WhatsApp Is Rolling Out Voice Message Transcripts For Its Users

WhatsApp users are in for a treat as the platform has opted to introduce voice message transcripts.

The news comes after an update was recently shared regarding how the platform was busy testing this feature out in beta. But that appears to have gone as per plan as a widespread rollout begins today.

This new endeavor provides users the chance to attain voice message content in certain situations where they cannot listen to a voice note. Instead, they end up providing a certain degree of flexibility and accessibility in terms of communication.

After having the newest version of the beta for iOS update installed, users claim they can finally have the feature which gets enabled through default settings. And in case you choose to opt out of it, you can always disable it by going to Settings, Chats, and finally to the Voice Message Transcripts.

The company says that this new rollout is secure through E2E encryption as the entire process of transcription begins on the user’s device with the help of language packs.

Therefore, the feature may only be up for grabs to a few users having the latest iOS version with them as this makes use of APIs thanks to iOS 16 which provides permission for apps to process voice messages through local means on a device. Hence, you don’t need to transfer it to external sources.

Similarly, this feature for voice notes also enables users to look for certain types of data found in a message. When voice notes get transcribed, this text would be indexed and that makes it searchable. Hence, if you’re on the lookout for certain kinds of data featuring long voice notes, or you can’t remember which one entails content you’re in search of, you can search for it through relevant keynotes or phrases through the search bar. This way, the transcription ends up getting highlighted in places where the text pops up in a message.

This type of operation can assist users in saving time and making it so much simpler to look up certain details inside a chat.

Moreover, the chance to transcribe such voice notes is up for grabs to some beta testers for now but don’t worry, it’s getting rolled out to others in the next few weeks so keep your eyes open.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Consumers Are Losing Up To 40% Of Their Broadband Speed Over Wi-Fi Connections, New Research Proves

A recent study is proving how consumers are losing up to 40% of their total broadband speed over Wi-Fi connections.

This research comes to us thanks to SamKnows who found a clear gap between incoming speed and speed received by clients on their devices. And the gap found was literally huge.

The company was seen recording a massive speed loss for mobile devices including mobiles and tablets where the figure stood at 40% as compared to 27% for both PCs and laptops.

Other than that, there was a clear drop off which gets higher as the connection speed in the home arguably grows faster. Those people having gigabit connections end up losing nearly half of the speed by the time it goes about reaching the Wi-Fi devices.

If you happen to be on connections that are more than a few hundred megabits, the odds of attaining those megabits all across your residence are quite small. This is unless you’re sorted with a really expensive router connection that has been sourced through third parties.

Even then, the odds of attaining nearly 400 to 500 megabits across your residence are truly quite small. The study also proved how much data seen through the RealSpeed product ended up measuring the speed received by the Wifi-devices as well as the router in the residence. This is used by consumers as well as broadband service providers so it gets to troubleshoot problems through people’s internet.

The study further revealed how there are so many different ways how such Wi-Fi devices cannot exploit the entire speed for internet connectivity.

Wi-Fi ends up losing speed at a faster pace as it roams far from routers. This is especially true when there happens to be many obstacles along the way like walls.

It was shown how mobile phones usually have smaller antennas for Wi-Fi than PCs or Laptops. This goes a long way into understanding how there is a huge drop in speeds and it’s less dramatic than devices. Meanwhile, interference gained from home can even affect performance to a further extent, the study mentioned.

And when you’ve got a range of other types of wireless devices at your residence and further congestion from neighbors along the way too, it could really harm the speed to a greater extent.

So what is the solution to such a problem? Well, it’s the emergency of Wi-Fi 7 equipment that could prevent the loss of broadband speed to a huge degree. This not only provides a huge bandwidth to play with than the usual predecessors, but it also entails advanced techniques for coding that work along the interference seen on wireless devices.

In this manner, they can benefit from a lot of speed that seems to be coming into a home. Similarly, it can make way for several connections through various Wi-Fi bands. Currently, devices tend to connect through several channels across several types of bands. This combines the entire traffic through these channels and provides a connection that’s faster and more reliable than those seen at home.

But with Wi-Fi 7 routines in place, these tend to emerge into the market and very few electronic devices have the chips in place that are compatible with them. Therefore, it’s definitely a slow process before consumers actually start to feel the benefit that this has for some time. It’s really true for those kinds of broadband providers that are usually slow to adopt different Wi-Fi standards across routers that distribute them.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

3 New Types of Malware Target Businesses Every 2 Minutes, New Report Reveals

Malicious actors have been upping the ante at a concerning rate, and recent reports indicate that there are three new types of malware targeting businesses every two minutes. This data comes from an analysis conducted by BlackBerry, and it points to the sorry state of cybersecurity around the world with all things having been considered and taken into account. The report also indicates that there has been a rise in new malware types as of late.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that 60% of all malware attacks are targeting three main industries. These industries are finance, food retail as well as healthcare companies. Healthcare in particular has been beset by the worst malware attacks of all, which is dangerous because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up clogging up critical healthcare infrastructure.

Another thing that this report points towards is the increased prevalence of AI being used to conduct these attacks. AI can make malware easier to distribute than might have been the case otherwise since it can help malicious actors craft more believable attack campaigns. Deepfakes as well as AI chatbots are making things ever more challenging for those working in the cybersecurity industry, and unless something changes, things might get even worse from here on out.

Finally, the study revealed just how commonplace malware as a service has become. So called commodity malware can be purchased for a very low price, and in some cases it may even be free of charge.

This goes to show that cybersecurity experts as well as companies that are in possession of valuable and sensitive data need to be very vigilant lest things spiral out of control. It will be interesting to see what efforts are made to curtail the impact of malware, and we will have to wait for the rest of 2023 to play out in order to get any firm conclusions either way. All in all, cybersecurity is in a state of peril due to rising malware distribution.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

The Best Selling iPhone of 2023 Revealed

The iPhone has managed to become the single most popular smartphone brand in the world, and its latest model always ends up topping the charts in terms of sales. In spite of the fact that this is the case, the type of iPhone that gets the most sales is not always obvious. CIRP just conducted a study that revealed some key insights into which version of the iPhone received the highest number of sales in the first quarter of 2023, and the results might surprise you.

It turns out that the latest versions of the iPhone, namely the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, ended up comprising 22% and 24% of total iPhone sales with all things having been considered and taken into account. The high price point may have made the sales lower than might have been the case otherwise, but the smartphones still managed to succeed against all odds.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the iPhone 14 Pro saw a 15% increase from the fourth quarter of 2022, thereby making it more popular than the more affordable standard iPhone 14. However, it should be mentioned that the iPhone 14 Pro Max actually saw a 4 point dip, decreasing from 28% in Q4 2022 to 24% in Q1 2023.

Interestingly, the iPhone 13 saw more sales than anyone could have expected. It comprised 11% of total sales, far more than the 1% that its budget counterpart the iPhone 13 Mini was able to manage. It even surpassed the iPhone 14 Plus which only received 10%.

Consumers clearly have a preference for flagship models because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up giving them cutting edge tech. This seems to suggest that buyers don’t really care about how expensive iPhones are. They will always go for whatever is most advanced, or they will settle for the next best option. All in all, the latest iPhones ended up representing a whopping 75% of the total number of Apple smartphones sold last quarter.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

ChatGPT Just Failed This Accounting Exam

The internet is littered with examples of ChatGPT passing certain difficult exams with flying colors. For example, many users cited ChatGPT managing to clear the US bar exam that gives lawyers the right to practice in the state of their residence. This has led many to assume that ChatGPT could actually replace lawyers in the real world, but in spite of the fact that this is the case the AI chatbot has ended up struggling with other types of exams, mainly those that involve high level math.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that ChatGPT recently failed the CPA exam, also known as the Chartered Public Accountant exam. This is the exam that must be cleared in order to get registered as a Chartered Accountant in the US, and ChatGPT’s failure to answer all of the questions seems to suggest that it is not as advanced as people think it is.

Indeed, the chatbot’s performance was so bad that it tried to invent facts out of thin air to try to pass. This obviously wasn’t going to lead to any positive results, and it indicates that ChatGPT does not have what it takes to tackle exams that don’t involve linguistic analysis with all things having been considered and taken into account.

One thing that had a strong impact on how well ChatGPT performed was the type of question it got asked. The chatbot did far better with simple yes or no answer questions, getting 68.7% of them right. It also did well with multiple choice questions, obtaining a success rate of about 59.5%.

However, when it came to questions that required short form answers, ChatGPT was found lacking. It should be mentioned that this chatbot is still in a relatively early stage of its development. Students are still managing to outperform the chatbot in a wide array of areas, which is why it is unlikely that ChatGPT will serve any professional roles in the near future. Upcoming upgrades and advancements to the tech might allow it to get to the next level.

H/T: BYU / Study.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Twitter Is Making An Array Of Interesting Changes To Its App Including An Expansion Of Community Notes and Encrypted DMs

With Elon Musk in charge of the Twitter app, we’re not too surprised that the platform is working on a series of changes.

The company recently announced the decision to expand its Community Notes endeavor. This means allowing users to glance notes across Tweets that are found inside articles and also seen across websites located outside of the platform.

This particular update is designed to provide some more context and accurate details for readers whenever they come across Tweets.

Moreover, such a Community Notes offering is also designed for users to come together and include some helpful content to the Tweets that some might deem to be a little misleading.

Contributors that are quite regular on the app end up writing and rating such notes across Tweets with an effective system that relies upon the participation of users across a diverse range.

Seeing the notes feature work outside of Twitter is unique and exciting news and that means both your articles and webpages would now feature them, the app mentioned in its recent blog post.

This way, people would be attaining more context whenever they read tweets. And remember, the news arises as many Twitter fans demanded this through suggestions for the platform. Hence, seeing the company pay heed to it is really some great news as Musk had commented on one user’s post as a ‘good idea’.

But remember, to make sure such notes are helpful for a wide range of audience members, it won’t be operating on a major set of rules. They would entail an agreement among contributors that may have disagreed in the past with ratings, putting an end to opinions from one side taking charge.

The app hopes that such ordeals would make users stay more informed as they wish to provide more users with the chance to express their voice and make better decisions that are fair and based on accurate judgments.

Twitter has always been committed to transparency and that’s all of the Notes are set out daily with the ranking algorithm being open for anyone and everyone that wishes to inspect it further. This way, it allows users to understand how a feature works and how it shapes up activities throughout the development process.

In other news, the app has set out a reminder to its platform users about how it would be taking a 10% cut from content subscriptions after a year’s time.

The update was shared by Elon Musk on Friday who explained how the app is on a mission to diversify its sources of revenue. And by monetizing content, he hopes Twitter can do just that. Therefore, a cut of 10% would be slashed from the user’s profits.

He similarly shed light on the company’s plans of providing those with subscriptions the chance to add more text to tweets and also set out longer duration video content on the platform too.

Similarly, in another tweet, Musk announced that, starting from next month, Twitter "will allow media publishers to charge users on a per article basis with one click." Adding further, "This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article."

Elon Musk has been on a mission to really bring up the company’s revenue after a huge drop in advertising revenue since last year October, which is when the world’s second richest person purchased the app for a striking $44 billion.

He similarly added how the firm’s cut from iOS and Android platforms would drop from 30% in the first year to 15% in the second.

Musk, also tweeted about a major software upgrade this week, which includes, "Encrypted DMs & other DM upgrades" for Twitter users.

Lastly, we’re seeing more news on how the company is trying to make way for new measures that prevent underage users from recording on Twitter Spaces.

The news was first set out by mobile developer and social media enthusiast Alessandro Paluzzi on his Twitter account but we’ll keep you updated more on this front as it becomes public by Twitter itself.

Read next: Global Smartphone Shipments Fell 13% In Q1 Of 2023 But Apple Was The Only Brand To Resist The Trend, Claims New Market Intelligence Data
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Reddit Experiments With A New Discord-Like Chat Channel With Select Subreddits

Reddit is carrying out tests for a new Discord-like chat channel with a range of select subreddits.

The company announced the decision on Thursday and revealed how it was on the mission to gain more avenues for members of the community so they could engage with one another, apart from the same old asynchronous system for generating comments.

The company wants to start this new test with nearly 25 volunteer subreddits but it did unveil which ones it hoped to use. It similarly specified those communities who were participating would entail a little less than 100,000 members.

Reddit also unveiled how the channels would be functioning persistently on the navigation bar set out for the community so members would be able to pay a visit more frequently.

The firm also unveiled how it was learning more through various chat products launched in the past such as its community chat rooms endeavor. This was discontinued in the year 2020.

To be more specific, it hoped to provide more control to its moderators on this front. Moreover, there are plenty of plans in place to have dedicated channels that moderators can utilize to better manage users’ subreddits.

People would be able to better decide if they wished to have such features enabled for the community or not.

In addition to that, Reddit wants to be able to provide moderators with an array of tools such as the ability to select which people would be allowed to participate in chats, moderate reported texts, and take part in chat queues too.

In this particular subreddit, the company also mentioned how it has plans to add more features for various channels such as threatening, user mentions, and pinned messages. This alongside push notifications and message edits for senders would be a great thing for the future, it feels.

They will similarly be accepting applications for the moderator position for subreddits that they wish to experiment with in the community.

Most users were pushing back on posts that make announcements of such channels, but now, moderators feel this would launch a great experiment that provides ways for the community to talk with one another.

Reddit mentioned how it adores its tress of posts and the various communities that work on the app and are text-based. They have what people need and give more options to different community members so they can interact in various ways.

For those who may not be aware, communities on Reddit work through external real-time chat servers such as Telegram or Discord where they conduct chats between various members. Therefore, adding such channels would incentivize the community to stay on such platforms.

This platform has really put out a number of ways for liver chats to take place such as the previously famous Clubhouse copy that was called Reddit Talk. Similarly, we had Live Chat posts seen in a community.

And remember, Reddit venturing into this field is not something shocking as it’s not the first firm putting out ways to host chats as WhatsApp did the same with its group chat offering.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World