Google Announces ChatGPT Rival; Mercedes Bows e-Sprinter Van; Twitter-Only 180,000 US Subscribers; Meta Labs Dropped $13.7 Billion on AR & VR
Posted: February 7, 2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentGoogle has revealed that they are working on a ChatGPT rival dubbed Bard. Theverge.com reports that the artificial intelligence chat system was revealed in a blog post yesterday. From the post, it sounds like it will be as capable as the buzzy ChatGPT. Google described the tool as an “experimental conversational AI service” that will answer users’ queries and take part in conversations. The software is available to a group of “trusted testers” now, before becoming “more widely available to the public in the coming weeks.” Meanwhile, over at Microsoft, they are busy integrating ChatGPT into the Bing search engine. It is worth noting that Google actually invented part of the AI that runs ChatGPT…the ’T’ part stands for transformer, and that key tech came from Google. Google has been more cautious with AI up to now, but seems to have been shocked into moving more quickly with the release and rapid spread of ChatGPT.
Mercedes-Benz is joining the electric delivery van party. The venerable German car maker rolled out the eSprinter van, which will go on sale later this year in the US, according to arstechnica.com. A European model will follow before the end of the year. Like the Ford e-vans and Rivian’s for Amazon, the electric vans don’t have near the range of most cars…but since they are made for local delivery, and carry much heavier loads, that is expected. No EPA estimate yet, but a ballpark puts it at around 120-140 miles on a charge. An interesting wrinkle: the Mercedes will use a lithium iron phosphate battery instead of lithium-ion. Fast charge from 10 to 80% will take about 42 minutes. Mercedes hasn’t released the maximum load weight or pricing as yet.
Twitter has a long climb before they see significant revenue from subscriptions. Engadget.com says that as of last month, the platform only had 180,000 Twitter Blue subscribers are only bringing in $27.8 million a year for the company…and they have lost far more than that in cancelled ad revenue. We just reported on Twitter’s plan to charge businesses $1000 a month for gold verification badges, but it will take a massive increase in both to haul in the $3 billion a year Elon Musk is looking for. The company has to come up with $1 billion a year on interest alone to service debt they are carrying.
Previously, Meta had reportedly lost $10 billion in 2021on the so-called ‘metaverse.’ Now, TechCrunch.com notes that Meta has reported $13.7 billion in losses for Reality Labs during 2022. As a point of reference, Meta (then just called Facebook) only paid $2 billion for Oculus back in 2014. The company said it expects losses to be even higher in 2023, as they prep to launch the next generation mixed reality headset later this year. Apple is also prepping to roll out a mixed reality headset by fall.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Apple May Add Higher End iPhone for ’24; Twitter Looks at Charging Businesses $1000 for Gold Verification; Lithium-Air Batteries-3X Energy Density; Tesla Raises Prices Back on Model Y
Posted: February 6, 2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentThe top iPhone this September may remain the Pro Max, and not be dubbed Ultra after all. It’s still up in the air, but apparently Apple is thinking about bringing out and even higher end iPhone in 2024 and dubbing that model the Ultra. Bloomberg.com reports that a remark by Apple CEO Tim Cook supports this rumor. On an earnings call, Cook said “I think people are willing to really stretch to get the best they can afford in that category,” noting that the iPhone has become “integral” to people’s lives. Consumers now use the device to make payments, control smart-home appliances, manage their health and store banking data, he said. How much is Apple talking about? Well, a fully ‘Maxed out’ iPhone 14 Pro Max with a terabyte of memory can run $1600, so that gives us an idea. Right now, Apple’s Pro phones are doing better for them than the lesser priced iPhone models.
In yet another scheme to bring in more money for cash-strapped Twitter, Elon Musk is considering charging businesses $1000 a month to keep gold verification checkmarks on the platform. According to mashable.com, which saw an internal document, there would also be an additional $50 charge for every affiliated account, too. So if a media company had 10 affiliated reporters, they would be whacked for $18,000 a year! A number of companies and reporters over the weekend have said they would lose the checkmarks rather than pay that kind of money.
Some researchers at Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois-Chicago, teamed up with Argonne National Labs, have put on a practical demonstration of a lithium-air battery that have three times the energy density of the current lithium-ion batteries presently used in everything from cell phones to cars. Dailykos.com says that Lithium-ion batteries can store up to 200 watt-hours per kilogram…which is fine, but the lithium-air ones can hold as much as 685 watt-hours per kilogram! There have been some real technical issues to making these batteries practical, but the researchers have developed a lightweight polymer-ceramic composite that conducts lithium ions about 15x better at room temperature than other solid materials that have been tried up to now. the next few years could see these massively more efficient and safer batteries in our phones, cars, and other items that depend on electricity storage.
After price cuts on Models 3 and Y…in one case $13,000 on a Model Y configuration, Tesla is not raising Model Y prices back up $2000. They had cut to get under a federal price cap to qualify for the $7500 tax credit. Now, arstechnica.com reports that the government has decided the Model Y counts as an SUV, so it has the higher price cap. The sedan cap is $55,000, but its $80,000 for SUVs. The Performance model of the Model Y was $69,990 and had been dropped to $52,990. Now, it’s back up to $56,990…still cheaper than previously…just not quite as much.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Samsung Galaxy Unpacked- S23 Phones Bow; ChatGPT ‘Detection Tool’; Apple Ultra iPhone Gets Periscope Cam Exclusively
Posted: February 1, 2023 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentAs usual, numerous leaks revealed a lot about the new Galaxy S23 line from Samsung, but at Unpacked today, the picture got filled out. 9to5google.com reports that for the first time in a long time, Samsung is using one chip for all its flagship phones. It’s the ‘Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy’ from Qualcomm. Is that enough of a mouthful? It’s good, though…the last few years, Samsung has used different chips in different markets, which was really a confusing mess. The phones, though. The base S23 starts at $799, and has a 6.1 inch screen…it’s much brighter than last year’s model. The S23 Plus has a 6.6 inch display, plus a much larger 4700 mAh battery, and 45W wired charging. It will remain at $999 as predicted. the top line Galaxy S23 Ultra has a monster 6.8 inch screen, and stows away an S Pen stylus like the Note series has had. Rumors have the beloved note going away, so this will perhaps fill the bill. The screen is just barely curved…Samsung seems to be moving away from the curved screens of the last few years. It sports a 200 MP main cam on the back, and has a 12MP ultra wide lens and 2 10MP sensors with 3X and 10X telephotos lenses. This bad boy will set you back $1199 and up.
A little tidbit that dropped at Unpacked today…Samsung is working on an extended reality device running a version of Android and using a Qualcomm chip. Samsung’s TM Roh said that the XR headset is ‘not far away!’
With the big flap about ChatGPT, and particularly its use for writing college themes using the artificial intelligence, the makers of the AI program released a new classifier tool yesterday that can allegedly do an admittedly imperfect job of spotting possible cheating using ChatGPT. Well, about that imperfect part…Venturebeat.com notes that an AI and machine learning researcher ran the tool on the first page of Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth. He got this result: “The classifier considers the text to be likely AI-generated.” I suspect the tool needs a lot more work, and the makers may join those who might move the Bard’s bones in being cursed by him at this point!
In a rumor sure to irritate those who don’t like bigger smartphones…especially folks with smaller hands, noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that the Apple periscope telephoto camera will be exclusive to the iPhone 15 Ultra…AND to 2024’s Ultra as well. According to appleinsider.com, the reason the more powerful telephoto zoom might be restricted to the biggest iPhone could be space. The folded lens might just not fit into the 6.1 inch phone’s chassis. Apple may have to go to a different folded lens with less zoom capability. Of course, it’s all just conjecture on 2024…we’re pretty sure such a lens will be in the iPhone 15 Ultra but with the 16 a year and a half away…let’s just say a lot can change in that amount of time.
I’m Clark Reid, and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
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