"Mozilla shut down the well-loved read-it-later Pocket app last year, and now Meta is launching an app called Pocket with an entirely different, AI-focused pitch," writes The Verge.

While it's not available for downloads in most locations, Meta's Pocket will allow people "to generate small, interactive apps and games using AI prompts," writes TechCrunch. They're called "gizmos", and Pocket "also offers a scrollable feed where you can play with gizmos others have made."

Some context from The Verge:
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is all in on AI as the new social media, and he's previously described a vision of how users could use AI to make interactive experiences and share them with people. The launch of Pocket appears to be one manifestation of that idea... It follows Meta hiring engineers from a company called Atma Sciences Inc., which made an app called Gizmo, as Business Insider reported in March.

On a help center page, Meta also describes a gizmo as a "playable AI-generated experience," and when you post one, Meta says you can choose to let other people remix them.


"Based on the app's screenshots in Google Play, there are many similarities to Gizmo's original app, which is still listed," notes TechCrunch.

"Pocket is another example of Meta's push to make AI creation tools more mainstream, extending its earlier efforts, which included AI-generated images created via its Meta AI app and AI videos created with its app called Vibes. It has also added AI features across its social platforms... "

Given that Meta has not officially announced Pocket's debut, it's likely that Pocket is still in its initial experimentation phase. Its counterpart Gizmo, however, had generated 635,000 lifetime installs across both iOS and Google Play, according to Appfigures, which noted it had a 98% positive sentiment.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The best pictures from a sensational knockout fixture which began after a one hour storm delay

Continue reading...

Duterte – the daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte – has previously denied charges against her

The impeachment trial of Philippine vice-president Sara Duterte begins Monday, in a case that will determine whether she can run for the presidency in 2028, and which comes amid rising public anger over alleged government corruption.

Sara Duterte is the daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who is awaiting trial for alleged crimes against humanity at The Hague. She is facing allegations she misused public funds, amassed unexplained wealth, bribed officials and threatened the lives of the nation’s president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, and the first lady. She has previously denied the allegations.

Continue reading...

banzainetsurfer has added a photo to the pool:

photo-tez has added a photo to the pool:

薬師池公園

xthylacine has added a photo to the pool:

A long line in front of an establishment means it is very, popular for one reason or another: (It is very good, it is a grand opening, or it is viral on social media).

This line is for a new shaved ice eatery named Ancredore where crowds flocked despite the summer heat.

Jimbocho, Tokyo, Japan

ASIA IN BRIEF The Down Under outpost of consultancy EY has fired two staff after they allegedly accessed details about bank accounts held by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Local media report that the pair were employees of the artist formerly known as Ernst and Young, which used them to work on a contract for Australia’s Commonwealth Bank where they allegedly accessed details of the PM’s bank account. The Bank isn’t commenting on the matter, so isn’t saying how a pair of contractors were able to access such sensitive information. The incident means all four members of the so-called Big Four consultancies are in the doghouse down under. KPMG Australia’s chair recently left the organization after a whistleblower revealed it inappropriately used a client’s confidential data and Deloitte last year repaid consultancy fees after it submitted a report partly created with AI. PWC’s scandal is the worst of the lot as the company was asked to consult on tax policy and then used the knowledge gained during that engagement to advise tech companies on how to pay less tax. South Korea and Australia brace for the downside of the tech boom South Korea last week announced record monthly exports of over $100 billion, thanks largely to inflated memory prices meaning huge sales for Samsung and SK Hynix. News of that record was quickly followed by a warning from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which in its annual Economic Survey [PDF] of South Korea warned “increasing dependence on semiconductor exports boosts growth and tax revenues but may also increase exposure to external shocks and cyclical volatility.” In Australia, meanwhile, the nation’s central bank revealed it has debated whether the local datacenter construction boom spurs inflation – which remains unpleasantly high. In minutes of its most recent board meeting, the Reserve Bank stated “Members noted that, while much investment in data centre requires imported components, it also requires some domestic inputs. They discussed the potential for continued strength in such activity to exacerbate capacity pressures and skills shortages in other parts of the economy.” India goes after Uber with national rideshare platform India’s government last week advanced its plan to create a national rideshare platform that charges no commission to drivers. Home Minister Amit Shah last week announced the service, called “Bharat Taxi,” will operate in seven cities by the end of July – then expand to 500 cities in the next 18 months to two years. India launched the service last year and said it would mean drivers earn more and reduce dependence on foreign platforms. The government statement announcing the service’s commencement alleges that rival private operators have dropped fares in “an attempt to block the entry of ‘Bharat Taxi’ so that they can again resort to arbitrary practices.” The minister resolved that Bharat Taxi will be around for the long haul. Amazon sued over Prime promises Also in Australia last week, the nation’s Competition & Consumer Commission launched a lawsuit in which it claimed that Amazon may have breached consumer protection laws by using unfair contract terms in its Prime subscription contracts, then relying on those terms to introduce advertising to its Prime Video streaming service. The regulator alleges that subscribers were left with no choice but to pay extra to avoid ads, after they’d already paid for an ad-free service, and that Amazon was therefore acting illegally. Amazon is considering is position. Behold the scuba-diving cyborg cockroach Researchers from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University and Japan’s Waseda University have developed a diving suit for cyborg cockroaches. As described in a Nature paper titled “Underwater Suit-Wearing Cyborg Insect Capable of Hours-Long Diving and Terra-Aqua Travel,” the researchers implant electronic controllers in living insects and use them to induce movements. Not content with re-wiring cockroach brains and steering them around, the boffins built a suit that “integrates an oxygen generator and oxygen delivery tubes” so that cyborg roaches can survive underwater. The scientists think roaches wearing the suits could be sent into small submerged spaces, such as drains filled with rubble, to help with search and rescue missions – or perform some maintenance. The Register looks forward to robo-roaches finding a role in datacenters that employ immersion cooling. ®