Google Will Restrict Gemini Elect Questions; Airbnb Bans Indoor Cams; Chem Injection Can Renew Batteries; Apple Tests AI Targeted App Store Ads

Posted: March 12, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Google is restricting queries to its chatbot Gemini about elections. The restrictions will be global…the only exceptions are queries from countries where there are no elections taking place this year. Techcrunch.com reports that the update is already live in the US, and is rolling out to India. Google notes that it is concerned about the AI service being weaponized, or induced to produce inaccurate or misleading responses. Google has not said if it will unblock answering election related questions after the elections later this year. 

Airbnb will no longer allow hosts to record guests while they are inside the property. This has already been the case with Vrbo, and also at hotels. According to arstechnica.com, Airbnb has been allowing hosts to have disclosed cams outside the property and inside ‘common areas’ inside, but they are now completely banning them. Airbnb’s updated policy defines cameras and recording devices as “any device that records or transmits video, images, or audio, such as a baby monitor, doorbell camera, or other camera.” An exception is in place for monitoring a public space like your front porch or driveway with a doorbell cam. 

We have all experienced it with phones or other small devices, and it will happen to electric vehicles eventually. After a number of charge cycles, the batteries start to drop in the charge they can hold, and they will eventually fail. As a lithium-ion battery pack is a pretty large chunk of an EV cost, here’s some potential good news. Bgr.com says that researchers have come up with a new battery revival injection that can restore an aged or degraded battery to near full capacity. The research comes from Toyota’s Central R&D Labs, and was just published in the journal Joule. the injection is lithium naphthalene. It brings the batteries up to 80% of original capacity, and that lasts at least 100 charge cycles so far. Note that if the battery has structural damage, the injection doesn’t work. This is potentially a huge breakthrough.

Just because Apple hasn’t been calling AI AI…they have used machine learning…doesn’t mean they aren’t all over it….and maybe not always in ways we will be thrilled about. Appleinsider.com notes that apple is experimenting with using AI to buy and place ads in its App Store, much like Google does with their Performance Max and Meta does with its Advantage Plus. Apple has told advertisers it is conducting the tests, and advertisers believe the company will introduce the product in the coming months. With the AI boost, Apple may see its ad business grow to $6 billion by 2025, with $4.1 billion coming from search ads. 

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

Former Activision Blizzard CEO Wants TikTok; Car Makers Sharing Driver Data With Insurers; AirPods Getting ‘Hearing Aid Mode’; Influencers Paid for Promoting Counterfeit Goods

Posted: March 11, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

The former CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, is angling to buy TikTok as the US government is threatening to ban the app unless it is sold off by Chinese firm ByteDance. Engadget.com reports that Kotick…and hey, tick is part of his name, so running TikTok ought to be a natural…ok, kidding…has talked about partnerning with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. If ByteDance will even sell, it would be a multi-hundred billion dollar deal. Kotick chaired Activision for 30 plus years. TikTok has had influencers and people who make a living on the platform flood Congressional representatives with calls and email, urging them not to ban or force a sale of the app. A bipartisan group of law makers are concerned about the data the app is getting which can be going to the Chinese government. President Biden has said he would sign a bill banning or forcing the sale of the app. 

Most people know that our data is currency to many businesses and organizations. Here’s a wrinkle you may not be aware of…a number of car makers are selling your driving data to LexisNexis, which in turn is selling the info to insurance companies, and it’s raising folks’ insurance rates! According to the New York Times, a number of makers have programs you can sign up for to keep track of your driving habits…some, like GM, have made it like a game where you can earn badges for you good driving. The down side is they track hard braking, hard cornering, speeding, tickets and accidents, and your insurance rates can go through the roof…or sunroof in this case. In some instances, people haven’t even signed up for the programs. Several states don’t permit this activity…including California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Hawaii. Besides General Motors, Kia, Subaru, and Mitsubishi contribute to the LexisNexis ‘Telematics Exchange.’ Ford, Honda, and Hyundai are also claimed to be included…although both Ford and Subaru deny this. If you want to see what data your car can collect, go to vehicleprivacyreport dot com. https://vehicleprivacyreport.com/. You can also see your LexisNexis report at consumer dot risk dot lexisnexis dot com slash consumer. https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/consumer

An interesting new feature may be coming to Apple’s AirPods Pro. Apparently in iOS 18, there will be ‘a major new hearing aid mode.’ The word comes from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The feature apparently won’t require any hardware changes. AirPods already have a feature called Live Listen, that came out own 2018. That feature turns an iPhone into a directional microphone, sending the audio to the AirPods in real time. A couple of years ago, AirPods got Conversation Boost, which boosts the mic directly in front to better pick up what a person is saying. With the new relaxed FDA guidelines allowing over the counter hearing aids, the hearing aid feature seems like a natural extension of what they already do. 

Quite a few social media influencers are making money promoting great prices on goods over TikTok. Well, it turns out…unsurprisingly, that most of the goods are counterfeit. Wired.com says it isn’t just on TikTok, either. Some influencers are also hawking the illegal knock offs on Facebook, Discord, and Reddit. One firm called Pandabuy claims to have hundreds of content creators touting goods. Some of the knocks offs are not only cheap, but also look cheap, but others are very good fakes. If it is a designer brand and it’s being marketed by an influencer on one of these platforms, it is most likely not the real deal. One example as a pair of $1000 Rick Owens high top sneakers for $73 that apparently are pretty accurate. As always, caveat emptor…let the buyer beware.

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

20 Inch Folding MacBook in Works; Pixel Sales Up 527%-In Japan; Simple Way to Remove Microplastics from Water; New Material May Bring Smart Contact Lenses

Posted: March 7, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

A folding Apple phone may or may not happen anytime soon if at all, but apparently Cupertino is seriously working on a 20 inch screen MacBook…with a folding screen! Macrumors.com reports that noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is saying “Apple’s only foldable product with a clear development schedule is the 20.3-inch MacBook, expected to enter mass production in 2027.” Right now, the largest screen MacBook is the 16 inch MacBook Pro. Apple had a 17 inch screen laptop for a while, but dropped that model way back in 2012. Kuo said the 20-inch MacBook is Apple’s only foldable product with a clear development schedule, suggesting that a foldable iPhone or iPad are not coming any time soon.

Google’s Pixel phones have been making inroads in penetration of the smartphone market, and no place more so than Japan. The phones, with their amazing software assisted cameras are really seeing a huge sales growth. According to 9to5google.com, an IDC report shows Pixel sales up 527% year over year from 2022 to 2023. That gives Google 10.7% of the market share there. Apple’s phones continue to hold a huge share of the market there, as do…somewhat surprisingly…Sharp’s phones.  Sharp retains a large share of the market due to the demand for phones designed for the elderly, not necessarily cutting-edge devices. Meanwhile, Samsungs Galaxy shipments to Japan have dropped by 39%…showing where a lot of Google’s sales increase came from. 

Scientists have discovered a surprisingly simple way to remove microplastics from drinking water. This sounds almost like magic, but bgr.com says researchers at a couple universities in China ran tests on both soft and hard tap waters, and by boiling the water, then running it through a filter, they were able to remove up to 90% of the microplastics. The results were published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. The boiling left the microplastics trapped in the crusty, chalky stuff that forms when you boil water in a kettle or pot. The scientists said a filter as simple as a stainless steel mesh like used to strain tea is enough to filter out most of the lime-encrusted plastic pieces that are left behind after boiling the drinking water. Hopefully, bottled water makers will be adapting this cheap, simple process too. Kids…DO try this at home if you want to. 

One cool thing about science…often new breakthroughs are made while looking for something else. Now, the co-creator of graphene, along with a group of scientists have another breakthrough material. Konstantin Novoselov and the team say the new material lets them create a novel form of light manipulation. Thenextweb.com reports that they had been working on smart contact lenses. They discovered that the materials…dubbed  ReS2 and ReSe2, not only could help with that, but were more powerful than expected. They can adjust the wavelength of light, and change its direction…up to 90 degrees! The scientists see potential in applications for medicine, AI, and AR. For contact lenses, the startup Xpanceo thinks the use of the new material could provide faster and cheaper blood testing using Raman Spectroscopy at a much lower cost and with better performance. They also see earlier detection of things like COVID and even cancer! It will be a while before we see all these benefits, but it is a pretty amazing discovery.

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

OpenAI Responds to Musk Suit; Microsoft to Unveil New OLED Surface Pro & Laptop; Politicians Latest Plan to Make ByteDance Sell TikTok; Phase Genomics Scores Grant from Gates To Control Cow Burp Methane

Posted: March 6, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

OpenAI is asking for dismissal of all claims made by Elon Musk’s recent lawsuit. Musk was involved in the founding of OpenAI, but really left before much happened. TechCrunch.com reports that a blog post penned by Sam Altman and 4 other founders noted that Musk had promised a billion in funding, but only came up with $45 million. They raised $90 million from other donors to support OpenAI’s research efforts. Musk’s suit claims that the ChatGPT maker had breached its original contractual agreements by pursuing profits instead of the nonprofit’s founding mission to develop AI that benefits humanity. OpenAI was founded to build a counterweight to Google, according to Musk’s suit. OpenAI said Wednesday it maintains that its mission is to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity, which includes developing safe and beneficial AGI while promoting widespread access to its tools. It should be noted that Musk has engineers working full speed on an AI project that will rival OpenAI. It always comes down to money…no matter what a litigant may claim about benefiting humanity.

Microsoft is going to roll out OLED a new Surface Pro 10 and a Surface Laptop 6 this spring…both will drop before a big Windows 11 AI update that is also coming. According to windows central.com, they will feature upgraded displays, new processors, and be what Redmond is calling the company’s first AI PCs. The Intel powered boxes will ship this sporing, with ARM models becoming available in June. Both devices could be unveiled March 21st. They are reported to give users a huge performance increase over present Surface Pro and Surface Laptops. You will get on-device Copilot functionality, real time captions and translations, and a new feature called ‘AI Explorer.’

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has hatched a new bill that would make ByteDance sell TikTok in order for the app to remain available in the US. Engadget.com says it has the clunky name “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act”, and would prohibit US app stores and web hosting services from distributing TikTok unless it divested from parent company ByteDance. This is just the latest attempt to force a sale over concern that ByteDance is too much under the control of the Chinese government. Former President Donald Trump attempted to force a sale of TikTok in 2020, but was ultimately unsuccessful. The Biden Administration has also pressured the company to divest. And a US District Court Judge recently blocked an attempt to ban the app in Montana. It really is a concern about all the data flowing to China…virtually every kid I know spends more time on TikTok than any other social media platform by far. 

A startup called Phase Genomics has gotten a grant for $1.5 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to research killing drug resistant bacteria…oh, and also to develop a way to battle methane produced by cow burps. Geekwire.com notes that one cow belches up 220 pounds of methane per year according to UC Davis…which makes cattle the top producer of greenhouse gasses coming from the agricultural sector. Methane is some 20 times worse for global warming than carbon dioxide. Phase Genomics will work on a project to create an antimicrobial discovery program to tackle this, as well as the drug resistant bacteria. The company is a spinoff from the University of Washington’s Genome Sciences department. Although it’s a cheap laugh (which I couldn’t resist), but cow farts and belches really are a serious problem…and except for vegans, no one wants to give up delicious steaks, but global warming is real, so we need a fix for this methane problem.

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

Meta Platforms Melted down Tuesday; Former Twitter CEO & Others Sue for Severance; X Calling Feature Warning; ChatGPT Now Reads Answers Out Loud

Posted: March 5, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Meta’s platforms had a major meltdown Tuesday morning. Untold teeming masses were locked out of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. In fact, on Threads, nothing would load at all. Theverge.com reports that the crash started around 10am Eastern. Some people were locked out of their Meta Quest headsets, too. Facebook just logged users out of their accounts, with them unable to log back in. As with Threads, Instagram users just could’t refresh their feeds at all. Meta communications head Andy Stone had to resort to posting about the outage on Threads rival X, writing that the company is “aware people are having trouble accessing our services” and that Meta is “working on this now.” A similar Meta outage took place in 2021 when a configuration issue brought down access to Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp for several hours. All seems to be fixed now, so everyone hearing or reading this has presumably gotten their social media fix for today! 

A couple of items of X news. First off, a group of former Twitter execs, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, are suing Elon Musk for millions in unpaid severance benefits. According to engadget.com, the tab is around $128 million. The suit claims that the CEO alone is owed some $57.4 million. The legal action cites Musk biographer Walter Isaacson’s account of the events, which explains that Musk rushed to close the Twitter deal a day early so he could fire the executives “for cause” just before their final stock options were set to vest. According to Isaacson, Musk bragged that the legal maneuver saved him about $200 million. At this time, X has not responded to calls for it to comment about the lawsuit.

In the second piece of X news…which is more news you can use…Elon Musk turned on the platform’s new calling feature with no real notice or fanfare. TechCrunch.com says with audio and video calling on by default, the platform leaks your IP address to anyone you talk with…and it is difficult to figure out how to limit who can call you. The best thing to do for now is to go to settings, and slide the little calling switch to off until they get this worked out. If you see it in the upper right of your app, you can click on the phone icon and go to the calling feature directly and switch it off. X calling may become useful, but for now, protect yourself until they get this cleaned up. 

Apparently, it’s not enough to have Alexa, Siri, Google, and the rest talking to us. Now, OpenAI has added a Read Aloud feature for ChatGPT. Theverge.com notes that you have your choice of 5 voice options, too. The Read Aloud feature is available on the web version, and well as iOS and Android. It speaks 37 languages and will automatically detect the language of the text it is reading. By the way, it is available in both GPT-4 and GPT-3.5. You can also set up the chatbot to always respond verbally when replying to prompts. 

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

New M3 MacBook Airs Drop; Pixel Watch 3 Getting 45mm Size; Waymo-More Areas in LA and SF; Google Maps Tests Showing Building Entrances

Posted: March 4, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Without an event or big fanfare, Apple has released new 13 and 15 inch MacBook Air, powered by M3 Apple silicon. 9to5mac.com reports that the new laptops get support for two external displays and faster WiFi. The new Airs will ship the end of the week…Friday, March 8th. In a goofy quirk…you can’t drive two screens unless the laptop is closed…meaning you will have to buy an external keyboard and trackpad pad for Apple…costing even more money. On the plus side, the M3 MacBook Air has a faster 8 core CPU and 10 core GPU. The sizes are the same as the M2 models they replace. The 13 inch Air starts at $1099, and the 15 incher is $1299. The M1 MacBook Air is discontinued…so you may be able to pick one up for a good closeout price from vendors. 

A big knock on the Pixel watch is that the 41mm size is just too small. Now, Google is working on a second size…a 45mm Watch 3. 9to5google.com notes that the larger size would match the larger Apple watch Series 9. Samsung also offers 40mm and 44mm sizes for the Watch 6 and 43mm and 47mm sizes for the Watch 6 Classic. It doesn’t look like the UI will change much if at all for the Pixel Watch 6, but several watch faces should display much better on the bigger size. Google is also working on Pixel Buds Pro 2 headphones. Since the Pro buds got several new features last fall, don’t expect a major suite of new features…maybe better active noise cancellation. 

The California Public Utilities Commission has given the green light to Alphabet owned Waymo to operate its self-driving taxis. Mashable.com says in The Bay Area, the cars will now be rolling outside San Francisco…in fact, on the Peninsula all the way down to Sunnyvale in Silicon Valley. Their competitor, Cruise…a division of General Motors, is still on hold after one of the vehicles hit and dragged a pedestrian in San Francisco last year. Meanwhile, Tesla is reportedly trying to develop its own driverless taxi system using its own electric vehicles. 

We’ve all been there…you find parking near a venue you haven’t been to, walk to the place, and walk all around trying to find the entrance you need. Now, androidpolice.com reports that google is testing showing some entrances and exits on buildings in Google Maps. The entrances only show when you select a place on the map and zoom in. Right now, they appear as a round white circle with an entry symbol. Also, when you select a building or venue, it turns light red, helping you to find the actual destination among other buildings. It’s still in the testing stage, so things may change before it gets wide release in Google Maps.

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

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