Detail Duo Detail is a video streaming studio for the Mac and iPhone. Detail Duo is a separate iPhone and iPad app for recording video from the front and back cameras of an iPhone or iPad simultaneously. My son Finn, who is an occasional contributor to MacStories, is part of the development team at Detail...
MarkEdit
I’m always on the lookout for simple Markdown text editors to supplement my primary writing workflow. Most of my writing takes place in Obsidian, but sometimes I prefer to escape the distraction of my many Obsidian tabs and documents to write something short in a different app. I often use a separate app for...
MacStories Unwind: Ted Lasso, Season 3 Premiere
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This week on MacStories Unwind, Federico and John recommend the premiere episode of Ted Lasso, Season 3: Smells Like Mean Spirit
Show Notes
Links and Show Notes
Federico and John’s Pick:
- Ted Lasso, Season 3 Premiere: Smells Like Mean Spirit
The New York Times Declares that Voice Assistants Have Lost the ‘AI Race’→
Brian Chen, Nico Grant, and Karen Weise of The New York Times set out to explain why voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant seem primitive by comparison to ChatGPT. According to ex-Apple, Amazon, and Google engineers and employees, the difference is grounded in the approach the companies took with their assistants:
The assistants and the chatbots are based on different flavors of A.I. Chatbots are powered by what are known as large language models, which are systems trained to recognize and generate text based on enormous data sets scraped off the web. They can then suggest words to complete a sentence.
In contrast, Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant are essentially what are known as command-and-control systems. These can understand a finite list of questions and requests like “What’s the weather in New York City?” or “Turn on the bedroom lights.” If a user asks the virtual assistant to do something that is not in its code, the bot simply says it can’t help.
In the case of Siri, former Apple engineer John Burkey said the company’s assistant was designed as a monolithic database that took weeks to update with new capabilities. Burkey left Apple in 2016 after less than two years at the company according to his LinkedIn bio. According to other unnamed Apple sources, the company has been testing AI based on large language models in the years since Burkey’s departure:
At Apple’s headquarters last month, the company held its annual A.I. summit, an internal event for employees to learn about its large language model and other A.I. tools, two people who were briefed on the program said. Many engineers, including members of the Siri team, have been testing language-generating concepts every week, the people said.
It’s not surprising that sources have told The New York Times that Apple is researching the latest advances in artificial intelligence. All you have to do is visit the company’s Machine Learning Research website to see that. But to declare a winner in ‘the AI race’ based on the architecture of where voice assistants started compared to today’s chatbots is a bit facile. Voice assistants may be primitive by comparison to chatbots, but it’s far too early to count Apple, Google, or Amazon out or declare the race over, for that matter.
Tripsy 2.15 Adds Weather Forecasts, Time Zone Support, and Other Customization Options
Tripsy is more than just an app for storing details about your upcoming trips. It does that and does it well, but it’s also a great way to revisit old trips and get inspired about places you want to visit in the future. We’ve covered Tripsy before, so for more on what the app can do, I recommend checking out our reviews of version 2.10 and version 1.0. With version 2.15, which debuted this week, Tripsy is focused on trip itineraries, adding several ‘quality of life’ features along with better organization for multi-location trips, and improved customization.
AppStories, Episode 320 – Listener Q&A→
This week on AppStories, we answer listener questions about apps, automation, podcasting, tattoos, and more.
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- Squarespace – Make your next move. Enter offer code APPSTORIES at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
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On AppStories+, we cover Untitled Goose Game’s rejection from the Mac App Store, and the curious case of Apple Music Classical.
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Last Week, on Club MacStories: Federico’s RSS Experiments, Picking and Choosing Features from Complex Apps, and an Office Setup
Because Club MacStories now encompasses more than just newsletters, we’ve created a guide to the past week’s happenings:
MacStories Weekly: Issue 359
- Federico is experimenting with Readwise Reader as his RSS client and explains what’s worked well and where the weak points are
- I explain why it’s okay to use just a few features of a complex app, cobbling together a workflow from several apps that works best for you
- App Debuts
- Highlights from the Club MacStories+ Discord
- Interesting links from around the web
- A sneak peek at what’s next on MacStories’ podcasts
- and more
The Macintosh Desktop Experience: My 2023 Mac-Centric Office Setup
In the latest installment of my Club MacStories+ and Club Premier column, I share my new office setup
Apple TV+’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse Wins Oscar
Last night, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced at the 95th Annual Academy Awards ceremony that it had picked The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse for Best Animated Short Film.
The Apple TV+ film, which also recently won a BAFTA Film Award and four Annie Awards, is based on a book by Charlie Mackesy. According to Apple’s press release:
The poignant journey follows the unlikely friendship of a boy, a mole, a fox, and a horse traveling together in the boy’s search for home. The film, featuring Mackesy’s distinctive illustrations brought to life in full color with beautiful hand-drawn animation, stars Tom Hollander as The Mole, Idris Elba as The Fox, Gabriel Byrne as The Horse, and newcomer Jude Coward Nicoll as The Boy.
Zack Van Amburg, Apple’s head of Worldwide Video, commented on the Oscar win:
We are so proud of Charlie and the brilliant team who brought The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse to the screen and we sincerely thank the Academy for tonight’s recognition. This powerful story has deeply affected audiences around the world and has shown that no matter what age you are or where you live, it’s never too late to spread more compassion, empathy, and kindness in our daily lives. Congratulations to everyone involved, including our teams across the globe. We are all celebrating with you tonight.
Last year, Apple TV+ was the first streaming service to ever win the Best Picture Oscar for CODA.
Federico