tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-292226900973434672024-03-18T23:23:41.490-04:00therarefiedCurating books, movies, music, and the latest in science and technology.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4536125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-32609379857418563142024-03-17T21:33:00.004-04:002024-03-17T21:33:23.477-04:00Tech Roundup: E.U. AI Act, X Grok-1 Model Open Release & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>The E.U. Parliament approves landmark <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20240308IPR19015/artificial-intelligence-act-meps-adopt-landmark-law" target="_blank">AI Act</a> that puts safeguards on general purpose artificial intelligence, limits on the use of biometric identification systems by law enforcement, bans "AI applications that threaten citizens’ rights, including biometric categorisation systems based on sensitive characteristics and untargeted scraping of facial images from the internet or CCTV footage to create facial recognition databases."</li>
<li>A new investigation from the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) <a href="https://www.edps.europa.eu/press-publications/press-news/press-releases/2024/european-commissions-use-microsoft-365-infringes-data-protection-law-eu-institutions-and-bodies_en" target="_blank">finds</a> that the European Commission "infringed several key data protection rules when using Microsoft 365."</li>
<li>Bluesky <a href="https://bsky.social/about/blog/03-12-2024-stackable-moderation" target="_blank">open-sources</a> its collaborative moderation tool Ozone and plans to let users run their own independent moderation services.</li>
<li>Discord <a href="https://discord.com/blog/headed-to-gdc-2024-check-out-the-latest-news-for-discord-game-devs" target="_blank">unveils plans</a> to launch an Embedded App SDK that aims to let developers "build new games and experiences that can be played directly on the platform."</li>
<li>Apple <a href="https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=8c1m8hqt" target="_blank">debuts</a> App Store updates for the European Union to allow qualifying developers to offer apps on their websites via a Web Distribution tool from spring 2024; limits it to developers who had an app installed by over 1 million users the previous year.</li>
<li>Web browser makers Google, Apple, Mozilla and Microsoft <a href="https://browserbench.org/announcements/speedometer3/" target="_blank">announce</a> <a href="https://browserbench.org/Speedometer3.0/" target="_blank">Speedometer 3.0</a> to "measure web application responsiveness by simulating user interactions on real web pages."</li>
<li>ByteDance-owned TikTok is reportedly planning a separate TikTok Photos app for Android and iOS as it continues to take on Instagram.</li>
<li>AI company Midjourney <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/03/in-ironic-twist-midjourney-bans-rival-ai-firm-employees-for-scraping-its-image-data/" target="_blank">bans</a> competitor Stability AI from using its AI image-generating services, after it suffered an outage due to a Stability AI employee allegedly "trying to grab all the prompt and image pairs."</li>
<li>Amazon rolls out a <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/innovation-at-amazon/amazon-generative-ai-powered-product-listings" target="_blank">generative AI feature</a> to help create high-quality product detail pages using information from a seller's external website.</li>
<li>Anthropic <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-3-haiku" target="_blank">releases</a> Claude 3 Haiku that's tailored for high-volume, latency-sensitive applications, describing it as "the fastest and most affordable model" in its intelligence class.</li>
<li>Google's YouTube <a href="https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/designing-a-richer-youtube-experience-for-your-tvs/" target="_blank">revamps</a> its TV app to make the viewing experience more interactive and giving greater prominence to chapters, shopping, comments and video descriptions; brings YouTube Premium to <a href="https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6307365" target="_blank">nine new markets</a>, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Libya, Morocco, Réunion, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe.</li>
<li>Microsoft <a href="https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2024/03/13/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-26080-canary-and-dev-channels/" target="_blank">plans</a> to release a unified Teams app on Windows 11 later this year, letting users switch between multiple tenants and personal or work account types; to make Copilot for Security <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2024/03/13/microsoft-copilot-for-security-is-generally-available-on-april-1-2024-with-new-capabilities/" target="_blank">generally available</a> starting April 1, 2024, and expands <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2024/03/14/bringing-copilot-to-more-customers-worldwide-across-life-and-work/" target="_blank">Copilot Pro to 222 countries</a> with a one-month free trial.</li>
<li>OpenAI <a href="https://openai.com/blog/global-news-partnerships-le-monde-and-prisa-media" target="_blank">announces</a> partnerships with Le Monde and Prisa Media to bring French and Spanish language news content to ChatGPT and help train its AI models, adding to its existing licensing deals with Shutterstock, The Associated Press and Axel Springer and amid its <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/nyt-disputes-openai-hacking-claim-by-pointing-to-chatgpt-bypassing-paywalls/" target="_blank">legal battle</a> with The New York Times over allegedly bypassing paywalls to access entire articles to train its AI models.</li>
<li>Google DeepMind <a href="https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/sima-generalist-ai-agent-for-3d-virtual-environments/" target="_blank">unveils</a> a generalist AI agent called Scalable Instructable Multiworld Agent (SIMA) that can follow natural-language instructions to carry out tasks in a variety of video game settings an AI agent and play like a human.</li>
<li>Music streamer Spotify takes on YouTube by adding support for music videos to its mobile and desktop apps in beta in 11 markets, including Brazil, Italy, and the U.K., for Premium subscribers.</li>
<li>Google follows Apple's footsteps with a new "<a href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/14372887" target="_blank">external offers program</a>" that allows third-party developers to promote offers for in-app features and services in the E.U. region for a fee.</li>
<li>Meta-owned Instagram internally pilots a Spins feature for Reels that allows other people to swap out text or audio in a user's Reel; to shut down CrowdTangle in August 2024 and replace it with Meta Content Library that's available only for academic and nonprofit researchers.</li>
<li>Snapchat begins testing Infinite Retention Mode, which lets users save DMs indefinitely, bringing it closer to a pure-play messaging app like iMessage or WhatsApp.</li>
<li>The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) launched a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media aimed at turning public opinion in China against its government, according to a new report from <i><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-launched-cia-covert-influence-operation-against-china-2024-03-14/" target="_blank">Reuters</a></i>; promoted allegations that "members of the ruling Communist Party were hiding ill-gotten money overseas and slammed as corrupt and wasteful China's Belt and Road Initiative, which provides financing for infrastructure projects in the developing world."</li>
<li>Apple agrees to pay US$ 490 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company's CEO Tim Cook defrauded shareholders by concealing falling demand for iPhones in China in 2018; to face a lawsuit accusing the company of negligence over the potential stalking risks created by AirTags.</li>
<li>The Indian government revises its AI advisory to drop plans to require government approval before new AI models are launched after receiving criticism from entrepreneurs and investors.</li>
<li>The U.S. Federal Trade Commission launches an inquiry into Reddit's licensing of user data to AI companies; Reddit says the FTC is "conducting a non-public inquiry focused on our sale, licensing, or sharing of user-generated content with third parties to train AI models."</li>
<li>Adult entertainment platform Pornhub disables access to its site in the U.S. state of Texas following a court ruling that upheld a state law (HB 1181) requiring age-verification systems on porn websites; Pornhub calls the law "ineffective, haphazard and dangerous." (Pornhub has already pulled out of multiple states in response to a wave of age verification laws sweeping the country, including in Montana, Utah, Virginia and others.)</li>
<li>Italian authorities <a href="https://en.agcm.it/en/media/press-releases/2024/3/PS12543" target="_blank">fine TikTok</a> €10 million for fueling the spread of videos likely to harm the "psycho physical safety" of minor and vulnerable users; says the content is "disseminated through a 'recommendation system' based on algorithmic user profiling, which constantly selects which videos to target to each user in the 'For You' and 'Followed' sections, with the aim of increasing user interactions and time spent on the platform so to boost advertising revenue."</li>
<li>Microsoft-owned LinkedIn confirms it is working on adding puzzle-based games; to also rank companies in the games based on the scores of employees.</li>
<li>X formally open-sources the AI model underpinning its generative AI chatbot <a href="https://x.ai/blog/grok-os" target="_blank">Grok</a>, a 314 billion parameter Mixture-of-Experts model trained from scratch called Grok-1, releasing the "base model weights and network architecture."</li>
<li>Apple researchers detail <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.09611" target="_blank">MM1</a>, a series of multimodal LLMs with up to 30 billion parameters they say achieve state-of-the-art performance across multiple AI benchmarks.</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-68830194809974304932024-03-11T21:32:00.003-04:002024-03-11T21:32:43.411-04:00Tech Roundup: Apple E.U. Fine, China Smartphone Sales Slump & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>Apple gets <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_1161" target="_blank">fined €1.8 billion</a> in the E.U. for abusing its dominant position to stifle competition from rival music streaming services; the European Commission says "Apple applied restrictions on app developers preventing them from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app," as Apple <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/03/the-app-store-spotify-and-europes-thriving-digital-music-market/?1709553731" target="_blank">states</a> the decision "was reached despite the Commission's failure to uncover any credible evidence of consumer harm, and ignores the realities of a market that is thriving, competitive, and growing fast," and that "the primary advocate for this decision — and the biggest beneficiary — is <a href="https://newsroom.spotify.com/2024-03-04/the-european-commission-confirms-apples-anti-competitive-behavior-is-illegal-and-harms-consumers/" target="_blank">Spotify</a>."</li>
<li>Google outlines <a href="https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/complying-with-the-digital-markets-act/" target="_blank">updates</a> to comply with the E.U. Digital Markets Act (DMA), including changes to search results to "send more traffic to large intermediaries and aggregators, and less traffic to direct suppliers like hotels, airlines, merchants and restaurants."</li>
<li>Apple <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/guide/ios-17-4-features/" target="_blank">releases</a> iOS 17.4 with new default browser prompts in the E.U., support for <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-gb/118110" target="_blank">altenative app stores</a> (which will only for devices that are physically located in the region and users don't leave it for more than 30 days at a stretch), third-party browser engines, transcripts for Podcasts, 118 new emojis, and a new clock widget; music streamer Spotify submits an app update for the E.U. to provide pricing info within its iOS app and link users to its subscription options following new rules. (Apple has also removed a previous requirement that mandated a stand-by letter of credit for €1 million in order to start an alternative app marketplace. In addition, the company plans to let E.U.-based iPhone users uninstall Safari by 2024's end and is working on a more "user-friendly" way to let them switch to Android by fall 2025.)</li>
<li>ByteDance-owned TikTok moves its Creativity Program out of beta, rebranding it as <a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/for-creators-future-format-summit" target="_blank">Creator Rewards Program</a>; allows videos longer than a minute to be monetised.</li>
<li>Microsoft plans to end support for its Android subsystem in Windows 11 on March 5, 2025, and discontinue the Amazon Appstore on Windows.</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://blog.google/products/search/google-search-update-march-2024/" target="_blank">rolls out updates</a> to its Search ranking, including downranking content that summarises others' work, to counter the spread of AI content and low-quality content in results; officially stops showing recommendations on YouTube when signed out or using the service in private browsing mode.</li>
<li>Linux hits 4.03% desktop OS market share in February 2024, after taking 30 years to hit 3% in June 2023.</li>
<li>Nothing debuts the 6.7" Phone (2a), its first budget phone, with a 5,000mAh battery, MediaTek chip, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for £319.</li>
<li>Web infrastructure company Cloudflare announces <a href="https://blog.cloudflare.com/firewall-for-ai" target="_blank">Firewall for AI</a>, a protection layer that companies can deploy in front of large language models (LLMs) to find abuses and prompt injection attacks before they can reach the models.</li>
<li>Chinese smartphone sales <a href="https://www.counterpointresearch.com/insights/china-smartphone-sales-first-6-weeks-2024-double-digit-declines-for-apple-oppo-vivo/" target="_blank">decline</a> 7% YoY in the first six weeks of 2024; Huawei rises 64% YoY, while Apple, OPPO and vivo drop 24%, 29% and 15% YoY, respectively.</li>
<li>X's audio and video calls, which are enabled by default, are <a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/using-x/direct-messages/audio-video-calls" target="_blank">peer-to-peer and disclose users' IP addresses</a> to each other, unless "Enhanced call privacy" is enabled, the company reveals; unveils Articles, a feature for writing and sharing long-form content in a basic text-editing interface, for verified organizations and Premium+ subscribers, and plans to <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-no-choice-open-chatbot-grok/" target="_blank">open-source its Grok AI chatbot</a> this week as well as allow users to watch long-form videos on the platform via a dedicated app for smart TVs.</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://blog.google/products/pixel/pixel-feature-drop-march-2024/" target="_blank">releases</a> Pixel updates with a Hello button to let Google Assistant screen calls, Circle to Search on Pixel 7, and 10-bit HDR video uploads to Instagram; </li>
<li>Meta's Instagram <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2024/03/instagram-dm-updates/" target="_blank">adds</a> options to edit direct messages up to 15 minutes after sending them, pin three messaging threads to the top of inbox, and save favorite stickers; says it's working on an AI system to power video recommendations across its entire ecosystem.</li>
<li>Anthropic announces <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-3-family" target="_blank">Claude 3</a> (comes in three flavours Haiku, Sonnet and Opus), which it says outperforms its peers on most of the common evaluation benchmarks for AI systems and exhibits <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/03/claude-3-seems-to-detect-when-it-is-being-tested-sparking-ai-buzz-online/" target="_blank">near-human levels</a> of comprehension and fluency on complex tasks.</li>
<li>OpenAI updates ChatGPT with a "read aloud" feature supporting 37 languages, letting ChatGPT read its responses out loud across desktop and mobile; responds to Elon Musk's lawsuit against the company by <a href="https://openai.com/blog/openai-elon-musk" target="_blank">claiming</a> that it's making its "technology broadly usable in ways that empower people."</li>
<li>Wix debuts a new <a href="https://www.wix.com/ai-website-builder" target="_blank">AI site builder</a> that allows users to create websites using text prompts; comes with options to adjust the theme, layout, images and text.</li>
<li>Apple announces a new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air with M3, offering an 8-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU, starting at US$ 1,099 or US$ 1,299.</li>
<li>Accenture announces plans to acquire Udacity as part of an effort to build a learning platform focused on the growing interest in AI.</li>
<li>Apple briefly <a href="https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/apple-terminated-epic-s-developer-account" target="_blank">terminates</a> Epic Games' developer account worldwide due to the game developer's pattern of untrustworthy behaviour, effectively stifling its third-party app store ambitions in the E.U., but reinstates its developer account after the company "committed to follow the rules"; adds new iOS API that allows third-party budgeting apps to access Apple Card transactions in real-time.</li>
<li>Music streaming service TIDAL <a href="https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/23008953804945-Upcoming-Changes-to-TIDAL-Subscriptions" target="_blank">consolidates</a> its premium plans to a single subscription tier called TIDAL for US$ 10.99/month; to get rid of the free tier starting April 10, 2024.</li>
<li>Spain's data protection watchdog blocks cryptocurrency project Worldcoin over privacy concerns and possible GDPR violations, asking the company to immediately cease collecting personal information in the country via eyeball-scanning orbs scans (in return for cryptocurrency) and that it stops using data it has already gathered; Worldcoin says its business is fully compliant with all E.U. laws pertaining to biometrics, data transfer, data processing and data protection.</li>
<li>Meta <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2024/attorney-general-james-leads-bipartisan-coalition-calling-meta-protect-users" target="_blank">faces</a> a new complaint from the U.S. state attorneys general over its failure to assist Facebook and Instagram users whose accounts have been hacked by scammers; say they "have experienced a dramatic and persistent spike in complaints in recent years concerning account takeovers."</li>
<li>Music streamer Spotify <a href="https://newsroom.spotify.com/2024-03-07/spotify-to-adjust-its-prices-over-new-tax-in-france/" target="_blank">reveals plans</a> to raise its prices in France due to a new tax law that adds a 1.2% tax on streaming companies' revenue to help finance local music creation.</li>
<li>Telegram introduces new option that lets users on the chat app with personal accounts convert them into business accounts by paying a monthly fee, as it hits 900 million active users.</li>
<li>Reddit begins piloting <a href="https://www.redditinc.com/blog/introducing-the-new-toolkit-for-business-growth-reddit-pro-is-here" target="_blank">Reddit Pro</a>, a free suite of tools to let businesses improve their engagement, including the ability to see which subreddits are mentioning a brand.</li>
<li>Meta-owned Instagram's total app downloads grows 20% YoY in 2023 to 768 million, making it the most downloaded app worldwide, surpassing TikTok's 733 million downloads.</li>
<li>Microsoft implements <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/08/microsoft-blocking-terms-that-cause-its-ai-to-create-violent-images.html" target="_blank">new guardrails</a> to Copilot following concerns that the artificial intelligence tool could be used to create violent, sexual images as well as produce images that violate copyright laws.</li>
<li>Short-term rental platform Airbnb <a href="https://news.airbnb.com/an-update-on-our-policy-on-security-cameras/" target="_blank">bans</a> the use of indoor security cameras in all of its listings globally as part of its efforts to "to prioritise the privacy of our community."</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-49534343479415668342024-03-05T20:28:00.004-05:002024-03-06T21:25:46.932-05:00Tech Roundup: MacPaw Setapp App Store, Meta Threads API & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>Indian IT watchdog MeitY issues an advisory asking developers to seek "explicit permission" before deploying any AI models or AI-backed algorithms for users in the country; instructs companies to label all synthetically created media and text or to embed such artificially generated content with unique identifier or metadata so that it is easily identifiable.</li>
<li>Microsoft <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-and-mistral-ai-announce-new-partnership-to-accelerate-ai-innovation-and-introduce-mistral-large-first-on-azure/" target="_blank">announces</a> a new multiyear partnership with French AI startup Mistral by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/france-had-no-prior-knowledge-microsofts-mistral-ai-deal-official-says-2024-02-28/" target="_blank">investing €15 million</a>, as it looks beyond OpenAI; comes as Mistral releases <a href="https://mistral.ai/news/mistral-large/" target="_blank">Mistral Large</a>, its latest AI model for "complex multilingual reasoning tasks, including text understanding, transformation and code generation."</li>
<li>Meta's Instagram confirms it's working on a Friend Map feature, which is similar to Snapchat's Snap Map and allows users to see their friends' locations in real-time; drops its lawsuit against Israeli web scraping company Bright Data after a U.S. court ruled the social media giant had not presented sufficient evidence that the firm had scraped anything other than public data.</li>
<li>Caller identity services company Truecaller launches call recording and transcription for paid users in India, more than six months after introducing the former in the U.S.</li>
<li>OpenAI asks U.S. federal court to dismiss parts of the New York Times' copyright suit against it, alleging it "paid someone to hack OpenAI's products" (aka prompt engineering) and violated OpenAI's terms of use to generate 100 examples of copyright infringement for its case. (The company is also facing three new fresh lawsuits from The Intercept, Raw Story and AlterNet, who have sued OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement, including the removal of author, title and other copyright information while training AI models. The publications have also pointed out how OpenAI offers an opt-out system so website owners can block content from its web crawlers, meaning that the company must be aware of potential copyright infringement. In a related development, Elon Musk has sued OpenAI and Sam Altman, accusing them of betraying an agreement from OpenAI's founding to develop AI toward the "benefit of humanity" over profits, a claim the company has <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/03/01/openai-rejects-elon-musk-lawsuit-claims" target="_blank">rejected</a>.)</li>
<li>Google's YouTube Music adds support for offline downloads on desktop web; <a href="https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6220402?hl=en" target="_blank">updates Google Photos</a> with an improved memories features that leverages users' activity data for added personalisation, and rolls out support for glanceable directions in Maps on Android and iOS.</li>
<li>Apple winds down its long-running effort to build an autonomous electric car, codenamed Project Titan, after <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/technology/behind-the-apple-car-dead.html" target="_blank">spending more than US$ 10 billion</a> and investing more than a decade into the efforts.</li>
<li>Substack debuts direct messaging, letting users have private one-on-one conversations on the newsletter platform.</li>
<li>Adobe unveils <a href="https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2024/02/28/adobe-research-audio-creation-editing" target="_blank">Project Music GenAI Control</a>, a platform that can generate audio from text descriptions or a reference melody and let users customise the results.</li>
<li>Axel Springer and 31 other media groups in Europe file a US$ 2.3 billion lawsuit against Google, alleging that they suffered losses due to its digital ad practices.</li>
<li>Indian streaming services JioCinema and Disney+Hotstar to merge after Reliance, its portfolio company Viacom18, and Disney combine their businesses in the country in a deal valued at US$ 8.5 billion. (The joint venture is expected to reach more than 750 million viewers across India and complete by the end of March 2025.)</li>
<li>Automattic, which owns Tumblr and WordPress, <a href="https://www.404media.co/wordpress-firehose-allows-ai-companies-to-buy-access-to-a-million-posts-a-day/" target="_blank">enters into talks</a> with AI companies Midjourney and OpenAI to provide training data scraped from users' posts; <a href="https://automattic.com/2024/02/27/protecting-user-choice/" target="_blank">adds a new setting</a> that will allow users to opt-out of data sharing with third-parties, including AI firms.</li>
<li>Bitcoin surges, briefly touching $64,000 for the first time since November 2021.</li>
<li>Indian government <a href="https://www.medianama.com/2024/02/223-indian-railway-coaches-cameras/" target="_blank">announces</a> proposals for a facial recognition system that spans its massive railway network by installing face-detecting CCTV cameras across 44,038 coaches.</li>
<li>Messaging app Telegram launches an ad revenue sharing system for channel owners in nearly 100 countries, with a 50/50 split with channel owners that will be paid out in toncoin.</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://www.adweek.com/media/google-paying-publishers-unreleased-gen-ai/" target="_blank">says</a> it's working with under-resourced publishers to test a generative AI platform designed to produce news articles and "create aggregated content more efficiently by indexing recently published reports generated by other organizations, like government agencies and neighboring news outlets, and then summarizing and publishing them as a new article."</li>
<li>Apple debuts a new Heavy Rotation Mix playlist on Apple Music, offering users easy access to songs that they listen to most.</li>
<li>Brave launches AI-powered assistant Leo to help create real-time summaries of webpages or videos, and generate long form content.</li>
<li>Microsoft launches <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2024/02/29/introducing-microsoft-copilot-for-finance-the-newest-copilot-offering-in-microsoft-365-designed-to-transform-modern-finance/" target="_blank">Copilot for Finance</a> in public preview, allowing users reconcile data in Excel and summarise relevant customer account details in Outlook; updates Windows 11 with Copilot improvements and the ability to select and remove unwanted objects in photos via Generative Erase.</li>
<li>X (formerly Twitter) adds a feature that lets Spaces hosts enable live video when they create a new session; comes as Mastodon makes it possible for users to share their profiles via QR codes; quietly reinstates deadnaming and misgendering policy that aims to "reduce the visibility of posts that purposefully use different pronouns to address someone other than what that person uses for themselves, or that use a previous name that someone no longer goes by as part of their transition" after dropping it in April 2023.</li>
<li>Stack Overflow launches OverflowAPI to give AI companies access to its knowledge base; partners with Google to "surface important knowledge base information and coding assistance capabilities to developers."</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://blog.google/products/chrome/google-chrome-update-february-2024/" target="_blank">announces</a> a trio of new features for Chrome browser, letting users get search suggestions based on what others are looking for, see more images for suggested searches and find search suggestions even with a poor connection.</li>
<li>HP introduces a print subscription service <a href="https://press.hp.com/us/en/blogs/2024/hp-all-in-plan.html" target="_blank">All-in Plan</a> that starts at US$ 6.99 per month; allows users to choose a printer of their choice, a specific amount of printed pages, get ink delivered and an option to upgrade after two years.</li>
<li>Software development company MacPaw <a href="https://macpaw.com/news/setapp-ios-beta-announcement" target="_blank">announces</a> plans to launch <a href="https://setapp.com/" target="_blank">Setapp</a> as an alternative app store in the European Union next month with a curation of "carefully selected assortment of apps."</li>
<li>Meta says its Threads API will be broadly available to developers by June 2024 and plans to deprecate the Facebook News tab in the U.S. and Australia in early April 2024 after deprecating the feature in the U.K., France and Germany last year; to stop signing deals for traditional news content in those countries.</li>
<li>Apple backtracks on removing support for progressive web apps in the E.U. after criticism; says a number of government agencies in the region and elsewhere have voiced concerns about security risks associated with sideloading apps, a key requirement of the Digital Markets Act. (Apple's "proposed scheme for compliance" has also been <a href="https://newsroom.spotify.com/2024-03-01/a-letter-to-the-european-commission-on-apples-lack-of-dma-compliance/" target="_blank">met with disapproval</a> from Spotify, Epic Games, Deezer and others, who said the new terms "make a mockery of the DMA and the considerable efforts by the European Commission and EU institutions to make digital markets competitive.")</li>
<li>Google confirms it's blocking RCS-based messaging features on rooted Android devices in a bid to prevent spam and abuse; <a href="https://blog.google/intl/en-in/products/platforms/upholding-a-fair-and-equitable-experience-for-indias-thriving-digital-ecosystem/" target="_blank">pulls more than 12 popular apps</a> such as Shaadi, Matrimony.com, Bharat Matrimony, Naukri, 99acres, Kuku FM, Stage, Altt and QuackQuack from the Play Store in India for persistently not complying with billing policies by either integrating Google Play's billing system or an alternate solution, escalating a three-year dispute in the country. (Some of these apps have been reinstated on the Play Store sans in-app purchases features.)</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-30560089173421647082024-02-26T20:42:00.001-05:002024-02-26T20:47:22.899-05:00Tech Roundup: E.U. TikTok Probe, Samsung Galaxy Ring & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>The European Commission <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_926" target="_blank">opens</a> formal probe into TikTok to assess whether the company has breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to the "protection of minors, advertising transparency, data access for researchers, as well as the risk management of addictive design and harmful content."</li>
<li>Investigations into "child influencer" accounts on Facebook and Instagram have found that Meta is knowingly allowing parents who sexually exploit their children for financial gain on the platform using its paid subscription tools, according to separate reports published by <i><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/22/us/instagram-child-influencers.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a></i> and <i><a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/meta-staff-found-instagram-subscription-tool-enabled-child-exploitation-the-company-pressed-ahead-anyway-a18e81e6" target="_blank">The Wall Street Journal</a></i>.</li>
<li>Messaging app Signal finally rolls out usernames in beta, letting users conceal their phone numbers.</li>
<li>Apple debuts a monthly Apple Music Replay, offering statistics about users' listening habits on a more regular basis and tests a new feature that allows users to import songs and playlists into their library from rival streaming services like Spotify; <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/102643" target="_blank">warns users</a> against putting their iPhones in a bag of rice, saying "doing so could allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone."</li>
<li>Adobe launches <a href="https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2024/Adobe-Brings-Conversational-AI-to-Trillions-of-PDFs-with-the-New-AI-Assistant-in-Reader-and-Acrobat/default.aspx" target="_blank">AI Assistant</a> in Acrobat in beta, to summarise and generate insights from PDFs, answer and recommend questions, allowing paying users "easily chat with documents."</li>
<li>Microsoft announces plans to deprecate Publisher in 2026.</li>
<li>Tinder plans to roll out its new <a href="https://www.tinderpressroom.com/2024-02-20-Tinder-Announces-ID-Verification-Is-Expanding-To-Users-In-The-US,-UK,-Brazil-Mexico" target="_blank">ID checks</a> in the U.S., the U.K., Brazil and Mexico, after tests in Australia and New Zealand, to combat AI scams and dating crimes.</li>
<li>Meta's WhatsApp rolls out support for bulleted and numbered lists, block quotes, and inline code to highlight and organize messages across platforms; tests letting users cross post from Facebook to Threads.</li>
<li>Apple debuts Apple Sports, a free app offering scores and stats for the NBA, NHL, Premier League and others in the U.S. Canada and the U.K.; says the iPhone 15 lineup can retain up to 80% of its original battery capacity at 1,000 charge cycles, up from its original estimate of 500 charge cycles.</li>
<li>Apple secures top seven positions in the global list of best-selling smartphones in 2023 for the first time, led by iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro, according to <a href="https://www.counterpointresearch.com/insights/apple-captures-top-7-spots-in-global-top-10-best-selling-smartphones/" target="_blank">Counterpoint Research</a>.</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2024/02/new-google-sign-in-page.html" target="_blank">rolls out</a> a new sign-in page; unveils two open models <a href="https://blog.google/technology/developers/gemma-open-models/" target="_blank">Gemma 2B and Gemma 7B</a> that it says were "used to create the Gemini models" and officially debuts <a href="https://workspace.google.com/blog/product-announcements/gemini-for-google-workspace" target="_blank">Gemini for Workspace</a>.</li>
<li>Walmart-backed PhonePe launches an Android app stpre <a href="https://www.indusappstore.com/" target="_blank">Indus Appstore</a> in India to take on Google; comes with over 200,00 apps from Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Spotify and other developers.</li>
<li>Reddit reports 73 million 73 million average daily active users and 267 million average weekly active uniques, as it files to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "RDDT."</li>
<li>Bluesky <a href="https://bsky.social/about/blog/02-22-2024-open-social-web" target="_blank">opens up federation</a>, letting anyone run their own server that connects to Bluesky's network using the AT Protocol. (However, it's not interoperable with Mastodon, which uses a different protocol called ActivityPub.)</li>
<li>Newsletter platform Substack surpasses 3 million subcribers on its platform, up from 2 million in February 2023; allows writers to curate and share a list of publications for their readers to subscribe to.</li>
<li>Google announces a new "<a href="https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/14582048" target="_blank">Help me write</a>" feature in Chrome browser to get writing suggestions and says it will "pause the image generation of people" via Gemini and "re-release an improved version soon" in order to fix its <a href="https://blog.google/products/gemini/gemini-image-generation-issue/" target="_blank">race inaccuracy errors</a>; to discontinue peer-to-peer payments via GPay in the U.S., as it urges users to transition to Google Wallet. (As <i>The Atlantic</i> <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/02/google-gemini-diverse-nazis/677575/" target="_blank">succintly</a> puts, Google — and other generative-AI creators — are trapped in a bind. Generative AI is hyped not because it produces truthful or historically accurate representations: It's hyped because it allows the general public to instantly produce fantastical images that match a given prompt. Bad actors will always be able to abuse these systems.)</li>
<li>Stability AI debuts a preview of <a href="https://stability.ai/news/stable-diffusion-3" target="_blank">Stable Diffusion 3</a>, its next-gen flagship text-to-image model, aiming to offer improved image quality and better performance.</li>
<li>Meta's Instagram launches its <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2024/02/creator-marketplace-for-brands-and-creators-to-collaborate-on-instagram/" target="_blank">creator marketplace</a> tool to connect brands with creators for paid partnerships or ads in eight new countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Japan, New Zealand, and the U.K.; comes as Spotify announces <a href="https://newsroom.spotify.com/2024-02-21/spotify-aux-music-consultancy-for-brands/" target="_blank">AUX</a>, its in-house music advisory agency for brands to "deepen the connections between artists, brands and fans."</li>
<li>X starts rolling out audio and video calling to all users, after previously limiting the feature to Premium subscribers.</li>
<li>The Browser Company's Arc launches a "pinch-to-summarize" AI feature in its Arc Search app that puts a webpage's main points into a neatly formatted summary.</li>
<li>Privacy-focussed messaging apps Signal and Threema say they don't have any plans to offer compatibility with Meta's WhatsApp after the latter said it intends to open the platform with other messaging services to comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA); says doing so "would mean a deterioration of our data protection standards."</li>
<li>Microsoft announces "Generative erase", which uses generative AI to remove objects and people from images; to be available in the Photos app in Windows 10 and Windows 11.</li>
<li>Apple faces scrutiny in the E.U. over its decision to completely block progressive web apps, as the antitrust regulators begins probing third-party developers.</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://blog.google/products/android/new-android-features-february-2024/" target="_blank">announces</a> new Wear OS updates, including revamping notifications to improve battery life, Google Maps public transit directions and Google Wallet passes; adds options for handwritten annotations to Docs and AI-powered text summaries for Android Auto, and debuts a new feature called Chat with Gemini in its Messages app for Android to "draft messages, brainstorm ideas, plan events or simply have a fun conversation."</li>
<li>Samsung unveils Galaxy Ring, its latest wearable that comes with heart rate and sleep monitoring; also integrates with AI to give deeper insights into a person's health.</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-22155972719630270322024-02-22T21:40:00.000-05:002024-02-22T21:40:15.608-05:00Best Movies So Far - 2024It's 2023 and it's time to list the films we're most anticipating this year. Do note the list is by no means definitive and will be revised as the year rolls on!<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Must watch movies this year: </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>And the others: Bramayugam (AA)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>On my watch list: Immaculate, Sebastian, A Different Man, Nocturnes, The Seeding, Kottukkaali</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-13661549248565695002024-02-18T20:17:00.005-05:002024-02-20T03:44:38.687-05:00Tech Roundup: E.U. Digital Services Act, OpenAI Sora & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>The European Union's Digital Services Act (<a href="https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/digital-services-act_en" target="_blank">DSA</a>) <a href="https://commission.europa.eu/news/new-rules-protect-your-rights-and-activity-online-eu-2024-02-16_en" target="_blank">starts applying</a> to all online intermediaries in the bloc, except for businesses with under €10 million in annual revenue or fewer than 50 staff, from February 17, 2024; obligations include a ban on targeting underage users with ads based on their personal data, and targeting anyone based on sensitive data like sexual preferences or religious beliefs.</li>
<li>Amazon faces new class-action lawsuit that accuses the retail giant of rigging its platform to "routinely" push an overwhelming majority of customers to pay more for items that could've been purchased at lower costs with equal or faster delivery times.</li>
<li>Meta's WhatsApp pilots a new feature called Favorites, which allows users to separate their frequently contacted chats from the main chat list and quickly access important conversations; Threads rolls out a new test in the U.S. that shows a list of popular topics on the platform, as WhatsApp trials a redesigned Updates tab.</li>
<li>Google rolls out its Companion Mode to Meet for Android and iOS, letting users check in, share an emoji reaction, raise their hand and turn on captions.</li>
<li>The E.U. <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/mex_24_785" target="_blank">ends</a> its Digital Markets Act (DMA) investigation into iMessage and Microsoft Bing, Edge and Advertising, deciding not to designate them as gatekeepers and regulate the services due to their lack of dominance.</li>
<li>OpenAI says it's experimenting with adding a form of <a href="https://openai.com/blog/memory-and-new-controls-for-chatgpt" target="_blank">long-term memory</a> to ChatGPT that will allow it to remember details between conversations, and debuts temporary chats a way to converse without appearing in history, memory or used for training its models; warns of "very subtle societal misalignments" that could make AI systems wreak havoc.</li>
<li>Meta said it's matching existing fact checks to "near-identical content on Threads", and that it plams to let fact-checkers rate content directly on Threads.</li>
<li>Google unveils <a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-gemini-next-generation-model-february-2024/" target="_blank">Gemini 1.5</a>, which offers "dramatically enhanced performance" and "achieves comparable quality to 1.0 Ultra, while using less compute."</li>
<li>Apple unveils a new AI tool called <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.06071" target="_blank">Keyframer</a>, which harnesses the power of large language models (LLMs) to animate static images through natural language prompts; to allow users to generate a virtual card number in the next version of iOS for spending Apple Cash when Apple Pay isn't an online option.</li>
<li>Google pilots new feature that lets Android users open PDF files on the Chrome browser, as it adds an "Android Safe Browsing" page to protect against active threats by means of a "live threat protection" toggle which enables "more accurate threat detection."</li>
<li>Chipmaker NVIDIA overtakes Alphabet and Amazon on February 14 as the third most valuable U.S. company and the world's fourth with a market cap of US$ 1.83 trillion after Microsoft (US$ 3.04 trillion), Apple (US$ 2.84 trillion) and Saudi Aramco (US$ 2.062 trillion), as demand for graphics processors such as <a href="https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/h100/" target="_blank">H100</a> continues to soar amid the AI boom.</li>
<li>Salesforce-owned Slack <a href="https://slack.com/intl/en-in/blog/news/slack-ai-has-arrived" target="_blank">launches</a> AI features that summarise threads, offer channel recaps and let users ask questions as a paid add-on to Enterprise users.</li>
<li>Privacy-focused browser DuckDuckGo adds an encrypted <a href="https://spreadprivacy.com/password-sync-backup/" target="_blank">Sync & Backup tool</a> that syncs passwords, bookmarks and favorites without requiring an account.</li>
<li>X (formerly Twitter) removes paid checkmarks from some accounts after the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) <a href="https://www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/x-provides-premium-perks-to-hezbollah-other-us-sanctioned-groups" target="_blank">found</a> 28 verified accounts allegedly tied to Hezbollah and other U.S.-sanctioned entities.</li>
<li>OpenAI unveils <a href="https://openai.com/sora" target="_blank">Sora</a>, its first text-to-video model, which can create up to a minute of 1080p photorealistic video, as it takes on Google's <a href="https://lumiere-video.github.io/" target="_blank">Lumiere</a> and <a href="https://sites.research.google/videopoet/text-to-video/" target="_blank">VideoPoet</a>; says it's also "building tools to help detect misleading content such as a detection classifier that can tell when a video was generated by Sora."</li>
<li>Google plans to let businesses install its auto-updating <a href="https://chromeenterprise.google/intl/en_uk/os/chromeosflex/" target="_blank">ChromeOS Flex</a> on Windows 10 devices, to help prevent hundreds of millions of PCs from hitting landfills in 2025. (Microsoft has said that its Windows 10 will reach the end of support on October 14, 2025, and will no longer provide regular security updates, bug fixes, or technical support.)</li>
<li>Google's YouTube releases a <a href="https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/youtube-shorts-remix/" target="_blank">new feature</a> that lets users remix music videos and turn them into Shorts.</li>
<li>Microsoft says its Xbox Game Pass service now has 34 million subscribers, up 36% from 25 million subscribers the company reported in January 2022.</li>
<li>Apple confirms that iOS 17.4 removes Home Screen web apps in the E.U. to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) that requires the company to allow alternative browser engines; <a href="https://developer.apple.com/support/dma-and-apps-in-the-eu" target="_blank">says</a> "addressing the complex security and privacy concerns associated with web apps using alternative browser engines would require building an entirely new integration architecture that does not currently exist in iOS and was not practical to undertake given the other demands of the DMA and the very low user adoption of Home Screen web apps."</li>
<li>Meta releases <a href="https://ai.meta.com/blog/v-jepa-yann-lecun-ai-model-video-joint-embedding-predictive-architecture/" target="_blank">V-JEPA</a>, an AI model that learns by predicting missing or masked parts of unlabeled video to develop a conceptual understanding of the world.</li>
<li>Meta <a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/news/new-ways-for-small-business-to-boost-and-avoid-apple-service-charges" target="_blank">announces</a> plans to charge advertisers an extra 30% fee when purchasing boosted posts through the Facebook and Instagram apps for iOS, more than a year after Apple updated its App Store Review Guidelines to clarify that sales of "boosted" posts in social media apps must use the App Store's in-app purchase system (which allows the iPhone maker to take a 30% cut of each transaction); urges users to visit Instagram.com and Facebook.com on mobile and desktop to boost their content and avoid the charge.</li>
<li>The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denies OpenAI's attempt to trademark "GPT," ruling that the term is "merely descriptive" and that it "describes a feature, function, or characteristic of applicant's goods and services."</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2024/02/first-developer-preview-android15.html" target="_blank">releases</a> Android 15's first <a href="https://developer.android.com/about/versions/15" target="_blank">developer preview</a>, with updates related to Dynamic Performance Framework, privacy and camera experience, among others.</li>
<li>AI companyAnthropic test a new Prompt Shield feature, which will redirect users asking political topics to "authoritative" sources of voting info; comes as TikTok plans to launch an in-app local language Election Centre in March 2024 in all 27 E.U. countries, to fight misinformation ahead of the Parliament Elections.</li>
<li>28 civil rights organizations, like Ekō and noyb, <a href="https://noyb.eu/en/28-ngos-urge-eu-dpas-reject-pay-or-okay-meta" target="_blank">urge</a> the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) to reject Meta's approach of asking users to pay for a monthly subscription (aka a "privacy fee") or consent to being tracked for ads; say the move could set a wrong precedent and "mark the end of genuine consent to the use of European's data."</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/15/google-stops-notifying-publishers-of-right-to-be-forgotten-removals-from-search-results" target="_blank">quietly stops</a> notifying publishers of "right to be forgotten" removals, after the Swedish administrative supreme court ruled that informing webmasters is a breach of privacy.</li>
<li>Microsoft <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/16/24074712/microsoft-edge-automatic-chrome-import-data-bug-fix" target="_blank">fixes a problem</a> that resulted in tabs and cookies from Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox being imported to Microsoft Edge without user consent.</li>
<li>Major tech firms, including Adobe, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, Snap, Stability AI, TikTok and X, <a href="https://www.aielectionsaccord.com/" target="_blank">sign tech accord</a> to combat the deceptive use of artificial intelligence in elections.</li>
<li>The EU plans to reportedly planning to fine Apple around €500 million (US$ 539 million) for allegedly breaking antitrust law over access to music streaming services by preventing third-party services from telling users about cheaper alternatives to Apple's music service, following a 2019 complaint by Spotify.</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-31999524099911609622024-02-10T20:19:00.005-05:002024-02-11T20:25:11.958-05:00Tech Roundup: Google Bard's Gemini Rebrand, Meta WhatsApp Interoperability & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>The European Commission <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_631" target="_blank">proposes revised rules</a> that criminalise AI-generated imagery and other forms of deepfakes depicting child sexual abuse (CSA).</li>
<li>Meta <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2024/02/helping-teens-avoid-sextortion-scams/" target="_blank">unveils</a> new resources to help teens, parents and teachers prevent and handle sextortion scams; begins testing the ability to save posts, a "heavily requested feature" that allows users to bookmark posts and revisit them later.</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-gemini-update-sundar-pichai-2024/" target="_blank">rebrands</a> its Bard AI chatbot as <a href="https://gemini.google.com/" target="_blank">Gemini</a> (and Duet AI as Gemini for Workspace), as it rolls out a US$ 20/month<a href="https://support.google.com/googleone/answer/14534406" target="_blank"> AI premium plan</a> for Google One subscribers (which, coincidentally, crossed 100 million) to access the latest AI features; releases a standalone Gemini app for Android to take on OpenAI ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot.</li>
<li>Roblox rolls out real-time AI chat translations, with support for 16 languages, built on an LLM trained on open-source and internal Roblox data.</li>
<li>Dutch-registered Yandex <a href="https://ir.yandex/press-releases?year=2024&id=05-02-2024" target="_blank">plans</a> to divest its entire Russian business, including its popular search engine, to a group led by Yandex management in a deal valued at about US$ 5.2 billion.</li>
<li>Snapchat reaches 414 million daily active users, up 10% year-over-year; Pinterest reports reports 498 million monthly active users, up 11% year-over-year; and Uber reports 150 million monthly active users.</li>
<li>Meta plans to <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/whatsapp-interoperability-messaging/" target="_blank">build interoperability</a> into WhatsApp and Messenger by making third-party chats (that support the Signal protocol) opt-in and in a separate inbox.</li>
<li>Google's YouTube averages over 70 billion daily views for Shorts uploaded across the platform, as YouTube TV crosses 8 million subscribers, up from 5 million in mid-2022; allows podcast creators to submit their RSS feeds to YouTube and YouTube Music.<br /></li>
<li>Mozilla announces <a href="https://monitor.mozilla.org/" target="_blank">Monitor Plus</a>, a US$ 14/month U.S. service that scans more than 190 data broker sites and automatically submits requests for removal of the user's data.</li>
<li>Twitter/X rival Bluesky, which is based on the <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.03239" target="_blank">AT Protocol</a>, officially opens to all users without requiring an invite, adding <a href="https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats" target="_blank">over a million users</a> to reach 4.1 million.</li>
<li>Meta <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2024/02/labeling-ai-generated-images-on-facebook-instagram-and-threads/" target="_blank">says</a> it will start labeling AI-generated images that users post to Facebook, Instagram and Threads; says it's "working with industry partners on common technical standards for identifying AI content, including video and audio." (OpenAI, for its part, has announced that DALL-E 3 will <a href="https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8912793-c2pa-in-dall-e-3" target="_blank">embed watermarks</a> to images with <a href="https://c2pa.org/post/c2pa_initial_pr/" target="_blank">C2PA metadata</a>, but acknowledges the metadata can "easily be removed either accidentally or intentionally.")</li>
<li>Apple expands support for physical security keys to allow users to sign in to their accounts and access iCloud on Windows systems.</li>
<li>Music streamer Spotify reports 602 million monthly active users, with paying subscribers up 15% year-over-year to 236 million.</li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li>Microsoft's LinkedIn releases new AI-powered messaging feature that helps premium users draft a first message to someone on LinkedIn even if they are not connected; debuts a new "Catch Up" section to display highlights from a user's professional network.</li>
<li>Apple tests new visionOS 1.1 beta update for the Vision Pro headset to address a shortcoming that required users who were locked out of their devices after forgetting the passwords (it's not the Apple ID password, but the password used to unlock the device and open apps) to take them to an Apple Store or repair centre. (It's also worth noting that Vision Pro <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT214043" target="_blank">lacks</a> built-in Find My capabilities, meaning users will have to attach an AirTag to enable location tracking on another Apple device, or on icloud.com.)</li>
<li>Microsoft <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2024/02/07/delivering-copilot-for-everyone/" target="_blank">updates Copilot</a> with a redesigned look, a new AI model for Copilot's Balanced mode called Deucalion, and new AI image creation and editing features; partners with Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI, which is building LLMs that support Indian languages, for developing voice-based generative AI tools.</li>
<li>Media platform Plex <a href="https://www.plex.tv/blog/welcome-to-rental-land-on-plex/" target="_blank">launches</a> a dedicated movie rental store, allowing U.S. Plex users to purchase content directly from Plex rather than from a third-party store.</li>
<li>Dutch data protection authority (DPA) <a href="https://www.cnil.fr/en/uber-dutch-data-protection-authority-imposes-eu10-million-fine" target="_blank">fines</a> Uber 10 million for infringement of privacy regulations regarding its drivers' personal data; says the ride-hailing app did not specify in its terms and conditions for how long it retained its drivers' personal data, or how it secured the data when sending it to entities in countries, which it had not named, outside the European Economic Area (EEA), and for obstructing drivers' efforts to exercise their right to privacy by making personal data access requests extremely complicated.</li>
<li>Google agrees to pay US$ 350 million to resolve a long-running class action lawsuit from 2018 concerning a vulnerability in its discontinued Google Plus platform, which resulted in third-party exposure of data belonging to millions of users. (In October 2018, <i>The Wall Street Journal</i> had <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2018/11/google-google-and-lack-of-transparency.html" target="_blank">reported</a> that the company opted to not publicly disclose for months due to fears that doing so would draw regulatory scrutiny and cause reputational damage.)</li>
<li>Apple redesigned iCloud app for Windows and sunsets iTunes for Windows by splitting it into dedicated Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Devices apps; updates Apple Maps to offer cycling navigation in Switzerland and Sweden, allowing users across the country to receive turn-by-turn directions while riding a bike.</li>
<li>The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-makes-ai-generated-voices-robocalls-illegal" target="_blank">outlaws</a> scam robocalls featuring fake, AI-created voices to protect people from fraud and misinformation.</li>
<li>ByteDance-owned TikTok quietly removes view counts for hashtags.</li>
<li>Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, Google, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, Palantir and over 200 others join the new U.S. government-backed <a href="https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2024/02/biden-harris-administration-announces-first-ever-consortium-dedicated" target="_blank">AI Safety Institute Consortium</a> to "help advance the development and deployment of safe, trustworthy AI."</li>
<li>Apple releases an AI model called <a href="https://github.com/apple/ml-mgie" target="_blank">MLLM-Guided Image Editing</a> (MGIE) that can edit images based on text-based commands.</li>
<li>Google rolls out a new setting called 1080p Enhanced for YouTube TV and Primetime Channels subscribers to deliver "highest video quality"; updates Google Maps for Android to overlay the weather and air quality index when browsing the map layer, a feature the iOS app has had for some time.</li>
<li>Meta <a href="https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/continuing-our-approach-to-political-content-on-instagram-and-threads/" target="_blank">plans</a> to not "proactively recommend <a href="https://transparency.fb.com/en-gb/features/approach-to-political-content/" target="_blank">political content</a> from accounts you don't follow" on Instagram and Threads, matching the company's policy on Facebook.</li>
<li>Popular note-taking service Notion acquires Skiff, which offers end-to-end encrypted file storage, docs, calendar events and email; to shut down Skiff's product suite after six months.</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-24087942191854375082024-02-04T20:09:00.001-05:002024-02-15T15:21:39.454-05:00Tech Roundup: Amazon Rufus, Neuralink Human Trial & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>Elon Musk's neurotech startup Neuralink <a href="https://neuralink.com/blog/understanding-preclinical-research-at-neuralink/" target="_blank">implants</a> its device in a human for the first time on January 28, 2024, after it began <a href="https://neuralink.com/blog/first-clinical-trial-open-for-recruitment/" target="_blank">recruiting patients</a> for its first in-human clinical trial in the fall after it received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; calls its first product Telepathy.</li>
<li>Meta releases <a href="https://ai.meta.com/blog/code-llama-large-language-model-coding/" target="_blank">Code Llama 70B</a>, a new version of its code generation model, featuring improved code correctness and a variant optimised for Python.</li>
<li>ByteDance-owned TikTok tests a new feature that could make all posts shoppable, by identifying objects in videos and prompting users to "find similar items on TikTok Shop."</li>
<li>Microsoft adds safeguards to its AI text-to-image tool Designer <a href="https://www.404media.co/microsoft-closes-loophole-that-created-ai-porn-of-taylor-swift/" target="_blank">following reports</a> that the software is being misused to create non-consensual, explicit deepfakes.</li>
<li>Amazon abandons its proposed US$ 1.4 billion purchase of Roomba maker iRobot (originally announced in August 2022) after finding that the merger "has no path to regulatory approval" in the E.U. over concerns that the acquisition restricted competition in the market for robot vacuum cleaners and "would have enabled Amazon to foreclose iRobot’s rivals by restricting or degrading access to the Amazon Stores"; to pay a US$ 94 million termination fee to iRobot.</li>
<li>Apple updates Shazam to add support for identifying songs from other apps while listening via wired or Bluetooth headphones; starts selling the Vision Pro in the U.S.</li>
<li>The Browser Company releases Arc Search, a new iOS app that takes a user's search query, browses the web, and builds a custom webpage to answer the query.</li>
<li>OpenAI launches the ability for paying ChatGPT users to invoke GPTs directly in chats by typing "@" and selecting a GPT from a list.</li>
<li>Alphabet's digital subscription services, including YouTube Premium, YouTube Music, YouTube TV and Google One, generates US$ 15 billion in revenue in 2023, up fivefold since 2019; comes as its Google One plan hits 100 million subscribers and YouTube <a href="https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/thank-you-for-100-million/" target="_blank">surpasses</a> more than 100 million Premium and Music subscribers.</li>
<li>A <a href="https://www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/meta-approves-harmful-teen-ads-with-images-from-its-own-ai-tool" target="_blank">new investigation</a> from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) reveals that Meta's advertising and AI platforms approves "harmful teen ads" with AI-generated images promoting anorexia, drug parties and alcoholic drinks in violation of its own policies.</li>
<li>Universal Music Group (UMG) <a href="https://www.universalmusic.com/an-open-letter-to-the-artist-and-songwriter-community-why-we-must-call-time-out-on-tiktok/" target="_blank">announces</a> plans to cease licensing its catalogue to TikTok saying the video platform is "trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music"; TikTok <a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/tiktok-statement-in-response-to-universal-music-group" target="_blank">responds</a> by saying UMG has "put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters."</li>
<li>Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-68161632" target="_blank">apologises</a> to families who say their children had been harmed by social media, and says "no one should go through the things that your families have suffered and this is why we invest so much, and we are going to continue doing industry-leading efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer"; calls on <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/31/mark-zuckerberg-says-apple-and-google-should-manage-parental-consent-for-apps-not-meta/" target="_blank">app store providers like Apple and Google</a> to manage parental consent systems for kids' use of social media apps, as social media platforms come under increasing scrutiny for the steps they take to protect children and teens from the harms of social media.</li>
<li>Music streamer Spotify <a href="https://newsroom.spotify.com/2024-01-31/raise-your-snapchat-game-with-spotifys-new-snapchat-sharing-lens/" target="_blank">debuts</a> new "Share Track Lens" for Snapchat that allows users to "share their favorite tracks with friends and express themselves in stories."</li>
<li>The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data in Hong Kong stages raids on multiple offices of Worldcoin, objecting to its scheme to offer crypto tokens to anyone willing to have their irises scanned; says the operation involves serious risks to personal data privacy.</li>
<li>TikTok <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/tiktok-pledged-to-protect-u-s-data-1-5-billion-later-its-still-struggling-cbccf203" target="_blank">faces</a> new setback after a new report from the Wall Street Journal reveals that the company does share "protected U.S. data with ByteDance to help train the algorithm" or to work on keeping problematic content off the service.</li>
<li>Meta-owned Threads crosses 130 million monthly active users.</li>
<li>Apple makes a record US$ 23.1 billion in revenue from its services business in Q1 2024, rising 11% YoY, as the company's global install base reaches 2.2 billion active devices. (The services segment includes the App Store, Apple Pay and Apple Card; subscription services such as Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade and iCloud; advertising; and payments from Google for search.)</li>
<li>Amazon launches <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-rufus" target="_blank">Rufus</a>, an AI-powered shopping assistant trained on its product catalog and information from around the web; reports Q4 2023 ad revenue up 27% YoY to US$ 14.7 billion.</li>
<li>Google plans to limit news publishers to tracking users across five of their own websites under its Privacy Sandbox, which is set to replace third-party cookies; drops the cache link from Search results snippets and plans to remove the cache functionality entirely "in the near future."</li>
<li>Snap says it will <a href="https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2024/Snap-Recalls-Lithium-Ion-Battery-Sold-for-Pixy-Flying-Cameras-Due-to-Fire-Hazard" target="_blank">recall all its Pixy selfie camera drones</a> because their batteries pose a fire hazard.</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://blog.google/products/maps/google-maps-generative-ai-local-guides/" target="_blank">supercharges Maps</a> with generative AI, allowing users to discover places via a chat interface; shows off improvements MusicFX and TextFX, its generative AI text-to-music experiment, and debuts <a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-labs-imagefx-textfx-generative-ai/" target="_blank">ImageFX</a>, an AI image generator underpinned by <a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-imagen-2/" target="_blank">Imagen 2</a>, with "expressive chips", or keyword suggestions.</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://blog.google/products/bard/google-bard-gemini-pro-image-generation/" target="_blank">expands</a> Gemini Pro in Bard with support for over 40 languages and more than 230 countries and territories; updates the chatbot with capabilities to generate images using Imagen 2.</li>
<li>Microsoft tests support for extensions in its Edge browser for Android, a feature lacking in most mobile versions of Chromium-based browsers.</li>
<li>Shopify releases new features, including an AI-powered image editor for products, improved semantic search, and tools for better merchandising.</li>
<li>Hugging Face launches <a href="https://huggingface.co/chat/assistants" target="_blank">HuggingChat Assistants</a>, allowing users to create customised AI chatbots with specific capabilities using LLMs like Mixtral or Llama2.</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-22591019891617051812024-01-27T20:24:00.002-05:002024-02-10T20:19:36.419-05:00Tech Roundup: Apple E.U. App Store Changes, Google Lumiere & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>Meta offers users in the E.U. the ability to <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2024/01/offering-people-more-choice-on-how-they-can-use-our-services-in-the-eu/" target="_blank">unlink their Instagram and Facebook accounts</a>, as well as other Meta services ahead of the bloc's new Digital Markets Act (DMA) coming into force in March; says users can also opt to create a stand-alone new Messenger account. (The development comes more than two months after it launched an ad-free subscription in the region.)</li>
<li>Apple <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/01/apple-announces-changes-to-ios-safari-and-the-app-store-in-the-european-union/" target="_blank">announces</a> sweeping App Store policy changes in the E.U. to comply with DMA by allowing game streaming apps and services globally; announces support for alternative app stores in the E.U., charging no commission but instead an <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/26/24051823/apple-third-party-app-stores-50-cent-fee" target="_blank">annual €0.50 Core Technology Fee</a> for every app install over one million installs (apps distributed via third-party app stores will still be "notarize" by Apple), plans to allow default third-party browsers, like Chrome, Edge, and Brave and web engines with iOS 17.4, and permit third-party apps to use the iPhone's NFC chip in the EU, letting third-party payment services and banks offer their own tap-to-pay options.</li><ul><li>Apple, however, said it will not offer its App Store updates "outside of the E.U. because this is not the safest system for our users." In another move, Apple has announced a reduced commission structure for apps in the region, including a 17% commission, or 10% for small developers, plus 3% if the app uses Apple's in-app purchase method.</li><li>As for third-party web browsers, users in the bloc will be presented with a list of the 12 most popular web browsers from their country's local App Store at the time, with the options shown in random order for every user.</li><li>Another notable change is that Apple now no longer requires apps with third-party login services to also use Sign in with Apple but it emphasised that apps using third-party or social login services "must also offer as an equivalent option another login service" that offers additional privacy features.</li><li>It's also worth pointing out that the changes <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2024/01/apples_plans_for_the_dma" target="_blank">do not apply uniformly</a> to all platforms and are limited to iOS, meaning iPad users will miss out on third-party app stores, browser engines and others.</li><li>Epic Games, which plans to launch its Epic Games Store on the iPhone in the E.U. later this year, says Apple's "anticompetitive scheme rife with new junk fees" is illegal, forcing developers to choose between App Store exclusivity and the store terms, and that it's an example of "malicious compliance."</li><li>Mozilla said it's disappointed with Apple's proposed plan to limit third-party browser engines to the E.U., stating it will force the vendor to "maintain two separate browser implementations" and that it's "another example of Apple creating barriers to prevent true browser competition on iOS."</li><li>Spotify, on the other hand, has <a href="https://newsroom.spotify.com/2024-01-26/apples-proposed-changes-reject-the-goals-of-the-dma/" target="_blank">labelled</a> the new terms a "farce" and that "Apple is forcing developers to stay with the status quo." It further noted "this alternative that offers no alternative at all completely negates the goal of the DMA." Hey and Basecamp exec David Heinemeier Hansson has <a href="https://world.hey.com/dhh/apple-s-new-extortion-regime-to-keep-big-app-makers-d4d03ea9" target="_blank">described</a> the terms as an "extortion regime."</li><li>The E.U. has reiterated that it "will not hesitate to take strong action" if the proposed solutions are not good enough.</li><li>"As to the core technology fee, this is a new 'junk' fee, which will disproportionately affect those app developers that have limited revenues, but whose apps are widely downloaded," The Platform Law Blog <a href="https://theplatformlaw.blog/2024/01/26/when-apple-takes-the-european-commission-for-fools-an-initial-overview-of-apples-new-terms-and-conditions-for-ios-app-distribution-in-the-eu/" target="_blank">said</a>. "Apple clearly has no intention to comply with the DMA. Apple is introducing new fees on direct downloads and payments they do nothing to process, which violates the law," the Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) <a href="https://appfairness.org/caf-statement-on-apples-dma-non-compliance-plan/" target="_blank">said</a>.</li><li>If anything, Apple's new terms and conditions for iOS app distribution in the E.U. risks inviting more regulatory scrutiny, not to mention <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/26/apples-reluctant-punitive-compliance-with-regulators-will-burn-its-political-and-developer-goodwill/" target="_blank">burn developer goodwill</a>.</li></ul>
<li>Meta's WhatsApp tests its own take on Apple AirDrop and Android Quick Share with a new feature that allows users to <a href="https://wabetainfo.com/whatsapp-beta-for-android-2-24-2-20-whats-new/" target="_blank">share files with nearby devices</a>; rolls out <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2024/01/introducing-stricter-message-settings-for-teens-on-instagram-and-facebook/" target="_blank">direct message limits</a> on Facebook and Instagram to "help protect teens from unwanted contact by turning off their ability to receive messages from anyone they don’t follow or aren't connected to, by default."</li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbsqv_0sNPwdXSJ0f9WtK8skXC1LU7YM-KKeNNL-Zn_ZYIexcZX32MK1y2EaNr-Gx9kUXS_L1aWBSWrEnmgp0Cjl3KMyKOgNyp9RNOaK8yjYBW5LtaxFnk6q-KyNHQ2GexH8VVLsKG_dTawm4NA_yU9UsJ8Uw_8FTRRSHpCLTejK2UK-tDfqI5YQkH/s1960/Apple.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="1960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbsqv_0sNPwdXSJ0f9WtK8skXC1LU7YM-KKeNNL-Zn_ZYIexcZX32MK1y2EaNr-Gx9kUXS_L1aWBSWrEnmgp0Cjl3KMyKOgNyp9RNOaK8yjYBW5LtaxFnk6q-KyNHQ2GexH8VVLsKG_dTawm4NA_yU9UsJ8Uw_8FTRRSHpCLTejK2UK-tDfqI5YQkH/w640-h360/Apple.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li>Apple pays Russia a fine of 1.2 billion roubles (US$ 13.65 million) to address allegations the company abused its dominant market position concerning in-app payments.</li>
<li>Social network Tumblr discontinues Tumblr Live to refocus on the "core Tumblr experience."</li>
<li>X (formerly Twitter) adds support for passkeys for U.S.-based iOS users for additional account security after removing SMS-based two-factor authentication in February 2023.</li>
<li>Movie streaming service Netflix says it's looking to retire its ad-free Basic plan in some countries where ad-supported plans are available, starting with Canada and the U.K. in Q2 2024, as paid memberships jump 12.8% to 260.3 million; also comes as the company agrees to a US$ 5 billion deal to screen World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) flagship Raw program over the next decade starting January 2025, in its biggest foray so far into streaming live events. (The company also said "as we invest in and improve Netflix, we'll occasionally ask our members to pay a little extra to reflect those improvements, which in turn helps drive the positive flywheel of additional investment to further improve and grow our service.")</li>
<li>Google adds voice messages to Google Chat, tests an ARM64 version of Chrome for Arm-based Windows devices, and <a href="https://blog.google/products/chrome/google-chrome-generative-ai-features-january-2024/" target="_blank">announces</a> AI features for Chrome on Mac and Windows, allowing users to organise tabs, create custom themes, and offer writing suggestions; unveils a new Gemini-powered chat-based tool in Google Ads to build Search ad campaigns in the U.S. and U.K.</li>
<li>Mozilla <a href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/android/122.0/releasenotes/" target="_blank">updates</a> Firefox browser (version 122.0) for Android with support for Global Privacy Control, which "informs websites that the user doesn't want their data to be shared or sold."</li>
<li>France's data protection authority <a href="https://www.cnil.fr/en/employee-monitoring-cnil-fined-amazon-france-logistique-eu32-million" target="_blank">fines</a> Amazon €32 million for excessively monitoring employees in its large warehouses and for not deleting that data in a timely manner in contravention of GDPR laws in the region.</li>
<li>Amazon's Ring home doorbell unit says it will stop letting police departments request footage from users' video doorbells and surveillance cameras via its Neighbors app, retreating from a practice that was criticised by civil liberties groups and some elected officials and forcing law enforcement to obtain warrants or evidence of emergency.</li>
<li>New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/01/24/new-york-city-social-media-environmental-toxin" target="_blank">issues</a> a public health advisory officially designating social media as an "environmental toxin", blaming it for a youth mental health crisis.</li>
<li>Swedish fintech company Klarna launches <a href="https://www.klarna.com/international/press/klarna-enters-booming-subscription-market-with-the-launch-of-klarna-plus-in-the-us/" target="_blank">Klarna Plus</a>, a US$ 7.99/month subscription plan in the U.S. that allows users to waive service fees when using its One Time Card, collect double rewards points and get discounts.</li>
<li>BeReal plans to let brands and celebrities join the social media platform starting February 6; says it now has 23 million daily active users, up from 20 million in August 2023.</li>
<li>Oppo and Nokia sign a patent cross-licensing deal, ending a years-long dispute, letting the Chinese smartphone maker sell in key European markets like Germany.</li>
<li>Telegram rolls out new features, including view-once video and audio messages and the ability to pause recording while sending a video or an audio message and new read-time controls.</li>
<li>Google shows off <a href="https://lumiere-video.github.io/" target="_blank">Lumiere</a>, a space-time diffusion model for generating realistic AI videos.</li>
<li>Chinese <a href="https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prAP51817224" target="_blank">smartphone shipments decline</a> 5% YoY to 271.3 million units in 2023; Apple gains the top spot with 17.3% marketshare, followed by Honor with 17.1%.</li>
<li>Adobe unveils new AI-powered audiot featues in Premiere Pro to remove unwanted noise and improve poorly recorded dialogue; also adds support for "interactive fade handles on clips in the timeline so editors can simply click and drag to create a variety of custom audio fades."</li>
<li>Apple releases iOS 17.3 with support for Stolen Device Protection, Apple Music collaborative playlists and streaming to more hotel TVs; adds support for transcripts to the Podcasts app in iOS 17.4 beta and says transcripts will be generated automatically after an episode is published.</li>
<li>Microsoft launches <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2024/01/24/bring-virtual-connections-to-life-with-microsoft-mesh-now-generally-available-in-microsoft-teams/" target="_blank">Mesh</a>, its 3D meeting platform in Teams, with custom environments, games and spatial audio; only supports Meta Quest for VR at launch.</li>
<li>ByteDance-owned TikTok tests 30-minute video uploads as it inches closer to YouTube territory and moves away from the short-form video format that made it popular.</li>
<li>New findings show that iPhone apps including Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and X/Twitter are skirting Apple's privacy rules to <a href="https://thehackernews.com/2023/12/governments-may-spy-on-you-by.html" target="_blank">collect user data through push notifications</a>, including details such as system uptime, locale, keyboard language, available memory, battery status, storage use, device model and display brightness.</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-77284415479577716852024-01-20T20:33:00.000-05:002024-01-20T20:33:03.619-05:00Tech Roundup: DeepMind AlphaGeometry, Samsung Galaxy S24 & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>OpenAI says it will take <a href="https://openai.com/blog/how-openai-is-approaching-2024-worldwide-elections" target="_blank">proactive steps</a> to prevent abuse of its tools and offer better transparency around image provenance ahead of the elections cycle across the world; forbids users from using its technology to impersonate candidates and build applications for political campaigning and lobbying.</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/an-update-on-our-preparations-for-the-dma/" target="_blank">readies to comply</a> with the E.U. Digital Markets Act (which goes into effect in March 2023) by updating search to "include a group of links to comparison sites from across the web, and query shortcuts at the top of the search page to help people refine their search, including by focusing results just on comparison sites."</li>
<li>Uber announces plans to shut down alcohol delivery service Drizly, which had operated "independently within the Uber family" since its US $1.1 billion acquisition in February 2021.</li>
<li>Microsoft debuts <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2024/01/15/bringing-the-full-power-of-copilot-to-more-people-and-businesses/" target="_blank">Copilot Pro</a> for US$ 20/month/user, offering access to the latest models and features, like custom Copilot GPTs and integration into Office products.</li>
<li>Google's DeepMind creates an AI system called <a href="https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/alphageometry-an-olympiad-level-ai-system-for-geometry/" target="_blank">AlphaGeometry</a> that can solve complex geometry problems; formally discontinues its efforts to bring the full Chrome browser experience to its Fuchsia operating system.</li>
<li>Social media platform Bluesky adds support for RSS feeds, thereby making it possible to follow individual accounts via RSS reader apps.</li>
<li>Google introduces support for Bluetooth tunnel beacons in Maps for Android for improved navigation accuracy in tunnels; partners with NPCI, which runs India's Unified Payments Interface, to expand beyond India.</li>
<li>Apple overtakes Samsung to become the leading global smartphone manufacturer in 2023, taking the top spot from Samsung for the first time since 2010, according to <a href="https://canalys.com/newsroom/global-smartphone-market-2023" target="_blank">Canalys</a> and <a href="https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS51776424" target="_blank">IDC</a>; comes as global smartphone shipments decline 3.2% year-over-year to 1.17 billion units in 2023.</li>
<li>A new study released by Anthropic has revealed that large language models (LLMs) could be trained to deceive such that it could return different results based on certain trigger phrases; says "such backdoor behavior can be made persistent, so that it is not removed by standard safety training techniques, including supervised fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, and adversarial training."</li>
<li>Vodafone and Microsoft agree to a <a href="vodafone-and-microsoft-sign-10-year-strategic-partnership-to-bring-generative-ai-digital-services-and-the-cloud-to-more-than-300-million-businesses-and-consumers/" target="_blank">10-year, US$ 1.5 billion strategic partnership</a> to develop AI, digital payments, IoT and other businesses; to expand M-Pesa to improve financial inclusion across Africa.</li>
<li>Apple revises its U.S. App Store rules to let developers link to outside payment methods, but will charge a commission of 27%, or 12% for developers who are part of the App Store Small Business Program, for each purchase made outside the App Store. (It's worth noting that apps participating in its existing Video Partner and News Partner program are not eligible to use the Link Entitlement.)</li>
<li>OpenAI forms a <a href="https://openai.com/blog/democratic-inputs-to-ai-grant-program-update" target="_blank">Collective Alignment team</a> to design a process for collecting and using input from the public "to train and shape the behavior of our models"; says the company is developing tools with the U.S. Department of Defence on open-source software.</li>
<li>Chip design software maker Synopsys announces plans to acquire 3D design simulation software maker Ansys in a US$ 35 billion cash-and-stock deal.</li>
<li>Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 once again gets prohibited from being soled in the U.S. two weeks after an interim stay on the ban, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denies the company's request to upload the ban for the duration of its appeal of the U.S. International Trade Commission's ruling that the devices infringe on two pulse oximetry patents held by medical device company Masimo.</li>
<li>Google introduces <a href="https://blog.google/products/search/google-circle-to-search-android/" target="_blank">Circle to Search</a>, a set of new gestures for searching from anywhere on Android without having to switch apps; launches a <a href="https://blog.google/products/search/google-search-ai-january-2024-update/" target="_blank">new multimodal search feature</a> that allows users to upload an image and ask related questions.</li>
<li>Samsung debuts Galaxy S24 and S24 Ultra with Google-powered <a href="https://blog.google/products/android/google-ai-samsung-galaxy-s24/" target="_blank">Gemini AI model</a> for improved summarisation, photo editing and craft messages in different styles; pledges seven years of OS and security updates for the Galaxy S24 series, matching Google Pixel.</li>
<li>Notion unveils <a href="https://www.notion.so/product/calendar" target="_blank">Notion Calendar</a>, a free app on Mac, Windows, iOS and the web with an optional Notion integration, following its purchase of the calendar app Cron in June 2022.</li>
<li>Amazon now lets U.S. users create AI-generated backgrounds using Alexa prompts on the second-gen Fire TV Stick 4K Max and the Fire TV Omni QLED Series; reportedly plans a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-paid-alexa-plus-service-issues-2024-1" target="_blank">paid version</a> of its Alexa voice assistant.</li>
<li>Alphabet's drone-powered delivery company Wing unveils a new drone that can carry up to five pounds, fly a 12 mile round trip and cruise at 65 mph.</li>
<li>Meta's WhatsApp upgrades Channels with new abilities such as voice updates, polls and add up to 16 admins per channel, as the broadcasting feature hits 500 million monthly active users; Instagram adds nighttime nudges for teens, encouraging them to close the app and go to sleep after they spend more than 10 minutes in Reels or DMs late at night.</li>
<li>Microsoft makes Reading Coach, its AI-powered tool that provides learners with personalised reading practice, available at no cost to anyone with a Microsoft account.</li>
<li>Adult entertainment site Pornhub changes its performer verification policy, requiring performers to upload proof of consent from scene partners, in addition to IDs, starting January 23, 2024.</li>
<li>Microsoft Bing end 2023 with 3.4% global search market share, up less than 1% since launching Bing Chat; Google leads with 91.6%, followed by Yandex 1.6% and Yahoo 1.1%.</li>
<li>ByteDance-owned TikTok <a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/protecting-election-integrity-in-2024" target="_blank">says</a> it will continue to ban political ads on the platform, require creators to disclose when using "realistic" AI-generated content, and that it will work with fact-checking organisations to tackle misinformation ahead of the U.S. elections later this year.</li>
<li>Google enables WebGPU by default in Chrome 121 on devices running Android 12 and greater powered by Qualcomm and ARM GPUs, offering "significant benefits such as greatly reduced JavaScript workload for the same graphics and more than three times improvements in machine learning model inferences."</li>
<li>Apple opens pre-orders for the Vision Pro, which has an M2 chip with an 8-core CPU and a 10-core GPU, 16GB of memory, and 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage options, and releases accessories for the "spatial computer."</li>
<li>X rolls out audio and video calling to Android, after launching on iOS in October 2023.</li>
<li>Apple <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_282" target="_blank">offers to give</a> third-party mobile wallet providers access to its contactless NFC payment and mobile wallet technology in an effort to appease antitrust regulators in the E.U.</li>
<li>Indian smartphone shipments in Q4 2023 grows 20% YoY to 38.9 million units, after five quarters of declines; total shipments for 2023 decline 2% YoY to 148.6 million units, according to <a href="https://www.canalys.com/newsroom/india-smartphone-shipments-Q4-2023" target="_blank">Canalys</a>.</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-49832553753583793332024-01-13T20:23:00.005-05:002024-01-21T20:30:40.427-05:00Tech Roundup: Amazon Badge Pay, OpenAI GPT Store & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>Automobile manufacturer Volkswagen plans to integrate ChatGPT into its cars to control basic functions and answer "general knowledge questions," starting in Europe in Q2 2024.</li>
<li>Intel <a href="https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/news/ces-2024-client-processor-news.html" target="_blank">announces</a> new Core 14th Gen chips for mobile phones, desktops and laptops.</li>
<li>PC maker Lenovo debuts ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid, a 2-in-1 Windows laptop with a 14" 2.8K OLED display that can function as an Android tablet.</li>
<li>Asus announces the ROG Phone 8 series with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, 5,500mAh battery, 6.78" 165Hz OLED display, and 32MP front camera.</li>
<li>MSI unveils a Windows-based gaming handheld called Claw that's powered by Intel's Meteor Lake Core Ultra processor and comes with a 7" 1080p 120Hz IPS display.</li>
<li>Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240109534304/en/" target="_blank">acquire</a> Juniper Networks in a deal worth US$14 billion to boost its networking business.</li>
<li>Google's YouTube <a href="https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2802268" target="_blank">updates</a> its cyber bullying policy to ban AI-generated content that "realistically simulates deceased minors or victims of deadly or well-documented major violent events describing their death or violence experienced"; also <a href="https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/first-aid-information-on-youtube-search/" target="_blank">makes it easier</a> to find accurate life-saving information about basic first aid and emergency care.</li>
<li>Getty Images and Nvidia join hands to launch Generative AI by iStock, a text-to-image service that generates stock photos and is aimed at SMBs.</li>
<li>Apple <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/01/apple-vision-pro-available-in-the-us-on-february-2/" target="_blank">plans</a> to ship its Vision Pro headset on February 2, 2024, in the U.S., after opening pre-orders on January 19 at 8 a.m. ET; says the base Vision Pro model has 256GB of storage and the ZEISS Optical Inserts for readers cost US$ 99 and prescription ZEISS Optical Inserts cost US$ 149. (Apple has also <a href="https://developer.apple.com/visionos/submit/" target="_blank">released</a> new visionOS developer guidelines, asking developers to refer to Apple Vision Pro apps as "spatial computing apps", not AR, VR, XR, or MR apps.)</li>
<li>The Wi-Fi Alliance begins certifying devices with Wi-Fi 7, which could offer big speed and efficiency gains over Wi-Fi 6 in phones, laptops and routers.</li>
<li>Sony says it has sold 50 million PlayStation 5 consoles, as monthly active users hit 123 million as of December 2023.</li>
<li>OpenAI <a href="https://openai.com/blog/openai-and-journalism" target="_blank">responds</a> to copyright lawsuit by <i>The New York Times</i>, stating the publication "intentionally manipulated prompts, often including lengthy excerpts of articles, in order to get our model to regurgitate"; notes that it took down a ChatGPT feature called Browse immediately after we learned it could reproduce real-time content in unintended ways, such as bypassing firewalls, and that "training AI models using publicly available internet materials is fair use."</li><ul><li>In a filing submitted to a House of Lords subcommittee, OpenAI also said that "it would be impossible to train today's leading AI models without using copyrighted materials" and that "limiting training data to public domain books and drawings created more than a century ago might yield an interesting experiment, but would not provide AI systems that meet the needs of today's citizens."</li></ul>
<li>The European Commission <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_85" target="_blank">says</a> it's checking whether Microsoft's investment in OpenAI is reviewable under the bloc's merger regulations, a month after the UK competition authority <a href="https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/microsoft-slash-openai-partnership-merger-inquiry" target="_blank">launched an inquiry</a> to decide whether the tie-up poses a "relevant merger situation."</li>
<li>Google and Samsung <a href="https://blog.google/products/android/ces-2024-android-updates/" target="_blank">merge</a> their respective Nearby Share and Quick Share features under the Quick Share brand, for a more unified cross-Android sharing option; says it's the "best default, built-in option for peer-to-peer content sharing across all types of devices in the Android and Chromebook ecosystems."</li>
<li>Meta plans to start <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2024/01/teen-protections-age-appropriate-experiences-on-our-apps/" target="_blank">automatically restricting</a> teen Instagram and Facebook accounts from harmful content, including posts about self-harm, in the coming weeks.</li>
<li>Amazon announces Matter Casting, an Apple AirPlay-like feature to send videos from Android and iOS to Amazon devices.</li>
<li>X announces plans to launch peer-to-peer payments this year and plans to improve user and advertising experience on the platform through Artificial Intelligence; quietly removes the ability for paying subscribers to set an NFT as a profile picture, a feature Twitter launched in January 2022 for Twitter Blue subscribers.</li>
<li>Apple expands Apple Music Classical to China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau following its initial launch in most countries in March 2023.</li>
<li>OpenAI launches ChatGPT Team, a new subscription plan for teams of up to 149 people for US$ 30 per user per month (or US$ 25 per user per month if billed annually) and debuts a GPT Store for paid users to share and find custom chatbots; quietly <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/01/12/open-ai-military-ban-chatgpt/" target="_blank">removes</a> language prohibiting the use of its technology for "military and warfare" from its usage policy, as part of a major rewrite to make the policy "clearer" and "more readable."</li>
<li>Netflix's entry into gaming pays off as Netflix Games downloads rises over 180% YoY to 81.2 million globally across the App Store and Google Play in 2023, with Q4 2023 accounting for about 53% of downloads; says its ad tier has more than 23 million monthly active users globally, up from over 15 million in November 2023.</li>
<li>Brave web browser adds its newly built <a href="https://brave.com/codellm/" target="_blank">CodeLLM</a> to its search engine to deliver code snippets for programming queries, along with "step-by-step explanations and citations of the sources for reference and validation."</li>
<li>Two new studies <a href="https://arstechnica.com/health/2024/01/plastic-is-everywhere-including-our-food-and-bottled-water/" target="_blank">find</a> that a liter of bottled water may contain nearly a quarter million pieces of the smallest particles of plastic and nearly 90 percent of 16 different kinds of protein commonly eaten by people, including seafood, chicken and beef, and even plant-based meat alternatives such as tofu and veggie burgers, contain microplastics.</li>
<li>ByteDance plans to shut down music streaming service Resso in India on January 31, after removing the App Store and Google Play apps in mid-December 2023.</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://support.google.com/assistant/answer/13971691" target="_blank">announces plans</a> to remove 17 "underutilised" Assistant features in February 2024, including voice-controlled Play Books audiobooks and media alarms, as it pivots to integrating Bard into Assistant.</li>
<li>Amazon launches "badge pay," which uses its Just Walk Out retail tech to let employees use their badges for payments.</li>
<li>Google says it will <a href="https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/14202510" target="_blank">allow users</a> to unlink the Google services they use to comply with the E.U.'s Digital Market Act ahead of the March 2024 deadline; includes Search, YouTube, Ad services, Google Play, Chrome, Google Shopping and Google Maps.</li><ul><li>Google also emphasises that "When Search, YouTube and Chrome are not linked services, your recommendations in Search, like 'What to watch' and your Discover feed will be less personalised."</li><li>Apple, on the other hand, has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-disputes-eu-rules-labelling-its-5-app-stores-one-service-2024-01-08/" target="_blank">appealed</a> the European Commission's designation of its App Store as a gatekeeper, stating it's based on "material factual errors" and that the App Stores for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch distribute apps for a specific platform and type of device, and hence cannot be treated as a core platform service. It's worth noting that Apple unsuccessfully <a href="https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/02/apple_safari_browser/" target="_blank">argued</a> last year that its Safari web browser is different for iOS, iPadOS and macOS in an effort to avoid regulation in the E.U.</li></ul>
<li>A new report from <i><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/google-bing-deepfake-porn-image-celebrity-rcna130445" target="_blank">NBC News</a></i> finds that search engines like Google and Bing are making it easy to surface <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/01/report-deepfake-porn-consistently-found-atop-google-bing-search-results/" target="_blank">nonconsensual deepfake pornography</a> by placing it at the top of search results; Google says it strengthen its policies against apps featuring AI-generated restricted content in the Play Store.</li>
<li>News sharing app Artifact, founded by Instagram co-founders, to <a href="https://medium.com/artifact-news/shutting-down-artifact-1e70de46d419" target="_blank">shut down</a> the service less than a year after launch; says "the market opportunity isn't big enough to warrant continued investment in this way."</li>
<li>Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) jointly <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91006385/microsofts-lithium-battery-research-bottle-rocket-azure-quantum-elements" target="_blank">discover</a> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67912033" target="_blank">new material</a> that could be used to reduce Lithium use in batteries using a new type of AI trained on molecular data.</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-3968555116267941572024-01-12T06:41:00.000-05:002024-01-12T06:41:31.714-05:00Music Review: Ayalaan (Tamil)Composer(s): A. R. Rahman
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Listen to the songs online here: <i><a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/ayalaan-original-motion-picture-soundtrack/9eIdUrdVbQU_" target="_blank">JioSaavn</a></i><br />
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<i>Vera Level Sago</i> is characterized by a lively assortment of sounds, replete with <i>nadaswaram</i> and <i>thavil</i>, in a way that evokes memories of <i>Maduraikku Pogathadee</i> (<a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2016/04/recent-listens-r-rahman-ilaiyaraaja.html" target="_blank"><i>Azhagiya Tamil Magan</i></a>) and <i>Aalaporaan Thamizhan</i> (<a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2017/08/music-review-mersal-tamil.html" target="_blank"><i>Mersal</i></a>), but the tune itself is a let down, coming off as too busy for its own good. <i>Ayalaa Ayalaa</i> and <i>Suro Suro</i> lean heavily on electronic effects to coast along, with the latter's insistent groove making for a catchy listen, even if I am not quite on board with Mohit Chauhan as the singer. <i>Maanja Nee</i>, led by A. R. Ameen, is bouncy reggae and propelled along by a driving rhythmic current, while <i>Chella Rangi</i> works well as a jazzy, acoustic melody in the voices of Sanjith Hegde and Shashaa Tirupati. <i>Ayalaan</i> is easy on the ears, but the musical palette lacks a punch.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-68683584771534165122024-01-06T21:58:00.000-05:002024-01-06T21:58:14.148-05:00Heavy Rotation: Dheerendra Doss, Niladri Kumar, Prashant Pillai & More<p>I ended up revisiting Hesham Abdul Wahab's music for <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/hridayam/6-gFyMPtiqM_" target="_blank"><i>Hridayam</i></a> after more than a year, also because I never reviewed the soundtrack when it originally released in early 2022. Album highlights <i>Minnalkkodi</i> and <i>Mansasse Manasse</i> are heady and dazzling, bringing to the forefront the enchanting harmonies, even as K.S. Chithra breathes life to the gentle and <i>tanbur</i>-laden <i>Mukilinte</i>. <i>Darshana</i> and <i>Puthiyoru Lokam</i>, with shimmering electro-crescendos, are trademark Wahab pieces that you can spot a mile away. Job Kurian-sung <i>Arike Ninna</i>, clothed in an electronic ambiance, has a constant tension and propulsion to it, while <i>Pottu Thotta Pournami</i>, complemented by a superb vocal chemistry between Sachin Balu and Megha Josekutty, is a delightful cornucopia of sounds. Another song that stands out is <i>Sarvam Sadha</i>. There is an almost hymnal quality to it, expertly juxtaposing warm, pillowy riffs against Srinivas' flawless rendition.</p><p>Here's a playlist of my other 2022 favourites from <b>Niladri Kumar</b> (<i><a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/dr.-arora-original-series-soundtrack/UZy-,IiFiCs_" target="_blank">Dr. Arora</a> - Mehram, Khaalipan</i>), <b>Kaala Bhairava</b> (<i>Krishnamma - Emavutundo Manalo</i>), <b>Prasanna Sivaraman</b> (<i><a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/nodi-swamy-ivanu-irode-heege/GZ-Ix50w9dE_" target="_blank">Nodi Swamy Ivanu Irode Heege</a> - Confusion Song, Kaarana Helu</i>), <b>Midhun Mukundan</b> (<i>Sakutumba Sametha - Aa Kanasu</i>), <b>Dheerendra Doss</b> (<i><a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/thurthu-nirgamana/INeg51baMlw_" target="_blank">Thurthu Nirgamana</a> - Joru Joraagi, Na Marala Beku</i>), <b>Ilaiyaraaja</b> (<i><a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/clap/j4ULXB5kldU_" target="_blank">Clap</a> - Unnai Keta</i>), <b>Govind Vasantha</b> (<i><a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/gargi-tamil-original-motion-picture-soundtrack/ujYP2U4BWzw_" target="_blank">Gargi</a> - Thoovi Thoovi</i>), <b>Prashant Pillai</b> (<i><a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/pyali/HSwzkY3KAOw_" target="_blank">Pyali</a> - Pyali, Tu Noor, Yeh Chotti Si</i>), and <b>Pradeep Kumar</b> (<i><a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/kuthiraivaal/x5iVEpGQFE4_" target="_blank">Kuthiraivaal</a> - Parandhu Pogindren, Unnaivandhu Adaiyava</i>)...</p>
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<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="80" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/2ZaDHbj9KxRtvUmV1PYG6p" width="100%"></iframe>
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<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="80" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/0jqHDv0T6PSB4IatEokRYa" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="80" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/1ZJYeX8MakXpl1kBkp9CfG" width="100%"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-26945404182564578402024-01-06T20:00:00.000-05:002024-01-06T20:00:18.612-05:00Tech Roundup: Apple Antitrust Probe, Uber Flex & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>Global premium smartphone sales <a href="https://www.counterpointresearch.com/insights/global-premium-smartphone-market-continues-record-growth-2023/" target="_blank">grow 6%</a> in 2023, with Apple having a 71% market share, down from 75% in 2022, followed by Samsung (17%), Huawei (5%), Xiaomi (2%) and OPPO (1%); companies sold about 16 million foldable phones in 2023, or just 1.3% of all 1.2 billion smartphones, as the device segment begins to gain traction in China and the U.S.</li>
<li>Telegram rolls out <a href="https://telegram.org/blog/calls-and-bots" target="_blank">version 10.5</a> of its app, offering "totally redesigned" voice and video calls with new animations and backgrounds.</li>
<li>X (aka Twitter) brings back headlines to link previews more than two months after it stopped showing them; announces a $200 per month Basic subscription tier for smaller businesses.</li>
<li>Adult site Pornhub blocks access to its site, alongside other Aylo-owned sites like Redtube or Brazzers, in the U.S. states of Montana and North Carolina after new laws to verify users ages goes into effect on January 1, 2024. (Montana and North Carolina have joined a small list of states with restricted access to Pornhub. Louisiana, Utah, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Virginia have passed similar laws, prompting Pornhub to block access in those states as well. Texas has also passed its own law requiring adult film sites to show warnings about the health risks of watching porn.)</li>
<li>Meta rolls out <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/1980001549003872" target="_blank">Link History</a> on Facebook, which contains a repository of all the links clicked on by a user; says it may use "link history information from Facebook's Mobile Browser to improve your ads across Meta technologies."</li>
<li>Twitch updates its sexual content policies to prohibit implied nudity on the platform; says it does not "permit streamers to imply or suggest that they are fully or partially nude, including, but not limited to, covering breasts or genitals with objects or censor bars."</li>
<li>Amazon <a href="https://wickr.com/our-focus-on-end-to-end-encrypted-enterprise-communications/" target="_blank">shuts down</a> free version of the Wickr messaging app called Wickr Me more than a year after it stopped accepting user registrations on December 31, 2022.</li>
<li>Microsoft <a href="https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2024/01/04/introducing-a-new-copilot-key-to-kick-off-the-year-of-ai-powered-windows-pcs/" target="_blank">unveils</a> a Copilot keyboard key, shipping in new PCs and laptops from its partners, the first major change to the PC keyboard layout in nearly 30 years; officially <a href="https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2024/01/03/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-26020-canary-channel/" target="_blank">removes</a> WordPad from Windows 11 Insider Preview Build.</li>
<li>Uber begins testing Uber Flex, a flexible pricing service that lets riders pick a fare of their choice that will be shared with nearby drivers, in over 12 Indian cities.</li>
<li>The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) is reportedly in the "late stages" of a sweeping antitrust investigation into Apple and its moves to keep customers locked into its ecosystem, according to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/technology/antitrust-apple-lawsuit-us.html" target="_blank">report</a> from <i>The New York Times</i>; says the agency is looking at how Apple blocks rivals from using iMessage and prevents other financial providers from using iPhone-specific payment services.</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-59629999745694733862024-01-06T09:14:00.001-05:002024-01-06T21:37:09.857-05:00Heavy Rotation: A. R. Rahman, Pradeep Kumar, Somesh Saha & More<i>It's the start of a brand new year, and I hope to resume my music reviews at full steam. But before we get to that, here's a playlist of some of my favourite songs from 2022 (I know!) that I never got around to sharing until now -- featuring <b>Satish Raghunathan</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/kaiyum-kalavum-original-series-soundtrack/6cqPaXDRBnQ_" target="_blank">Kaiyum Kalavum</a> - Thaaye Unleashed), <b>Sreejith Edavana</b> (Thirimali - Kathangalayi), <b>Prashanth R. Vihari</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/bomma-blockbuster/-a71HxzRxNk_" target="_blank">Bomma Blockbuster</a> - Raaye Nuv Raaye), <b>Tenma</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/natchathiram-nagargiradhu/TXQ0mKeTLOQ_" target="_blank">Natchathiram Nagargiradhu</a> - Perinba Kadhal), <b>Somesh Saha</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/chitrakut-original-motion-picture-soundtrack/lXf,kWrs0-0_" target="_blank">Chitrakut</a> - Lover's Rendezvous), <b>Nivas K. Prasanna</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/vattam-original-motion-picture-soundtrack/Y0LJ7a2m1uQ_" target="_blank">Vattam</a> - Kankoththi Paravaye), <b>Pradeep Kumar</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/veyil/CufgYuZGeQ0_" target="_blank">Veyil</a> - Mizhi Arikil, Kodum Raavil), <b>A. R. Rahman</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/mili/vXQ4hdQbLrw_" target="_blank">Mili</a> - Sun Aye Mili), and <b>Anup Rubens</b> (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mCkeryO-s8" target="_blank">Shekar</a> - Chinni Chinni Pranam)...</i><br />
<br />
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="80" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/72AebRlQTSDu9mevBP7Jzp" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="80" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/649dnBB12m1YJgLhfSVB1G" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="80" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/60lEJmL7rSTVzU021Ht7z2" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="80" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/0ArKK0KrzbUBnheGC8RVpa" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="80" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/5HzVMn3yu48HN5waRE38Kf" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="80" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/4HRhwPDBGbzoZS8Go4sK2s" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="80" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/2FfAW71NCUTegMCRV3ScQw" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="80" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/2CIoh1tXgrpIhxRadWGQVm" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="80" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/0lBcuqsAeva8CfNyC3dvhq" width="100%"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-32434389203959938512023-12-30T22:11:00.000-05:002023-12-30T22:11:08.043-05:00Tech Roundup: Microsoft Copilot Apps, OpenAI Copyright Infringement & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>Microsoft tests a feature that lets Windows 11 users reinstall the operating system using Windows Update, a method that preserves files, settings and installed apps; launches Microsoft Copilot for Android, iOS and iPadOS, a free ChatGPT-like app that supports GPT-4 and DALL-E 3, as GitHub makes available GPT-4-powered Copilot Chat for all users.</li>
<li>Amazon announces plans to start injecting ads on movies and TV shows for Prime Video starting January 29, 2024.</li>
<li>X rival social network Bluesky <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/bsky.app/post/3khhtntbo6o2h" target="_blank">rolls out</a> a new in-app video and music player for YouTube, SoundCloud, Spotify and Twitch embeds, along with a new hide post feature "if there’s something you don't want to see again."</li>
<li>Apple scores a victory after a U.S. appeals court temporarily pauses International Trade Commission's import ban on Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2; comes after finding that Apple infringed on blood oxygen saturation technology patented by a company called Masimo.</li>
<li><i>The New York Times</i> sues OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, alleging the companies used millions of its articles to train AI; says the large language models (LLMs), which power ChatGPT and Copilot, "can generate output that recites Times content verbatim, closely summarizes it, and mimics its expressive style," which it claims deprives it of "subscription, licensing, advertising, and affiliate revenue."</li>
<li>India seeks to block the URLs of nine offshore crypto exchanges, including Binance, Kraken, KuCoin, Huobi, Bittrex and Bitstamp, for not complying with anti-money laundering laws.</li>
<li>A <a href="https://arstechnica.com/ai/2023/12/ai-created-virtual-influencers-are-stealing-business-from-humans/" target="_blank">new report</a> from the <i>Finanical Times</i> reveals that the rise of AI-created virtual influencers has "led to worry from human influencers their income is being cannibalized and under threat from digital rivals."</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/google-settles-5-billion-consumer-privacy-lawsuit-2023-12-28/" target="_blank">reaches</a> a preliminary settlement in a <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17216783/1089/brown-v-google-llc/" target="_blank">2020 class action lawsuit</a> seeking at least US$ 5 billion in damages over allegations that the tech giant had misled consumers about their privacy protections when using incognito mode on the Chrome web browser and that users' online activity was tracked even when they set Chrome to incognito and other browsers to private mode in order to serve tailored ads. (While incognito/private mode within a web browser gives users the choice to search the internet without their activity being saved to the browser or device, the websites visited can use tools such as Google Analytics to track usage.</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-56061740530759303032023-12-24T07:58:00.014-05:002024-01-05T02:21:59.615-05:00Best OST's So Far - 2023 (Updated)<i>The most gratifying and pleasing original soundtracks so far this year: <i>N/A</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The rest classified as Above Average (AA) / Average (A) / Mediocre (M):</i><br />
<ul>
<li><i><a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/01/heavy-rotaion-amit-trivedi-midhun.html" target="_blank">Qala</a> (AA), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/01/heavy-rotaion-amit-trivedi-midhun.html" target="_blank">Pathaan</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/01/heavy-rotaion-amit-trivedi-midhun.html" target="_blank">Kuttey</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/01/heavy-rotaion-amit-trivedi-midhun.html" target="_blank">Kalyanam Kamaneeyam</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/01/heavy-rotaion-amit-trivedi-midhun.html" target="_blank">Chhatriwali</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/01/heavy-rotaion-amit-trivedi-midhun.html" target="_blank">Poovan</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/01/heavy-rotaion-amit-trivedi-midhun.html" target="_blank">Malikappuram</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/01/heavy-rotaion-amit-trivedi-midhun.html" target="_blank">Djinn</a> (AA), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/01/heavy-rotaion-amit-trivedi-midhun.html" target="_blank">Orchestra Mysuru</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/01/heavy-rotaion-amit-trivedi-midhun.html" target="_blank">Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh</a> (A), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/thunivu/jm6ScUPsKtA_" target="_blank">Thunivu</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/veera-simha-reddy-original-motion-picture-soundtrack/k7zI-DGHu8c_" target="_blank">Veera Simha Reddy</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/waltair-veerayya-original-motion-picture-soundtrack/AOfxn9S4cak_" target="_blank">Waltair Veerayya</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/vaathi/2id3b,uQEe4_" target="_blank">Vaathi</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/mission-majnu/99P2CA3QNpk_" target="_blank">Mission Majnu</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/vallavanukkum-vallavan/jynkqo7ium4_" target="_blank">Vallavanukkum Vallavan</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/kranti/rNPjDVhbVhI_" target="_blank">Kranti</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/ayisha-2023/whO0u8RSAac_" target="_blank">Ayisha</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/ayali/hjZ2xRmiBvI_" target="_blank">Ayali</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/thankam/EhCzlobJZzA_" target="_blank">Thankam</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/hunt/CuOS4pRa,Ok_" target="_blank">Hunt</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/prathyardhi/m-bMn4kXphQ_" target="_blank">Prathyardhi</a>* (M)</i></li>
<li><i><a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-jakes-bejoy-rajesh.html" target="_blank">Phalana Abbayi Phalana Ammayi</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-jakes-bejoy-rajesh.html" target="_blank">Shiv Shastri Balboa</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-jakes-bejoy-rajesh.html" target="_blank">Run Baby Run</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-jakes-bejoy-rajesh.html" target="_blank">Thalaikoothal</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-jakes-bejoy-rajesh.html" target="_blank">Vasantha Mullai</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-jakes-bejoy-rajesh.html" target="_blank">Dada</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-jakes-bejoy-rajesh.html" target="_blank">Romancham</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-jakes-bejoy-rajesh.html" target="_blank">Iratta</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-jakes-bejoy-rajesh.html" target="_blank">The Great Indian Kitchen</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-chaitan-bharadwaj-govind.html" target="_blank">Christy</a> (AA), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-chaitan-bharadwaj-govind.html" target="_blank">Enkilum Chandrike</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-chaitan-bharadwaj-govind.html" target="_blank">Lost</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-chaitan-bharadwaj-govind.html" target="_blank">Who Am I</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-chaitan-bharadwaj-govind.html" target="_blank">Love Birds</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-chaitan-bharadwaj-govind.html" target="_blank">Ntikkakkakkoru Premandaarnnu</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-chaitan-bharadwaj-govind.html" target="_blank">Vinaro Bhagyamu Vishnu Katha</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/02/heavy-rotation-chaitan-bharadwaj-govind.html" target="_blank">Pranaya Vilasam</a> (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/balagam/ZqVUIJRpeyg_" target="_blank">Balagam</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/writer-padmabhushan/eEwcbF3zECI_" target="_blank">Writer Padmabhushan</a>* (M), Christopher* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/bommai-nayagi/shdFY3Ds3mI_" target="_blank">Bommai Nayagi</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/dhishkyaoon/Doi5rb3f1ts_" target="_blank">Dhishkyaoon</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/farzi-original-series-soundtrack/zEzRQbSsYb0_" target="_blank">Farzi</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/momo-in-dubai/yJvwSQxB4Tc_" target="_blank">Momo In Dubai</a>* (M), Selfiee* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/shehzada/Z0-cZFd,Ato_" target="_blank">Shehzada</a>* (M), Faraaz* (M), Single Shankarum Smartphone Simranum* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/michael-telugu/,47zj7tZhhg_" target="_blank">Michael</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/butta-bomma/H24xKCyVvpY_" target="_blank">Butta Bomma</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/amigos/HnZSvofj0no_" target="_blank">Amigos</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/vedha/ZaqiLCp8,Zg_" target="_blank">Vedha</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/thugs-telugu-original-motion-picture-soundtrack/Q2HQhoLYkVA_" target="_blank">Thugs</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/gowli/cJbovEkiIc8_" target="_blank">Gowli</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/almost-pyaar-with-dj-mohabbat/D2Jf2OoH7gk_" target="_blank">Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat</a>* (A), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/sridevi-shoban-babu/zNbCjpoQpHk_" target="_blank">Sridevi Shoban Babu</a>* (M)</i></li>
<li><i><a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/03/heavy-rotation-kedar-rahul-raj-sachin.html" target="_blank">Kannai Nambathey</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/03/heavy-rotation-kedar-rahul-raj-sachin.html" target="_blank">Memories</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/03/heavy-rotation-kedar-rahul-raj-sachin.html" target="_blank">Crazy Fellow</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/03/heavy-rotation-kedar-rahul-raj-sachin.html" target="_blank">Gurudev Hoysala</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/03/heavy-rotation-kedar-rahul-raj-sachin.html" target="_blank">Organic Mama Hybrid Alludu</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/03/heavy-rotation-kedar-rahul-raj-sachin.html" target="_blank">Zwigato</a> (AA), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/03/heavy-rotation-kedar-rahul-raj-sachin.html" target="_blank">Mrs. Chatterjee Vs Norway</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/03/heavy-rotation-kedar-rahul-raj-sachin.html" target="_blank">Lovefully Yours Veda</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/03/heavy-rotation-kedar-rahul-raj-sachin.html" target="_blank">Vellaripattanam</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/03/heavy-rotation-kedar-rahul-raj-sachin.html" target="_blank">Maheshum Maruthiyum</a> (AA), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/das-ka-dhamki/tvnAzdzXVGI_" target="_blank">Das Ka Dhamki</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/viduthalai-original-motion-picture-soundtrack/PPvi84MGVVk_" target="_blank">Viduthalai Part 1</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/pathu-thala-original-motion-picture-soundtrack/4jJKM,K6F9w_" target="_blank">Pathu Thala</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/dasara-telugu/Yhd-iQaDc-I_" target="_blank">Dasara</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/bholaa/QExKaIInVqk_" target="_blank">Bholaa</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/agilan/UJFn-3NCmlU_" target="_blank">Agilan</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/kabzaa/qaITdutd3o0_" target="_blank">Kabzaa</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/bagheera/xM197,r-LM0_" target="_blank">Bagheera</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/chor-nikal-ke-bhaga-soundtrack-from-the-netflix-film/4mChtQ-EH0k_" target="_blank">Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga</a>* (M), Kanjoos Makhichoos* (M), Bheed* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/kondraal-paavam/G3lMkkPEAbg_" target="_blank">Kondraal Paavam</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/tu-jhoothi-main-makkaar/Zk6,htMIngg_" target="_blank">Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/ayothi/MP,ZMpaMNKQ_" target="_blank">Ayothi</a>* (M), Pakalum Pathiravum* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/thuramukham/fEx,XtIYrCA_" target="_blank">Thuramukham</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/kallanum-bhagavathiyum/IkCzbbfK5EE_" target="_blank">Kallanum Bhagavathiyum</a>* (A), Higuita* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/purusha-pretham/DvbyFGJpM6U_" target="_blank">Purusha Pretham</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/h-34-pallavi-talkies/y017qt9RGX4_" target="_blank">H/34 Pallavi Talkies</a>* (M)</i></li>
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<li><i><a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/10/heavy-rotation-chaitan-bharadwaj-justin.html" target="_blank">Mission Raniganj: The Great Bharat Rescue</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/10/heavy-rotation-chaitan-bharadwaj-justin.html" target="_blank">Maama Mascheendra</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/10/heavy-rotation-chaitan-bharadwaj-justin.html" target="_blank">Tejas</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/10/heavy-rotation-chaitan-bharadwaj-justin.html" target="_blank">Dhak Dhak</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/10/heavy-rotation-chaitan-bharadwaj-justin.html" target="_blank">Leo</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/10/heavy-rotation-chaitan-bharadwaj-justin.html" target="_blank">Chaaver</a> (AA), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/10/heavy-rotation-achu-rajamani-girishh.html" target="_blank">Month of Madhu</a> (AA), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/10/heavy-rotation-achu-rajamani-girishh.html" target="_blank">12th Fail</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/10/heavy-rotation-achu-rajamani-girishh.html" target="_blank">Otta</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/10/heavy-rotation-achu-rajamani-girishh.html" target="_blank">Pulimada</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/10/heavy-rotation-achu-rajamani-girishh.html" target="_blank">Imbam</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/10/heavy-rotation-achu-rajamani-girishh.html" target="_blank">Margazhi Thingal</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/10/heavy-rotation-achu-rajamani-girishh.html" target="_blank">Irugapatru</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/10/heavy-rotation-achu-rajamani-girishh.html" target="_blank">Kolai</a> (AA), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/10/heavy-rotation-achu-rajamani-girishh.html" target="_blank">Dono</a> (A), Raththam* (M), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCpwR8X2w4U" target="_blank">Tiger Nageswara Rao</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/bhagavanth-kesari/LupFehCt834_" target="_blank">Bhagavanth Kesari</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/ganapath/9g5D1wbYbRA_" target="_blank">Ganapath</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/yaariyan-2/rrZxLnIwWR4_" target="_blank">Yaariyan 2</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN5C8OTUr5I" target="_blank">Thank You For Coming</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/rules-ranjann/ByCXm1caG4I_" target="_blank">Rules Ranjann</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/pyaar-hai-toh-hai/SDWrY,Wu9bg_" target="_blank">Pyaar Hai Toh Hai</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/ghost/WmrVeYPGydU_" target="_blank">Ghost</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/mad/23UNVu9XLI8_" target="_blank">MAD</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/friday-night-plan/SmUGNoQn1e0_" target="_blank">Friday Night Plan</a>* (M)</i></li>
<li><i><a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/11/heavy-rotation-midhun-mukundan-vishal.html" target="_blank">Joe</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/11/heavy-rotation-midhun-mukundan-vishal.html" target="_blank">Apurva</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/11/heavy-rotation-midhun-mukundan-vishal.html" target="_blank">Starfish</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/11/heavy-rotation-midhun-mukundan-vishal.html" target="_blank">Farrey</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/11/heavy-rotation-midhun-mukundan-vishal.html" target="_blank">Falimy</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/11/heavy-rotation-midhun-mukundan-vishal.html" target="_blank">Jigarthanda DoubleX</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/11/heavy-rotation-midhun-mukundan-vishal.html" target="_blank">Keedaa Cola</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/11/heavy-rotation-midhun-mukundan-vishal.html" target="_blank">80s Buildup</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/11/heavy-rotation-midhun-mukundan-vishal.html" target="_blank">Aadikeshava</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/11/heavy-rotation-midhun-mukundan-vishal.html" target="_blank">Spark</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/11/heavy-rotation-midhun-mukundan-vishal.html" target="_blank">Sila Nodigalil</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/11/heavy-rotation-midhun-mukundan-vishal.html" target="_blank">Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye</a> (AA), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/tiger-3/WIKD6mB8iSY_" target="_blank">Tiger 3</a>* (M), Khichdi 2* (M), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoUt3kmuWoY" target="_blank">Japan</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7TOcXGgbJQ" target="_blank">Bandra</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/sesham-mike-il-fathima/tp60jGkg2Ec_" target="_blank">Sesham Mike-il Fathima</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/garudan/Wet5eTSbMZo_" target="_blank">Garudan</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50nYjOifGII" target="_blank">Mangalavaaram</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOCARRBKVxA" target="_blank">Raid</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/vela/kY6l7qfKB9I_" target="_blank">Vela</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/bad-manners/9ki8-onw-nc_" target="_blank">Bad Manners</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/pippa/MAZbYliGgZQ_" target="_blank">Pippa</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/phoenix/VZP,,Sc,wrg_" target="_blank">Phoenix</a>* (M)</i></li>
<li><i><a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/12/heavy-rotation-anurag-saikia-bijibal.html" target="_blank">The Archies</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/12/heavy-rotation-anurag-saikia-bijibal.html" target="_blank">Chamak</a> (AA), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/12/heavy-rotation-anurag-saikia-bijibal.html" target="_blank">Kadak Singh</a> (AA), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/12/heavy-rotation-anurag-saikia-bijibal.html" target="_blank">Aayiram Porkaasukal</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/12/heavy-rotation-anurag-saikia-bijibal.html" target="_blank">Mast Mein Rehne Ka</a> (AA), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/12/heavy-rotation-anurag-saikia-bijibal.html" target="_blank">Dry Day</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/12/heavy-rotation-anurag-saikia-bijibal.html" target="_blank">Dance Party</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/12/heavy-rotation-anurag-saikia-bijibal.html" target="_blank">Thaal</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/12/heavy-rotation-anurag-saikia-bijibal.html" target="_blank">Rajni</a> (M), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/12/heavy-rotation-anurag-saikia-bijibal.html" target="_blank">A Ranjith Cinema</a> (A), <a href="https://therarefied.blogspot.com/2023/12/heavy-rotation-anurag-saikia-bijibal.html" target="_blank">Antony</a> (A), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/dunki/nOH0--eoFKo_" target="_blank">Dunki</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/sam-bahadur/N1IIWQhnhR4_" target="_blank">Sam Bahadur</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/extra-ordinary-man/Zi4sw8KEy30_" target="_blank">Extra Ordinary Man</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TKGr3wWeqc" target="_blank">Annapoorani: The Goddess Of Food</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/conjuring-kannappan/lj,Rj10Icyo_" target="_blank">Conjuring Kannappan</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/parking/6WjurzHXgiQ_" target="_blank">Parking</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/kuiko/VmksgVniIAk_" target="_blank">Kuiko</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/joram/,oZ,cuVEU,8_" target="_blank">Joram</a>* (M), Saba Nayagan* (M), Kannagi* (M), Maharani* (M), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OepqKvePfL4" target="_blank">Mathimaran</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/kaatera/yD8U7ke8N-o_" target="_blank">Kaatera</a>* (M), Vaamana* (M), <a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/hangover/ZZHnwJYehMI_" target="_blank">Hangover</a>* (M), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZNaoAdpsg8" target="_blank">Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire</a>* (M)</i></li>
</ul>
<i>* The soundtracks were not officially reviewed.</i></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-66042062800339653892023-12-24T07:42:00.004-05:002023-12-26T20:28:20.114-05:00Tech Roundup: Adobe-Figma Acquisition Termination, Apple iMessage Scrutiny & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>Adobe and Figma <a href="https://news.adobe.com/news/news-details/2023/Adobe-and-Figma-Mutually-Agree-to-Terminate-Merger-Agreement/default.aspx" target="_blank">agree</a> to <a href="https://www.figma.com/blog/figma-adobe-abandon-proposed-merger/" target="_blank">terminate</a> their proposed US$ 20 billion merger, announced in September 2022, after seeing "no clear path" to U.K. and E.U. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/adobe-slash-figma-merger-inquiry" target="_blank">regulatory approval</a>. (As a result, Adobe will now be required to pay Figma a reverse termination fee of US$ 1 billion in cash.)</li>
<li>The European Commission opens an <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_23_6709" target="_blank">official investigation</a> into X under the Digital Services Act (DSA), focusing on illegal content, disinformation, ad transparency, "deceptive design" and data access.</li>
<li>Apple pauses sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the U.S. starting December 21 due to an ongoing patent dispute with medical tech company Masimo related to blood oxygen sensing, as it explores a software workaround to get around the ban.</li>
<li>ByteDance-owned TikTok updates its app for tablets and foldable devices, adding streamlined navigation bars and a landscape mode, as the company seeks to compete with YouTube.</li>
<li>Flipboard plans to replace its entire social back end with ActivityPub and by April 2024 let any Flipboard user follow any fediverse account from within its app.</li>
<li>The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) <a href="https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/mobile-browsers-and-cloud-gaming" target="_blank">says</a> it will recommence its investigation to probe Apple and Google's dominance in mobile browsers and cloud gaming on 24 January 2024, more than a month atfer the U.K. Court of Appeal reversed a previous decision that ruled in Apple's favour, stating the CMA took a long time to open a probe.</li>
<li>OpenAI <a href="https://openai.com/safety/preparedness" target="_blank">lays out plans</a> to address safety risks in its most advanced models, including allowing its board to reverse safety decisions.</li>
<li>Google proposes facial age estimation technology to help it prevent children from accessing websites with restricted content in the U.K. and comply with the Online Safety Act, which requires companies to implement age barriers to access certain kinds of content online.</li>
<li>Alphabet's Google, Honor, Lenovo, Lynx, Meta, Motorola, Nothing, Opera, Qualcomm and Wire team up for Coalition for Open Digital Ecosystems (CODE) in an <a href="https://www.opendigitalecosystems.org/news/6/new-digital-openness-coalition-launches" target="_blank">effort</a> to promote more open platforms and systems to boost growth and innovation in Europe.</li>
<li>Samsung's Self-Repair program includes foldable devices for the first time, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5, and expands to 30 additional countries in Europe.</li>
<li>Stability AI <a href="https://stability.ai/news/introducing-stability-ai-membership" target="_blank">debuts</a> Stability AI Membership, with free, US$ 20/month, and custom pricing enterprise tiers, limiting commercial use of its models to the paid tiers.</li>
<li>Microsoft intergrates generative AI music app Suno to Copilot, allowing users to compose songs, including lyrics, instruments, and voices, from a sentence; plans to deprecate Windows Mixed Reality and remove the feature in a future Windows update.</li>
<li>Beeper throws in the towel and say it's <a href="https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-moving-forward" target="_blank">giving up on its mission</a> to bring iMessage to Android after Apple took steps to neuter Beeper Mini; notes that the fix requires users to have access to a <a href="https://blog.beeper.com/p/imessage-and-phone-registration-are" target="_blank">jailbroken phone</a>, significantly curtailing its use.</li><ul><li>Beeper has also noted that "by blocking Beeper Mini, Apple is actively harming their own iPhone customers by forcing them to fall back to insecure SMS chats."</li><li>Needless to say, the development has prompted the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to intensify their investigations into Apple's alleged anti-competitive practices, according to <i><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/22/technology/apple-iphone-beeper-mini.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a></i>. The FTC <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/policy/advocacy-research/tech-at-ftc/2023/12/interoperability-privacy-security" target="_blank">said</a> that it would scrutinise "dominant" players that "use privacy and security as a justification to disallow interoperability" between services without taking any names.</li></ul>
<li>Google <a href="https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/public-policy/reaffirming-choice-and-openness-on-android-and-google-play/" target="_blank">announces</a> a US$ 700 million settlement in an antitrust lawsuit filed by 50 U.S. states; says it will "continue to technically enable Android to allow the installation of third-party apps on Mobile Devices through means other than Google Play" for seven years and allow developers to offer an alternative in-app billing system for five years, among other concessions.</li>
<li>Google tests new feature in Android that lets users to remotely uninstall an app on another device; releases a <a href="https://blog.google/products/chrome/google-chrome-december-2023-update/" target="_blank">Chrome browser update</a> that automatically runs Safety Check in the background to alert "if passwords saved in Chrome have been compromised, any of your extensions are potentially harmful, you're not using the latest version of Chrome, or site permissions need your attention."</li>
<li>Meta-owned WhatsApp trials a "Share status" feature that makes it possible for users to cross-post their status on Facebook and Instagram; also pilots option to share their phone's screen along with audio for immersive communication.</li>
<li>The E.U. <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_23_6763" target="_blank">designates</a> Pornhub, XVideos, and Stripchat as Very Large Online Platforms under the Digital Services Act, requiring the companies to comply with stricter rules on age verification and illegal content.</li>
<li>The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/12/ftc-proposes-strengthening-childrens-privacy-rule-further-limit-companies-ability-monetize-childrens" target="_blank">proposes</a> stronger data protections for children, including making targeted advertising opt-in and banning push notifications encouraging them to use their services more.</li>
<li>Researchers <a href="https://www.404media.co/laion-datasets-removed-stanford-csam-child-abuse/" target="_blank">discover</a> over 1,008 instances of <a href="https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/news/investigation-finds-ai-image-generation-models-trained-child-abuse" target="_blank">child sexual abuse material</a> (CSAM) in LAION-5B, a machine learning dataset comprising more than 5 billion images, possibly helping AI to generate CSAM; prompts the non-profit behind it LAION (aka Large-scale Artificial Intelligence Open Network) to take it down out of an "abundance of caution" to "ensure they are safe before republishing them." (The development comes as AI is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/12/17/ai-fake-news-misinformation/" target="_blank">automating</a> the creation of fake news, spurring an explosion of web content mimicking factual articles that propagates false information about elections, wars and natural disasters. It also <a href="https://algorithmwatch.org/en/study-microsofts-bing-chat/" target="_blank">follows</a> <a href="https://aiforensics.org/work/bing-chat-elections" target="_blank">reports</a> about how generative AI chatbots like Bing Chat are making up false scandals about real politicians and inventing polling numbers.)</li>
<li>Apple publishes <a href="https://arstechnica.com/apple/2023/12/apple-wants-ai-to-run-directly-on-its-hardware-instead-of-in-the-cloud/" target="_blank">new research</a> that explores the possibility of running computationally expensive large language models (LLMs) on device as opposed to the cloud, offering improved privacy benefits to users.</li>
<li>Decentralised X rival Bluesky <a href="https://blueskyweb.xyz/blog/12-21-2023-butterfly" target="_blank">releases</a> a public web view, allowing users to view posts on the platform without being logged in, and unveils a new logo with a blue butterfly.</li>
<li>France proposes a new tax that will impose a levy of what is expected to be between 1.5 and 1.75% on all music-streaming services, with the proceeds going toward the Centre National de la Musique (CNM), which was established in 2020 to support the French music sector.</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-91830573500066755722023-12-24T07:35:00.003-05:002023-12-27T06:07:17.583-05:00Heavy Rotation: Anurag Saikia, Bijibal, Shantanu Moitra & More<i>The music of Chamak springs up a pleasant surprise, packing an eclectic mix of Punjabi flavours, effortlessly flitting from catchy rap to folk to EDM to sufi music that's all expertly curated by a diverse set of musicians. Here's a playlist of my new soundtrack favourites from <b>Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/the-archies/1,mppfO00MI_" target="_blank">The Archies</a> - Va Va Voom, In Raahon Mein), <b>Ankur Tewari</b> (The Archies - Chhoona Aasmaan), <b>Ankur Tewari & The Islanders</b> (The Archies - Lonely July), <b>Sunny M. R.</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/chamak-original-series-soundtrack/7kvVZLwzjJ0_" target="_blank">Chamak</a> - Aas Lagi Hai), <b>Vikram Montrose</b> (Chamak - Mat Maari), <b>Shantanu Moitra</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/kadak-singh/LQE4cbiKzUQ_" target="_blank">Kadak Singh</a> - Tu Jo Hai, Aye Mere Dil), <b>Johan</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/aayiram-porkaasukal/ud3PcUuYJuQ_" target="_blank">Aayiram Porkaasukal</a> - Muzhusa Nananchi), <b>Anurag Saikia</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/mast-mein-rehne-ka/eZyo6tvag7c_" target="_blank">Mast Mein Rehne Ka</a> - Ek Taara, Phir Se Aaj), <b>Shailendra Barve</b> (Mast Mein Rehne Ka - Kabhi Kabhi Zindagi, Sundara), <b>Protijyoti Ghosh</b> (Dry Day - Daata), <b>Bijibal</b> (Dance Party - Chilu Chilu Chilanka, Thaal - Pulariyil Ilaveyil), <b>Deepankuran</b> (Rajni - Bhoologam Aadum Koothe), <b>Midhun Asokan</b> (A Ranjith Cinema - Chiriyil Aliyam), and <b>Jakes Bejoy</b> (Antony - Chellakuruvikku)...</i><br />
<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/4qyVImQdhQWWQzpmO6Wygg" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
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<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/3tOstIFLlQB6e62TBquwMN" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/0oyvJZRqqn1vyj5C7f9UGQ" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/7jrVKrNhPP62dUvbK3m08k" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/45hquytTuslH48mXdJk4wk" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/0KiZTjm8HL9mRNp4ePKU2I" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-52652856645297749072023-12-17T02:04:00.010-05:002024-02-22T21:33:48.728-05:00Best Movies So Far - 2023It's 2023 and it's time to list the films we're most anticipating this year. Do note the list is by no means definitive and will be revised as the year rolls on!<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Must watch movies this year: Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam, Chithha, Ennennum, Goldfish</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>And the others: Varisu (M), Vaathi (M), Viduthalai (AA), Scream VI (A), The Pope's Exorcist (M), Por Thozhil (A), Kaathal – The Core (AA)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>On my watch list: M3GAN, Missing, In My Mother's Skin, Broker, Birth/Rebirth, Passages, Skinamarink, Sick, Infinity Pool, Talk to Me, Speak No Evil, Firebrand, Anatomy of a Fall, Monster, Beau is Afraid, Reality, Inside, In My Mother's Skin, Run Rabbit Run, Perpetrator, Strange Way of Life, Twilight, Enys Men, Problemista, The Night of the 12th, The Eight Mountains, The Artifice Girl, Malum, Smile, Knock at the Cabin, Oppenheimer, Barbie, Passages, Godland, Monster, Killers of the Flower Moon, Afire, Aloners, Asteroid City, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Our Father, the Devil, Hoard, All of us Strangers, Poor Things, Past Lives, Saltburn, Daayam, Paradise, Three of Us, The Teachers' Lounge, Gulmohar, Iratta, Thalaikoothal, Purusha Pretham, Yaathisai, B 32 Muthal 44 Vare, Thuramukham, Stolen, Agra, Sthal</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-56572091295010610252023-12-17T01:22:00.001-05:002023-12-17T01:22:19.629-05:00Tech Roundup: Amazon Your Books, Threads E.U. Launch & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>Meta <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/07/introducing-threads-new-app-text-sharing/" target="_blank">officially brings Threads</a> to the European Union, five months after its official launch and adds an option for users in the bloc to browse the platform without a profile; Instagram launches customisable story templates and a generative AI background editing tool in the U.S., letting users change the background for their Stories based on prompts.</li><ul><li>Meta is also outlining larger plans for fediverse in Threads, including options to follow a Threads account on other platforms (and vice-versa) as well as facilitate follower portability.</li></ul>
<li>Apple releases iOS and iPadOS updates with a new Journal app and support for <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/iphone/iph654dd8c53/ios" target="_blank">contact key verification</a> in iMessage.</li>
<li>Beeper, which released its Beeper Mini app to allow Android users use iMessage, returns after being shut down by Apple, but now requires users to log in with their Apple ID; says it's looking into reports that some users aren't getting iMessages on Beeper Mini and Beeper Cloud, as the heated battle of whack-a-mole with Apple escalates.</li>
<li>Google faces new regulatory setback after a jury in the Epic Games vs. Google antitrust case unanimously finds that the company has <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/googles-app-store-monopoly-ruled-illegal-jury-epic/" target="_blank">illegal monopoly power</a> in the Android app distribution markets and in the in-app billing services markets; Epic Games <a href="https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/epic-v-google-trial-verdict-a-win-for-all-developers" target="_blank">says</a> "Google's app store practices are illegal and they abuse their monopoly to extract exorbitant fees, stifle competition and reduce innovation" and that "Google was willing to pay billions of dollars to stifle alternative app stores by paying developers to abandon their own store efforts and direct distribution plans, and offering highly lucrative agreements with device manufacturers in exchange for excluding competing app stores."</li>
<li>Meta releases <a href="https://audiobox.metademolab.com/" target="_blank">Audiobox</a>, which is described as a "new foundation research model for audio generation" built atop Voicebox; adds multimodal AI to its Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses as an early access beta in the U.S., letting Meta AI answer voice queries by taking and analyzing photos.</li>
<li>Google announces plans to shut down Google Play Movies & TV app on January 17, 2024, as it transitions users to Google TV; to <a href="https://blog.google/products/maps/updates-to-location-history-and-new-controls-coming-soon-to-maps/" target="_blank">shorten</a> Maps' default auto-delete history feature from 18 months to three months and let users store Maps Timeline data locally on their devices as well as delete activity related to specific places. (This <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/cyrusfarivar/2023/12/14/google-just-killed-geofence-warrants-police-location-data/" target="_blank">also means that</a> Google will no longer respond to 'geofence warrants,' a controversial legal tool used by law enforcement to force Google to hand over information about all users within a given location during a specific timeframe.)</li>
<li>Apple releases an iOS beta with Stolen Device Protection, a new security feature that, if enabled, limits actions like Apple ID password resets when not in a "familiar location"; comes in response to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/apple-iphone-ios-update-stolen-device-protection-698d760e" target="_blank">reports</a> of thefts where criminals used iPhone owners' passcodes to change their Apple accounts, access saved passwords, steal money and lock them out of their iCloud-stored photos and videos.</li>
<li>Meta-owned WhatsApp lets users pin messages within one-on-one and group conversations for 24 hours, seven days, or 30 days; now allows users to post 2-second video Notes as statuses.</li>
<li>Snap <a href="https://newsroom.snap.com/snapchat-plus-seven-million-new-ways-to-create-caption-and-snap" target="_blank">debuts</a> new features for Snapchat+ subscribers that allows them to generate and send AI images based on a text prompt, and expands Dream, Snapchat's generative AI selfie feature, to include their social circle.</li>
<li>ByteDance TikTok restarts e-commerce in Indonesia after it acquires a 75% stake in GoTo Gojek Tokopedia unit with a US$ 1.5 billion investment; comes two months after Indonesia banned online shopping on social media platforms in October to protect smaller merchants and users' data, forcing TikTok to shut down its TikTok Shop service.</li>
<li>Meta tests making posts from Threads accounts "available on Mastodon and other services that use the ActivityPub protocol"; plans to extend its fact-checking to Threads early next year.</li>
<li>Microsoft makes available Xbox Cloud Gaming in beta on Meta Quest 2, Quest 3 and Quest Pro VR headsets for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers.</li>
<li>Amazon competes with its own Goodreads (which it acquired in 2013) with the launch of <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/books-and-authors/amazon-your-books-feature" target="_blank">Your Books</a>, a feature that lets users organise all their books, including print, Kindle and Audible titles, and receive recommendations on the eponymous storefront.</li>
<li>Google announces <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/healthcare-life-sciences/introducing-medlm-for-the-healthcare-industry" target="_blank">MedLM</a>, a suite of AI models fine-tuned for the healthcare industry and based on Med-PaLM 2, for cloud customers; announces general availability of <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/duet-ai-for-developers-and-in-security-operations-now-ga" target="_blank">Duet AI</a> for developers and for use in security operations, releases <a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/gemini-api-developers-cloud/" target="_blank">Gemini Pro</a> for <a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-gemini-pro-imagen-duet-ai-update/" target="_blank">developers and enterprises</a> via an API, and debuts <a href="https://deepmind.google/technologies/imagen-2/" target="_blank">Imagen 2</a> text-to-image technology capable of "high-quality, photorealistic outputs."</li>
<li>Crypto project Worldcoin now supports World ID integrations with Minecraft, Reddit, Telegram, Shopify, and Mercado Libre, on top of Discord and others, and unveils World ID 2.0.</li>
<li>Axel Springer signs a multi-year deal with OpenAI, which plans to offer ChatGPT news summaries and use Politico, Business Insider, and others to train AI models.</li>
<li>Apple expands its Self Service Repair to the iPhone 15 lineup and M2 Macs, brings the program to 24 more countries, and releases a <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/101965" target="_blank">diagnostics tool</a> in the U.S. for self service repair.</li>
<li>Amazon-owned Twitch <a href="https://safety.twitch.tv/s/article/Updating-our-Approach-to-Sexual-Content-and-Content-Classification-Labels" target="_blank">updates</a> its guidelines regarding sexual content to allow "deliberately highlighted breasts, buttocks or pelvic region," "fictionalised (drawn, animated, or sculpted) fully exposed female-presenting breasts and/or genitals or buttocks regardless of gender," "body writing on female-presenting breasts and/or buttocks regardless of gender," and erotic dances; rescinds its "artistic nudity" portion, citing "community concern"</li>
<li>Music streamer Spotify <a href="https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-12-12/spotify-to-continue-its-service-in-uruguay/" target="_blank">reverses course</a> on its decision to exit the Uruguayan market, after gaining assurances from the government that the new copyright law changes won't result in the company incurring extra costs.</li>
<li>Major pharmacy chains in the U.S., including CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/12/cvs-rite-aid-walgreens-hand-out-medical-records-to-cops-without-warrants/" target="_blank">hand over sensitive medical records</a> -- such as the prescription drugs a person used or uses and their medical conditions -- to law enforcement without a warrant, raising grave medical privacy concerns.</li>
<li>Google's DeepMind <a href="https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/funsearch-making-new-discoveries-in-mathematical-sciences-using-large-language-models/" target="_blank">FunSearch model</a> cracks the unsolved cap set problem in pure mathematics, the first time an LLM has solved a <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/12/14/1085318/google-deepmind-large-language-model-solve-unsolvable-math-problem-cap-set/" target="_blank">long-standing scientific puzzle</a>; says the model "works by pairing a pre-trained LLM, whose goal is to provide creative solutions in the form of computer code, with an automated 'evaluator,' which guards against hallucinations and incorrect ideas."</li>
<li>Google updates YouTube TV app to show longer but less frequent ad breaks, after testing since September 2023, and adds a countdown timer in the bottom-right corner; launches a <a href="https://blog.google/products/pixel/pixel-phone-repair-update/" target="_blank">Pixel Diagnostic App</a> and repair manuals in English in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia and the European countries where Pixel devices are sold.</li>
<li>Apple begins selling a US$ 99 USB-C charging case for its second-generation AirPods Pro as a standalone purchase.</li>
<li>Google announces plans to test Tracking Protection and blocking third-party cookies on January 4 for ~1% of Chrome users globally, ahead of a phased rollout in H2 2024; to <a href="https://sidewalkinfra.com/news/introducing-renew-home" target="_blank">merge</a> its Nest Renew service with the OhmConnect energy management platform to form a new company named <a href="https://www.renewhome.com/" target="_blank">Renew Home</a>, as it continues to streamline its portfolio, and updates its Contacts app for Android with real-time location sharing from Google Maps.</li>
<li>Chipmaker Intel unveils Gaudi3 that's designed for generative AI software, as it takes on rival offerings from Nvidia (H100) and AMD (MI300X).</li>
<li>Privacy-focused Swiss company Proton launches an app in beta for Windows and macOS that includes Proton Mail and Proton Calendar, ahead of a wider early 2024 launch.</li>
<li>Microsoft launches its basic Office suite on the Meta Quest store for free, letting all Quests run Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in a mixed reality environment.</li>
<li>Apple settles a multi-year lawsuit against Corellium, accusing the company of infringing upon its copyrights by replicating iOS in a virtual environment for security research; announces <a href="https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=6e9odqgu" target="_blank">contingent pricing</a> for subscriptions, letting developers give users a discounted price if they're actively subscribed to another subscription.</li>
<li>OpenAI suspends ByteDance's account as it investigates a <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/15/24003542/openai-suspends-bytedances-account-after-it-used-gpt-to-train-its-own-ai-model" target="_blank">report</a> from <i>The Verge</i> that it's violating the developer license by using GPT-generated data to train its own, competing model in China.</li>
<li>Apple faces <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/apple-sued-with-visa-mastercard-card-fee-antitrust-case-2023-12-15/" target="_blank">new legal trouble</a> after its gets accused of colluding with Visa and Mastercard to stifle competition for point-of-sale payment card network services, causing merchants to pay artificially higher fees for credit and debit transactions; says Apple's lack of third-party mobile wallets forces customers to use its Apple Pay mobile wallet, with both Visa and Mastercard paying the company a portion of transaction fees for payments made using Apple Pay on their respective networks.</li>
<li>Cloud storage service provider Dropbox <a href="https://simonwillison.net/2023/Dec/14/ai-trust-crisis/" target="_blank">faces privacy backlash</a> for opting in users by default for generative AI features that <a href="https://help.dropbox.com/view-edit/privacy-settings-dropbox-ai" target="_blank">transmit user data</a>, including files, to OpenAI for Dash, its AI-powered universal search (the features are not available in Canada, the U.K. and the European Economic Area); Dropbox says "only after a customer sees the third-party AI transparency banner and chooses to proceed with asking a question about a file, will that file be sent to a third-party to generate answers" and that "neither this nor any other setting automatically or passively sends any Dropbox customer data to a third-party AI service, and customer data is not used to train third-party AI models."</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-33601697011172474482023-12-09T22:54:00.001-05:002023-12-10T02:42:40.656-05:00Tech Roundup: E.U. AI Act, U.K. Microsoft-OpenAI Antitrust Concerns & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>The <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20231206IPR15699/artificial-intelligence-act-deal-on-comprehensive-rules-for-trustworthy-ai" target="_blank">European Parliament</a> reaches a "provisional agreement" with the <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2023/12/09/artificial-intelligence-act-council-and-parliament-strike-a-deal-on-the-first-worldwide-rules-for-ai/" target="_blank">Council</a> on landmark rules govering the use of AI in the region (called <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_6473" target="_blank">AI Act</a>); limits law enforcement use of biometric identification systems that use sensitive information and enforces new guardrails for AI systems, requiring companies to "conduct model evaluations, assess and mitigate systemic risks, conduct adversarial testing, report to the Commission on serious incidents, ensure cybersecurity and report on their energy efficiency."</li>
<li>The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-seeks-views-on-microsofts-partnership-with-openai" target="_blank">seeks</a> comments on "whether the partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI, including recent developments, has resulted in a relevant merger situation and, if so, the impact that the merger could have on competition in the U.K"; comes as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is reportedly examining the nature of Microsoft's investment in ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and whether it may violate antitrust laws.</li>
<li>Meta's WhatsApp launches support for ephemeral voice messages and updates its iOS app to let users send photos and videos in their original quality files and start voice chats without ringing in large groups; tests sharing status updates to Instagram and officially rolls out end-to-end encryption to Messenger by default for one-on-one chats and calls.</li>
<li>Global smartwatch shipments grow 9% YoY in Q3 2023, with Apple boasting shipments up 7% YoY, Samsung fell 19% YoY, and Huawei grew 56% YoY
<li>Meta says it doesn't plan to add chronological search results to Threads stating it "would create a substantial safety loophole" and that "spammers and other bad actors pummel the view with content by simply adding the relevant words or tags"; launches tags on Threads, offering support for multiple words and spaces, and no # symbol. (In an interesting twist, posts can only have one tag.)</li>
<li>Meta announces plans to <a href="https://help.instagram.com/654906392080948" target="_blank">discontinue</a> the ability for users to chat with Facebook accounts on Instagram beginning in mid-December 2023. (It's not clear what prompted the move, given that the company had previously announced plans to turn on end-to-end encryption across Instagram and Messenger chats in order to make it interoperable with WhatsApp. But it also coincides with the European Commission's decision to regulate Messenger as a "core platform service" under the Digital Markets Act, forcing it to be interoperable with other messaging services. Meta has since sought to push back against the designation, arguing Messenger is a feature of Facebook rather than a standalone messaging platform.)</li>
<li>ByteDance-owned TikTok expands Ticketmaster integration expands to users outside the U.S., including Australia, Europe and North America.</li>
<li>Microsoft plans to offer three additional years of monthly Windows 10 security updates, paid for annually, after the operating system's end-of-support date on October 14, 2025; pilots new changes to its Phone Link app for Android that allows users to provide a video stream to Windows PCs, effectively acting as a webcam.</li>
<li>Discord <a href="https://discord.com/blog/improving-our-mobile-experience" target="_blank">overhauls</a> its mobile app, offering separate messages and server tabs, new messaging features, a Midnight theme, and speed and data usage improvements.</li>
<li>Apple puts a stop to <a href="https://www.beeper.com/" target="_blank">Beeper Mini</a> for Android, which let <a href="https://blog.beeper.com/p/how-beeper-mini-works" target="_blank">users send iMessages</a> using end-to-end encryption (E2EE), without having to use a new number or log in with an Apple ID, for US $2/month; <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/9/23995150/beeper-imessage-android-apple-statement" target="_blank">says</a> it "took steps to protect our users by blocking techniques that exploit fake credentials in order to gain access to iMessage" and that "these techniques posed significant risks to user security and privacy, including the potential for metadata exposure and enabling unwanted messages, spam, and phishing attacks."</li>
<li>Amazon <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/alexa-app-redesign" target="_blank">revamps</a> its Alexa app to improve user experience, making smart home management more intuitive and accessible.</li>
<li>Microsoft <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/accessibility/seeing-ai-app-launches-on-android-including-new-and-updated-features-and-new-languages/" target="_blank">debuts</a> Seeing AI app for Android, more than six years after it was launched in iOS, allowing blind and low vision people to assist with "daily tasks such as reading mail, identifying everyday products, hearing descriptions of photos, and much more."</li>
<li>Google tests new Smart Search feature in its Files app for Android to help find text, location and objects in images and documents, and Artist, album and title from audio and video files; <a href="https://support.google.com/drive/answer/14286582" target="_blank">posts instructions</a> for restoring files in Google Drive for desktop, after users reported last week that some of their files disappeared from the service.</li>
<li>Apple quietly releases <a href="https://github.com/ml-explore/mlx" target="_blank">MLX</a>, an array framework to train and deploy machine learning models on Apple silicon.</li>
<li>Meta <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/12/meta-ai-updates/" target="_blank">rolls out</a> 28 AI characters across WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram in the U.S.; adds new generative AI features for Facebook posts, discover new experiences with Reels in Meta AI, create and share AI-generated images, and expands its <a href="https://imagine.meta.com/" target="_blank">Imagine</a> text-to-image generation feature to all users in the U.S. (Meta says it used 1.1 billion publicly visible Facebook and Instagram images to train Emu, the AI model that powers Imagine.)</li>
<li>Google debuts <a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/gemini-collection/" target="_blank">Gemini</a>, a <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/12/06/1084539/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-on-gemini-and-the-coming-age-of-ai/" target="_blank">multimodal AI model</a> capable of understanding different types of information including text, code, audio, image and video; integrates it to Bard and Google Pixel 8 Pro. (Google has also released a slew of new features for its Pixel devices, including Video Boost for improved video quality by applying computational photography on the cloud and Repair Mode, which locks users' personal data when sending their phones for repair.)</li>
<li>U.K. regulator Ofcom lays out <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2023/implementing-the-online-safety-act-protecting-children" target="_blank">draft guidance</a> for implementing age checks to stop children accessing online porn services, including "photo ID matching, facial age estimation and credit card checks."</li>
<li>Amazon tells customers that the company plans to stop accepting Venmo as a payment method on January 10, 2024, after rolling out Venmo support in October 2022; tests a US$ 9.99/month grocery subscription service for Prime members, offering unlimited Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh grocery delivery on orders over US $35.</li>
<li>Meta unveils <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/12/purple-llama-safe-responsible-ai-development/" target="_blank">Purple Llama</a>, an umbrella project featuring open trust and safety tools and evaluations to help developers build responsibly with AI models.</li>
<li>Swiss privacy-focused company Proton debuts new <a href="https://proton.me/blog/proton-drive-photo-backup-android" target="_blank">photo backup feature</a> for Android that automatically syncs users' photos from their phones to the cloud.</li>
<li>X begins officially rolling out Grok, its answer to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google Bard, for Premium Plus subscribers in the U.S.</li>
<li>Google launches NotebookLM, an "AI-first notebook" demoed at I/O 2023 powered by Gemini Pro, in the U.S.; releases new migration tool to help users move their podcasts library from its standalone podcasts app, Google Podcasts, to YouTube Music ahead of the former's shutdown in April 2024.</li>
<li>Anthropic <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.03689" target="_blank">finds</a> adding pleas to a prompt that tell its Claude 2 model not to be biased could reduce discrimination based on race and gender.</li>
<li>A pair of reports from <i>The Washington Post</i> and <i>The New York Times</i> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/12/08/open-ai-sam-altman-complaints/" target="_blank">allege</a> that complaints from some senior OpenAI leaders that Sam Altman had been psychologically abusive and that he "was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/09/technology/openai-altman-inside-crisis.html" target="_blank">trying to pit</a> [the board members] against each other" were a major factor in the board's decision to fire him.</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-55430386017952324032023-12-04T02:25:00.002-05:002023-12-04T02:25:39.002-05:00Tech Roundup: Meta Ad-Free Plan Pushback, ChatGPT Turns One & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>Meta faces <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/11/metas-overpriced-ad-free-subscriptions-make-privacy-a-luxury-good-eu-suit/" target="_blank">legal pushback</a> from <a href="https://noyb.eu/en/noyb-files-gdpr-complaint-against-meta-over-pay-or-okay" target="_blank">privacy</a> and <a href="https://www.beuc.eu/press-releases/consumer-groups-file-complaint-against-metas-unfair-pay-or-consent-model" target="_blank">consumer groups</a> in the E.U. for its plans to offer an <a href="https://thehackernews.com/2023/10/meta-launches-paid-ad-free-subscription.html" target="_blank">ad-free version</a> of Facebook and Instagram; call the "pay or okay" (or "pay or consent") model an unfair choice and a circumvention of GRPR laws by pressurising users to either consent to the processing of their data for advertising purposes by the company or pay in order not to be shown advertisements.</li><ul><li>"Instead of giving users a clear 'yes/no' choice, Meta is now trying to extort supposed consent from its users with a 'yes or pay' choice," privacy advocacy group NOYB said, adding condoning Meta's current ad-free subscription fees risks turning privacy into a "luxury good."</li><li>What Meta should have ideally offered is a choice to let users opt from "ads with tracking," "ads without tracking," and "pay to avoid ads altogether." But it doesn't take a genius to figure out why the second option is missing.</li></ul>
<li>Google starts deleting personal Google accounts that have been inactive for at least two years starting December 1, 2023.</li>
<li>Automattic-owned Tumblr plans to sunset Post+, which launched in 2021 to let creators charge users a subscription to access content, in January 2024.</li>
<li>Google's YouTube rolls out Playables to Premium subscribers, allowing users play games on mobile and desktop without having to download them; tests a "boarding pass detector" for Chrome on Android that checks for boarding pass data on opened tabs and likely add them to users' Wallet app.</li>
<li>The European Commission <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_5990" target="_blank">says</a> Amazon's proposed acquisition of iRobot may restrict competition in the market for robot vacuum cleaners.</li>
<li>Amazon launches <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/q/" target="_blank">Amazon Q</a>, a workplace-focused AI assistant that starts at US$ 20/user/month and competes with rival offerings such as ChatGPT Enterprise and Microsoft's Copilot; unveils <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/guardrails-for-amazon-bedrock-helps-implement-safeguards-customized-to-your-use-cases-and-responsible-ai-policies-preview/" target="_blank">Guardrails</a> in preview, a tool to help companies implement safeguards for LLMs.</li>
<li>Meta <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/11/how-meta-is-planning-for-elections-in-2024/" target="_blank">enforces</a> new rules that require advertisers to disclose when they use AI or other digital techniques to create or alter a political or social issue ad in certain cases ahead of elections in the U.S., India, Indonesia, Mexico and the E.U. next year.</li>
<li>Amazon's AWS cloud unit announces new AI <a href="https://press.aboutamazon.com/2023/11/aws-unveils-next-generation-aws-designed-chips">Trainium2</a> chips for customers to build and run artificial intelligence applications on, following the footsteps of Microsoft, which revealed its inaugural AI chip, the Maia 100, earlier this month; debuts Titan Image Generator, an AI model that creates images from text and adds an invisible watermark by default.</li>
<li>Adobe's proposed acquisition of Figma hits a new regulatory roadblock after the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) provisionally <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/adobe-figma-deal-could-harm-uk-digital-design-sector" target="_blank">finds</a> that the deal would "eliminate competition between two main competitors in product design software, reduce innovation and the development of new competitive products and remove Figma as a threat to Adobe’s flagship Photoshop and Illustrator products."</li>
<li>Mozilla says Firefox extensions compatible with Android will be "openly available" to users on December 14, with over 400 coming at launch.</li>
<li>Intuit-owned Mailchimp plans to shut down TinyLetter on February 29, 2024, to focus on its core Mailchimp marketing product, more than a decade after acquiring TinyLetter in 2011.</li>
<li>Google launches a <a href="https://blog.google/products/registry/google-registry-meme-domain/" target="_blank">new .meme top level domain</a> in its Registry service, adding to .dad, .boo, .ing, and its other unconventional domain names; updates Drive for iOS and iPadOS with support for built-in document scanning, and unveils a <a href="https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2023/11/introducing-new-homepage-view-in-google-drive.html" target="_blank">new homepage view</a> for the web.</li>
<li>Samsung launches its Chromium-based Samsung Internet browser on Windows via the Microsoft Store.</li>
<li>Note-taking service Evernote introduces new caps for free users that limits them to a maximum of just 50 notes and one notebook starting December 4, 2023.</li>
<li>Google backs off its threat to block Canadian news in protest of Online News Act, due to take effect on 19 December, <a href="https://blog.google/intl/en-ca/company-news/outreach-initiatives/an-update-on-canadas-bill-c-18-and-our-search-and-news-products/" target="_blank">agreeing to a deal</a> on Wednesday to pay US$ 100 million to news companies each year for the right to share their links on its platform.</li>
<li>Google's DeepMind announces the discovery of <a href="https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/millions-of-new-materials-discovered-with-deep-learning/" target="_blank">2.2 million new crystals</a> through a deep learning tool called Graph Networks for Materials Exploration (GNoME) that "dramatically increases the speed and efficiency of discovery by predicting the stability of new materials."</li>
<li>Reddit announces a <a href="https://www.redditinc.com/blog/evolving-the-reddit-brand-a-more-accessible-bespoke-typography-new-conversation-bubbles-and-colors-and-a-new-snoo-logo-now-with-opposable-thumbs" target="_blank">visual rebrand of its logo</a>, alongside new bespoke typefaces, Reddit Display and Reddit Sans.</li>
<li>Substack rolls out <a href="https://on.substack.com/p/video-on-substack-upgrade" target="_blank">video creation and editing tools</a> to enable creators to publish video podcasts, create interactive AI-made transcripts and customise clips.</li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia0riV3MNb9XdtN6r3f1BbzB6e6cb447T92tI5TOVPwkQLFbASBGBAFAsm1KQwJdyp2eQdArz_sTDLDrRgjb2Ly0uK8RDGunOEU4sOgD0EesuDxqG_5MJLa6XZcn-xdLDdfHlqSMC0SCACwag4tIBp32KBSXx2eq4O9Dq2amkALHJlaYWEU73IEqqn/s1500/Reddit.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="725" data-original-width="1500" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia0riV3MNb9XdtN6r3f1BbzB6e6cb447T92tI5TOVPwkQLFbASBGBAFAsm1KQwJdyp2eQdArz_sTDLDrRgjb2Ly0uK8RDGunOEU4sOgD0EesuDxqG_5MJLa6XZcn-xdLDdfHlqSMC0SCACwag4tIBp32KBSXx2eq4O9Dq2amkALHJlaYWEU73IEqqn/w400-h194/Reddit.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li>Movie streamer Netflix continues to bet big on gaming; to add Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition to its games library on December 14, 2023.</li>
<li>Meta expands the keyword search feature of Threads to all markets where the service is available, with support for "all languages," as it prepares for E.U. expansion later this month; WhatsApp begins letting users hide locked chats behind a secret custom password.</li>
<li>Google rolls out <a href="https://blog.google/products/android/new-android-features-november-2023/" target="_blank">new features</a> for Android phones and tablets, Wear OS smartwatches and Google TV devices, inluding 10 new free TV channels and controls for smart home devices from the smartwatch; says it has over <a href="https://blog.google/products/android/7-new-messages-features/" target="_blank">one billion monthly active users</a> on RCS-based Google Messages, and introduces new Photomoji, Voice Moods, custom bubbles, screen effects, animated emoji and profile features.</li>
<li>Google asks the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to take action against Microsoft, claiming the company's licensing practices unfairly discouraged customers from using rivals' services.</li>
<li>Meta sues the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in a lawsuit that challenges the latter's authority to impose new privacy obligations on the social media firm that requires to stop monetising the data for users under 18 years old and limiting its use of facial recognition technology.</li>
<li>ByteDance-owned TikTok <a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/introducing-the-artist-account-to-boost-discoverability-on-tiktok-us" target="_blank">launches</a> Artist Account, which offers up-and-coming musicians new ways to curate their profiles in ways that boost discoverability and promote their music.</li>
<li>OpenAI's ChatGPT officially turns one, as the mobile app versions of ChatGPT top 110 million combined installs and reach nearly US$ 30 million in subscription revenue; delays its GPT store launch until early 2024 after "a few <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/11/the-inside-story-of-microsofts-partnership-with-openai" target="_blank">unexpected things</a> have been keeping us busy."</li>
<li>Apple faces a renewed comprehensive probe into its dominance in mobile browsers and cloud gaming following a ruling by London's Court of Appeal, after it was dropped in March 2023 following an appeal from Apple that alleged the CMA missed key timing requirements.</li>
<li>A new investigation from Adalytics <a href="https://adalytics.io/blog/search-partners-transparency" target="_blank">finds</a> that Google search ads being served on non-Google websites that make up the Google Search Partner (GSP) network, including sites containing pirated content, hardcore pornographic sites, and hundreds of putative Iranian websites; Google says the highlighted instances are from its Programmable Search Engine (ProSE) product, "a free search tool we offer to small websites so that they can present a search experience directly on their sites," that "ads may appear based on the user's specific search query; they are not targeted to, or based on, the website they appear on," and that there is no evidence of "revenue being shared with a single sanctioned entity."</li>
<li>Bluesky rolls out "more advanced" automated moderation tools, along with moderation lists, which let users mute or block many users at once.</li>
<li>Telegram rolls out <a href="https://telegram.org/blog/similar-channels" target="_blank">new features</a> that allow better discovery of similar channels, emoji customisation for reactions, stats for stories and voice transcription for all users.</li>
<li>Meta says it's <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/12/combating-online-predators/" target="_blank">expanding and updating</a> its child safety features aimed at protecting kids following a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/instagram-vast-pedophile-network-4ab7189" target="_blank">series</a> of <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/meta-instagram-video-algorithm-children-adult-sexual-content-72874155" target="_blank">reports</a> from <i>The Wall Street Journal</i> about how <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/meta-facebook-instagram-pedophiles-enforcement-struggles-dceb3548" target="_blank">Facebook and Instagram</a> enable the distribution of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) and guide users to child-sex content.</li>
<li>Music streamer Spotify to phase out service in Uruguay effective January 1, 2024, following new copyright bill requiring "fair and equitable remuneration."</li>
<li>A federal judge in the U.S. state of Montana blocks a law that would have resulted in a state-wide ban of TikTok starting on January 1, 2024.</li>
<li>India's Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) issues new guidelines that bans e-commerce platforms from engaging in dark patterns and deceptive behaviour to manipulate customers.</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-11807923468234196162023-11-29T21:24:00.079-05:002023-12-24T21:40:12.942-05:00Heavy Rotation: Midhun Mukundan, Vishal Mishra, Vivek Sagar & More<i>A playlist of my new favourites from <b>Siddhu Kumar</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/joe/KjIAkwibhFM_" target="_blank">Joe</a> - Urugi Urugi), <b>Vishal Mishra</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/apurva/PMEEfwgE3oc_" target="_blank">Apurva</a> - Diwali), <b>Sachet-Parampara</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/starfish/lXIN3Rfbkvs_" target="_blank">Starfish</a> - Bairaage), <b>Sachin-Jigar</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/farrey/n0EdMIYZTO8_" target="_blank">Farrey</a> - O Bandeya), <b>Vishnu Vijay</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/falimy/xNyv4kW4XHo_" target="_blank">Falimy</a> - Karayaruthe), <b>Santhosh Narayanan</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/jigarthanda-doublex/fml7iFCNToY_" target="_blank">Jigarthanda DoubleX</a> - Flute Speaks), <b>Vivek Sagar</b> (Keedaa Cola - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXINwiLD7Es" target="_blank">Dipiri Dipiri</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxaYn4ZQ63Y" target="_blank">Pattana O Pattu</a>), <b>M. Ghibran</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/80s-buildup/bxN7ypJPkeY_" target="_blank">80s Buildup</a> - Thoda Thoda), <b>G. V. Prakash Kumar</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/aadikeshava/,l1Ma6Yr9Es_" target="_blank">Aadikeshava</a> - Hey Bujji Bangaram), <b>Hesham Abdul Wahab</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/spark/75w,zKEXr-8_" target="_blank">Spark</a> - Gnapakaalu), <b>Staccato</b> (Sila Nodigalil - Aasai Mugam), and <b>Midhun Mukundan</b> (<a href="https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/swathi-mutthina-male-haniye/38pmplcof78_" target="_blank">Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye</a> - Mellage)...</i><br />
<br />
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/3ysMc34CrgKLFOszOpDmR2" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/495YlHsiLRzQcL4mw9wFCI" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/7dfB2EGfgTmwMGWJMSEBjs" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/0a2NP8kiyBjKMKr9yBgmu9" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/4zzJB1m4luKR563qasal0V" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/1CN7rqa5PfB7n9VabEDDZ0" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/6gA6GumWyNNP7krmgQe1CT" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/5kzi71c0uIPl2pRjAqr50m" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/4C6CeU1iUx8rutU7ahHQcK" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/6JWbTmnyAwFMtBQCvRUHIi" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/0BMnkf9qmm3DwmdxHwPJYS" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/7huxBESqQ2kRMCy2gKlhyu" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="80" loading="lazy" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/1xsB6igRDta7PClVvVKDTu" style="border-radius: 12px;" width="100%"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29222690097343467.post-78741800349834271392023-11-26T21:36:00.000-05:002023-11-26T21:36:17.036-05:00Tech Roundup: Anthropic Claude 2.1, YouTube's Ad Blocker Crackdown & More<i>[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]</i>
<ul>
<li>The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) <a href="https://edpb.europa.eu/news/news/2023/edpb-urgent-binding-decision-processing-personal-data-behavioural-advertising-meta_en" target="_blank">instructs</a> the Irish DPC to ban Meta's use of personal data for behavioral ads on the legal base of contract and legitimate interest in the EU and EEA, following a request from Norway's data protection authority, Datatilsynet, to make a previously-issued interim ban in Norway permanent and extend its reach and impact to all of Europe.</li>
<li>Google announces a <a href="https://blog.google/products/chrome/google-chrome-web-store-redesign/" target="_blank">design refresh</a> of its <a href="https://chromewebstore.google.com/" target="_blank">Chrome Web Store</a>; integrates <a href="https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2023/11/view-full-screen-tasks-lists-on-google-calendar.html" target="_blank">Tasks within Calendar</a> to provide a consolidated view of upcoming activities and reminders.</li>
<li>Tinder redesigns profile pages to add prompt conversation starters, basic information tags and quizzes, and updates its mobile app with new animations and a dark mode.</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/blink-dev/c/RG0oLYQ0f2I/m/xMSdsEAzBwAJ" target="_blank">announces plans</a> to eliminate third-party cookies in Chrome as part of its <a href="https://thehackernews.com/2023/09/google-chrome-rolls-out-support-for.html" target="_blank">Privacy Sandbox</a> initiative, starting with a 1% user testing period early in 2024 and leading to a broader phase-out in Q3.</li>
<li>Epic Games calls Android a "fake open platform" following revelations that Google signed a secret deal with Spotify that allowed the latter to completely bypass Android’s app store fees when users opt to subscribe to the music streaming service through its own billing system, as opposed to the <a href="https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2022/11/continuing-our-commitment-to-user-choice-billing.html" target="_blank">26% fee</a> Google charges as part of its <a href="https://play.google.com/console/about/programs/userchoicepilot/" target="_blank">Play User Choice Billing Pilot</a> for every in-app purchase. (It's worth noting that Google has pursued similar deals with large companies like Netflix, Match Group, and even Epic, which rejected the offer. In 2021, the tech giant offered US$ 147 million to Epic to bring Fortnite to the Play Store, <i><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/8/23953262/google-epic-fortnite-play-store-investment-antitrust-trial" target="_blank">The Verge</a></i> reported earlier this month.)</li>
<li>Nothing pulls its Sunbird-based <a href="https://in.nothing.tech/pages/nothing-chats" target="_blank">Nothing Chats</a> (which claimed to bring Apple iMessage to Android devices) from the Google Play Store after it's <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/11/nothings-imessage-app-was-a-security-catastrophe-taken-down-in-24-hours/" target="_blank">found</a> that all the documents sent via the service are public and that the messages aren't actually end-to-end encrypted, enabling malicious actors to delete users' messages from Sunbird's servers. (In a related development, Sunbird has temporarily shut down the service while it investigates these issues.)</li>
<li>Google faces flak after it <a href="https://www.404media.co/youtube-says-new-5-second-video-load-delay-is-supposed-to-punish-ad-blockers-not-firefox-users/" target="_blank">introduces</a> an "artificial" five-second load time when users try to watch YouTube with ad blockers enabled; says "users who have ad blockers installed may experience suboptimal viewing, regardless of the browser they are using."</li>
<li>Stability AI releases <a href="https://stability.ai/news/stable-video-diffusion-open-ai-video-model" target="_blank">Stable Video Diffusion</a> in research preview, its first foundation model for generative video based on the Stable Diffusion image model.</li>
<li>OpenAI debuts voice narration feature for ChatGPT users that makes it possible to converse withe the generative AI chatbot using voice.</li>
<li>The U.S. Department of Justice <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/binance-and-ceo-plead-guilty-federal-charges-4b-resolution" target="_blank">brings</a> criminal charges against Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, and its billionaire founder and CEO, Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, for violating sanctions and anti-money laundering laws, including "knowingly and willfully" offering its services to Iran, enabling terrorist outfits like Hamas, al-Qaeda, and ISIS to raise funds; Binance <a href="https://www.binance.com/en/blog/leadership/binance-announcement-reaching-resolution-with-us-regulators-2904832835382364558" target="_blank">agrees</a> to forfeit US$ 2.5 billion to the government, as well as to pay a fine of US$ 1.8 billion, as Zhao steps down as its CEO.</li>
<li>Sonos is reportedly set to make a long-awaited push into headphones with a US$ 400 model coming as early as April 2024, alongside plans for a video service and set-top streaming box, according to <i><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-21/sonos-plans-400-500-headphones-tv-set-top-box-video-roam-2-new-sound-bar" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a></i>.</li>
<li>Anthropic debuts <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/index/claude-2-1" target="_blank">Claude 2.1</a>, offering a context window of up to 200,000 tokens, or ~150,000 words, a claimed 50% increase in accuracy, 2x decrease in hallucination rates and new API integrations.</li>
<li>Amazon announces "shoppable ads" in Prime Video where viewers can scan QR codes for instant purchases.</li>
<li>Meta <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/11/new-tools-to-support-independent-research/" target="_blank">releases</a> its Content Library and an API to "provide access to near real-time public content from Pages, Posts, Groups and Events on Facebook, as well as from creator and business accounts on Instagram" for non-profit research institutions and academic institutions.</li>
<li>Sony faces legal setback after a London tribunal rules the company must face a massive lawsuit alleging it abused its dominance by forcing digital games and add-ons to be bought and sold only via its store.</li>
<li>Meta's WhatsApp gains support for email verification, allowing users to authenticate their account on a device with an email address as an alternative to using a phone number; Instagram begins allowing all users download public Reels.</li>
<li>News aggregation platform Flipboard discontinues X (formerly Twitter) integration to focus its efforts on Mastodon and other open social platforms.</li>
<li>Spotify <a href="https://artists.spotify.com/blog/modernizing-our-royalty-system" target="_blank">unveils</a> new royalty policies starting 2024 that excludes songs with fewer than 1,000 streams per year from being eligible for any payment whatsoever, which it says is to counter the impact of artifical streaming; to increase the minimum track length of functional noise recordings to two minutes, in order to be eligible to generate royalties.</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/11/google-chrome-will-limit-ad-blockers-starting-june-2024/" target="_blank">pushes ahead</a> with its controversial transition to Manifest V3 effective June 2024, defining new ways how extensions can interact with the Chrome web browser, including enforcing new rules that content filtering add-ons such as ad blockers can include, a move seen as an attempt to not hurt its advertising business.</li>
<li>Sam Altman <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/22/23967223/sam-altman-returns-ceo-open-ai" target="_blank">returns to OpenAI</a> as its chief executive, alongside co-founder Greg Brockman, merely days after his sudden dismissal.</li>
<li>The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) <a href="https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2023/11/commissioner-warns-uk-s-top-websites-to-make-cookie-changes/" target="_blank">urges</a> websites to make changes to "must make it as easy for users to 'Reject All' advertising cookies as it is to 'Accept All,'" or risk facing enforcement action.</li>
<li>ByteDance-owned TikTok seeks Indonesian e-commerce partnerships with Tokopedia, Blibli, Bukalapak, weeks after the government banned online shopping on social media platforms.</li>
<li>Google <a href="https://bard.google.com/updates" target="_blank">updates</a> its Bard AI chatbot with capabilities to "understand YouTube videos," allowing it to answer questions about the content in the videos; also updates Google Meet to recognise gestures in meetings, including raising a hand to trigger the "Raise hand" button.</li>
<li>Proton debuts end-to-end encrypted <a href="https://proton.me/blog/proton-drive-mac-app" target="_blank">Proton Drive for Mac</a>, four months after it landed on Windows.</li>
<li>Global smartphone market witnesses a 5% increase in sales, after two years of negative year-on-year growth, according to <a href="https://www.counterpointresearch.com/insights/october-global-smartphone-sales-break-two-year-losing-streak/" target="_blank">Counterpoint Research</a>.</li>
<li>X announces plans to start showing headlines in preview cards with URLs on the platform again after removing titles last month.</li>
<li>Google plans to allow users to use its voice-based Assistant without Bard as part of a future update; tests iMessage and Telegram-style animations for message reactions.</li>
<li>The European Parliament <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20231106IPR09025/parliament-backs-plans-for-better-access-to-and-use-of-data" target="_blank">passes</a> Data Act, a new legislation that establishes rules on the sharing of data generated through the use of connected products or related services (e.g., the Internet of Things, industrial machinery) and allows users to access the data they generate; also contains a <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/eu-backs-data-act-clause-shut-off-smart-contracts" target="_blank">controversial clause</a> that could make most smart contracts unlawful.</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0