NETWORKING

ZDNET Imagine an AI bot that can fill out online forms, book airline flights, order groceries, and more. That’s the intent of OpenAI’s new Operator, an AI that acts as an independent agent to carry out your commands all on its own. Also: Operator isn’t worth its $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro subscription yet – here’s why Released as a research preview on Thursday, Operator is able to interact directly with a web browser. That means it can…

ZDNET This week, OpenAI is introducing a research preview called Operator. I initially wanted to do a hands-on, but once I found out that you need a Pro account (which costs $200 per month), I decided to watch the various OpenAI demos, share them with you, and then share my thoughts. Altman did say that users of the $20-per-month Plus plan would eventually be able to use Operator. Operator is an AI agent. Fundamentally, it…

While the data was apparently collected just over two years ago, it is unknown why it’s being released now. In a post last week analyzing the dump, researchers at Censys noted that the Belsen Group is new. It’s possible that this threat actor recently bought or assembled the data now for sale from the original hacker(s). Censys also believes that, while action may have been taken by FortiGate admins two years ago, after the vulnerability…

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Insta360 Connect is available now starting at $1,999, but the touch panel and other mounts can increase the price by up to $700. It’s an advanced speaker bar that sports 14 microphones, dual 4K cameras, simple connectivity, and AI enhancements for small room conferencing. A desktop stand is supplied, but you have to pay extra for the wall mount or TV mount. With remote and hybrid work the new normal, video…

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Coway IconS is available for $615. This air purifier cleans large rooms of up to 1,298 square feet, has a washable pre-filter for easy maintenance, and looks stylish enough to blend in with your home decor. Unfortunately, the IconS is large and expensive. Air purifiers are commonly used to relieve symptoms of allergies and asthma, but they can also improve your everyday life even if you have a steady immune system….

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Eureka E20 Plus is a midrange robot vacuum and mop available for $400. This is a self-emptying robot vacuum with a bagless system, so you never have to buy replacement bags for it; it features 8,000Pa of suction power and an anti-tangle brush system. While the vacuum proved capable of sweeping up pet hair, its object avoidance was found lacking, as it would get itself stuck on objects too large to…

Kerry Wan/ZDNET Simplifying the smart home is no easy task, yet we smart home users are always striving to do it. At Samsung Unpacked 2025, the company unveiled new Home AI features for its SmartThings platform designed to simplify daily life.  This is part of Samsung’s initiative towards a more personalized, knowledge-based AI experience that can learn from your habits and apply this knowledge across multiple apps.  Also: Everything announced at Samsung Unpacked 2025: Galaxy S25…

Jada Jones/ZDNET During this week’s Samsung Unpacked event, Google announced that the new Galaxy S25 devices and the latest Pixel 9 phones will support Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) Audio.  This feature isn’t exactly new for Google Pixel or Samsung Galaxy phones, as the Pixel 8 and Galaxy S24 already supported LE Audio, but the added benefit is still worth noting. Also: I may finally switch from Google Pixel to Samsung Galaxy in 2025 – and hardware…

Max Buondonno/ZDNET Google has launched the first Android 16 beta to developers and early adopters, providing insight into what the OS will bring later this year. A post on the official Android Developers Blog reveals multiple quality-of-life changes, such as ending screen orientation and resizability restrictions for apps “on large screens.” Also: I may finally switch from Google Pixel to Samsung Galaxy in 2025 – and hardware has little to do with it Many mobile…

bymuratdeniz/Getty Images One of the big trends in artificial intelligence in the past year has been the employment of various tricks during inference — the act of making predictions — to dramatically improve the accuracy of those predictions.  For example, chain-of-thought — having a large language model (LLM) spell out the logic of an answer in a series of statements — can lead to increased accuracy on benchmark tests.  Such “thinking” has apparently led to…