Punjab Times

Technology

Perplexity wants to buy Chrome if Google has to sell it

Perplexity Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko said he didn’t want to testify in a trial about how to resolve Google’s search monopoly because he feared retribution from Google. But after being subpoenaed to appear in court, he seized the moment to pitch a business opportunity for his AI company: buying Chrome.

If Judge Amit Mehta sees things the way the Justice Department does, he could force Google to spin out its popular web browser – including the free open source Chromium browser that many other web browsers are built on. Google says this remedy is playing with fire, and could result in a new Chromium owner charging for the product or failing to keep it running in an adequate way, causing ripple effects across the browser industry.

But Perplexity would be happy to take on the project, Shevelenko testified. When an attorney asked if Perplexity believes anyone besides Google could run a browser at the scale of Chrome without diminishing its quality or charging for it, Shevelenko responded, “I think we could do it.”

It’s not the first time the AI upstart has put its name in the ring to take over a major technology platform under siege …read more

Science

Scientists trick the eye into seeing new color ‘olo’

Scientists have created a new platform called ‘Oz’ that uses laser light to control up to 1,000 photoreceptors in the eye at once. Using Oz, the researchers showed people images, videos and a new, ultra-saturated shade of green that they have named ‘olo.’ The platform could be used to probe the nature of color vision and provide new insight into human sight and vision loss. …read more

Science

Engineering a robot that can jump 10 feet high — without legs

Inspired by the movements of a tiny parasitic worm, engineers have created a 5-inch soft robot that can jump as high as a basketball hoop. Their device, a silicone rod with a carbon-fiber spine, can leap 10 feet high even though it doesn’t have legs. The researchers made it after watching high-speed video of nematodes pinching themselves into odd shapes to fling themselves forward and backward. …read more

Science

Researchers identify pathway responsible for calciphylaxis, a rare and serious condition

The global burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is rising, with more than 800 million people affected worldwide. Vascular diseases in patients with CKD are unique and grouped as uremic vascular diseases. One of them, calciphylaxis, typically affects patients with end-stage, advanced kidney disease. It is a condition characterized by severe, painful and non-healing skin ulcers with no known cure. Researchers have now discovered a novel biological pathway, called the IL6 pathway, central to the skin lesion initiation and progression. Blocking this pathway they believe, will likely prevent progression of the skin ulcers and resolve the pain seen in patients with calciphylaxis. …read more

Technology

LG smart TVs are getting Xbox Game Pass this week

Microsoft promised in a strange ad campaign last year that it would bring Xbox Game Pass to more than just its own gaming brand’s hardware thanks to Xbox Cloud Gaming. One of the previously announced platforms that it said would gain the ability to run Xbox Game Pass was smart TVs from LG. Today, LG announced that the Xbox app will begin rolling out to a collection of its smart TVs in 25 countries this week.

The Xbox app is compatible with select LG screens and monitors. According to the press release, the available models include “2022 OLED TVs, 2023 OLED, QNED, NanoCell and UHD TVs…which have been updated to software version 23.20.01 or higher.” It will also be made available at a later date on LG’s StanbyME screens. Once downloaded, the app allows members of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription to stream select titles they already own or to access titles from the Game Pass library.

LG is the latest electronics manufacturer to offer the Xbox experience without the need to physically own an Xbox. Samsung has already done the same, and Amazon’s Fire TV also <a class="colorbox" data-i13n="elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:5;pos:1" …read more

Technology

Meta is bringing smart glasses live translation and AI to more people

Meta AI, the most interesting thing you can do with Ray-Ban Meta glasses, will soon be available to more people. The company’s Live Translation feature is rolling out to all the product’s markets, and Live AI (where you can hold a free-flowing conversation about what you’re looking at) will soon be available in the US and Canada. In addition, glasses owners in the EU can finally use Meta AI with their high-tech specs.

Live translation, previously available in early access, is now rolling out in every region where Ray-Ban Meta glasses are available. Handy for trips abroad or chats with locals who speak a different language, the AI-powered feature speaks a translation in your preferred language in real time. You can also view a translated transcript on your phone.

Live translation is available in English, French, Italian and Spanish. And if you download your preferred language pack in advance, you can use it without a Wi-Fi connection or even mobile data from your paired phone. You can launch the feature by saying, “Hey Meta, start live translation.”

Meta

US and Canadian users can now use Meta’s Live AI feature, which lets you ask questions …read more

Technology

Discord’s CEO and co-founder is stepping down

Discord CEO and co-founder Jason Citron has announced that he’s stepping down from his leadership role at the chat app and being replaced by Humam Sakhnini, a former executive from Activision Blizzard. Citron will remain on Discord’s board of directors, and fellow co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy will continue acting as the company’s chief technology officer.

“From the very beginning, our mission has been about bringing people together around games,” Citron said in a statement. “It’s a mission I’ve dedicated my career to, and I’m confident that passing the torch to Humam is the right evolution for Discord’s future.” While initially pitched as a way to talk to friend’s before, during and after playing games, Discord has morphed into a much larger and more general social platform, serving “more than 200 million monthly active users worldwide,” the company says.

There’s an important financial context to Citron’s move. The New York Times reported in March that Discord was meeting with investors to take the company public. Sakhnini has experience acting as a leader of a public company. He was also the President of King Digital — the creator of Candy Crush and other popular mobile games …read more

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