Apple’s first HomePod in 2018 was a latecomer to the smart speaker game. Sure, it sounded good, but it lacked many of the basic features of its rivals. Once again, with its $299 second-generation HomePod, the company delivers stellar sound quality, but this time, the expanded smart home tools show that Apple learned from that first attempt.
The new HomePod can be easily paired with HomeKit and Matter accessories and has temperature and humidity sensors. You can use that data to create automatic triggers for other smart home devices. Even without a compatible smart thermostat, you can successfully activate a smart plug once HomePod detects a certain temperature.
HomePod’s most notable new feature isn’t ready yet. Sound recognition can listen for smoke or carbon monoxide alarms and notify your other Apple devices. Unfortunately, it won’t arrive in an update until later this spring. Check out our full HomePod review right here.
–Matt Smith
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That was fast.
A few days ago, the voice AI startup ElevenLabs released a beta version of your platform, which can create completely new synthetic voices for text-to-speech audio or to clone someone’s voice. Well, it only took a few days for the internet to make a mess. The company is seeing a “growing number of voice-cloning misuse cases.” Motherboard I found 4chan posts with voice generated clips that sound like celebrities reading or saying something questionable. One clip, for example, featured a voice that sounded like Emma Watson’s reading a portion of Hitler’s book. My struggle. Users also posted voice clips featuring homophobic, transphobic, violent, and racist sentiments. It’s not entirely clear if all the clips used ElevenLab’s technology, but a post with a large collection of voice files on 4chan included a link to the startup’s platform. The company is now gathering feedback on how to prevent users from abusing its technology. You can even ditch your Voice Lab tool entirely and have users submit voice clone requests that you can manually verify.
Respawn says that it will use the extra six weeks to polish the game.
USA
Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment announced the delay of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor to April 28. The game was previously scheduled to arrive on March 17. “In order for the team to hit Respawn’s quality bar, give the team the time it needs, and reach the level of polish our fans deserve, we’ve added six crucial weeks to our release schedule: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor it will now launch globally on April 28,” Respawn posted on Twitter. The studio said it would use the extra time to fix bugs and polish the game to improve performance, stability, and player experience.
It comes right off the tongue.
Paramount Global is combining two of its services. It will bring Showtime to the Premium tier of Paramount+ later this year. The combined offer will be known as Paramount+ With Showtime. Showtime’s linear television network will be rebranded by the same name in the US As part of the move, some original Paramount+ shows will air on the cable network, so perhaps more people will finally recognize the brilliance of the good fight – you’re getting a derivative pilot, too. (the good fight itself was already a spin-off). While the move may come as a disappointment to those who are only interested in Showtime content and aren’t sold on Paramount+, the move makes sense from a business perspective. There is a wave of consolidation in the media industry, including streaming, where HBO Max and Discovery+ will combine in the coming months.
A report by UK clean energy think tank Ember projects the gap will widen.
Power generated from solar and wind power reportedly overtook natural gas in the EU for the first time last year. The data comes from UK clean energy think tank Ember and projects the gap will grow. Solar and wind power rose to an all-time high of 22 percent of EU electricity use in 2022. Meanwhile, Ember projects fossil fuel generation to fall 20 percent this year, with gas the fastest drop. . The clean energy industry had some unwanted help. The change stems from reducing reliance on gas and coal after Russia invaded Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin ordered a cut off of natural gas exports to the EU in retaliation for Western sanctions.
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