February 3, 2024 Addis Ababa
Techኢት ማለዳTech ☕️

Apple Vision Pro: Enticing App Lineup and Features

Apple's ambitious Vision Pro headset is now available, boasting over 600 apps and games on the visionOS store. With advanced Spatial Audio, micro-OLED displays, and impressive streaming capabilities, the device offers an immersive experience. From streaming services like Disney+, Apple TV, to productivity tools from Apple and Microsoft, the headset caters to diverse interests. Communication apps, gaming options, music, news, utility, design, shopping, and meditation apps round out the comprehensive selection.

How to Buy or Try the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro

For those eager to get their hands on the much-hyped Apple Vision Pro, preorders are live on Apple's website. Priced at $3,499, the ordering process involves customization for fit, optical inserts, and storage options (256GB, 512GB, 1TB). Payment plans and AppleCare+ coverage are available. Alternatively, Apple offers 25-minute in-store demos for those wanting a hands-on experience. Demos are on a first-come, first-served basis, allowing users to make an informed decision about the $3,500 AR/VR headset.

Source: techcrunch

Feb 3, 2024 Addis Ababa

Techኢት NightByte🌙      

Microsoft briefly surpasses $3Tn market cap, second to do so after Apple

In a remarkable turn of events, Microsoft experienced a historic moment as it briefly achieved a market valuation of $3 trillion on Wednesday.

The surge in Microsoft’s stock price saw an ascent of 1.7% to $405.63 per share during trading hours. This propelled its market capitalization just over the $3 trillion mark, albeit fleetingly. However, as the day concluded, Microsoft’s valuation settled at $2.99 trillion, still a remarkable achievement. This development is historically significant as it solidifies Microsoft’s position as one of the largest public stocks, placing it in the echelon of companies that have breached the $3 trillion valuation threshold. Apple, its formidable rival in the tech sphere, had achieved this milestone last year. Currently, Microsoft’s shares are priced at $402.56 per share. As of Wednesday, Apple is still the world’s most valuable company with a market cap of around $3.01 trillion


@TechInEthio

Source: https://thetechportal.com/2024/01/25/microsoft-briefly-surpasses-3tn-market-cap-second-to-do-so-after-apple/

February 4, 2024 Addis Ababa

Techኢት ማለዳTech☕️

Seattle-area students use tactile tech to help visually impaired people get a new feel for art

A group of elementary and middle school students from districts east of Seattle are working together on a project to help visually impaired people experience paintings in museums through tactile displays.
The team, called 42 Watts, is based in Bellevue, Wash., and features seven kids from schools in that city as well as Issaquah, Redmond and the Northshore district. The students are: Aakash Abraham, 11; Amogh Kalra, 12; Anya Rajyaguru, 13; Arisha Rajyaguru 12; Namita Rao, 11; Rishabh Rao, 12; and Ayaan Thaker, 12.
The students are regulars in FIRST LEGO League, a robotics program that introduces kids to science, technology, engineering, and math challenges and competitions. Last year the team won the state championship for Washington and competed at the world championships in May with a project called SolarRollar, which was an automated AI-based approach to cleaning solar panels and in turn increasing their efficiency

Feb 4, 2024 Addis Ababa

Techኢት NightByte🌙      

Apple Vision Pro review: the infinite desktop

The $3,500 headset is very much still a work in progress, offering glimpses of a future that will live or die by developers

As the realities of corporate control settled into the internet, the notion of infinite canvas has somewhat fallen out of popular memory (inhabit a medium long enough and you’ll eventually bump up against its boundaries). Over the past eight months, however, the term is creeping back into popular use, courtesy of Apple. The company loves a catchy slogan — and they think you’re going to love it, too. McCloud’s term presciently touches upon some of the larger paradigm shifts the company is hoping to foster with its new $3,500 headset.

“Vision Pro creates an infinite canvas for apps that scales beyond the boundaries of a traditional display and introduces a fully three-dimensional user interface controlled by the most natural and intuitive inputs possible — a user’s eyes, hands, and voice,” Apple wrote in the first Vision Pro press release.

But where McCloud’s conception of the infinite canvas specifically applied to breaking free of the paper page by embracing the monitor, Apple’s vision of “spatial computing” is an effort to go beyond that monitor. In some ways, the product succeeds brilliantly, but in much the same way that holding your hands up in one of Apple’s “Virtual Environments” displays artifacting, that vision is currently still rough around the edges.

@TechInEthio

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/03/apple-vision-pro-review-the-infinite-desktop/

Feb 5, 2024 Addis Ababa

Techኢት ማለዳTech ☕️       
 
Secretive moon startup led by ex-Blue Origin leaders raises new tranche of funding

A stealth startup led by ex-Blue Origin leaders, focused on harvesting resources from the moon, has quietly closed a sizable new tranche of funding, according to regulatory documents.

Interlune, a startup that’s been around for at least three years but has made almost zero public announcements about its tech, has raised $15.5 million in new funding and aims to close another $2 million. A representative for Interlune declined to comment on this story.

@TechInEthio

Source:-
https://techcrunch.com/

Join us for a live Techኢት Mini-podcast on Sunday Feb 11, 2024, at 3LT(9PM) featuring Abdulaziz Zeinu and Abenezer Seifu, top scorers from the 2013 batch entrance exam || now A2SVians and 3rd Year Software Engineering Students at AAiT. Get ready for insights into their software engineering journey.

@TechInEthio

Feb 5, 2024 Addis Ababa
Techኢት NightByte🌙  

Title: Inside Apple’s Ambitious Plan to Integrate Generative AI Across Its Device Ecosystem

Apple, once considered a tech industry leader, faced a surprise challenge when ChatGPT and other AI tools gained prominence. In response, the company is now gearing up to revolutionize its approach, aiming to incorporate generative AI features across its entire range of devices.

Despite initial hesitance, Apple is on a mission to catch up with the AI revolution that has gripped the technology sector. Notably, competitors like Google and Microsoft introduced generative AI versions of their search engines, while Amazon enhanced Alexa with AI capabilities. Apple, on the other hand, primarily focused on refining the auto-correct system in iOS 17.

CEO Tim Cook acknowledges that Apple has been developing generative AI for years. However, insiders reveal that the company was taken aback by the sudden surge in AI advancements, prompting a swift response in the past year.

Apple unveiled its own large language model named Ajax and an internal chatbot named "Apple GPT" to explore functionality. The challenge now lies in ensuring that this technology matches or exceeds competitors' standards and determining how it will be integrated into Apple's product lineup.

Senior vice presidents John Giannandrea (AI) and Craig Federighi (software engineering) are leading the initiative, supported by Eddy Cue, the head of services. The trio is set to invest approximately $1 billion annually in this transformative project.

Giannandrea's team is focused on developing the underlying technology for a new AI system, with plans to enhance Siri significantly. Federighi's software engineering group is incorporating AI into the next iOS version, utilizing a large language model to improve Siri and the Messages app. Moreover, Apple's software engineering teams are exploring the integration of generative AI into development tools like Xcode to facilitate faster app development.

Eddy Cue's team is pushing to infuse AI into various apps, exploring features like auto-generated playlists in Apple Music and leveraging generative AI for productivity apps. Internal discussions are ongoing regarding the deployment of generative AI, considering options like on-device processing for privacy and speed versus a cloud-based setup for more advanced operations.

As Apple aims to regain its position in the AI landscape, the company acknowledges the high stakes involved in getting generative AI right. In an industry where generative AI is more than just a buzzword, Apple is positioning itself at the forefront of computing for the decades to come, determined not to take a back seat in this transformative era. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-10-22/what-is-apple-doing-in-ai-revamping-siri-search-apple-music-and-other-apps-lo1ffr7p