EU Says Apple Breaches the DMA-Big Fine Looms; Amazon’s AI ‘Remarkable Alexa’-for a fee; Google Bringing Gemini Access to Teens in School; Dozens of Cybertrucks Vandalized
Posted: June 24, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Apple, Artificial Intelligence, News, technology Leave a commentThe European Union has announced preliminary findings that Apple is in breach of its Digital Markets Act. 9to5mac.com reports that violating the DMA’s App Store anti-steering rules could get Cupertino socked with and enormous fine…up to 10% of the company’s worldwide revenue. A final decision is expected by March 2025. The DMA rules require that an app store should inform customers of alternative purchase options, direct them to those offers and make those purchases — free of charge. Apple doesn’t do that at present. The DMA does say Apple may charge a fee for facilitating ‘the initial acquisition of a new customer’ via the App Store…it just can’t charge for each ongoing transaction. Expect Apple to fight this.
Amazon is getting set to unleash what they are calling ‘Remarkable Alexa.’ The AI powered version will hit users with a monthly fee of $5-10 a month. According to androidpolice.com, there will still be a free tier of Alexa. Amazon has been playing catch up on the AI front, as has Apple. Remarkable Alexa (sorry, sounds clunky Amazon) will feature improved home automation…although users will probably have to buy additional Alexa-branded hardware to use that. The paid tier won’t be bundled with your Prime subscription, it will be on top of that $139 per year. The company has apparently set a deadline of this August for Remarkable Alexa to be ready, so you early adapters be ready to shell out another $120 a year.
Google has announced that it is bringing its Gemini AI tech to teens using their school accounts. This is in addition to allowing them to access it through personal accounts. Techcrunch.com says that Google believe3s this will help prepare them with skills they will need in the future when generative AI is more commonplace. Google also says it will not use data from chats with students to train and improve its AI models, and has taken steps to ensure it’s bringing this technology to students responsibly. Gemini has guardrails that will prevent inappropriate responses, such as illegal or age-gated substances, from appearing in responses. It will also actively recommend teens use its double-check feature to help them develop information literacy and critical thinking skills.
This was obviously not a Musk super fan or fans. Dozens of Cybertrucks in Fort Lauderdale got a paint job of sorts last week. Someone sprayed the tailgates with ‘EFF’ Elon. Theverge.com reports the trucks were being held on a public parking lot due to a reported warranty problem with the windshield wiper. The tagging was apparently easily removed from the stainless steel trucks. One reporter said it wouldn’t surprise him if Elon started selling EFF Elon decals for a price…as he has monetized insults in the past.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Apple-Thinner iPhone, MacBook Pro; Surgeon General Wants Warning Labels on Social Media; McDonald’s Drops Drive-Thru AI from IBM; YouTube is Trialing Notes
Posted: June 17, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Apple, iPhone, News, technology Leave a commentAfter a bit of a waver when they dropped the miserable butterfly keyboard, it looks like Apple is back on its crusade to be thinner than ever. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the company wants to make a thinner iPhone and a MacBook Pro that will be perhaps thinner than an iPad Pro! The Apple Watch won’t evade the thinning, either. Gurman goes on to say that Apple is on the brink of introducing “a new class of Apple devices that should be the thinnest and lightest products in their categories across the whole tech industry.” The skinny new Cupertino gadgets may hit as soon as 2025 with the iPhone 17. As for the near future, here’s something cool in the upcoming iOS 18…you can change the wake word for Siri. No more Hey, Siri, or just Siri if you want. With Vocal Shortcuts, you can use your own…like Computer…like on Star Trek. This will only work on the iPhone at first…I can’t wait to say ‘Computer,’ instead of Siri…now if I can just find a reasonably priced Captain Kirk chair!
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is pressing Congress to pass legislation to introduce warning labels for social media platforms…much like the ones tobacco and alcohol products have had for decades. According to theverge.com, Murthy wrote in an essay that was published widely “The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor.” The chief doc pointed to studies that found almost half of adolescents say social media gives them body image issues and that those who spend over three hours a day on it are twice as likely to face symptoms of anxiety and depression. In addition to warning labels, Murthy is calling for legislation that shields young people from online harassment, abuse, exploitation, and exposure to extreme violence and sexual content in social media algorithms. Murthy proposed these protections alongside others that recommend banning platforms from collecting children’s data and restricting features like push notifications, autoplay, and infinite scroll, which he says “prey on developing brains and contribute to excessive use.”
Along with a few colleagues, I have been both amazed and amused at the hype over AI…which often doesn’t seem terribly intelligent. Now, gizmodo.com says McDonald’s is sunsetting its partnership of 2 year with IBM to test AI’s ability to replace drive-thru workers at over 100 restaurants. McDonald’s told Gizmodo this experiment with IBM has “given us the confidence that a voice-ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future.” Apparently it isn’t ready for prime time yet, though. One customer watched in disbelief as the AI system malfunctioned and ordered 2,510 McNuggets Meals, totaling $264.75. Another customer struggled with the AI system for roughly a minute attempting to order a Big Mac and drink, before a human took over to speed things along. Someone else tried to order a large water and ice cream, and the AI ended up ordering them three butter containers, four ketchup packets, and a caramel sundae!
YouTube is testing out a new feature that will allow viewers of videos to add ‘Notes’ to provide more context and info. Techcrunch.com reports that it sounds much like the Community Notes on X…which started when it was Twitter. According to Google, the Notes feature can be used for things like clarifying when a song is meant to be a parody, or letting viewers know when older footage is being portrayed as a current event. The pilot program is available for starters on mobile in the US in English. A limited number of users are initially going to get invites to write notes.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Apple & Open AI-No Payments For ChatGPT on Apple; YouTube Further Tightens Screws on Ad Blocking; UK Startup Has Rare-Earth Free Magnet for EVs; WhatsApp Will Support 32 Person Video Calls
Posted: June 13, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Apple, chatgpt, openai, technology Leave a commentIt has come out in legal filings that Apple has been collecting a stupendous amount of cash from Google-reportedly about $20 billion- to keep Google’s search as the default on Apple products. There has been speculation about how much Apple might be paying OpenAI to run ChatGPT on the latest iPhones and Macs. It turns out that Apple is paying zero. Appleinsider.com reports that OpenAI is doing it for the exposure to the billions of Apple users…for now. The reverse is true also…OpenAI isn’t paying Apple a dime, either. This deal could change in the future, and in fact Apple is still talking with Google about using their AI at some point. Apple Intelligence, the Apple branding for their AI, will run on device with iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, and on Macs running M1 chips or better. For more complex queries, limited info will go to Apple Cloud Compute…Apple’s super private and secure system. Queries that exceed what can be done there will then go to ChatGPT…but only after being authorized by the user. OpenAI claims it isn’t collecting any data from Apple Users.
YouTube has been relentless in their efforts to make it harder and harder to block ads. According to androidpolice.com, the latest move is a move by YouTube to server-side ad injection. This complicates ad delivery and delivery speed, but will make it tougher for now for ad blocker makers to help users skip ads. For YouTube, it also complicates things, as ad info will have to be sent to Premium members, so their client app can skip the ads. Expect ad blockers to figure out a way to take advantage of this to try again to block ads for non-premium members. This is not unlike the almost perpetual race between speed radar makers and radar detector makers that have played cat and mouse for decades. If the new system…being trialed right now… proves to cause too much lag time or hassle, YouTube may lose premium subscribers over it.
A startup in the United Kingdom has used AI to uncover a new way of making rare earth-free magnets for EVs. Thenextweb.com says Materials Nexus out of London had an algorithm analyze over 100 million combinations of materials to come up with a viable rare earth-free magnet. The reason this is a biggie is that we will eventually run out of rare earths like dysprosium and neodymium. also, a lot of them are mined in China, which makes the supply insecure should the Chinese decide to cut off exports. The substances are crucial for the magnets in the electric motors that power electric vehicles, among other uses…including microchips and superconductors.
WhatsApp is rolling out an update that…among other things…will allow up to 32 people on a video call. TechCrunch.com reports that they are also adding to the screen sharing they introduced last year with shared audio also available. Previously, you could have 32 on mobile, but now you can have 32 participants on Windows and Macs, too…can you say getting into Zoom’s britches a bit more? Meta has also introduced Meta Low Bitrate codec for WhatsApp to improve call reliability where a user has lousy network connectivity or is using an old device.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Better Texting between Android & iOS Coming; New Tech May Bring Holograms to Glasses-Size Wearable; ISPs Ask FCC for Tax on Big Tech; GM Pours $850 Million into Cruise Division
Posted: June 11, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, Google, News, Tech, technology Leave a commentBetter texting is coming between Android and iOS this fall, with the announcement at WWDC yesterday that iOS is getting RCS support. This comes on the heels of years of campaigning by Google and others to make Apple ‘play nice’ with Android messaging. Androidpolice.com reports that having RCS will bring “richer media and deliver and read receipts for those who don’t use iMessage.” Unfortunately, Apple didn’t elaborate much, so we don’t know if iOS will play completely nice with the Google standard, but it is at the very least a good move to have Apple Messages and Google Messages working better…now, you will have tapback support and scheduled messaging working cross platform. Bet that this DOESN’T mean Apple will stop putting non-iOS replies in the green bubbles…I bet they will never give up the exclusive blue bubbles for iPhone users!
In a study published in Nature Communications, some scientists have claimed that the wave developed a new device small enough to fit in a regular pair of glasses that can display realistic holograms. According to bgr.com, the new tech wouldn’t have to have such a narrow viewing angle as current tech with so-called ‘spatial light modulators.’ The new tech allows the field of light to be directly in front of the viewer, no matter where they look. No bulky headsets and just glasses-sized ones would be quite a breakthrough for VR and AR displays! Think of an Apple Vision Pro that you could put in your pocket, like a pair of glasses! There still remains the need right now for external power and probably external processing…so some sort of connection to a phone and or battery pack..but still, this is a big step forward.
Some ISPs, via a lobbying group, are asking the Federal Communications Commission to start levying new fees on Big Tech firms, with the money to go to subsidies for broadband network deployment and affordability programs. Arstechnica.com says approval of the request would make Big Tech drop money into the FCC’s Universal Service Fund, which distributes it to broadband providers. By the way, the ISPs are not exactly small players scrounging for crumbs in the business. They include AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink/Lumen and some smaller ISPs. USTelcom had already made similar arguments to the FCC. The USF doles out about $8 billion a year. Phone companies have to pay a percentage of their revenue into the fund, to cover folks who need a subsidy. Naturally, they hit us all with a fee for ‘Universal Service’ to recoup the tax by passing it directly on to us! We’ll keep an eye out to see if the Friendly Candy Company…the FCC…moves on this request. Expect Big Tech companies to fight it if they do.
General Motors has poured another $850 million into its Cruise division, helping to cover costs since the shutdown of the robotaxi service after hitting a pedestrian in San Francisco. Theverge.com notes that so far, Cruise has been a money pit for the General…the automaker has lost $8.2 billion on it since 2017. Now, Cruise is slowly deploying more cars back onto the road…albeit with human drivers behind the wheel for safety. Houston is the latest city to get Cruise vehicles…which are being driven by humans right now, but will switch to autonomous driving with human safety drivers in the next few weeks. They are also back on the road in Phoenix and Dallas…but not yet in San Francisco.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Apple WWDC ’24 – Some Highlights
Posted: June 10, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, iOS, iPhone, Mac, technology Leave a commentAfter about an hour of reveals about new features for iOS, MacOS, iPadOS, WatchOS, VisionOS, etc, Apple dove into what they call Apple Intelligence…AI for the Rest of Us…their branding for their expanded AI. Most will be on device, but some things will need to be elevated to the server level. Apple has what they claim will be secure ways to only share info needed to the servers and it won’t be saved. On top of that, they have integrated ChatGPT 4.o without a charge or account. If you have a ChatGPT account, it will still work the same on your device.
The much maligned Siri is getting a hefty AI upgrade, which look good…we’ll have to see how well they actually work when the operating systems are released to the public this fall. Of course, if you want to dive in earlier, a beta will be out of all their operating systems later this summer.
As for iOS 18, you will now be able to lock Apps as well as just the entire phone…requiring FaceID or TouchID to open them. They are making the screens vastly more customizable with layout, colors, and even a custom Control Center. A couple standout areas are improvements to Mail and Messages. Mail will get some machine learning help in separating your mail into categorized ‘buckets,’ including Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions. You can set to Primary, and screen out a lot of sales pitches or junk mail. For Messages, there is a huge expansion of emoji customization, and they can be used for tapback responses. A big plus if you are heading to the beach or mountains, or wilderness areas…messages will soon work over satellite, just like Emergency SOS…so you can stay in touch even in a non-emergency situation.
The WatchOS update gives you a deeper look at your vitals, including new overnight vitals. It also gets a new ‘training load’ measurement to check your workout intensity.
For iPad OS, the biggest headline to me was that scientific calculator is coming to the iPad at long last. They even have included ‘Scratch Math,’ which lets you write out formulas and the device will solve for you after an equals sign or it will automatically sum a stack of numbers when you draw a line under the last one. It will create graphs from your work, too, and you can save your work…and calculator works in Notes, too.
A new wrinkle for MacOS allows you to bring up your iPhone screen on your Mac…so if your phone is downstairs, and you want to use an app on it to order coffee ahead, you can do that. The iPhone screen on the actual device stays locked, to no one can get into it. iPhone notifications will also appear on your Mac…and with AI, notifications are prioritized and summarized if you are in Focus mode. You can drag and drop items and files from Mac to iPhone.
A big bump in Keychain power. New Passwords will let you use passwords, verification codes, etc across all your Apple devices. They will autofill as before, but you can do it on any device now…and they stay in the secure enclaves.
Photos also gets a major makeover across all devices. AI will help remove unwanted objects from images, or you can just tell Siri ‘make this picture pop’ and it will enhance the photo without going into the Edit functions and doing it manually.
There’s a lot more, but this gives you the Cliff’s Notes version, boiling things down from and hour and 45 minutes to just a few minutes.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Apple-ized’ for now.
New Intel Processors Coming; Threads Adds Swipe Left & Right Feature; Open AI & Google DeepMind Alums Warn of Serious Risk’ and Lack of Oversight in AI; Apple May Add ‘Respiration Tracking’ to Vision Pro
Posted: June 4, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, dating, iPad, iPhone, technology Leave a commentIntel is putting its foot on the gas with the new Lunar Lake chip. Theverge.com reports that the new system-on-a-chip design triples the size and more that quadruples the performance of its AI accelerator, while promising a 14% faster CPU at the same clock speed. Intel also brags about 50% more graphics performance and up to 60% better battery life than last year’s model. A really big change…no separate memory sticks or chips. Lunar Lake has either 16 or 32GB of memory right in the package itself. The downside? No ability to add more RAM. The move does cut power consumption by 40% though. Intel says for those needing more memory, they will roll out the Arrow Lake chip family later this year.
Threads has made some recent revisions to its interface, and now they have added swiping right to like a post, or left to indicate you aren’t interested. The movements echo those of Tinder, where you can swipe to like or ignore potential people. According to mashable.com, Threads and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said “We’ll use those signals to show you more posts like the ones you swipe right on and fewer of those you swipe left on. I hope this helps you find more posts that you’re interested in.” The feature can be a little confusing as you can only swipe left or right when scrolling through your feed (thankfully, a little heart or crossed out eye icon shows up to let you know what’s up when you start swiping). If you’re looking at a single post on Threads, you won’t be able to swipe left, and swiping right will bring you back to feed view.
There has been plenty of noise about AI developer firms playing fast and loose, and now comes an open letter from a number of former and current OpenAI employees describing concerns about the artificial intelligence industry’s rapid advancement despite a lack of oversight and an absence of whistleblower protections for those who wish to speak up. Cnbc quotes the letter as saying “AI companies have strong financial incentives to avoid effective oversight, and we do not believe bespoke structures of corporate governance are sufficient to change this.” The letter goes on to say “We also understand the serious risks posed by these technologies,” they wrote, adding that the companies “currently have only weak obligations to share some of this information with governments, and none with civil society. We do not think they can all be relied upon to share it voluntarily.” Besides the OpenAI employees and alums, the letter was signed by a couple Google DeepMind people.
A patent has turned up that indicates Apple may be going to add respiration tracking to the Vision Pro headset. Zdnet.com reports that the patent filing doesn’t really specify precisely what the respiration tracking would do for you, but code for it shows up under the Mindfulness app, so that’s a clue. Perhaps a personalized breathing exercise routine to reduce stress or such. It also isn’t clear when the feature might be released, but we may learn more after next Monday’s WWDC keynote. We will cover the World Wide Developers Conference keynote Monday for you with a recap you can scan or view…so no need to sit through the hype and Apple ‘reality distortion field.’
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Biggest Announcements from Microsoft Build; Apple COO in Taiwan Locking Down NexGen Chips;Scarlett Johansson Slams OpenAI for Mimicking Her Voice; Porsche Invests in Startup For Better Cold Weather Battery Performance
Posted: May 21, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Apple, Artificial Intelligence, Microsoft, technology Leave a commentMicrosoft just held a special event leading into Build 2024, and announced updates of Surface devices, and also teased some major developments in AI. Theverge.com reports that Microsoft CEO Nadella announced a new category of computers called Copilot Plus. The new units will run Arm based Snapdragon X Elite and Plus processors from Qualcomm, and down the road will run Intel and AMD chips. Microsoft claims Copilot Plus PCs will be 58% faster than the M3 MacBook Air. Besides Microsoft’s own Surface line, Copilot Plus devices are coming from Lenovo, Dell, Acer, Asus, and HP. One of the major AI features available within Copilot Plus PCs is Recall. The new tool runs locally on your device and logs everything you do on your computer, allowing you to search for and retrieve the content you’ve interacted with. That makes it possible to uncover a conversation you’ve had in apps like Discord, or even a specific PowerPoint slide you were working on. Copilot is getting OpenAI’s new GPT-4o model, which lets the AI answer questions based on what you see on your screen. So how much? The 13 inch Surface Pro starts at $999.99, and comes in blue, black, beige, and platinum. A new Surface Laptop 6 has 13.8 and 15 inch display options, and the lowball price model is also $999.99, with the same color choices as the Surface Pro.
Apple COO Jeff Williams has reportedly been to Taiwan, working to lock down a supply of the upcoming 2 nanometer chips from Taiwan Semiconductor. According to macrumors.com, the COO and the president of TSMC discussed custom AI chips built on the chipmaker’s 2nm process…due to go into production next year. The iPhone 15 Pro runs on the A17 Pro chip, which is a 3nm chip from TSMC. The smaller footprint allows more transistors to be packed into less space, increasing both efficiency and performance. Even the latest Apple M4 chip is using the 3nm process. TSMC projects a 10 to 15% performance gain and power consumption reductions of up the 30% with the upcoming 2nm chips compared to the latest 3nm ones.
Last fall, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI called Scarlett Johansson and pitched her on being the voice of the ChatGPT 4.0 system. The actress says she declined the offer after “much consideration and for personal reasons,” but when OpenAI demoed GPT-4o, the company’s latest large language model last week, “my friends, family, and the general public all noted how much the newest system named ’Sky’ sounded like me.” Engadget.com says that apparently Altman had called her 2 days before the debut and asked if she would reconsider…then put out the product before she could respond. The net is, Johansson hired an attorney, and now OpenAI is ‘pausing’ the use of “Sky”, the voice that sounds like Scarlett. Apparently it isn’t a clone of her voice, but another voice actor…and OpenAI claims it doesn’t mimic her voice. This is why SAG-AFTRA fought so hard in the strike last year for clauses it won that give actors, voice artists, and broadcasters under the new contracts the right to refuse a voice cloning, and if one is agreed to, a reasonable payment for the use of a person’s voice.
It is pretty widely known that EV battery packs drop pretty dramatically in performance in very cold or very hot weather. Now, Porsche has invested in a startup that claims their tech will make cold weather charging and performance more reliable. TechCrunch.com reports that South 8 Technologies has developed a method of filling batteries with pressurized, liquified gas electrolyte instead of a liquid one. The cold weather issue occurs because the low temperature makes the liquid electrolyte thicken. This should avoid that issue, and as a bonus, South 8 says they think it wall cut the cost of lithium ion batteries by some 30%! That’s huge, because with EV’s, the battery costs about a third of the entire vehicle! The South 8 Tech also reduces the size of the battery pack. Porsche is mainly excited about the cold weather improvements at this point. Lots of improvements are in the pipeline for EV batteries, and they can’t get here too soon!
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
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