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- AI Chatbots 🤖 , iOS 17 Features 📱 , Netflix's System Design 🖥️
AI Chatbots 🤖 , iOS 17 Features 📱 , Netflix's System Design 🖥️
9/25/2023
Tech News 📡
Meta is set to unveil a generative AI chatbot named "Gen AI Personas" tailored for younger audiences. This chatbot will feature various "personas" designed to captivate young users, capitalizing on the recent popularity of ChatGPT. Some of these personas have been trialed on Instagram, with one being a "sassy robot" inspired by Bender from Futurama. There are concerns, however, as one chatbot made inappropriate remarks to a Meta employee. Meta's ambition is to develop numerous such bots, and they're even considering a tool that would allow celebrities to craft chatbots for their fanbase.
With the release of iOS 17, iPhone users are exploring a plethora of new features, including the innovative StandBy mode. This mode revamps the lock screen, allowing users to access a range of handy widgets such as alarm clocks, picture frames, and more. StandBy is especially useful when the phone is charging or for quick checks without unlocking the device. Widgets available include alarm clocks, picture frames, Siri, incoming call windows, and large notification boxes. Activating StandBy is straightforward: place your iPhone on its side while charging, press the side button, and swipe to navigate between widgets. For phones with an always-on display, StandBy widgets remain continuously active. To deactivate StandBy, simply navigate to settings and toggle it off.
Apple's macOS Sonoma is scheduled for release on Tuesday, September 26, bringing a host of new features to the Mac. Some of the standout features include interactive widgets to the Mac desktop, similar to those on the iPhone. Users can even utilize iPhone app widgets without installing the Mac version of the app. A new Game Mode enhances gaming performance on Apple silicon Macs by prioritizing CPU and GPU resources. It also minimizes audio latency for AirPods and input latency for certain game controllers connected via Bluetooth. Users can now add any website to the Dock as a web app, providing quick access. These web apps come with a simplified toolbar and support push notifications. macOS Sonoma introduces Apple TV-like aerial screen savers showcasing slow-motion videos of global locations. Each screen saver can transition into a corresponding desktop wallpaper. Safari now supports profiles, allowing users to segregate browsing for work, personal use, etc. Each profile maintains its own history, cookies, extensions, Tab Groups, and favorites. The update will be available for various Mac models, including MacBook Pro (2018 and later), MacBook Air (2018 and later), Mac mini (2018 and later), and others.
Trending Startups📱
BoilerCode offers boilerplate code for NextJs, enabling developers to launch their SaaS products rapidly. The platform provides various boilerplates, including "NextJs SaaS + AI" and "NextJs SaaS - Standard", which come packed with essential features like user authentication, payment integrations, SEO configurations, and more. For instance, the "NextJs SaaS + AI" boilerplate includes integrations with Stripe, LemonSqueezy, AI, and Tailwind CSS. Each boilerplate highlights the time savings for different components, such as database integration, landing page creation, and email integration. The founder, Manoj, has launched over 40 products and developed these boilerplates from his codebase to help others ship products faster.
PumpGPT is a groundbreaking innovation that integrates GPT with AWS Support, making it smarter by a factor of 100. This AI-driven tool is designed to be an around-the-clock FinOps team, offering fully automated savings of up to 60% on AWS services. PumpGPT is trained on AWS documentation and is proficient in Python & Java. It's designed to be an AI-powered DevOps engineer, providing answers to any AWS-related queries. Notably, PumpGPT can write code, file support tickets, and even recommend the most cost-effective AWS instances. The platform boasts a response latency of just 13ms and is available 24/7, ensuring users get timely and accurate assistance.
Lexington Themes offers a collection of free and premium multipage themes and UI Kits tailored for freelancers, developers, businesses, and personal projects. These themes are beautifully crafted using Astro.js and Tailwind CSS, ensuring simplicity and ease of customization. Whether you're looking for themes for startups, blogs, agencies, or e-commerce, Lexington has got you covered. Each theme is meticulously designed, and users can preview them through live demos. The platform is currently running an autumn sale, offering a 30% discount on their bundle. The testimonials highlight the quality and support provided by Lexington, with many users praising the designs and the assistance they received.
AI 🤖
The "ChatGPT Conversations to Markdown" converter is a Python script developed by mohamed-chs that allows users to transform their entire ChatGPT history into well-structured Markdown files. The script adds optional YAML headers and even includes Code interpreter (Advanced Data Analysis) input/output. This tool is especially beneficial for those who wish to view their conversations in Markdown-supported platforms like Obsidian. The setup is straightforward: clone the repository, download your ChatGPT conversations in ZIP format, run the script, and check the output. The script is designed to run locally, ensuring data privacy. Users can also customize the script's behavior using command-line parameters or by modifying the config.json file.
The National Football League (NFL) is collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to redefine football analytics through the "Next Gen Stats" initiative. This partnership aims to harness AI-powered algorithms to extract in-depth data from games and discern patterns in player performances. The AI can analyze player behavior on the field, such as the aggressiveness of a defender or the response time of a quarterback. Traditional stats might indicate if a rusher passes a quarterback, but the new "pressure probability" metric delves deeper, shedding light on the intensity of the encounter. The NFL gathers data using ultra-wide band receivers and RFID tags in players' gear, which is processed in real-time through a graphic neural network model. This data is then transformed into interactive graphics, offering insights like player movements during specific plays.
Google recently introduced Bard Extensions, a feature that seamlessly integrates its AI assistant, Bard, with Google apps like Gmail and Docs. The standout feature allows Bard to access personal data, tailoring responses to individual users. For instance, Bard can summarize emails, assist in drafting responses, and even help book flights by referencing email dates. However, while the feature promises personalization, it's not without its flaws. Some users found Bard's responses too general or not fitting their tone. Despite its imperfections, Bard Extensions showcases the potential of AI in daily tasks, from email management to content creation.
Coding & Development 🖥️
Karan Pratap Singh provides an in-depth look into designing a video streaming service akin to Netflix. The article delves into the intricacies of system requirements, both functional and non-functional, and touches upon extended requirements like geo-blocking and video playback resumption. The piece also discusses data model design, API design, and high-level system architecture. Singh emphasizes the importance of video processing, highlighting steps like file chunking, content filtering, transcoding, and quality conversion. The article further explores the challenges of video streaming, the significance of search functionality, and the role of data partitioning in scalability. Lastly, Singh underscores the importance of caching, media streaming, and storage, and offers solutions to potential system bottlenecks.
Bun, a new JavaScript runtime, has emerged as a compelling alternative to Node.js, boasting superior speed and efficiency. With its 1.0 release, Bun offers a comprehensive toolkit for running, building, testing, and debugging JavaScript and TypeScript. Notably, Bun outperforms traditional tools like npm, pnpm, and yarn in terms of speed, compiling code in just 0.36 seconds. It also supports hot reloading and can function as a JavaScript bundler. One of Bun's standout features is its compatibility with both ESM and CommonJS, allowing developers to use both in the same file. Built on the JavaScriptCore engine, Bun promises faster startup times compared to Node.js's V8 engine. However, while Bun is production-ready for MacOS and Linux, its Windows version remains experimental.
Memos is an open-source, lightweight note-taking service that emphasizes user privacy. It allows users to easily capture and share their thoughts in a minimalist approach, supporting pure text with added Markdown capabilities. The platform is self-hosted with Docker, ensuring users have full control over their data. Memos also offers a RESTful API for third-party services, enabling seamless integration with other tools. The platform's features include effortless note customization, sharing, and collaboration. Additionally, Memos has a vibrant community, with various third-party clients and extensions available for iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows, and more.
Miscellaneous 🌀️
Ubuntu 23.10 is set to offer a fresh look with the introduction of the 'Dark Style' GNOME extension. While GNOME Shell traditionally features a dark background for elements like the Quick Settings menu, calendar applet, and desktop notifications, Ubuntu 23.10's default Yaru theme opts for a lighter style. However, a new GNOME extension allows users to switch to a dark theme for GNOME Shell elements without affecting the rest of the desktop. This means users can enjoy a 'mixed' look, with dark GNOME Shell elements and regular app appearances. The Dark Style GNOME extension is specifically designed for Ubuntu 23.10 and GNOME 45.
Apple's NameDrop feature in iOS 17 offers a seamless way to share contact information. By simply holding your iPhone near the top of another person's iPhone, users can instantaneously send or receive contact details. A faint glow from the top of both devices indicates a successful connection, and NameDrop will appear on both screens. Users can choose the specific contact information to share, and the process is completed within seconds. However, this feature only works for new contacts and doesn't update pre-existing ones. For devices not updated to iOS 17, users can still share contact information through the Contacts app by selecting "Share Contact."
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