Apparently Bing's adoption of Open AI's stuff is spooking Google big time. They've rapidly set up internal projects that jam AI features in Google's search engine. Magi lets users "ask the search engine follow-up questions", a "tool called GIFI would use A.I. to generate images in Google Image results", "Tivoli Tutor, would teach users a new language through open-ended A.I. text conversations" and "Searchalong, would let users ask a chatbot questions while surfing the web through Google's Chrome browser". There's also rumours Samsung is looking to ditch Google as the default search engine on its smartphones. Good. Google's had it too good for too long.
Bloomberg is reporting that Apple will show off the ability to sideload apps on iOS 17 at this year's WWDC. Apple has been forced to do this via the EU's Digital Market Act (DMA), which comes into effect in 2024. It's only a brief mention in an article filled with other WWDC predictions, but damn it would be a game changer. The big worry is that marquee smartphone apps like Instagram or TikTok for example would simply abandon Apple's relatively restricted App Store and persuade users to sideload their app. Will be fascinating to see what restrictions or guardrails Apple put in place, but still comply with the DMA. If they can walk the tightrope between privacy and open-ness it could be a new era in smartphone apps.
Choice has a depressing article about "RentTech". These are apps like realestate.com.au's Ignite as well as tApp, Tenant Options, Snug, and 2Apply that are forced upon prospective tenants by real estate agents. Tenants have to use them to apply for apps and unfortunately "collect information that goes well beyond what's needed to assess a tenant's ability to pay the rent, including nationality, education, professional qualifications, personal interests and information harvested from social media platforms". It is very shit that something as basic as a roof over your head is subject to a data driven, algorithmic bunch of hurdles. There is no escaping the data industrial complex in this life. I hate it.
If you like Zapier, but don't like how much it costs, you might want to look into Automatisch. It's a self-hosted, open-source Zapier alternative that looks and smells a lot like Zapier. I don't know if it has all the same features, but if you only use the basic stuff in Zapier, Automatisch could be a winner. There's also N8N.io - which is like a super Zapier, also self-hosted and open-source, but a bit more complicated for newbies to workflow automation/no-code tools to get their head around. Personally I use Make (used to be called Integromat), but it's not open-source, nor self-hosted. But it is cheap compared to Zapier. Also if you need some assistance/consulting with Make/Zapier, hit me up, I could use the money.
IBM 1401 Data Mobile European travelling exhibit outside The Atomium in Brussels, 1960 (IBM 1401 Archive)
📻 Red War - Probot
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