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 It's been another busy week in the Apple world, led by word that the company is preparing to launch a new device leasing and financing program as it has raised some more prices including on Apple Music subscriptions.
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In the months ahead, the company will add AI-powered voice search for its smart TVs and streaming players. While Roku's existing voice search can find specific programs, actors, or genres, the upgrade will allow for more conversational queries, such as "What's the Barbie movie about?" or "How scary is The Shining." It will also support follow-up questions.
Other forthcoming Roku features include a "What do you like to watch?" feature to tweak Roku's home screen recommendations, live scores in the Sports section, and a search function in Roku's live TV guide. Roku is also updating its recently-launched Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick Plus to support private listening through Bluetooth headphones and earbuds.
TV-focused AI
Unlike rivals Amazon and Google, Roku isn't trying to launch an all-purpose AI that also happens to work on TVs. Roku doesn't sell its own smart speakers, and users primarily interact with voice control through the mic button on Roku remotes. The new AI-powered assistant will only respond to entertainment-related queries, Roku says.
"Even in this case, with us evolving Roku voice to now answer entertainment Q&A, we are specializing in a TV-related solution only," Amit Desai, Roku's director of product and UX for voice and conversational AI, told reporters. He added that the feature will use a combination of in-house and commercial AI technology.
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Into this fractious and uncertain landscape lands the Asus ROG Xbox Ally handheld, and its more souped-up version, the ROG Xbox Ally X. Launching later this week at $600 and $1,000, respectively, these gadgets are some major firsts for Microsoft. They're the first Xbox portable devices, even if their claim to being "Xboxes" is mostly a matter of marketing. They're the first post-Steam Deck portable gaming PCs made explicitly in cooperation with Microsoft and Xbox, though Asus has made two generations before them. And they're the official debut of the Xbox Fullscreen Mode, Microsoft's answer to the Steam Deck user interface.
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 The problem with both social media and ride-sharing is that the people paying for the service aren't treated as the primary customers, which creates a decoupled revenue model. The post The Ride-Sharing and Robotaxi Revenue Model Problem No One Talks About appeared first on TechNewsWorld.
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It's been another bad week in security.
Not only do we learn that so-called "friendly" governments are quietly requesting surveillance data concerning push notifications, but Apple tells us more than 2.6 billion personal records have already been compromised by data breaches in the past two years.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Fortinet continues to enhance its Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) package by adding support for microbranches, extending wireless LAN protections, and improving data loss prevention (DLP) and end-user monitoring capabilities.
The vendor added the new features to its FortiSASE offering, which includes SD-WAN, secure web gateway, firewall as a service, cloud access security broker, and zero trust network access (ZTNA), all running on top of its FortiOS operating system. The package can be centrally managed via the firm's FortiManager software, which sets network and security policies across the Fortinet product line.
To read this article in full, please click here
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