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Silicon Valley’s big, bold Sci-Fi bet on the device that comes after the smartphone | Technology News

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Inside a former horse stable in the San Francisco neighborhood of SoMa, a wave of gentle chirps emerged from small, blinking devices pinned to the chests of employees at a startup called Humane.

It was just weeks before the Ai Pin would be revealed to the world — a culmination of five years, $240 million in funding, 25 patents, a steady drumbeat of hype and partnerships with top tech companies, including OpenAI, Microsoft and Salesforce.

Their mission? No less than liberating the world from its smartphone addiction. The solution? More technology.

Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, Humane’s husband-and-wife founders, envision a future with less dependency on the screens that their former employer, Apple, made ubiquitous.

Festive offer

Artificial intelligence “can create an experience that allows the computer to essentially take a back seat,” Chaudhri said.

They’re billing the pin as the first artificially intelligent device. It can be controlled by speaking aloud, tapping a touchpad or projecting a laser display onto the palm of a hand. In an instant, the device’s virtual assistant can send a text message, play a song, snap a photo, make a call or translate a real-time conversation into another language. The system relies on AI to help answer questions (“What’s the best way to load the dishwasher?”) and can summarize incoming messages with the simple command “Catch me up.”

The technology is a step forward from Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. It can follow a conversation from one question to the next, without needing explicit context. It’s also capable of editing a single word in a dictated message, rather than requiring the user to correct an error by repeating the text from beginning to end, as other systems do. And it does it from a gadget that’s reminiscent of the badges worn in Star Trek.

Humane AI founders The married founders of Humane, Bethany Bongiorno, left, and Imran Chaudhri, at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco on Oct. 27, 2023. Humane, a company started by two former Apple employees, says its new artificial intelligence pin can stop all the scrolling. Can it live up to the hype? (Kelsey McClellan/The New York Times)

To tech insiders, it’s a moonshot. To outsiders, it’s a sci-fi fantasy.

At Humane, there’s deep anxiety about the weeks ahead. The tech industry has a large graveyard of wearable products that have failed to catch on. Humane will begin shipping the pins next year. It expects to sell around 100,000 pins, which will cost $699 and require a $24 monthly subscription, in the first year. (Apple sold 381,000 iPods in the year after its 2001 launch.)

For the startup to succeed, people will need to learn a new operating system, called Cosmos, and be open to getting new phone numbers for the device. (The pin comes with its own wireless plan.) They’ll need to dictate rather than type texts and trade a camera that zooms for wide-angle photos. They’ll need to be patient because certain features, like object recognition and videos, won’t be available initially. And the pin can sometimes be buggy, as it was during some of the company’s demos for The New York Times.

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, said in an interview that he expected AI to be “a huge part” of how we interact with computers. He has invested in Humane as well as Rewind AI, which plans to make a necklace that will record what people say and hear. He’s also discussed teaming up with Jony Ive, Apple’s former chief designer, to create an AI gadget with a similar ambition to Humane.

Humane has the advantage of being the first of those AI-focused devices to become available, but Altman said that was no guarantee of success.

“That will be up to customers to decide,” he said. “Maybe it’s a bridge too far, or maybe people are like, ‘This is much better than my phone.’” Plenty of technology that looked like a sure bet ends up selling for 90% off at Best Buy, he added.

iPhone Guilt

Bongiorno, 40, and Chaudhri, 50, have a marriage of contrasts. He shaves his head bald and speaks with the soft, calm voice of a yogi. She sweeps her long blond hair over one shoulder and has the enthusiasm of a team captain. They both dress in Jobsian black.

They met at Apple in 2008. Chaudhri was working on its human interface, defining the swipes and drags that control iPhones. Bongiorno was a program manager for the iPhone and iPad. They worked together until they left Apple in late 2016.

A Buddhist monk named Brother Spirit led them to Humane. Chaudhri and Bongiorno had developed concepts for two AI products: a women’s health device and the pin. Brother Spirit, whom they met through their acupuncturist, recommended that they share the ideas with his friend, Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce.

Sitting beneath a palm tree on a cliff above the ocean at Benioff’s Hawaiian home in 2018, they explained both devices. “This one,” Benioff said, pointing at the Ai Pin, as dolphins breached the surf below, “is huge.”

“It’s going to be a massive company,” he added.

Humane’s goal was to replicate the usefulness of the iPhone without any of the components that make us all addicted: the dopamine hit of dragging to refresh a Facebook feed or swiping to see a new TikTok video. They experimented in secret with hardware components and built a virtual assistant, like Siri or Alexa, working with customized language models based in part on OpenAI’s offerings.

The device’s most sci-fi element — the laser that projects a text menu onto a hand — started inside a box the size of a matchbook. It took three years to miniaturize it to be smaller than a golf tee.

Humane established a company culture that borrowed from Apple, including its secretiveness. During its experimentation phase, the startup created intrigue by announcing high-profile investors like Altman and making grandiose — if vague — public statements about building “the next shift between humans and computing.” Humane also retained Apple’s obsession with design details, from its device’s curved corners and compostable white packaging to the Japanese-style toilets at the company’s stark office.

But Humane departed from Apple’s rigid and demanding culture in certain ways. The company encouraged staff members to work together, question plans and speak up.

José Benitez Cong, a longtime Apple executive who considered himself retired, joined Humane in part for redemption. Benitez Cong said he was “disgusted” by what the iPhone had done to society, noting that his son could mimic a swiping motion at the age of 1.

“This could be something that could help me get over my guilt of working on the iPhone,” Benitez Cong said.

Humane AI pin An Ai Pin is worn by George Kedenburg III, a company employee, at the headquarters of Humane in San Francisco on Oct. 27, 2023. Humane, a company started by two former Apple employees, says its new artificial intelligence pin can stop all the scrolling. Can it live up to the hype? (Kelsey McClellan/The New York Times)

A Message of Trust

A haunting whoosh filled the room, and two dozen Humane employees, seated around a long white table, concentrated on the sound. It was just before the Ai Pin’s release, and they were evaluating its rings and beeps. The pin’s “personic” speaker (a company portmanteau of “personal” and “sonic”) is critical, since many of its features rely on verbal and audio cues.

Chaudhri praised the “assuredness” of one chirp, and Bongiorno complimented the “more physical” sounds for the pin’s laser. “It feels like you’re actually holding the light,” she marveled.

Less assuring: That whoosh, which plays when sending a text message. “It feels ominous,” Bongiorno said. Others around the table said it sounded like a ghost, or as if you made a mistake almost. Someone thought it was a Halloween joke.

Bongiorno wanted the sound for sending a text to feel as satisfying as the trash-can sound on one of Apple’s older operating systems. “Like ‘thunk,’” she said.

The device is arriving at a time when excitement and skepticism for AI hit new highs each week. Industry researchers are warning of the technology’s existential risk, and regulators are eager to crack down on it.

Yet investors are eagerly pouring cash into AI startups. Before Humane even released a product, its backers had valued it at $850 million.

The company has tried to promote a message of trust and transparency, despite spending most of its existence working in secret. Humane’s Ai Pins have what the company calls a “trust light” that blinks when the device is recording. (A user must tap the pin to “wake” it.) Humane said it did not sell user data to third parties or use it in training its AI models.

In the months leading up to its introduction, Humane has fanned the anticipation. In April, Chaudhri showed off the pin’s laser projector during a TED Talk. (People later accused him of faking the demo, he said, but he assured that it was real.) In September, in an echo of Apple’s fashion-friendly launch of its Watch, supermodel Naomi Campbell wore Humane’s pin — barely noticeable without knowing to look for it — on a gray Coperni blazer on the runway at Paris Fashion Week.

AI App Store

Humane’s supporters have a pat way of dismissing skepticism about its prospects: They invoke the first iPod. That clunky, awkward device had just one use, playing songs, but it laid the groundwork for the real revolution, smartphones. Similarly, Humane envisions an entire ecosystem of companies building features for its operating system — an AI version of Apple’s App Store.

But first, raisins. In a demo at Humane’s office of a feature that will be rolled out in a future version of the product, a software designer picked up a chocolate chip cookie and tapped the pin on his left breast. As it whirred to life with a beep, he asked, “How much sugar is in this?”

“I’m sorry; couldn’t look up the amount of sugar in oatmeal raisin cookie,” the virtual assistant said.

Chaudhri shrugged off the mistake. “To be fair, I have trouble with the difference between a chocolate chip cookie and an oatmeal raisin.”

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Humane’s ambition to disrupt the smartphone is audacious, creative and even irrational — the kind of thing Silicon Valley is known for, but, critics bemoan, in recent years has turned into incremental frivolities, like selfie apps and robot pizza trucks.

But even after months of wearing their Ai Pins all day, Humane’s founders can’t fully detach from their screens.

“Are we using our smartphones less?” Chaudhri asked. “We’re using them differently.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.



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Circle to Search: Share part of your screen!

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According to recent reports, Circle to Search, a feature introduced with the Samsung Galaxy S24 series in January 2024, might soon undergo an upgrade. Initially allowing users to copy text from selected areas, it’s now rumored to include the capability to capture and share screenshots of specific screen sections.

This enhanced functionality, observed in the latest version of Circle to Search, enables users to not only copy text but also capture and share screen images. A video shared by a tipster on X showcased this update, revealing new options of Copy and Share upon selecting an area. Even adjustments to the selected region don’t remove these options, ensuring a seamless experience. Users can either copy the image to the clipboard for further editing or share it directly through various apps.

Previously, the visual lookup feature solely facilitated text copying. While Android devices offer a three-finger swipe-down gesture for quick screenshots, it captures the entire screen, necessitating subsequent cropping. This new functionality streamlines the process, allowing users to select and share specific screen sections in just two steps.

Interestingly, Google recently addressed concerns about accidental activations of Circle to Search in a podcast featuring its developers. They acknowledged the issue and assured users of an impending fix. This indicates ongoing efforts to refine the feature for a smoother user experience.

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Discounted OnePlus Nord CE 3 price in India: Check it out!

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The OnePlus Nord CE 3 has recently undergone another price reduction in India, marking a significant update for potential buyers. Initially introduced to the Indian market in June 2023, this smartphone received its first price adjustment in November of the same year. The base variant, featuring 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, was notably listed at a price Rs. 2,000 lower than its launch price, signaling OnePlus’s commitment to providing competitive pricing to its customers.

The OnePlus Nord CE 3 is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset and ships with the Android 13-based operating system. It boasts a triple rear camera setup, enhancing its photography capabilities, and supports SuperVOOC charging, ensuring rapid replenishment of its battery. The inclusion of these features positions the Nord CE 3 as a compelling option for smartphone enthusiasts seeking a balance between performance, affordability, and innovation.

The recent unveiling of the OnePlus Nord CE 4 in India marks the continuation of OnePlus’s commitment to delivering cutting-edge technology to its users. Serving as the successor to the Nord CE 3, the Nord CE 4 is expected to build upon the strengths of its predecessor while introducing new enhancements and features to further elevate the user experience.

When considering the revised pricing of the OnePlus Nord CE 3, it’s evident that OnePlus aims to make its devices more accessible to a wider audience. The reduction in price, particularly on platforms like Amazon and the OnePlus India website, presents an opportunity for consumers to acquire a high-quality smartphone at a more affordable rate.

Let’s delve deeper into the specifications and features of the OnePlus Nord CE 3 to understand its capabilities and appeal to potential buyers.

OnePlus Nord CE 3 Price in India (Revised)

The base variant of the OnePlus Nord CE 3, featuring 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, was initially launched in India at Rs. 26,999. Following its first price cut in November, the price was reduced to Rs. 24,999. Now, the same variant is available on Amazon at Rs. 22,990, representing a Rs. 2,009 reduction from its previous price. Furthermore, customers can benefit from an additional flat Rs. 2,000 instant discount on ICICI and HDFC Bank cards, bringing the effective price down to Rs. 20,990.

On the OnePlus India website, the 8GB + 128GB variant is priced at Rs. 22,999, marking a Rs. 2,000 decrease from the November price of Rs. 24,999. It is worth noting that this discount is exclusively applicable to the 128GB model, as the higher-end 256GB variant is currently listed as out of stock.

OnePlus Nord CE 3 Specifications and Features

Display:

The OnePlus Nord CE 3 boasts a 6.7-inch full-HD+ fluid AMOLED display with a resolution of 1,080 x 2,412 pixels. With a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, users can enjoy smooth and fluid visuals, enhancing their overall viewing experience.

Processor and Performance:

Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 782G SoC, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 delivers robust performance and efficient multitasking capabilities. With up to 12GB of RAM and up to 256GB of onboard storage, users can seamlessly navigate between apps and store their multimedia content with ease.

Operating System:

The smartphone ships with Android 13-based OxygenOS 13.1, providing users with a clean and intuitive user interface coupled with a plethora of customization options. OxygenOS is known for its smooth performance and timely software updates, ensuring that users stay up-to-date with the latest features and security patches.

Camera:

The OnePlus Nord CE 3 features a versatile camera setup, comprising a 50-megapixel primary sensor with optical image stabilization (OIS) and electronic image stabilization (EIS) support. Accompanying this primary sensor is an 8-megapixel sensor with an ultra-wide-angle lens and a 2-megapixel macro shooter, allowing users to capture a wide range of subjects with stunning detail and clarity. On the front, the device houses a 16-megapixel sensor for high-quality selfies and video calls.

Battery and Charging:

Equipped with a robust 5,000mAh battery, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 offers ample battery life to power through a full day of usage. Additionally, the device supports 80W wired SuperVOOC charging, enabling users to quickly replenish the battery and minimize downtime.

Connectivity:

The OnePlus Nord CE 3 supports a comprehensive range of connectivity options, including 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, GPS, and USB Type-C. Whether it’s streaming multimedia content, browsing the web, or staying connected with friends and family, users can rely on the Nord CE 3 to deliver seamless connectivity and performance.

Security:

For enhanced security, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 features an in-display fingerprint sensor, allowing users to conveniently unlock their device with a simple touch. This biometric authentication method adds an extra layer of protection to safeguard sensitive data and personal information.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 offers a compelling combination of performance, affordability, and innovation, making it an attractive choice for smartphone enthusiasts in India. With its recent price reduction and competitive specifications, the Nord CE 3 presents a compelling value proposition for consumers seeking a high-quality smartphone experience without breaking the bank. As OnePlus continues to innovate and introduce new features with each iteration, the Nord CE 3 stands as a testament to the company’s commitment to delivering exceptional devices tailored to the needs of its users.

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Namma Yatri launches cab service in Bengaluru

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In its largest market, Bengaluru, ride-hailing company Namma Yatri has expanded its services to include cab-hailing, marking a significant shift from its previous focus on auto rickshaws. Namma Yatri, known for pioneering a daily subscription model as opposed to the commission-based model utilized by competitors like Ola and Uber, had initially concentrated on auto rickshaws in Bengaluru. However, it now features a distinct section on its app dedicated to booking cabs in the city. Additionally, Namma Yatri already provides cab rides in Kochi and Kolkata.

The decision to venture into cab services follows Namma Yatri’s separation from its former parent company, Justpay, and comes on the heels of a reported expansion plan announced on April 1st. The move also aligns with the broader trend observed in the industry, as both Ola and Uber have recently introduced subscription-based plans for auto-rickshaw drivers on their platforms. This strategic shift towards subscription-based models, akin to Namma Yatri’s approach, as well as that of Rapido, highlights a growing preference within the industry for alternative pricing structures beyond traditional booking fees or commissions.

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