Month: February 2023

Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Getty Images)

Is a ChatGPT-style search engine a good idea? The stock market certainly seems to think so, with it erasing $100 billion from Google's market value after the company's poor showing at its recent AI search event. Actually turning a chatbot into a viable business is going to be a challenge, though. Besides that fact, Google has had a chat search interface for seven years now—the Google Assistant—and the world's biggest advertising company has been unable to monetize it. And a new report from Reuters points out another monetary problem with generating a chat session for every search: That's going to cost a lot more to run compared to a traditional search engine.

Today Google search works by building a huge index of the web, and when you search for something, those index entries gets scanned and ranked and categorized, with the most relevant entries showing up in your search results. Google's results page actually tells you how long all of this takes when you search for something, and it's usually less than a second. A ChatGPT-style search engine would involve firing up a huge neutral network modeled on the human brain every time you run a search, generating a bunch of text and probably also querying that big search index for factual information. The back-and-forth nature of ChatGPT also means you'll probably be interacting with it for a lot longer than a fraction of a second.

All that extra processing is going to cost a lot more money. After speaking to Alphabet Chairman John Hennessy (Alphabet is Google's parent company) and several analysts, Reuters writes that "an exchange with AI known as a large language model likely costs 10 times more than a standard keyword search" and that it could represent "several billion dollars of extra costs."

Enlarge / The original round version of the SpaceX Starlink satellite dish mounted on the roof of a rural home. (credit: Getty Images | The Bold Bureau)

Starlink notified users of new monthly prices in which people who live in "limited-capacity" areas will pay $30 more per month than users in "excess-capacity" areas. The changes consist of a price hike for many users and a decrease for others.

The original price of Starlink was $99 a month, but SpaceX has been charging all residential users $110 since a price hike imposed in March 2022. Emails sent yesterday and today notified residential users of a "$10 increase in areas with limited capacity" for a new price of $120 a month, and a "$20 decrease in areas with excess capacity" for a new price of $90 a month.

The email to users in limited capacity areas said, "As a current customer in an area with limited capacity, your monthly service price will increase to $120/month beginning April 24, 2023. For new customers in your area, the price increase is effective immediately. If you do not wish to continue service, you can cancel at any time on your account page."

(credit: August)

Whether you're just starting to smarten up your home or looking to add new Internet of Things (IoT) pieces to your existing smart home, Dealmaster is here with some terrific deals on everything from routers and doorbells to door locks and everything in between. If you're new to the smart home game, adding a video doorbell or smart lock, like Eufy's 2K Dual Camera doorbell or the August 4th Gen Smart Lock, will help you keep tabs on what's happening at your front door and give your family some extra security without requiring you to subscribe to a monitoring or alarm service. These are two of the best smart home investments I've made.

For more advanced users, adding smart lighting and smart switches can take your smart home to the next level, letting you turn off the lights from your couch, change to mood lighting when you're zoning out in front of the television, or pretend like someone's home with an automated lighting schedule when you're on vacation. A smart robot vacuum or combo vacuum and mopper will help keep things tidy, while a new router will give you better Wi-Fi coverage for all your devices. Whatever your needs are, we have you covered with the curated deals below.

Routers

Linksys' mesh router with Wi-Fi 6E. (credit: Linksys)

• Linksys MX8000 Velop Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Router (2-pack) for $249 (was $350) at Amazon
• Amazon eero 6 Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Router (3-pack) for $180 (was $199) at Amazon
• Amazon eero Pro 6 Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Router (2-pack) for $240 ($was $300) at Amazon
• TP-Link Deco X55 Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Router (3-pack) for $185 (was $280) at Amazon

Cameras, doorbells, smart locks, and security system

Your local police might like to interest you in this product. (credit: Amazon)

• Ring Video Doorbell 3 camera for $140 (was $199) at Amazon
• Ring Alarm 7-piece security system (refurbished) kit for $135 (was $200) at Amazon
• eufy 2K Video Doorbell with Hub for $135 (was $200) at Amazon
• eufy 2K Video Doorbell with Dual Cameras for Package Detection for $140 (was $200) at Amazon
• eufyCam 2 Pro (4-pack with hub) for $480 (was $600) at Amazon
• August 4th-Gen Wi-Fi Lock for $199 (was $230) at Amazon
• Kwikset Halo Wi-Fi Deadbolt for $227 (was $249) at Amazon

Lights and switches

LightStrips, red light, minimum intensity. (credit: Lee Hutchinson)

• Kasa Smart Light Switch (3-pack) for $35 after additional $5 coupon (was $45) at Amazon
• Lutron Caseta Deluxe Smart Dimmer Switch (2-pack with hub) for $136 (was $256) at Amazon
• Kasa Smart Color Light Bulbs (2pack) for $19 after additional $4 coupon (was $25) at Amazon
• Kasa Smart Color LED Light Strip for $19 (was $25) at Amazon
• Govee TV Light Bar for $59.50 after additional 15% coupon (was $70) at Amazon
• Smart Candelabra LED Bulbs (4-pack) for $29 after additional 12% coupon (was $43) at Amazon
• mujoy Smart Editon Filament Bulbs (4-pack) for $28 after additional 30% coupon (was $40) at Amazon

Robot vacuums

iRobot's Roomba j7+ robot vacuum. (credit: iRobot)

• Roborock Q7 Max+ Smart Vacuum for $650 (was $870) at Amazon
• Roborock Q7+ Self-Emptying Vacuum for $550 after $250 coupon (was $800) at Amazon
• iRobot Roomba 692 for $189 (was $300) at Amazon
• iRobot Roomba i4+ EVO (4552) for $419 (was $650) at Amazon
• iRobot Brava jet m6 (6012) Robot Mop for $314 (was $500) at Amazon
• Roborock S7 Robot Vacuum and Mop for $430 (was $650) at Amazon

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | kontekbrothers)

The US Supreme Court yesterday denied a petition to review a case involving the National Security Agency's surveillance of Internet traffic, leaving in place a lower-court ruling that invoked "state secrets privilege" to dismiss the lawsuit.

The NSA surveillance was challenged by the Wikimedia Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. The Supreme Court's denial of Wikimedia's petition for review (formally known as "certoriari") was confirmed in a long list of decisions released yesterday.

"As a final development in our case, Wikimedia Foundation v. NSA, the United States Supreme Court denied our petition asking for a review of the National Security Agency's (NSA) mass surveillance of Internet communications and activities. This denial represents a big hit to both privacy and freedom of expression," the Wikimedia Foundation said yesterday.

Enlarge / AliveCor and Apple's battle started with the Apple Watch Series 4. (credit: Valentina Palladino)

Apple will continue fighting California-based AliveCor over the startup's electrocardiogram (ECG) technology. On Tuesday, AliveCor announced that US President Joe Biden had decided not to veto the US International Trade Commission's (ITC) December ruling that could lead to an import ban on the Apple Watch Series 4 and later.

It's unlikely that Apple's watch will be totally banned. But as The Verge pointed out, AliveCor could walk away with a licensing agreement from Apple to use its patents in the Apple Watch.

According to AliveCor, which has around 150 workers to Apple's 80,000, it shared its ECG sensor technology with Apple in 2015 while building a business relationship, The Hill reported earlier this month. In 2018, Apple released the Apple Watch Series 4, which not only introduced an ECG sensor to the smartwatch but also blocked outside heart monitoring apps. AliveCor said this forced it in 2019 to stop selling KardiaBand, an ECG band that the company announced for Apple Watches in 2016.