Connect with us

World News

What to Expect From Apple at WWDC 2024

Published

on



Apple’s WWDC 2024 is nearly here. In just a matter of days, we’ll get our first look at major new software announcements from Cupertino, including iOS 18, macOS 15, and all the AI features in between. This is going to be a big year for Apple, and Apple users alike.

When is WWDC 2024?

WWDC 2024 (or WWDC24, as Apple is stylizing it) is scheduled for June 10 to June 14. It’s at this event where Apple will reveal all of its upcoming software updates, including iOS 18, macOS 15, watchOS 11, and new update for tvOS and visionOS.

“Wait,” you may be asking yourself, “WWDC is five days long? Isn’t it just a two-hour presentation?” Au contraire! WWDC is actually a week-long conference for Apple developers and students where they can meet up and learn from one another. What most of us think of as WWDC—the presentation of new software—is really just the kickoff; that presentation will take place on Monday, June 10.

What will Apple announce at WWDC 2024?

Without a doubt, WWDC 2024’s biggest focus will be on AI. Apple reportedly has a lot in store concerning artificial intelligence, and I’ve been following the rumors and leaks for months.

AI is coming to many apps and features within the iOS, iPadOS, and macOS ecosystems: Siri is reportedly going to get a huge AI boost, with the ability to interact with individual features within apps. (“Siri, delete this email,” or “Siri, summarize this article.”) Safari may get an AI summarizer for searches and articles. Multiple apps will use the tech to power reply suggestions, if you want to let AI decide how best to respond to a message. You’ll be able to turn what you’re typing into an emoji through AI-generated images. The Notes app will have an audio recorder which can use AI to generate transcriptions of your recordings, as will the Voice Memos app. Photos reportedly is getting AI photo editing tools, which may borrow inspiration from the Pixel’s Magic Eraser to remove subjects from photos.

Apple may also outsource some of its AI processing to the cloud through OpenAI. Not only does this mean Apple may rely on OpenAI to power a ChatGPT-like chatbot on iOS, but the company will also be processing user data through the cloud, a move that may put the privacy-focused company in a bind. That said, Apple has a plan for running AI features through the cloud more securely, through the Secure Enclaves in Mac server farms.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is calling its AI “Apple Intelligence” (A.I., get it?), and will be positioning the above as opt-in features in beta. In addition, you’ll probably need an iPhone 15 Pro or newer (following Apple’s fall hardware release), or a Mac or iPad with an M1 chip or newer to run these features.

But not all of the announcements will be about AI. Gurman reported on some additional non-AI plans Apple has in the works: On iOS 18, you may be able to place app icons anywhere you want to on the display, as well as customize the app icons directly through Settings. Control Center may get some new widgets for music, Home control, as well as Shortcuts for the first time. Messages is getting more than a few new features, including the ability to trigger message effects with single words, new colorful icons for Tapback (as well as the option to use an emoji instead), as well as the option to schedule a message. Of course, we’re also waiting on Apple to formally announce a timeline for RCS support for iPhone, a change that will make it much easier to chat with Android users on iOS. It will likely come with a version of iOS 18, but we don’t know which one yet.

Apple will also be launching a new Passwords app for all its devices: This should improve the functionality of its current iCloud Keychain option, while offering users a first-party alternate to password managers across the Apple ecosystem. The iPad is also rumored to be getting a calculator app for the first time (not to be confused by other built-in calculator options). The Health app will improve its blood pressure data management and offer hearing tests for AirPods, while the entire ecosystem will receive new wallpaper packs. Gurman thinks these wallpapers will play on nostalgia, resembling old icons and slogans on Mac, and old iPhone wallpapers on iOS.

We don’t know a ton about watchOS 11, but Gurman says there will be a new Siri interface that changes formats depending on what you’re asking. Plus, there will be big changes to various watchOS apps. Apple will also likely put a focus on Vision Pro, its big foray into mixed reality. While the tech world hyped up the Vision Pro upon its launch, news about the headset has died down considerably. Gurman says visionOS 2 features modest changes, like new environments, the Passwords app, and some ported versions of iPad apps—not too much to entice people to buy a $3,500+ headset.

How to watch WWDC 2024

As usual, you’ll be able to watch Monday’s livestream from Apple’s website, as well as the company’s YouTube channel. The event starts at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m ET).





Source link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

World News

Holly Jackson: ‘Obviously, I love murder

Published

on


Holly Jackson Holly Jackson against a grey backgroundHolly Jackson

Holly’s debut novel A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder has been turned into a series for the BBC

Bestselling author Holly Jackson shares her secrets for plotting a modern murder mystery – and explains how true crime has influenced her.

For the author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, the process of writing a whodunnit is as meticulous as investigating a crime.

“I am obsessive about it,” she says. “I don’t quite have a ‘murder board’ because it’s not on the wall, but it is on the floor.”

Each scene in one of Holly’s books corresponds to an index card, which is then carefully placed into columns for each act in the story. The author admits this “does rather take over the room”.

While this is great for planning a storyline, Holly says opening her office door a “bit too ferociously” can literally blow her plot out of place.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder follows plucky heroine Pip Fitz-Amobi as she investigates a closed murder case. Pip soon finds a co-detective in Ravi Singh, whose brother was implicated in the crime.

Each clue, twist and turn in the story has been thoroughly discussed by Holly’s fans on TikTok; the hashtag for A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder – #agggtm – has more than 58,000 posts.

And the story has now been turned into a BBC drama by lead writer Poppy Cogan, with Holly serving as executive producer.

The Guardian called the series a “very modern Nancy Drew,” with fans on TikTok praising the show, stitching their reactions with clips from the new series.

The BBC spoke to Holly about the process of writing her hit novel. “Obviously, I love murder,” she says, “fictional murder.”

‘I need true crime in my ears’

Holly, 31, from Buckinghamshire, published her debut in 2019. She won a British Book Award the following year and has sold millions of copies around the world.

While her fiction fits into the young adult category, Holly does not shy away from heavier topics, like crime. Her first novel, for example, follows the disappearance and apparent murder of a school girl.

And Holly says true crime content – like the podcast Serial – became a “very useful” tool when writing A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. The structure of the book feels like a podcast, Holly says, adding: “We have transcripts of dialogue the whole time.”

In the sequel to Holly’s first book – called Good Girl, Bad Blood – Pip even creates a true crime podcast herself.

And Holly says this research tool soon seeped into her real-life. “I can’t really do anything without a true crime podcast,” she says. “If I’m walking the dog or washing the dishes, I need true crime in my ears.”

Allow TikTok content?

This article contains content provided by TikTok. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read  and  before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

In the last ten years, true crime series have won international acclaim: Serial won a Peabody Award in 2015 and In The Dark – a long-form investigative journalism series – became the first podcast to win a George Polk Award in 2019. And, according to The New York Times, Serial has had more 705m downloads.

Even Holly is curious why crime is such a popular source of entertainment.

“Especially with young women,” she wonders, “is that like, an instinct in us that’s trying to protect ourselves?”

Georgia Hardstark is the co-host of My Favorite Murder, a US podcast that looks into historic and modern cases, with one episode covering the Dancing Plague of 1518 and the Paper Bag Killer.

For Georgia, part of the reason she is so interested in true crime is that it helps her feel less “paranoid” and validates her anxieties about life, she explains.

“That is at the forefront of my mind, constantly, you know, ‘What’s around the next corner? Are my doors locked?'”

‘I know who the murderer is’

For Holly, the line between fact and fiction is clearly drawn: unlike true crime cases, she always knows “the ending before I even write the first sentence”.

“I knew from the get-go who the murderer was going to be, this whole setup,” she says. “The slightly more complicated thing is not working out the mystery – it’s working out how Pip is going to solve the mystery.”

In A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, for example, Pip uses her Extended Project Qualification – an accreditation where a student independently researches a given topic – to interview suspects and keep track of clues for the case.

BBC/Moonage/Sally Mais From left to right Emma Myers, Holly Jackson and Zain Iqbal gathered for a script read through of the TV seriesBBC/Moonage/Sally Mais

The story centres on Pip Fitz-Amobi (played by Emma Myers, left) who investigates a closed murder case with the help of Ravi Singh (Zain Iqbal, right)

While Holly uses true crime as a “jumping off” point for research, she notes the content, often used as a source of entertainment, is “obviously, about real life people’s trauma”.

Jessica Jarlvi – a “Scandi-noir” writer and lecturer on the University of Cambridge’s Crime and Thriller Writing course – says things like true crime podcasts risk sensationalising these events.

“It just puts me off,” she says, “whereas in fiction, you don’t have to worry about that.”

In Georgia’s view, however, ignoring real-life crime – often with women victims – “is to sweep it under the rug”.

‘I don’t have passive readers’

Modern crime readers are “becoming more and more demanding”, Jessica adds.

Holly agrees: “I don’t have those passive readers, I have the really active ones who are looking to solve the mystery.”

On TikTok, fans of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder share videos with their predictions and suspect lists as they read along with the book.

In one video, a reader guides people on how to annotate the book to keep track, colour co-ordinating sections into “clues” and “conflicts”.

“It makes me have to up my game a bit more,” Holly says.

Wondering how to watch A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder? You can stream the series on BBC iPlayer.



Source link

Continue Reading

World News

For sale: A piece of California’s country music history

Published

on



The famed Buck Owens Crystal Palace, where music legends including Willie Nelson, Dwight Yoakam, Garth Brooks and a young Taylor Swift have played, is up for sale, with the foundation that runs the Bakersfield venue planning to list it for $7 million on Monday.

The nightclub, museum and steakhouse was owned by its namesake Buck Owens, the country music trailblazer who bucked the slick commercial melodies of Nashville for a distinctly West Coast twang. Owens opened the Crystal Palace in 1996, watching it become a premier venue for the biggest names in country music, including himself. Buck and the Buckaroos played there every Friday and Saturday night until his death in 2006.

Jim Shaw, a member of the Buckaroos and a director of the Buck Owens Private Foundation, said that after 28 years of running the famed venue, the Owens family plans to step back and find new owners amid a challenging business climate. The foundation said in a statement that “since Buck’s passing in 2006, we’ve tried to maintain the excellence that he expected, even as it became more and more difficult during these challenging times of increasing food and labor costs.”

The venue is not closing and scheduled events will continue as planned, Shaw said.

“It’s business as usual for now,” Shaw said. “Ideally, someone who wants to keep it exactly as it is will come forward.”

Owens’ youngest son, Johnny Owens, wrote on Facebook that the family’s hope “is that a buyer steps forward with a vision for the future and a reverence” for his father and the Bakersfield Sound.

The Crystal Palace, located on Buck Owens Boulevard, is a major tourism staple for Bakersfield. The 18,000-square-foot venue is next to the city’s downtown entrance.

“It’s the No. 1 tourist attraction in Bakersfield,” Shaw said. “There are people stepping forward and we are waiting to see what happens. I am getting a lot of phone calls. I’m anxious to see what happens.”



Source link

Continue Reading

World News

2nd local radio host says they were given questions ahead of Biden interview

Published

on


A second local radio host on Saturday told ABC News that he was provided a list of questions in advance of his interview with President Joe Biden this week.

“Yes, I was given some questions for Biden,” Earl Ingram of CivicMedia told ABC News. Ingram, a prominent host of a Wisconsin radio station, interviewed Biden this week in the wake of his debate performance.

Ingram said he was given five questions and ended up asking four of them.

“I didn’t get a chance to ask him all the things I wanted to ask,” he said.

Ingram is the second interviewer who now says they were provided questions by Biden aides to ask the president this week. Earlier today, another local radio host who interviewed Biden this week told CNN she was given questions to ask Biden before the interview.

PHOTO: President Joe Biden speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at Sherman Middle School, on July 5, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin.  (Scott Olson/Getty Images)PHOTO: President Joe Biden speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at Sherman Middle School, on July 5, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin.  (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

PHOTO: President Joe Biden speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at Sherman Middle School, on July 5, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“We do not condition interviews on acceptance of these questions, and hosts are always free to ask the questions they think will best inform their listeners,” the Biden campaign told ABC News on Saturday.

Ingram told ABC he didn’t see anything necessarily wrong with the practice. “To think that I was gonna get an opportunity to ask any question to the President of the United States, I think, is a bit more than anybody should expect,” he said.

He continued that he was grateful for the opportunity to interview Biden at all.

“Certainly the fact that they gave me this opportunity … meant a lot to me,” Ingram said.

MORE: Wealthy Democratic donors sound alarm over Biden staying in race

On CNN earlier today, Andrea Lawful-Sanders, the host of WURD’s “The Source,” said Biden officials provided her with a list of eight questions ahead of their interview with Biden.

“The questions were sent to me for approval; I approved of them,” she said.

“I got several questions — eight of them,” she continued. “And the four that were chosen were the ones that I approved.”

Responding to Lawful-Sanders, Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said in a statement that it’s not “uncommon” for interviewees to share topics they would prefer. She noted that Lawful-Sanders was “free” to ask any questions she saw fit. She also noted that it was the campaign who sent over the questions and not the White House as other reports claim.

Lawful-Sanders did note in her interview with CNN that she ultimately “approved” the questions provided.

“It’s not at all an uncommon practice for interviewees to share topics they would prefer. These questions were relevant to news of the day – the president was asked about this debate performance as well as what he’d delivered for black Americans,” the statement said.

“We do not condition interviews on acceptance of these questions, and hosts are always free to ask the questions they think will best inform their listeners. In addition to these interviews, the President also participated in a press gaggle yesterday as well as an interview with ABC. Americans have had several opportunities to see him unscripted since the debate.”

A source familiar with the Biden booking operation told ABC News that moving forward they will “refrain” from offering suggested questions to interviewers.

“While interview hosts have always been free to ask whatever questions they please, moving forward we will refrain from offering suggested questions.”

2nd local radio host says they were given questions ahead of Biden interview originally appeared on abcnews.go.com



Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending

Copyright © 2024 World Daily Info. Powered by Columba Ventures Co. Ltd.