Articles by John P. Mello Jr

Apple is prepared to spend billions to catch the leaders in generative AI technology, according to Bloomberg Apple watcher Mark Gurman In his Power On newsletter Sunday, Gurman wrote that three Apple execs -- John Giannandrea, Craig Federighi, and Eddy Cue -- are leading the company's generative AI push and are on a course to spend US$1 billion a y...

Employees in nearly three out of four organizations worldwide are using generative AI tools frequently or occasionally, but despite the security threats posed by unchecked use of the apps, employers don't seem to know what to do about it That was one of the main takeaways from a survey of 1,200 IT and security leaders located around the world relea...

Craigslist, Wikipedia, and Zillow are the fastest-loading U.S. websites on the internet, according to a study released Monday by web design company DigitalSilk The study rated popular websites based on average mobile and desktop load times. Craigslist crowned the list of fastest sites with an average of 1.35 seconds, 2.0 seconds on mobile, and 0.7 ...

Google hammered another nail in the coffin for passwords Tuesday when it announced it's making passkeys the default login method for its personal accounts That means when users sign in to their personal accounts, they'll see a prompt to create and use a passkey -- typically a face scan, fingerprint, or PIN -- as well as the "Skip password when poss...

If law enforcement officers can use technology to track people, then people ought to be able to return the favor, according to a robotics hacker who created a service enabling people to monitor police activity using Bluetooth Alan Meekins, aka Nullagent, explained at the Def Con conference this summer how a major equipment provider to law enforceme...

Artificial intelligence is coming to more than 100 drive-thru lanes at White Castle, the fast food hamburger chain that invented the "slider" in 1921 The company announced Tuesday that the project will tap into the proprietary voice AI technology of SoundHound and digital signage from Samsung Electronics America to deliver a state-of-the-art custom...

Younger workers can pose a greater risk to an organization's cybersecurity than older workers, according to a study released Tuesday by IT security company Ivanti Based on a Q4-2022 survey of 6,500 executive leaders, infosec professionals, and office workers worldwide, the study concluded that millennials and Gen Z workers are more likely to have u...

Spotify is opening up foreign language markets to its podcasters through artificial intelligence The company on Monday announced a pilot program called Voice Translation for podcasts that not only translates a podcast from one language to another but will retain the podcaster's voice as it does it....

A satellite network provider on Tuesday announced it has successfully used its space hardware to complete a voice and data call from an unmodified smartphone The 5G call, the first of its kind, was made from Maui, Hawaii, to a Vodafone engineer in Madrid, Spain, using AT&T spectrum and AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 test satellite....

Reports involving online sexual extortion of teen boys reached "shocking" levels during the first six months of this year, according to a report released Monday by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) The organization, a U.K. charity focused on making the internet a safer place for kids by removing global online child sexual abuse imagery, revealed ...

A new line of iPhones and a new Apple Watch were announced by the company Tuesday at a prerecorded online event The new iPhone 15 and 15 Plus are based on the A16 Bionic processor. It has the "Dynamic Island," which expands and contracts in reaction to alerts and live activities. It also has a brighter display -- 1600 nits that can reach peak brigh...

Denizens of the dark web are forming communities to share tips and tricks for "jailbreaking" generative AI systems, as well as offering "custom" systems of their own, according to a computer and network security company While AI jailbreaking is still in its experimental phase, it allows for the creation of uncensored content without much considerat...

Enterprise adopters should avert the temptation to buy into the hype blanketing artificial intelligence when deploying AI solutions and need to be ruthless when AI projects fail That's some of the advice in a recently released report by Forrester outlining some best practices to avoid common pitfalls when deploying AI in the enterprise....

Artificial intelligence concerns more Americans than it excites, although few think the technology will have a significant impact on their jobs, according to a pair of studies released Monday by a Washington, D.C. think tank In an attitude survey of 11,201 U.S. adults, the Pew Research Center found that more than half of Americans (52%) feel more c...

Rates for cyber insurance policies continue to rise while a growing number of exclusions are shrinking what's covered by them, according to a report released Tuesday by a cybersecurity company Nearly four out of five (79%) of the more than 300 organizations in the United States surveyed by Censuswide for privileged access management provider Deline...

A growing number of identity theft victims are having thoughts of suicide, the Identity Theft Resource Center reported Wednesday In its annual Consumer Impact Report, the ITRC noted that 16% of victims seeking support from the organization in 2023 acknowledged they had contemplated suicide after having their identity compromised, a substantial incr...

It's never too early for a retailer to start thinking about the holiday season, although this year, they may want to delay thinking about it a while longer. That's because prognosticators are predicting a lackluster holiday sales season in 2023 "In general, expectations are pretty low," said David Swartz, an equity analyst with Morningstar Research...

Generative AI is perched on the peak of inflated expectations in Gartner's 2023 hype cycle for emerging technologies released Wednesday With most of the hype now behind artificial intelligence, Gartner is predicting the technology will deliver transformational benefits in two to five years....

A recent study released by enterprise security software and services provider BlackBerry revealed that 75% of organizations worldwide are implementing or considering implementing workplace bans on ChatGPT and other generative AI applications. However, experts questioned by TechNewsWorld were skeptical of the effectiveness of such bans The study, ba...

Researchers at North Carolina State University on Wednesday revealed a novel method for foiling malicious robocalls Called SnorCall, the method uses artificial intelligence to analyze the content in robocalls and, in a significant number of cases, provide law enforcement and other stakeholders with the information they need to track down the bad ac...