Good morning! This is your daily ☕️ Techpresso.
In today's Techpresso:
🔮 Microsoft gives Copilot a voice and vision
💻 Chromebooks are getting a dedicated AI key
👓 Microsoft is discontinuing its HoloLens headsets
🫠 Y Combinator faces backlash after funding an AI startup that admits it basically cloned another AI startup
🚀 SpaceX Falcon 9 grounded after new anomaly
🎁 + 6 other news you might like
🔮 + 5 handpicked research papers and tools
🔮 Microsoft gives Copilot a voice and visionLINK
Microsoft has unveiled a major overhaul to its Copilot experience, adding both voice and vision capabilities, transforming it into a more personalized AI assistant similar to OpenAI's Advanced Voice Mode.
The redesign features a new card-based user interface inspired by Inflection AI’s Pi assistant, and Copilot now offers a virtual news presenter mode, tailored homepage and improved customization based on user interaction history.
Initial releases of Copilot Voice and Copilot Daily will be available in select regions, while Copilot Vision features are in a limited preview phase, focusing on enhancing user safety and privacy through restricted website interactions.
💻 Chromebooks are getting a dedicated AI keyLINK
Chromebooks are getting a new keyboard layout with a "quick access" key for AI and other functions, providing easy access to features like text generation, emojis, and searching Google Drive.
The first Chromebooks to feature this new key are the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, which will replace the Launcher Key with the new Quick Insert key.
Although the new AI features will initially lack AI image generation, Google plans to add this and other AI capabilities, including real-time translation and transcription, to Chromebooks in October.
👓 Microsoft is discontinuing its HoloLens headsetsLINK
Microsoft has ceased production of its HoloLens 2 headsets and has no confirmed plans for a successor, although updates addressing security and software issues are promised until the end of 2027.
Former HoloLens head, Alex Kipman, left the company in 2022 amid misconduct allegations, and the hardware team faced significant layoffs in January 2023, impacting the development of the augmented reality devices.
Microsoft has partnered with Anduril Industries to enhance its IVAS mixed-reality headsets for the US Army, which plans to invest up to $21.9 billion over the next decade in this project.
🫠 Y Combinator faces backlash after funding an AI startup that admits it basically cloned another AI startupLINK
Y Combinator is facing criticism after backing an AI startup, PearAI, which admitted to cloning another AI coding editor called Continue and initially using a misleading license.
PearAI's founder Duke Pan publicly apologized, revealing that the project has switched to the same open-source Apache license as the original Continue project after the controversy erupted.
The incident has raised questions about Y Combinator's vetting process and has led to broader scrutiny of venture capitalists' eagerness to fund AI startups without thorough oversight.
🚀 SpaceX Falcon 9 grounded after new anomalyLINK
SpaceX’s rescue mission to retrieve two astronauts from the ISS faced a setback when Falcon 9’s second stage malfunctioned and landed outside the intended area.
The Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn, which is currently under investigation, leading to the postponement of all other launches.
Due to the malfunction, Williams and Wilmore's return to Earth has been delayed, despite the Crew Dragon successfully reaching the International Space Station.
Other news you might like
SoftBank expected to invest $500M in OpenAI as Apple exits funding round.LINK
Apple rethinking strategy for Vision Pro amid Meta's growing influence.LINK
New AI models are more likely to give a wrong answer than admit they don't know.LINK
Reddit is making sitewide protests basically impossible.LINK
X removes bold, italics fonts from its main timeline.LINK
Leaked Google Pixel 9A renders reveal a visor-free look.LINK
Latest research and tools
qrframe: a tool that lets users generate and customize QR codes directly in their web browser, using JavaScript and a Rust library, without the need for server-side processing or external dependencies.LINK
Pooltool: a general-purpose billiards simulator designed for research, offering realistic physics, a 3D interface, and tools for analysis and visualization.LINK
Venator: an open-source threat detection system that automates rule management and execution on Kubernetes, enabling easy integration with various data sources and alerting platforms without vendor lock-in.LINK
SQLitebrowser: a database management tool that, after its first update in three years, adds support for HiDPI, scalable icons, new math functions, IS (NOT) DISTINCT FROM expressions, and the option to browse tables in separate tabs for easier comparison.LINK
A Comprehensive Analysis of Package Hallucinations by Code Generating LLMs: the paper highlights how large language models often generate incorrect or non-existent code packages.LINK
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