Here is today’s top trending news from the world of technology. News that every tech enthusiast should keep a tab on.
1)
Amazon is reportedly probing Perplexity over Illegal Content Scrapping
According to news portal Wired, Amazon’s cloud service Amazon Web Services or AWS is currently investigating tech search startup Perplexity AI over web scrapping without permission. Similar to what was claimed in other media reports recently, Perplexity has been accused of not respecting Robots Exclusion Protocol. For all those who are not aware, Robots Exclusion Protocol or robots.txt file basically tells web crawlers that certain parts of the website should not be accessed. The relentless focus on Perplexity on illegal web scrapping in recent weeks can spell trouble for the tech search startup. Barely few days back, Reddit announced that it will soon update its robots.txt file though it did not blame Perplexity for doing so.
2)
Apple Vision Pro now available for sale in non-US markets
Apple’s mixed reality headset Vision Pro is going international. Apple’s newest and hottest product will now be available for sale in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. Customers in these countries can now buy Vision Pro directly from Apple’s official store or official sales partners. However, they may have to pay more to buy Apple’s mixed reality headset as compared to the US customers. in a separate news, the company is also launching the pre-orders for its Vision Pro in Australia, UK, Cannada France and Germany starting from June 28. The product will be available for sale in these countries from July 12. Vision Pro is Apple’s most ambitious product till date since the launch of iPhone in 1998.
3)
Baidu launches Upgraded Version of its LLM model ‘Ernie’
Chinese search engine giant Baidu on Friday unveiled ‘Ernie 4.0 Turbo,’ its newest and upgraded version of its LLM model ‘Ernie.’ Although information available about Ernie 4.0 Turbo is scarce, it is certainly much more powerful than its predecessor Ernie 4, which was released in October 2023 as a direct rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT 4. The new model will be accessible to the public via Baidu’s web and mobile interface. Developers, on other hand, can access it through Baidu’s Qianfan AI platform. The launch of Ernie 4.0 Turbo comes closely on the heels of OpenAI blocking access to its APIs from China, which will become effective from July 9.
4)
YouTube Premium Subscribers get new features including Picture-in-Picture for YouTube Shorts
YouTube Premium Subscribers on Android app is all set to get couple of new features, which will most certainly elevate your YouTube viewing experience. The first in the list is the game changing feature of Picture-in-Picture (PiP) for YouTube Shorts. This feature will allow premium subscribers to minimize shorts and watch them in a floating window while using other apps. This feature can be really handy for multitasking. Premium subscribers will now also get a ‘jump ahead’ button, which will make it really easy to skip the boring part of the video and skip directly to what YouTube has marked as the most interesting portion of the video. They will also get early access to experimental features. Some of these current features include ‘Smart Downloads for Shorts’ and ‘Conversational AI.’
5)
Xbox Games is arriving on these select Amazon Fire TV Stick models
Starting from July 2024, you can enjoy Xbox Games directly on your Amazon Fire TV Stick Models. You won’t even need a Xbox console. Currently, only Fire TV Stick 4K Max and Fire TV Stick 4K models are compatible for Xbox Games. Game Pass Ultimate subscribers in over 25 countries can access Xbox app on these Fire TV devices. You can enjoy popular games like Starfield, Fallout 4, and Forza Horizon 5.