Tag Archives: author_name|Cheyenne MacDonald

The first Apple Intelligence features are expected to arrive on October 28

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Apple Intelligence will start rolling out on October 28, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Apple said last month that it was targeting October for the release of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 — which will bring some of the first Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 16 and other Apple devices — but it didn’t set a firm release date at the time. The first wave of Apple Intelligence features will include the text editor and summarization tool, Writing Tools, along with smart audio recording and transcriptions for Mail, Notes, Pages and other apps.

We’ll also likely see the new Memories feature in Photos, which is designed to be an easy-to-use editor for making movies with images from the gallery, and Clean Up, which can remove objects from the background of images. Other Apple Intelligence features, like ChatGPT integration and Genmoji, are expected to come with later versions of iOS 18 that will roll out across the end of the year and early 2025.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-first-apple-intelligence-features-are-expected-to-arrive-on-october-28-144459627.html?src=rss

Google’s theft protection features have started showing up for some Android users

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Three new theft protection features that Google announced earlier this year have reportedly started rolling out on Android. The tools — Theft Detection Lock, Offline Device Lock and Remote Lock — are aimed at giving users a way to quickly lock down their devices if they’ve been swiped, so thieves can’t access any sensitive information. Android reporter Mishaal Rahman shared on social media that the first two tools had popped up on a Xiaomi 14T Pro, and said some Pixel users have started seeing Remote Lock.

Theft Detection Lock is triggered by the literal act of snatching. The company said in May that the feature “uses Google AI to sense if someone snatches your phone from your hand and tries to run, bike or drive away.” In such a scenario, it’ll lock the phone’s screen. 

Offline Device Lock, on the other hand, can automatically lock the screen after a thief has disconnected the phone from the internet. You can already remotely lock your phone with Google’s Find My Device, but the third feature, Remote Lock, lets you do so without having to scramble to figure out your Google account password. All you’d need for this is “your phone number and a quick security challenge using any device.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/googles-theft-protection-features-have-started-showing-up-for-some-android-users-210634941.html?src=rss

What to read this weekend: Preventing an asteroid apocalypse, and Cult of the Lamb’s first arc wraps up

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New releases in fiction, nonfiction and comics that caught our attention.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/what-to-read-this-weekend-preventing-an-asteroid-apocalypse-cult-of-the-lamb-comic-louise-erdrich-mighty-red-190816097.html?src=rss

X reportedly paid its Brazil fines to the wrong bank, causing further delay in reinstatement case

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Despite the company’s recent decision to abide by the demands of the Brazilian Supreme Court, X still isn’t back online in Brazil — and according to Reuters, that’s at least in part because it paid its fines to the wrong bank. After weeks being banned in Brazil, X in late September named a legal representative for the country as ordered, and took down accounts the court accused of spreading misinformation and hate speech. Its final hurdle was to pay off the fines that it had racked up, reportedly amounting to roughly $5 million.

Citing Friday court filings, Reuters reports that X says it’s paid the fines and requested to have services restored. But, Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the funds went to the wrong bank, and the decision will have to wait until they’ve been transferred. X maintains that it paid its fines correctly, according to Reuters. X has been banned in Brazil since the end of August. While the company initially resisted the court’s orders, it recently changed its tune and said it was working with the Brazilian government to get the platform back online in the country.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-reportedly-paid-its-brazil-fines-to-the-wrong-bank-causing-further-delay-in-reinstatement-case-164959494.html?src=rss

Apple’s rumored smart display may arrive in 2025 running new homeOS

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Apple is planning to debut a new operating system called homeOS with its long-rumored smart displays, the first of which is expected to arrive as soon as 2025, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Reports of a HomePod-like device with a display have been swirling for over a year, and Gurman said just this summer that Apple is working on a tabletop smart display equipped with a robotic arm that can tilt and rotate the screen for better viewing. In his latest report, Gurman says there are two versions in the works: a low-end display that will offer the basics, like FaceTime and smart home controls, and the high-end robotic variant that’ll cost upwards of $1,000.

We’ll reportedly see the cheaper version first — possibly next year — followed by the high-end display. Gurman previously said the robotic smart display could be released in 2026 at the earliest. You won’t have to wait for the premium model to get a taste of Apple’s vision for home AI, though. According to Gurman, Apple Intelligence will be a key part of the experience for both devices. The new homeOS will be based on Apple TV’s tvOS, he notes.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/apples-rumored-smart-display-may-arrive-in-2025-running-new-homeos-212401853.html?src=rss

Spotify is up and running again after a brief outage

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Spotify should be working normally again now after a few hours of service issues. The Spotify Status account posted on X Sunday afternoon to say, “Everything’s looking much better now!” Earlier in the day, it confirmed that it had been experiencing problems following users' reports that the app and web player were acting up. Spotify users on social media reported a variety of issues, from songs repeatedly pausing on them to being locked out of the streaming platform entirely.

The problems spiked a little before 11AM ET, per Downdetector, and persisted for two hours or so. At 12:14PM ET, Spotify Status posted, “We’re aware of some issues right now and are checking them out!” In the meantime, the comments section of Downdetector turned into a full-blown unhinged group chat. I was still having issues with the web player around 1:15PM, but it all appears to have been resolved now. 

Update, September 29 2024, 2:45PM ET: Spotify is back online. This story has been update to include a note from Spotify Status on the issue's resolution.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/spotify-confirms-its-having-service-issues-and-is-working-on-a-fix-164159110.html?src=rss

Songs from Adele and others are returning to YouTube as SESAC agrees to a new deal

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Update, September 30, 4:30PM ET: YouTube says it has reached a deal with SESAC, and that the affected songs will be returning to the platform soon. A spokesperson sent the following comment: "We're pleased that SESAC reconsidered our offer. We've reached a deal and content will come back up shortly. We appreciate everyone's patience during this time." 

The original story, headlined "YouTube blocks songs from artists including Adele and Green Day amid licensing negotiations," follows unedited.

Songs from popular artists have begun to disappear from YouTube as the platform’s deal with the performing rights organization SESAC (Society of European Stage Authors and Composers) approaches its expiration date. As reported by Variety, certain songs by Adele, Green Day, Bob Dylan, R.E.M., Burna Boy and other artists have been blocked in the US, though their entire catalogs aren’t necessarily affected. Videos that have been pulled, like Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” now just show a black screen with the message: “This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country.”

A black screen with the message: Video unavailable. This video contains content from SESAC. It is not available in your country

In a statement to Engadget, a YouTube spokesperson said the platform has been in talks with SESAC to renew the deal, but “despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach an equitable agreement before its expiration. We take copyright very seriously and as a result, content represented by SESAC is no longer available on YouTube in the US. We are in active conversations with SESAC and are hoping to reach a new deal as soon as possible.” According to a source that spoke to Variety, however, the deal hasn’t even expired yet — it’ll reportedly terminate sometime next week — and the move on YouTube’s part may be a negotiation tactic. SESAC has not yet released a statement.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/songs-from-adele-and-others-are-returning-to-youtube-as-sesac-agrees-to-a-new-deal-151741508.html?src=rss

Here’s a peek at how A Minecraft Movie will handle crafting

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The team behind the upcoming Minecraft movie shared a new clip during Minecraft Live that expands on the brief crafting moment we saw in the polarizing first teaser. The scene comes in the middle of a discussion between Mojang creative director Torfi Frans Olafsson and A Minecraft Movie director Jared Hess, at 4:51. The segment also gives us our first look at the movie’s interpretation of a Minecraft bee, which I’m not quite sure how to feel about yet. That you can find toward the end of the video.

A Minecraft Movie is slated for release in April 2025 and stars Jack Black as Steve, alongside Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers and Sebastian Eugene Hansen. Plans for it were first announced a decade ago, and potential release dates were set and scrapped on multiple occasions in the time since. At long last, it’s actually now happening — for better or worse.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/heres-a-peek-at-how-a-minecraft-movie-will-handle-crafting-220454126.html?src=rss

Judge rejects Apple’s last-minute request for a deadline extension in Epic case

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Apple tried at the last second to get out of producing a trove of documents by Monday as it was ordered to in its ongoing dispute with Epic, and Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson is not having it. In early August, the company was given a deadline of September 30 to produce documents relating to the changes it made to its App Store rules this year, which was its attempt to satisfy an injunction. Apple initially told the court that the task would entail reviewing roughly 650,000 documents — but in a status report on Thursday, it said the number had ballooned to over 1.3 million, and asked for a two-week extension. Hixson denied the request on Friday in a strongly worded order spotted by The Verge, and called out Apple’s move as “bad behavior.”

Apple and Epic have been submitting joint status reports to the court every two weeks, and the issue of Apple’s documents exceeding its earlier estimate never previously came up, the judge noted. “This information would have been apparent to Apple weeks ago,” Hixson said in the order. “It is simply not believable that Apple learned of this information only in the two weeks following the last status report.” The judge said the request raises other concerns, calling into question the quality of Apple’s reports and its intentions around complying in a timely manner. Apple has “nearly infinite resources” that it could have tapped to get the task done in the allotted time, according to Hixson.

“This is a classic moral hazard,” Hixson said in the order, “and the way Apple announced out of the blue four days before the substantial completion deadline that it would not make that deadline because of a document count that it had surely been aware of for weeks hardly creates the impression that Apple is behaving responsibly.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/judge-rejects-apples-last-minute-request-for-a-deadline-extension-in-epic-case-195536755.html?src=rss

What to read this weekend: The history of overhyped tech, and a new graphic novel from Charles Burns

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New releases in fiction, nonfiction and comics that caught our attention.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/history-of-overhyped-tech-charles-burns-final-cut-richard-powers-playground-163018545.html?src=rss