Hasta La Gadget!

Providing read receipts has long been a choice across almost every messaging platform. Now, one of the biggest holdouts, Instagram, is finally testing a feature that lets users hide when they’ve “seen” a message. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri both announced the update on their Instagram Broadcast channels. 

Mosseri also shared an image of how the feature will work. The option will live under the Privacy and Safety tab, accessible by clicking on the person’s name from inside the chat. From there, a section will appear called “Who can see your activity.” Just switch the toggle below and all views moving forward should then become private. However, any messages sent in vanish mode will still have read receipts. 

Meta

Whether you open a message with a video and can’t listen right away or just don’t want to respond in the moment, there are lots of reasons why hiding your read receipts can be beneficial. However, they didn’t say when the option will roll out to everyone or even how exactly they’re testing it. Also unclear is if you’ll have to turn it off for each person or if there will eventually be an overarching option. 

Meta-owned WhatsApp has allowed users to hide their read receipts since 2014, but Messenger, like Instagram, still automatically shows when a message is viewed. Maybe one day all Meta platforms will allow for checking messages discreetly, but until then, we’ll watch how the Instagram test goes.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/instagram-finally-begins-testing-an-option-to-turn-off-read-receipts-131557528.html?src=rss

SAG-AFTRA, the union representing Hollywood performers, has reportedly responded to studios’ “last, best and final” offer to end the strike, rejecting clauses letting studios re-use AI-created likenesses of high-demand and deceased performers without consent from their estate or families. “They can’t have that loophole to exploit performers,” a union-side source told The Hollywood Reporter. “We could not allow that language to stand.”

Reportedly, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) would “secure AI scans” for Schedule F performers — union members earning more than $32,000 per TV episode or $60,000 per film. Studios would pay once to scan the likenesses of these performers without paying for their use or re-use — essentially giving them eternal rights to their face after paying once upfront. It appeared to offer limitless use of dead performers’ AI-created likenesses without proper permission.

After this part of the dispute became public, the union reportedly “reached a common understanding” with AMPTP on “thorny issues” like AI consent after an actor dies.

— Mat Smith

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Things go from bad to worse for Cruise’s robotaxis

The company reportedly kept operating its robotaxis despite issues recognizing children.

GM’s autonomous vehicle Cruise division is already going through a rough patch, with the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) recently suspending its driverless permits over safety issues. Now, several new reports highlight other issues, including problems with its autonomous vehicles’ (AVs) sensors’ recognizing children and the frequency with which human operators must remotely take control. The cars apparently also struggle to identify large holes too. Now, it appears Cruise has halted production of its Origin autonomous vehicle after the California DMV pulled its license. A GM spokesperson confirmed to Engadget that the company is “finishing production on a small number of pre-commercial vehicles and after that, plan[s] to temporarily pause production.”

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Zelda, Mario and Pikmin give Nintendo a boost as console sales dwindle

Selling almost 20 million copies of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Engadget

As the Nintendo Switch nears the end of its time, digital game sales are helping the company continue to perform well. From March to September 2023, Nintendo reported selling 19.5 million copies of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which was released in May. It also sold 2.61 million units of Pikmin 4 after it came out in July, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe gained 3.22 million more sales. The racing game has now sold 57 million copies. Nintendo is expected to release its new flagship console sometime next year.

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The Sony A9 III is the fastest full-frame camera ever

It’s been a while since Sony updated its epic A9 series.

Sony

Sony’s latest pro-oriented mirrorless camera was four years in the making. The Alpha A9 III is the first full-frame camera on the market with a global stacked sensor, a sort of holy grail in the photographic world. It allows for some wild specs, like 120 fps shooting speeds with no blackout, up to a 1/80,000th of a second shutter speed and zero rolling shutter. The global shutter also allows for shutter speeds of 1/80,000th of a second (1/16,000th during continuous shooting), ten times faster than most cameras. Ten times! The Alpha A9 III goes on pre-order tomorrow for $6,000, with a vertical grip available for $400 — but won’t arrive until spring.

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WatchOS 10.1.1 fixes Apple Watch battery-life bug

The patch just rolled out alongside a bug-fix update for iOS 17.

If your Apple Watch hasn’t been holding its charge like it used to, it’s time to update to the latest version of watchOS. Earlier this month, several Apple Watch users noticed their batteries draining faster than usual after they installed watchOS 10.1. Apple acknowledged the battery drain issue and promised to release a fix — which happened today with the latest version of watchOS, 10.1.1.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-hollywood-studios-wanted-to-use-ai-generated-likenesses-of-dead-actors-without-permission-121531437.html?src=rss

The long fight to make Apple’s iMessage compatible with all devices has raged with little to show for it. But Google (de facto leader of the charge) and other mobile operators are now leveraging the European Union’s Digital Market Act (DMA), according to the Financial Times. The law, which goes into effect in 2024, requires that “gatekeepers” not favor their own systems or limit third parties from interoperating within them. Gatekeepers are any company that meets specific financial and usage qualifications, including Google’s parent company Alphabet, Apple, Samsung and others. 

The European Commission is investigating whether iMessage’s current functioning violates the DMA. Apple argues that its “small scale relative to other messaging services” and the lack of required use (or cost to do so) makes it irrelevant to the law. However, a letter from executives at companies such as Google, Vodafone and Orange argues that it should qualify as “enriched” messaging is only available to Apple users. 

Apple’s iMessage not so subtly rewards you for communicating with other Apple devices (and for being an Apple user). Chats on iMessage stay blue until you add an Android user into the mix, and, suddenly, everything is green. Beyond the other reasons we’ll get into, it’s hard to explain why the blue is better, but it just is. On the tech side, Android users also get lower-quality photos and videos when they’re sent through iMessage. Plus, iMessages can be sent over Wi-Fi, reducing the need for data when traveling or if you’re simply running low on gigabytes for the month. 

In a statement aimed at keeping iMessage’s benefits exclusive to Apple users, the company said, “Consumers today have access to a wide variety of messaging apps, and often use many at once, which reflects how easy it is to switch between them. iMessage is designed and marketed for personal consumer communications, and we look forward to explaining to the commission why iMessage is outside the scope of the DMA.”

If the fight against Apple is successful, changes to iMessage would be the latest shift forced by the European Commission. Apple’s new iPhone 15 dropped the lightning charger following a law mandating all new mobile devices sold in the EU have a USB-C port by the end of 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-and-eu-mobile-carriers-push-european-commission-to-force-apple-to-open-imessage-110558675.html?src=rss

Google is rolling out a new feature that allow advertisers to create AI generated content using the same technology as the Bard chatbot, confirming a report from earlier this year. The feature is now available in beta on Google’s Performance Max advertising product, allowing US advertisers to create and scale text and image assets for campaigns using AI, the company announced in a blog post. 

Performance Max is already an AI-powered product that works across multiple Google products including Youtube, search, display and others. It optimizes ads by analyzing performance data, and the new feature supplements that by using AI to assist in asset creation as well. As Google puts it, the features will allow advertisers to quickly create high-quality, personalized assets on various Google platforms.

“Asset variety is a key ingredient for a successful Performance Max campaign,” wrote Google’s Pallavi Naresh. “You’ve told us that creating and scaling assets can be one of the hardest parts of building and optimizing a cross-channel campaign. Now, you’ll be able to generate new text and image assets for your campaign in just a few clicks.”

Google

Much like Bard or ChatGPT, users feed prompts to the AI, and it creates unique images and text for each business. Marketers can review and edit any assets created by the system prior to publication. It can be used to create versions of the same ad, or build new ads from scratch. All AI-generated imagery contains a visible watermark and is tagged as such. “We also have guardrails in place to prevent our systems from engaging with inappropriate or sensitive prompts or suggesting policy-violating creatives,” Naresh wrote.

The feature should help marketers create advertising materials more quickly, while of course helping Google post those ads and make money more quickly. In that sense, it’s pretty much a perfect AI use case for Google, which makes the vast majority of its revenue from advertising. The new system is currently in beta and only available in the US, but is expected to roll out more widely by the end of 2023. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-is-rolling-out-tools-that-let-advertisers-create-ai-generated-content-080255864.html?src=rss

Infineon Technologies AG has expanded its microcontroller portfolio with the introduction of the PSoC Edge family, a new line of microcontrollers designed for responsive computing and control applications at the edge of the network. These MCUs are part of the PSoC portfolio, based on Arm Cortex architecture, offering high performance and low power consumption.

One of the key features of the PSoC Edge family is its hardware-assisted machine learning (ML) acceleration, which enables end products to be more intelligent and intuitive in their interactions with users. This advancement in technology enhances human-machine interactions and adds contextual awareness to various applications, all while ensuring privacy and safety through embedded Infineon Edge Protect technologies.

The PSoC Edge family enables intuitive human-machine interactions with hardware-accelerated machine learning for responsive applications.

The PSoC Edge devices are powered by high-performance Arm Cortex-M55 processors, supported by Helium DSP, Arm Ethos-U55, and Cortex-M33, along with Infineon’s proprietary NNLite hardware accelerator for neural networks. These MCUs are well-suited for “always-on” sensing and response, making them ideal for advanced IoT and industrial applications like smart homes, security, wearables, and robotics.

The family of devices offers ample on-chip memory, including non-volatile RRAM, and supports high-speed, secure external memory. This scalability allows developers to create increasingly sophisticated next-generation intelligent systems while maintaining software reuse and portability. In addition, the PSoC Edge family enhances support for advanced applications in graphics, voice, audio, and vision.

Imagimob Studio Edge AI enablement and ModusToolbox software support

Developers can leverage the PSoC Edge platform with the support of an ecosystem of partners, comprehensive documentation, and the ModusToolbox software, which includes integration with the Imagimob Studio AI solution. This accelerates time-to-market for their designs.

The ModusToolbox software platform provides development tools, libraries, and embedded runtime assets for flexible and comprehensive development across various use cases, including consumer IoT, industrial applications, smart homes, wearables, and more. Imagimob Studio, integrated into ModusToolbox, simplifies Edge AI development, making it easy to deploy machine learning models at the edge.

Availability

The PSoC Edge family is currently available for early-access customers, and more information can be found on Infineon’s website. This expansion in Infineon’s microcontroller portfolio signifies a significant step in bringing high-performance, power-efficient machine learning to edge devices, paving the way for intelligent and context-aware applications in various industries.

Infineon Expands Microcontroller Portfolio With PSoC Edge Family

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