‘Untitled Goose Game,’ the popular macOS game by Panic, was rejected by Apple’s Mac App Store reviewers — twice.
Panic is well-known in the Mac community for making incredibly high-quality apps, some of which have even won Apple Design Awards. Unfortunately, when the company tried to submit its ‘Untitled Goose Game,’ App Store reviewers rejected it twice, according to co-founder Cabel Sasser.
A short story. We once submitted Untitled Goose Game to the Mac App Store. It was rejected by the reviewer because they thought you couldn’t skip the credits. (?!?) We explained that you could skip the credits by holding space. It was then rejected for something else and at that point we just gave up and never bothered to resubmit. Fin
Panic went on to release the game via Steam and the Epic Game Store.
Unfortunately, this example is just the latest that illustrates Apple’s overall lack of commitment to the Mac gaming market. For example, former App Store Editor Neil Long recently made the case that Apple doesn’t care about the gaming market and views game developers much as a “contemptuous landlord” would.
The woefully understaffed team of app reviewers couldn’t handle the volume of games coming through – and seemingly still can’t today. Ask any staffer at a mobile game studio and they’re guaranteed to have an app review horror story involving their game being repeatedly rejected for an arbitrary reason, or removed from sale entirely. Developers are being treated with contempt.
Given the success of Panic’s software in the market, and how much they have supported and contributed to the success of the Mac platform, Sasser would probably agree with Long’s sentiment.
Germany is poised to ban Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE from participating in its 5G networks, dealing another blow to the firms.
The US has already banned Huawei and ZTE, and has been pressuring its allies to do the same. Intelligence agencies have long expressed concerns over the companies’ ties to Beijing and their obligation to assist China’s foreign surveillance efforts.
According to Reuters, Germany is preparing to ban the two companies, prohibiting telecom operators from using their equipment. In addition, Germany may even require operators to remove existing equipment manufactured by Huawei and ZTE, similar to measures taken in the US.
Interestingly, although Huawei would not publicly speculate on Germany’s actions, a spokesperson told Reuters that the company had a “very good security record.”
Of course, that statement ignores the fact that Huawei had the ability to monitor calls on one of the largest Dutch wireless networks, even raising the possibility that it could have monitored the calls of then prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende.
Fitbit is angering users, announcing it will kill off a number of community-focused features toward the end of March.
According to XDA, Challenges and open groups are both being removed, effective March 27. Both features were aimed at bolstering community engagement and were massively popular with users.
Challenges allowed users to compete and compare progress with friends who also had a Fitbit. Open groups were a way to connect with people around the world who had similar interests. Fortunately, closed groups will continue, but open groups’ days are numbered.
According to XDA, Fitbit says the changes are to “enhance the Fitbit app with Google technology” and “develop new features, deliver faster load times, and improve your experience.”
The move is not necessarily surprising, given the fact that Google now owns Fitbit. Unfortunately, Fitbit is swapping out social and community features that work, to integrate technology from a company with one of the worst social and community engagement track records in the industry.
Brave Search has unveiled its latest feature, the AI-powered Summarizer, which is designed to give users quick answers.
Microsoft Bing may be getting much of the news coverage for AI-powered search, but Brave is a popular, privacy-focused search engine that is also integrating AI capabilities. The company’s Summarizer tool is designed to give users “concise and to-the-point answers at the top of Brave Search results pages.”
Best known for its Brave web browser, the company acquired the open search engine Tailcat in early 2021 and used it as the basis for its Brave Search. The company’s search engine is unique in that it is one of the few independent search engines that has its own web index. In contrast, many other independent search engines use Google or Bing and strip out those companies’ trackers.
I personally am a big fan of Brave Search, using it more times than I can count throughout the day. While it’s not perfect, I find Brave to provide more relevant results than either Google or Bing in many categories.
The Summarizer began showing up at the top of Brave searches on March 2. In just the last few days, I’ve come to rely on the feature more and more, especially when looking for quick answers.
For example, searching for “best Linux text editor” produces this answer:
Brave Summarizer – Best Linux Text Editor
Asking “what is WebProNews” results in:
Brave Summarizer – What Is WebProNews
Just for laughs, I even asked, “who is matt milano tech journalist,” and received this:
Brave Summarizer – Who Is Matt Milano
At least Summarizer didn’t confuse me with a certain NFL player…
As the company points out and is evident in the above screenshots, Brave’s Summarizer is designed to provide authoritative answers, even backing them up with sources. The company emphasizes this advantage in its blog:
Unlike a purely generative AI model, which is prone to spout unsubstantiated assertions, we trained our large language models (LLMs) to process multiple sources of information present on the Web. This produces a more concise, accurate answer, expressed in coherent language.
In addition, the provenance of original sources of data is cited at all times via links. This maintains the rightful attribution of information, and helps users assess the trustworthiness of the sources, both of which are needed to mitigate the authority biases of large language models.
It’s clear from Brave’s approach that the company does not believe in relying solely on AI for answers but believes it should be used responsibly, in combination with “critical thinking.”
Using Web results enables the Summarizer to provide real-time information that is up to date with today’s events. Given the current advancements in AI, it’s crucial to remind users that one should not believe everything an AI system produces, in much the same way one should not believe everything that is published on the Web. At the risk of stating the obvious, we should not suspend critical thinking for anything we consume, no matter how impressive the results of AI models can be.
“With 22 million queries per day, Brave Search is the fastest growing search engine since Bing. We provide independent search results from our own index of the Web, and today we’re further improving the relevance of those results with our AI-powered Summarizer,” said Josep M. Pujol, Chief of Search at Brave. “Unlike AI chat tools which can provide fabricated responses, the Summarizer generates a plain-written summary at the top of the search results page, aggregating the latest sources on the Web and providing source attribution for transparency and accountability. This open system is available to all Brave Search users today to help them better navigate search results.”
Overall, I’m impressed with Brave’s implementation and will continue to rely heavily on it. Hopefully, the company will continue to evolve and improve it even more. In the meantime, all users can try it out without joining a waitlist.
Google has informed employees that there will be fewer promotions to senior roles, a reflection of the company’s changing workforce.
Like many in the tech industry, Google has conducted extensive layoffs, letting some 12,000 employees go. The company has also cut back on projects and has implemented various hiring freezes. As a result of these changes, it appears there are fewer senior roles than in past years.
The company informed employees via an email that was seen by CNBC:
“The process is manager-led and will be largely similar to last year — though with our slower pace of hiring, we are planning for fewer promotions into L6 and above than when Google was growing quickly.”
The company added that the adjustment is being made “to ensure that the number of Googlers in more senior and leadership roles grows in proportion to the growth of the company.”
“If your manager believes that you are ready to be promoted, they will nominate you,” the email said. Those who want to “self-nominate” have a “short window of time” from March 6-8.
Nvidia’s latest GeForce driver is the culprit in CPU spikes users have been experiencing after playing 3D games.
Users began experiencing issues after the February 28th update that brought version 531.18 of the driver. In a company forum post, a member of Nvidia’s staff acknowledged the issue in the release notes:
Higher CPU usage from NVIDIA Container might be observed after exiting a game [4007208]
Despite the fairly benign description, the issue appears to be having significantly worse effects in real-life.
One user wrote the following:
It causes the “Nvidia container” process to load on CPU by 20-30% after games, randomly, which leads to stutters in the operating system until you reboot it. (Windows 11 latest, RTX 3090)
The company is promising a fix Tuesday, March 7.
FYI – we'll be posting a hotfix driver tomorrow with a fix
Perhaps laying off a large portion of Twitter’s technical staff wasn’t such a good idea, with the platform experience yet another outage.
Elon Musk has been slashing Twitter’s headcount since taking over the company. Unfortunately, it looks like the cuts may be cutting into the company’s ability to operate.
According to BBC News, the company experienced technical issues for the second time in a week. Users experienced errors when clicking links in tweets. In fact, the problem was bad enough that Bloomberg posted a link to its coverage saying: “if you can click this link, Twitter’s fixed its bug.”
Musk took the opportunity to blame the platform’s ‘brittleness.’
This platform is so brittle (sigh). Will be fixed shortly.
Interestingly, as BBC points out, while Twitter certainly had issues prior to Musk’s takeover, there has been a marked increase since the acquisition.
“It started shortly before the Musk takeover itself,” Alp Toker, director of internet outage tracker NetBlocks, told the outlet. “The main spike has happened after the takeover, with four to five incidents in a month – which was comparable to what used to happen in a year.”
It’s a safe bet that eliminating such a large percentage of the company’s staff may be a factor.
Verizon is the largest US carrier, but it appears to have joined T-Mobile in the ranks of those recently suffering a data breach.
According to the SafetyDetectives cybersecurity team, a database containing 7.5 to 9 million Verizon customer records has been been uploaded to an online forum. The records include data for both cellular and home internet customers.
According to SafetyDetectives, the data does not appear to be particularly sensitive, although it is recent, with the forum post claiming the data was “stolen by hackers” in January 2023.
Our researcher believes that the leaked database contains data stored by Verizon prior to January 2022. SafetyDetectives has reached this conclusion concerning the timeframe due to clues hidden in the filenames contained in the records. However, we cannot be conclusive with these indicators alone.
Overall, the breach does not appear to be cause for much direct concern, although the data could be cross-referenced with other breaches to build a more complete profile of impacted users.
While the information contained in the records does not appear to be highly sensitive or to contain Personal Identifiable Information (PII) – such as full names or physical addresses – some of the data points could be merged with other leaks. For example, if combined with an existing PII leak, an attacker could have a higher chance of success in impersonating a customer.
Microsoft is continuing its rollout of artificial intelligence across its platforms, unveiling Microsoft Dynamic 365 Copilot.
The company touts Dynamic 365 Copilot as “the world’s first copilot in both CRM and ERP that brings next-generation AI to every line of business.” Microsoft has already begun rolling out next-gen AI in its Bing search engine and is now looking to improve the CRM and ERP experience using the new tech.
In particular, Microsoft wants to help CRM/ERP customers to reduce the daily monotony of necessary tasks, such as notetaking, data entry, and content generation. For example, in Dynamics 365 Sales and Viva Sales, AI can help users write email responses and even create email summaries of Teams meetings. Similarly, in Dynamics 365 Customer Service, AI can generate answers based on chats and email and customers will soon be able to build virtual agents in minutes for their unique needs.
In Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 Marketing, AI can help personnel better understand their customer segments, even receiving insights, suggestions, and recommendations they otherwise may have missed.
“The next era of business applications is being transformed by generative AI,” writes Charles Lamanna, CVP, Business Applications and Platform. “Users will increasingly expect their CRM and ERP applications to include AI-powered expertise. Dynamics 365 Copilot brings the latest AI breakthroughs to every line of business, improving customer experience, employee experience and operational efficiency. Essential to our approach as we bring these latest advancements to customers is our commitment to responsible AI by design – our framework for the safe deployment of AI technologies.
“Today’s announcement builds on recent AI momentum across Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and the Power Platform. This includes: the next generation of AI capabilities in Microsoft Teams, the collaboration platform for work with more than 280 million monthly active users; Viva Sales, which helps sellers by bringing a sales copilot to their flow of work in Microsoft 365; and Power Apps, enabling citizen developers to write code using natural language.”
Now consumers can use Outlook for free on macOS, no Microsoft 365 subscription or license necessary.
Whether at home, work or school, Mac users everywhere can easily add Outlook.com, Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo! or IMAP accounts in Outlook and experience the best mail and calendar app on macOS. The Outlook for Mac app complements Outlook for iOS – giving people a consistent, reliable, and powerful experience that brings the best-in-class experience of Outlook into the Apple ecosystem that so many love.
There’s no denying that Outlook is the leading email client, especially in the business world. Mac users have long enjoyed using the app on their platform of choice, but it has always required purchasing a license or a Microsoft 365 subscription.
Perdue teases upcoming new features in a future release:
There is more to do and many more features we are excited to bring to the Outlook Mac experience. We are rebuilding Outlook for Mac from the ground up to be faster, more reliable, and to be an Outlook for everyone.
It’s interesting that Perdue mentions “rebuilding Outlook.” Microsoft revealed at the beginning of 2021 that it was rebuilding Outlook to be a web-based universal version that would work across both Windows and Mac. It’s certainly likely the upcoming rebuild is a reference to the web-based version. If so, it makes sense that the company would be willing to make its legacy version free.
Microsoft Edge users are getting a useful new feature that will allow them to upscale old, low-quality videos
According to Microsoft, one of out of three internet videos played in Edge are 480p or less. There are a number of possible reasons, including a media provider serving a low-quality version of the video or the original being shot in low-resolution. The company wants to change this and is leveraging the power of AI and machine learning to enhance video quality during playback.
We are excited to introduce an experimental video enhancement experience, powered by AI technology from Microsoft research called Video Super Resolution. It is a technology that uses machine learning to enhance the quality of any video watched in a browser. It accomplishes this by removing blocky compression artifacts and upscaling video resolution so you can enjoy crisp and clear videos on YouTube, and other streaming platforms that play video content without sacrificing bandwidth no matter the original video resolution.
Because of the computational requirements, the feature is only available on computers with either an Nvidia RTX 20/30/40 series GPU or an AMD RX5700-RX7800 series.
The video being upscaled should also be played at less than 720p, should not be taller or wider than 192 pixels, and it cannot be protected by DRM.
The experimental feature is available to 50% of users in the Canary channel.
Google is expanding its cloud services, bringing Retail Search to its clients in an effort to help them provide the best experience to their own customers.
One of the biggest issues online shoppers face is finding the products they’re interested in. This can especially be apparent when comparing retail platform search capabilities with the Google Search features customers have become accustomed to.
Google Cloud is now bringing the power of its search to retail clients, with Retail Search, which the company unveiled in a blog.
This fully managed service is easily customizable, enabling organizations to craft shopper-focused search experiences. Our site search solution builds upon decades of Google’s experience and innovation in search indexing, retrieval, and ranking. Retailers can make product discovery even easier for shoppers, while optimizing for their business goals with advanced capabilities
Retail Search gives clients the ability to offer advanced query understanding, meaning customers will have better success finding what they’re looking for even with the broadest of search terms. The service also includes semantic search, which matches product attributes with relevant products.
Customers are already seeing the benefit of Retail Search.
“With limited customer signals and no historical data, descriptive long-tail searches are some of the most challenging queries to understand,” said Neelima Sharma, senior vice president, technology, e-commerce, marketing and merchandising at Lowe’s. “We have been partnering with Google Cloud to give our customers relevant results for long-tail searches and have seen an increase in click-through and search conversion and a drop in our ‘No Results Found’ rate since we launched.”
Google Cloud customers interested in learning more can visit Discovery Solutions for Retail or contact their Google Cloud field sales representative.
In today’s digital age, small businesses need to be able to keep up with the ever-changing environment in order to remain competitive. This is why many of them have turned to new hosting solutions that provide innovative ways for them to streamline their workflows and maximize their productivity. Small business hosting services can be done through a variety of platforms, such as cloud computing and virtual private servers (VPS).
Cloud computing allows businesses to access their data from anywhere and at any time, while VPS allows them to scale up or down depending on their needs. Both of these solutions are cost-effective, secure and reliable – perfect for small businesses that may not have the budget or resources for more traditional hosting solutions. Additionally, these modern solutions offer features like automatic backups, enhanced security measures, and flexible storage options that make it easier than ever before for businesses to manage their information. By leveraging these types of services, small business owners are able to increase efficiency and profitability without sacrificing quality or customer service.
How does small business hosting enable businesses to become more efficient and cost-effective?
Small business hosting services, given by companies specializing in the service, enable businesses to become more efficient and cost-effective by providing them with a reliable, secure and affordable web hosting solution. With small business hosting, businesses can easily manage their websites without having to worry about the technical aspects of running a website. This allows them to focus on other aspects of their business such as marketing and customer service.
Moreover, small business hosting provides businesses with access to advanced features such as email accounts, databases and eCommerce solutions that are not available with traditional web hosting services. Such features enable the businesses to better serve their customers while also reducing costs associated with running a website. Furthermore, small business hosting offers scalability options that enable businesses to quickly adjust their resources according to the changing needs or demands. This helps ensure that businesses remain competitive in the market while also keeping costs as low as possible.
What specific features do small business hosting solutions offer that make them beneficial to businesses?
Some of the small business hosting solutions offer features including scalability, reliability and cost-effectiveness. Scalability allows businesses to easily upgrade their hosting plan as their needs change, without having to switch providers or purchase additional hardware. Reliability ensures that websites are always up and running with minimal downtime. Cost-effectiveness is also an important factor for small businesses as they can often get more bang for their buck with shared hosting plans than with dedicated servers. Moreover, many small business hosting solutions offer specialized features such as eCommerce support, website builders and security tools that help protect against cyber threats.
What types of business process are most commonly hosted by small businesses?
Small businesses typically host a variety of business processes, including customer relationship management (CRM), accounting and finance, human resources, inventory management, marketing automation and eCommerce. CRM is one of the most popular business processes hosted by small businesses as it helps them to better manage their customer relationships.Human resources processes such as payroll and employee onboarding are also commonly hosted by small businesses.
Inventory management is another important process that helps small businesses keep track of their stock levels and ensure they have enough products on hand to meet customer demand. Marketing automation tools can help small businesses automate tasks, such as email campaigns or social media posts, to reach more customers with less effort. Finally, eCommerce solutions allow small businesses to easily set up an online store where customers can purchase products directly from the website.
Samsung is reportedly developing its own custom CPU core in an effort to better compete in the mobile space.
Samsung is one of the world’s leading chipmakers, but its own Exynos chips have lagged far behind Apple’s offerings. According to a report in South Korea’s Pulse News, the company is stepping up its efforts to develop its own CPU core, the central component of the application processor (AP) that powers a mobile device. Samsung even recruited a senior CPU developer from AMD to further its goals.
Samsung’s current Exynos AP has an Arm CPU core, but the company wants to reduce its reliance on the British chip designer. Using its own CPU core will also give it more opportunity to customize and optimize performance, much as Apple has done with its chips.
Pulse News believes the first of these new chips, dubbed the ‘Galaxy Chip,’ could be available as early as 2025. Because Samsung’s CPU core development has just started, the first generation of the Galaxy Chip would likely still have an Arm CPU core. This would be replaced in later generations by Samsung’s own core.
“Samsung Electronics will be able to boost completion level of its Galaxy Chip if it successfully develops a CPU core,” an unnamed industry official told the outlet. “It will be able to load its own CPU in 2027 if development is carried out as planned.”
Interestingly, the 2025 release data coincides with earlier reports that Samsung was assembling a semiconductor design ‘dream team’ to tackle Apple’s dominance. Dubbed “Dream Platform One,” the team’s goal was to surpass Apple’s M1 by 2025.
While Pulse News doesn’t specifically mention Dream Platform One, it’s a safe bet the team is responsible for the upcoming Galaxy Chip.
Walmart is permanently closing its last Portland, OR stores, citing a failure to meet financial expectations.
According to KPTV, Walmart plans to close its remaining two Portland locations in late March.
“The decision to close these stores was made after a careful review of their overall performance. We consider many factors, including current and projected financial performance, location, population, customer needs, and the proximity of other nearby stores when making these difficult decisions. After we decide to move forward, our focus is on our associates and their transition, which is the case here,” a Walmart spokesperson said.
While the company officially blamed “financial performance,” Walmart has been struggling with record-breaking theft. Walmart CEO Doug McMillion warned months ago that the company’s financial performance was being negatively impacted as a result.
It’s unclear if crime was a factor in the company’s decision.
Microsoft plans to bring iMessage support to Windows 11 via Phone Link for iOS, although it will have some limitations.
Apple’s iMessage is a defining characteristic of the iPhone experience, one that has caused no small amount of frustration for users of other platforms. Given the number of features iMessage includes, Apple is aggressively protective of the messaging platform, viewing it as one of its most valuable elements that keep customers locked into its walled garden.
Microsoft plans on bringing one of the best features of iMessage to Windows. Apple customers have long been able to send and receive iMessages from their Macs, and now Windows users will be able to as well.
Once the guided installation completes and your iPhone is paired to your PC and the right permissions given, Phone Link will deliver basic iOS support for calls, messages, and contacts. This means you will be notified directly through your Windows notifications. Phone Link does not support replying to group messages or sending media in messages.
Apple has been under increasing pressure to adopt RCS messaging for iPhone-to-Android communication, a measure that would have no impact on iPhone-to-iPhone communication, but would significantly improve cross-platform messaging.
Unfortunately, Apple has no interest in pursuing such a course, but other companies are working to solve the issue without Apple’s help. Sunbird is working on a messaging app that will bring full iMessage support to Android, and now Microsoft is bringing at least some support to Windows.
Hopefully, Microsoft and others will be able to address this issue sooner rather than later and eliminate a major pain point in the mobile world.
Just days after getting a new CEO, Ring is angering customers by locking core features behind a subscription service.
Ring is one of the most popular home camera systems and is owned by Amazon. The company’s founder stepped aside as CEO last week, paving the way for former Microsoft and Meta exec Elizabeth (Liz) Hamren to take over.
Less than a week later, Ring has made one of its more controversial decisions, according to Android Central:
Starting March 29, 2023, all Ring customers will have to have a subscription in order to use the Home and Away modes in the Ring app. Additionally, new Ring Alarm customers will have to have a subscription in order to set or disable the alarm remotely, see more than 24 hours of event history, or even receive notifications from their Ring Alarm base station.
As Android Central points out, these types of changes paint a dim picture of the future of the smart home. Rather than consumers being able to purchase, own, and truly use their smart home devices, it seems companies are hell-bent on locking them into a quagmire of perpetual subscriptions for even the most basic features.
Norway may soon join the list of EU countries banning Google Analytics following an initial conclusion that it violates the GDPR.
Google Analytics has increasingly come under fire by EU jurisdictions, accused of violating European data protection laws, specifically the GDPR. According to Simple Analytics, the Norwegian data protection authority (Datatilsynet) has issued a preliminary decision that “the use of Google Analytics was in violation of the GDPR’s transfer rules.”
At the heart of the issue is a 2020 EU ruling that US cloud providers are not in compliance with the GDPR. There have long been concerns regarding the transmission of EU user data to US cloud providers, especially given US cloud providers’ obligation to assist US intelligence agencies.
When Austria became one of the first jurisdictions to issue an adverse ruling against Google Analytics, Max Schrems, honorary chair of The European Center for Digital Rights (noyb), predicted it would simply be the first of many such rulings.
“We expect similar decisions to now drop gradually in most EU member states,” Schrems said. “We have filed 101 complaints in almost all Member States and the authorities coordinated the response. A similar decision was also issued by the European Data Protection Supervisor last week.
“This is a very detailed and sound decision,” Schrems continued. “The bottom line is: Companies can’t use US cloud services in Europe anymore. It has now been 1.5 years since the Court of Justice confirmed this a second time, so it is more than time that the law is also enforced.”
As Simple Analytics points out, it is possible — although unlikely — that Norway’s final conclusion will differ from its initial conclusion. If Norway’s final decision is in line with its preliminary one, it will join Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, and Italy, all of whom have ruled against Google.
Linux distro openSUSE has begun enforcing Kernel Lockdown when Secure Boot is enabled, creating issues for many users.
Kernel Lockdown was introduced in version 5.4 of the Linux kernel and is designed to help protect the kernel from tampering and unauthorized modification, and serves as an important security feature. It works together with Secure Boot, which is a system to ensure the bootloader process is running legitimate, trusted code signed by Microsoft-controlled master keys.
While openSUSE has long supported Secure Boot, it did not have Kernel Lockdown enabled for its Tumbleweed distro. Because Tumbleweed is a rolling distro, where updates are pushed out as they become available instead of waiting for a point release, leaving Kernel Lockdown disabled made it easier for users to deal with unsigned kernel modules and drivers, such as Nvidia drivers.
Evidently, according to a Reddit thread that also links to an openSUSE mailing list, Microsoft evidently refused to continue signing openSUSE’s bootload shim unless Kernel Lockdown was enabled. As a result, beginning with kernel 6.2.1, openSUSE Tumbleweed will enable Kernel Lockdown whenever Secure Boot is also enabled.
Microsoft’s reasons for insisting on Kernel Lockdown being enabled are easy to understand. Without it, Secure Boot is essentially useless, giving anyone who had it enabled a false sense of security.
At the same time, users that rely on Nvidia drivers on the fast-moving Tumbleweed now have a choice to make: either disable Secure Boot or manually sign those modules so that the kernel can load them.
Even for users without Nvidia cards, hibernation is another casualty of the change, and no longer works on systems with Secure Boot enabled, although there is ongoing discussion about how to re-enable it with Secure Boot.
Contrary to many opinions, while Microsoft does serve as the central signing authority, Secure Boot is not a Microsoft attempt to control people’s hardware, as evidenced by the fact that users can sign their own modules. openSUSE provides instructions on how to do so in the following link:
LinkedIn is introducing AI-powered collaborative articles to help users tap into “~10 billion years of professional experience.”
LinkedIn is the leading professional networking platform, giving users a place to connect and communicate with peers. Daniel Roth, Editor in Chief, VP at LinkedIn, also wants the site to serve as a destination for professionals looking to share knowledge and learn from their combined experience.
The idea came to Roth when talking with an entrepreneur who was trying to figure out how to restructure his company without angering his employees. When Roth asked him where he planned to get help, his response was: “The internet, I guess?”
Using that moment as inspiration, Roth and his colleges created a way to use AI to jump-start conversations where professionals can share their experience on specific topics:
We are introducing collaborative articles — knowledge topics published by LinkedIn with insights and perspectives added by the LinkedIn community. These articles begin as AI-powered conversation starters, developed with our editorial team. Then, using LinkedIn’s Skills Graph, we match each article with relevant member experts who can contribute their lessons, anecdotes, and advice based on their professional experience.
And, that’s when the real magic happens: when professionals share real-life, specific advice by contributing their perspectives to the work questions we’re all facing every day. Because starting a conversation is harder than joining one, these collaborative articles make it easier for professionals to come together and add and improve ideas — which is how shared knowledge is created.
The collaborative articles provide a way for readers to give feedback, marking helpful contributions as “insightful.” Similarly, contributors earn a Community Top Voice badge in recognition of their insights.
The new feature is a good example of what can be achieved when combining AI with the human element to create unique and helpful experiences.
Amazon is closing a number of its Amazon Go stores permanently, although it says it remains committed to the format.
Amazon Go is the company’s cashier-less grocery stores, using cameras and sensors to determine what items shoppers have chosen and charge them when they leave. The idea is to allow shoppers to “Just Walk Out,” saving the time and headache of waiting in line.
According to GeekWire, Amazon is closing eight of its Go locations permanently, including two in Seattle, right in the company’s backyard. The other six include two in New York City and six in San Francisco.
“Like any physical retailer, we periodically assess our portfolio of stores and make optimization decisions along the way,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to the outlet.
“We remain committed to the Amazon Go format, operate more than 20 Amazon Go stores across the U.S., and will continue to learn which locations and features resonate most with customers as we keep evolving our Amazon Go stores,” the spokesperson added.
It’s hard to imagine markets more perfectly suited to a Go store than San Francisco, Seattle, or New York City. Nonetheless, at least in the case of the Seattle stores, GeekWire indicated crime and open-air drug use near the store were likely major factors in the decision.
In the meantime, Amazon continues to move ahead in the grocery store market, not only with its Go stores, but with plans to “go big” with its over-arching ambitions.
