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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Kmart shopper's handy find to solve annoying car problem: 'Quality is always good'
We all know using your phone when driving is incredibly dangerous, so dangerous in fact that it's illegal. But, given we spend so much of our lives attached to our phones, it's also very difficult to detach, even on short journeys. There's often a call we need to take or a route we need to check. Understanding our pain, Apple introduced Apple CarPlay back in 2014, and since then, the majority of cars made support it. What is Apple CarPlay, you might ask? Apple CarPlay is a clever bit of tech that allows you to link your phone to your car's dashboard screen. It means you can use various apps and features safely while driving. You can answer the phone hands-free, have Siri read a message out to you or use the maps from your phone. It's genius, but what's not genius is how your phone and the car are linked - via an annoying cable that snakes through the centre console and that you have to remember to clip into your phone before you start driving. Thankfully, a USB-sized dongle to make Apple CarPlay wireless and, of course, everyone's favourite retailer, Kmart, is now selling them. RELATED: Major warning over popular $6 Kmart product: 'Understand the risks' Kmart jumps on popular trend with new $13 homewares range: 'Had to have them' Kmart shoppers go wild over $29 retro item that keeps selling out Kmart shopper uses Kmart CarPlay adapter 'every day' Aneila Brankovic popped into her local Kmart in Bunbury, WA, last week and was thrilled with the $49 find. 'I've heard people talking about wireless carplayers, but I had one which kept making my screen freeze and go black, and after throwing that away, I never got another,' Aneila tells Yahoo Lifestyle. 'But when I saw it in Kmart – I always shop there and the quality is always good, so I got one.' Thinking others would be interested, she shared her purchase on TikTok, but she was shocked by the million views and 38,000 likes on her mini tutorial. Aneila demonstrates how to put the USB-sized piece of tech into her Mazda CX5's USB port and then pair it with her phone using Bluetooth. 'You follow all the prompts on your phone and click pair, and then it'll say connected on your Bluetooth, and there you go. It's pretty straightforward,' she explains. Now, instead of always having to plug her phone into a wire, every time she gets into the car with her phone, it will automatically link to her dashboard. 'I use it every time I'm in the car, every day, and so far there have been no problems,' Aneila says. 'I know my local Kmart is now sold out.' Will the Kmart Car Play adapter work in all cars? Aneila's video has prompted hundreds of comments, asking how it works and if there's a catch. 'If your car already has CarPlay, then yes will work,' Aneila tells people. Of course, older car models won't support it, but if you already have CarPlay and use a wired adapter, this is the upgrade for you. 'Is it laggy with calls or music changes?' asked one man. 'Unsure about this Kmart one, but yes, most 'wireless' car play adaptors are slow. It uses the processor in the screen rather than having it wired... So long story short, yes it will work, but it will be slow,' replied someone else, although Aneila says she hasn't noticed any problem. Other people came to the comments simply to say that they were annoyed they had paid way more for their own adaptors. "So angry that I spent like $90 on one of these a few years ago and now they're tiny AND cheap," one person lamented. "Should've waited a year for Kmart to bring out one. Paid $90 for one last year," another person added. Shopper raves about other Kmart phone-car products On a roll with the Apple CarPlay adapter, Aneila also bought a Kmart USB phone charging pad designed for use in the car. SHOP: 🏉 Rugby fan's huge airport surprise after landing in Sydney: 'Surreal' 🦥 Boody's new range in sizes S to XL are 'the softest sets you'll ever wear': 'Comfy and chic' 💄 Aussie brand's 'near perfect' dupe of $70 cult product wows for half the price 'It's $20 and you plug it into the USB port in the car and it charges your phone with no connections. OMG Kmart is my favourite shop!' she says. Sharing this purchase on TikTok, she added 'Kmart has done it once again!'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Warren Buffett Has 56% Of His $258 Billion Portfolio's Value Exposed To AI: Here Are The 5 Stocks That Are Leveraging AI Within Berkshire's Holdings
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. The 'Oracle of Omaha' — Warren Buffett is not invested in any pure-play artificial intelligence (AI) companies, but he holds these five stocks via Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK) (NYSE:BRK), which leverage AI in their businesses on scale. Check out the BRK-B stock price here. What Happened: While the companies that Buffett holds via Berkshire don't directly make or create AI-related products or services, about 55.77% of the value of its total $258.701 billion portfolio is invested in these five firms, leveraging AI heavily on a day-to-day basis. Out of the total 36 holdings as of the end of the first quarter, Berkshire holds about $114.423 billion worth of shares in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), American Express Co. (NYSE:AXP), Visa Inc. (NYSE:V), Mastercard Inc. (NYSE:MA), and Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Trending: 7,000+ investors have joined Timeplast's mission to eliminate microplastics—Company Holdings (as of March 31) % In The Portfolio Value (as of March 31) Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) 300,000,000 26% $66.639 billion American Express Co. (NYSE:AXP) 151,610,700 16% $40.79 billion Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) 8,297,460 1.1% $2.907 billion Mastercard Inc. (NYSE:MA) 3,986,648 0.8% $2.185 billion Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) 10,000,000 0.7% $1.902 billion Apple Not an AI stock in the traditional sense, but Apple heavily integrates AI into its products and services. Features like Siri, on-device machine learning for Face ID, photo processing, and Apple Intelligence (AI-driven features in iOS) show deep AI investment. Its focus on privacy-preserving AI and custom silicon (e.g., Neural Engine in A-series chips) positions it as a leader in consumer AI applications. American Express Also, not an AI stock, Amex uses AI for credit risk assessment, fraud detection, and personalized marketing. Its data-driven approach leverages machine learning to enhance customer experiences, but its core business is financial services and payments, not AI development. Amazon While primarily an e-commerce and cloud computing giant, Amazon is a major AI player through Amazon Web Services (AWS), which offers AI and machine learning tools like SageMaker, Bedrock, and Titan models. AI powers Amazon's recommendation algorithms, logistics optimization, and Alexa. Its cloud dominance makes it a backbone for many AI companies, so it's closer to an AI stock than Not an AI stock, but Visa uses AI extensively for fraud detection, risk management, and transaction personalization. Its VisaNet processes massive data sets, leveraging machine learning to enhance security and efficiency. However, AI is a tool for Visa, not its core business, which remains payment processing. Mastercard Similar to Visa, Mastercard is not an AI stock but employs AI for fraud prevention, cybersecurity, and customer insights. Its AI-driven Decision Intelligence platform analyzes transaction patterns in real time. Like Visa, AI supports its payment network but isn't the primary focus. Why It Matters: Other prominent stocks within Berkshire's portfolio as of the end of the first quarter include Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE:KO), Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC), Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX), Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE:OXY), and Moody's Corp. (NYSE:MCO). As he remains the chairman of the Board, Buffett announced during Berkshire's 60th annual shareholders meeting that he will be retiring by the end of the year. Berkshire's board has voted to appoint Greg Abel as the CEO, effective Jan. 1, 2026. Read Next: $100k+ in investable assets? Match with a fiduciary advisor for free to learn how you can maximize your retirement and save on taxes – no cost, no obligation. If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends would you invest in it? Image Via Shutterstock This article Warren Buffett Has 56% Of His $258 Billion Portfolio's Value Exposed To AI: Here Are The 5 Stocks That Are Leveraging AI Within Berkshire's Holdings originally appeared on
Japan Times
2 hours ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Apple loses fourth AI researcher in a month to Meta's Superintelligence team
Apple has lost its fourth artificial intelligence researcher in a month to Meta Platforms, marking the latest setback to the iPhone maker's AI efforts. Bowen Zhang, a key multimodal AI researcher at Apple, left the company on Friday and is set to join Meta's recently formed superintelligence team, according to people familiar with the matter. Zhang was part of the Apple foundation models group, or AFM, which built the core technology behind the company's AI platform. Meta previously lured away the leader of the team, Ruoming Pang, with a compensation package valued at more than $200 million, it was reported. Two other researchers from that group — Tom Gunter and Mark Lee — also recently joined Meta. AFM is made up of several dozen engineers and researchers across Cupertino, California, and New York. In response to the job offers from Meta and others, Apple has been marginally increasing the pay of its AFM staffers, whether or not they've threatened to leave, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the moves are private. Still, the pay levels pale in comparison with those of rivals. Spokespeople for Apple and Meta declined to comment. Apple shares declined as much as 1.5% to $210.82, reaching a session low in New York trading. The stock was already down 15% this year through Monday's close. The departures have thrown Apple's models team into flux. Pang played a central role in defining the department's road map and research direction, and multiple people within AFM now say its future is unclear. Additional engineers are actively interviewing for jobs jobs elsewhere, according to the people. Another team member — Floris Weers — left for a startup in recent weeks. The AFM team is critical to Apple's broader AI strategy. The group's work underpins the Apple Intelligence platform, which launched last year. But now the company is considering a shift toward using more third-party models. Some Apple executives see its homegrown models as a stumbling block to catching up with AI rivals, the people said. And the uncertainty over whether to outsource the technology has hurt morale at the company and helped fuel the attrition. Meta, meanwhile, is aggressively staffing up. The Facebook owner has offered gigantic compensation packages to AI talent across Silicon Valley, luring away workers from Apple, OpenAI and Anthropic. In recent months, Apple started considering a move away from AFM models for a new version of its Siri voice assistant. The work includes powering Siri with OpenAI's ChatGPT or Anthropic PBC's Claude models. The company is simultaneously working on a competing version based on new AFM models. While a final decision hasn't been made, Apple's exploration of outside options has triggered unease within AFM. Internally, executives have sought to reassure the team members, saying their work remains important to Apple's AI strategy. They have told engineers that the company is committed to in-house model development, part of a broader desire to own critical underlying technologies, as the company has done with chips in recent years. But Apple's own policies have made it harder for its AI team to keep up with competitors. The company has a longstanding commitment to privacy and generally favors handling AI tasks on devices - rather than in the cloud — so the data doesn't have to be precessed somewhere out of the users' control. That approach limits AI capabilities because phones aren't as powerful as data centers. Apple Intelligence mostly relies on an on-device model with 3 billion parameters, a measure of complexity and learning capacity. Competitors, in contrast, offer cloud-based systems with a trillion-plus parameters. Apple does have its own cloud model, but that's in the range of 150 billion parameters. The AFM group is now overseen by Zhifeng Chen and reports to Daphne Luong, head of AI research at Apple. She answers to John Giannandrea, senior vice president of AI.
BBC News
11 hours ago
- BBC News
What is AI, how do apps like ChatGPT work and why are there concerns?
Artificial intelligence (AI) has increasingly become part of everyday life over the past is being used to personalise social media feeds, spot friends and family in smartphone photos and pave the way for medical the rise of chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Meta AI has been accompanied by concern about the technology's environmental impact, ethical implications and data use. What is AI and what is it used for? AI allows computers to learn and solve problems in ways that can seem cannot think, empathise or scientists have developed systems that can perform tasks which usually require human intelligence, trying to replicate how people acquire and use programmes can process large amounts of data, identify patterns and follow detailed instructions about what to do with that information. This could be trying to anticipate what product an online shopper might buy, based on previous purchases, in order to recommend technology is also behind voice-controlled virtual assistants like Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa, and is being used to develop systems for self-driving also helps social platforms like Facebook, TikTok and X decide what posts to show users. Streaming services Spotify and Deezer use AI to suggest are also using AI as a way to help spot cancers, speed up diagnoses and identify new vision, a form of AI that enables computers to detect objects or people in images, is being used by radiographers to help them review X-ray results.A simple guide to help you understand AIFive things you really need to know about AI What is generative AI, and how do apps like ChatGPT and Meta AI work? Generative AI is used to create new content which may seem like it has been made by a does this by learning from vast quantities of existing data such as online text and and Chinese rival DeepSeek's chatbot are popular generative AI tools that can be used to generate text, images, code and more Gemini or Meta AI can similarly hold text conversations with like Midjourney or Veo 3, are dedicated to creating images or video from simple text prompts. Generative AI can also be used to make high-quality mimicking the style or sound of famous musicians have gone viral, sometimes leaving fans confused about their authenticity. Why is AI controversial? While acknowledging AI's potential, some experts are worried about the implications of its rapid International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned AI could affect nearly 40% of jobs, and worsen financial Geoffrey Hinton, a computer scientist regarded as one of the "godfathers" of AI development, has expressed concern that powerful AI systems could even make humans extinct - a fear dismissed by his fellow "AI godfather", Yann also highlight the tech's potential to reproduce biased information, or discriminate against some social is because much of the data used to train AI comes from public material, including social media posts or comments, which can reflect biases such as sexism or apology as AI labels black men 'primates'Twitter finds racial bias in image-cropping AIAnd while AI programmes are growing more adept, they are still prone to errors. Generative AI systems are known for their ability to "hallucinate" and assert falsehoods as halted a new AI feature in January after it incorrectly summarised news app BBC complained about the feature after Apple's AI falsely told readers that Luigi Mangione - the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson - had shot has also faced criticism over inaccurate answers produced by its AI search has added to concerns about the use of AI in schools and workplaces, where it is increasingly used to help summarise texts, write emails or essays and solve bugs in are worries about students using AI technology to "cheat" on assignments, or employees "smuggling" it into musicians and artists have also pushed back against the technology, accusing AI developers of using their work to train systems without consent or compensation. Thousands of creators - including Abba singer-songwriter Björn Ulvaeus, writers Ian Rankin and Joanne Harris and actress Julianne Moore - signed a statement in October 2024 calling AI a "major, unjust threat" to their Eilish and Nicki Minaj want stop to 'predatory' music AIAI-written book shows why the tech 'terrifies' creatives How does AI impact the environment? It is not clear how much energy AI systems use, but some researchers estimate the industry as a whole could soon consume as much as the the powerful computer chips needed to run AI programmes also takes lots of power and for generative AI services has meant an increase in the number of data huge halls - housing thousands of racks of computer servers - use substantial amounts of energy and require large volumes of water to keep them large tech companies have invested in ways to reduce or reuse the water needed, or have opted for alternative methods such as some experts and activists fear that AI will worsen water supply problems. The BBC was told in February that government plans to make the UK a "world leader" in AI could put already stretched supplies of drinking water under September 2024, Google said it would reconsider proposals for a data centre in Chile, which has struggled with grids creak as AI demands soar Are there laws governing AI? Some governments have already introduced rules governing how AI EU's Artificial Intelligence Act places controls on high risk systems used in areas such as education, healthcare, law enforcement or elections. It bans some AI use AI developers in China are required to safeguard citizens' data, and promote transparency and accuracy of information. But they are also bound by the country's strict censorship the UK, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the government "will test and understand AI before we regulate it".Both the UK and US have AI Safety Institutes that aim to identify risks and evaluate advanced AI 2024 the two countries signed an agreement to collaborate on developing "robust" AI testing in February 2025, neither country signed an international AI declaration which pledged an open, inclusive and sustainable approach to the countries including the UK are also clamping down on use of AI systems to create deepfake nude imagery and child sexual abuse who made 'depraved' child images with AI jailedInside the deepfake porn crisis engulfing Korean schools Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.
Forbes
15 hours ago
- Forbes
How To Sleep Smarter With Apple Watch And HomePod: 5 Ways They Can Help
We all know sleep is crucial to our health. Wake up refreshed, and the day ahead is that bit easier. Sleep tracking can be a useful tool towards a better night's sleep, and Apple is on a mission to help. Here are five ways to optimize your zzz's. Apple Watch and sleep metrics 1 Routine Is Crucial While being described as predictable never sounds like a compliment, choosing a regular time to go to bed can make a big difference. You can create a Sleep Schedule on your Apple Watch to remind you to start winding down before you turn in. This can take a little getting used to, especially if you choose to introduce Sleep Focus at this point, which can minimize distractions not just on your Watch but your Mac and iPhone as well. Still, even if you just ask your Watch to remind you it's nearly bedtime — something that other devices such as the Whoop band also do — it can be a useful way of setting up a regular schedule. 2 HomePod mini Can Help You Drift Off Say, 'Siri, play Ambient Sounds,' for instance, and your HomePod or HomePod mini can start playing one of the soundscapes available on Apple Music. You don't need the smart speaker to do this as obviously Apple Music plays through other devices, but the sound quality is at its best on the HomePod or HomePod mini. The soundscape options include rain, forest noises, white noise and more. When it's playing, say, 'Siri, set a sleep timer for 7 minutes,' or whatever, and it'll stop playing at the right time. 3 Track Your Sleep Sleep stages shown on the iPhone This is the key metric. The Sleep setting on the Watch means the display stays dark, so you won't accidentally wake yourself when you move. And in the morning, it will give you a breakdown of how much you were awake in the night (moments of wakefulness are normal), and divide your sleep into Core, Deep Sleep and REM stages. Other trackers talk about Light sleep but Apple calls this Core, probably because there's nothing light about it. It's useful to see how much of your sleep is REM and Deep, as these are the most restorative. And there's a psychological element here: if I wake up feeling weary and think that I've only slept for an hour or so after a bad night, checking in with my Watch to find I slept much better than I thought instantly makes me feel better. 4 Check Your Vitals This is a newish Apple Watch app and it's designed to compare your metrics from night to night, so it can tell when your readings are exceptional. It looks at sleep duration, heart rate, respiratory rate and wrist temperature. Your natural readings may be different from the average, and the advantage of Vitals is how it compares your personal readings to establish what's normal for you. 5 Sleep Apnea Sleep apnea is that condition where your breathing stops repeatedly to cause disrupted sleep. Huge numbers of people remain undiagnosed, but Apple Watch can check each night and let you know if it spots any signs. Of course, you need to recharge your Watch on a regular basis. It takes half an hour for the battery to go from flat to 80% (perhaps while you're showering and brushing your teeth is a good time) and if you find your Watch is running low before you go to bed, a 15-minute charge is enough for eight hours of sleep tracking.
