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Android 16 QPR Beta 1.1 brings security features introduced at Google I/O25
Android 16 QPR1 Beta 1.1 brings Google's Advanced Protection and bug fixes for Pixel phones, improving device security, app safety, and network protection
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Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
If Elon Musk and President Donald Trump divorce, who gets Silicon Valley?
Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Last year, Elon Musk was the Pied Piper of support for Donald Trump among Silicon Valley power by one, tech billionaires close to Musk who had either backed Democrats or avoided the political scrum put their money and their time behind the former president's bid to reclaim the White House But the meltdown of the relationship between Trump and Musk on Thursday has thrown that cosiness into question. In the coming days, the billionaires who followed Musk to Washington may be forced to decide whose side they are on in this suddenly personal Silicon Valley, what appeared to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to team up with decision-makers in Washington is looking precarious. Musk was the keystone of the tech industry's relationship with the Trump administration. Without him, it could be up to lesser-known figures, such as venture capitalist David Sacks , a close friend of Musk who has become the Trump administration's artificial intelligence and crypto czar, to maintain those ties."This is a tale as old as time," said Venky Ganesan, a partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures. "Like Icarus, Elon is finding out that if you fly too close to the sun, your wax melts and you crash."Even before Musk announced that he was leaving Washington, there were growing questions about what exactly the tech industry's embrace of the Trump White House was yearslong attempt by the Justice Department to break up Google? Still on track. The Federal Trade Commission's pursuit of Meta , Facebook's parent company? That just wrapped up in a Washington courtroom and is now in the hands of a federal judge. Tariffs on imported goods that could hurt device makers like Apple? Trump seems more determined than ever to see them through."Much better to be aligned with principles than personalities," Ganesan added. "A lesson tech titans might want to learn."Representatives for the White House and Sacks did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Musk did not return an email request seeking 2024, many of the tech industry's boldface names threw their support and hundreds of millions of dollars behind Trump, mainly because he promised to back away from regulating the cryptocurrency industry and keep the federal government's hands off artificial capitalist partners Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz surprised many when they announced they were supporting Trump, though Horowitz changed his mind when former Vice President Kamala Harris, a personal friend, entered the race. (He said, however, that their venture firm still endorsed Trump.) Many of their colleagues, such as the tech mogul hosts of the popular All-In Podcast, which includes Sacks, also endorsed them, Trump has kept up his end of the bargain. He has not only pushed for the deregulation of crypto markets, his family's company has jumped headfirst into them. And Trump's domestic policy bill that angered Musk even contains a provision that would block states from regulating tech industry leaders have not had as much luck. At Trump's inauguration, Apple's Tim Cook, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Google's Sundar Pichai and Musk formed a Mount Rushmore of tech bosses in the crowd behind the new president. Sergey Brin, a Google co-founder who once raced to the airport in San Francisco to protest the travel restrictions of Trump's first administration, was also there. So was OpenAI's Sam Altman, a fellow travel restriction protester. Jensen Huang, CEO Nvidia and relative newcomer to presidential circles, did not attend the inauguration but traveled to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to talk AI results have been mixed. For a while, Cook appeared to have talked Trump out of the tariffs on Chinese imports that would have badly hurt Apple. But Trump changed his mind and created a different set of tariffs that directly targeted Apple. Huang has been blocked from selling chips to China over national security concerns but was awarded a license to sell hundreds of thousands of chips in the Middle East in data centre deals that also brought Altman's company to the Secretary Howard Lutnick told a room of AI leaders, lobbyists and lawmakers this week that the administration would invite foreign investment into AI data centres, reversing Biden administration was speaking at an event hosted by Washington AI Network and sponsored by Meta, Amazon, OpenAI, Microsoft and TikTok, where he announced the administration would rename the U.S. Safety Institute to the centre for AI Standards and Innovation to emphasize growth of the industry over regulation."America must lead in AI, and that means embracing innovation while securing our infrastructure," Lutnick said. "The new centre for AI Standards and Innovation will help ensure developers have clear, trusted guidelines -- without unnecessary regulation -- so we can stay ahead in the global AI race."But if Musk's all-out hostility toward Trump continues, it is difficult to say how Trump will treat Musk's companies and Silicon Valley. Until this past year, Trump showed more interest in old industries like steel and cars and was critical of the tech industry's biggest companies -- as well as a few of the smaller ones. Many Trump supporters are still suspicious that Silicon Valley's peacemaking is just opportunism, and would be happy to see him become more rift with Trump could directly affect efforts in Washington to benefit his companies. At the Federal Communications Commission, SpaceX has intensely lobbied for more access to spectrum for its Starlink satellite wireless service. FCC Chair Brendan Carr has been a vocal supporter of Musk's satellite strategy and his business. At a SpaceX launch in November, Carr posted a photo of the launch with the words, "It's time to unleash America's space economy."Musk saw an opportunity after his Starlink satellite service was shut out of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program created during the Biden administration, which favored fiber internet service over satellite in hard-to-reach rural much of that is up in the air, and Trump has threatened to target the many government contracts held by Musk's companies."This has escalated very quickly, so this rupture absolutely could matter," said Blair Levin, of New Street Research and a former chief of staff to the FCC. Musk's satellite ambitions are tied up in policy debates in federal agencies, Levin said, and "politically it is very easy to tweak things in ways that are very unhelpful to Musk."In an update on the social platform X on Thursday afternoon, Musk posted a video of Trump standing next to a bright red Tesla, parked in front of the White House."Remember this? @realDonaldTrump" Musk wrote.
Mint
3 hours ago
- Mint
Apple's growing list of problems clouds AI reboot
It says something about Apple's current status that its trailing position in artificial intelligence isn't the company's biggest problem. It might seem to be next week, though. Investors are glum ahead of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference that kicks off Monday. The stock has slid 20% since the first of the year, which is the worst run the shares have experienced ahead of the company's WWDC event since at least 2010. Apple's big tech peers now use their own annual developer events almost exclusively to tout their progress in AI. But Apple's conference this year is expected to mainly demonstrate how far behind the company is in what is considered a once-in-a-generation technological shift. The Apple Intelligence service introduced at last year's conference is still a work in progress, and the Siri digital assistant is still awaiting a promised AI makeover. That won't be coming next week, at least based on a rare admission Apple made three months ago that its planned Siri upgrade was taking longer than expected. 'Apple will be much more cautious about overpromising and will refrain from showing features that aren't yet ready for prime time," Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson predicted in a report Thursday. But AI is only one of the significant problems Apple is facing now. Tariffs threaten the profit margins of the company's hardware business. And the president of the U.S. is openly pressuring Apple to effectively undo its two-decade-old business model of exclusively producing its devices overseas. Then there is services, which drive an outsize portion of Apple's bottom line. Legal challenges hang over the fees the company earns from app developers, as well as the payments it receives from Google to make the search engine the default option on Apple's devices. Those fees and payments together comprise a substantial part of Apple's services arm that generates annual gross profit margins of 74%—twice the margins the company's device business commands. 'We caution that Apple has material risks to its revenue growth, margins, and valuation multiple," Needham analyst Laura Martin wrote in a report on Wednesday, where she downgraded the stock to a 'hold" rating. Against the risk of tariffs, App Store fee reductions and the loss of Google payments, Apple's slow start in AI seems almost a minor worry. The company hasn't been marketing Apple Intelligence as a premium service that would cost users extra—a notable contrast to the approach of Microsoft and Alphabet's Google, which are charging money for most of the generative AI tools sold to their customers. But Apple needs to give customers more reasons to buy its devices, and upgrade them more frequently. Its flagship iPhone business has been in a rut, with revenue growth relatively flat over the past two years and expected to be flat again for the current fiscal year ending in September. The lack of new AI offerings is expected to weigh on the next cycle as well, with Wall Street expecting iPhone revenue growth of only 3% in fiscal 2026, according to FactSet estimates. 'We believe that, for this stock to work, it must have the catalyst of an iPhone replacement cycle, which we do not foresee in the next 12 months," Needham's Martin wrote in her report. Apple has a lot of very loyal customers—more than 2.35 billion active devices make up its installed base—who won't necessarily bail over a single piece of missing software. But the company that disrupted the smartphone market could be disrupted itself if generative AI creates a new class of devices that obviate the need for a touch screen slab in everyone's pocket. OpenAI just nabbed Jony Ive, the famed Apple designer who crafted the original versions of most of Apple's current product line, as part of an ambition to eventually ship 100 million 'AI companions." The first devices are expected to come out next year. The famously secretive Apple could very well spring some of its own surprises by then. But it will have to do so while juggling its global supply chain and deftly navigating the legal challenges to its App Store fees and Google payments. Apple isn't even officially a party to the Google case, which might limit its options to shape the outcome. Apple's slow start in AI is a problem, but compared to its other challenges, at least it is more under its control.
Hindustan Times
4 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Google Messages is getting major update to improve photos and videos browsing
Google Messages is getting a handy update to make looking through photos and videos easier. Instead of jumping back to the chat each time, you'll soon be able to swipe through media smoothly. You can swipe left or right to see newer or older files and even react with emojis or reply directly. This swipe feature works in a similar way to how it does on apps like WhatsApp, where moving through photos and videos feels quick and easy. Google hasn't rolled it out to everyone yet, but the feature has already been seen in a test version of the app. But there is more on the way. Google is also working on a new media section that shows all shared content in one place. If you're looking for an old video or photo in a long chat, you won't have to scroll endlessly. Instead, you can go to this new section from the chat details screen and find all your media listed together. This is much like what WhatsApp and Telegram already offer. These updates are part of Google's bigger plan to improve Messages. Over the past few years, it has introduced Rich Communication Services or RCS, which adds features like typing indicators and read receipts. However, even with RCS, many users still prefer other apps. That's why Google is slowly adding more tools to make Messages more useful and up to date. Features like swipe browsing and a dedicated media overview section are making the app much easier to use. While these updates may seem minor, they can significantly improve the experience for people who rely on the app daily. If you use Messages regularly to keep in touch with friends and family, these additions will help make your conversations more organised and simpler to navigate. Over time, these improvements could change how smoothly you interact with photos and videos in your chats, making the app feel more polished and user-friendly.
