There's word going around that X just enabled a setting that lets it train Grok on public tweets, as well as any interactions they have with the chatbot. That's not entirely true: a help page instructing users how to opt-out of X using their data to train Grok has been live since at least May. X just never exactly made it crystal clear that it was opting everyone into this, which is a sketchy move. If you don't want a bad chatbot to use your bad tweets for training, it's thankfully easy to switch that off.
You just need to uncheck a box from the Grok data sharing tab in the X settings. If that link doesn't work, you can go to Settings > Privacy and Safety > Grok. For the time being, the setting isn't accessible through X's mobile apps (the company says it will be soon), so you'll have to uncheck the box on the web for now. It's also worth noting that Grok isn't trained on any tweets from private X accounts.
All X users have the ability to control whether their public posts can be used to train Grok, the AI search assistant. This option is in addition to your existing controls over whether your interactions, inputs, and results related to Grok can be utilized. This setting is…
One of X's selling points for Grok when it rolled out the chatbot was that it had the advantage of using real-time information that's published on the platform — in other words, users' tweets. That only works if users opt-in or are automatically enrolled into sharing their data with the chatbot. But X isn't exactly the pinnacle of truth and accuracy. It's full of pranksters, and lifting their jokes might be one of the reasons why Grokkeeps ongetting stuff wrong. In any case, it's not exactly uncommon for AI models to be trained on material without explicit permission from the original creators.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/heres-how-to-stop-groks-ai-models-using-your-tweets-for-training-161041266.html?src=rss
Sonos seriously stepped in it a couple of months back when it released an overhauled first-party mobile app that shipped with a number of missing features. These included core functions like sleep timers and alarms. Many of the company’s speakers would not appear as a pairing option and it became extremely difficult to precisely adjust the volume level of a paired speaker.Additionally, music search and playback were both negatively impacted by the change, leading to numerous customer complaints.
Now, the company has apologized for releasing the half-baked app. CEO Patrick Spence whipped up a blog post to address the “significant problems” with the new software.
“There isn’t an employee at Sonos who isn’t pained by having let you down, and I assure you that fixing the app for all of our customers and partners has been and continues to be our number one priority,” he wrote.
Spence also wrote that the company had planned to quickly incorporate the missing features and patch up any errors, but these fixes were delayed by a “number of issues” that were unique to the update. He did confirm that Sonos has been actively pushing out patches approximately every two weeks to address a wide variety of concerns.
Additionally, he outlined the company’s future roadmap for getting the app into proper working order. Upcoming fixes include increased stability when pairing new products and enhancing configuration options with regard to the music library. Volume responsiveness is also getting a refresh, as is the alarm clock. As a matter of fact, the entire user interface is getting a complete overhaul that is “based on customer feedback.”
All of these changes will be released via a number of app updates from now until October. Spence says he knows the company has work to do to “earn back” the trust of loyal Sonos customers. In better news, it did just release some nifty headphones.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonos-apologized-for-messing-up-its-app-and-has-offered-a-roadmap-for-fixing-everything-191528422.html?src=rss
Back when Max was still known as HBO Max, it released a redesigned app that added SharePlay for Apple devices, but only in the US. Now, the streaming service is rolling out the feature to all its users around the world. SharePlay is now available to all Max users paying for Ad-Free and Ultimate Ad-Free plans, allowing them to hold and join watch parties over FaceTime and iMessage, no matter where they are.
Users can start watching with friends by hitting the "share" button either on the details section of each title or within the FaceTime app. Each session can have as many as 32 participants, but they all have to be Max subscribers. That means people from regions where Max isn't available, such as in Asian countries, won't be able to hop on and watch with their pals in the US or Europe. Warner Bros. is planning to expand Max's reach to South East Asia later this year, but it warns on its website that the timeline could still change.
SharePlay for Max works on iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs and Vision Pro headsets. To initiate a watch party on iPhones, iPads and Vision Pros, users have to find the Share icon on the details page of a show or a movie, enter the contacts they want to share with and initiate a FaceTime call. If they choose Messages on their mobile devices, their friends will get a message asking them to join SharePlay. On Apple TV, users will have to open FaceTime first before clicking the SharePlay button and choosing Max from the app list.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/maxs-shareplay-feature-for-ios-is-now-available-to-all-ad-free-subscribers-040624031.html?src=rss
There are some limitations for now. Availability will vary by region and Maps is only available in English on the web at the outset. As things stand, you can access Apple Maps from Safari and Chrome on Mac and iPad. Windows PC users can access the service via Chrome and Edge. Apple says it will expand the web experience to other languages, devices and browsers over time, but for now at least, iPhone users will need to keep using the Maps app.
The web version of Apple Maps includes directions; guides; opening hours, reviews and other helpful information for businesses; and actions such as ordering food. Apple will add other features, including Look Around (i.e. the company's version of street View), in the coming months.
After many years of restricting Maps to an app, Apple might be trying to take on Google at its own game. Google Maps has, for instance, long allowed developers to embed a section of a map on websites. Apple says devs will be able to link to its maps on the web to offer their users driving directions, information about places and more.
Expanding beyond the app is a smart idea and it could help Apple Maps reach more eyeballs. The company also started offering a web version of Apple Music several years ago.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-maps-is-now-available-on-the-web-in-beta-193648138.html?src=rss
Google just announced a suite of updates to the Play Store in an attempt to make it more fun to use. This is part of a larger move by the company to turn its online marketplace into "an end-to-end experience that’s more than a store.” You read that right. They want us to hang out on Google Play.
Here’s what the company has planned. The update brings AI-generated review summaries that pull from user reviews to develop a consensus. You’ve likely already encountered this type of thing on Facebook and while using Google search. The company first announced this feature at this year’s I/O event.
This AI-adjacent approach will also apply to auto-generated FAQs about each app that are powered by Gemini models. Additionally, there will be AI-generated highlights that offer a quick summarization of a particular app. Google showed off a still image of this for a photo editing app in which the highlights included the number of filters and layouts available, in addition to tools and sharing options. This AI approach will also let users quickly compare apps in similar categories.
Google’s also rolling out shared spaces on the Play Store. These aren’t communities or mini social networks, like Reddit or something, but rather splash pages for various topics of interest. The company started this project with a pilot involving cricket. The shared space gave users in India the ability to “explore all their cricket content from across various channels in one, convenient spot.” This included relevant videos, around 100 curated cricket-related apps and some simple user polls. The next curated space will be about Japanese manga. There has been no word as to when this feature will expand into multiple categories available to global users.
The entire “shopping for a new game to play” experience is also getting an upgrade, focused primarily on discovery. Google promises “enriched game details” pages, complete with YouTube videos from developers and clearly-marked promotions, which reminds me of Steam. This even extends to the post-purchase experience, as return users will see updated developer notes and a section for tips and tricks. The program is in early access and currently only available to English language users. There are also some new games coming to Google’s oft-overlooked Play Pass, like Asphalt Legends Unite and Candy Crush Saga, and a feature that lets users play multiple games at once on PC.
Finally, there’s some personalization stuff in this update. The new Collections feature provides custom categories based on previously-purchased apps. This means that each Google Play homescreen will be different for each user, offering an easy way to continue binging a show or finishing a video game.
Many of these upgrades begin rolling out today, though some are still in the early access stage. Others, like the shared spaces feature, still have some kinks to work out.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-is-updating-the-play-store-with-ai-powered-app-reviews-and-curated-spaces-130036843.html?src=rss
CrowdStrike has blamed faulty testing software for a buggy update that crashed 8.5 million Windows machines around the world, it wrote in an post incident review (PIR). "Due to a bug in the Content Validator, one of the two [updates] passed validation despite containing problematic data," the company said. It promised a series of new measures to avoid a repeat of the problem.
The massive BSOD (blue screen of death) outage impacted multiple companies worldwide including airlines, broadcasters, the London Stock Exchange and many others. The problem forced Windows machines into a boot loop, with technicians requiring local access to machines to recover (Apple and Linux machines weren't affected). Many companies, like Delta Airlines, are still recovering.
To prevent DDoS and other types of attacks, CrowdStrike has a tool called the Falcon Sensor. It ships with content that functions at the kernel level (called Sensor Content) that uses a "Template Type" to define how it defends against threats. If something new comes along, it ships "Rapid Response Content" in the form of "Template Instances."
A Template Type for a new sensor was released on March 5, 2024 and performed as expected. However, on July 19, two new Template Instances were released and one (just 40KB in size) passed validation despite having "problematic data," CrowdStrike said. "When received by the sensor and loaded into the Content Interpreter, [this] resulted in an out-of-bounds memory read triggering an exception. This unexpected exception could not be gracefully handled, resulting in a Windows operating system crash (BSOD)."
To prevent a repeat of the incident, CrowdStrike promised to take several measures. First is more thorough testing of Rapid Response content, including local developer testing, content update and rollback testing, stress testing, stability testing and more. It's also adding validation checks and enhancing error handing.
Furthermore, the company will start using a staggered deployment strategy for Rapid Response Content to avoid a repeat of the global outage. It'll also provide customers greater control over the delivery of such content and provide release notes for updates.
However, some analysts and engineers think the company should have put such measures in place from the get-go. "CrowdStrike must have been aware that these updates are interpreted by the drivers and could lead to problems," engineer Florian Roth posted on X. "They should have implemented a staggered deployment strategy for Rapid Response Content from the start."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/crowdstrike-blames-bug-that-caused-worldwide-outage-on-faulty-testing-software-120057494.html?src=rss
Meta on Tuesday announced the release of Llama 3.1, the latest version of its large language model that the company claims now rivals competitors from OpenAI and Anthropic. The new model comes just three months after Meta launched Llama 3 by integrating it into Meta AI, a chatbot that now lives in Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp and also powers the company's smart glasses. In the interim, OpenAI and Anthropic already released new versions of their own AI models, a sign that Silicon Valley’s AI arms race isn’t slowing down any time soon.
Meta said that the new model, called Llama 3.1 405B, is the first openly available model that can compete against rivals in general knowledge, math skills and translating across multiple languages. The model was trained on more than 16,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, currently the fastest available chips that cost roughly $25,000 each, and can beat rivals on over 150 benchmarks, Meta claimed.
The “405B” stands for 405 billion parameters, which are internal variables that an AI model uses to reason and make decisions. The higher the number of parameters an AI model has, the smarter we perceive it to be. OpenAI’s GPT-4 model, by comparison, reportedly has roughly 1.5 trillion parameters, although the company has not disclosed the number so far. In addition, Meta also released upgraded versions of existing Llama models that contain 70 billion and 8 billion parameters each, claiming that the newer versions had stronger reasoning abilities among other things.
Developers can download Llama 3.1 from its official website, while regular users can play with it through Meta AI in WhatsApp or on meta.ai, the company’s website for its chatbot. “Llama 405B’s improved reasoning capabilities make it possible for Meta AI to understand and answer your more complex questions, especially on the topics of math and coding,” Meta’s blog post states. “You can get help on your math homework with step-by-step explanations and feedback, write code faster with debugging support and optimization.” (Editor’s note: Engadget will pit Llama 3.1 against the New York Times Spelling Bee and report back to you). For now, Meta AI on Facebook, Messenger and Instagram are still restricted to the smaller version of Llama 3.1 that uses 70 billion parameters.
Unlike OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic that keep their AI models proprietary, Meta’s AI models are open source, which means that anyone can modify and use them for free without sharing personal data with Meta. In a letter published on Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg argued that an open source approach to AI development will ensure wider access to the technology’s benefits, prevent the concentration of power among a few big companies, and enable safer AI deployment across society. By open sourcing the company’s largest language model to date, Meta aims to make Llama the “industry standard” for anyone to develop AI-powered apps and services with, Zuckerberg wrote.
Open sourcing AI models and adding them to its existing products already used by billions of people could allow Meta to compete more effectively with OpenAI whose ChatGPT and DALL-E chatbots ignited an AI explosion when they launched in 2022. And it could also boost engagement — Meta announced today that users would soon be able to add AI-generated images directly into feeds, stories, comments and messages across Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.
In his letter, Zuckerberg also criticized Apple and its closed ecosystem, arguing that the iPhone maker’s restrictive and arbitrary policies had constrained what Meta could build on its platforms. “[It’s] clear that Meta and many other companies would be freed up to build much better services for people if we could build the best versions of our producers and competitors were not able to constrain what we could build,” he wrote.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/llama-31-is-metas-latest-salvo-in-the-battle-for-ai-dominance-150042924.html?src=rss
Cash App Pay has integrated with Google Play to give consumers another option when buying stuff online. This will be especially useful for Android users, as Google Play is baked right into the OS. Cash App says this partnership will give “next gen consumers more choice” and the company specifically called out the gaming space.
Cash App users will be able to pull money from a pre-existing balance or via a linked debit card to pay for stuff on Google Play. Cash App currently has four million monthly active users and the company claims to have added one million new users each quarter for the last year. That’s a lot of new people flowing into Google’s ecosystem.
To use Cash App on an Android device, just select the payment method when checking out on Google Play. Obviously, new users should download the app and make an account before all of that.
The Cash App integration, however, extends beyond Europe and Google already allows PayPal as an option in most countries. Also, Android developers who distribute apps on the Google Play store Google’s parent company Alphabet is considered a gatekeeper under the DMA and one of the mandates of the legislation is that these organizations must allow for alternative payment methods.
The Cash App integration, however, extends beyond Europe and Google already allowed PayPal as an option in most countries. Also, Android developers who distribute apps on the Google Play store can already use an array of third-party payment systems in Europe, to comply with the DMA.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cash-app-pay-integrates-with-google-play-to-offer-next-gen-consumers-more-choice-172310452.html?src=rss
iOS 18 has landed in public beta and Apple is offering up more control, yet again, of the layout of your iPhone. However, Apple Intelligence, the most exciting upgrade, is conspicuously (but unsurprisingly) absent.
The update also improves several native apps, such as Photos, Messages (RCS! Gasp!) and Notes, although Apple Intelligence will add even more features and tricks. While we all wait for the ability to generate our own emojis, there is still plenty to explore. It’s just a little drier than what Apple teased at WWDC.
You can access the iOS preview by enrolling on Apple’s website, which will nudge the beta to your iPhone’s Software Update section. As always, remember to back up your iPhone first and ensure it’s compatible. (iOS 18 works on 2018’s iPhone XS and XR and newer phones.)
iOS 18 means even more customization
Beyond app folders and widgets, iOS 18 adds further functional and aesthetic customization. Alongside a new Dark look, you can tint all of them in a color of your choosing. Unlike previous dark modes on iOS, this time it also ‘dims’ individual app icons to keep it consistent with the darker theme. You can also have iOS choose the color for you, basing its recommendation on your iPhone’s wallpaper. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is very similar to Material You, which Google introduced to Android in 2021.
You can also increase the size of the app icons ever so slightly, without reducing the number you can pack into a single pane. Doing so does strip away the text labels, so you better be sure you know, without words, which app icon is which. And, in a thrilling move for tens of pedants everywhere, you can move your icons outside a left-aligned, top-to-bottom snap grid. Do you want the Safari icon floating in the bottom right corner, all alone? You can do that now.
iOS 18 also brings two new ways to secure your apps. You can assign an app as locked or hidden. Locking an app will require FaceID access, useful perhaps for Photos or a plethora of other apps if you often share your phone with children. Doing sp will also mean information from there won’t appear or bubble around other parts of iOS, like searches and notifications. You can also choose to hide the app, which nudges it into a dedicated folder, locked away behind FaceID.
Apple has also refreshed its control panel and dropdown menu for settings. Similar to when iOS introduced widgets a few years ago, there is now a dedicated control gallery to add smart home shortcuts, launch timers and more.
This had the potential to clutter up the control panel, but Apple has divided this into four different tabs. While you can tap on the little icons to the side to leap to a specific section, you can also access all of them in a single continuous scroll. Your most used features can live at the top, and other sections pull together your smart home controls, entertainment playback and connectivity. Have you lost your hotspot shortcut? It’s here. All the controls are also resizeable to prioritize the most crucial ones.
Finally, you can now customize the iOS lock screen controls, too. If you never use the flashlight, you can swap it out for something more practical, like a timer, or even act as a shortcut to Shazam in a pinch.
Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget
Messages
RCS (Rich Communication Services) has landed on the iPhone, or at least on those running iOS 18. It pulls together advanced text features, like support for richer images, larger file attachments, voice notes, group chat, read receipts and more. But you got all those through iMessage on iOS, making RCS sound a little uneventful.
However, if your friends are divided across Android and iOS, you can start using Messages like other third-party messaging apps. Does it have all the features of WhatsApp? No. Does it do everything you can in iMessage? No.
But it will help. For example, with RCS, you can send messages over Wi-Fi without a phone signal. I’ve had issues before when running late for appointments, trapped on the metro with no signal, unable to text to let the other person know. RCS means those messages will send if you latch on to a passing Wi-Fi network.
There are more advances beyond RCS. You can also schedule text messages, like you might already do on work chat apps and email. If you’re into Apple’s recently introduced message tapbacks (emoji reactions), you can now do so with any emoji, including your own Live Stickers based on your photos and images. For even more expression, iOS 18 also adds italics, bold, underline and strikethrough formatting, and a family of cute word animations that feel like WordArt come to life. It’s silly, it’s frothy, it’s pointless. I love it.
Photos
Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget
Apple has hidden away some major changes to how it structures its photos app, reflecting the fact that many of us have had iPhones (and photo libraries) for over a decade and a half. And we’re not going to look at all of those pictures. We’re likely not even going to look at most of them. In iOS 18, Apple has ditched the tabs for “Library,” “For You,” “Albums” and “Search.” Instead of your latest photos, screenshots and videos taking up the majority of the screen, you’ll see some space carved out for your latest content, curated albums, memories and more.
It’s a divisive approach, but I think your reaction will depend on how you interact with your photos. I know where my favorite photos are or how to find them, but other people in my life are often pleasantly surprised when services and devices can auto-curate an album of photos from a day out or a vacation. This redesign seems aimed at them.
And what about Apple Intelligence? Eventually, it will add some additional tricks, like Cleanup, which can help erase any unwanted objects in your photos. It’s a feature that Pixel (and Galaxy) phone users have enjoyed for a while, and still, we await the arrival of Apple Intelligence to be able to test this. For more on what’s coming to your gallery in iOS 18, check out my colleague Cherlynn’s detailed article on what Apple’s done to the Photos app.
More iOS 18 highlights
If you’re a daily Notes app user (yes, I’m guilty), there are some nice advances in iOS 18, too. You can now transcribe conversations and meetings directly into the app. At the time of my testing, you’ll have to ensure your iPhone is set to US English and US as a region for the transcription icon, shown in the image above, to appear.
We also get Math Notes, which can be accessed through the Notes app and from the calculator. Here, you can write out sums and calculations and your iPhone will solve them. It’ll even remember figures for future calculations. It feels niche, but there’s some definite utility here, perhaps if you’re looking to add up a vacation budget or DIY project.
Notes’ new collapsable subheadings proved more useful for me. I have several lengthy Note files, and now I can organize them better and not have to search for specific words to find what I need.
Apple brings a similar approach to its Reader on Safari, which can add a table of contents and even attempt to summarize an article before you even get your teeth into it. Meandering recipe intros: you may have been put on notice. But I say “may“ because as of this writing, I haven’t been able to test this on any sites I’ve visited.
There’s also a new Passwords app, which, in a lot of ways, is just an easier way to access your iCloud passwords instead of diving into your iPhone’s settings. The app divides your passwords into different categories like accounts, codes, Wi-Fi networks and Passkeys, and, wisely, will support the iCloud for Windows app and a Chrome extension. You can also share password collections with visitors, friends or family.
Apple continues to tentatively develop its smart home features within iOS 18, too. It’s adding express mode to automatically unlock connected doors as you approach — as long as you have your iPhone (or Apple Watch) on you. Meanwhile, Apple has created a guest access tab so you can grant access to parts of your smart home and even schedule the times a garage door, say, stays unlocked, perhaps for a package delivery.
Wrap-up
Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget
My early impressions of iOS 18 are more limited than I wanted them to be. Apple Intelligence and most of its exciting features teased at WWDC, are not part of this public beta. Without those, iOS 18 feels more like iOS 17.5. There are more features, but most of them are incremental.
RCS is finally here, adding more functionality to cross-OS text messaging (and possibly worrying the likes of WhatsApp) while elsewhere, Apple focuses on upgrading and enhancing its native apps. The company made some... interesting choices. In iOS 18, even Calculator is getting beefed up, with Math Notes, calculation history, and a new scientific calculator view.
The public beta is relatively stable, so it’s easy to recommend to those looking for early access to the latest iPhone features. However, without Apple Intelligence, drawing more meaningful conclusions on iOS 18 will have to wait.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ios-18-preview-waiting-on-apple-intelligence-for-the-true-upgrade-143059859.html?src=rss
Microsoft has officially released its Designer platform for AI image generation. After a long preview phase, Designer is now available to most people with a Microsoft account. Designer can be used on the web in more than 80 languages, as a mobile app for iOS and Android, and as a Windows app. You can create a brand new visual from the ground up with AI, or use Designer to edit and tweak a picture you've already made. There are plenty of templates available to guide the creation of common image types, like a greeting card, smartphone wallpaper or a profile avatar. More experienced artists can also build everything from scratch, developing their own templates and using their own art.
While Designer can be used on its own, Microsoft is promoting its integration with the company’s other services. Thanks to the company's Copilot AI chatbot, Designer images can be easily linked up to Microsoft Word and PowerPoint projects. Of course, taking full advantage of that will require a Copilot Pro subscription.
If you've used Canva, then Designer will feel very familiar. The service takes a very similar approach to its user experience and now also has some AI options. According to details from when Microsoft first announced the app back in 2022, Designer is integrated with OpenAI's image generator DALL-E. Copilot already has DALL-E 3 integration, as well as ChatGPT 4 Turbo, so it makes sense that Designer will sync up with those existing services.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-releases-ios-and-android-apps-for-designer-its-ai-powered-canva-competitor-203028855.html?src=rss