September 21, 2023

IN THIS ISSUE

👓 Amazon's new gear includes smart specs update, Hub, and AI

🤖 ChatGPT can now create 'shockingly detailed' images

📍 Google Maps led man to drive off broken bridge, lawsuit claims

📱 'I'm going to do something crazy with my iPhone 15 Pro Max'

UP FIRST

Amazon just released a slew of new devices

Following Apple's big iPhone launch last week, this time it was Amazon's turn to take the wraps off new gear

Amazon’s event on Wednesday introduced the third generation of its Echo Frames (pictured), its Alexa-enabled smart glasses.

For the smart home, we got the new Echo Hub, a touchscreen display designed to control all of your smart devices, from security cameras and air purifiers to thermostats and lights.

The Echo Show 8 has also arrived, with the smart display now offering improved video calls thanks to a newly centered camera and reduced background noise.

New Fire TV sticks are incoming, too, together with Amazon's first Fire TV soundbar.

Kids were catered to, as well, with a new Echo Pop Kids speaker based on the original Echo Pop, and the Fire HD 10 Kids tablet.

It was no surprise that generative AI got a look-in, too, with a new AI-powered chat feature for Alexa that takes interactions to a more advanced level ...

GENERATIVE AI

ChatGPT can now create 'shockingly detailed' images using DALL-E

OpenAI said that its updated DALL-E image creator now understands 'significantly more nuance and detail'

OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot made its name for its impressive ability to converse in a remarkably natural, human-like way. And now it can generate images, too.

Microsoft-backed OpenAI on Wednesday released a new version of its DALL-E image generator that it’s incorporated into ChatGPT, and according to the New York Times, the images that DALL-E 3 produces are “shockingly detailed.”

Elaborating, OpenAI researcher Aditya Ramesh said: “It is far better at understanding and representing what the user is asking for.”

The image generator can be used by those subscribed to OpenAI’s premium ChatGPT tiers: ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Enterprise. Users simply type in a request for an image and if necessary tweak it through exchanges with the chatbot.

Other generative AI tools can also produce images, but the prominence of ChatGPT means that many more people could be about to experience such a feature for the first time ...

GOOGLE

Google Maps directed man to drive off collapsed bridge, lawsuit claims

The suit alleges that Google had been told about the bridge years earlier

Google has been accused of negligence for giving a man erroneous directions that prompted him to drive his truck across a broken bridge. Philip Paxson drowned after his vehicle fell into the river in North Carolina in 2022.

A lawsuit filed this week by Paxson’s family claims the crash happened because Google failed to update its Maps app with information about the bridge, which apparently collapsed nine years earlier, the BBC reported.

"Unfamiliar with local roads, he relied on Google Maps, expecting it would safely direct him home to his wife and daughters," lawyers for the family said in a statement.

"Tragically, as he drove cautiously in the darkness and rain, he unsuspectingly followed Google's outdated directions to what his family later learned for nearly a decade was called the 'Bridge to Nowhere,' crashing into Snow Creek, where he drowned."

A spokesperson for Google said the company is reviewing the allegations ...

PERSONAL TAKE by Andy Boxall

I'm going to do something crazy with my iPhone 15 Pro Max

The new Pro models should be felt in the hand rather than shoved in a case – but at your own risk!

I’m going to make a controversial suggestion: Don’t put your iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max in a case – use it naked instead.

I know it’ll go against everything we’ve learned about smartphones (usually the hard way) and how to protect them, but there are some really fascinating changes to Apple’s top smartphones this year, and not feeling them with your own hands would be a crime.

The iPhone 15 Pro models have a titanium band, whereas the iPhone 14 Pro and earlier models have all used stainless steel. It’s a significant alteration that has multiple benefits, the most obvious will be a reduction in weight.

The iPhone 15 Pro weighs 187 grams, almost 20 grams less than the iPhone 14 Pro. You really notice when a phone weighs less than 200 grams, as it can reasonably be described as light ...

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