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science and technology : Apple and OpenAI have reached an agreement to provide AI chat function for iOS

artificial intelligence
Wilson (42865)
 Published at 18:26 Monday, May 27, 2024
From the color of steel
Bloomberg reported that Apple and OpenAI have reached an agreement to provide AI chat function for iOS 18. Apple will release relevant information at the WWDC developer conference next month. Apple does not want to put all its eggs in one basket. It is still seeking to reach an agreement with Google to replace OpenAI with Gemini, the AI model of the search giant. However, it is not expected to publish relevant information on WWDC next month. Apple is also developing its own AI model Ajax for text analysis, intelligent replies and summaries on devices. OpenAI technologies such as ChatGPT are expected to be used to analyze long text, image generation and other high demand tasks.

Apple : Apple only allows third-party browser engines to run on EU devices

Apple
Wilson (42865)
 Published at 23:59 Sunday, May 19, 2024
From Mars Chess Player
Apple reluctantly complied with the laws of the European Union and allowed third-party browser engines to run on its iOS devices. However, it only allowed third-party engines to run on devices located in the European Union, which increased the difficulty of testing browser developers located outside the European Union. US browser developers will only be able to test on simulators, but not on actual devices. Before iOS 17.4, Apple required that all browsers on iOS or iPad OS must use their WebKit rendering engine, and Gecko (Mozilla Firefox) or Blink (Chromium based browser) is not allowed. In order to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DM), iOS 17.4 allows devices located in the EU to run third-party browser engines.

game : Apple App Store approved the PSP simulator PPSSPP to be launched

game
Wilson (42865)
 Published on Thursday, May 16, 2024 at 13:40
From the Last Guardian
The open source PSP simulator project PPSSPP announced that Apple iOS App Store finally approved PPSSPP to be launched nearly 12 years later. Henrik Rydg ∨ rd, the author of PPSSPP, said that there are many restrictions on the online version, which does not support Magic Keyboard (iPad Keyboard), Vulkan support through MoltenVK is not enabled, JIT recompilation is not supported, and RetroAchievements is temporarily disabled. He said that MoltenVK will be re enabled in the future version, which supports Magic Keyboard and RetroAchievements. But unless Apple changes the rules, JIT compilation cannot be restored, which will affect the performance of the simulator. However, iOS devices are fast enough to basically run all PSP games at full speed.

Apple : Apple Releases M4 Processor

Apple
Wilson (42865)
 Published on Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at 17:51
From Spark
Apple has released a new iPad Pro and its new processor M4. The M4 chip uses the second generation 3nm process technology. Its CPU contains up to 4 high-performance cores and 6 energy-efficient cores, and its performance is up to 1.5 times faster than that of M2. Its GPU is 10 cores. Based on M3 graphics processor architecture, it introduces dynamic cache, hardware accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing functions for the first time. Compared with M2 chip, Octane and other professional rendering apps can achieve a speed increase of up to 4 times. Apple said that compared with M2, M4 chip can provide the same performance with half of the power consumption; Compared with the latest chip of thin and light PC laptop, M4 chip can achieve the same performance at 1/4 power consumption. M4 also adopts a new generation of machine learning (ML) accelerator, and the new media engine supports AV1 decoding. The new iPad Pro and other products will be ordered today and will be launched on May 15.

Court documents show that Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022

Google
Wilson (42865)
 Published on Friday, 22:24, May 3, 2024
From 80 days around the world
The US Department of Justice is initiating an antitrust lawsuit against Google. Recently disclosed court documents show that Alphabet/Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 in order to become the default search engine for Apple devices. The US Justice Department accused Google of illegally monopolizing the online search and online advertising market. The default search engine transaction between Google and Apple is the core of the case. Google and Apple had hoped to avoid public trading. Last fall, Apple executives testified that Google had paid billions of dollars. Google's witness later inadvertently disclosed that Google paid 36% of its search advertising revenue to Apple. The court documents released this week are the first to confirm the transaction amount. This payment is of great significance to Apple's profits. In 2020, Google's payment accounted for 17.5% of Apple's operating revenue.

science and technology : Apple poaches Google employees to form an AI team

artificial intelligence
Wilson (42865)
 Published on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 at 22:54
From the daughter of the king
The analysis of hundreds of LinkedIn materials and AI paper authors found that the search giant is the largest single source of Apple AI experts. Apple has poached at least 36 AI experts from Google, including John Giannandrea as the head of its AI team in 2018. Giannandrea worked at Google for eight years, leading its AI research department. Most members of Apple's AI team work in California and Seattle. After acquiring two AI start-ups in Zurich, Switzerland - FaceShift and Fashwell - Apple has established a laboratory called Vision Lab in the local area. Apple also recruited employees for two offices in Zurich. Competitors Microsoft, Google and Amazon have all invested billions of dollars in generative AI, while Apple has been secretive about its AI plan. But with the decline of its share price, the company is also facing increasing pressure. Industry insiders said that Apple is focusing on deploying AI models on mobile devices, so that generative AI applications can run locally instead of relying on the cloud. But running the big model on mobile phones requires higher hardware performance.

Apple : South Korean military considers banning iPhone

iPhone
Wilson (42865)
 Published at 21:44 Monday, April 29, 2024
From Frankenstein
The South Korean military is considering banning the use of iPhones and wearable smart devices in military buildings for national security reasons. However, Android devices such as Samsung mobile phones are not under the ban. The problem is believed to be related to the inability of the Mobile Security mobile device management application of the Korean Defense Ministry to shield the use of microphones. The mobile management application was launched in 2013 and will be mandatory for all military personnel in 2021. Seventy percent of South Korean military personnel use Samsung mobile phones, so the ban is largely symbolic.

Apple : The number of iPhone activations declined in the US market

iPhone
Wilson (42865)
 Published at 17:52 Friday, April 26, 2024
From Goodbye, thank you for all the fish
According to the report of Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), the number of activated iPhones in the U.S. market declined. In the first quarter of this year, two out of every three activated smartphones in the U.S. were Android phones. Data shows that the number of new iPhone phone activations in the first quarter and second quarter of 2023 accounted for 40% of the total number of activations, and it fell to 33% in the first quarter of 2024, the lowest level since 2017. CIRP believes that the reasons include that the quality of mobile phones has increased in the past few years, so the replacement rate has declined, and the new features of new mobile phones are not enough to attract users to buy.

science and technology : Apple releases OpenELM, an open model that can run locally

artificial intelligence
Wilson (42865)
 Published on Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 17:50
From Mars Warriors
Apple has released its open model, OpenELM, which can run on local devices instead of the cloud. The weight of OpenELM, the different checkpoints of training, and the pre training evaluation fine-tuning guidelines are all published on the Hugging Face platform. The sample code license does not prohibit commercial use or modification, but requires that Apple's complete and unmodified statement be included in the re release. OpenELM consists of a group of small models designed to efficiently perform the task of text generation. There are eight models in total, four pre training instructions and four fine-tuning instructions. The parameter scale ranges from 270 million to 3 billion.

move : Samsung once again overtook Apple as the largest smartphone manufacturer

move
Wilson (42865)
 Published at 22:30 Tuesday, April 16, 2024
From Parchment Traces
Samsung has been the world's largest smartphone manufacturer for 12 consecutive years. By the end of 2023, it was surpassed by Apple. But in the first quarter of this year, Samsung regained the title of the largest mobile phone manufacturer. IDC data shows that the global smartphone shipments from January to March increased by 8% to 289.4 million units. Samsung's market share was 20.8%, which exceeded Apple's 17.3% share. Apple's market share declined due to the slowdown in sales in China. Apple shipped 50.1 million iPhones in the first quarter, down from 55.4 million in the same period last year. This is the biggest decline in iPhone sales since the global supply chain chaos caused by the COVID-19 epidemic blockade in 2022. The decline in iPhone sales is partly due to the challenges it faces in China. Local competitors have exerted more pressure, and the Chinese government has also imposed more restrictions on the use of iPhones by government agencies.

Apple : Apple Warns Users of Spyware Attacks in 92 Countries

Apple
Wilson (42865)
 Published on Friday, April 12, 2024 at 17:24
From Parchment Traces
Apple sent threat notices to iPhone users in 92 countries on Wednesday, saying that they may have become targets of spyware attacks. Apple said that the attack on the iPhone attempting to remotely invade users may be targeted, "this type of attack is much more complex than conventional cyber criminal activities and consumer malware, because the use of spyware attackers will use special resources to target a few specific individuals and their devices. The cost of employing spyware attacks is not only millions of dollars, but also the timeliness is often very short, so detection and prevention are much more difficult. Most users will never be the target of such attacks. " Apple sends similar notices many times a year. Last year, it sent threat notices to Indian journalists and politicians. Amnesty International later reported that Pegasus, the spy software of Israel's NSO Group, was found on the iPhone of a well-known Indian journalist.

game : Apple App Store allows arcade game simulator

game
Wilson (42865)
 Published at 22:31 Sunday, April 7, 2024
From the immediate family
Apple updated its App Audit Guide (Chinese has not yet been updated), and the updated 4.7 chapter contains the arcade simulator. Apple stated that arcade simulator can provide game download, but the simulator supplier needs to be responsible for all game software. This means that the arcade simulator on Apple devices cannot download arcade game applications from external sources at will. The arcade simulator runs game software in the form of ROM files. The simulator itself is legal, but the ROM files are gray areas and legal, but there are more copyright issues. For example, Nintendo sued the website hosting the ROM files. Apple's new terms may target game companies that can provide legitimate ROMs. For example, Sega can launch Sega arcade simulator in the App Store to provide its copyrighted arcade game software.

Apple : Apple considers household robots after the termination of the electric vehicle project

Apple
Wilson (42865)
 Published on Thursday, April 4, 2024 at 22:48
From the edge of the moon
After abandoning the electric car project, Apple is exploring the development of household robots. Bloomberg News quoted insiders as saying that Apple engineers are working on a robot that can move with users at home - similar to Amazon's home robot Astro announced in 2021, and a desktop device that uses robots to adjust the display screen. Apple terminated its electric vehicle project involving thousands of engineers in February this year. Previously, Vision Pro, an augmented reality product, was launched, but it may take several years for Vision Pro to generate more revenue. It is reported that the household robot project is still in the early stage of research and development.

science and technology : Baidu reportedly will provide AI function for the iPhone 16 of the Bank of China

artificial intelligence
Wilson (42865)
 Published at 19:02 Monday, March 25, 2024
Wrinkles from time
The reporter learned from insiders that Baidu will provide AI functions for iPhone 16, Mac system and iOS18 released by Apple this year. Baidu is not the only company negotiating cooperation with Apple. Apple has held talks with Alibaba and another large domestic model company of Tsinghua, and finally decided that Baidu will provide this service. Apple is expected to use API interface for billing. Apple's adoption of the AI function of the domestic big model of the iPhone and other devices of the Bank of China is mainly due to compliance needs. The company has not been able to solve the compliance problem in the short term, but the AI function of the overseas iPhone and other devices are all from Apple's own big model.

Apple : Watts thinks it's hypocritical to ban only TikTok

Apple
Wilson (42865)
 Published at 12:27 Monday, March 25, 2024
From your name
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak talked about Apple's "walled garden" strategy and the US Congress's attempt to force byte beating to sell short video application TikTok in an interview with CNN. Watts said that Apple is better than other companies in protecting user privacy and security, and Apple's system has not been attacked by too many hackers. He said that tracking users is a part of their business model, whether it's TikTok or Facebook or Google. Apple didn't do that. Compared with Apple, Apple is a "good guy". Watts was puzzled by the US Congress's attempt to block TikTok. He called himself a person who avoided social networks as much as possible. He got a lot of entertainment from TikTok. Chinese people still learn from Americans when tracking Americans. If your principle is that a person should not be tracked without knowing it, then you should apply this principle to all companies and countries. It is hypocritical to ban only TikTok.

Apple : US sues Apple for alleged monopoly

Apple
Wilson (42865)
 Published on Thursday, March 21, 2024 at 23:18
From Norby and the chaotic timeline
The U.S. Department of Justice sued Apple, accusing it of violating the anti-monopoly law by restricting competitors from using iPhone functions and monopolizing the smartphone market. The indictment submitted to the New Jersey District Court said that Apple suppressed innovation through a series of contract restrictions, and selectively enforced restrictions by controlling application distribution and application review processes and denying access to APIs. The US Department of Justice sought an order from the court to determine Apple's illegal monopoly of the US smartphone market and prevent Apple from continuing its suspected anti competitive behavior. Apple expressed strong opposition to the lawsuit and said it would spare no effort to defend itself.

Apple : Apple will allow iOS apps to be downloaded directly from the website in Europe

Apple
Wilson (42865)
 Published on Wednesday, March 13, 2024 at 15:33
From the Son of Light
Apple plans to allow application developers to download iOS applications directly through the website in EU countries. Apple will provide this feature in a software update later this spring. As long as application developers comply with Apple's strict regulations, they can distribute applications in the European Union without an app store. IOS applications are being opened to more third-party applications. Although Apple opens iOS to more third-party applications, there are still many restrictions. Developers must still work in the strict Apple application development ecosystem.

Apple : Apple formulates App Store regulations like the godfather

Apple
Wilson (42865)
 Published at 14:38 Monday, March 11, 2024
From London
Apple was forced to open its app store in Europe, allowing side loading and third-party app stores. Colton Adamski, who plans to launch an alternative app store in the EU, said that Apple has very strict control over the iPhone. His team studied the terms of Apple, and compared the rules made by Apple to the gangsters in the Godfather or the Sopranos: you can open a store on Apple's territory, but you must do as it says, or close your store. Apple requires that the bank deposit of a third-party app store be at least 1 million euros, below which it may be closed. Apple has previously said that this is to counter fraud. Apple later said it would allow a reputable app store to have less than $1 million in reserves. Apple also requires that after the number of downloads exceeds 1 million, it will start charging according to the number of installations - the rate is 0.5 euros per download. Colton thinks this is just like the gangsters collecting protection fees. He said that the application developers he knew were very angry about this. The EU has not yet commented on Apple's regulations and said it will evaluate them after they are applied.

Apple : Apple restores the developer account of Epic Games

Apple
Wilson (42865)
 Published at 21:50 Saturday, March 9, 2024
From Shadow Dance
Epic Games said that Apple informed it and the European Union that its developer account would be restored, saying that this was the first major victory of the European Digital Markets Act (DMA). Epic Games said that it was launching Epic Games Store on the European iOS platform as planned, bringing Fortress Night to Apple users in Europe. Epic Games announced on Wednesday that Apple had terminated its developer account. Apple blocked the Epic account in the name of "endangering its ecosystem", which caused widespread controversy. The EU said it would investigate this, and Apple changed its attention within 48 hours.

Apple : The EU investigates Apple's decision to terminate the Epic developer account

Apple
Wilson (42865)
 Published on Thursday, March 7, 2024, at 20:22
From the number one fan
The EU asked Apple to make "further explanation" for its termination of the Epic Games developer account. The EU said that it was conducting an investigation according to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and it was also evaluating whether Apple violated other EU laws. DMA aims to curb the power of technology giants, and the deadline for compliance with the law is March 7. In order to comply with DMA, Apple allows EU iPhones to use the alternative application market, and Epic Games plans to use its developer account to provide its app store to EU users, but it was blocked by Apple before it started to create an account. Epic Games believes that this is a serious violation of DMA. Apple said it terminated the Epic Games Sweden developer account on the ground of repeated untrustworthy behavior.

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