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In 2 years, half of all service calls will be resolved by AI - survey

PeopleImages/iStock/Getty Images Plus via Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways AI agents are boosting efficiency, cutting costs, and improving customer satisfaction. By 2027, 50% of service cases are expected to be resolved by AI. 4 out of 5 service leaders say AI agent investment is essential to meet business demands. Seventy-nine percent of service leaders say investment in AI agents is essential to meet business demands, according to

Disney and Webtoon’s Partnership Is Leading to a Massive New Comics App

Last month, Webtoon announced a major new deal with Disney to bring a litany of original licensed stories and past comics from across Marvel’s library to the scrolling format that has made Webtoon a significant force in the comics space. Today, however, the two companies confirmed that those plans are actually much, much bigger. Today Webtoon Entertainment confirmed that Disney would be acquiring a 2% equity interest in the company as part of a non-binding term sheet that will also see the two

Android will soon be able to theme every app icon, and Google Play won’t let developers opt out

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority TL;DR Google is making support for its Themed Icons feature mandatory by automatically generating themed icons for apps that don’t already provide one. This change addresses inconsistent home screens, as many developers currently opt out of providing a themed icon for branding or design reasons. To enforce this, Google updated its Play Store policy today, requiring developers to legally grant users the right to modify their app icon’s color. App icons rarel

MagSafe Monday: Pelican’s MagSafe Wallet is rugged and perfect for fall hikes and everyday carry

As the weather cools down and fall hiking season ramps up, I always think about what gear makes sense to carry. A MagSafe wallet is one of those things that feels like it should be as versatile as your iPhone itself. The Pelican MagSafe Wallet & Card Holder is a perfect option when you want something rugged that can handle the outdoors but still works as an EDC. Some of my favorite gear eufyCam 2C Upgrade your home security with wireless cameras that includes HomeKit compatibility. MagSafe Mon

Apple Music import tool now available worldwide, with a few exceptions

Following a limited launch late last month, Apple has now officially rolled out its Apple Music import tool worldwide, making it easier for users who want to switch from Spotify and other music platforms. Here is how it works, and where it is (and isn’t) available. Apple began testing its Apple Music importing tool back in February, and following a limited release to users in Australia and New Zealand in May, it began rolling it out more widely last month to users in Brazil, Canada, France, Ger

When Your Father Is a Magician, What Do You Believe?

When Your Father Is a Magician, What Do You Believe? A childhood spent under the spell of sleight-of-hand taught me skepticism, curiosity, and the habit of looking beneath appearances. By: Richard Cytowic A↑ A↓ Off Bright Dark Blues Gray BeeLine Reader uses subtle color gradients to help you read more efficiently. My earliest lessons in observation came not from a laboratory but in the living room, with my father in his tuxedo and top hat. To everyone else, he was “Big Ed,” a larger-tha

Hot deal: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 drops to new record-low price!

Ryan Haines / Android Authority Samsung got ready for the battle against the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold by significantly reducing the price of its Galaxy Z Fold 7. The $1699.99 discounted price is exciting, but today, the price has dropped even further, down to $1,649.99. This is a new record-low price, so the phone is cheaper than ever today. Buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 for just $1,649.99 ($350 off) This offer is available from Samsung. The first $50 will be applied automatically. When you

GuitarPie: Electric Guitar Fretboard Pie Menus

TVCG 2023 Tiffany Luong, Yi Fei Cheng, Max Moebus, Andreas Fender, Christian Holz Virtual Reality (VR) systems have traditionally required users to operate the user interface with controllers in mid-air. More recent VR systems, however, integrate cameras to track the headset's position inside the environment as well as the user's hands when possible. This allows users to directly interact with virtual content in mid-air just by reaching out, thus discarding the need for hand-held physical contr

Internet Archive’s big battle with music publishers ends in settlement

A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit where music publishers sued the Internet Archive over the Great 78 Project, an effort to preserve early music recordings that only exist on brittle shellac records. No details of the settlement have so far been released, but a court filing on Monday confirmed that the Internet Archive and UMG Recordings, Capitol Records, Sony Music Entertainment, and other record labels "have settled this matter." More details may come in the next 45 days, when parties

New iOS 26 icons: Here’s how all the new app icons look on your iPhone home screen

As well as a refreshed new look for system components like buttons and tabbars, the Liquid Glass redesign of iOS 26 also extends to app icons. For the first time since iOS 7, Apple has redrawn all of the system apps with new artwork. That means a whole new look is coming to your iPhone home screen when you update. In this post, we share a side-by-side of the iOS 26 app icon and its iOS 18 counterpart, so you can decide for yourself how much of a step forward the new visual style represents. Th

Topics: app apple icons ios new

Calif. construction worker unofficially broke a fabled world record

It was a muggy July day in Santa Cruz and life could not have been more mundane for Alessandro “Alo” Slebir. The 24-year-old was pounding wooden concrete forms into a missing section of sidewalk. Cars raced by on a suburban highway as a neighbor walked over, looked at Slebir and asked, “Should I move my car?” “Hey, no worries, you’re fine! You’re not in the way,” Slebir said, in his characteristically friendly demeanor before returning to his hammer. You wouldn’t know it from the work boots or

FinWise insider breach impacts 689K American First Finance customers

FinWise Bank is warning on behalf of corporate customers that it suffered a data breach after a former employee accessed sensitive files after the end of their employment. "On May 31, 2024, FinWise experienced a data security incident involving a former employee who accessed FinWise data after the end of their employment," reads a data breach notification sent by FinWise on behalf of American First Finance (AFF). American First Finance (AFF) is a company that offers consumer financing products

Ice Cube Speaks Out on Why His ‘War of the Worlds’ Was So Weird

Amazon Prime’s War of the Worlds arrived without fanfare on the streamer this summer—until viewers discovered it and realized how delightfully scorn-worthy it was. Whether it was the big hero moment given to an Amazon delivery drone, or the sheer oddness of seeing H.G. Wells’ dynamic sci-fi epic acted out entirely on computer screens, it attracted the wrong kind of attention while offering a reminder of how fun it can be to witness a creative misfire set free on one of the biggest platforms arou

Topics: amazon cube ice movie war

The Animated Origins of ‘Trick ‘r Treat’ Will Hit Theaters This Spooky Season in a New 4K Remaster

After finally hitting the big screen for everyone for the first time a few years ago, Trick r’ Treat will be back in theaters October 14 and 16. According to a press release from Fathom Entertainment, the horror flick will get a 4K restoration and a little bonus in the form of a 4K restoration for director Mike Dougherty’s Season’s Greetings short. The 1996 video is an origin for the final film and will be part of a look back by Dougherty through several Halloween-specific memories that led to

Microsoft’s Office apps now have free Copilot Chat features

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Microsoft is adding the free Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and agents to Office apps for all Microsoft 365 business users today. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote are all being updated with a Copilot Chat sidebar that will help draft documents, analyze spreadsheets, and more withou

Windows 11 lets you run a network speed test right from the taskbar now - how to try it

Microsoft Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Windows 11 is testing a network speed test that you run from the taskbar. The speed test icon takes you to the Bing website. For now, you need a Windows 11 Insider build to use the feature. Running a network speed test is a helpful way to determine if you're getting the speed promised by your internet provider. Normally, you have to trigger such a test from a third-party web page like Ookla's Speedest or

Microsoft to force install the Microsoft 365 Copilot app in October

Next month, Microsoft will begin automatically installing the Microsoft 365 Copilot app on Windows devices that have the Microsoft 365 desktop client apps. The Microsoft 365 Copilot app integrates the AI-powered Copilot assistant with Microsoft 365 suite apps, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as other features like Notebooks and AI agents. While the newly installed app will be added to the Windows Start Menu and enabled by default, IT administrators responsible for managing Micro

Get into the cockpit as new crop of “Top Gun” pilots get their wings

It's constant corrections that you're doing. It is very much an eye scan. You have to be looking at certain things. Where is your lead indicator coming from? If you wait for the airspeed to fall off, it's probably a little bit too late to tell you that you're underpowered. You need to look for some of the other cues that you have available to you. That's why there's so many different sensors and systems and numbers. We're teaching them not to look at one number, but to look at a handful of numbe

Hundreds of Google AI Workers Were Fired Amid Fight Over Working Conditions

More than 200 contractors who worked on evaluating and improving Google’s AI products have been laid off without warning in at least two rounds of layoffs last month. The move comes amid an ongoing fight over pay and working conditions, according to workers who spoke to WIRED. In the past few years, Google has outsourced its AI rating work—which includes evaluating, editing, or rewriting the Gemini chatbot’s response to make it sound more human and “intelligent”—to thousands of contractors empl

Scientists Tested What's Really in "Psilocybin" Chocolate and Found Something Alarming

Image by Getty / Futurism Mental Health If you're a coward and don't want to munch on awful-tasting shrooms to go on a psychedelic odyssey, you can buy delicious edibles infused with their active ingredient instead: psilocybin. But maybe you shouldn't, because new research suggests that you might be getting ripped off taking these — or even putting your health at risk. After testing 12 edible "magic mushroom" products sold in Portland, Oregon, Richard van Breemen and his colleagues found abso

Microsoft to force install the Microsoft 365 Copilot app in October

Next month, Microsoft will begin automatically installing the Microsoft 365 Copilot app on Windows devices that have the Microsoft 365 desktop client apps. The Microsoft 365 Copilot app integrates the AI-powered Copilot assistant with Microsoft 365 suite apps, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as other features like Notebooks and AI agents. While the newly installed app will be added to the Windows Start Menu and enabled by default, IT administrators responsible for managing Micro

Unplugging these 7 household devices saved me $200 a year in electricity

Adela Stefan / 500px / Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Unplugging idle devices can save on power bills. TVs, consoles, coffee makers, and mini-fridges are top culprits. Small daily changes help cut energy waste and lower electricity costs. With costs climbing across the US, energy prices stand out -made worse by record-breaking summer heat and recent waves scorching multiple states. Having endured several of them this season, I'm alw

The Obsolescence of Political Definitions (1991)

The Obsolescence of Political Definitions V. E. McHale Defense I am not qualified to translate German, much less technical philosophical texts. However, Kondylis’ insights are criminally underappreciated and of interest to many today as they grapple with the dissolution of liberalism that Kondylis predicted in 1991–1992. Hopefully, his work will be translated with due care as its centrality is appreciated. The below is from Planetarische Politik Nach Dem Kalten Krieg, pp. 91–104 The Obsoles

Amazon Set to Unveil Upgraded Home and Entertainment Hardware Later This Month

Amazon is set to announce a slew of refreshed products at its annual fall hardware event, which the company announced Monday will take place Sept. 30 in New York City. Amazon has a wide-ranging product portfolio including Kindles, Echo smart speakers, Ring security devices and Fire TV products -- any of which could be candidates for upgrades. Back in February, Amazon upgraded its smart assistant Alexa with new conversational skills enabled by AI. Supercharged Alexa will be front and center in

The Obsolescence of Political Definitions

The Obsolescence of Political Definitions V. E. McHale Defense I am not qualified to translate German, much less technical philosophical texts. However, Kondylis’ insights are criminally underappreciated and of interest to many today as they grapple with the dissolution of liberalism that Kondylis predicted in 1991–1992. Hopefully, his work will be translated with due care as its centrality is appreciated. The below is from Planetarische Politik Nach Dem Kalten Krieg, pp. 91–104 The Obsoles