Innehållsförteckning för #665 från AppleMagazine

Apple is gearing up for a significant software update with iOS 18, focusing heavily on its new AI suite, Apple Intelligence. Although these features are absent from current developer or public betas, they are set to be unveiled soon. Here’s a detailed look at when Apple Intelligence is expected to launch. PREVIEW FOR BETA TESTERS THIS SUMMER Apple Intelligence will debut as a preview for beta testers this summer. According to Apple’s developer website, “Apple Intelligence will be available in an upcoming beta.” This suggests that a forthcoming developer beta of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia will include these AI features. While it’s likely that public beta users will also get access, Apple may initially limit the AI features to developers. The exact timeline is still uncertain. Apple…

“Scaling up” is a catchphrase in the artificial intelligence industry as tech companies rush to improve their AI systems with ever-bigger sets of internet data. It’s also a red flag for Mozilla’s Abeba Birhane, an AI expert who for years has challenged the values and practices of her field and the influence it’s having on the world. Her latest research finds that scaling up on online data used to train popular AI image-generator tools is disproportionately resulting in racist outputs, especially against Black men. Birhane is a senior adviser in AI accountability at the Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit parent organization of the free software company that runs the Firefox web browser. Raised in Ethiopia and living in Ireland, she’s also an adjunct assistant professor at Trinity College Dublin. Her interview…

Netflix’s subscriber and earnings growth accelerated in its latest quarter as the video streaming service benefits from a crackdown on freeloading viewers, an expansion into advertising and an acclaimed programming lineup. The results announced painted a portrait of a company still gathering momentum after a jarring decrease in subscribers during the first half of 2022 prompted a change in direction. Netflix added 8 million subscribers during the April-June period, marking a 37% increase over the same time last year. It was the sixth-consecutive quarter of that Netflix’s subscriber gains have increased from the previous year, a trend triggered by the 2022 downturn that served as a wake-up call for the Los Gatos, California, company. And Netflix is still financially thriving. The company’s profit in its latest quarter rose 44% from…

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Chinese officials warned a delegation of top U.S. executives visiting Beijing this week that higher tariffs on imports from China will harm their businesses inside the country. The delegation of influential business people belonging to the U.S. China Business Council, including the CEOs of FedEx and Micron, followed a top-level meeting last week where ruling Communist Party leaders endorsed a blueprint for policies that included numerous pledges to improve the business environment for foreign investors. But they also vowed greater vigilance in protecting state secrets, a potential minefield for foreign businesses that face intense scrutiny of their China operations by authorities. Both the U.S. and China have cited national security concerns in imposing restrictions on trade and investment, and American businesses have at times been caught in the middle. Beijing…

A week after Elon Musk endorsed Donald Trump for president, President Joe Biden’s team used Musk’s social media platform X — in addition to more neutral spaces such as Facebook and Instagram — to announce he is ending his reelection campaign. It’s a testament to how ingrained the platform has become among the power players of the political and media world, as well as users looking for news and live updates of major events. While Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, along with TikTok, boast far more users, X users say keeping up with the news is not the reason they use those platforms, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center. X is the exception: most of the site’s users say following the news is a reason they use…

In late July, the cybersecurity world was rocked by a significant incident: a defective update from CrowdStrike, a leading provider of endpoint protection software, caused a global IT outage that crippled millions of Windows computers. But what does this mean for the Mac? THE CROWDSTRIKE INCIDENT The CrowdStrike event offered a rare opportunity to compare the security, stability, and safety of the Mac platform against its Windows counterpart. While Windows users experienced widespread disruptions, Mac users remained unaffected, highlighting the differences between these two operating systems. CrowdStrike’s global IT outage underscored the vulnerability of interconnected global supply chains. According to data from Interos, the outage impacted 674,620 direct customer relationships of CrowdStrike and Microsoft, with over 49 million indirect relationships affected worldwide. The U.S. bore the brunt of the disruption,…

Google’s corporate parent Alphabet Inc. delivered another quarter of steady growth amid an AI-driven shift in the ubiquitous search engine that is the foundation of its internet empire. The second-quarter report released this week showed that Google is still reeling in advertisers on the heels of the May introduction of an artificial-intelligence feature that produces conversational responses to people’s search queries while downplaying its traditional display of related links to other websites. Although the change sparked fear and outrage among online publishers worried their traffic will plummet, Google is still thriving and propelling Alphabet’s success. “AI is expanding the kinds of queries we can address,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai assured analysts during a Tuesday conference call. He repeatedly extolled AI as a technology he expects to transform society and that…

Payment processing giant Visa Inc. said this week that its fiscal third-quarter profits rose 9% on an adjusted basis, as it benefits from consumers and businesses moving their payments from cash to credit and debit cards. The San Francisco-based company said it earned $4.87 billion, or $2.40 a share, compared to a profit of $4.16 billion, or $2.00 a share, in the same period a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, Visa earned $2.42 a share, which was in line with what analysts had expected, according to FactSet. Visa processed $3.325 trillion in transactions on its network during the quarter, up 7.4% from a year earlier. Much of the payments growth came from Europe and Latin America, but U.S. payments grew by 5.1%, which is faster than U.S. economic growth. Visa…

EU countries might finally gain access to Apple Intelligence features thanks to a new agreement between the US, EU, and UK on AI regulation. Four regulatory bodies have united to adopt “common principles” for addressing antitrust concerns in AI products and services, though some aspects could pose challenges for Apple. APPLE INTELLIGENCE SET TO LAUNCH WITHOUT EU COUNTRIES Later this year, Apple Intelligence features will launch, but EU countries were initially excluded due to regulatory uncertainties. Last month, Apple announced: “Due to the regulatory uncertainties brought about by the Digital Markets Act, we do not believe that we will be able to roll out three of these [new] features — iPhone Mirroring, SharePlay Screen Sharing enhancements, and Apple Intelligence — to our EU users this year.” Meta echoed this sentiment…

An owner of a consumer insights research firm couldn’t pay her employees, make Friday’s (19) deadline to sign a contract for a new business or send key research to a key client. A psychiatrist, who runs a virtual mental health practice in Maryland, saw his business hobbled as some of his virtual assistants and therapists couldn’t either make phone calls or log on to their computers. And a restaurant owner in New York City was worried about how he was going to pay his vendors and his workers. Businesses from airlines to hospitals have been grappling with a faulty software update that caused technological havoc worldwide last week, and its repercussions continued through the weekend. The breadth of the outages highlighted the fragility of a digitized world dependent on a…

Tesla’s second-quarter net income fell 45% compared with a year ago as the company’s global electric vehicle sales tumbled despite price cuts and low-interest financing. The Austin, Texas, company said Tuesday that it made $1.48 billion from April through June, less than the $2.7 billion it made in the same period of 2023. It was Tesla’s second-straight quarterly net income decline. Second quarter revenue rose 2% to $25.5 billion, beating Wall Street estimates of $24.54 billion, according to FactSet. Excluding one time items, Tesla made 52 cents per share, below analyst expectations of 61 cents. Earlier this month Tesla said it sold 443,956 vehicles from April through June, down 4.8% from 466,140 sold the same period a year ago. Although the sales were were better than the 436,000 that analysts…

We have a complex relationship with disaster movies. Just look at the discussion about a “ Twisters “ poster, which became a perfect encapsulation of our love-hate tendencies. In the promo for the film, in theaters Thursday, actors Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell and Anthony Ramos are standing in front a massive, menacing cyclone. It not only contains various objects swirling in mid-air, from houses to trucks, but also appears to be on fire. Some people wondered why the stars weren’t looking at said tornado. Others said if you’re asking questions like why the tornado is on fire, this movie isn’t for you. Both lines of thought can be true though. Maybe their coexistence is essential. This makes no sense! Also, sign me up immediately! Disaster movies are almost required to…

The Senate will consider legislation this week that aims to protect children from dangerous online content, moving forward with what could become the first sweeping new regulation of the tech industry in decades. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Tuesday that he will bring the bipartisan bill up in the Senate, with hopes of passing it before the chamber leaves for its August recess. The legislation had stalled for months even as more than two-thirds of the Senate signed on to support it and families of children who have suffered online bullying and harm advocated for its passage. Schumer said on the Senate floor that the bill is “personal” for him after meeting in recent months with parents of children who died by suicide after they were harassed online, targeted by…