Month: April 2023

Enlarge / Siri, Apple's sort-of-AI assistant, pops up in iOS. (credit: Samuel Axon)

A new behind-the-scenes report in The Information details Apple's struggles to keep up with AI features and innovation amid the rise of large language models (LLMs) that drive groundbreaking tools like ChatGPT.

The article focuses on the efforts by the company's AI chief since 2018, John Giannandrea, to bring order to a fragmented AI group and make Apple more competitive with companies like Google, from which Giannandrea defected.

In some ways, The Information's piece is a roundup or a confirmation of what we already know—like Apple employees' frustrations with the limitations of Siri's underlying technology, which had been previously reported—but it calls on new sources to add additional context and depth to the narrative.

Enlarge / A health care worker in a medical intensive care unit. (credit: Getty | BSIP)

Diagnosing medical conditions is not easy. Patients can have nondescript symptoms that could point to common problems as easily as rare or poorly understood ones. They can sprinkle in irrelevant details while forgetting crucial ones. And they can have complex medical histories and multiple conditions that can muddy the diagnostic waters.

But then, there are the rare cases of pure deception. Such was the case of an old woman seen at Massachusetts General Hospital for intense pain and jerking movements. The woman's case record, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, documents the thorough investigation of her dramatic condition. Doctors' initial alarm at her symptoms led to puzzlement as inconsistencies and oddities piled up.

It began when the woman presented to another hospital complaining of abdominal pain, jerking motions in her right arm and leg that she worried were seizures, as well as confusion, agitation, a rash on her chest, and a dislocated jaw bone. She told doctors at that hospital that she had a history of acute intermittent porphyria and that her symptoms matched previous flares of the condition.

Enlarge / A health care worker in a medical intensive care unit. (credit: Getty | BSIP)

Diagnosing medical conditions is not easy. Patients can have nondescript symptoms that could point to common problems as easily as rare or poorly understood ones. They can sprinkle in irrelevant details while forgetting crucial ones. And they can have complex medical histories and multiple conditions that can muddy the diagnostic waters.

But then, there are the rare cases of pure deception. Such was the case of an old woman seen at Massachusetts General Hospital for intense pain and jerking movements. The woman's case record, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, documents the thorough investigation of her dramatic condition. Doctors' initial alarm at her symptoms led to puzzlement as inconsistencies and oddities piled up.

It began when the woman presented to another hospital complaining of abdominal pain, jerking motions in her right arm and leg that she worried were seizures, as well as confusion, agitation, a rash on her chest, and a dislocated jaw bone. She told doctors at that hospital that she had a history of acute intermittent porphyria and that her symptoms matched previous flares of the condition.

Enlarge / So they put a Tile tracker on a cat... now what? (credit: Tile)

Did you know Tile sells Bluetooth trackers for your cat? Why don’t you just stick a small tracker on something cheap and attach it to your cat’s collar, you say? Well, that’s exactly what Tile did. At a time when Bluetooth-tracking companies should be rethinking their approach and reputation among shoppers, a Tile Sticker slapped on a cheap collar attachment feels like a wasted opportunity.

It took a surprisingly long time for Tile to release an official pet tracker, but Tile for Cats finally became available Wednesday for $40—$10 more than a Tile Sticker's solo MSRP. Tile's announcement describes the product as the simplistic solution it is. It merely “combines Tile Sticker with a silicone collar attachment."

And that's the first reason why Tile for Cats doesn't feel like an exciting new product—and it doesn't look like one either. If someone wanted something that looked like a DIY pet tracker, they'd probably make one. That device would also probably have something cuter written on it than "Tile," like this GPS pet tracker on Hackaday that says "Squeak."

Enlarge / So they put a Tile tracker on a cat... now what? (credit: Tile)

Did you know Tile sells Bluetooth trackers for your cat? Why don’t you just stick a small tracker on something cheap and attach it to your cat’s collar, you say? Well, that’s exactly what Tile did. At a time when Bluetooth-tracking companies should be rethinking their approach and reputation among shoppers, a Tile Sticker slapped on a cheap collar attachment feels like a wasted opportunity.

It took a surprisingly long time for Tile to release an official pet tracker, but Tile for Cats finally became available Wednesday for $40—$10 more than a Tile Sticker's solo MSRP. Tile's announcement describes the product as the simplistic solution it is. It merely “combines Tile Sticker with a silicone collar attachment."

And that's the first reason why Tile for Cats doesn't feel like an exciting new product—and it doesn't look like one either. If someone wanted something that looked like a DIY pet tracker, they'd probably make one. That device would also probably have something cuter written on it than "Tile," like this GPS pet tracker on Hackaday that says "Squeak."

Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto)

Yesterday, Twitter rival Bluesky experienced its biggest spike in users yet. Between Wednesday and Thursday, Bluesky doubled its user base, Bloomberg reported.

The surge in Bluesky's popularity came as some of Twitter's most influential users began joining Bluesky, including writer-comedian Dril, United States Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and filmmaker James Gunn. Some of these influencers may have been seeking to distance themselves from Twitter after the platform gifted many legacy accounts with blue verified badges that falsely labeled the accounts as paid subscribers.

Still in beta testing, Bluesky is currently available to more than 40,000 users, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber told Bloomberg today. There's much more interest from users, though. The iPhone app has been downloaded approximately 360,000 times, and the Android app is reportedly a top download after only recently launching in the US, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

Enlarge (credit: Microsoft)

Although Windows 11 was released in October 2021, Windows 10 has received yearly “feature updates” since then. Windows 10 21H2 was released at roughly the same time as Windows 11, and Windows 10 22H2 arrived a year later.

But version 22H2 will be the end of the road for Windows 10, according to a road map update posted yesterday. Microsoft product manager Jason Leznek reiterated that Windows 10 will continue to receive security updates until the October 2025 cutoff date, but there will be no more yearly feature updates for Windows 10.

“As documented on the Windows 10 Enterprise and Education and Windows 10 Home and Pro lifecycle pages, Windows 10 will reach end of support on October 14, 2025,” writes Leznek. “The current version, 22H2, will be the final version of Windows 10, and all editions will remain in support with monthly security update releases through that date.”

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

The FBI on Thursday reportedly searched the home of former FTX executive Ryan Salame, who ran the failed cryptocurrency exchange's Bahamian subsidiary and was a major campaign donor to Republicans. Yesterday morning's search of Salame's $4 million home in Potomac, Maryland, was reported by The New York Times and Bloomberg, with both media outlets citing anonymous sources.

Salame hasn't been charged with a crime but was a member of FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's inner circle. Salame received $87 million in payments and loans from FTX entities, the exchange's new leadership said last month.

It's unclear what FBI agents were looking for at Salame's house, but the search "signals that federal authorities are not done with their investigation into FTX's collapse as they prepare for Mr. Bankman-Fried's trial set in October," the Times wrote. "They are scrutinizing an array of employees and advisers in the former crypto mogul's orbit, including Mr. Bankman-Fried's younger brother."