By Ana-Maria Stanciuc For years, online shopping followed a fixed path. Search bar, product grid, filters, checkout. The interface barely changed, even as everything else on the internet did. That path is now breaking. Monday 12 January, 2026, JD Sports Fashion plc (JD Group) became one of the first large retailers to let US customers search and buy sneakers directly inside AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini. No website visit. No app. Just a conversation that ends with a payment. Basically, a customer can chat with an AI bot, say “add these shoes to my cart,” and complete a purchase in…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Pranob Mehrotra Anthropic’s latest tool lets Claude access local files to handle mundane tasks on your behalf.
The post Anthropic’s Cowork turns Claude into your hands-on digital teammate appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

The Guardian has published a number of articles highlighting the risks of asking health-related questions to chatbots or other AI tools.

For example, Google’s AI overviews provide directly dangerous answers about liver values, which can lead people with serious liver diseases to believe that they are healthy.

Following the review, Google has decided to remove some of the criticized AI summaries. However, there is still a risk that they will appear if the user changes to a different wording.

“There are still far too many examples where Google’s AI summaries give people incorrect health information,” said Sue Farrington of the Patient Information Forum in a comment to The Guardian.

This article originally appeared on Computer Sweden.

Related reading:

Common health questions to ask Chat GPT

AI chatbots ditch medical disclaimers, putting users at risk, study warns

Will AI help doctors decide whether you live or die?

GenAI is already transforming the healthcare industry

Source:: Computer World

Google has introduced several new tools and standards to help retailers with AI-driven commerce, where digital agents handle purchases for users.

The biggest news is the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). An open standard that enables different AI agents, payment systems, and stores to collaborate through a common language.

The protocol has been developed in collaboration with players such as Shopify, Etsy, Walmart, and Target, and is supported by over 20 other companies, including Mastercard, Visa, and Zalando.

UCP will first be used for direct checkout features in Google’s AI mode in Search and in the Gemini app, where users can complete purchases with Google Pay or PayPal without leaving Google’s interface.

This article originally appeared on Computer Sweden.

More Google news:

Google may soon let users change their Gmail address

Google is working on Nano Banana 2 Flash to generate images at lightning speed

Google’s new AI tool Disco can turn tabs into apps

Source:: Computer World

By Alexandru Stan For the past few years, artificial intelligence has been discussed almost exclusively in terms of models. Bigger models, faster models, smarter models. More recently, the focus shifted to agents, systems capable of planning, reasoning, and acting autonomously. Yet the real leap in usefulness does not happen at the model level, nor at the agent level. It happens one layer above, at the level of Skills. If models represent intelligence and agents represent coordination, Skills are where AI becomes operational and valuable in the real world. A Skill is not a prompt. It is not a chatbot. And not an agent.…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Pranob Mehrotra Anthropic’s new Claude for Healthcare will help you understand health and fitness metrics from wearables like the Apple Watch.
The post Anthropic’s Claude will soon help you make sense of your Apple Watch health data appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Deepti Pathak OpenAI has announced ChatGPT Health, a new feature inside ChatGPT that focuses only on health and…
The post What Is ChatGPT Health & How To Join the Waitlist? appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

By Moinak Pal A team of researchers in China has just pulled the curtain back on a new sodium-sulfur battery design that could fundamentally change the math on energy storage. By leaning into the very chemistry that has historically made sulfur a headache for engineers, they have managed to build a cell that is incredibly cheap to make […] The post Chinese researchers develop high-voltage sodium–sulfur battery that could challenge lithium batteries appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Nadeem Sarwar The new Conversation focus feature on Meta smart glasses amplifies voices you’re facing and filters environmental noise. You can activate it with a voice command, but it works best within 1.8 meters.
The post Meta’s smart glasses can now filter human voice in chaotic spaces appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Viviane Mendes The term Artificial Intelligence (AI) is well known, often evoking futuristic movies like Robocop, Terminator and The Matrix. Yet what many don’t realize is that AI has been part of our lives for decades. When you finish watching a movie on a streaming platform and instantly see recommendations for similar content, that’s AI. When you’re shopping online and an entire page of suggested products appears, that’s AI. Even the digital ads you see are powered by machine-learning algorithms designed to optimize engagement, clicks, and conversions. Companies have relied on AI rule-based automation, routines, and machine-learning algorithms for years to power their systems and business processes. So when…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Deepti Pathak OPPO has officially launched the Reno 15 Series in India. The new series spotlights AI camera…
The post OPPO Reno 15 Series Launched In India: Specs, Features & Pricing appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

Security company Trend Micro has been compelled to issue a patch for its own Apex Central software management tool after vulnerability management platform Tenable identified several security flaws.

The bugs affect all versions of Apex Central (on-premises) earlier than build 7190.

In a security bulletin, Trend Micro said of the most severe flaw, rated 9.8, “A LoadLibraryEX vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex Central could allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to load an attacker-controlled DLL into a key executable, leading to execution of attacker-supplied code under the context of SYSTEM on affected installations.”

Erik Avakian, technical counselor at Info-Tech Research Group, explained why this is an issue. “There’s a critical flaw in the management server in how one of its background services handles certain types of network messages that allows an attacker on the network to run their own code without logging in. That service will accept a message from anyone on the network and then can blindly load a Windows DLL using a standard Windows function. The problem is that the software doesn’t properly validate where that DLL is coming from.”

When this happens, he said, the affected software will run the attacker’s code, probably at the highest level of privilege. So, in these circumstances, the attacker can point Apex Central to a DLL that they control, for example, on a remote network. That could then move deeper into the corporate software environment. “In short, if this server is exposed and unpatched, it can be taken over remotely,” said Avakian.

What makes the attack particularly insidious, he said, is that attackers don’t need to log into the server or copy files onto it. “They simply can host a malicious DLL somewhere they control and instruct Apex Central to load it. Because of the flaw, Apex Central reaches out and loads the DLL itself, effectively pulling in and executing the attacker’s code without checking who asked.”

He added that the SYSTEM context was important because that means that the vulnerable service is running with maximum privileges. Thus, it would enable the attacker to carry out a wide range of activities, including modifying files, installing or disabling software, creating user accounts, or using the server as a launch point to attack other systems.

The vulnerability does not seem to be the result of recent modifications to the software. Avakian said. “Everything in the published materials indicates this flaw may have been present for some time. The advisory affects all builds below the fixed version, and there’s no indication that it was introduced recently. On the surface, this appears to be a long-standing issue that was only recently discovered and addressed.”

Neither Trend Micro nor Tenable responded to requests for comment by publication time.

In addition to this critical vulnerability, Trend Micro’s bulletin also highlighted two other high severity issues, neither of which requires authentication to be exploited. The first is a message unchecked NULL return value vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex Central that could allow a remote attacker to create a denial-of-service condition on affected installations. The second is a message out-of-bounds read vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex Central that could also allow a remote attacker to create a denial-of-service condition. All three flaws are patched in build 7190.

Trend Micro’s advisory did point out that to exploit vulnerabilities like these, the attacker would generally need access to a vulnerable machine.

However, the company advised customers to review remote access to critical systems to ensure policies and perimeter security are up-to-date. It also warned them to update to the latest builds as soon as possible.

This article originally appeared on CSOonline.

Source:: Computer World

By Manisha Priyadarshini A new artificial skin unveiled at CES 2026 could give robots human-like sensitivity, helping machines better understand pressure and texture to handle objects, adapt their grip, and interact with people and environments more naturally.
The post This artificial skin could give ‘human-like’ sensitivity to robots appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Manisha Priyadarshini CES 2026 introduced a luxury handbag with a built-in OLED screen that lets you change its look on demand, blending high-end craftsmanship with digital customization to create a fashion accessory that adapts to your outfit.
The post This luxury handbag uses an OLED screen to match your outfit appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Shikhar Mehrotra A new generation of 3D-printed solar cells could let buildings generate power through colorful, semi-transparent windows instead of bulky rooftop panels.
The post New tech promises to make colorful solar cells to jazz up your house appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

Microsoft has added a new shopping feature to Copilot, according to Engadget. The feature, called Copilot Checkout, allows users to complete purchases without leaving the AI assistant.

Purchases must be made with one of Microsoft’s partners, including Shopify, Stripe, and Etsy, with payments made from a PayPal account.

Initially, Copilot Checkout will only be available in the US, though the feature is likely to roll out in additional countries eventually.

Similar features already exist in other generative AI (genAI) tools, including ChatGPT.

Source:: Computer World

Could it be that former Apple designer Alan Dye’s swan song, Liquid Glass, has failed? Statcounter data seems to show that iOS 26 adoption lags that of previous operating system releases at this stage of the release cycle. It indicates that around 64.6% of users are still running iOS 18 — with just 16.3% on iOS 26.

This data suggests adoption to be far, far slower than we’ve seen before. In January 2025, more than 60% of users were already running some version of iOS 18; iOS 17 had surpassed 50% at the same point a year earlier. There’s such a huge divergence between the claimed iOS 26 adoption data and historical patterns, it’s hard to accept the figures.

Update: As it turns out, the Statcounter data is off — likely because WebKit no longer shares current OS version data in part of the user agent string Statcounter might be surfacing for this information.

So, is the data accurate? 

Anecdotally, given the record iPhone 17 sales we’ve seen since the new iFamily launched, the latest claims feel somewhat counter-intuitive. As an alternative take, TelemetryDeck data sees 60% iOS 26 adoption, far more in keeping with Apple’s historical adoption patterns.

Statcounter is a reputable data source, however, which means there is now pressure on Apple to confirm or rebut these claims. The company already gathers its own information on OS adoption, which it publishes infrequently online in a document that hasn’t been refreshed since June 2025. 

True or not, the data might echo some reluctance to embrace the new operating system. While it looks great, Apple’s Liquid Glass UI comes in for criticism, given it improves that sense of spatial hierarchy at the cost of some usability — for example: 

Bookmarks in Safari on iPhone: Now you must squint to find the tiny “Bookmarks” button once you figure out where it hides. 

On the Mac, you have a proliferation of tiny and chaotic Menu bar options that serve no real purpose beyond confusing the eye.  

Such changes could reflect Apple’s desire to prepare the market for a more visionOS-computing paradigm, but critics argue that they get in the way of what already exists, rather than improving it. Advocates will likely point out that the approach boosts usability and accessibility, which is great. But maybe there’s a need for some tweaks? Perhaps those added menu items should be made optional?

Reasons to upgrade

It’s important not to overstate things. It’s perfectly normal for Apple’s customers to display a little resistance to change; we see it each time the company implements any. It’s also a little too early to declare Liquid Glass a dud on the basis of one data set. Apple will already know if the claims are true and can respond.

That means the company will continue working to encourage users to update to the new OS. For example, it is currently working on iOS 26.3, which will introduce an array of new and interesting features and services to the system, including Background Security Improvements (essential to every managed device), battery optimizations, Wi-Fi connectivity fixes and more. In Europe, the operating system will also include a range of regulator-forced changes, while many will benefit from much improved Android/iPhone switching tools.

Will Apple Intelligence change things?

Coming up, Apple’s biggest upgrade inducement is expected this spring, when the company should introduce significant upgrades to Apple Intelligence, including the long-awaited launch of contextual intelligence in Siri. 

While we cannot be certain whether this will come as an upgrade to iOS 26, or be presented as a beta for iOS 27, there can be little doubt that many Apple customers will upgrade their iPhones to explore these new AI services. 

Apple will want to impress them to justify the long wait and missed deadlines after years of being accused of falling behind on AI. That task isn’t’ going to be made any easier if the company is indeed facing reluctance from its customers to upgrade to its new operating systems. But it is fair to point out that Statcounter’s information seems to fall so far short of historical patterns that it could well reflect a change in how the information is curated, rather than any significant blip.

Apple can end this speculation with a small informational update to its developer website. 

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Source:: Computer World

By Omair Khaliq Sultan If you want noise-canceling earbuds but you don’t want to spend “flagship earbud” money, this is one of the better price drops you’ll see. The Nothing Ear (a) wireless earbuds are down to $59.00 (was $109.00), saving you $50 at 46% off. At this price, they’re a great option for commuting, workouts, and everyday listening, […] The post Nothing Ear (a) drop to $59 right now, saving you $50 appeared first on Digital Trends.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Cezar Nitulescu This is one of the most concerning questions for sales teams at the beginning of 2026: are tech giants killing cold outreach? The answer is that we do not know yet, but here is a perspective from someone working in sales. Apple and Google have recently introduced two features that show a clear tendency toward the decline of cold outreach. Apple’s new feature, “Ask Reason for Calling,” is a game changer. It effectively turns cold calling into another form of messaging. No more dynamism, no element of surprise, no offhandedness. Human touch is at the core of sales, but how…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Deepti Pathak At CES 2026, Noise announced the launch of Master Buds 2, its newest addition to the…
The post Noise Master Buds 2 Unveiled at CES 2026 With Sound by Bose appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes