Elon Musk's X Unveils Anonymous Access in Spaces

This week, X has come up with a cool new feature for Spaces, giving hosts the power to decide if they want non-logged-in and private users to join their chit-chats on the app, as spotted by an app researcher on Threads named Radu Oncescu.

Now, with this "Allow Incognito" setting, Spaces hosts can be the bosses of their audio discussions. For example – hosts can flick this new switch to say yes or no to anonymous users joining their Spaces chats. Basically, they can lock it down to only logged-in users if that's their desired setting.

This whole anonymous joining vibe is a bit like when X let you hide your verification checkmark back in August. Seems like they get that some folks see it as more of a thumbs-down than a cool thing, totally flipping the script on those blue ticks.

No matter what the world thinks, Elon Musk, the big shot behind X, and his habit of getting into controversies. It makes sense that some of his fans might want to keep a low profile, especially after he rubbed shoulders with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in a Spaces discussion. Sure, it's a chat many would love to listen in on, but not everyone wants to shout from the rooftops that they were there.

• Also read: X's November Update: $6.2M mobile revenue, sluggish Premium Plus adoption, awaiting Grok's impact

Musk even threw in an offer to cover legal fees for anyone caught up in the chaos of X, highlighting the real worries some people have about diving into the app. That's where X's incognito mode comes in handy – it's like slipping on an invisibility cloak for those spicy discussions without attaching your name to it.

Sure, not everyone will be bothered to go undercover in Spaces chats, but having the option is pretty neat. It opens the door for non-logged-in users to join and caters to those who want to be a fly on the wall in heated discussions without the spotlight on them.

This new control feature isn't just a gimmick – it's Spaces hosts waving their digital magic wands, taking charge of how much mystery hangs around in their conversations. Right now, they're testing this feature with a chosen few, promising a different spin to the Spaces experience.

Read next: Most of the Reviews on Amazon are Not as Genuine as They Seem
by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World

Most of the Reviews on Amazon are Not as Genuine as They Seem

Holiday shopping can be exciting, but if you are doing it online, it can create some problems. You need to keep in mind that not all reviews on online shopping websites are genuine. Always check the reviews as they shouldn’t be overly positive or negative. Recent study shows that 43% of reviews out of 33.5 million examined on Amazon are fake. This means every other review you read can be fake. Almost 60% of people buy a thing online after reading its reviews. 58% of people don’t find five-star rating genuine, while 43% don’t buy a product with less than four stars rating. For most people, a product needs at least a three-stars, especially for electronics. Fashion items had the most fake reviews. 88% of the 4.5 million reviews analyzed in the study for clothes, shoes, and jewelry were fake and not genuine as the reviews were suggesting.

GetCircuit, a delivery software company, carried out a study that revealed that 1.5 million branded products on Amazon were fake. Apple follows closely with 1 million fake reviews. Circuit's Merritt Ryan says that the products with the most fake reviews were Amazon and Apple products. Third-party sellers are also a great factor in bad ratings. Hanes (an underwear company) had 839,000 fake reviews and Crocs (a footwear brand) had 680,000 fake reviews.

It doesn’t mean that Amazon doesn’t have any genuine ratings at all. Many customers also write genuine and true reviews on the products they buy. When you are buying a product, study its good as well as bad reviews. Look for reviews that give details and talk about what's good and what’s so bad about the product.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has also suggested stopping fake reviews. Amazon also took legal action against fake reviews on its website. Recently, a media outlet talked about an Xbox Series X sold on Amazon in Germany for €380 ($410), but it turned out to be fake. It was sold by a third-party seller. Amazon said they found out and closed the account after looking into it. They want to make sure their store is safe and will do whatever it takes to stop people who do fake ratings.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Gmail Earned Its Highest Revenue till Date After Introducing In-App Purchases on iOS

According to AppFigures latest data, Gmail's earnings on iOS have reached an all-time high peak in terms of its revenue. This may come out as a shock to most people that Gmail, the widely used email platform, also has in-app purchase options that were a major reason for this accomplishment. In recent months, Gmail has appeared on the Top Grossing chart, indicating a surprising rise of revenue. In November alone, Google's iOS app earned $8.9 million in revenue, which was after deducting Apple’s payment. It's worth mentioning that Google does not have in-app purchases on Google Play. So, this means that this revenue is only after collecting data on iOS devices. If Google introduces in-app purchases on Google Play, there is a chance that Gmail’s revenue will grow more.

The data shows that November was the highest revenue month for Gmail since the release of the app, surpassing its own previous highest numbers in October and August. In-app purchases of Gmail were introduced in 2021. After that, Gmail's revenue started constantly rising with only a slight decline in September 2023. After September 2023, the revenue started skyrocketing, because users started doing in-app purchases more frequently.

The biggest source of Gmail's revenue is in-app purchasing for additional storage space. The 100MB storage made Gmail earn the highest amount followed by 200MB and 2TB options. Given allo of the data, it is anticipated that Gmail will continue to climb the Top Grossing chart as in 2024. Now we will have to wait and see what the new year will bring for Gmail. Hopefully, it will all be good. As almost every person uses Gmail, we can say that Gmail has a lot more revenue coming its way.

Read next: X's November Update: $6.2M mobile revenue, sluggish Premium Plus adoption, awaiting Grok's impact
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Tests reveal AI's potential to lie under pressure, posing risks in real-world scenarios

Apollo Research carried out a research which states that when Large Language Model (LLMs) are faced with a lot of queries, the results they give aren’t effective. Co-author of the research, Jérémy Scheurer, says that researchers are worried that powerful AI may start deceiving people, by dodging safety checks and causing harm. That’s why they're working on this to stop AI from deceiving people before it's too late.

Up until now the researchers haven't seen AI lie on its own without telling it to do so, but anytime from now, it can happen. The researchers are creating some tests to show everyone how serious this can be, so it can also gain the attention of other AI researchers.

Researchers teamed up to test how AI might lie under pressure. They fed OpenAI's ChatGPT-4 with information about stock trading to see if it would cheat to win. They asked ChatGPT to act as an AI that is going to make financial investments. They also told the chatbot that it can use all the tools to make trades and earn profits.

They put ChatGPT under-pressure by giving it bad news that the company isn’t doing well and giving it ideas about secret merger tips. This helped them see how the AI might act under real-world pressure, including lying to get ahead. After being under-pressure, the AI bought the merging company's stock and tried to hide the information it received from the insider from its boss. This shows how AI in stressful situations might start lying.

Even when caught red-handed by its boss, the AI was still stuck to its side of the story. The researchers stress that they deliberately made a stressful situation and it doesn’t mean that AI can always do this. It helps us understand and prevent potential AI deception in the future.

This experiment shows how AI might act under pressure but the goal is to build a safer AI in the future, so it doesn’t become a problem. The researchers are already looking for other ways to make trusted AI models.

Read next: Meta Just Released Its Voice Cloning AI, Here’s What You Need to Know
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Temu Tops App Store Rankings for 2023, Puts Amazon in Jeopardy

With 2023 finally drawing to a close, an analysis of which apps ended up receiving the highest quantity of downloads on the app store can be useful because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up determining the direction in which the industry might be headed. It turns out that Temu became the most downloaded app on the App Store this year, at least in terms of free apps.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the Chinese ecommerce platform has been receiving a higher level of engagement than Amazon as of late. This seems to suggest that the tide is shifting in its direction, something that would make Amazon’s status as the foremost ecommerce platform in the world less concrete than might have been the case otherwise.

This wouldn’t be the first time that a Chinese app put American platforms in peril, with TikTok turning the world of social media and short form video streaming on its head after being released. The second most downloaded free app for iOS turned out to be CapCut, which is exclusively geared towards TikTok users that want to be able to create unique edits for their content.

Chinese companies dominated the top ten rankings, with TikTok coming in at number 5, with Google and Meta populating most of the other spots. Threads came in second, potentially putting Twitter, now known as X, at risk of becoming irrelevant, with Instagram and WhatsApp reaching 6th and 9th place respectively with all things having been considered and taken into account.

As for Google, the app for its search engine reached the 7th spot, followed by YouTube at number 8 and Gmail at number 10. The only app that didn’t come from China or either of the two tech juggernauts named above was HBO Max, which just goes to show that the streaming service is managing to make a lot of headway in its battle against Netflix.

The most popular free game of 2023 turned out to be Monopoly Go, with Roblox following closely at number 2, and Minecraft topped the rankings when it came to paid games. These games are seeing quite a lot of popularity on the iPhone, which seems to indicate that their user base will remain strong in 2024.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Meta Collaborates With Ray Ban to Compete With GPT-4V

After releasing its AI based voice cloning tech Audiobox, Meta is set to offer Open AI further competition through a collaboration with Ray Ban that will see it create smart glasses which incorporate multimodal AI with all things having been considered and taken into account. The company is looking to launch this tech in 2024, with Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth announcing this in an Instagram post.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that these glasses will cost $299 to start with, and they will be a direct competitor to GPT-4V. They are a multimodal version of a pair of spectacles that Meta has already partially rolled out which can be operated through voice controls, and the new variant will incorporate far more features into the mix.

The ChatGPT app has been offering a visual component to its AI, and it will be interesting to see if Meta is able to find success with this new product given the largely failed launch of Google Glass. Smart glasses have been on the minds of tech juggernauts for quite some time now, and it might be possible for AI to finally bring them to center stage.

This is also one of the few examples of dedicated AI hardware making its way to the market. Based on the announcement video, it appears that the hardware will need to pair with a smartphone to be fully functional, and that may hamper its ability to reach the level of popularity that it will require in order to sustain an adequate amount of revenue.

One thing that might actually aid these glasses in acquiring a decent market share is that they are bringing Ray Ban into the mix. Such a collaboration may prove fruitful because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up avoiding some of the design pitfalls that held Google Glass back.

With Open AI upping the ante with GPT-4, it was only a matter of time before Meta had to follow suit. The ensuing AI wars will likely yield further advancements, and considering how many big name companies are entering the AI arena, consumers will soon experience an influx of new products of which these glasses will be just one segment.
 
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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

WhatsApp Rolls Out Innovative Feature That Allows Users To Pin Chats Within Conversations

Popular texting platform WhatsApp is launching the ability to allow users to pin chats within conversations.

This includes both one-on-one as well as group chats. Furthermore, the texting platform added how it would include a wide array of data including polls, emojis, pictures, as well as text. But one limitation that has arisen so far has to do with pinning a single chat at any moment in time.

WhatsApp says users can pin chats by simply holding on to any selected convo and pressing on the Pin tab that’s seen on the menu. This way, users can choose from a wide variety of options like 24 hours, one week, and one month as per their personal preference.

That’s going to be super useful in situations when you’re visiting a friend’s home for the first time ever. This way, they could pin the address found at the chat’s top so that it’s easily accessible. Meanwhile, if there is a group, you can pin specific data about any location for accessing regulations or crucial data.

introducing Pinned Messages 📌 now everyone can stay on top of a chat by keeping the important messages up top 🙌 pic.twitter.com/nDcsgoJyga

— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) December 12, 2023

The company further explained how admin members found on the groups can alter settings to see if only admins or any specific member could get the chance to pin the messages found in the group chat.

A list of competitors on WhatsApp is already rolling out the chance to pin the text and offer similar functionalities as witnessed with both Telegram as well as iMessage. And that’s seen for both personal chats or those having to do with groups too. For now, no clarification was provided in terms of the platform planning to extend pinned features from just chats to its Channels as well. After all, the latter has been getting plenty of attention recently.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World