Author: Carter

Elyse Betters Picaro/ZDNETStay connected with ZDNET: Save us as a preferred source on Google.AI labs keep churning out new models at a rapid pace. While these newer models are typically more powerful and efficient than earlier versions, not every release represents a genuine breakthrough — no matter how enthusiastically a company’s marketing team presents it. A model’s true strengths become apparent when placed alongside its competitors: Where do rival models fall short or shine? Which ones offer unique advantages, and which are simply meeting baseline expectations?  Also: How we evaluate AI models at ZDNETOur Model Release Tracker is designed to help you…

# Introduction Language models continue to reshape how developers and machine learning practitioners build applications. The emergence of powerful yet compact small language models adds an exciting dimension to this landscape. By avoiding third-party APIs, running models locally ensures complete data privacy, removes per-token API fees, and allows for offline functionality. Tools like Ollama have become a go-to solution for local inference thanks to its lightweight Go-based engine, straightforward CLI, and efficient Docker-like model management system. Yet, simply downloading a model and using its default settings is seldom the best approach. Default configurations are designed for a general audience, often…

The Ethereum Foundation — the nonprofit widely recognized as Ethereum’s nearest equivalent to a central governing body — is confronting fresh scrutiny about its trajectory following a string of prominent exits and escalating criticism from across the cryptocurrency sector.In recent weeks, detractors have charged the foundation with growing insular, sluggish, and out of step with the fiercely competitive dynamics of today’s blockchain landscape, reviving a longstanding debate over whether the EF continues to fulfill a meaningful purpose within Ethereum’s expanding ecosystem, or whether the network has effectively outgrown the entity that played a pivotal role in its creation.”The EF has…

Receive an overwhelming number of security alerts daily but still find it hard to tell routine background activity from genuine threats to your clients? Tool sprawl is a major culprit. Scattered, disconnected security tools lead to repeated alerts, missed context, and gaps in coverage. Rather than getting clearer insights, MSPs end up manually stitching together clues from various dashboards to decipher a client’s security situation. This issue extends beyond security—it’s a business challenge for MSPs aiming to scale, retain clients, and outrun rivals. This highlights why discussions around all-in-one security tools like SIEM are more vital than ever. Most MSP…

Today, we’re unveiling the latest version of AWS Resilience Hub — a major upgrade that introduces an entirely new application modeling approach, automated dependency discovery, generative AI-driven failure analysis, flexible modular resilience policies, and enterprise-wide reporting capabilities. For organizations managing hundreds of applications, maintaining high availability is a persistent concern, but there’s typically no uniform way to define resilience targets, track improvement, or verify compliance across the entire portfolio. Different teams often follow different standards, rely on different tools, and face difficulties communicating whether their applications truly meet expectations. The latest version of AWS Resilience Hub addresses this problem by…

Written by Marc Kavinsky, Senior Editor at IoT Business News.Nordic Semiconductor has rolled out AI-driven development tools aimed at assisting wireless IoT products starting from the earliest stages of testing all the way to fixing issues in deployed fleets. What sets this apart is the integration of embedded development with data from active devices, moving beyond simple AI-based code creation.For teams working on embedded IoT, the tough challenges seldom conclude when the software is written. Setting up hardware boards, updating software kits, transitioning to manufacturing, and fixing problems after launch frequently require separate tools, different groups, and scattered information. This…

Hirebotics’ Beacon is a cloud-based automation platform that lets fabricators teach, run, and monitor welding, cutting, and painting cobots without programming. | Source: Hirebotics We’ve been covering collaborative robots — commonly known as cobots — for over ten years, but their adoption in real-world applications has never been higher. Cobots now make up 18% of all robot units sold in North America, according to the latest report from the Association for Advancing Automation (A3). About 90% of all cobot orders come from industries outside of automotive, including food and consumer goods, semiconductors and electronics, and life sciences. The metal fabrication,…

Google Pay is updating its entire payment system in preparation for a rising number of transactions made by AI agents.The newest changes include the Universal Commerce Protocol and a new server framework making Google Pay a central hub for purchases made by AI, not people.AI agents can’t use the checkout pages made for humans. Google is swapping visual, step-by-step checkout pages with a machine-friendly, API-based system.There are several new elements in Google Pay:The Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP): This fresh protocol sets the rules for AI agents talking to payment and merchant systems. It creates a standard method for placing orders,…

[Submitted on 29 Jul 2024 (v1), last revised 27 May 2026 (this version, v2)] Authors:Tom Gunter, Zirui Wang, Chong Wang, Ruoming Pang, Andy Narayanan, Aonan Zhang, Bowen Zhang, Chen Chen, Chung-Cheng Chiu, David Qiu, Deepak Gopinath, Dian Ang Yap, Dong Yin, Feng Nan, Floris Weers, Guoli Yin, Haoshuo Huang, Jianyu Wang, Jiarui Lu, John Peebles, Ke Ye, Mark Lee, Nan Du, Qibin Chen, Quentin Keunebroek, Sam Wiseman, Syd Evans, Tao Lei, Vivek Rathod, Xiang Kong, Xianzhi Du, Yanghao Li, Yongqiang Wang, Yuan Gao, Zaid Ahmed, Zhaoyang Xu, Zhiyun Lu, Al Rashid, Albin Madappally Jose, Alec Doane, Alfredo Bencomo, Allison Vanderby,…

By June 2026, an increasing number of altcoins are approaching their all-time high levels, even as market conditions remain uncertain. Three specific cryptocurrencies are now within close range of new record highs. The first has a significant token unlock scheduled for June 6. The second already entered price discovery territory earlier this week before reversing slightly. The final one is finalizing a classic cup formation. For each token, the outcome depends on breaking through one critical level. Stable (STABLE) After consolidating since May 25, STABLE is currently trading at $0.0376. This token introduced its mainnet in December 2025 as a…