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Tech News and Commentary
Dave and Chris discuss Walmart and Google TV powered televisions, Google suing Autodesk over alleged infringement of trademarks for AI-enabled software for media production, Sora AI’s shutdown, AI;DR , and more.
“News Pick of the Week” with Ralph Bond
Fighting weeds is a very costly and never-ending battle for the world’s farmers. For one example, farmers in California spend nearly a billion dollars a year to eradicate weeds from their crop fields. Our science and technology news reporter Ralph Bond tells us there’s now an AI-based technology that offers farmers a potent new weapon to conquer weeds.
Read more here.
Bob in Thornton, Colorado asked: “I’m looking for a new modem, and I’m really concerned about all the security issues with some of the foreign modems. Can you recommend or tell me what modems are safe to hook up to my home internet system? The second part of this is Wi-Fi 7 or now the new Wi-Fi 8 – Will I notice any difference if I upgrade my routers to those particular configurations?”
Bob, in terms of WiFi 7 and WiFi 8, WiFi 8 does not increase the speed, instead it focuses on improving reliability, so no youre not going to notice any kind of performance difference and you will probably be happy with WiFi7 if you choose to go that route.
In terms of the new government policy around foreign-made devices, if you can wait and not buy anything for now you may be better off. The list of devices that already qualify will be small at this point since most devices are foreign-made.
Anything that is on the market can still be bought, but new devices will either need to be made domestically or will need to be certified. Since these are early days, its likely that any foreign-made devices that need to be certified will still have to go through the process and youll find fewer and likely more expensive options in the market right now than you will in a few months.
If youre not in a hurry, you should sit back and let this develop a little more, youll probably end up with a better device that youll be happier with once that dust settles and you know what your real choices are rather than just the ones that already finished the paperwork.
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