Apple-Accessibility Eye Tracking for Recent iPhones & iPads; Google Opens Smart Home to Everyone; OpenA Chief Scientist Leaves; FTC Warns Car Makers About Selling User Data
Posted: May 15, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, Google, News, technology Leave a commentApple has announced new accessibility features. The biggie is built in eye tracking for iPhones and iPads. Engadget.com reports that devices with the A12 chip or later will gain the ability to use the front facing camera to navigate software without additional hardware or accessories. When enabled, people can look at their screen to move through elements like apps and menus…then linger on an item to select it. Another thing they are adding is vocal shortcuts. AI on the device creates personalized voice commands. You could maybe use Yo, and Siri will…or may…understand and then perform the shortcut or task you associated with the shortcut word. Voice control and color filters are coming to the interface for vehicles, making it easier to control apps by talking and for those with visual impairments to see menus or alerts. To that end, CarPlay is also getting bold and large text support, as well as sound recognition for noises like sirens or honks.
Google has announced it is opening API access to its Google Home Smart home platform. Now, according to theverge.com, any app maker, whether smart home related or not, can access the more than 600 million devices connected to Google Home and tap into the Google Home automation engine to make what they are calling smart solutions for users. Any device that uses the Matter protocol or which says Works with Google Home will be accessible.
Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI co-founder and long time chief scientist has left the building…and company. Techcrunch.com says that CEO Sam Altman posted on X about the departure last night. Altman called it a very sad day, and praised Ilya as having easily one of the greatest minds of our generation, a guiding light of our field,” and he also called him “a dear friend.” The big brained chief scientist is reportedly planning on working on something he called ‘personally meaningful.’ Ilya did say in a statement that he is leaving OpenAI with the “belief the company will build artificial general intelligence — AI capable of accomplishing any task a human can — that’s “both safe and beneficial.”
A warning has come out for automakers that sell connected cars…that’s virtually all of them these days. It’s from the Office of Technology of the FTC, and they said in a statement that Companies that offer such products “do not have the free license to monetize people’s information beyond purposes needed to provide their requested product or service.” Arstechnica.com notes that the FTC went on to say Just because executives and investors want recurring revenue streams, that does not “outweigh the need for meaningful privacy safeguards.” This sounds like a shot over the bow to car makers that the feds will be coming after them if they don’t stop peddling car owners’ data to all sorts of data brokers and other third parties.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Polestar-1st 10 Minute Charge EV; ChatGPT Saves Chat History Even if You Said No; Elon Cans Tesla EV Charging Team; Twitch New Discovery Feed Apes TikTok
Posted: May 1, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Electric cars, EV, News, polestar, Tesla Leave a commentIn a big, big first, Swedish EV maker Polestar has revealed the first 10 minute charging EV. Thenextweb.com reports that Polestar is using a so-called ‘silicon-dominant’ battery built by Israeli startup StoreDot. The battery uses silicon anodes instead of graphite. They can store 10 times the amount of lithium ions that graphite can, and take up much less space. This makes batteries that last longer and charge faster. Polestar dropped one of the battery packs in a working prototype of a Polestar 5…which is the model due out next year. It charged from 10% to 80% in under 10 minutes. This is what you call a game changer! The CEO of StoreDot, Dr Doron Myersdorf, said “Drivers can now truly travel long distances with the same freedom and convenience as traditional petrol-powered vehicles.” The batteries can be dropped into existing EV bodies, and can be charged using regular DC chargers.
ChatGPT now saves your chat history, even if you opted out of sharing your data to train the model. According to mashable.com, up to now, your chat history was only saved if you allowed OpenAI to use your conversations to help train the model…which forced users to to decide between keeping their data private and unrestricted functionality of the app. OpenAI has also released a Temporary Chat option…kind of a stealth mode for ChatGPT, which won’t show up in your chat history. If you are cool with the app keeping more tabs on your chat, you can turn on a Memory feature, and it will remember specific characteristics it has picked up from your conversations…oh, that’s not creepy at all.
In his continuing rampage after a down quarter, Elon Musk has continued laying off staff. Over 10% worldwide have already gotten the chop, and now yesterday, Musk fired virtually the entire EV charging team…the folks responsible for the Supercharger network. Reuters.com notes that this surprised and shocked other car makers who have deals with Tesla to give their customers access to the network. It also calls into question whether Tesla can keep federal subsidies it is getting to expand the reach of its North American Charging Standard system. As usual, Tesla has had no comment on the layoffs. GM and Ford have both announced that they will continue to equip EVs with connectors to use Tesla Superchargers.
Twitch has introduced its Discoverability Feed, that lets you scroll through live streams like on TikTok. Androidpolice.com reports that users can easily find personalized content on Twitch by scrolling vertically through live streams and clips…and also avoid ads. Even though it has been owned by Amazon since 2014, Twitch has heavy competition from YouTube Live, Kick, Rumble, and other platforms. The Discoverability feature should help small creators to grow their audience more quickly. The future is live on both iOS and Android right now.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Google Fires 28 Employees Over Protest; Media Coalition Asks Feds to Investigate Google Dropping Cal News Links; Algorithm May Double Lithium-Ion Battery Life; Boston Dynamics Robot Goes from Hydraulic to Electric
Posted: April 18, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Batteries, Electric vehicles, energy, News, technology Leave a commentGoogle has fired 28 employees over the sit in protests at two of its offices this week. Theverge.com reports that 9 employees had been suspended and then arrested in both California and New York on Tuesday. The employees were protesting Google’s hand in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion Israeli government cloud contract. Amazon is also involved in the Nimbus cloud project. The employees sitting in had to be forcibly removed by law enforcement from Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office. There are claims that Project Nimbus has been used by the Israel Defense Force in its campaign against Hamas in Gaza, where thousands have died.
The News/Media Alliance, previously known as the Newspaper Association of America, has ask the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission…as well as the California Attorney General…to investigate Google after Google removed links to California news media outlets. According to engadget.com, Google has acted in response to a pending legislative measure in Sacramento….which Google vociferously opposes. If the bill becomes law, it would require Google and other tech platforms to pay California media outlets in exchange for links. The bill passed the state Assembly last year. Heaven forbid that online platforms would have to actually PAY for news!
Researchers in Germany have come up with a new algorithm that may help double the life of lithium-ion batteries. Bgr.com says it works by changing the way electricity is sent to the batteries for charging. Right now, batteries get what’s called constant current. That tends to cause cracks in the battery electrodes over time. The new algorithm uses pulsed current. This results in a thinner interface and much less structural wear on the battery, allowing it to hold a higher energy capacity for longer. The researchers think the new algorithm can double the service life of lithium-ion batteries, keeping them at over 80% energy capacity retention. This will be particularly big for EVs, where the battery packs can be a huge expense to replace.
Boston Dynamics has had their rather amazing Atlas robot for a while now…the one that can walk, stand, jump, and all. It has been cool…but noisy, with hydraulically actuated motors whirring away. Now, TechCrunch.com reports that the new version of Atlas is all electric, no hydraulics. You can still hear the motors humming, but it is much quieter, and a bit less jerky in movement than the old versions. It is smoother…no cables showing, and not such a top heavy torso. the Head is a bit freaky…it looks kind of like a giant searchlight…and it rotates 180 degrees. Boston still won’t say when it will be ready for production at scale.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Meta Oversight Board Will Rule on AI-Generated Content; Tesla Pauses Cybertruck Production; Apple Considers Expanding to Indonesia; Ecovac Window Cleaning Robot
Posted: April 17, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cybertruck, Elon Musk, News, technology, Tesla Leave a commentMeta’s Oversight Board is handling a couple cases involving AI generated explicit images of public figures. Although engadget.com notes that Facebook and instagram prohibit nudity, the board is concerned about what is known as deepfake porn. That usually involves AI generated images of female celebrities, politicians, and other public figures. The board seems to be leaning towards pushing Meta to adopt new rules to address harassment by use of deepfakes on Meta’s platforms. The oversight board is looking for public comment in the next couple weeks, and after that will publish a decision in a few more weeks. It’s debatable whether platforms can keep up with AI generated deepfakes, which continue to get better, but good they are trying. A realistic fake video of President Biden earlier got Meta to agree to label AI generated content.
Tesla has stopped production and deliveries for the Cybertruck…all due to a serious safety issue. According to mashable.com, the pedal cover can come loose and slide up the pedal. It becomes wedged in an indent in the floor of the Cybertruck when the vehicle is floorboard. After that, the truck tries to continue to go flat out…you can counter it by jamming on the brake and holding that down, but it has caused some scary moments for new owners. A couple of Elon fan sites say the production pause is just for 7 days, but as with a lot of things Tesla…since Musk fired the PR department years ago…no official word.
As Apple continues to pull away from dependency on production in China…having set up shop in India, Vietnam, and South America, now Cupertino is eyeing Indonesia. Macrumors.com says that CEO Tom Cook recently met with the president of Indonesia. During the meeting, Cook apparently highlighted mutual interest in boosting local manufacturing. Cook visited Indonesia right after a trip to Vietnam where he met with the Prime Minister.
Lots of folks have robot vacuums. I even have a relative that has two of the handy…but pricy little rascals. Now, after some 10 years of making them, Ecovac has a really well working robot window cleaner. Zdnet.com reports that you can put on a cleaning pad, fill the tank…they recommend just water, and turn the little gadget loose and get those hard to reach outdoor windows sparkling clean. The latest greatest is called the Winbot W2 Omni, and while it sounds pretty great from reviews, it runs a substantial $600. When you can buy a Dyson vacuum for that or less, and robot vacuums for not a lot more, you may have to think twice about it…but what a slick deal. It can run about 110 minutes…unless you have a mansion or something like the Crystal Cathedral, you should be able to polish off your windows inside and out on one charge.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Samsung Retakes Top Smartphone Sales Spot; US Gives Samsung Billions for Chip Factory in TX; Tesla Lays off 10% Plus of Workforce; Super-Creepy Face Detecting AI Camera-Repeller
Posted: April 15, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, News, Samsung, Smartphone, technology Leave a commentSamsung has grabbed back the top spot in the worldwide smartphone race, passing up Apple. 9to5google.com reports that Samsung shipped 19.69 million smartphones first quarter, eclipsing Apple’s 17.41 million. Samsung is now reporting 20% market share, with Apple at 18%. Samsung had been the top smartphone maker for quite a while until being passed up by Apple. As Samsung comes out with new phones again this summer and then Apple in September, we’ll see if Cupertino can claw back the #1 spot.
We reported last week on the over $6 billion the US has given TSMC for their chip plants in Arizona and $8.5 billion to Intel for chip production here. Now, the feds have ponied $6.4 billion to Samsung for its facilities it is building in Texas. Samsung is investing $45 billion in the facilities over the next 10 years. All the funds are from the 2022 Chips and Science Act.
With sales softer first quarter, Tesla is now laying off over 10% of its workforce. Emails started going out yesterday. Engadget.com says that Tesla had over 140,000 employees as the end of December 2023. Elon Musk wrote in a memo “As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10 percent globally.” It is notable that Tesla had doubled its headcount since 2020, and in fact added 10% in 2023 alone. Deliveries were down 8% year over year, and now are expected to continue to be soft. Tesla announces first quarter earnings April 23rd.
The first thing that came to mind when I saw this is ‘lawsuit waiting to happen.’ Thenextweb.com reports that a startup in Slovenia has made an AI powered home security system. It has Via computer vision tech that works day and night. Owners can designate guests as friends or foe using an app…even designate pets. That’s all well and good, but this rig goes further. If someone unknown or listed as a foe comes on the property, a speaker warns them they have 5 seconds to leave. If they don’t, it shoots paintballs or tear gas at them. The system also records video. The Paintcam, as it is called, launches April 23rd…no pricing yet.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Google Builds Its First ARM CPUs; Microsoft Says Windows PC with Snapdragon Will Be Faster than M3 MacBook Air; WhatsApp Adding “Nudging”; Sam Altman and Former Apple Designer John Ive Look to Fund New Company to Make ‘AI Powered Personal Device
Posted: April 9, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple, Mac, Macbook, News, technology Leave a commentGoogle is building its own custom ARM based CPUs to support its AI work and data centers….and introducing a more powerful version of it Tensor Processing Units AI chips. Theverge.com reports that the new Google ARM based CPU is called Axion. It will be used to support Google’s AI workloads before it rolls out to business customers of Google cloud ‘later this year.’ The Axion chips are already powering YouTube ads, the Google Earth Engine, and other Google services. Google won’t be selling these chips to customers, instead making them available for cloud services that businesses can rent and use.
More about Arm chips. Microsoft is touting its upcoming Windows laptops with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite processor as being faster than a MacBook Air with Apple’s latest M3 chip. According to macrumors.com, internal documents say “Microsoft is so confident in these new Qualcomm chips that it’s planning a number of demos that will show how these processors will be faster than an M3 MacBook Air for CPU tasks, AI acceleration, and even app emulation.” The Snapdragon X Elite is ARM based, like Apple silicon. Note that Microsoft is comparing to the low end MacBook Air, and not Apple’s higher end M3 Pro and M3 Max chips. It will be interesting to see when the new Microsoft laptops come out what they do on independent benchmark tests against the Macs.
It smacks of the old Facebook ‘poke.’ WhatsApp is going to start nudging you to ‘start chatting’ with contacts you have never messaged. Androidpolice.com says this new so-called feature, which just sounds annoying to me, has showed up for some beta users, in version 2.24.9.5. The nudge shows up as ‘suggested contacts.’ The idea is to suggest new people to reach out to that come from the user’s own contact list. It isn’t overbearing about it, fortunately, and should be widely available for Android users soon, should you want to try it.
Former Apple design guru Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are looking for backing to start a new company that will ‘produce what thy are calling an ‘artificial intelligence powered personal device’. Arstechnica.com reports that The Information picked up the story, but nothing is known so far about the device. Will it be a wearable, something like a smartphone, or maybe even a personal robot assistant? Altman and Ive are trying to raise at least a billion for the new company. A number of big Silicon Valley hitters have already been approached.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
US Offers TSMC over $6 Billion for Arizona Chip Plant; Google Launches Find My Device Network; Apple Officially Allows Retro Game Emulators on App Store; OpenAI Transcribed Over a Million Hours of YouTube Videos
Posted: April 8, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: AI, Apple, Google, News, technology Leave a commentThe Biden Administration has offered TSMC up to $6 billion in government funding under a preliminary agreement announced by the government today. Cnbc.com reports that The funding, under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, will support Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s more than $65 billion investment in three cutting-edge fabrication plants in Phoenix, according to the nonbinding agreement. The Taiwanese multinational semiconductor company is also eligible for around $5 billion in proposed loans under the CHIPS Act. TSMC Arizona has already created more than 25,000 jobs and attracted 14 semiconductor suppliers to the state. Intel got $8.5 billion in indirect funding and up to $11 billion in loans last month under the CHIPS Act.
At long last, Google has launched its Find My Device network. According to engadget.com, the tech leverages a crowdsourced network of over a billion Android devices to help folks find their lost gadgets. It essentially has the same functionality as Apple’s Find My network and that of the Tile system. The Google one rolls out to US and Canadian users today…and Google says the worldwide release will be coming soon. As with the others, you can use the app to locate your device with a map. The map data will work even if the device is off line.
Apple has finally officially started allowing retro game emulators on the App Store. Engadget.com says updated Apple guidelines now say that retro gaming console emulator apps are welcome and can even offer downloadable games. Apple also reportedly confirmed to developers in an email that they can create and offer emulators on its marketplace. Apple warns developers, however, that they “are responsible for all such software offered in [their] app, including ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws.” Clearly, allowing emulators on the App Store doesn’t mean that it’s allowing pirated games, as well.
In the ongoing effort to train its Chat GPT4, OpenAI transcribed over a million hours of YouTube videos! Theverge.com reports that the company knew this was really questionable, but believed it to be fair use. OpenAI president Greg Brockman was personally involved in collecting the videos that were used. Google spokesperson Matt Bryant told The Verge in an email the company has “seen unconfirmed reports” of OpenAI’s activity, adding that “both our robots.txt files and Terms of Service prohibit unauthorized scraping or downloading of YouTube content.” Google has said it also trained its models on ‘some YouTube content,’ but did it into accordance with its agreements with YouTube creators. Apparently, all the Large Language Models are running out of content to scrape. Some data scientists think they may run out by 2028, and will need to train on ‘synthetic’ data…that seems scary.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
Satellite Texting Maybe Coming to Android; X Adds Blue Checks Back Free for Some Big Accounts; TSMC Restarts Making Apple Chips in Taiwan Waymo and Uber Start Driverless Food Deliveries in Phoenix
Posted: April 4, 2024 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Android, Apple, iPhone, News, technology Leave a commentiPhones have had emergency satellite texting since the iPhone 14, but it hasn’t been for general texting. Now, it looks like Android will leapfrog Apple with its version of satellite text. 9to5google.com reports that in a beta of Android 15, there are text strings that indicate things like ‘You can message with anyone, including emergency services,’ and ‘To send and receive, stay outside with a clear view of the sky.’ Another text string says ‘Satellite messaging may take longer and can’t include photos & videos.’ Apple has allegedly been working on satellite texting for other than emergencies, but not it appears that Android will beat them to the punch. The feature may be announced at Google I/O in May.
Much to the surprise of many X users, the platform has started giving out free Premium and Premium Plus memberships to accounts with a high number of verified followers. According to theverge.com, a number of big accounts started seeing the blue ‘Verified’ checkmark show up by their handles yesterday, and many have posted elsewhere that they are not paying a dime to X for the blue checks. Elon Musk…in a big backtrack…announced last week that X accounts with over 2500 ‘verified subscriber followers’ would get a free Premium membership, and those with over 5000 would get a free Premium Plus membership.
Primary Apple chip maker TSMC has started up chip production again in Taiwan after the big 7.4 quake Wednesday. Macrumors.com says TSMC claims more than 80% of its production lines for chips are back up and running, and that there was no damage to its most critical equipment. TSMC doesn’t expect any major hiccups that will affect Apple.
Waymo and Uber are partnering for driverless food deliveries in Phoenix. Arstechnica.com reports that Uber Eats customers can use the app to order food and may see the message “autonomous vehicles may deliver your order.” Waymo says you’ll be able to opt out of robot delivery at checkout if you want. You may actually want to depending on your situation…with the driverless deliveries, there’s no one to bring your food up to your door. You will have to run out to the vehicle when you get the note that it has arrived. The food is supposed to be in the trunk. If you do get a driverless delivery, your delivery tip will be refunded.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
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