Better Siri is coming: what Apple’s research says about its AI plans
Apple hasn’t talked too much about AI so far — but it’s been working on stuff. A lot of stuff.
Apple hasn’t talked too much about AI so far — but it’s been working on stuff. A lot of stuff.
Feed refreshed
Paramount has formally begun negotiating with the company as the “period of exclusive talks with the Hollywood studio Skydance lapsed on Friday night,” according to The New York Times today.
Sony, which signaled its interest in buying Paramount last week, would reportedly hold controlling shares, while Apollo would have a minority stake, if the deal goes through.
The local council of North Yorkshire, England has banned apostrophes on street signs going forward because the special character “can affect geographical databases,” according to the BBC.
One resident said of the change, “If you start losing things like that then everything goes downhill, doesn’t it?” Locals have apparently taken radical action* in protest.
*Adding apostrophes to signs where appropriate.
Some YouTube Premium subscribers can now jump to the most-watched part of a video, only in the YouTube app, by double-tapping the right side of the screen (which normally skips ahead 10 seconds), then tapping a “Jump ahead” button that appears, according to 9to5Google.
To see if you have the feature and enable it, go to Settings > Try experimental new features.
We’re about to get faster, slimmer, better-looking Apple tablets. What we need is the ecosystem and the software this shapeshifting device deserves.
The company says it stopped accepting new sign-ups for API access and that developers will have until June 30th, 2025 to migrate from Google Fit to Android Health.
For now, the Google Fit app still works as it always has; just know that it seems bound for the Google graveyard next year.
[Android Developers Blog]
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri posted that Threads users can now limit who can quote their posts.
Or so TechCrunch writes — Mosseri’s post seems to be gone, but the feature is there for me. If you have it too, you’ll see “Anyone can reply & quote” at the bottom when starting a new post to get the new options.
I haven’t been following Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, so heading into this first clip, I had no clue what was going on. I still don’t.
It seems like Adam Driver is testing his apparent ability to stop time, but I feel like there are better ways to do that. Megalopolis debuts at Cannes on May 17th. No word yet on a wider release.
Here’s your reminder that Disney’s latest animated anthology series, Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, started streaming today.
The six-episode miniseries may not quite be enough to tide everyone over until The Acolyte’s June 4th release, though — the longest episode clocks in at just 19 minutes.
3
Verge Score
Artificial intelligence might someday make technology easier to use and even do things on your behalf. All the Rabbit R1 does right now is make me tear my hair out.
If you’ve already read our review of the Rabbit R1 but haven’t gotten around to watching the video version of it, what better time than now?
The contest (rules here) runs from May 4th through June 4th. Autodesk provides certain assets like the Star Wars alphabet and symbols, as well as 30 day free trials of Autodesk software.
Prizes include Autodesk fabricating the winning overall droid and a paid trip for the winning designer (with lodging and a plus one!) to San Francisco to tour Industrial Light and Magic Studios.
We found all sorts of gadgets and goodies to celebrate the class of 2024, from the practical to the poignant.
The limited-edition DockLite G4, from Australian DIY tech company Juicy Crumb, gives the 20-inch iMac G4 an HDMI port. So YouTuber Action Retro decided to combine that with the guts of an M2 Mac Mini to turn his 20-incher into a modern machine.
Shame that the DockLite G4 doesn’t work with other versions of the prettiest iMac ever made, because a used 20-inch ain’t cheap.
I had forgotten about the 80s and 90s trope of pulling a headphone speaker away from some hapless, distracted youth’s head to tell them something.
But the LSU library used it to great effect while promoting the fact that you could ask its weirdly condescending librarians to print up R.E.M. song lyrics using the new-fangled World Wide Web.
We found a collection of unique gift ideas that go beyond the flowers and chocolates that typically rule the day.
On the brink of bankruptcy, the struggling automaker is facing a nearly $13 million lawsuit by the firm (a subsidiary of Bertrand AG) that developed the Pear crossover and the Alaska pickup truck. Fisker, which says the lawsuit is “without merit,” also apparently hasn’t paid its own automotive carpet supplier.
If you’ve got a good HDR monitor or a recent MacBook Pro, you can even check out some sample images here in Chrome or other Chromium-based browsers. More details in Dolphin’s big progress report.
“Our HDR enhancements are not magic. Expect quirks and problems,” MayImilae and co warn.
Star Wars Day doesn’t technically kick off until May 4th, but Apple is celebrating the event a bit early with a precision finding-focused iPhone 15 ad spot starring a squad of (cosplayer) Mandalorians.