Technology - Kalakshar US

Snapchat+ subscribers can now use AI to generate or extend images within the app

Generative AI is nothing new for Snapchat users, with the app’s “My AI” suite offering the likes of a free ChatGPT-powered chatbot, as well as the freemium AI-generated “Dreams” selfie effects, Bitmoji backgrounds and more. In the latest update, Snapchat+ subscribers can now leverage AI to extend images — or “zoom out” — at the click of a button, thus making the social media app even more practical. Say you have a snapshot of your pet but it’s a little too close, just click on the crop button on the right menu, and then hit the “Extend” button at the bottom. Voilà!

The updated My AI also lets subscribers directly generate Snaps by typing a simple prompt. In the viewfinder, click the “AI” button on the right, then type in whatever you desire (within reason, of course), and shortly, you’ll have an image to tinker with before sharing. Snap suggests you try silly prompts like “a dog sleeping on a rocket” or “a planet made out of cheese.”

Last but not least, the aforementioned Dreams feature now lets you generate fantastical portraits with friends in them. On the Dreams page, simply pick a friend, hit “Done,” and then you’ll be able to share the generated portrait of you both. Like before, Snapchat+ subscribers are given one pack of eight Dreams selfies every month, whereas non-subscribers only get one pack as a free trial, before they consider signing up for the $4-a-month service. Regardless, all users can buy more for $0.99 per pack.

Snap’s ongoing AI efforts seem to be paying off, with its number of subscribers rocketing from five million in September to seven million today — getting one step closer to the ten million “medium-term goal” set by CEO Evan Spiegel back in April, as reported by Time Magazine. Of course, given the fierce competition like Meta which offers similar features for free, Snap will have to keep churning out new AI-powered tools to keep its platform fun and fresh.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/snapchat-subscribers-can-now-use-ai-to-generate-or-extend-images-within-the-app-060003554.html?src=rss

Xbox 2023 year-in-review recap stacks you up against other players

Xbox is giving you a detailed look at how much you’ve gamed and which titles you’ve truly enjoyed playing this year. Its 2023 recap shows your total time gaming on the system over the past year, the month you’d been most active on the Xbox, your total achievements and your top genres in a pie chart, which could give you an idea whether your taste in games has changed over time. Of course, you’ll also get to see a list of games that you’ve played the most this year, ranked based on how much time you’ve spent on each one.

The recap will also let you know if you’ve unlocked rare achievements. And it will show how you stack up against other fans when it comes to the number of hours you’ve gamed, your gamerscore, and your total number of achievements — stats that could fuel your competitive nature and compel you to game more, or make you realize if you’ve been spending a bit too much time playing.

Since it’s that time of the year when everybody and every brand looks back over the past months, you can get an overview of your gaming life even if the Xbox isn’t your system of choice. If you’re more of a PlayStation gamer, Sony also recently rolled out its wrap-up recap for 2023 that contains the same information, along with game recommendations based on your history, perhaps to encourage you to rack up more gaming hours in 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/xbox-2023-year-in-review-recap-stacks-you-up-against-other-players-043306717.html?src=rss

Meta is going to fact-check content on the Threads app

Threads is going to make an effort to moderate more of the user-generated content on the platform. Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, posted that it is working on creating a fact-checking program. Mosseri didn’t lay out what such a program would entail, only saying that Threads is going to “match fact-check ratings from Facebook or Instagram to Threads.” Currently, fact-checkers can’t rate content on Threads, so instead when something gets flagged as being false on Instagram or Facebook, a fact-checker’s ratings will also roll over onto the app. “Our goal is for fact-checking partners to have the ability to review and rate misinformation on the app,” Mosseri wrote.

The program is expected to be available early next year. Meta said third-party fact-checking partners will flag and review the content that circulates on Threads. The app’s users will be given the choice to increase, lower or maintain the default level of “demotions on fact-checked content” in personal feeds. Meta says if a user decides to see less sensitive content on Instagram, those settings will roll over into their Threads view.

Social media companies, like Threads, have to consider expanding guardrails to prevent misinformation from proliferating on their platforms, especially ahead of the coming presidential elections. A fact-checking system on the Threads app isn’t a huge shock considering recent moves by the company. When the company introduced a search tool, it blocked certain words “previously linked” to misinformation on Meta’s platform.

However, offering users a fact-checking feature does not necessarily mean Threads will become the new front page for digital news. Mosseri told TechCrunch that the platform, as of now, does not plan on “amplifying the news” on its platform.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/threads-is-going-to-fact-check-content-on-its-app-010720646.html?src=rss

Netflix’s first engagement report reveals its most popular shows and movies

Netflix has published the first of a new twice-a-year engagement report called “What We Watched.” The first installment, launched Tuesday as a Microsoft Excel file, lists the hours viewed for every title (original and licensed) that has tallied more than 50,000 viewing hours. Although it’s an uneven performance comparison since episodic series will rack up many more hours than standalone films, this is the first ultra-detailed glimpse at what people watch on Netflix.

The first spreadsheet, covering January to June 2023, includes 18,214 entries of eligible content. The first season of the action-thriller series The Night Agent: Season 1 sat comfortably at the top with 812,100,000 hours during that period. Following (far behind) in second place was season two of the drama Ginny & Georgia (665,100,000 hours). Rounding out the top five are season one of The Glory (622,800,000), the inaugural season of the Jenny Ortega-led Wednesday (507,700,000) and the limited prequel series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (503,000,000).

The J.Lo action flick The Mother was the top-ranked movie on the list, raking in 249,900,000 viewing hours and falling at number 20 behind a glut of multi-episode series. Idris Elba’s Luther: The Fallen Sun (209,700,000) came in at 26, while the Chris Hemsworth vehicle Extraction 2 (201,800,000) slotted in at 29.

Netflix

In addition to hours viewed, the spreadsheet denotes each title’s release date and whether it’s available globally. For curiosity’s sake, the lowest-ranking globally available item on the list is the 2020 comedy special Yours Sincerely, Kanan Gill.

Netflix stressed the importance of not using total hours viewed alone to determine a movie or series’ impact. “Success on Netflix comes in all shapes and sizes, and is not determined by hours viewed alone,” the streamer wrote in its announcement blog post. “We have enormously successful movies and TV shows with both lower and higher hours viewed. It’s all about whether a movie or TV show thrilled its audience — and the size of that audience relative to the economics of the title.”

Netflix says the new biannual spreadsheets will combine with its weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists to paint a more comprehensive picture for viewers, creators and industry watchers.

You can rev up Excel or Numbers and download the inaugural Netflix spreadsheet drop here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflixs-first-engagement-report-reveals-its-most-popular-shows-and-movies-214509788.html?src=rss

The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are getting AI-powered visual search features

The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are about to get some powerful upgrades thanks to improvements to the social network’s AI assistant. The company is finally adding support for real-time information to the onboard assistant, and it’s starting to test new “multimodal” capabilities that allow it to answer questions based on your environment.

Up to now, Meta AI had a “knowledge cutoff” of December 2022, so it couldn’t answer questions about current events, or things like game scores, traffic conditions or other queries that would be especially useful while on the go. But that’s now changing, according to Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, who said that all Meta smart glasses in the United States will now be able to access real-time info. The change is powered “in part” by Bing, he added.

Separately, Meta is starting to test one of the more intriguing capabilities of its assistant, which it’s calling “multimodal AI.” The features, first previewed during Connect, allow Meta AI to answer contextual questions about your surroundings and other queries based on what your looking at through the glasses.

iOS 17.3’s Stolen Device Protection will make life harder for iPhone thieves

Apple is adding a new iPhone feature called Stolen Device Protection that limits what thieves can do with a stolen phone and passcode. Created following a report earlier this year by the Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern, the opt-in feature is included in the iOS 17.3 beta, now available for developers. It works using a combination of location, biometric scans, and time delays, allowing victims to lock out the perpetrator and safeguard their data.

Stolen Device Protection aims to snuff out a common practice among iPhone thieves in public places, who watch users enter their passcode before snatching the device and bolting. In such cases, the perpetrator could reset the owner’s Apple ID password, turn off Find My, add a recovery key and factory reset the phone for resale before the victim can do anything about it.

For example, without Stolen Device Protection turned on, an iPhone thief with your passcode can use that to change your Apple ID password, locking you out of your device. This allows the pickpocket to turn off Find My, crucial to wiping the device for a new user. The thief can then sell the device at full used value, rather than trying to pass off an iCloud-locked brick for much less.

Photo by David Imel for Engadget

But with the feature turned on, the phone will ask for a Face ID or Touch ID scan if the user is away from a familiar location like home or work. It will also require a one-hour delay before changing the Apple ID password on the device. After the hour, it will still ask for a Face ID or Touch ID Scan before changing the Apple ID password from the iPhone. This makes life much harder for the thief and gives the owner time to report the iPhone as stolen, locking out the perp.

Stolen Device Protection works similarly with Apple security settings. Adding recovery keys or updating the account’s trusted phone number is another way iPhone thieves lock out the original owner. Like in other areas, with the new feature activated, the phone will ask for two biometric scans an hour apart if away from trusted locations.

Similarly, iCloud Keychain passwords, Apple’s built-in password manager, will require a Face ID or Touch ID scan. The passcode won’t serve as a backup for failed biometric scans when the Stolen Device Protection is turned on.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple plans to prompt users to turn on the feature in iOS 17.3. Since Apple only launched the update’s first beta today, the general public may need to wait at least several weeks before trying it out.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ios-173s-stolen-device-protection-will-make-life-harder-for-iphone-thieves-201633214.html?src=rss

PlayStation’s 2023 Wrap-Up recaps your year in gaming

Sony’s 2023 Wrap-Up is now available. The recap, similar to those from music streaming services, reflects on your PS5 or PS4 gaming habits from the past year. The new version will sum up your most-played games, tally your total hours and assign an algorithmically generated “gaming style.” Since, from a business standpoint, these year-end rewinds also serve as crowdsourced social media marketing, Sony created easily shareable digital cards outlining your 2023 habits.

You can view your PlayStation 2023 Wrap-Up by visiting Sony’s web portal and logging in with your account. It generates cards summarizing your top games, trophies earned, monthly gaming stats and your personalized style. (Mine was “Thrill Seeker.”) A button at the bottom of the UI will pop up the cards to share with friends or followers. Sony will also, uh, “helpfully” recommend games you haven’t yet bought that fit your personalized style.

The company says the recap is only available if you’ve played games on a PS5 or PS4 for at least 10 hours from January 1 to December 31. In addition, if you didn’t consent to “Full Data” collection from PS5 settings or “Additional Data” from PS4 systems in certain regions (Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australasia, India and Russia), you won’t be able to use the promotional feature. Sony is also throwing in a bonus “unique avatar” and a PlayStation Stars digital collectible of a Spider-Bot from the Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise as rewards.

Since annual digital recaps have transformed into a popular online tradition in recent years, you can likely expect similar rewinds from Xbox and Nintendo before long.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/playstations-2023-wrap-up-recaps-your-year-in-gaming-190838612.html?src=rss

Researchers fuse lab-grown human brain tissue with electronics

In a story ripped from the opening scenes of a sci-fi horror movie, scientists have bridged a critical gap between the biological and electronic. The study, published in Nature Electronics (summarized in Nature), details a “hybrid biocomputer” combining lab-grown human brain tissue with conventional circuits and AI. Dubbed Brainoware, the system learned to identify voices with 78 percent accuracy. It could one day lead to silicon microchips fused with neurons.

Brainoware combines brain organoids — stem-cell-derived clusters of human cells morphed into neuron-filled “mini-brains” — with conventional electronic circuits. To make it, researchers placed “a single organoid onto a plate containing thousands of electrodes to connect the brain to electric circuits.” The circuits, speaking to the brain organoid, “translate the information they want to input into a pattern of electric pulses.”

The brain tissue then learns and communicates with the technology. A sensor in the electronic array detects the mini-brain’s response, which a trained machine-learning algorithm decodes. In other words, with the help of AI, the neurons and electronics merge into a single (extremely basic, for now) problem-solving biomachine.

The researchers taught the computer-brain system to recognize human voices. They trained Brainoware on 240 recordings of eight people speaking, “translating the audio into electric to deliver to the organoid.” The organic part reacted differently to each voice while generating a pattern of neural activity AI learned to understand. Brainoware learned to identify the voices with 78 percent accuracy.

Human brain organoids

The Washington Post via Getty Images

The team views the work as more proof of concept than something with near-term practical use. Although previous studies showed two-dimensional neuron cell cultures could do similar things, this is the first trial run using a trained three-dimensional lump of human brain cells. It could point to a future of biological computing, where the “speed and efficiency of human brains” spark a superpowered AI. (What could go wrong?)

Arti Ahluwalia, a biomedical engineer at Italy’s University of Pisa, sees the technology shedding more light on the human brain. Since brain organoids can duplicate the nervous system’s control center in ways simple cell cultures can’t, the researcher views Brainoware (and the further advances it could spawn) as helping model and study neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s. “That’s where the promise is; using these to one day hopefully replace animal models of the brain,” Ahluwalia told Nature.

Challenges for the bizarre proto-cyborg tech include keeping the organoids alive, especially when moving to the more complex areas where scientists eventually want to deploy them. The brain cells must grow in an incubator, which could become more challenging with bigger organoids. The next steps include working to learn how brain organoids adapt to more complex tasks and engineering them for greater stability and reliability.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/researchers-fuse-lab-grown-human-brain-tissue-with-electronics-175507932.html?src=rss

Apple’s 15-inch M2 MacBook Air is up to $250 off right now

There’s still plenty of time to snap up a holiday gift for a loved one (or yourself). If you’re feeling particularly generous and you or someone you care about could do with a new laptop, it’s worth checking out deals on Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air. Some configurations have dropped to record low prices, including one with 256GB of storage and an M2 chipset. That MacBook Air has dipped from $1,299 to $1,049 — which is $250 off the regular price.

This is an excellent entry point into the Mac ecosystem. In fact, the M2-powered MacBook Air (albeit a 2022 configuration) is our pick for the best MacBook overall. The 15.3-inch model that’s on sale here has a Liquid Retina display with 500 nits of brightness, 1080p FaceTime HD camera and Touch ID.

While the M2-powered MacBook Air should be more than capable enough of handling most tasks, it’s disappointing that the base model only comes with 8GB of RAM. That’s going to make tasks such as video and image editing, as well as even gaming, a bit more onerous on this MacBook Air.

In any case, we gave the 15-inch MacBook Air a score of 96 in our review in June. We appreciated the larger display compared with the 13.6-inch MBA, though lamented the fact the refresh rate is limited to 60Hz. Great battery life (the MBA ran for about 12 hours while handling day-to-day work tasks), terrific audio and a top-notch keyboard and trackpad are major plus points. One quibble is that, despite its great performance, the M2 chipset is getting a little long in the tooth — rumors suggest an M3-powered MacBook Air could debut in March.

Meanwhile, if you could use some more built-in storage than the 256GB that comes with this laptop, you can opt for a variant with 512GB for $1,249. That’s also $250 off and marks another record low. However, that model still only has 8GB of memory.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-15-inch-m2-macbook-air-is-up-to-250-off-right-now-181005869.html?src=rss

Police are using pharmacies to secretly access medical information about members of the public

A Senate Finance Committee inquiry revealed on Tuesday that police departments can get access to private medical information from pharmacies, no warrant needed. While HIPAA may protect some access to personally identifiable health data, it doesn’t stop cops, according to a letter from Senator Ron Wyden, Representative Pramila Jayapal and Representative Sara Jacobs to the Department of Health and Human Services. None of the major US pharmacies are doing anything about it, either, the members of Congress say.

“All of the pharmacies surveyed stated that they do not require a warrant prior to sharing pharmacy records with law enforcement agents, unless there is a state law that dictates otherwise,” the letter said. “Those pharmacies will turn medical records over in response to a mere subpoena, which often do not have to be reviewed or signed by a judge prior to being issued.”

The committee reached out to Amazon, Cigna, CVS Health, The Kroger Company, Optum Rx, Rite Aid Corporation, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Walmart about their practices for sharing medical data with police. While Amazon, Cigna, Optum, Walmart and Walgreen said they have law enforcement requests reviewed by legal professionals before complying, CVS Health, The Kroger Company and Rite Aid Corporation said they ask in-store staff to process the request immediately. Engadget reached out to the pharmacies mentioned in the letter about the claims. CVS said its pharmacy staff are trained to handle these inquiries and its following all applicable laws around the issue. Walgreens said it has a process in place to assess law enforcement requests compliant with those laws, too, and Amazon said while the law enforcement requests are rare, it does notify patients and comply with court orders when applicable. The others either haven’t responded or refuse to comment.

The pharmacies mostly blamed the current lack of legislative protections for patient data for their willingness to comply with cop requests. Most of them told the committee that current HIPAA law and other policies let them disclose medical records in response to certain legal requests. That’s why the Senate Finance Committee is targeting HHS to strengthen these protections, especially since the 2023 Dobbs decision let states criminalize certain reproductive health decisions.

Under current HIPAA law, patients have the right to know who is accessing their health information. But individuals have to request the medical record disclosure data, instead of health care professionals being required to share it proactively. “Consequently, few people ever request such information, even though many would obviously be concerned to learn about disclosures of their private medical records to law enforcement agencies,” the letter states. The letter also urges pharmacies to change their policies to require a warrant, and publish transparency reports about how data is shared.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/police-are-using-pharmacies-to-secretly-access-medical-information-about-members-of-the-public-182009044.html?src=rss