Archives January 2024

A slick new advert for the Apple Vision Pro has just appeared on the official Apple YouTube account, just a few days ahead of the first shipments of the mixed reality headset being sent out to customers. Meanwhile, a new report claims that Meta now considers itself to be the headset’s main, Android-style adversary. 

The 68-second video has the usual Apple polish and a lot of the ingredients we’ve come to expect from Apple commercials – such as a classic pop song, aspirational lifestyles, travel, family and friends. It’s called “Hello Apple Vision Pro” and the promise in the caption is that “you can do the things you love in ways never before possible”.

Studio Wildcard has released more details about Ark: Survival Ascended’s upcoming ‘Custom Cosmetic’ modding system, and it’s been confirmed that it’ll start rolling it out this week.

In case you missed it, Studio Wildcard first teased the Custom Cosmetic system earlier this month. To put it simply, once fully integrated, the visual mods which players apply to things like structures, dinosaurs and themselves will be automatically downloaded by others in the background as they’re encountered. This means that, in theory, everyone can see the different mods that fellow players are using, meaning that things like bases are constantly going to look varied.

Come June 2024 and Apple may have one of the biggest updates for iPhones. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s iOS 18 update is internally considered “one of the biggest iOS updates — if not the biggest — in the company’s history.” While Gurman remains light on specifics, he has dropped some hints about what we can expect.
Apple’s AI push on iPhones
One major focus seems to be artificial intelligence.Gurman suggests iOS 18 will leverage generative AI, a powerful technology that can create new content, like text, code, and even images. This could translate to a smarter Siri, capable of understanding complex questions and completing tasks with more nuance.
The Messages app is also rumoured to get an AI makeover. As per earlier reports, Messages can “field questions and auto-complete sentences,” making it a more conversational and productive tool.
Apple Music is also expected to incorporate AI-powered features such as auto-generated playlists that dynamically adjust to users’ moods and preferences, promising a more personalised music experience.
iWork apps like Pages and Keynote are poised to leverage generative AI, offering users content and layout suggestions tailored to their topics, streamlining the process of creating presentations and documents.
Furthermore, Xcode, the development environment for Apple’s platforms, is anticipated to receive enhancements powered by AI, enabling developers to create apps more swiftly and effectively, potentially sparking a surge in groundbreaking iPhone applications. These advancements across Apple’s ecosystem signify a deeper integration of AI technologies, aiming to enhance user experiences and productivity levels across various domains.
Also expected is RCS messaging support. This much-requested feature — by none other than Google — would finally allow iPhone users to enjoy features like high-resolution photos and read receipts when texting Android users.
Apple is expected to unveil iOS 18 at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. But one thing’s clear: if Gurman’s predictions are even close to accurate, iOS 18 could be a hotbed of AI-riddled features for iPhone users.

After dominating the UK TV scene in January, season 2 of The Traitors is proving just as successful – if not more so – in the US.

The reality TV sensation, which sees 22 contestants – dubbed the Faithful – compete for a cash prize by attempting to weed out the Traitors in their ranks, has been a huge hit in multiple territories. Indeed, season 2 of the UK edition drew in 6.5 million people as its game of deceit, misdirects, and backstabbing played out across its 12 episodes. That audience figure only accounts for those who tuned in up to episode six, too, so that total should increase once the BBC publishes its viewership data for episodes seven through 12.

When Elon Musk completed the purchase of X (formerly Twitter) in 2022, he laid off multiple employees, including those working in the trust and safety teams, reports said. The company has now announced that it will hire 100 full-time employees for a new “Trust and Safety Centre of excellence” in Austin, Texas.
As per a report by Bloomberg, the team will focus mainly on CSE and help enforce the company’s content and safety rules.
The report cited Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, as saying that “the group will focus on fighting material related to child sexual exploitation, but will help enforce the social media platform’s other rules, which include restrictions on hate speech and violent posts.”
However, X did not specify when this new centre will be operational.
The development just a few days before CEO Linda Yaccarino is scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the platform’s handling of child sexual exploitation moderation, the report added.
Read the company’s updated blog post
At X, we have zero tolerance for Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), and we are determined to make X inhospitable for actors who seek to exploit minors. In 2023, we made clear that our top priority was tackling CSE online.
As an entirely new company, X has strengthened its policies and enforcement to tackle CSE. We are now taking action on users that distribute this content and also taking immediate action on the networks of users who engage with this horrible content.
While X is not the platform of choice for children and minors – users between 13-17 account for less than 1% of our U.S daily users – we have made it more difficult for bad actors to share or engage with CSE material on X, while simultaneously making it simpler for our users to report CSE content.
In 2024, we will continue to share detailed updates about our investment in this area. We are improving our detection mechanisms to find more reportable content on the platform to report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Plus, we are also building a Trust and Safety center of excellence in Austin, Texas, to hire more in-house agents so we can keep accelerating our impact.

With the explosion of social media platforms, the concerns regarding users’ privacy online have attracted the attention of regulators globally. Add to the mix the prying eyes of hackers and cyber criminals who take advantage of less tech-savvy users and use them to propagate their social engineering techniques like manipulation or deceit to gain control over their computer systems.Janaury 28 was celebrated as the data privacy day and here are 5 tips that you should keep in mind to stay safe on social media platforms.
Check social media accounts privacy settings
Checking the privacy settings of social accounts is the first defence against falling victim to hacking. Since social media companies update their privacy settings from time to time, users must keep a tab on it and consider tweaking privacy settings as per the new rules. Check to see if your posts and profile information are open to the public, and if they are, consider restricting them.
Restrict sharing personal information
While social media platforms are a gateway to share your photos and videos of what you do/ are doing, sometimes, the same information can become a source of problem for some users. You may become a target if you share too much personal information on social media.
Furthermore, conversations on social channels, such as DMs, may also be accessed without your knowledge, hence, it is advised to restrict the sharing of such information, like bank details, passwords, addresses and phone numbers on social media channels.
Be careful when responding to unknown people
One of the ways social media platform users are targeted online is by connecting with unknown people. A comment on a harmless-looking post may land you in coughing up personal information, which cyber attackers can use to break into online accounts. Online quizzes, games and even links posted on social media platforms are often used to do the same thing.
Keep guard up on social media
Just like people are advised to be wary of calls from unknown/ unidentified numbers, the same should be practised when online. If you get a private message on any of your social media inbox that looks suspicious and includes a link, consider it a scam and report it. Additionally, users should be careful when adding new friends to their social media friend list.
Use security tools
Tech companies, including social media firms, offer users tools to protect their accounts. They can restrict their profiles to only friends, use strong passwords and password managers, and deploy two-factor authentication for logging into their accounts. These practices help in keeping social accounts secure.

Sick of struggling to find the answers to your search queries in Safari, Chrome, or any of the other best browsers on iOS? A new alternative has just emerged that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to do the searching for you, potentially helping you find accurate results much more quickly.

Called Arc Search, the app is made by The Browser Company of New York, an outfit that has also made the desktop Arc browser that captured headlines in 2023. With Arc Search, the developer has added a bunch of interesting features that could see it supplant your current favorite browser on your iPhone.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the 7th edition of ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha‘ at the Bharat Mandapam in Delhi. At this public event, the Prime Minister interacted with “exam warriors” and discussed several topics with them. This includes the use of mobile phones, parent-child relationships, and choosing a specific stream among others and others.
While speaking about the use of mobile phones, PM Modi said “excess of everything is bad” and advised students to reduce their screen time.Nearly 2 crore students, parents, and teachers took part in this event. After the event, Modi also greeted the students present at the venue for the ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ 2024 event.

PM Modi’s tips to reduce screen time

At the event, Modi said: “I use mobile phones only when required. Add screen time alert tools in mobile. Try reducing your screen time.”
The Prime Minister also suggested family members be aware of the passwords of the mobile phones of their children.

“Not only mobile but excess of anything…doesn’t do anyone any good. There should be a standard for everything, it has a basis. It is very important to have discretion as to how much of anything should be used. We should not run away from technology but should use it positively,” he said.
“Using gadgets should be accompanied by time-tracking tools and applications. Ensure that your gadgets have apps that keep track of your screen time. One should not forget to respect their time while using mobile phones. We should have the wisdom to use technology positively,” added the Prime Minister.
Modi also asked students to set small goals and said, “At times children take pressure on themselves that they are not performing up to the mark. I suggest that you should set small goals during preparation and gradually improve your performance, this way you will be completely ready before the exams.”