Sir Apfelot newsreel week 16, 2023

Another week is going by and that is of course the right occasion to produce a Sir Apfelot newsreel. Today it's about the Apple and tech news that particularly caught my eye in calendar week 16 of the year 2023. Among other things, these messages are included: "Silent mode" for the Corona warning app, scanning of private chats and cloud storage, louder dialogues on Prime Video, Netflix advertising subscription with full HD resolution, free open source competition for ChatGPT, new design for watchOS, fields of application for the Apple MR headset, and more.

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Temporary end for the Corona warning app

After almost three years, it was published in June 2020 and has since been expanded several times Corona warning app temporarily put on hold. Im updating FAQ of the app offer says: "From June 1, 2023, the Corona-Warn-App will be put into a rest mode. It will be possible up to and including April 30, 2023 to warn other users of an increased risk of infection using the Corona-Warn-App.So if you continue to use the app to get information about risky encounters, you can only do so until the end of the month. What will still be possible afterwards: keep your own contact diary and use vaccination certificates via the app.

Interior Minister wants private emails and cloud storage to be scanned

Chats, e-mails, cloud storage and more should be able to be scanned according to the will of the Federal Ministry of the Interior under Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD). This is intended to implement an EU regulation on combating child abuse. However, this also means that the consenting federal government is breaking the coalition agreement. It says, among other things: "We reject general monitoring obligations, measures to scan private communication and an identification obligation.In addition to individual politicians, the break with this maxim has been criticized by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), among others. You can find all the background information, details on the corresponding draft laws and statements by individual actors in this summary from netzpolitik.org. 

Prime Video ensures louder conversations with "Dialogue Boost".

When streaming individual in-house productions on Amazon's Prime Video, there is now the option of making character dialogue louder, regardless of ambient and background noise and the music played. To do this, the language selection is selected and then one of three dialogue boost options is set under "Audio": Low, Medium or High. I got the notice of this new audio feature for streaming Prime Video content in one this week Articles found by iFun. In addition to people who are hard of hearing, those who watch films and series in the original soundtrack and want to hear the dialogue in the foreign language more clearly are also named as a target group.

Instead of the IKEA Place app: Google displays 10.000+ IKEA products via AR

IKEA Place is a practical iPhone app with which you can place numerous IKEA products virtually in your own home or office using augmented reality (AR). This way you can try out whether the furniture fits in terms of space and style. However, the iOS app does not include all of the cabinets, tables, chairs, beds, pictures, shelves and other IKEA offerings. From now on, that doesn't matter anymore, because the AR function of the Google app has now been expanded to include over 10.000 IKEA offers. The function for iPhones and Android smartphones became known years ago, e.g. B. animals could be placed via AR. Now she also helps with furnishing your own four walls. ( )

Netflix informs: Promotional subscription later this month with 1080p and two devices

In a document intended for shareholders, Netflix not only shows the development of the streaming offer and the figures behind it for the first quarter of 2023. There is also interesting information about the advertising-based subscription, which can be booked for EUR 4,99. It says in detail in the PDF file: "So this month we'll upgrade the feature set of our ads plan to include 1080p versus 720p video quality and two concurrent streams in all 12 ads markets.In April, the streaming quality should be increased from HD to Full HD and simultaneous streaming on two different devices should be possible.

StableLM as a free, open-source alternative to ChatGPT

If you want to create images using artificial intelligence, you can already access a free open source solution with Stable Diffusion and expand it with individual models. Suitable Mac apps are available here: Create AI art locally - Apps for stable diffusion and other deep learning models. As with the creation of images, there is now also a development in text creation towards free alternatives to paid offers such as ChatGPT. The top dog among the text AIs still has the greatest possible uses (GPT-3 has a training set of 175 billion parameters), but it faces competition from StableLM, among others. Due to the up to 7 billion parameters of the alpha version (here at GitHub) already has a good basis. Further improvements could soon result in real ChatGPT competition. ( )

Earth Day: Apple advertises its own production and products

Tomorrow, Saturday, April 22nd, is "Earth Day". This is actually a day when you should think about your own influence on the environment, climate and Co. - or maybe about measures that you can take to guide certain (economic, political and social) processes in the right direction. But of course it's difficult when companies also want to use this day and the week before to show that they are "green" on the road. Emission reduction here, recycling there. And Apple also agrees with one press release in which the climate targets of the iPhone manufacturer are repeated and of course their own great products are praised. So then it's better to consume instead of doing without for the planet.

watchOS 10 should get a completely new home screen

Speaking of new products from Apple: For these, June will start the WWDC23 new operating systems introduced. A major user interface update is expected for watchOS 10 on the Apple Watch. In the future, the home screen should show an app overview in a grid layout. Similar to iOS on the iPhone, apps should be arranged in columns and rows and collected in folders. MacRumors reports that in one go Post and refers to one Tweet by the anonymous leak account @analyst941. In both sources you can find an image of what the new layout of the Apple Watch home screen could look like.

Commentary on Apple's fight against sideloading on the iPhone

I have an interesting one at 9to5Mac this week Comment read about Apple's efforts against sideloading on the iPhone. The headline already says that these were pointless at best, harmful at worst. Because of political regulations, Apple will be forced to open iOS, iPadOS and Co. to alternative app stores and app downloads from the web. It is argued that clandestinely introducing sideloading would have been better than constantly repeating the possible dangers of opening. But I think that at least a certain sensitization was achieved. The danger may not be as great as Apple always claims, but there could still be an increased risk of malware.

Why the Apple MR Headset? Sports, Games, iPad Apps and Fitness Says Bloomberg!

Apple is venturing into a whole new market with its mixed reality headset for VR and AR, but at the same time wants to expand it so much that it can compete with that of the iPhone. However, Apple must first explain to potential buyers why they should want to buy the headset. Mark Gurman thinks in one Articles of the business magazine Bloomberg that Apple will focus on sports, games and fitness. But cooperation with other users should also be an element of possible use. The xrOS operating system should be provided with iPad apps so that all possible tools are available right from the start.

Johannes Domke

After graduating from high school, Johannes completed an apprenticeship as a business assistant specializing in foreign languages. But then he decided to research and write, which resulted in his independence. For several years he has been working for Sir Apfelot, among others. His articles include product introductions, news, manuals, video games, consoles, and more. He follows Apple keynotes live via stream.