March 2024 Archive

iPad Fans, You Won’t Be Happy Until June

Rumor has it that new iPad Pro and iPad Air models are imminent. MacRumors by way of Bloomberg is reporting a switch to OLED screens for the Pros, and a larger 12.9” option for the Airs, plus all the usual improvements around moving to M3 processors.

But you won’t be happy. If like me you’re a fan of Apple’s unique tablet ecosystem, you know full well the software is always lagging behind the hardware. No doubt the new iPad Pros & Airs will be flashy, impressive, and boast fancy new accessories. But what we’re really waiting for is iPadOS to suck less. (sigh)

We’ll have to wait until June for that…and pray to the dogcow gods that iPadOS 18 won’t disappoint. 🙇

Apple today announced it will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) online from June 10 through 14, 2024. Developers and students will have the opportunity to celebrate in person at a special event at Apple Park on opening day.

Free for all developers, WWDC24 will spotlight the latest iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS advancements. As part of Apple’s ongoing commitment to helping developers elevate their apps and games, the event will also provide them with unique access to Apple experts, as well as insight into new tools, frameworks, and features.

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference returns June 10, 2024 (apple.com)

GNOME 46 Released, Featuring Improvements to Files and Notifications

GNOME 46, code-named “Kathmandu”, has been released and will be part of the upcoming Fedora Linux 40 release in May 2024. Some of the noticeable improvements include:

• A global search icon in the top-left corner of the Files window, along with performance improvements and other UI enhancements around progress updates and network discovery.
• Remote login is now available using the RDP protocol.
• Many refinements made to the Settings app.
• Enhanced notifications with headings and groupings to make them easier to visually scan and manage.
• Display improvements around font rendering and scaled interfaces as well as experimental variable refresh rate (VRR) support.

More details and screenshots are available in the release notes here.

Jared’s Take: I’ve been running Fedora Linux in an VM (ARM) on my Mac mini M1 for a while now, and I’ve truly fallen in love with modern GNOME and the experiences made possible by GTK 4. In the not-so-distant past, I couldn’t have imagined desiring to use any desktop OS other than macOS as my daily driver. Now I’m starting to investigate Linux-compatible laptops. The FLOSS FOMO is real! 😅

Start Labeling Your Deepfakes on YouTube…Unless They’re for Kids?

As reported by Ars Technica, YouTube has recently added an upload control to the Studio interface to indicate if your video contains content that “makes a real person appear to say or do something they didn’t say or do” or “alters footage of a real event or place”.

This is a welcome improvement, as the proliferation of AI-generated content has exploded on YouTube as it has on many platforms. While this disclosure doesn’t cover all uses of generative AI, it covers the ones most damaging to news, information gathering, and celebrity coverage.

However, as discovered by WIRED, the new policies do not seem to apply when it comes to showing scenes which are “fantastical” (aka “someone riding a unicorn”). Presumably this means a lot of children’s content being dumped on YouTube would be excempt. It’s also unclear if AI-generated voiceovers would require this disclosure. The rules only mention “voice cloning someone else’s voice to use it for voiceover”.

Let’s hope this proves to be the start of a series of policy updates for YouTube, not a definitive answer to the onslaught of generative AI content.

Google previewed the “misleading AI content” policy in November, but the questionnaire is now going live. Google is mostly concerned about altered depictions of real people or events, which sounds like more election-season concerns about how AI can mislead people. Just last week, Google disabled election questions for its “Gemini” chatbot.

As always, the exact rules on YouTube are up for interpretation. Google says it’s “requiring creators to disclose to viewers when realistic content—content a viewer could easily mistake for a real person, place, or event—is made with altered or synthetic media, including generative AI,” but doesn’t require creators to disclose manipulated content that is “clearly unrealistic, animated, includes special effects, or has used generative AI for production assistance.”

YouTube will require disclosure of AI-manipulated videos from creators (arstechnica.com)

Flipboard has long been an enthusiastic proponent of the Fediverse, having stood up a Mastodon instance at flipboard.social and promoted dialogue with notable figures working on ActivityPub and related technologies through CEO Mike McCue’s Dot Social podcast. But the biggest news is that Flipboard magazines are themselves turning into federated properties, with a few having already arrived in a testing phase.

The format of the handles is interesting. Because Flipboard offers a “profile” (an individual or organization) who manages one or more “magazines”, the handle ends up being @magazinename-profilename@flipboard. For example, once federation fully expands and my magazine Happy Cities is available to follow, you’d be able to find it via:

@happy-cities-jaredcwhite@flipboard.com

and it would feature a description such as:

Happy Cities is a Flipboard Magazine created by @jaredcwhite.

This will be a most welcome feature. Instead of manually posting a link to a magazine “flip” from a Mastodon account, folks could simply boost the canonical flip which gets federated from Flipboard—a benefit for both readers and publishers.

Joined Signal Specifically Because of Usernames? Double-Check Your Privacy Settings

I set up a Signal account quite some time ago because I liked their privacy stance and I wanted to try it out. But I never really got into the habit of using it—mainly because most of my close friends and family were on iPhone Messages, and otherwise I’d converse with folks professionally using Slack, Discord, or even DMs on a social network.

But with the news that usernames were coming to Signal, I figured it’d be an opportune time to familiarize myself again with the platform. Knowing I’d want to provide a secure way for the public to contact me as I launched a new publication (aka The Internet Review!) certainly fueled my interest.

Well usernames have launched, and I think it’s a stellar feature. Finally, people who don’t like the idea of giving out their real personal phone number can avoid the extra hassle of getting a new phone number through whatever service just to use Signal. My username is jaredwhite.05. Feel free to say hi! (Don’t be creepy.)

BUT there might be one last step you need to attend to. As the announcement states, if you want to ensure any rando who somehow got ahold of your phone number still can’t reach you that way, you need to turn that option off in Signal’s Settings. I just did. I recommend you do as well.

We’re also introducing a setting that lets you control who can find you by your phone number on Signal. Up until today, anyone who had your phone number–from a party flier, a business card, or somewhere else–could look you up on Signal by phone number and message you. You can now restrict this by going to Settings > Privacy > Phone Number > Who can find me by my number and setting it to “Nobody.”

Keep your phone number private with Signal usernames (signal.org)