Both. Almost everything today uses some form of it. I think the term stuck with rice cookers because they were advertised that way as an advancement from the binary type cooker described in the article. In that sense, it's a buzzword of sorts. There's a lot of examples of that, like it still being called Unleaded Gas despite it having been so by default for how many decades?

Is it useful? Hard for me to answer - I don't like rice, but most of my family does. They all swear by their Zojirushis and Tigers, so I have to imagine it provides a better cook than the old style.