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Ikea’s smart home hub Dirigera is reportedly getting support for the Matter smart home standard in beta. Matter is an open-sourced IP-based connectivity software layer for smart home devices that enables connected devices to communicate locally in a home without a cloud connection. 


Although the news of Matter’s integration was announced at the time of Dirigera’s launch, its rollout got delayed. Matter is now available for the Dirigera hub via the Ikea Home Smart app, which also already supports Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home.

 

During Matter’s beta testing for Dirigera, Ikea plans to collect feedback from the beta users so it can further improve the overall experience before launching Matter to all customers on Dirigera.

Ikea Launches Matter in Beta for its Dirigera Smart Home Hub



Microsoft is releasing Copilot for OneDrive in April and has recently revealed in a new blog post how the AI integration will work for its file hosting platform. From finding information to summarizing and extracting it from an extensive range of files, Copilot will basically function as your research assistant bot in OneDrive.

 

The files that Copilot can work with include text documents, presentations, spreadsheets, HTML pages, PDFs, and more. In addition to generating summaries, the bot can also customize them as per the user’s command, such as only adding key points or highlights from a select part.

Copilot for OneDrive can Extract and Summarize Data from a Wide Range of Files



Adobe has launched a new prototype of its generative AI tool ‘Project Music GenAI Control.’ It is currently undergoing development with the help of collaborative efforts by the University of California and the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.

 

The tool, like other generative AI audio tools, is designed to produce audio based on text descriptions. But there is more to it too: the ability to edit the output without having to use a separate editing software – allowing the user enhanced control over their creation. This is something that is either lacking or not sufficiently supported in other tools like Google’s MusicLM or Meta’s AudioCraft.

Get to Know Adobe’s new Prototype Generative AI Tool ‘Project Music GenAI Control’



Microsoft has a new AI venture in development – this time in partnership with French AI startup Mistral. It’s a multiyear partnership worth almost $2.1 billion, where Microsoft is reported to be owning a minor stake in the company.

 

As a result of the collaborative efforts between both the companies, Mistral will be offering development and deployment of its open and commercial language models to users of Microsoft’s AI platform Azure.

Microsoft Discloses News of Investing in a French AI Startup Following its Deal with OpenAI



HMD - Nokia’s parent company, is collaborating with Mattel to launch a Barbie-branded flip phone coming July. There is no information about the device’s pricing and features as of yet, but what is certain is that it is going to be the iconic flip phone from the old days, and not a smartphone.

 

This collaboration is part of HMD’s new project that aims to move away from selling its products under the brand name Nokia, and selling them under its own name instead. As part of this new venture, HMD plans to create multiple partnerships with other companies, and Mattel happens to be the first one.

Nokia’s Parent Company is Launching a New Barbie Flip-Phone this Summer



Google is expanding its existing partnership with Reddit to acquire AI training data from the company that will help it adopt better ways to train AI models.

 

More specifically, as a result of the partnership, Google will be able to access Reddit’s data API that will bring its users real-time content from Reddit’s platform. This will facilitate users of Google’s products in participating in Reddit communities and conversations. In turn, Reddit will have access to Google’s AI-powered service ‘Vertex AI,’ which will help the company enhance its search capabilities.

Reddit is Providing Google with AI Training Data as Part of a New $60 Million Deal



WhatsApp has been working on new text formatting options that it has just launched to all its users on Android, iOS, Web, and Mac.

 

Until now, the formatting options that have been available to WhatsApp users are bold, italic, strikethrough, and monospace. In addition to these, the four newly added ones include bulleted and numbered lists, block quotes, and inline code. These are meant to facilitate improved communication among users by enabling them to organize and emphasize specific information.


WhatsApp is Bringing New Formatting Options that Help with Organizing and Highlighting Text in Messages



Samsung has expanded support for its range of audio technologies Auracast, 360 Audio, and Auto Switch. While these technologies have been accessible on Samsung’s devices, the blog post explains the extent to which they will be supported across the lineup. According to Samsung, the updates will begin to be introduced starting with the Galaxy Buds 2 and Buds FE from the end of February, and then to the Buds 2 Pro.

 

Auracast, an industry-wide and fairly new Bluetooth technology, allows a device to broadcast an audio stream to an unlimited number of endpoints like speakers and headphones. Auracast was first launched to Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro earbuds and its latest high-end TVs last year, following the Galaxy S24 series in January.

Samsung Announces an Expanded List of Devices that Support its Different Audio Technologies



A report from Bloomberg states that Apple has advanced the internal testing of new generative AI integrations for its Xcode programming software, and will be making them available to third-party developers this year. 

 

Additionally, Apple is reported to be exploring generative AI in consumer-facing products; such as automatic playlists in Apple Music, slideshows in Keynote, and AI chatbot / search features for Spotlight search.

 

Apple’s revamped AI-powered code completion tool is similar to Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot, according to Bloomberg’s report. It applies a large language model (LLM) to predict and complete code strings, as well as generate code to test apps.

Apple is Reportedly Furthering Development of its AI-powered Code Completion Tool



OpenAI is launching a new text-to-video AI model called ‘Sora,’ that is designed to produce photorealistic videos from text-based descriptions. 

 

Recently, AI video generating models have started to assert their presence in the market. We’ve got companies like Runway and Pika that have developed their own text-to-video models. There is also Google’s Lumiere figures that are one of OpenAI’s leading competitors.

 

According to OpenAI, Sora’s capabilities allow it to judge how objects exist in the physical world, as well as some complex phenomena like emotions. As a result, it can create complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and background.

OpenAI Announces its Latest Generative AI Model that Creates Realistic Videos from Text



Ahead of the 2024 elections across Europe, TikTok has announced the addition of a local language Election Centre in its app that is dedicated to providing people with factual local voting information for all 27 individual EU Member States.



The social media company has taken into consideration the substantial number of people across Europe that visit its platform - more than 134m of them, many of whom are also going to be casting their votes in the upcoming European elections. Owning responsibility as a popular social media platform, TikTok will be working with local electoral commissions and civil society organizations to set up in-app Election Centers where its community can find “trusted and authoritative information.”

TikTok is Playing its Part in Combating Voting Misinformation and Deceptive Acts ahead of Election Day

 


YouTube has a bunch of new announcements: an update to YouTube Studio’s mobile app, expansion of Gift Memberships, and updated Product Tagging.

 

First off, the new YouTube Studio update will allow creators to make direct uploads from their camera roll to the app by tapping on the + icon in the app. Additionally, creators will be able to set their video monetization status during the upload process, hence making  content management more feasible.

 


Next, YouTube is experimenting with a new Community Posts feed in its mobile app for both iOS and Android devices. Community Posts has become a popular engagement feature where creators share text-based updates with their subscribers. Back in May of last year, YouTube made Community Posts available to all channels.

YouTube is Updating its Studio App, and Expanding Gift Memberships and Product Tagging

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