In general, Apple is pushing to solve a core tension in the model world: the bigger a model gets, the better and more useful it can be, but also the more unwieldy, power-hungry, and slow it can become. Like so many others, the company is trying to find the right balance between all those things while also looking for a way to have it all.
A lot of what we talk about when we talk about AI products is virtual assistants — assistants that know things, that can remind us of things, that can answer questions, and get stuff done on our behalf. So it’s not exactly shocking that a lot of Apple’s AI research boils down to a single question: what if Siri was really, really, really good?
As computers get smarter, however, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and others hope to fully remove the language barrier Andre and I shared that day. But it’ll take faster neural machine learning for that to happen, which “might be a few years out,” one developer I spoke to admitted.
Not that the wait matters. In fact, many consumers are surprised to learn just how good today’s translation apps already are.
For authors who can’t afford to produce their own audiobooks, it’s easy to understand why virtual voices appeal to them. But for listeners who want options, or at least the ability to support only human-created works, the filtering and labeling systems have to improve.
If you are faced with a zero-click exploit delivering spyware, experts say there is very little you can do to protect yourself or restore security to your devices. “The best thing to do if you are targeted is to entirely abandon both the hardware and any associated accounts,” says Aaron Engel, chief information security officer at ExpressVPN. “Get a new computer, get a new phone number, and create completely new accounts linked to the device.”
Detecting spyware can be challenging, but unusual behavior such as your battery draining quickly, unexpected shutdowns, or high data usage could be indicative of an infection, says Javvad Malik, lead security awareness advocate at security training organization KnowBe4. While specific apps claim to spot spyware, their effectiveness can vary, and professional assistance is often necessary for reliable detection, he says.
But truly anything can be the sandwich. Grabbing coffee. Having tea and a cookie every night before bed. Sometimes, I’ll just go through what I already have planned and think about what good things I have coming up that I can focus on.
The new teaser at the top of the page cycles between the various illustrations of Apple logo, with a twist that you can erase the art with your mouse pointer on Mac, or finger on your iPhone’s touchscreen. When the logo is fully erased, a new variant animates in.
I just noticed that Audible app now supports Shortcuts, including a nice shortcut that plays the current audiobook that works even when my iPhone is locked.
This makes me very happy: I have now the complete set of shortcuts that plays the three most important (to me) audio entertainment: audiobooks, podcasts, and music. And I can trigger these shortcuts without unlocking my phone. Granted, this was more important four years ago when I was all masked up and I cannot easily unlock my phone. But this ability is still great.
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I looked forward to my egg-and-rice dinner tonight. For tomorrow, I will be looking forward to the iPad event, even though I know I will not be buying anything. My iPad Pro back from 2017 is still working fine, and iPad is no longer a priority for me. (Got to prepare for my eventual retirement when I will have much less income.) And, because of the new timing, I am able to watch the event 'live' at 10pm local time. And, because of the rumored less-than-40-minutes run-time, bedtime will probably not be affected.
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And I am probably starting too many sentences with the word 'and'.
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Thanks for reading.