The benefits of instant messaging capabilities on a cell phone are undeniable: wherever you go, all of your IM buddies are just a keystroke away. Can’t hold an extended conversation because you’re working? IM. Have a quick question that’s not worth a phone call? IM. Too loud in the bar to hear anything? IM.
But for all the convenience it offers, the technology also carries a hefty price tag. Adding instant messaging to an existing service plan will add anywhere from $10 to $20 to a monthly bill with popular carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. Multiply that by many months, or in the case of families, many phones, and it really starts to add up.
What’s a cash-strapped teenager to do when Mom and Dad say no to paying for an IM plan? Find an alternative. The South-Carolina-based company Zipit has developed a portable IM platform dubbed the Z2, which uses Wi-Fi and, quite unlike a cell phone, won’t ring up a penny in service fees.
It’s a very simple concept. A full QWERTY keyboard and 2.8-inch LCD screen are packed inside a folding clamshell design somewhat reminiscent of the Gameboy Advance SP. The unit automatically searches for an 802.11b or 802.11g Wi-Fi signal when it’s fired up and attempts to connect to the strongest signal. After it establishes a connection, users are free to log into AOL, Yahoo! and MSN instant messaging networks and chat until heart’s content, with no fees to speak of.
Of course, there are limitations to acknowledge. First, although it can be seen as a replacement for the texting capability of a cell phone, users will never truly be free to roam and chat, since the limited strength of Wi-Fi will keep them forever tethered to hotspots. Second, compared to a cell phone, the Z2 gets a much bulkier 3 x 3.74 inch form factor and weighs 354 grams, about three times as much as most cell phones. Both of these limitations are more easily overlooked if the device is seen more as a single-purpose laptop substitute, in which case neither attribute really counts against it.
The Z2 has a few more tricks up its sleeve, as well. A miniSD slot provides up to 4GB of storage for music and pictures, which can be accessed through the built-in MyTunez and MyPhotoz applications, respectively. The Z2 interface can also be customized with different skins and backgrounds to give it a personal feel.
You won’t find BlackBerry or iPhone users lining up to ditch their phones for the Z2, but that’s not quite the crowd Zipit is shooting for. Kids and teens may be more than happy to get a device of their own to message on instead of sharing the family desktop, and less put off by its limited abilities. At $149, it’s far cheaper than a laptop, and less than a year’s worth of IM charges on a cell phone bill, too. Parents whose kids have been after them for IM service on their cell phones might find the Zipit Z2 to be a happy compromise.
Google has been finding more ways to make Gemini a part of your daily routine, from putting together playlists to ordering groceries through your favorite apps. Now it's expanding those capabilities to more services, with Google Search joining in, too.
The company has announced a new Connected Apps Platform that makes it easier for developers to bring their services to both Gemini and Search. Alongside this, Google is adding new partners to its growing lineup, bringing more of the apps people already use into its AI ecosystem.
In the broad context of AI and its perceived harms, health and medical risks often pop up in the conversation. The warnings even come from frontier AI labs, such as ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which have warned about misusing AI to cook up bioweapons. Security experts have already spotted a few such incidents in the wild, especially with the usage of AI models without any solid guardrails.
Well, it appears that the risks run deeper. As per an analysis appearing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), AI bots are now being deployed to influence public policies governing health risks to citizens. In this instance, an attempt was made using AI bots to thwart regulations that aim to restrict the sale of disposable vapes, all while disguising the manipulation efforts as a response from real humans.
What if checking your drinking water for dangerous chemicals were as simple as plugging a tiny gadget into your smartphone? Researchers in Japan have developed a compact sensor that could make that possible, potentially bringing sophisticated water contamination testing out of expensive laboratories and into people's hands.
Scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have created a portable device capable of detecting extremely low concentrations of PFAS, commonly known as "forever chemicals." The findings were published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics, which demonstrate how an inexpensive sensor and a smartphone could make identifying potentially harmful chemicals in water a lot easier.