Eanna Murphy joins XYZ Reality as Strategic Advisor, bringing nearly 20 years` expertise to enhance the global delivery of data centre projects with AR technology. Read...

ChatGPT is rapidly changing the world. The process is already happening, and it’s only going to accelerate as the technology improves, as more people gain access to it, and as more learn how to use it. What’s shocking is just how many tasks ChatGPT is already capable of managing for you. While the naysayers may still look down their noses at the potential of AI assistants, I’ve been using it to handle all kinds of menial tasks for me. Here are my favorite examples. Write your emails for you Dave Parrack / Foundry We’ve all been faced with the tricky task of writing an email—whether personal or professional—but not knowing quite how to word it. ChatGPT can do the heavy lifting for you, penning the (hopefully) perfect email based on whatever information you feed it. Let’s assume the email you need to write is of a professional nature, and wording it poorly could negatively affect your career. By directing ChatGPT to write the email with a particular structure, content, and tone of voice, you can give yourself a huge head start. A winning tip for this is to never accept ChatGPT’s first attempt. Always read through it and look for areas of improvement, then request tweaks to ensure you get the best possible email. You can (and should) also rewrite the email in your own voice. Learn more about how ChatGPT coached my colleague to write better emails. Generate itineraries and schedules Dave Parrack / Foundry If you’re going on a trip but you’re the type of person who hates planning trips, then you should utilize ChatGPT’s ability to generate trip itineraries. The results can be customized to the nth degree depending on how much detail and instruction you’re willing to provide. As someone who likes to get away at least once a year but also wants to make the most of every trip, leaning on ChatGPT for an itinerary is essential for me. I’ll provide the location and the kinds of things I want to see and do, then let it handle the rest. Instead of spending days researching everything myself, ChatGPT does 80 percent of it for me. As with all of these tasks, you don’t need to accept ChatGPT’s first effort. Use different prompts to force the AI chatbot to shape the itinerary closer to what you want. You’d be surprised at how many cool ideas you’ll encounter this way—simply nix the ones you don’t like. Break down difficult concepts Dave Parrack / Foundry One of the best tasks to assign to ChatGPT is the explanation of difficult concepts. Ask ChatGPT to explain any concept you can think of and it will deliver more often than not. You can tailor the level of explanation you need, and even have it include visual elements. Let’s say, for example, that a higher-up at work regularly lectures everyone about the importance of networking. But maybe they never go into detail about what they mean, just constantly pushing the why without explaining the what. Well, just ask ChatGPT to explain networking! Okay, most of us know what “networking” is and the concept isn’t very hard to grasp. But you can do this with anything. Ask ChatGPT to explain augmented reality, multi-threaded processing, blockchain, large language models, what have you. It will provide you with a clear and simple breakdown, maybe even with analogies and images. Break down big tasks into smaller tasks Dave Parrack / Foundry If you’ve spent even five minutes with ChatGPT, you know that it likes to break things down into sections and categories. Well, why not take advantage of that and utilize to your own benefit? ChatGPT can help you break down overwhelmingly large tasks into smaller tasks that feel more manageable. The AI will check that you’re both on the same page, then identify the major components of the task at hand and chunk it down to bite-sized pieces. You’ll end up with a set of small(er) tasks that you can then tackle in a step-by-step fashion—and once completed, you’ll see that you’ve achieved the monumental task you had in the first place. Analyze and make tough decisions Dave Parrack / Foundry We all face tough decisions every so often. The next time you find yourself wrestling with a particularly tough one—and you just can’t decide one way or the other—try asking ChatGPT for guidance and advice. It may sound strange to trust any kind of decision to artificial intelligence, let alone an important one that has you stumped, but doing so actually makes a lot of sense. While human judgment can be clouded by emotions, AI can set that aside and prioritize logic. It should go without saying: you don’t have to accept ChatGPT’s answers. Use the AI to weigh the pros and cons, to help you understand what’s most important to you, and to suggest a direction. Who knows? If you find yourself not liking the answer given, that in itself might clarify what you actually want—and the right answer for you. This is the kind of stuff ChatGPT can do to improve your life. Get weekly meal plans Dave Parrack / Foundry While artificial intelligence isn’t yet able to cook your food for you (though it’s only a matter of time), it can be used to plan out your meals. Just inform ChatGPT of any dietary requirements you may have, how much effort you’re willing to make, particular cuisine preferences, and your weekly budget. It’ll handle the rest. ChatGPT can tell you what to buy at the grocery store at the start of the week, then generate a meal plan with recipes that suit your needs and wants. You can guide it as much as you want, too, such as by asking it to increase your fiber and protein intake. Plan complex projects and strategies Dave Parrack / Foundry Most jobs come with some level of project planning and management. Even I, as a freelance writer, need to plan tasks to get projects completed on time. And that’s where ChatGPT can prove invaluable, breaking projects up into smaller, more manageable parts. ChatGPT needs to know the nature of the project, the end goal, any constraints you may have, and what you have done so far. With that information, it can then break the project up with a step-by-step plan, and break it down further into phases (if required). If ChatGPT doesn’t initially split your project up in a way that suits you, try again. Change up the prompts and make the AI chatbot tune in to exactly what you’re looking for. It takes a bit of back and forth, but it can shorten your planning time from hours to mere minutes. Craft personalized workout routines Dave Parrack / Foundry If you’re keen to get fitter and if you have specific areas of improvement in mind or specific ways you want to grow, you can ask ChatGPT to provide personal workout routines for you. Inform it of your current fitness level, the goals you’re looking to achieve, what equipment you have access to, any physical limitations you might have, and it’ll do the rest. For example, as someone who works from home, I asked ChatGPT to help me improve my posture and lose some weight. It duly created a daily 20-minute workout focused on those areas, but also provided some further tips to help me achieve my goals. Plan parties or events Dave Parrack / Foundry If you enjoy planning parties or events, skip down to the next section. For the rest of us who find party and event planning to be nothing but a chore, we can hand it off to ChatGPT. For this one, you need to be involved at the start (by defining the basic elements of your party or event) and the end (by actually inviting the guests, booking the entertainers, and organizing the catering). But for everything in between, ChatGPT can connect the dots. That includes breaking down the planning stages into categories, creating a list of tasks in order of importance, suggesting themes, menus, and decorations, and contingencies in case something goes wrong. Compile research notes Dave Parrack / Foundry If you need to research a given topic of interest, ChatGPT can save you the hassle of compiling that research. For example, ahead of a trip to Croatia, I wanted to know more about the Croatian War of Independence, so I asked ChatGPT to provide me with a brief summary of the conflict with bullet points to help me understand how it happened. After absorbing all that information, I asked ChatGPT to add a timeline of the major events, further helping me to understand how the conflict played out. ChatGPT then offered to provide me with battle maps and/or summaries, plus profiles of the main players. You can go even deeper with ChatGPT’s Deep Research feature, which is now available to free users, up to 5 Deep Research tasks per month. With Deep Research, ChatGPT conducts multi-step research to generate comprehensive reports (with citations!) based on large amounts of information across the internet. A Deep Research task can take up to 30 minutes to complete, but it’ll save you hours or even days. Organize rough notes into documents Dave Parrack / Foundry If you’re anything like me, you probably make notes about lots of different things—whether digitally (using one of the many note-taking apps out there) or on paper, whether about work or personal issues. If you have trouble organizing those rough notes, let ChatGPT handle it for you. The AI chatbot can turn them into documents. All you have to do is specify what style of document you want and ChatGPT will work its magic, grouping together related items, creating an outline, expanding your notes into fleshed-out sentences and paragraphs, then formatting it all into a document as requested. On the other hand, if you have a lot of documents and want a quicker way to digest all of that information or find the answers you need using simple prompts, then check out Google’s NotebookLLM app, which uses its own AI to manage your notes, research, and documents. Turn rough ideas into actionable plans Dave Parrack / Foundry ChatGPT isn’t just capable of turning notes into documents. It can also tough rough ideas into actionable plans. Let’s say you’ve been kicking around the idea of starting a business and you have concepts of a plan as to what that business will end up looking like. By letting ChatGPT in on your ideas, you can have it create a timeline and sketch out a path on how to turn that dream into a reality. It will work backwards from the end-goal business you have in mind, informing you of what you need to do in order to get there. This also applies to other unreached hopes you may have, from learning a new language to securing a promotion at work. Convert file types Dave Parrack / Foundry ChatGPT can take the hard work out of converting text or data from one file type to another. All you need to do is upload the file you want to convert (whether it’s PDF, DOCX, CSV, etc.) and ChatGPT will extract the text or data, reformat it so that it’s compatible with the new file type, and export it as whatever file type you requested. Converting files from one type to another is an interminably dull chore, so having ChatGPT do it for you is an absolute godsend. And ChatGPT doesn’t just cope well with single file conversions, but can manage batch conversions too. As with everything related to ChatGPT, though, I highly recommend checking for errors afterwards. Summarize web articles Dave Parrack / Foundry There are only so many hours in the day, yet so many new articles published on the web day in and day out. When you come across extra-long reads, it can be helpful to run them through ChatGPT for a quick summary. Then, if the summary is lacking in any way, you can go back and plow through the article proper. As an example, I ran one of my own PCWorld articles (where I compared Bluesky and Threads as alternatives to X) through ChatGPT, which provided a brief summary of my points and broke down the best X alternative based on my reasons given. Interestingly, it also pulled elements from other articles. (Hmph.) If you don’t want that, you can tell ChatGPT to limit its summary to the contents of the link. Summarize emails and meetings Dave Parrack / Foundry If you have a white collar job, you probably deal with email chains, group discussions, and online meetings. The more people are involved in these, the trickier it can be to keep track of what’s being said, and important takeaways can get lost in the noise. ChatGPT to the rescue. ChatGPT can quickly summarize email chains, group chat logs, and meeting transcripts. It only takes a minute to cut through the fluff and get key points on what actually mattered in the end. This is a great trick to use for any long-form content that’s heavy on text, especially transcripts for interviews, lectures, videos, and Zoom meetings. The only caveat is to never share private details with ChatGPT, like company-specific data that’s protected by NDAs and the like. Simplify legalese or policy documents Dave Parrack / Foundry Every now and then, life forces us to read through important documents before signing on a dotted line, whether to buy a house, get life insurance, rent a car, etc. The problem is, those documents are dripping with legalese—and if you’re like me, it’s hard to digest. Thankfully, ChatGPT can help out here, dumbing down those policy documents into everyday language that’s easy enough to understand without needing a law degree. Just feed it the policy documents you’re being asked to sign and let it work its magic. Check laws and regulations Dave Parrack / Foundry Understanding the various laws and/or rules that bind us can be tricky, especially since most of them are written in overly complex “legalese” that’s meant to avoid exploitable loopholes. Thankfully, ChatGPT is capable of not only checking rules and regulations, but also dumbing them down so that normies like me can understand them. Just ask ChatGPT to explain a specific law or the rules and regulations surrounding whatever subject you’re exploring. It’ll likely ask you to clarify a few things (e.g., the jurisdiction you’re referring to or the organization making the rules) before providing an answer that defers to the most authoritative sources (e.g., government sites). Create Q&A flashcards for learning Dave Parrack / Foundry Flashcards can be extremely useful for drilling a lot of information into your brain, such as when studying for an exam, onboarding in a new role, prepping for an interview, etc. And with ChatGPT, you no longer have to painstakingly create those flashcards yourself. All you have to do is tell the AI the details of what you’re studying. You can specify the format (such as Q&A or multiple choice), as well as various other elements. You can also choose to keep things broad or target specific sub-topics or concepts you want to focus on. You can even upload your own notes for ChatGPT to reference. You can also use Google’s NotebookLM app in a similar way. Create a learning or training schedule Dave Parrack / Foundry In a similar vein to the above, if you have a definitive idea in mind for a personal goal, ChatGPT can help you achieve it. Let’s use language learning as an example. Just inform ChatGPT what level of Spanish (or whatever other language) you can speak right now and how fluent you want to be in the future. It will then create a learning schedule to follow to get you to that level. The same goes if you’re seeking to, say, improve wellness and get in shape. Just tell ChatGPT what your current fitness level is and what level you want to end up at. It can then create a bespoke training schedule designed just for you and based on your specific needs. Provide interview practice Dave Parrack / Foundry Whether you’re a first-time jobseeker or have plenty of experience under your belt, it’s always a good idea to practice for your interviews when making career moves. Years ago, you might’ve had to ask a friend or family member to act as your mock interviewer. These days, ChatGPT can do it for you—and do it more effectively. Inform ChatGPT of the job title, industry, and level of position you’re interviewing for, what kind of interview it’ll be (e.g., screener, technical assessment, group/panel, one-on-one with CEO), and anything else you want it to take into consideration. ChatGPT will then conduct a mock interview with you, providing feedback along the way. When I tried this out myself, I was shocked by how capable ChatGPT can be at pretending to be a human in this context. And the feedback it provides for each answer you give is invaluable for knocking off your rough edges and improving your chances of success when you’re interviewed by a real hiring manager. Further reading: Usually creative ways to use ChatGPT Read...

The latest HDMI® 2.2 Specification was launched in June of this year and it’s important to consider the impact on new product development, upcoming launches and integration support designs and systems. HDMI Technology is the foundation for the worldwide ecosystem of HDMI-connected devices. It is the digital interface technology integrated inside displays, set-top boxes, laptops, audio video receivers and dozens of other product types. Because of this global usage, manufacturers, resellers and consumers must be assured that their HDMI® products work seamlessly together and deliver the best possible performance. This is accomplished by sourcing products from licensed HDMI Adopters or authorized resellers. For HDMI Cables, consumers can look for the official HDMI Cable Certification Label on packaging. HDMI Licensing Administrator, Inc. Innovation Continues with the New HDMI 2.2 Specification – Products Are on the Way HDMI 2.2 Specification supports a blazing 96Gbps bandwidth and next-gen HDMI Fixed Rate Link technology to provide optimal audio and video for a wide range of device applications.  End-users can be assured that their displays support a native video format in the best way possible and deliver a seamless and reliable experience. Higher resolutions and refresh rates are supported, including up to 12K@120 and 16K@60. Additionally, more high-quality options are supported, including uncompressed full chroma formats such as 8K@60/4:4:4 and 4K@240/4:4:4 at 10-bit and 12-bit color. The specification includes the new Ultra96 HDMI® Cable that supports 96Gbps bandwidth and enables all the HDMI 2.2 Specification features. New cables are expected in the market in Q4 2025. “Resellers can offer the latest HDMI Cable ensuring the best quality video performance,” said Val Clark, senior marketing manager, HDMI Licensing Administrator, Inc. “Products will be hitting next year, and it is important for system designers to enable better movies and better gaming – everything will benefit from faster refresh rates and higher quality color options.” And the introduction of the new “Ultra96” feature name will help consumers and end-users ensure their products’ maximum bandwidth is supported. Manufacturers are encouraged to use the Ultra96 feature name to indicate their product supports a maximum of 64Gbps, 80Gbps or 96Gbps bandwidth in compliance with the HDMI 2.2 Specification. Products that market or display the Ultra96 feature name require the Ultra96 HDMI® Cable to ensure a product’s maximum bandwidth is properly supported. The HDMI Cable Certification Program Offers a Selection of Choices There are now three strong choices in considering the right cable for installations. The Premium High Speed HDMI® Cable is tested and certified to ensure 4K HDTV and device feature requirements up to 18Gbps. The Ultra High Speed HDMI® Cable, launched in 2020, is the cable preferred by advanced gamers and others requiring 48Gbps support for higher resolutions, frame rates and chroma. The upcoming Ultra96 HDMI® Cable is the only cable that will support all the HDMI 2.2 Specification features and up to an incredible 96Gbps. All three cables require an HDMI Certification Label to be affixed to packaging to verify testing and certification. For more information: www.hdmi.org The terms HDMI, HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface, HDMI Trade Dress and the HDMI Logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of HDMI Licensing Administrator, Inc. Read...

With its solar-powered EufyCam S4, now on display at the IFA trade show in Berlin, Anker’s Eufy division is joining the ranks of security camera manufacturers offering dual-function models that combine a stationary bullet camera with a motorized pan/tilt/zoom cam in the same housing. The bullet came element is a fixed camera with 4K resolution and a generous 130-degree field of view, while the 2K pan/tilt cam beneath it is outfitted with one wide-angle lens (also with a 130-degree field of view) and one telephoto lens with a 46-degree field of view. The lower twin-lensed camera is mounted to a motor that can pan 360 degrees as well as tilt over a 70-degree arc. The two cameras–and three lens elements–work together to ensure an intruder can’t escape detection. With bullet-to-PTZ tracking, if the bullet camera detects a target, the PTZ camera will lock on and track the target’s movement, automatically zooming in up to 164 feet to capture more detail. But if more subjects appear on the scene, the camera will zoom out again so that nothing is missed. The EufyCam S4 melds a bullet security camera with a dual-lensed pan/tilt/zoom camera. A solar panel keeps the cameras battery continually charged, or you can buy an AC adapter that will enable 24/7 recording to local storage.Eufy A live view from the Eufy app will toggle between the views from the three lenses, based on which one detects motion. Video recordings will show all motion in a single clip. The EufyCam S4 has both radar and passive infrared motion detection. Four LED spotlights, two on each camera, can light nighttime scenes to provide color night vision. An onboard 105dB siren and red-and-blue LED lights can be triggered to deter an intruder. Video recordings can be stored on the camera itself, thanks to 32GB of eMMC storage, but you can expand that capacity to 256GB by providing a microSD card. The EufyCam S4 can perform 24/7 continuous recording when it’s connected directly to an AC adapter (an added-cost option). The EufyCam S4 will also be available in a 2- or 4-camera bundle with the Eufy HomeBase S380, which will add AI-powered facial recognition in addition to more local storage.Eufy An included 5.5-watt solar panel keeps the camera’s battery topped off with just one hour of direct sunlight. The panel can be detached for more flexible mounting options (it’s connected to the camera with a 10-foot cable). You could mount the camera under a roof eave, for example, and mount the panel to a fascia board to keep it out of the home’s shadow (as shown in the PR photo up top). On-camera AI can differentiate between humans, pets, and vehicles. Pairing the camera with the Eufy HomeBase S380 base station enables local facial recognition via Eufy’s Bionic Mind technology. The HomeBase S380 also adds 16GB of encrypted local storage, which can be further expanded with the installation of a 2.5-inch hard drive with capacities up to 16TB. Two new Eufy NVRs Eufy is also showing two other NVR products but has provided very little additional information about them ahead of the show. In a demo earlier this year, Eufy described the HomeBase Pro as having both battery backup and backup internet connectivity via an LTE connection. The HomeBase Pro is slated to have 32GB of onboard storage, and you’ll be able to add a hard drive for more. Eufy hasn’t publlshed much information about its new AI Core, beyond saying it’s designed to deliver “advanced AI-enabled services, including vehicle protection, porch piracy deterence, and risk assessment and response in coordination with other sensors and devices.”Eufy As the name of its second new NVR, the Eufy AI Core, indicates, Eufy is doubling down on local artificial intelligence with this product. Going beyond facial recognition, the company says the Eufy AI Core can recognize human behaviors for the purposes of threat assessment, and that by working in conjunction with other sensors and devices, it will analyze and respond to potential fire risks. Eufy didn’t announce pricing or availability for either of these new storage products, although it began offering an AI Pioneer Program in April 2025 that included a free AI Core and a one-year subscription to its EdgeAgent service (a combined value of $539). It’s not clear from Eufy’s website if that program is still open to new enrollment. As for the EufyCam S4, it is available for pre-sale on its own now for $299. It will also be available in a two-camera kit with a HomeBase S380 for $649, and as part of a four-camera kit with a HomeBase S380 for $1,149. Eufy didn’t provide an official ship date in its latest press release, but had previously suggested the camera would be available in November. This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best home security cameras. Read...

Philips Hue smart lights: pricey but worth it, right? That’s the line I usually spout when it comes to the Hue smart lighting brand, but with its latest wave of product announcements, Hue is showing a renewed interest in budget-minded smart home users.  Sure, Hue still had some big-ticket items (most of which were leaked by Hue itself earlier this month) to show off during its IFA press conference this week. For starters, there’s the new Hue Bridge Pro, a $90 revamp of the (still available) Hue Bridge V2 that can handle many more smart devices as well as turn your Hue lights into motion sensors.   Hue also trotted out a premium color light strip that crams in so many LEDs it’s virtually a single, unbroken strip of light, along with a new video doorbell, a wired security camera with upgraded video resolution, and its first stab at permanent outdoor lights.  But Hue also did something different this year, unveiling an “Essential” line of affordable (!) smart lights with “basic” specifications. The pared-down lighting capabilities of Hue’s new Essential line is sure to raise eyebrows among loyal Hue customers accustomed to the brand’s high standards—and higher prices. Still, Hue is promising that its Essentials products will bridge the affordability gap “without compromising reliability.”  Philips Hue Bridge Pro  Before we get to the cheaper Essential line, let’s cover Hue’s bread-and-butter premium products, including the step-up Hue Bridge Pro.   Slated to go on sale this month for $90, the Hue Bridge Pro offers three big reasons to upgrade: a vastly improved capacity and much greater power than the aging Hue Bridge V2; the ability to turn your existing Hue lights into motion sensors; and Wi-Fi connectivity to eliminate the need to hardwire the hub to your router with an ethernet cable (although an ethernet port is still there if you want it). Hue executives say the Bridge Pro’s security has been hardened to prevent wireless-based hacks.  Philips Hue Now packing a 1.7GHz quad-core Cortex A-35 GPU and a gigabyte of DDR4 SDRAM, the Bridge Pro can juggle more than 150 Hue lights as well as 50-plus Hue accessories, way up from the 60-ish device limit of the current Bridge V2. That should come as a relief to longtime Hue users with ever-growing collections of indoor and outdoor Hue lights, Hue sensors, and (now) Hue security cameras.  Even cooler, the Bridge Pro boasts a feature called Motion Aware, which can turn your existing Hue lights into motion sensors. To use the feature, you’ll need at least three Hue lights (roughly 95 percent of existing Hue lights are Motion Aware-capable, Hue says) in a defined area. If your lights sense a motion disturbance or the lack thereof, they’ll be able to trigger either standard light routines (as in turning on your lights when you enter a room) or security-minded automations (like alerting you to a potential intruder). While motion-triggered light routines will be free, security-based motion automations will require subscribing to a paid Hue Secure plan.  You’ll be able to migrate your entire Bridge V2 configuration to a new Bridge Pro in just a few taps via the Hue app. You can also move lights and accessories to the Bridge Pro manually, while the ability to merge multiple Hue Bridge configurations into a single Bridge Pro is coming later this year.  One feature the Bridge Pro is not adding is a Thread border router, with Hue execs explaining that they believe Zigbee offers “the best performance for our use cases.” That said, the Bridge Pro (along with the older Bridge v2) can bridge Hue lights into Matter controller apps, and—as we’ll see in a moment—Hue is adding Thread radios to its newer bulbs to work “in parallel” with Zigbee and Bluetooth.  New Philips Hue light strips, outdoor lights, and A19 bulbs  Besides its new premium hub, Philips Hue had some premium lights to show off, starting with its top-of-the-line, 4,500-lumen Hue OmniGlow strip light.   Slated for release in November and starting at $140 for a 3-meter strip (a 10-meter version costs a whopping $350), the OmniGlow strip light employs chip-scale package technology that allows it to cram more than 170 LED dies per square inch (with each LED measuring less than a half millimeter across). By “packing these LEDs incredibly densely,” the OminGlow strip light promises to look like a single strip of light rather than a strip with clearly defined diodes.  Philips Hue Hue is offering six more light strip models alongside the OmniGlow, including the Flux indoor strip light, the Flux ultra bright, a Flux outdoor strip light, and a flexible “neon” light strip, with prices ranging from $70 for the 3-meter indoor Flux strip light to $250 for the $250 for the 10-meter Hue neon outdoor strip.  Then there’s the Festavia line of indoor/outdoor string lights, which is spawning both a globe light version ($160 for a seven-meter string, due in September) as well as permanent outdoor lights (also arriving in September, $119 for 9 meters and $300 for 18 meters).  Finally, a revamped A19 bulb (ranging from $16 for a 60W white bulb to $80 for a 100W White and Color Ambience version, with tunable White Ambience bulbs in the middle) lands with 40-percent greater efficiency than its predecessor, dimming that goes all the way down to 0.2 percent, and (as mentioned above) native Matter-over-Thread support.  Philips Hue New Philips Hue Secure cameras  Hue is doubling down on its new home security products with its first video doorbell. Boasting 2K video resolution (up from 1080p for its earlier security cams), the Hue Secure Video doorbell ($170, set for October release) has a 180-degree head-to-toe field of view, along with two-way talk and a Starlight sensor for night vision. A smart chime ($60, also slated for October) that plugs into a standard wall outlet will also be available.  Philips Hue Also new is an upgraded wired camera ($180 in black or white, October) with 2K video resolution, same as the video doorbell.  Aside from the new Secure hardware, Hue says it will soon offer 24 hours of video history for free, without a Hue Secure subscription (heads up, Nest and Ring), along with smoke alarm detection as well as independent light and sound alarms.  The affordable Hue Essential line  So much for all the premium Hue products. Now it’s time for some Hue lights that are—finally—a lot less pricey.  The new Hue Essential line comprises a range of standard form factors, from A19 bulbs and BR30 floodlights to GU10 downlights and a light strip. The 60W A19 color bulb (set to arrive this month) connects via Zigbee, Matter-over-Thread, or Bluetooth, and costs a mere $25 versus $60 for the cheapest Hue White and Color Ambience bulb. The 65W BR30 also sells for $25, as does the 50W GU10 bulb. A five-meter Essential light strip will go for $100, with the 10 meter-version costing $170.  A wide range of Essential starter kits will be available too; for example, a kit with two bulbs, a Hue Switch, and the Bridge V2 will have a list price of $90.  Philips Hue What compromises will the Essential line entail? For starters, the lowest dimming setting for an Essential bulb will be 2 percent, compared to 0.2 percent for an equivalent Hue light, while the cheaper bulbs will make do with “essential” color blending and quality rather than “perfect” color blending (via Sunflower Optic technology) or “premium” color quality (thanks to Hue’s ChromaSync tech) for Hue’s premium bulbs.  So yes, Hue’s premium bulbs will indeed be “premium” compared to the Essential line, but newcomers to the Hue ecosystem might be tempted by the lower cost of entry for a Hue color bulb. Meanwhile, more experienced Hue users (like me) might be more willing to snag a less expensive Hue Essential color bulb for locations that didn’t previously merit the cost of a premium White and Color Ambiance light.  Last but not least: Sonos voice control  One final item that has been previously leaked: Yes, Sonos voice control is coming to Hue, allowing Hue users to use Sonos voice commands to turn Hue lights on and off, adjust their brightness, and set lighting scenes.  For now, Sonos integration is restricted to voice control only; that is, you won’t be able to see Sonos speakers within the Hue app, nor will Hue lights be available within the Sonos app.  This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart lights. Read...

Australian public agencies can achieve sustainable savings by automating HR and payroll functions, cutting costs and improving efficiency amid rising government debt. Read...

Having plenty of memory in your PC is more important than ever, now that practically everything runs on the web. But if you’re using a dated laptop or desktop that relies on DDR4 RAM, you might find it hard to upgrade. Manufacturers are winding down production, which is making prices rise… even above the price of newer DDR5 memory. DDR4 has been a bargain for system builders for years. Heck, that’s why AMD keeps making new AM4 chips even as the world falls in love with the AM5 platform. But the biggest memory producers on the planet—Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron—are all setting an end-of-life date for DDR4 production. That’s partly because of the sheer progress of technology (you can’t stick to a format forever) and partly because there’s a huge demand for newer memory with the expansion of data centers and the “AI” industry, as Digitimes reports via Tom’s Hardware. Between decreased hardware output creating a supply squeeze and a shift towards memory production for industrial applications, consumer-level RAM prices are likely to go even higher. While not all configurations are in high demand, you can see 2x8GB DDR4 desktop kits in the $35 to $50 range on Amazon US right now (September 2nd). That’s equal to or higher than the same kits at much faster DDR5 specs. The pattern holds for laptop (SO-DIMM) kits, too. Pricing trends are showing an increase for all but the smallest capacities of DDR4 kits, even as DDR5 becomes cheaper and more plentiful. That might spell the end of affordable DDR4-based systems (and those venerable AM4 chips/motherboards at retail), and a nasty shock for those who want to upgrade older hardware. If you’ve been thinking of trying to squeeze a little more life out of an older desktop or laptop with a memory upgrade, I’d do it now before new memory kits become increasingly hard to find. Read...

Sainsbury`s says the technology is part of efforts to identify shoplifters to curb retail crime. Read...

Streaming images can really pop when the contrast-boosting Dolby Vision is on the case, but Dolby’s HDR technology is also the target of a frequent complaint: It’s too dark.  The issue arises because what content creators see in their production studios can differ greatly from what we see in our living rooms. Video pros work with calibrated reference monitors in perfectly lit conditions; we, on the other hand, watch on consumer TVs with many different makes, models, and display technologies and in myriad lighting environments, from a pitch-black room to a brightly lit kitchen.  That means content creators must take a one-size-fits-all approach when “grading” the brightest and darkest images of the picture for Dolby Vision, and in some cases, that means some viewers will be left straining to see what’s happening on their screens.  Now comes the next generation of Dolby Vision—the aptly named Dolby Vision 2—and with the help of AI, it aims to deliver more of a two-way approach (or “bi-directional” tone mapping, as Dolby is calling it) that can tailor Dolby Vision HDR images for your particular TV, and even according to the light in the room where you’re watching.  Debuting this week at IFA in Berlin, Dolby Vision 2 arrives with an important caveat: It will only work on forthcoming TVs with built-in Dolby Vision 2 circuitry. Hisense is the first TV manufacturer to get on board with the upgraded HDR standard, with its first Dolby Vision 2-enabled TVs to land “at a later date,” the brand says.  On the content side, CANAL+ is the first studio to pledge its support for Dolby Vision 2 on its upcoming movies, TV shows, and live sporting events.  Among Dolby Vision 2’s bag of tricks is Precision Black, a feature that measures the ambient light conditions in a content creator’s production area, embeds the information in the Dolby Vision stream, and then matches it with the display capabilities of a given Dolby Vision 2-enabled TV. That way, the images on your set can come closer to looking the way they do in the grading studio.  Taking things a step further is Light Sense, which tailors the HDR images even further by “capturing” the light levels in your living room via “advanced” ambient light detection. With Precision Black and Light Sense working in tandem (both are part of an AI-powered toolkit that Dolby’s calling Content Intelligence), Dolby Vision 2 aims to fix the “too dark” issue that’s been a nagging problem for the first major version of the HDR technology.  Another arrow in Dolby Vision 2’s quiver is Authentic Motion, which (according to Dolby) goes “beyond the benefits of HDR” to help deal with the “challenges of judder.”   Rather than being a ham-fisted motion-smoothing setting that can lead to the dreaded “soap-opera effect,” Authentic Motion allows video creatives to pinpoint “potential trouble areas” of a scene and “adjust the amount of de-judder for the specific shots or scenes they feel best match the look of what they’re trying in convey,” Dolby says.    In addition to straight-up Dolby Vision 2, there will also be a step-up Dolby Vision 2 Max that’s “designed to unlock the full capabilities and best picture quality on the highest performing TVs.” The specifics of Dolby Vision 2 Max will come “at a later date,” I’m told.  A Dolby spokesperson declined to speculate on when we might actually get to see Dolby Vision 2-enhanced videos at home. Read...

The weather may be improving but those who rely on their creativity for survival are facing some daunting challenges ahead, thanks to technology. Read...