Articles by John P. Mello Jr

A venture between Google and Ascension, one of the largest healthcare providers in the United States, will give the tech giant access to the sensitive medical information of as many as 50 million patients in 21 states Its venture with Google, called "The Nightingale Project," would enable it to improve the experience of patients, consumers, provide...

Google has published changes to YouTube's Terms of Service Agreement that have stoked fears among some users. The new terms take effect Dec. 10 One controversial provision addresses YouTube's hosting responsibilities....

University researchers have discovered a way to issue unauthorized commands to digital assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant, Facebook Portal and Siri via laser beams The microphones in devices like smart speakers, mobile phones and tablets convert sound into electrical signals, but what the researchers found was that the mics react to light aime...

New products for the iPad and iPhone headlined Monday's opening keynote presentation at Adobe Max, the company's annual developers conference held in Los Angeles Photoshop for the iPad (pictured above) uses Adobe's artificial intelligence engine, Sensei, to enable new selection functionality....

Active Noise Cancellation is just one of the hot new features in the latest generation of Apple's AirPods The new AirPods Pro, which goes on sale Wednesday for US$249, combines earbud microphones with software to remove background noise and improve a user's listening experience....

Nvidia on Monday introduced two new versions of its Android TV-based Shield streaming product. Shield TV (US$149) and Shield TV Pro ($199) are replacements for the last generation of Shield video streamers, which Nvidia introduced in 2017. The Shield TV Pro retains the form factor of its predecessors -- the box-like form favored by the industry ge...

GoPro has begun taking preorders for its US$500 360-degree camera, the Max 360, and reviewers have begun to weigh in on the latest entry in the action camera company's line "GoPro has become a household name for its durable, portable little action cameras and the Max is no different. While the camera has a lot of great features, it was the ease of ...

Flaws in Amazon and Google smart speakers can expose users to eavesdropping and voice phishing, security researchers reported Sunday Researchers at Security Research Labs, a hacking research collective and consulting think tank based in Berlin, Germany, discovered that developers could create malicious apps for the Amazon and Google platforms to tu...

A new flagship smartphone, a slick refresh of Pixelbook Go, some home gadget improvements and a revamp of its wireless earbuds highlighted Google's annual hardware event held Tuesday in New York City ...

An option in Apple's Safari browser that's supposed to protect Web surfers from malicious sites has raised privacy concerns in some quarters The option, called "safe browsing," is turned on by default. Depending on where an Apple device is registered, the browser could be sending IP information to Tencent, a conglomerate with close ties to China's ...

New versions of operating systems are usually about slick interfaces and improved performance, but that's not what Apple was flogging about macOS Catalina upon its release Monday One of the hot new additions in the OS is Apple Arcade, a game subscription service featuring a batch of new, exclusive games....

Subscription models have taken hold in everything from software to smartphones, and now Sonos is testing the idea in the premium wireless speaker market The Santa Barbara, California, company has launched a pilot program limited to 500 homes in the Netherlands, which allows consumers to gain access to Sonos hardware for as little as 15 euros (US$16...

Xiaomi on Tuesday introduced a refresh of the Mi 9 Pro with support for 5G and a groundbreaking smartphone with a wraparound display The Mi 9 Pro 5G (pictured above), with a base price of 3,699 yuan, or US$520, works with 5G offerings of China's three main carriers -- China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom -- and supports speeds from 1.78 Gb...

A website created to gather faces for an art project has created a controversy over the use of artificial intelligence to classify human beings The faces collected at the ImageNet Roulette site are being incorporated into a work of art at the Fondazione Prada Osservertario in Milan, but that is only one reason American artist Trevor Paglen and Mic...

Early reviews on the new iPhone models are appearing, and for owners of older versions of Apple's flagship mobile, an upgrade may be in order Reviewers had plenty of praise for Apple's more expensive iPhone models -- the 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max....

The Wi-Fi Alliance on Monday released certification standards for Wi-Fi 6 devices, signaling that the technology is ready for prime time The certification program assures buyers that products carrying the Wi-Fi Certified 6 label will deliver the best user experience with devices supporting IEEE 802.11ax....

Apple raised the curtain on its latest iPhone models, introduced a new iPad, refreshed its watch, and announced pricing for its subscription game and premium TV services at an event held Tuesday at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California The highlight of the presentation was the new iPhone lineup: the iPhone 11 (US$699), the 11 Pro ($999) a...

A larger version of Google's Nest Hub smart display hit retail shelves on Monday, and it's garnering mixed reviews The new Nest Hub Max has a 10-inch screen, compared to its predecessor's 7-inch display, and it sells for US$229, compared to $129 for the Nest Hub introduced at Google's I/O conference in June....

Samsung's first-generation foldable phone isn't expected until later this month, but reports of a second-generation device to be released in early 2020 already have started appearing online The next-generation model will be a luxury phone that folds into a square, Bloomberg reported Tuesday....

A new application may be in the works that allows Instagram users to share real-time information with their closest friends Called "Threads," the app allows users to set up automatic sharing with their closest Instagram buddies of such information as location, movement and battery life, as well as text, video and photo messages generated using Inst...