Author Archives: Kris Holt

Microsoft’s Seeing AI app for low-vision and blind users comes to Android

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Microsoft's Seeing AI app is available on Android devices for the first time starting today. You can download it from the Google Play Store. The aim of the free app is to help blind and low-vision folks understand more of the world around them with the assistance of their smartphone's cameras and AI-powered narration. Microsoft says the Android app uses the company's latest advances in generative AI and it has the same features as the iOS version. Given that there are more than 3 billion Android users around the world, the app could help improve the quality of life of many people.

Seeing AI's latest features were built with the help of feedback from users. Microsoft says the app now offers more detailed descriptions of images. By default, Seeing AI will provide a brief summary of what a photo depicts. When a user taps the "more info" icon, the app will generate a far more in-depth description of the image. Move your finger over the screen and the app can tell you about the locations of various objects. Photos can be imported from other apps too.

Another feature Microsoft recently rolled out following feedback from users is the ability to ask questions about a document. After scanning a document, you can ask Seeing AI questions about things such as menu items or the price of an item on a bill. You can also ask it to summarize an article you have scanned. The app provides the user with audio guidance on how to scan a printed page.

Seeing AI offers users many other ways to find out about the world around them by pointing their camera at or taking a photo of something. For instance, the app will read out a short piece of text as soon as the camera picks it up. Seeing AI can scan barcodes and provide product information such as the name and details from packaging when available, which could be particularly useful when it comes to dealing with medication.

In addition, the app can help identify people (and their facial expressions), currency, colors and brightness. It's also able to read handwritten text in some languages.

Seeing AI is landing on Android on the International Day of People with Disabilities. The app is now available in 18 languages: Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian Bokmal, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. Microsoft plans to expand that number to 36 languages in 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-seeing-ai-app-for-low-vision-and-blind-users-comes-to-android-160052026.html?src=rss

Telegram now offers all users limited transcriptions of voice messages

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Telegram has released a major update for its iOS and Android apps that includes an array of new and upgraded features. Since last year, Telegram Premium users have been able to get transcriptions of voice and video messages and now the platform is opening up that feature to everyone, albeit on a more limited basis. Free users will be able to convert two messages per week into text. Just hit the →A icon on a voice message and you'll get a text version of the memo. Telegram notes that it's rolling out this feature gradually, so you may not have access to it right away.

Elsewhere, Telegram is looking to improve channel discovery. Whenever you join a channel, you'll see a selection of similar public channels. Telegram is basing these recommendations on similarities in subscriber bases. You'll be able to view these recommendations at any time by going to a channel's profile.

A circular icon shows a group of friends looking down and waving at a camera lens. The image is overlaid on top of a windy beach in a mobile app. Text reading
Telegram

You can now include a video comment or reaction with a story. You'll have the ability to resize this video message and move it around the screen. You can add a video message, a feature that takes a page out of the TikTok playbook, by holding down the camera icon in the story editor to capture a selfie clip. You can adjust the volume by holding a finger on the video track at the bottom of the screen.

Reposting someone else's story is now a cinch too. Just tap the share button on a story, then you'll have the option to repost it. Only stories that have their visibility set to public can be reposted. You can add a video comment to reposted stories too.

Elsewhere, Premium users can set up their profiles with unique color combos, everyone can apply custom wallpapers to each individual chat (Premium users can set the same wallpaper for both participants) and channel admins can customize the emoji that appear as reactions. In addition, any Telegram app can now detect a coding language in messages and highlight the syntax with proper formatting.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/telegram-now-offers-all-users-limited-transcriptions-of-voice-messages-185114448.html?src=rss

Sci-fi RTS sequel Homeworld 3 will arrive on March 8

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The long-awaited sci-fi strategy sequel Homeworld 3 at last has a release date. It’s now slated to arrive on March 8. That’s another slight delay, given the February release window that developer Blackbird Interactive and publisher Gearbox were aiming for, but at least there’s now a concrete date. Those who pick up the Fleet Command edition, meanwhile, will get access 72 hours earlier.

In a short behind-the-scenes video, Blackbird CEO and co-founder Rob Cunningham said this was "really our original dream of Homeworld 2. The problem was, in the late '90s, early 2000s, the vision for Homeworld 3 was utterly impossible to make." Homeworld 2 debuted in 2003. Cunningham noted that Blackbird had to wait 20 years to achieve the kind of scale and scope it wanted.

The team has revealed a few more details about what's in store. Players will have a choice between the classic Homeworld control scheme or a more modern setup that should be familiar to fans of other real-time strategy games or MOBAs — you'll just need to click on an element in the environment to get there. There's also a focus on cover-based tactics. You can use a larger ship to protect yourself or even flank enemies.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sci-fi-rts-sequel-homeworld-3-will-arrive-on-march-8-153139081.html?src=rss

Call of Duty games start landing on NVIDIA GeForce Now

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One of the major concessions Microsoft made to regulators to get its blockbuster acquisition of Activision Blizzard over the line was agreeing to let users of third-party cloud services stream Xbox-owned games. Starting today, you can play three Call of Duty games via NVIDIA GeForce Now: Modern Warfare 3, Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone.

They're the first Activision games to land on GeForce Now since Microsoft closed the $68.7 billion Activision deal in October. Activision Blizzard games were previously available on GeForce Now but only briefly, as the publisher pulled them days after the streaming service went live for all users in early 2020.

Microsoft first made its first-party games available on GeForce Now this year, beginning with Gears 5 in May. More recently, Microsoft started allowing GeForce Now users to stream PC Game Pass titles and Microsoft Store purchases.

Call of Duty titles are major additions, though, especially since that means Warzone fans can play the battle royale on their phone or tablet wherever they are without having to pay anything extra (free GeForce Now users are limited to one hour of gameplay per session). If you've bought MW2 or MW3 on Steam, you can play those through GeForce Now as well. NVIDIA notes that older CoD titles will be available through GeForce Now later.

Another key concession Microsoft made to appease UK regulators was to sell the cloud gaming rights for Activision Blizzard titles to Ubisoft. However, as evidenced here, Microsoft will still honor the agreements it made directly with various cloud gaming services.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/call-of-duty-games-start-landing-on-nvidia-geforce-now-195040692.html?src=rss

YouTube Music brings personalized album art to its 2023 Recap

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YouTube Music users who have seen their Spotify- and Apple Music-using friends share their listening stats from this year can now join the party. YouTube Music Recap is now live and you can access it from the 2023 Recap page in the app. You'll be able to see your top artists, songs, moods, genres, albums, playlists and more from 2023. There's also the option to view your Recap in the main YouTube app, along with some other new features for 2023.

This year, you'll be able to add custom album art. YouTube will create this using your top song and moods from the year, as well as your energy score. The platform will mash together colors, vibes and visuals to create a representation of your year in music.

YouTube Music Recap custom album art
YouTube Music

YouTube says another feature will match your mood with your top songs of the year. You might see, for instance, the percentages of songs you listened to that are classed as upbeat, fun, dancey or chill. Last but not least, you can use snaps from Google Photos to create a customized visual that sums up your year in music (and perhaps your year in travel too).

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-music-brings-personalized-album-art-to-its-2023-recap-182904330.html?src=rss

Google Messages now lets you choose your own chat bubble colors

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Google is rolling out a string of updates for the Messages app, including the ability to customize the colors of the text bubbles and backgrounds. So, if you really want to, you can have blue bubbles in your Android messaging app. You can have a different color for each chat, which could help prevent you from accidentally leaking a secret to family or friends.

With the help of on-device Google AI (meaning you'll likely need a recent Pixel device to use this feature), you can transform photos into reactions with Photomoji. All you need to do is pick a photo, decide which object (or person or animal) you'd like to turn into a Photomoji and hit the send button. These reactions will be saved for later use, and friends in the chat can use any Photomoji you send them as well.

The new Voice Moods feature allows you to apply one of nine different vibes to a voice message, by showing visual effects such as heart-eye emoji, fireballs (for when you're furious) and a party popper. Google says it has also upgraded the quality of voice messages by bumping up the bitrate and sampling rate.

In addition, there are more than 15 Screen Effects you can trigger by typing things like "It's snowing" or "I love you." These will make "your screen erupt in a symphony of colors and motion," Google says. Elsewhere, Messages will display animated effects when certain reactions and emoji are used.

Screenshot of a Google app that reads
Google

On top of all of that, users will now be able to set up a profile that appends their name and photo to their phone number to help them have more control over how they appear across Google services. The company says this feature could help when it comes to receiving messages from a phone number that isn't in your group chats. It could help you know the identity of everyone in a group chat too.

Some of these features will be available in beta starting today in the latest version of Google Messages. Google notes that some feature availability will depend on market and device.

Google is rolling out these updates alongside the news that more than a billion people now use Google Messages with RCS enabled every month. RCS (Rich Communication Services) is a more feature-filled and secure format of messaging than SMS and MMS. It supports features such as read receipts, typing indicators, group chats and high-res media. Google also offers end-to-end encryption for one-on-one and group conversations via RCS.

For years, Google had been trying to get Apple to adopt RCS for improved interoperability between Android and iOS. Apple refused, perhaps because iMessage (and its blue bubbles) have long been a status symbol for its users. However, likely to ensure Apple falls in line with European Union regulations, Apple has relented. The company recently said it would start supporting RCS in 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-messages-now-lets-you-choose-your-own-chat-bubble-colors-170042264.html?src=rss

NASA and IBM are building an AI for weather and climate applications

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NASA and IBM have teamed up to build an AI foundation model for weather and climate applications. They’re combining their respective knowledge and skills in the Earth science and AI fields, respectively, for the model, which they say should offer “significant advantages over existing technology.”

Current AI models such as GraphCast and Fourcastnet are already generating weather forecasts more quickly than traditional meteorological models. However, IBM notes those are AI emulators rather than foundation models. As the name suggests, foundation models are the base technologies that power generative AI applications. AI emulators can make weather predictions based on sets of training data, but they don’t have applications beyond that. Nor can they encode the physics at the core of weather forecasting, IBM says.

NASA and IBM have several goals for their foundational model. Compared with current models, they hope for it to have expanded accessibility, faster inference times and greater diversity of data. Another key aim is to improve forecasting accuracy for other climate applications. The expected capabilities of the model include predicting meteorological phenomena, inferring high-res information based on low-res data and "identifying conditions conducive to everything from airplane turbulence to wildfires."

This follows another foundational model that NASA and IBM deployed in May. It harnesses data from NASA satellites for geospatial intelligence, and it's the largest geospatial model on open-source AI platform Hugging Face, according to IBM. So far, this model has been used to track and visualize tree planting and growing activities in water tower areas (forest landscapes that retain water) in Kenya. The aim is to plant more trees and tackle water scarcity issues. The model is also being used to analyze urban heat islands in the United Arab Emirates.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-and-ibm-are-building-an-ai-for-weather-and-climate-applications-050141545.html?src=rss

Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser’s next projects are a graphic novel and an audio drama

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Absurd Ventures, the new creative studio from Rockstar Games co-founder and ex-creative director Dan Houser, has announced its first projects. As it happens, neither of them are video games, at least not yet.

The first of these two new universes is called American Caper, which will debut as a graphic novel. It will focus on two normal but damaged families who are mired "in a world of corrupt business, inept politics and bungling crime." Comic book artist Simon Bisley (ABC Warriors, Lobo) is illustrating the graphic novel.

The other project is a 12-episode audio drama that's already in production. A Better Paradise is described as a near-future existential suspense thriller. Absurd Ventures is working with well-regarded audio company Q-CODE Media on the project.

Absurd Ventures plans to reveal more details about both projects in the coming months. However, referring to both American Caper and A Better Paradise as "universes" suggests the company has plans to expand them into transmedia enterprises, which may just include video games.

Meanwhile, we're just days away from getting our first proper glimpse at what has been keeping Houser's former colleagues at Rockstar busy for the last several years. The publisher will unveil the first trailer for the next Grand Theft Auto game in early December. Rumors suggest the reveal will take place at The Game Awards on December 7.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rockstar-games-co-founder-dan-housers-next-projects-are-a-graphic-novel-and-an-audio-drama-210258054.html?src=rss

Amazon now has its own AI image generator

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Amazon has hopped on the same bandwagon on which many major tech companies have hitched a ride this year by debuting its own image generator. AWS customers can now check out a preview of Titan Image Generator on the Bedrock console. They can either enter a text prompt to create an image from scratch or upload an image and edit it.

Amazon says the tool can produce large volumes of studio-quality, realistic images at low cost. It claims the AI can generate relevant images based on complex text prompts while ensuring object composition is accurate and that there are limited distortions. This, according to the company, helps with "reducing the generation of harmful content and mitigating the spread of misinformation."

Those looking to edit an image can isolate areas in which they want to add or remove details. They can, for instance, replace the background or swap an object in a subject's hand. The AI can also extend an image's borders by adding artificial details, much like the Generative Expand feature in Photoshop.

Amazon says Titan applies an invisible watermark to images that it generates. The company says this will "help reduce the spread of misinformation by providing a discreet mechanism to identify AI-generated images and to promote the safe, secure and transparent development of AI technology." It claims that the watermarks are resistant to modifications. According to a demo of the image generator, the AI can also generate a description of the image or relevant text to use in a social media post.

News of the image generator emerged at Amazon's AWS re:Invent conference, at which the company also showed off its latest AI chips and revealed a business-centric AI chatbot called Q. The company recently started offering advertisers a tool that lets them add AI-generated backgrounds to product images.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-now-has-its-own-ai-image-generator-203025475.html?src=rss

Google won’t block news links in Canada after all

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Google won't block news links in Canada in response to new legislation after all. The company pledged earlier this year to pull links to Canadian news stories from Search, News and Discover when the country's Online News Act (Bill C-18) takes effect in December. However, Google has reached a deal with the country's government that will see it continuing to serve users there with Canadian news.

"Following constructive discussions, our government and Google have reached an agreement — they will contribute to the Online News Act. We worked hard to make this possible," Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge wrote on X. "This Act is good news for journalism, for online platforms and for Canadians."

Google has agreed to pay news publishers in Canada around $100 million CAD per year, according to the CBC. That's significantly less than the government's previous estimate that Google's annual payments should be around $172 million. The $100 million figure is in line with Google's own estimates of how much it should pay. 

The company will still need to sign an agreement with the media after negotiations. Google had demurred over a mandatory negotiation model that would have seen it hold talks with media organizations. Instead, the CBC reports that Google will only need to negotiate with a representative group, which is said to limit the company's risk of arbitration.

"We thank the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, for acknowledging our concerns and deeply engaging in a series of productive meetings about how they might be addressed," Kent Walker, Google and Alphabet's president of global affairs, told Engadget in a statement. "Following extensive discussions, we are pleased that the Government of Canada has committed to addressing our core issues with Bill C-18, which included the need for a streamlined path to an exemption at a clear commitment threshold. While we work with the government through the exemption process based on the regulations that will be published shortly, we will continue sending valuable traffic to Canadian publishers." 

Google's arrangement with the government will be factored into the Bill C-18 legislative framework, which must be finalized by the middle of December. Although Google said in June that it would remove links to Canadian news stories from several of its key services, it never followed through on that threat. 

Meta, on the other hand, has blocked Canadian news links on Facebook and Instagram since June. According to the CBC, Meta has not returned to the negotiating table with the government. Google and Meta are the only companies that meet Bill C-18's legislative criteria.

Updated 11/29 2:08PM ET: Added statements from Pascale St-Onge and Kent Walker.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-wont-block-news-links-in-canada-after-all-180258909.html?src=rss