Articles by John P. Mello Jr.

Tesla's announcement this week of a US$16.5 billion deal with Samsung to produce next-generation A16 chips at the South Korean electronics giant's Texas facility has significant ramifications for both companies “This is more than a supply deal. It’s a strategic brand decision," declared Lorenzo Coruzzi, valuation director at Brand Finance, a gl...

When it comes to threats from the dark web, the U.S. is a prime target A new report by threat intelligence company SOCRadar found that more than four out of five (82%) threats from the dark web aimed at North America targeted the United States over the last 12 months. "The high percentage in the United States suggests a larger digital footprint and...

Browsers built on artificial intelligence could transform how users interact with the internet, much like applications shaped the mobile web. That could make AI browsers a killer app The AI community isn't ignoring that potential. Perplexity has released an invite-only beta of its AI browser called Comet, and OpenAI is also working on a browser. Th...

Small changes in the large language models (LLMs) at the heart of AI applications can result in substantial energy savings, according to a report released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Monday The 35-page report titled "Smarter, smaller, stronger: resource-efficient generative AI & the future of ...

Many consumers may feel overwhelmed by their subscriptions, but that doesn't seem to be stopping the practice from growing. According to a report released Monday by London-based Juniper Research, the subscription economy will nearly double in the next five years to US$1.2 trillion, from $722.5 billion in 2025 Juniper is forecasting substantial grow...

Without much fanfare, Meta has been quietly enhancing the capabilities of its WhatsApp messaging software, which could transform it into a super app While super apps have gained traction in Asia, they haven't caught on in the West. Apps like WeChat in China, Grab in Singapore, Gojek in Indonesia, and Paytm in India offer users a bundle of services ...

A leader in the EV battery recycling business has announced a new use for those batteries: powering AI data centers Redwood Materials has launched Redwood Energy, which will use used EV batteries to store power from solar arrays. That power can then be used to power the data centers of Redwood's partner in the project, Crusoe, a firm best known for...

Cloudflare, which services about 20% of websites, announced Tuesday that it is now blocking web-scraping AI bots from accessing those sites by default Unless a website explicitly turns off the default, an AI crawler will need to obtain permission from the website to scrape its content. Website owners can choose whether they want AI crawlers to acce...

The U.S. Postal Service is warning consumers about a growing scam called "brushing," where unsolicited packages are sent to harvested addresses to inflate the reputation of an unscrupulous online retailer Brushing scams involve receiving unsolicited packages containing low-cost items, such as household goods, the USPS warns. These packages are ofte...

Reports of identity crimes to the Identity Theft Resource Center continued to decline in 2024 from 2023. However, victims who report their crimes are suffering greater financial losses than ever, according to the ITRC's 2025 Trends in Identity Report, released on Tuesday The ITRC's COO, James E. Lee, told TechNewsWorld that there are a number of fa...

A recent study by the Media Lab at MIT found that prolonged use of ChatGPT, a large language model (LLM) chatbot, can have a harmful impact on the cognitive abilities of its users Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels, noted the report, whose main author was research scientist Nataliya ...

Samsung is developing a “health hub” designed to help patients share data with their doctors and stay informed about medical advice between visits The company’s plans, reported Monday by Bloomberg and confirmed in a Samsung press release, center on using data collected from its Galaxy devices to create a unified platform for personal health m...

Bringing the nation's 9-1-1 system into the digital age is moving forward but slowly, according to a report released Tuesday by a public safety and emergency communications company In its 2025 State of the 9-1-1 Report, Longmont, Colo.-based Intrado Life & Safety noted that the transition from legacy to next-generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) is well under...

IBM revealed Tuesday its roadmap for bringing a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer, IBM Quantum Starling, online by 2029, which is significantly earlier than many technologists thought possible The company predicts that when its new Starling computer is up and running, it will be capable of performing 20,000 times more operations than tod...

Apple appears to be headed toward unifying its multiple operating systems via a design makeover, and the iPad will start looking more like a personal computer, according to presentations aired Monday at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) "For the first time, we're introducing a universal design across our platforms," said A...

Shadow AI -- the use of AI tools under the radar of IT departments -- has information technology directors and executives worried, according to a report released Tuesday The report, based on a survey of 200 IT directors and executives at U.S. enterprise organizations of 1,000 employees or more, found nearly half the IT pros (46%) were "extremely wo...

Aerial drones are rapidly assuming a key role in the physical automation of business operations, according to a new report by Forrester Research Aerial drones power airborne physical automation by addressing operational challenges in labor-intensive industries, delivering efficiency, intelligence, and experience, explained the report written by Pri...

Americans could lose almost 7% of their lives noodling on social media, according to a new study by an online virtual casino resource site According to an online report based on data from StatCounter and Statista, Slotzilla calculated that U.S. adults spend an average of 32 days per year on social media apps. That means, over an average lifespan of...

What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, cell phone satisfaction was riding high in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), which surveys U.S. consumers. This year, it has hit an all-time low The ACSI, a national economic indicator for over 25 years, reported Tuesday that after reaching an all-time high in 2024, cell phone satisf...

Most consumers are satisfied with the recommendations they receive from AI shopping assistants, yet skepticism about the technology persists, according to a recent study by a product experience company The study of 1,000 consumers conducted by Dynata for Boston-based Akeneo found that 84% of shoppers who made purchases based on AI recommendations e...