Twitter has a female CEO. Load of news from Google I/O #WEEK ~ May 15th

Qualcomm sent users’ private data, including IP addresses, to a company-owned cloud without their consent. This follows from a finding published on April 27, and it should concern any devices equipped with Qualcomm chips. He claims that data was obtained in accordance with the terms of use and in accordance with the law. In addition, he mocks the researchers and accuses them of “trying to sell their product”. (CyberNews)

A cashless future? A “reverse ATM” takes money and issues a prepaid card, with limited use at the location, but also Visa/Mastercard. (Axios)

The investment firm used the money of its clients to finance the media activities of Petar Hájek, the spreader of pro-Russian propaganda. In addition, the IPC itself admits through the mouth of its representatives that the investments in the projects around Hájek have not been returned, and they have not been evaluated at all. (List of Messages)

Elon Musk announced on Thursday that he has a new director for X/Twitter. He starts in six weeks. Musk’s role will change to executive chairman and CTO, overseeing products, software and administrators. So still the same problem with the erratic and unstable chaos in leadership. (Elon Musk)

• Linda Yaccarino confirmed as CEO of Twitter by Elon Musk on Friday (Elon Musk)

#WEEK to listen

🎙️ It worked! New #week to listen recorded and released: The future with ten or more streaming movies and series. Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, SkyShowtime, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime TV. HBO, Discovery+ and others to come. Including efforts for Czech. We are drowning in monthly payments for … nothing.

AI News from Google I/O

Google Photos they will get later Magic Editor powered by generative AI. It will also be able to transform photos, not only create (TechCrunch)

Google Maps will allow you to explore the route in 3D (The Verge)

New version LLM from Google is called PaLM 2 and is the basis of more than 25 products, including Google Bard. Including variants like Sec-PaLM (security), Med-PaLM (medicine). (TechCrunch, Mashable)

Bard heading to Gmail and Google Docs. It can analyze the content of photos and provide captions. It will also be able to provide content from Google Maps. It can speak Japanese and Korean and is close to supporting 40 languages. Bard should remove the waiting list and be accessible in other countries as well (TechCrunch)

List of countries where Bard is available (here), it is unknown why it does not include the Czech Republic or Slovakia. This includes more than 180 countries.

Google Bard Announces Expansion, Skips Europe (Cybernews)

Likewise, Bard heads to Google Workspace (TechCruch)

There are also other goodies in the Cloud – Imagen (images/photos), Codey (application creation), Chirp (universal voice model, 100+ languages). (Tech Crunch)

Bard/AI is becoming part of search as a “generative experience” and there are a number of other changes. Unfortunately that still not availablewaitlist-only beta, in English and only in the US (Search Engine Land, Engadget, Engadget)

It’s also good to mention that AI is heading straight to Chrome. Via WebGPU, but this has been possible in betas for a while (Analytics Insights).

Project Tailwind announced – a prototype AI notebook that learns from your documents. So “your LLM” learns from your texts/data. (The Verge)

AI in Android will make it possible to answer text messages, but also to design your own wallpaper (from June and only on Pixels). (The Verge, TechCrunch)

Google launches a special page Labs, where users can sign up to test early ideas for Google features and products, including Search and Workspace AI tools. Go to labs.withgoogle.com

Google is launching MusicLM, an experimental AI tool that can turn text prompts into multiple versions of songs, in its AI Test Kitchen app on the web, Android, and iOS. (TechCrunch)

Internet, web design

Nielsen: YouTube accounts for more TV viewers than any network or broadcast. Nearly 45% of U.S. YouTube viewers watch on TV, and ad revenue could reach more than $7 billion. (The Information)

The Amazon Prime Video team is throwing AWS Serverless under the bus. Saves 90% by ditching Lambda and microservices. Sounds good, right? And it’s part of the current push back towards “monoliths”. But maybe read more about it So many bad decisions – What can we learn from the Prime Video microservices to monolith story? (The Stack, Amazon)

At the same time, it was clear from the beginning: Google promised to create a better and faster website for media using a standard called AMP. Ultimately, it destroyed publishers’ trust in the Internet giant. But it also shows how willing publishers are to fall for this kind of nonsense. The other was Facebook and its Instant Articles. Next again, Facebook and the willingness of publishers to become addicted and then hit their heads against the wall. And we can continue. (TheVerge)

Amazon is offering US customers $10 to pick up their purchase instead of having it shipped to their home address. The e-commerce giant is joining other retailers in the race to reduce delivery and return costs. Can we expect something like this in the Czech Republic? And when? (Reuters)

With over 1 million published apps, Google’s Flutter expands support for web apps and WebAssembly (Tech Crunch)

Google introduced a competitor to Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot, an AI chat tool for asking questions about coding, Cloud Services, and likewise for the non-coding AppSheet platform (TechCrunch)

Hardware

OURphone is a Linux-based, fully open source smartphone. Raspbian and a 4G LTE module allowed Evan Robinson to create a phone with a touch screen and useful tools. (Hackster.io)

Worldwide tablet shipments fell 18% year-over-year to 31.7 million in Q1 2023, the lowest shipment volume since Q1 2020. Apple shipped 12.35 million units, down 17% year-over-year, and its share of 38.9% (Canalys).

The sixth Maker Faire Prague will start in a month. The largest meeting of makers in Central Europe will take over the Křižík pavilions at the Prague Exhibition Center on the weekend of June 10 to 11. Makers (or creators of all kinds) can apply until May 15. (Press Release)

Nikon announces a new mirrorless camera series – the Z 8 (Press Release)

Google’s $499 Pixel 7a has a 64-megapixel camera and wireless charging. And the new Pixel Tablet was announced, also for $499. (Engadget, Engadget)

But the most interesting is the Pixel Fold for $1,800. A small tablet can be folded to become a phone, a direct competitor of the Galaxy Z Fold 4. (The Verge)