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CNET The world’s largest consumer tech conference, Consumer Electronics Shows (CES), is just a few days away. At the show, you can expect to see the most innovative technology from leading companies and startups worldwide, and this year, ZDNET will help the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) identify and award the most breakthrough tech.  Also: CES 2025: What is it, what to expect, and how to tune in The CTA recognizes the best technology at the…

Maria Diaz/ZDNET Apple has settled a class action lawsuit in which tens of millions of users can expect a slice of the payout. On Tuesday, the iPhone maker agreed to pay $95 million to settle a 2019 lawsuit claiming that Siri violated the privacy of Apple users by recording their conversations, as reported by Reuters. Also: The first open-source, privacy-focused voice assistant for the home is here Known as Lopez v. Apple, Inc., the class…

Graviton’s success could impact Ampere, which makes Arm-based processors for both the enterprise and the cloud. Ampere is challenged in that all the hyperscale cloud providers – AWS, Microsoft, Google, and Meta – are making their own custom chips rather than using a third-party processor. But the challenge of getting Arm into enterprise data centers lies in all the legacy code. There are a lot of homegrown and packaged applications written for x86 processors that…

ZDNET The OnlyOffice Desktop Editors make for an outstanding MS Office alternative. With this application, you can either work locally or connect it to a cloud instance (self-hosted or hosted by a third party) and work with documents, spreadsheets, presentations, or PDF forms. OnlyOffice Document Editors is also compatible with MS Office documents and Open Document Format files (such as those from LibreOffice). Also: How to edit a PDF file: 3 ways With the latest release…

And even without the fine details, Microsoft is providing a pretty good picture of what it’s doing. None of the equipment is a secret, just the configuration. And that alone serves as a good example for others. “It’s a good sustainability story,” Howard said. The hyperscalers have impressive sustainability initiatives, and “if the leaders are going in a certain direction – which is all about being good community stewards and good stewards of natural resources…

Though I mostly enjoy mowing my lawn, I can’t say I always look forward to it. After getting a robot mower, what used to be quiet time with my mower has turned into quality active time with my kids, and I’ll never complain about that. A robot mower functions like a robot vacuum and mop, with sensors to navigate obstacles and stay within boundaries while cutting grass and a companion app for control. Also: This…

Jason Hiner/ZDNET Since the early 2000s, I’ve always set my Linux desktops to focus follows mouse. What is that mysterious feature? It’s actually quite simple. By default, most OS desktops require you to click on a window before it gets focus. Essentially, you’ve had to move the cursor to the window and then click on the window before you can use it. Focus follows mouse does away with that last step, so, all you have…

mbortolino/Getty Images As we’re seeing across all kinds of industries, artificial intelligence (AI) is the next frontier in education. Now one charter school network is experimenting with using AI to teach students — and it’s expanding its reach across the US.  Just before the holidays, the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools became the latest to approve an all-virtual, AI-driven school pitched by Unbound Academic Institute. Unbound Academy, set to open in August, will use personalized AI to teach…

Kerry Wan/ZDNET iOS 18.2 rolled out just a month ago, introducing new features like Visual Intelligence and Image Playground. The AI updates may have taken center stage, but the patch also added several quality-of-life improvements to iPhones that you may not be aware of. They range from changing the layout of the Lock Screen to additional controls on the Photos app. The patch is quite large, so instead of going through every single update, we…

ZDNET’s key takeaways Configurations for Lenovo’s LOQ Tower 17IRR9 start at $899. The computer is a great option for people looking for a well-performing, compact, and affordable computer. However, because of its small size, it has a limited number of available ports. more buying choices Lenovo’s Legion series is positioned as the company’s flagship gaming laptop line. However, in recent years, the company has expanded into mid-range hardware with the LOQ series. Most entries are laptops;…