Kalakshar US

Bluesky, the invite-only decentralized social network, is taking baby steps towards opening up to the public. CEO Jay Graber announced this week that Bluesky posts are now viewable whether a person is logged in or not, meaning you can directly share content with your friends who don’t have Bluesky accounts. While Bluesky has about 2.6 million users so far, that pool is still relatively small as it remains closed off to wider public signups.

The new public web interface, which the company teased last month, will make Bluesky posts accessible to a bigger audience. To mark the shift, Bluesky has also adopted a blue butterfly as its new logo — gone is the stock photo-style cloudy sky. “Like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, we are starting to open up,” Graber wrote in a blog post about the changes. Graber also notes that many Bluesky users were already using the butterfly emoji as a symbol for the social network. “We loved it,” Graber wrote, “and adopted it as it spread.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/bluesky-changed-its-logo-and-now-lets-everyone-view-posts-even-without-an-account-172649141.html?src=rss 

It’s Christmas Eve Eve, so I’ve phoned in this week’s TMA and shouted “Lost In Space!” to myself. What a time to be alive. I’m also stoking the flames of the console wars in 2023. Yes, Sony announced its sold 50 million PS5 consoles so far. Xbox doesn’t offer its own official figures (because of this eventuality?) but analysts say, during this year, Sony outsold Microsoft consoles three to one. 

There’s also an outright ban on Apple Watches — at least the two newest models — over patent issues. Apple needs President Biden himself to turn the ban around, but it doesn’t look like he will before the ruling come into power. 

This week:

⌚️⛔️ The Apple Watch ban is here

🤳🧑🏽‍🔧 Samsung adds foldables to its self-repair program for the first time

🎮🕹️ Sony has sold 50 million PS5 consoles over three years

And read this these:

We’re wrapping up our year with a barrage of features and editorials on the year that was 2023. Want to know how X declined and declined and declined? How about the sudden pause on autonomous taxis and the many disasters in the last 12 months? Or how about a year of layoffs and acquisitions across a lot of gaming industry? There are more stories, of course, but you’ll have to wait for next week to read those.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-apple-watch-ban-and-sony-seems-to-be-winning-the-console-war-140001621.html?src=rss 

Apple has been noticeably missing in the list of companies with their own generative AI product, but based on a new report by The New York Times, it’s looking to change that real soon. In recent weeks, Apple has reportedly started negotiating with major publishers and news organizations to ask for permission to use their content to train the generative AI system it’s developing. The company doesn’t expect to get its hands on their content for free, though, and The Times says it’s offering them multi-year deals worth at least $50 million for access to their news archives.

Apparently, some of the publishers it approached are concerned about the repercussions of letting Apple use their news articles throughout the years. They think a broad licensing deal for their archives could lead to legal issues along the way. The publishers are also concerned about the potential competition that may arise from Apple’s efforts.

That said, the iPhone-maker also reportedly built goodwill simply by asking them for permission and showing willingness to pay. The Times says the company’s higher-ups have been in discussion over where to get data for generative AI development for years now. Due to its commitment to privacy, they’ve been hesitating to use information collected from the internet.

Other companies with generative AIs of their own had been accused of stealing content and using it to train their products without express consent from creators and rights holders. OpenAI, for instance, is contending with several lawsuits that accuse it of using other people’s intellectual properties. One of those lawsuits was filed by novelists that include George R.R. Martin and John Grisham, while another was filed by nonfiction authors who said OpenAI and Microsoft have built a business “valued into the tens of billions of dollars by taking the combined works of humanity without permission.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-is-reportedly-looking-to-team-up-with-news-publishers-to-train-its-ai-074348010.html?src=rss