Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, is on the Big Island of Hawaii. It’s been erupting constantly since 1983. Sometimes things are low-key. Right now, not so much. Watch it in action. Crazy stuff!
AI update: OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o, Google Gemini 1.5 Pro and Claude iPhone app
It was a big week in the world of AI. Both Google and OpenAI released major updates. You know I’ve got your back. I cut through their marketing-speak to decipher what these updates actually mean for you and me.
Gemini AI gets a bigger boat
Google’s AI, Gemini 1.5 Pro, will handle tons of data. Need to summarize 1,500 pages of text? No problem. It’s pretty nuts.
Google goes ‘Ask Jeeves’ mode
You can ask a question in the search bar and it’ll summarize the answer for you. Great for you … not so great for websites that rely on traffic.
- How to use it: Looking for the best way to clean a pair of leather boots? An AI Overview will give all the detailed steps to get them back in mint condition — without having to click into a single link.
Workspace gets a new intern
Google Workspace’s “AI Teammate” searches your messages, email threads and attachments. Think of it like that coworker who’s been at the company for 20 years and knows every project, process or strategic conversation you might need to reference.
- How to use it: Ask AI teammates if you’re on schedule to launch a new product. It’ll pull relevant dates, action items and notes from your Workspace apps and give you a status report in bullet form. Super useful.
Ask Photos, Audio Overviews and Project Astra
Google also announced a ton of audio/visual-focused AI updates.
- Ask Photos can help you find an image in your camera roll or answer questions from your photo data. No more scrolling through photos to find that random pic.
2023, when even the volcanoes livestream
YouTube has it all: A capybara eating an entire watermelon, Mr. Beast giving away puppies, my show and a massive volcano erupting in real time.
Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, is on the Big Island of Hawaii. It’s been erupting constantly since 1983. Sometimes things are low-key. Right now, not so much.
🔴 Intimate IG: Instagram now lets you livestream just to your close friends instead of all your followers. Tap the + button, choose Live, then select Close Friends and start recording. You can add up to three pals. Want to tweak your list? Head to More > Settings > Who can see your content > Close Friends, and then add or remove people.
Battle for free speech, MOVEit cyber threat & casino livestream frenzy
Plus, Amber Beruan was mugged at gunpoint… only to be followed by the assailant sliding into her FB DMs. I talk to her about what unfolded next. Fiat’s teeny electric car, doctors charging fees for emails, and ways to eliminate sleep distractions.
Taylor Swift’s password is Iknewyouweretroublewhenyouloggedin: Swift Alert (iPhone and Android) is a Swiftie’s favorite app. It calculates when a concert starts in your timezone so you know when to tune into the livestream. It also notifies you when Taylor’s biggest hits are about to play, along with any surprises on stage.
$100M podcast deal
For football players Travis Kelce and his brother, Jason. “New Heights” recently hit No. 4 on the podcast charts. Hope they thanked Taylor Swift for the boost. Amazon’s podcast division, Wondery, will host the livestream and give paying subs early ad-free access. Jeff, call me. I’ll do it for $50 million.
Easiest ways to connect your smartphone to your TV
The line between your various gadgets is blurring by the day. You can connect your tablet to your surveillance system and your smart speaker to your refrigerator. You can see who’s at the door from your computer and adjust the thermostat from your phone.
Smarter Siri, iOS 14, more privacy and everything else Apple just announced
It’s that time of year again: Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer’s conference has finally come — and with it, a plethora of new announcements for both hardware and software alike.
Unlike previous years, the 2020 conference opened to an audience of exactly zero people. Not because of a lack of enthusiasm, mind you, but rather pandemic-related precautions. For the first time, WWDC 2020 was livestream only, which shows how Apple is taking COVID-19 seriously. Tap or click here to see what Apple’s contact-tracing system looks like.
First 'livestream' of Mars
The European Space Agency marks 20 years of the Mars Express with a live look at what’s going down on the Red Planet. It takes up to 22 minutes for us to get “live” pictures of Mars down here on Earth, so not technically a livestream, but still pretty dang cool.
Repeat after me: Elon isn’t hawking crypto on YouTube: The AI deepfake Elon livestream ran for five hours, attracting over 30,000 concurrent viewers. It told folks to deposit ethereum, dogecoin or bitcoin on a site promising to double their money. Poof! It all went into someone else’s wallet.
40,000 dings
From a digital doorbell to alert ecologists fish are waiting to pass through a canal lock in the Netherlands. More than 1.2 million people have tuned in to the canal livestream to see whether any fish are waiting. If they are, altruistic streamers are invited to ring the doorbell for a fish who can’t (because, you know, no hands).
Appointment-watching prep: If an event or show will be streamed live on YouTube, there’s a good chance you can sign up for a notification when it starts. Go to the host’s YouTube channel, find the upcoming livestream, then click Notify Me. And hey, while you’re there, subscribe to my YouTube channel!
The toy dinosaur that made the SpaceX flight is sold out everywhere
Well, we have some bad news, folks. Dinosaurs are officially extinct for the second time around. Well, the toy dinosaur that was used as a zero-gravity indicator by SpaceX during the launch last weekend is officially extinct.
NASA satellite images show Australia's devastating wildfires from space
If you’ve been paying attention to the news recently, you’ve probably heard about the wildfires torching Australia. Much of the country has been burning for months and the results have been devastating.
Homes have been destroyed, wildlife is in danger and residents are fleeing for their lives. These wildfires have caused massive destruction and there seems to be no end in sight.
Uber and Lyft drivers livestream passengers without their consent
Open/download audioYou may have heard the story of the St. Louis Uber driver who set up hidden cameras in his car to record then live stream his passengers. Do you have the right to seek legal action? Or do we lose our privacy the moment we are out in public?
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