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Discord

Discord acquires Gas, the popular teen app to compliment each other

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Discord, a renowned messaging platform, declared the acquisition of Gas which is a famous app among teenagers for its positive take on social media.

Users enroll with their school, add their friends, and participate in polls regarding their fellow students on Gas. The poll questions, on the other hand, are intended to boost instead of weaken users’ confidence.

Discord
Image Source: theverge.com

Teens might be asked to choose one of four friends who is either the best DJ or possesses the best smile. The selected person will then receive an anonymous note having their remark from an unknown “fella in 10th grade” or “girl in 11th grade.”

Nikita Bier established Gas after selling an identical application known as ‘tbh’ to Facebook in 2017. However, ‘tbh’ has been shut down since then.

Gas has received 7.4 million downloads and nearly $7 million in consumer expenditure ever since its release in the summer of 2022, as per Sensor Tower data. Users can pay for a feature called “God Mode,” which provides users with clues as to who their secret compliments are from.

“At this time, Gas will continue as its own standalone app and the Gas team will be joining Discord to help our efforts to continue to grow across new and core audiences,” Discord wrote in an announcement.

Source: techcrunch.com

Bier stated that Gas would have four team members as of October.

Gas has had a difficult exit even though it became popular rapidly. The app was the topic of a widely spread sex-trafficking rumour, which was untrue but had an impact on downloads.

Bier told the Washington Post that as a consequence of the hoax, he and his team got a lot of graphic death threats. Other renowned social media apps, such as IRL &WalkSafe, have also been blamed for human trafficking.

Gas is one of the numerous anonymous applications that have recently gone viral, some centered on compliments and others not. However, TechCrunch discovered that apps such as NGL & Sendit were using bots to replicate engagement.

These apps, like Gas, allow people to pay to find out who asked questions. After it was disclosed that the questions just weren’t posed by their mates, some users were justifiably upset. In the meantime, 9count, the company behind Spark and Summer, is developing nocapp, an app similar to Gas.

Even though Discord will continue to offer Gas as a standalone product, the company recently stated that it would incorporate several apps into its servers. As a result, we may see these wonderful community polls on the messenger service platform in the future. The terms of the Gas acquisition by Discord are unknown.

“We’re always working to create an inclusive world where no one feels like an outsider and we’re excited to welcome Gas to the Discord community as our next step to fulfilling that vision,” Discord wrote in its announcement.

Source: techcrunch.com
M2 Pro

Apple announces MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips

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As per Apple, the latest M2 Pro chip possesses a 10-core or 12-core CPU and provides up to 20 percent powerful speed performance in comparison with the M1 Pro chip.

The chip also includes a 16-core or 19-core GPU that provides up to 30 percent faster graphics performance than the M1 Pro, as well as a 16-core Neural Engine which is 40 percent faster than the previous generation.

M2 Pro
Image Source: showmetech.com.br

According to Apple, the M2 Max chip possesses a 12-core CPU which is approximately 20 percent faster in comparison with the M1 Max chip, and it comes with a 38-core GPU. The latest MacBook Pro has now become up to 6 times more efficient as compared to the speediest MacBook Pro which is intel-based for some functions thanks to the M2 Max chip.

When equipped with the highest-end M2 Max chip, both newly released MacBook Pro models can now be customized with up to 96GB of unified memory. In contrast, older versions with the M1 Max chip were usable with approximately 64GB of memory. Memory bandwidth remains unchanged, with the M2 Pro chip supporting up to 200GB/s as well as the M2 Max chip supporting up to 400GB/s.

The notebooks, like the prior generation, can be customized with about 8TB of SSD storage.

The new MacBook Pro models include Wi-Fi 6E support, which enables faster wireless access as well as reduced latency on the 6GHz band. Preceding 14-inch & 16-inch MacBook Pro systems only supported Wi-Fi 6, which works on the 2.4GHz & 5GHz bands.

On both newly released MacBook Pro models, an updated HDMI 2.1 port features one external screen with about 8K resolution at 60Hz or 4K resolution at 240Hz.

Apple claims that the brand-new 16-inch MacBook Pro has the great battery life ever offered by a Mac, with approximately 22 hours of use per charge. The latest 14-inch model is said to have a battery life of up to 18 hours. According to Apple’s technical specifications, each model gains one hour of battery life over the prior generation.

The newest MacBook Pro models come with a Liquid Retina XDR screen having a notch, a completely black keyboard housing, MagSafe 3 for charging, 3 Thunderbolt 4 port facilities, an SD card slot, an HDMI port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, as well as a six-speaker audio system as the past generation.

Customers can purchase the latest 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros now via Apple’s online store, having availability commencing Tuesday, January 24. The 14-inch MacBook Pro price begins at $1,999, while the 16-inch MacBook Pro begins at $2,499.

Microsoft

Microsoft will ‘soon’ add ChatGPT to Azure cloud services

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Microsoft said it will add OpenAI’s famous artificial intelligence bot, “ChatGPT”, to its Azure service based on the cloud soon, expanding on the two corporations’ ongoing relationship as Microsoft perceives a greater stake in OpenAI.

Microsoft
Image Source: inventiva.co.in

The tech giant declared the expansion of its Azure OpenAI service, which has been available to a select group of customers since its debut in 2021. According to a blog post, the service provides Microsoft cloud users with access to numerous OpenAI functions including the GPT-3.5 language system used for creating images from text prompts and the ChatGPT system based on the Dall-E model. This allows Azure clients to use OpenAI tools in their cloud-based applications.

According to people familiar with the company’s plans, Microsoft is in talks to spend over 10 billion USD on OpenAI. The offer calls for Redmond which is a Washington-based software company to spend the funds over many years, however, the final terms might get modified, the people said, declining to be identified because the matter is private.

According to people familiar with the talks, Semaphore revealed last week that the future investment might benefit OpenAI at about 29 billion USD. Microsoft and OpenAI officials have refused to speak at the talks.

Microsoft, which was previously an OpenAI partner, is now an OpenAI partner as a result of Alphabet Inc.’s $1 billion funding in 2019. Google wants to gain an advantage over Amazon.com Inc. as well as Meta Platforms Inc. by gaining access to the most prominent and developed AI system.

Ever since its release in late November, ChatGPT has illuminated the internet, amassing the first million active users in much less than a week. Its ability to imitate human conversation has fueled speculation that it could soon overtake professional writers as well as even endanger Google’s core search biz.

Elon Musk as well as Sam Altman, a Silicon Valley investor, co-founded the company, which tends to make revenue by charging developers to license its advanced technologies.

The latest technology arrives at the year-end filled with AI news. The firm’s Dull-e, which welcomes written prompts to synthesize art as well as other images, triggered a broader discussion about the integration of AI in the creative fields. OpenAI is already developing a GPT-4 successor model which will be used for natural language processing.

Even so, worries about its accuracy, which Altman himself has stated is not adequate to trust the bot, have given rise to remaining cautious around its premature use.

youtube

YouTube tests free ad-based service streaming TV channels

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As per reports, YouTube is in discussions with media corporations to include their TV films and television shows in a hub of advertisement-supported channels. It is already trialing the concept of weighing viewer interest. As per The Wall Street Journal, the platform may make the hub available to many more consumers later this year.

Youtube
Image Source: gizmochina.com

If the strategy is implemented, YouTube will enter a sector referred to as Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television, or simply FAST, in the industry.

Roku, Fox’s Tubi, as well as Pluto TV, which is operated by Paramount Global, are among the players in this space. Based on the content it provides and how the proposed channels are set up, YouTube may end up drawing so much focus away from such services.

YouTube clarified to the Journal that it is currently testing ad-supported channels for a small group of users.

“We’re always looking for new ways to provide viewers a central destination to more easily find, watch and share the content that matters most to them,” a spokeswoman said.

Source: engadget.com

For the test, the facility is said to have collaborated with A+E Networks, Lionsgate, and FilmRise. Such channels provide a way for media organizations to bring in revenue from material that would otherwise languish.

YouTube already has ad-supported films, but this hub can provide users with a larger selection of free shows and movies to stream. Its channels could function similarly to Pluto TV. That platform has channels for old episodes of certain shows, like Doctor Who, CSI, South Park, and Frasier, as well as reality shows, live news, or even sports.

The speculated move into FAST is consistent with YouTube’s strategy of diversifying further than the content that has traditionally been involved with the platform. It moved premium streaming channels from YouTube TV to its main app in November.

One of the first Primetime Channels was Paramount+, Showtime, Starz, and AMC+. A while back, YouTube secured promotional rights to the NFL’s Sunday Ticket kit in a multibillion-dollar deal of seven years.

As per Nielsen, YouTube already holds the largest proportion of Television watching time among many streaming services available in the United States.

In November, it outperformed Netflix for the third time in a row having 8.8 percent of watch time. Initiatives such as the FAST channels as well as the Sunday Ticket might help it gain so much more mindshare and also the attention of viewers.

Google

Google Cloud’s top U.S. sales executive departs

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Alphabet Inc’s Google appointed Adaire Fox-Martin who was the head of its global cloud industries to a top sales position as part of an operating model shakeup, a representative stated on Thursday.

Kirsten Kliphouse, the lead of Google Cloud in the United States, has left the firm, according to a spokesperson.

Google
Image Source: techcrunch.com

Fox-Martin’s appointment aims at “unifying global go-to-market organization,” the company said and the role will focus on all global sales as well as service and support.

Source: finance.yahoo.com

Kliphouse’s resignation had already been reported previously by The Information.

The upheaval comes as the cloud services and software industry’s growth has slowed down as clients seek to cut costs and optimize their spending on cloud services.

Over the last decade, software on the cloud has flown off servers, with Indian companies such as Zoho, Browserstack, Freshworks, and many others, as well as pandemic-born high-fliers such as Rocketlane, Spendflo, and Everstage, posting high growth numbers.

Nonetheless, the expected slowdown may be the first-ever test for most Indian SaaS inventors in 2023 who are accustomed to controlling their organizations through 30-40 percent topline growth.

“There is going to be some impact on business growth. For example, already, the marketing and sales spends are lower; we see companies like Google and Facebook adjusting to that [layoffs in Big Tech]. Retail buying is going to be slower, and we see Amazon making changes,” said Manav Garg, a SaaS company CEO who founded SaaSBOOMi, a community of over 800 cloud software companies.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

The firm is also under stress due to unsatisfactory ad sales, which have resulted from advertising companies cutting back on expenses in the name of an economic downturn.

Alphabet’s health science division known as Verily Life Sciences, publicly stated the layoff of above 200 employees, or approximately 15 percent of its workforce earlier on Wednesday, making this the first time in about six years that Alphabet or an affiliate has declared job cuts.

Since the beginning of the covid-19 global epidemic, the cloud computing tech sector has seen tremendous growth as individuals and companies embraced digital.

However, the industry which includes infrastructure, platforms, as well as software companies providing it as a service over the internet, has displayed signs of slowing in the last two quarters. This is causing concern, particularly in India.

Its slowdown means that businesses across all industries are cutting funding and searching for ways to save in the face of near-record rising prices, increasing interest rates, as well as economic downturn fears. Those reductions are attacking Big Tech hard.

touch screens

Apple Is Working on Adding Touch Screens to Mac

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According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the MacBook Pro’s switch to OLED in 2025 may include touch screens, which Apple has previously rejected.

Apple is finally prepared to reverse course after years of steadfastly refusing to include touchscreens in its Mac computers. According to a recent article by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple engineers are “actively engaged” in this project, and the corporation is “seriously considering” making touch screens Macs for the very first time.

touch screens
Image Source: macrumors.com

The first touchscreen Mac may debut in 2025, the report claims. However, Apple’s ideas on this aren’t set in stone, and it is always plausible that these gadgets will never be released.

If it happens, Apple will probably introduce a conventional laptop with a touchscreen that can recognize iPhone-like movements. Other producers, like HP, Lenovo, and Dell, all offer laptops with touch screens in their product lines.

In contrast, Apple has promoted its iPad Pro models as laptop alternatives for users who require a touchscreen, with varying degrees of success. In 2010, Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, made the infamous claim that touch screens on laptops “don’t work.” Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, stated that the Microsoft Surface hybrid tablet was “a fairly compromised, confusing product” in response to analysts’ questions in 2012 over its introduction.

A Mac with a touch screen would occupy an intriguing spot in the market and within Apple’s ecosystem. Even though touch-screen computers have been on for a long time on Windows OS-based systems, Apple has been gradually transforming the iPad into something like a “laptop lite” product.

The company has even included its ARM-based system on a chip, in addition to several keyboard add-ons for the iPad, such as the Logitech Combo Touch and the Magic Keyboard.

Apple explored a Touch Bar for Macs from 2016 until 2021, when it began to phase it out with the introduction of revamped 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros. This was done in place of adding touch screens to laptops. But since then, the technology has spread to numerous Windows laptops, and an abundance of iPad add-ons have essentially transformed the tablet into a MacBook.

OLED technology is a significant further upgrade coming to Apple’s MacBooks. Apple is reportedly preparing to release a MacBook with an OLED display, most likely by the end of 2024, according to claims from both Gurman and Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Last but not least, according to yet another fresh report by Kuo, Apple is preparing to release a new generation of AirPods, which might be priced at $99 and be less expensive than the original.

AirPods Max is a potential additional new audio product from Apple, while no other information is available. These new products could be available in the second part of 2024 or perhaps 2025.