatGPT 3 can only understand 3000 words at once, and ChatGPT 4 can only understand 25,000, but the latest version of Claude can understand 70,000. To use it, go to the website Claude.ai and type or paste anything you want into the search box, then ask for a summary, […]

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Filed under: AI, Amazon, apps, Internuts, Microsoft, web, word processing | Comments Off on A NEW AI

A thousand experts have warned about artificial intelligence, but I’m having too much fun to stop. Using Google Bard, I typed: “I have five days in London. What should I see?” The first day of the Bard’s itinerary included a hop-on, hop-off bus tour, a visit to the Tower of London and a boat ride on the river Thames. It was almost as good as travel expert Rick Steves, without the detail. I also asked the Bard to write a program, in the programming language Pascal, to figure out the day of the week for any date going back thousands of years or into the future. The code arrived in seconds. By the way, Christopher Columbus set sail on a […]

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Filed under: AI, apps, Google, word processing | Comments Off on TALKING TO THE BARD

The first time I tried the OpenSwim headset from Shokz, I found myself wanting to swim longer and faster. It literally brought music to my ears. But I had a heck of a time getting it adjusted properly. First I jumped in the pool, then tried to stuff my ponytail and headset under my cap. It makes a kind of ring around the back of your head, using bone conduction technology to bring the sound to you.  But I kept adjusting not just the fit, but the volume. It seems louder underwater, though it had to compete with my splashes. The second time I tried the OpenSwim, I thought “phooey.” I just couldn’t get it adjusted right. Of course, it’s […]

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Filed under: gadgets, Internuts, social networks, trends, Wikipedia, word processing | Comments Off on SWIMMING TO THE BEAT

Scammers are now adding hoaxes to legitimate text messages. It’s getting easier to be fooled. Recently, a friend of mine got a legitimate text about her furniture delivery. It asked her to choose a date. When none of the dates worked for her, she wrote down the number listed in the text, to get more options. What made it suspicious? She couldn’t just tap it to initiate a call like you normally can on a cell phone. And the guy who answered said: “How old are you?” When she said “70,” he said, “You sound so young, like you’re 30.” Then he added: “I’ll need your credit card number.” “Why should I give you that?” she asked, before hanging up. […]

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Filed under: environment, Internuts, Microsoft, photos, spam, text messaging, word processing | Comments Off on FAKE TEXTS LURK INSIDE REAL ONES