Galaxy S24 Ultra, Google layoffs, Epic v. Apple update + more! - TechLInked Jan. 17, 2024

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NEWS SOURCES:

 

SAMSUNG, GOOGLE, AND JIMMY

Samsung Unpacked

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked January 2024: Official Livestream (youtube.com)

Galaxy Galaxy S24 ($800) 24+ ($1,000) 24 Ultra ($1,300)

-          Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 “for Galaxy” with 53% better ray-tracing perf, which is great for Pokeemon for whom ray tracing is one of the “main reasons” she’s a PC gamer (consoles and phones have it but ok)

-          Wi-Fi 7

-          Ultra has 2,600 nits peak brightness (iPhone 15 pro: 2000 nits, Pixel 8 Pro: 2400, OnePlus 12: 4500)

o   Perfect for the Samsung guy who said he “loves gaming outdoors”, outdoor gamers rise up

-          Made of titanium alloy like iPhone 15 Pro cuz that went so well

-          Corning Gorilla Armor is toughest yet, 4x more scratch resistance, anti-reflective, missed opportunity for Rise of the Beasts collab

-          Comes in a “range of gender neutral colors”

Galaxy AI – “Epic, Just Like That” – was that written by AI?

-          Does some on-device AI processing using Google Gemini Nano, but if you enable cloud AI processing, Gemini Pro will summarize text in Notes, Voice Recorder, and Keyboard

-          Real-time translation in voice calls + text messages

o   Seems more real-time than offerings from Google, Apple

o   Can also translate your TONE if you don’t make words good

-          Generative Edit fills in the middle of and the edges of photos – uses Imagen 2

-          Instant Slow-Mo: adds AI-generated frames that frankly look a bit jank

-          When AI is used, will add digital watermark to image + metadata

Circle to Search – draw circle on anything in any app to Google Search for it – launching Jan. 31 on Pixel 8’s and Galaxy S24’s https://lmg.gg/EbTak

Photos

-          Interestingly, S23’s 10x optical zoom has been halved to 5x – 10x zoom is now “optical quality”

-          First Galaxy phone with optical 5x zoom on 8K video

-          “Nightography Zoom” up to 10x

-           

-          MrBeast did a demo

-          7 years of security and OS upgrades

Quick Share is now officially the AirDrop of Android

Working on a Samsung Ring https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/17/24041859/samsung-smart-galaxy-ring-unpacked

 

 

OUROBOROS REX

Shitty google news + adblocker YouTube retraction

A Google lays off “hundreds” more as ad division switches to AI-powered sales

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-is-laying-off-hundreds-of-employees-in-its-advertising-team-2024-1

new study by German researchers found that Google Search is plagued with SEO spam.

https://mashable.com/article/google-search-low-quality-research

Chrome quietly updates Incognito warning to admit Google tracks users in “private” mode

https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/google_updates_chrome_incognito_disclaimer/

YouTube’s ad blocker problems are just an Adblock Plus bug

https://www.pcmag.com/news/youtube-is-slowing-down-load-times-for-viewers-with-ad-blockers-on

 

EPIC FAIL

US Supreme Court has had enough of Epic vs. Apple, refuses to hear appeals, Tim Sweeney says the fight to open-up iOS 'is lost… a sad outcome for all developers'

https://www.pcgamer.com/us-supreme-court-has-had-enough-of-epic-vs-apple-refuses-to-hear-appeals-tim-sweeney-says-the-fight-to-open-up-ios-is-lost-a-sad-outcome-for-all-developers/

Supreme Court denies Epic v. Apple petitions, opening up iOS payment options

https://9to5mac.com/2024/01/16/apple-revises-us-app-store-rules-to-let-developers-link-to-outside-payment-methods-but-it-will-still-charge-a-commission/

Apple seeks $73.4 mln in fees from Epic Games antitrust fight

https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/apple-seeks-734-mln-fees-epic-games-antitrust-fight-2024-01-17/

Microsoft passes Apple as most valuable company in the world

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/microsoft-passes-apple-as-most-valuable-company-in-the-world

Apple hits “all-time high” smartphone market share, takes #1 spot for 2023

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/jan/17/apple-samsung-worlds-top-smartphone-seller-iphone-honor-google-divide-android

 

 

QUICK BITS

 

HATSUNE MIKU FOR PRESIDENT

OpenAI’s big plan to combat election misinformation

https://openai.com/blog/how-openai-is-approaching-2024-worldwide-elections

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/16/tech/openai-election-misinformation/index.html

Already an issue

https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/06/09/ai-deepfakes-are-being-weaponised-in-the-race-for-us-president-and-trump-is-the-latest-tar

OpenAI's GPT Store is being flooded by AI girlfriend bots despite explicit rules that prohibit them

https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-girlfriend-bots-openai-gpt-store-rules-2024-1

(Potential joke: We’ll be missing out on campaign ads depicting Donald Trump as a Kaiju attacking New York City and climbing up Trump Tower.)

(Other potential joke: Combine idea of election and AI Waifus.)

OpenAI quietly removes ban on military use of its AI tools

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/16/openai-quietly-removes-ban-on-military-use-of-its-ai-tools.html

https://theintercept.com/2024/01/12/open-ai-military-ban-chatgpt/

 

 

THE UPGRADABLE FUTURE

LPCAMM2

https://www.techradar.com/pro/computer-ram-gets-biggest-upgrade-in-25-years-but-it-may-be-too-little-too-late-lpcamm2-wont-stop-apple-intel-and-amd-from-integrating-memory-directly-on-the-cpu

https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/lpcamm2-will-bring-faster-upgradable-memory-to-some-laptops/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/micron-mu-unveils-high-performance-164900991.html

 

LETTERS FROM PRISON

Fujitsu exec: "Bugs and errors" in accounting software aided wrongful prosecutions of UK postal workers. (Over 1000 postmasters fired since 1999)

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/16/fujitsu-admits-for-first-time-it-should-help-compensate-post-office-victims

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67993493

https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/10/fujitsu-post-office-scandal-government/

 

FAIR TRADE ORGANIC LLM

AI models that don’t violate copyright are getting a new certification label

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-17/ai-certification-program-verifies-systems-are-fairly-trained?leadSource=reddit_wall

https://www.fairlytrained.org/blog/fairly-trained-launches-certification-for-generative-ai-models-that-respect-creators-rights

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/17/24041518/generative-ai-copyright-violation-fair-training-label-certification

 

WILL.A.I.

Will.i.am to present SiriusXM Show with AI CoHost

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/will-i-am-ai-co-host-siriusxm-show-1235788455/

https://www.avclub.com/will-i-am-podcast-cohost-ai-1851169055

https://ew.com/will-i-am-ai-cohost-interactive-show-8430505