If you want to smooth over irate clients and offer more efficient customer services, consider conversational bots instead of a roomful of human company reps. Researchers see consumers' comfort levels with a variety of chatbot technologies softening towards customer service, scheduling, banking, and therapy.

The last thing George Kramb expected from years of walking surgeons through actual operations using medical machinery was to step into a role that helped guide patients worldwide through their own medical journeys. Kramb and his partner Patrick Frank are now listed on the "2021 Forbes 30 Under 30" list in recognition of their status as rising stars in the business world.

Smart devices, the cornerstone of the home of the future, can't seem to capture the imagination or open the wallets of a large number of Americans. Some 46.7 million broadband households aren't ready to buy a smart home device, according to a survey released this week by Parks Associates, a market research and consulting company specializing in consumer technology products.

Maintaining and increasing research and development spending in the COVID-19 era is critical for high technology vendors to deliver new solutions and services, continue to innovate, and position their businesses to rebound from the negative effects of the global pandemic. Analysts, financial advisors, and investors concur that, wherever possible, vendors should continue to aggressively invest in R&D.

This year, due to COVID restrictions, CES is all digital. Let's talk about what you'll see at the show, and what might make an event like CES work better virtually. I used to teach a class on how to put together tech events, and I'm pulling out my old notes for this. We'll close with the product of the week, a monitor launched by Dell that is focused on video conferencing in the new normal.

An international group of scientists is demanding scientific journals demand more transparency from researchers in computer-related areas when accepting their reports for publication. They also want computational researchers to include information about their code, models and computational environments in published reports.

E-commerce is now at an all-time high, with global sales figures projected to reach $4.1 trillion in 2020, almost doubling since 2015. While the spectrum of global customers has broadened, so has the scope of competition. As the need for customer support grows, there is a golden opportunity for brands to capitalize on the changes fueled by the pandemic and emerge from the crisis with a newfound customer base.

For the majority of consumers, cutting the cable TV cord is a mixed bag for a variety of reasons. The big misconception is that you will drastically lower your cable bill. That is not the case unless you can also pickup free TV reception from an antenna. Otherwise, you will need to use a video streaming service to help lower your costs.

While the pandemic has been painful, it has caused things to accelerate in several areas impressively rapidly. Two of those areas are robotics and artificial intelligence, which we'll see adapted broadly this decade with a considerable bump in 2021. Let's talk about all of that this week, and we'll close with the first product of the week in 2021, the Somnofy AI Sleep Monitor.

Final rules governing unmanned aircraft, commonly known as drones, have been released by the Federal Aviation Administration. The move is expected to open the door for delivery of consumer packages by air. The rules establish minimum standards for safety so drones can fly over populated areas and at night under certain conditions.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is making good on a resolution to strengthen its enforcement of security deficiencies occurring in e-commerce transactions. The agency's recent action involving allegations of improper activities by teleconferencing provider Zoom Video Communications is a notable example.

Since 2014, when Apple first set out to design its own vehicle, the company has engaged in automotive research and development collectively under the name "Project Titan." A report that Apple now is readying its own self-driving car for release in 2024 is being met with a healthy dose of skepticism by some analysts.

TechNewsWorld columnist Rob Enderle looks back at all of the Products of the Week he selected during the year and picks the one that made the most significant impression to crown the Product of the Year. Let's look at the contenders that made the initial cut, and then he'll rank the top four products leading up to the 2020 Product of the Year.

An Illinois consumer says that on Sept. 26 he received a number of text messages on his cellphone from a company named DoNotPay, Inc., attempting to solicit his business. The messages allegedly urged him to sign up for the DoNotPay app, a service chatbot that its maker bills as "The World's First Robot Lawyer."

This piece is a demonstration of one means of setting up file-level encryption which is widely available for Linux desktop users. To offer a similar encryption scheme to as many users as possible, we'll walk through how to use fscrypt to create an encrypted filesystem. While simple, fscrypt offers multiple configuration modes.

The Big Three makers of video gaming hardware have announced a united front to make online gaming safe for all their players. "We can accomplish more when we work toward the same goal, and so we will each continue investing in, evolving, and amplifying our approaches to user safety," stated Dave McCarthy, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Xbox operations.

Sometime in the 2030s PCs and phones will merge, if they hadn't already. In the 2040s people and personal technology will merge as humans and robotics evolve into hybrids of each other. Since we're approaching the end of 2020, let's talk about what's on the way over the next three decades, and build up to what's in store for personal communications technology in 2050.

Clickwrap transaction platforms, which serve to replace electronic signatures, are emerging as a valuable tool to help businesses navigate the increased volume of online transactions. Instead of signing, users click to check a box, or click on a button with a label such as 'I Agree' or 'Accept'. That action authorizes the included consent language.

Americans seem to have little interest in using contact-tracing applications used to identify people who have come into contact with a person infected with COVID-19. Adoption rates in areas using an app based on technology introduced by Google and Apple six months ago are higher, but even in the most successful of those states -- Connecticut -- only about 20 percent of residents have chosen to activate the software.

Qualcomm last week launched its Snapdragon 888 platform which will show up in premium phones next year. This promises to take the high-end of Android smartphones to levels of performance they've never seen before. Let's talk about what is coming to market in Android phones -- and likely iPhones -- next year, because you've got to believe Apple watched this launch and is now furiously working to create similar functions.

Machine learning, which has disrupted and improved so many industries, is just starting to make its way into software testing. Heads are turning, and for good reason: the industry is never going to be the same again. Let's delve into the current state of affairs, and explore how ML techniques are radically changing the software testing industry.

Libra, the digital currency announced by Facebook last year, is getting a new name. Libra will now be Diem. The new name will reenforce the currency project's independence, according to a statement released by the Libra Association, which is also changing its name. From now on it will be the Diem Association.

For years the consumer virtual reality market has failed to fulfill the hype surrounding it, but that's going to change according to Omdia. The market analysis firm has released a report that predicts the value of the virtual reality hardware and software market to reach $10 billion by 2025, up from $3.2 billion in 2020. Standalone headsets appear to be leading the growth curve for VR.

Today is Cyber Monday, which doesn't mean as much this year because the related sales have been going on for much of November as retailers try to bring in every available dollar they can. This week, let's look at some of the best deals or products that stand out as game changers in their segment.

When we decided on a plug-in hybrid, after a lot of research it narrowed down to three with the right balance of performance and efficiency. Those were the Audi Q5 e, the BMW X3 Plug-in Hybrid, and the Volvo XC60 Recharge. Let's walk through what we ended up with, and why, because it wasn't at all what we expected.

The use of smart and connected devices promises to make our lives easier, but it might also give their manufacturers greater control over our lives. Some companies offering smart devices, including Google, Belkin, and Best Buy have killed off their smart device product lines without warning, leaving consumers in the lurch.

A 23-year-old biomedical engineering student is one of two first-place winners in the 2020 James Dyson Award. Her invention aims to help women around the world afford the cost of early testing for breast cancer. Judit Giró Benet captured the $35,000 cash prize for developing The Blue Box, an at-home reusable breast cancer screening device. Her mother's diagnosis of breast cancer inspired Benet to find an affordable and effective screening mechanism.

Amazon is getting into the online pharmacy prescription business in a big way. The e-commerce giant is setting up a new drugstore on its platform, Amazon Pharmacy, that will allow customers to complete a pharmacy transaction on their desktop or through the company's mobile app. Amazon said that filling prescriptions at its pharmacy would be as easy as shopping anywhere else on the platform.

High-performing businesses reach peak commercial performance by reducing friction in customer interactions in the face of a market with increasing complexity. If you look at who's winning, it's the companies that not only embraced digital transformation early, but also made it a core building block of their foundation moving forward. So, what does it take to win today?

Apple pulled the wraps off its first computer models based on its new Apple Silicon chip at an online event aired Tuesday. The Mac Air, Mac Mini and 13-inch MacBook Pro are all being refreshed with the company's new ARM-based M1 chip. The move is the beginning of a transition, expected to take two years, away from Intel chips and to Apple Silicon.