Meta Launching Default End-to-End Encryption on Messenger

META

META have announced the rollout of end-to-end encryption for all personal chats  and calls on Messenger and Facebook, making them even more private and secure.  End-to-end encrypted conversations offer additional functionality including the ability to edit messages, higher media quality and disappearing messages.

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Google’s ‘Gemini’ makes mobile breakthrough for generative AI

FT

Google has introduced “Gemini,” its latest set of generative artificial intelligence models designed to operate directly on mobile phones. This marks a significant advancement in Google’s competition with rivals like OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. Described as Google’s “largest, most capable, and most general” AI system, Gemini possesses the ability to analyze data from images and audio, along with advanced reasoning and planning capabilities. The technology is set to power Google’s Bard chatbot starting Wednesday and is scheduled for a broader integration into the search engine in the coming year.

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Nvidia boss Jensen Huang confident about AI safety

BBC

In an era marked by divided opinions on the ethical considerations surrounding AI development, the founder of the world’s premier AI chip manufacturer expresses a lack of concern.

“I have every confidence that between all of our colleagues around the world, we will invent technologies, philosophies, methodologies, practices, monitors, regulations, design practices, to keep technology safe,” founder, President and CEO of Nvidia Jensen Huang told the BBC. This comes a month after upheaval at OpenAI, a prominent artificial intelligence (AI) company, where founder Sam Altman faced dismissal from the board and subsequent reinstatement amid public outcry.

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More than half of e-commerce Cyber Week sales came from mobile

Modern Retail

Rather than queuing up in the early morning for Black Friday at major retailers, over half of shoppers opted for the convenience of mobile device shopping during the holiday deal season. Cyber 5 data for this year indicates a significant shift, with mobile sales officially surpassing desktop sales for the five-day period spanning Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.

According to Adobe Analytics, approximately 51.8% of online sales were attributed to mobile shoppers, reflecting an increase from 49.9% the previous year and 46% the year before that. Notably, several direct-to-consumer (DTC) online brands, such as Kendra Scott and Apothekary, saw a majority of their Cyber 5 sales originating from mobile users.

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Discord rolls out mobile update in quest to become better messaging app

The Verge

Popular gaming comms platform Discord unveiled a highly anticipated mobile redesign on Tuesday, featuring a departure from its desktop version, with a strong emphasis on enhancing communication and sharing experiences with friends, both in group and individual direct messages. The revamped Discord app now presents navigation tabs immediately upon opening, including distinct tabs for servers, messages, and notifications, along with a “You” tab allowing users to manage their profiles and settings.

Among the notable additions is a new global DM search function that efficiently sifts through all messages, pins, attachments, and other files, eliminating the need to navigate through individual direct messages to find specific items. Additionally, the long-awaited dark mode tailored for OLEDs has been introduced and is officially named “Midnight.”

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Tencent posts record $2.7B profit as mobile game revenue tops PC for first time

Tech Crunch

Tencent, the highest-valued technology company in Asia, has reported a record quarterly profit driven by the explosive growth of its mobile games. In Q2 2017, the company’s profit surged by 70 percent year-on-year, propelled by the success of its mobile games. Honour of Kings, recognized as the world’s highest-grossing mobile game, played a pivotal role in surpassing the total income from Tencent’s PC gaming business for the first time. The mobile gaming segment witnessed a remarkable 54 percent growth, reaching 14.8 billion RMB ($2.2 billion).

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eSIM adoption drives growth and market disruption in cellular IoT, says GlobalData

Wire19

The rapid adoption of embedded SIMs (eSIMs) is poised to bring about significant transformations in the cellular Internet of Things (IoT) landscape, leading to both growth and market disruption. Functioning as virtual counterparts to traditional SIM cards, eSIMs offer operational efficiency, cost reduction, and enhanced security. The increasing acceptance of eSIMs is expected to impact various aspects of the cellular IoT ecosystem, reshaping market dynamics and contributing to the continual expansion of cellular-based solutions within the enterprise IoT services sector, according to insights from GlobalData, a prominent data and analytics company.

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