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ZDNET’s key takeaways The Aqara U100 smart lock was originally priced at $230, but it is currently discounted to $160 . This smart lock is the most versatile I’ve tested; it offers a variety of unlocking options, a user-friendly app, and easy integration with Apple Home. The Aqara U100 drains the battery quickly, and the app doesn’t always alert users, resulting in reduced performance within four months of use. more buying choices At Amazon, both…

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Sony Ult Field 3 speaker is a mid-range powerhouse with great sound and ample bass. With a 24-hour battery life and features that encourage speaker syncing, the Ult Field 3 would be perfect for regular hosts and music lovers. I can’t think of anything wrong with this incredible speaker, and its price competes with other speakers of this size and spec. Under this cloud of rain and gloomy April weather, it’s…

Matthew Miller/ZDNET One of the best new Android smart watches just launched, but its price tag has already significantly increased. The OnePlus Watch 3 technically debuted in February, but a typo on the back of the watch, proclaiming it “Meda in China” (instead of “Made in China”), forced the manufacturer to push back the launch. The original launch price was $330, but — without explanation — the new price is $499, an increase of $170 or…

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Light Phone 3 is available now with support from many major carriers for $599. It’s setting a new standard for simplified phones by combining a sleek, minimal product with a focused purpose. I wish the battery lasted longer, there are still some features in development, and it’s not exactly cheap. Much attention has been paid to the idea of a “dumbphone.” We’ve all had the thought: how liberating it would be…

Getty Images/NurPhoto/Contributor Benchmark performance results typically accompany the launch of every new AI model to showcase how well the models can perform on various tasks. However, these tasks are not catered to individual industries but are more general, such as grade school mathematics (GSM8K) or graduate-level reasoning (GPQA). Also: ChatGPT will remember everything you tell it now – like a real personal assistant OpenAI Pioneers Program To fill that gap, OpenAI launched the OpenAI Pioneers…

J Studios/Getty Images ChatGPT has proven itself capable of helping with everyday tasks such as writing, coding, and researching. The chatbot’s latest feature builds on that foundation and could even make it a more effective personal assistant. Also: Canva just dropped 6 exciting AI features in its biggest update in years On Thursday, OpenAI unveiled an update to the memory feature in ChatGPT: it can now reference all of your past conversations to better inform…

peepo/Getty Images Trust is fragile, and that’s one problem with artificial intelligence, which is only as good as the data behind it. Data integrity concerns — which have vexed even the savviest organizations for decades — is rearing its head again. And industry experts are sounding the alarm. Users of generative AI may be fed incomplete, duplicative, or erroneous information that comes back to bite them — thanks to the weak or siloed data underpinning…

“Google Cloud DNS Armor, powered by Infoblox delivers powerful, preemptive protection against a wide range of modern cyber threats by using DNS as a first line of defense. Because nearly every cyberattack touches DNS at some point—whether it’s ransomware calling home, data being exfiltrated, or threat actors using domain generation algorithms—DNS Armor is uniquely positioned to detect malicious activity early in the attack chain,” Gupta explained. “The solution inspects DNS queries in real time to…

tyndyra/Getty Images Three major AI companies — normally rivals — appear to have found some common ground.  On Wednesday, Google announced via an X post that it will support Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP). This protocol lets AI systems — including agents — access data stores, developer spaces, and business applications for better performance. Specifically, support will go to Gemini models and its software development kit (SDK).  Also: Block’s new open-source AI agent ‘goose’ lets you change…

Canva / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Canva launched in 2012 and has become a widely used visual communication platform with over 230 million monthly active users. At its Canva Create annual conference, the company announced what it called its biggest product launch since its inception.  Also: Adobe Photoshop is getting its first AI agent – here’s what it can do for you On Thursday, Canva unveiled Visual Suite 2.0, which has new features that…