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Matthew Miller/ZDNET At Meta Connect in September, one of the newest products that caught my eye was a limited-edition pair of Ray-Ban glasses — with a transparent frame, sapphire transition lenses, and a fairly accessible $429 price tag. Since I’ve already had great experiences with the Meta Quest 3 and Viture Pro XR glasses, I decided it was time to try the highly praised smart glasses by Meta. Fortunately, I was able to buy a…

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 2-in-1 Gen 5 is available now, starting at $1,800. It’s an ultraportable, reliable workhorse with good connectivity and security features that professionals will love. It’s rather expensive, and its average display is overshadowed by flashy OLEDs on comparable devices. more buying choices The fifth generation of Lenovo’s ThinkPad X13 line aims to bring AI-ready connectivity to the business user, in a lightweight 2-in-1 or standard form factor, lots…

Hisense/ZDNET Want to see wide-eyed joy on the face of a loved one by giving them a new, high-res smart TV this holiday season? Does your home entertainment center need an upgrade? Either way, Walmart has you covered with this deal. Also: The 50+ best Black Friday Walmart deals 2024: Early sales live now With a 4K UHD picture quality and HDR compatibility, the Hisense R6 offers exceptional clarity, vibrant colors, and sharp detail. It’s also…

Jada Jones/ZDNET Even if you’re just a casual online shopping fan, chances are you’ve placed plenty of orders on Amazon. If you’re downright obsessive about online shopping, you’re likely familiar with Temu, a digital marketplace for low-priced goods. Also: Is Temu legit? What to know before you place an order If you’ve paid close attention, you may have noticed that some products on Amazon are also on Temu. And if you’re a savvy shopper preparing to order…

Tavrius/Getty Images Generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) is paving the way for everyone to become their own software developers. But at the same time, AI may render many extraordinary skills unnecessary. That’s the word from Thomas Davenport of Babson College and Ian Barkin, a venture capitalist, in their latest book, All Hands on Tech: The AI-Powered Citizen Revolution. For starters, they point out that with low-code and no-code tools, robotic process automation, and now AI, the…

Serhii Prystupa/Getty Images In the rapidly evolving landscape of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, Google’s Gemma, Meta’s LLaMA 3, Mistral.AI, Falcon, and other AI tools are becoming indispensable business assets.  One of the most promising advancements in this domain is Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). But what exactly is RAG, and how can it be integrated with your business documents and knowledge?  What is RAG? RAG is an…

Whether you’re on a mission to safeguard vital data or conquer the daunting challenge of dwindling free space on your computer, an external hard drive swoops in as the ultimate hero, ready to expand your storage capacity in a flash. Using nothing more than a free USB port and a small bit of desk space, you can add to your digital realm a generous storage upgrade, ranging from a few gigabytes to a staggering 44…

arturbo/Getty Images Last month, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) adopted a final “click-to-cancel” rule requiring businesses to make canceling a subscription as easy as signing up for it in the first place. Whether it’s a magazine subscription, gym membership, or monthly payment for a streaming service, stopping an unwanted recurring subscription will become easier for consumers.  On Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced in a blog post that it “can enforce the new…

pornpimon Ainkaew/Getty Images Many readers have been pointing me to TikTok videos showing hot glue being used to clean iPhones, AirPods, and other devices. All the videos follow the same pattern — a filthy device and the ports are packed with detritus and schmoo, hot glue is then squirted into the ports, left to harden, and eventually removed. Here’s an example of such a video. The idea is that glue removes all the dirt and the job…

Skillsoft surveyed some 5,100 global IT decision-makers and professionals to learn more about the technologies they plan to invest in as well as the areas in which they are challenged to find skilled workers. In terms of investment priorities for 2025, the top technology areas global IT decision-makers plan to put budget dollars toward are: AI and ML: 47% Cybersecurity, information security: 42% Cloud computing: 36% Infrastructure and systems: 33% Leadership skills: 28% Data analytics,…