In our hectic daily lives, it can be difficult to keep up with all the news coming in. But to help you out, we have put together a weekly tech digest that gives you access to the top 5 news headlines that are trending in the tech world.
Weekly Tech Roundup: Top 5 News Stories from This Week
1) Apple announces Apple Intelligence, iOS 18, and more at WWDC 2024:
Apple, led by Tim Cook, held the WWDC 2024 event at its headquarters in Cupertino, California. At the event, Apple announced iOS 18, MacOS Sequoia, iPadOS 18, WatchOS 11, and VisionOS 2.
But the highlight of WWDC 2024 was Apple's entry into the generative AI field with Apple Intelligence: This new system will help power writing tools, categorize emails, transcribe and summarize audio, prioritize notifications, and generate images and emojis (via the Image Playground and Genmoji tools, respectively).
Additionally, Siri has been significantly enhanced with the AI-generated capabilities of Apple Intelligence. The new update is said to make Siri more “natural, contextual and personal,” offering a simpler and faster user experience. Siri's design has also been significantly improved, with the edges of the user's screen now glowing when Siri is active.
Apple has also partnered with OpenAI to allow Siri to access ChatGPT when information is missing, but users will first be notified that their search query is being sent to ChatGPT.
2) Elon Musk hides X's likes:
Elon Musk's social media giant X (formerly Twitter) has announced that it will hide users' “likes” by default. Shortly after the announcement, Musk said that the number of “likes” from users around the world had increased significantly.
Previously, users of the social media platform could visit other users' pages and see what they liked on the platform. Privacy was only offered to premium users.
3) YouTube tightens restrictions on third-party ad blockers:
YouTube is reportedly stepping up its campaign against third-party ad blockers by embedding ads directly into its video streams, a strategy that could negate the effectiveness of current ad-blocking browser extensions. The move comes after users complained that enabling ad blockers on the Alphabet Inc.-owned platform caused videos to skip to the end.
SponsorBlock, an extension that lets users skip sponsored segments in YouTube videos, announced on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that YouTube will be integrating ads with the video stream. Traditionally, ads and videos have been separate entities, with ads pausing the video at designated intervals.
This new method of integrating ads directly into the video stream poses a significant challenge for ad blockers, potentially making it difficult to filter the ads. SponsorBlock expressed concern that this server-side ad integration would alter all timestamps to include ad periods, potentially breaking their functionality.
4) Yahoo is undergoing a complete transformation using AI:
Yahoo! has announced significant improvements to its Yahoo! News app, introducing a series of advanced artificial intelligence features designed to improve users' experience on the company's platform. The update marks a significant integration of technology developed for Artifact, the now-defunct AI news app that Yahoo! acquired earlier this year.
The revamped Yahoo! News app reportedly boasts a highly customizable feed, allowing users to easily tailor their content preferences. Through sophisticated AI algorithms, the app offers personalized news recommendations based on selected topics and preferred publishers, allowing users to see more of the content that matters most to them, all conveniently consolidated in one place.
One of the notable features introduced is the “Key Takeaways” tool, which displays concise summaries of news articles at the top, aiming to help users stay informed more efficiently by providing a quick overview of the key points of each article. Additionally, Yahoo News has added a “Top Stories” section, highlighting the hottest news topics from around the world, helping users stay up to date on the latest developments.
5) HMD launched its first two feature phones with built-in UPI functionality.
Nokia handset maker HMD has launched its first own-branded phones in India. The new feature phones, HMD 105 and HMD 110, share a similar design with a round camera module on the back, curved frames and a textured finish.
The HMD 105 and HMD 110 are 2G devices that are said to have a 1,000mAh battery and offer up to 18 days of standby time, and support 9 input languages and 23 text display languages.
What's interesting about these devices is the newly built-in UPI functionality, which is said to allow users to carry out UPI transactions even without internet access.
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