AI at Wendy’s Drive Up Window; Final Cut Pro & Logic Pro on iPad; Twitter Will Purge Inactive Accounts; Driving Across Border With QR Code Coming

If you ever special ordered food much from fast food places…and frequently got your order screwed up, you are in luck. Not GOOD luck, but luck. PCworld.com reports that Wendy’s has partnered with Google AI to build an AI system for their dive in windows. Right now, the system will just debut at one restaurant located in Columbus, Ohio in June. Wendy’s expects the AI to streamline and speed up the order process and speed up the drive-through experience…so I can get out of my car faster, and go inside and make them re-do the order correctly! Wendy’s did have Google program in some of their insider lingo, like “JBC’ for Junior bacon cheeseburger, and it is trained to ask ‘would you like a Frostie with that?’ The single restaurant test experience will dictate how fast the system will move to other restaurants.

Apple has announced the availability of Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPads. There is a bit of a catch, though. According to macrumors.com, they will each be by subscription…the fee is $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year. Users will be able to move Logic Pro projects between iPad and Mac.With Final Cut Pro, media can be imported from Files or Photos, and saved directly inside a Final Cut Pro project. The iPad version also supports import of projects made in iMovie. As with Logic Pro, you can seamlessly move projects from iPad to Mac and vice versa. 

Elon Musk, being Elon Musk, has announced that Twitter will start purging inactive accounts. He didn’t clarify what would happen to accounts of those who have died…like some platforms that allow people to memorialize those accounts. Cnet.com says that in a reply to Musk, John Carmack, founder of ID Software, cautioned against deleting inactive accounts, saying that it’ll make sourcing historic tweets more challenging. It could also mean that Twitter threads from years ago would be fragmented with gaps of unavailable tweets. No timeline was given for when the inactive accounts might be deleted. 

Singapore is gearing up to let people cross its border checkpoints with a QR code next year, heading into Malaysia. ZDnet.com notes that it is an extension of the Automated Passenger In-Car Clearance System (APICS) that Singapore developed to enable travelers to carry out self-clearance without having to leave their vehicle and with minimum intervention from immigration officers. Live trials of the automated system were conducted last year, according to the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority. Right now, US citizens can cross into Canada and Mexico with a Passport card instead of the booklet, so it won’t be surprising to see the QR code tech coming here soon for those crossing in vehicles. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.