Feed aggregator

The biggest challenges facing Channel stakeholders include performance concerns, as there's an ongoing desire for the latest technology and a perception that refurbished tech is inferior. Revenue is also a factor, as companies profit from selling new equipment and need to adapt to offering sustainable services.

Education remains crucial, as there's a need for a significant shift in consumer behavior from buying new to embracing the circular economy and considering the full product lifecycle, including disposal.

Increased environmental pressures and government legislation are driving demand for Channel stakeholders to explore new ways they can reduce their carbon footprint and tackle e-waste. With the Technology Channel placing sustainability near the top of its list of priorities, businesses are responding by automating roles, utilizing electric vehicles for logistics and reducing e-waste headed for landfills.

Channel operators should be adopting the ‘Repair, Rework, Reuse’ model, which aims to extend IT hardware lifecycles and reduce the carbon footprint of technology wherever possible. Through the development and implementation of robust sustainability initiatives, vendors, distributors, resellers and MSPs can play a leading role in helping to create a more circular economy and minimize e-waste.

What key strategies, policies and procedures should be adopted to meet net zero targets?

Developing a robust strategy is essential for Channel businesses to bolster their net zero, carbon offsetting and sustainability goals. Companies that aim to create a comprehensive e-waste strategy must align their initiatives with environmental regulations and industry standards while striving to minimize the impact of their operations on the environment.

To create a concise strategy, Channel organizations must analyze their current operations - from sourcing components to end-of-life disposal - to minimize waste generation at each stage of the supply chain. The importance of this was revealed in our recent Sustainability report, with 36% of respondents already implementing initiatives to become more sustainable, and a further 37% looking to roll out strategies within the next 12 months.

Businesses need to create a plan that aligns with their future growth trajectory and the impact that this will have on emissions. With that in mind, the best option is to reduce the carbon intensity of their operations by establishing reduction strategies and mobilizing infrastructure change. This can take effect across a number of areas in an organization, most predominantly in the business’ supply chain, which links back to the company’s scope 3 emissions.

Channel operators must also consider measures to extend the life of hardware beyond the typical manufacturer lifespan, whilst ensuring the necessary quality standards and warranties are met. By repairing, reworking and reusing IT hardware, organizations can also reduce their carbon footprint and that of customers, whilst reducing cost.

How can vendors build e-waste initiatives within their partner programs?

Consumers and businesses across the Channel sector are waking up to the importance of Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) with supply chain transparency, sustainable finance and renewable energy sources and materials all key to helping industries meet their net zero, carbon offsetting and sustainability goals.

Vendors are now incorporating e-waste initiatives in processes to help streamline operations and boost efficiency for Channel partners. This not only enables significant environmental savings, but also an economical one for Channel partners and their end user clients.

By delivering white label maintenance, engineering services’ solutions and break-fix maintenance, Channel vendors can enable partner organizations to benefit from cost-effective, multi-vendor hardware maintenance services. This mitigates the need to dispose of mass hardware, allowing partners to extend product life cycles and reduce their carbon footprints through dedicated platforms like EcoVadis and by creating strategies internally, like a sustainability dashboard.

How is sustainability influencing customers and purchasing decisions?

It’s not for everyone – some customers are still very focused on price. Others see sustainability as a nice to have but would not be willing to pay considerably more. However, we are starting to experience a shift for ESG credentials to form part of the tender process, up to 30% of the total scoring for a partner in some cases. Also the frequency of being asked about sustainability is increasing.

As Channel vendors continue to scale their respective operations, they must consider their ESG strategies and goals and how best to meet the demands of customers, environmental legislation and compliance. They can also improve their sustainability approach by automating roles, utilizing electric vehicles for logistics and reducing electrical and electronic waste headed for landfills.

By investing in sustainable strategies, Channel partners gain a competitive edge, enabling them to improve business growth and strengthen stakeholder and consumer relationships while adhering to their sustainability principles.

How can data be leveraged to better understand and manage problems?

For Channel firms wanting to make their supply chain more sustainable, the process of collecting and sharing data is often seen as a key challenge. However, once the hard work of data collection is done, it is hugely beneficial for evaluating an organization's ESG performance.

Channel businesses, like many others, are relying heavily on data and analytics to make crucial business decisions. While this is seen as efficient, if decisions are being made based on data that is unreliable and inaccurate, the impact it can have could be huge. Accurate data collection is essential for tracking Scope 3 emissions, yet just 10% of the companies with under 100 employees surveyed for our research said they prioritize managing customer sustainability goals.

By leveraging digital solutions to aid visibility and transparency of both supply chains and in line with required sustainability metrics, companies can expect to deepen engagement with their customers, reduce risk and create trust with their supply chain stakeholders. Just as importantly, sustainability practices and corporate responsibility can deliver a positive impact both inside and outside of the business long term.

We've reviewed the best business computers.

This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

The nationwide drugstore chain must pay the government at least $300 million and will owe another $50 million if the company is sold, merged, or transferred before 2032, according to the settlement.

(Image credit: Nam Y. Huh)

Harvard University announced Monday that it has filed suit to halt a federal freeze on more than $2.2 billion in grants after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration's demands to limit activism on campus.

(Image credit: Charles Krupa)

Khalil has been held in Louisiana since ICE agents arrested him in New York over his pro-Palestinian activism. He instead experienced the birth by phone.

(Image credit: Mary Altaffer)

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 22.

• ChatGPT's o3 model scored a 136 on the Mensa IQ test and a 116 on a custom offline test, outperforming most humans
• A new survey found 25% of Gen Z believe AI is already conscious, and over half think it will be soon
• The change in IQ and belief in AI consciousness has happened extremely quickly

OpenAI’s new ChatGPT model, dubbed o3, just scored an IQ of 136 on the Norway Mensa test – higher than 98% of humanity, not bad for a glorified autocomplete. In less than a year, AI models have become enormously more complex, flexible, and, in some ways, intelligent.

The jump is so steep that it may be causing some to think that AI has become Skynet. According to a new EduBirdie survey, 25% of Gen Z now believe AI is already self-aware, and more than half think it’s just a matter of time before their chatbot becomes sentient and possibly demands voting rights.

There’s some context to consider when it comes to the IQ test. The Norway Mensa test is public, which means it’s technically possible that the model used the answers or questions for training. So, researchers at MaximumTruth.org created a new IQ test that is entirely offline and out of reach of training data.

On that test, which was designed to be equivalent in difficulty to the Mensa version, the o3 model scored a 116. That’s still high.

It puts o3 in the top 15% of human intelligence, hovering somewhere between “sharp grad student” and “annoyingly clever trivia night regular.” No feelings. No consciousness. But logic? It’s got that in spades.

Compare that to last year, when no AI tested above 90 on the same scale. In May of last year, the best AI struggled with rotating triangles. Now, o3 is parked comfortably to the right of the bell curve among the brightest of humans.

And that curve is crowded now. Claude has inched up. Gemini’s scored in the 90s. Even GPT-4o, the baseline default model for ChatGPT, is only a few IQ points below o3.

Even so, it’s not just that these AIs are getting smarter. It’s that they’re learning fast. They’re improving like software does, not like humans do. And for a generation raised on software, that’s an unsettling kind of growth.

I do not think consciousness means what you think it means

For those raised in a world navigated by Google, with a Siri in their pocket and an Alexa on the shelf, AI means something different than its strictest definition.

If you came of age during a pandemic when most conversations were mediated through screens, an AI companion probably doesn't feel very different from a Zoom class. So it’s maybe not a shock that, according to EduBirdie, nearly 70% of Gen Zers say “please” and “thank you” when talking to AI.

Two-thirds of them use AI regularly for work communication, and 40% use it to write emails. A quarter use it to finesse awkward Slack replies, with nearly 20% sharing sensitive workplace information, such as contracts and colleagues’ personal details.

Many of those surveyed rely on AI for various social situations, ranging from asking for days off to simply saying no. One in eight already talk to AI about workplace drama, and one in six have used AI as a therapist.

If you trust AI that much, or find it engaging enough to treat as a friend (26%) or even a romantic partner (6%), then the idea that the AI is conscious seems less extreme. The more time you spend treating something like a person, the more it starts to feel like one. It answers questions, remembers things, and even mimics empathy. And now that it’s getting demonstrably smarter, philosophical questions naturally follow.

But intelligence is not the same thing as consciousness. IQ scores don’t mean self-awareness. You can score a perfect 160 on a logic test and still be a toaster, if your circuits are wired that way. AI can only think in the sense that it can solve problems using programmed reasoning. You might say that I'm no different, just with meat, not circuits. But that would hurt my feelings, something you don't have to worry about with any current AI product.

Maybe that will change someday, even someday soon. I doubt it, but I'm open to being proven wrong. I get the willingness to suspend disbelief with AI. It might be easier to believe that your AI assistant really understands you when you’re pouring your heart out at 3 a.m. and getting supportive, helpful responses rather than dwelling on its origin as a predictive language model trained on the internet's collective oversharing.

Maybe we’re on the brink of genuine self-aware artificial intelligence, but maybe we’re just anthropomorphizing really good calculators. Either way, don't tell secrets to an AI that you don't want used to train a more advanced model.

You might also like

• ChatGPT o1 goes live and promises to solve all our science and math problems
• Happy 2nd birthday, ChatGPT! Here are 5 ways you've already changed the world
• ChatGPT Tasks can start taking over your calendar and remind you to finish your to-do list

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 211, for April 22.

The Education Department says millions of borrowers in default will have a chance to make a payment or sign up for a repayment plan. But on May 5, those who don't will be referred for collection.

(Image credit: Al Drago)

Kaleidescape may not be a household name, but most home theater fans will have at least some familiarity with the company’s movie players and servers, which provide the highest-quality alternative to the best 4K Blu-ray players.

In case you’re not familiar with Kaleidescape, its systems let you download movies for purchase or rental from an online storefront with a comprehensive library, and in some cases, new titles not yet available from other online services like Amazon or Apple TV. The picture quality of Kaleidescape downloads is equivalent to 4K Blu-ray, with support for both Dolby Vision and HDR10 high dynamic range formats, along with lossless Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks.

A typical Kaleidescape system can be pricey, but over the past year, the company has expanded its product line with a lower-cost standalone 4K movie player, the Kaleidescape Strato V, plus an even cheaper 2K model, the Strato M. Those releases demonstrate that the company is looking to expand its reach into new markets, and also to give existing Kaleidescape owners options for expanding their systems outside of a dedicated home theater driven by the best projectors.

The Kaleidescape Strato V combines a movie player with built-in 960GB SSD storage – enough to hold ten 4K movies at a time (Image credit: Future)

The most recent news from Kaleidescape is an announcement of its membership in the 8K Association, an industry group dedicated to accelerating the adoption of 8K content and 8K TVs.

In a company press release, Kaleidescape chairman and CEO Tayloe Stansbury characterized the alliance as one that “positions Kaleidescape alongside other industry leaders, committed to fostering a collaborative environment, and dedicated to the advancement and standardization of 8K technology.”

Stansbury further stated, “As consumers demand larger screens, higher-fidelity and increasingly immersive experiences, Kaleidescape’s involvement in the 8KA will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of premium home cinema.”

A fighting chance for 8K?

Samsung's new QN990F series 8K TVs include a 98-inch size option (Image credit: Future)

Looking at the current TV market, it’s impossible to ignore that set manufacturers have a lukewarm relationship with the 8K format. Until recently, new 8K TVs were a regular thing, but only one company, Samsung, has announced new 8K models for 2025 (the Samsung QN990F and Samsung QN900F).

Projectors supporting 8K have also been slow to emerge, with only two consumer models, the JVC DLA-NZ9 and JVC DLA-NZ8, currently available.

An 8K TV can be priced almost twice as high as an equivalent 4K model, but the main reason why the 8K TV market hasn’t really taken off is a lack of 8K content. You can find some 8K – mainly eye candy travelogues – on YouTube, but there isn’t a better online source for streamed 8K content such as documentaries, concert videos, or movies.

An 8K disc format isn’t technically out of the question, but there’s been no commercial advancement on that front since 8K TVs first appeared. Also, physical disc sales, 4K Blu-ray included, have been steadily declining, falling below $1 billion for the first time in the US in 2024.

Given that trend, the outlook for an 8K disc format is grim to nonexistent. That’s why Kaleidescape’s 8K Association announcement is intriguing – the company has the technical infrastructure to make 8K downloads possible, and its business model means that content can be delivered without the high compression levels that make the best streaming services inferior to 4K Blu-ray Disc.

Another good omen for 8K is Kaleidescape’s customer base, which is comprised of high-end home theater enthusiasts willing to pay for the highest quality presentation possible. Many of those customers also use either video projection systems or ultra-large screen TVs, and the added detail provided by 8K can be appreciated on such displays.

Samsung’s new QN990F series 8K TVs are available in a 98-inch screen size. An 8K TV that large deserves actual 8K content, and with Kaleidescape’s announcement, there’s new hope that more and better 8K content could be coming.

You might also like

• 8K TVs were supposed to be the next big thing – what happened?
• Samsung’s new 98-inch 8K mini-LED makes 8K TVs finally make sense
• Welcome to TechRadar’s Home Theater Week 2024

Borrowers who are behind risk having their wages garnished. Here's what the experts recommend doing right now.

Pope Francis died of a stroke on Easter Monday, according to the Vatican. He was one of the most popular pontiffs in decades, taking stances on the inclusivity of the church as well as treatment of the poor and migrants. We look back on the life and the papacy of the first non-European pope in more than a millennium.

(Image credit: Alberto Pizzoli)

On Monday morning in Rome Cardinal Kevin Farrell Camerlengo or Cardinal Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church announced the death of Pope Francis I.

That was followed some 17 hours later by the rite of ascertainment. A formal acknowledgement of Francis' death...and the transfer of his body to his coffin.

And it's one a few of the many centuries-old rituals that will play out over the next several days as the church mourns Pope Francis.

There will be the mourning of the faithful as Francis' body lies in St. Peter's Basilica. A funeral, where Francis will be remembered by his fellow priests, followers and world leaders. Then, the Conclave where the College of Cardinals will meet to choose his successor.

Pope Francis has died at 88. Now the church has to chart a course without his leadership. Who will be his successor, and what path will he choose?

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

(Image credit: Peter Macdiarmid)

The agency has reportedly been instructed to turn most of its focus to big banks.

After a federal judge ruled that Google had a monopoly on the search market, the tech giant and the government are in court to debate penalties. One possible result: forcing Google to spin off Chrome.

(Image credit: Kent Nishimura)

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Speaker of the House Emerita Nancy Pelosi about her experiences meeting Pope Francis and his legacy.

(Image credit: Nikki Kahn)

President Trump and the first lady welcomed an estimated 40,000 people to the South Lawn of the White House on Monday for its annual Easter egg roll event. The annual tradition dates back to the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes, and save for war and food shortages, has been a mainstay of Pennsylvania Avenue since 1878.

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla)

Watch The Last of Us, Hacks and more when you pay for a year upfront.

Google has been hyping up its Project Astra as the next generation of AI for months. That set some high expectations when 60 Minutes sent Scott Pelley to experiment with Project Astra tools provided by Google DeepMind.

He was impressed with how articulate, observant, and insightful the AI turned out to be throughout his testing, particularly when the AI not only recognized Edward Hopper’s moody painting "Automat," but also read into the woman’s body language and spun a fictional vignette about her life.

All this through a pair of smart glasses that barely seemed different from a pair without AI built in. The glasses serve as a delivery system for an AI that sees, hears, and can understand the world around you. That could set the stage for a new smart wearables race, but that's just one of many things we learned during the segment about Project Astra and Google's plans for AI.

Astra's understanding

Of course, we have to begin with what we now know about Astra. Firstly, the AI assistant continuously processes video and audio from connected cameras and microphones in its surroundings. The AI doesn’t just identify objects or transcribe text; it also purports to spot and explain emotional tone, extrapolate context, and carry on a conversation about the topic, even when you pause for thought or talk to someone else.

During the demo, Pelley asked Astra what he was looking at. It instantly identified Coal Drops Yard, a retail complex in King’s Cross, and offered background information without missing a beat. When shown a painting, it didn’t stop at "that’s a woman in a cafe." It said she looked "contemplative." And when nudged, it gave her a name and a backstory.

According to DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, the assistant’s real-world understanding is advancing even faster than he expected, noting it is better at making sense of the physical world than the engineers thought it would be at this stage.

Veo 2 views

But Astra isn’t just passively watching. DeepMind has also been busy teaching AI how to generate photorealistic imagery and video. The engineers described how two years ago, their video models struggled with understanding that legs are attached to dogs. Now, they showcased how Veo 2 can conjure a flying dog with flapping wings.

The implications for visual storytelling, filmmaking, advertising, and yes, augmented reality glasses, are profound. Imagine your glasses not only telling you what building you're looking at, but also visualizing what it looked like a century ago, rendered in high definition and seamlessly integrated into the present view.

Genie 2

And then there’s Genie 2, DeepMind’s new world-modeling system. If Astra understands the world as it exists, Genie builds worlds that don’t. It takes a still image and turns it into an explorable environment visible through the smart glasses.

Walk forward, and Genie invents what lies around the corner. Turn left, and it populates the unseen walls. During the demo, a waterfall photo turned into a playable video game level, dynamically generated as Pelley explored.

DeepMind is already using Genie-generated spaces to train other AIs. Genie can help these navigate a world made up by another AI, and in real time, too. One system dreams, another learns. That kind of simulation loop has huge implications for robotics.

In the real world, robots have to fumble their way through trial and error. But in a synthetic world, they can train endlessly without breaking furniture or risking lawsuits.

Astra eyes

Google is trying to get Astra-style perception into your hands (or onto your face) as fast as possible, even if it means giving it away.

Just weeks after launching Gemini’s screen-sharing and live camera features as a premium perk, they reversed course and made it free for all Android users. That wasn’t a random act of generosity. By getting as many people as possible to point their cameras at the world and chat with Gemini, Google gets a flood of training data and real-time user feedback.

There is already a small group of people wearing Astra-powered glasses out in the world. The hardware reportedly uses micro-LED displays to project captions into one eye and delivers audio through tiny directional speakers near the temples. Compared to the awkward sci-fi visor of the original Glass, this feels like a step forward.

Sure, there are issues with privacy, latency, battery life, and the not-so-small question of whether society is ready for people walking around with semi-omniscient glasses without mocking them mercilessly.

Whether or not Google can make that magic feel ethical, non-invasive, and stylish enough to go mainstream is still up in the air. But that sense of 2025 as the year smart glasses go mainstream seems more accurate than ever.

You might also like

• Why 2025 will be the year of the AI smart glasses
• You don't have to pay for Google Gemini to comment on what you're looking at on your phone anymore
• Google Gemini could soon get a super-useful 'Power up' button – here's what it does

The new color, olo, is described as a "blue-green of unprecedented saturation."

When you incorporate essential oils liked lavender oil and bergamot oil into your routine, you can reduce anxiety symptoms and promote relaxation.