Stop juggling six different chat apps. There is a better way.
If you're frazzled from ping-ponging among a bunch of apps to check your chat messages, let me suggest a balm for your addled brain.
I'm a fan of Beeper, a mostly free app with a single inbox to read and reply to chats and direct messages from about a dozen services, including Google's texting app for Android phones, WhatsApp, Slack, Meta's Messenger, Instagram, LinkedIn and X.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
AI-driven search ad spending set to surge to $26 billion by 2029, data shows
By Jaspreet Singh (Reuters) -Spending on AI-powered search advertising is poised to surge to nearly $26 billion by 2029 from just over $1 billion this year in the U.S., driven by rapid adoption of the technology and more sophisticated user targeting, data from Emarketer showed on Wednesday. Companies that rely on traditional keyword-based search ads could experience revenue declines due to the growing popularity of AI search ads, which offer greater convenience and engagement for users, according to the research firm. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Search giants such as Alphabet-owned Google and Microsoft's Bing have added AI capabilities to better compete with chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Perplexity AI, which provide users with direct information without requiring to click through multiple results. Apple is exploring the integration of AI-driven search capabilities into its Safari browser, potentially moving away from its longstanding partnership with Google. The report has come as concerns grew about users increasingly turning to the chatbots for conversational search and AI-powered search results could upend business models of some companies. Online education firm Chegg said in May that it would lay off about 248 employees as it looks to cut costs and streamline operations because students are using AI-powered tools including ChatGPT over traditional edtech platforms. QUOTE "Publishers and other sites are feeling the pain from AI search. As they lose out on traffic, we're seeing publishers lean into subscriptions and paid AI licensing deals to bolster revenue," Emarketer analyst Minda Smiley said. GRAPHIC CONTEXT AI search ad spending is expected to constitute nearly 1% of total search ad spending this year and 13.6% by 2029 in the U.S., according to Emarketer. Sectors such as financial services, technology, telecom, and healthcare are embracing AI as they are seeing clear advantages in using the technology to enhance their ad strategies, while the retail industry's adoption is slow, the report said. Google recently announced the expansion of its AI-powered search capabilities into the consumer packaged goods sector through enhancements in Google Shopping. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Geek Wire
35 minutes ago
- Geek Wire
Seattle startup backed by former Google CEO lands $16M to automate repetitive tasks on a computer
GeekWire's startup coverage documents the Pacific Northwest entrepreneurial scene. Sign up for our weekly startup newsletter , and check out the GeekWire funding tracker and venture capital directory . Vercept team members, from left: Matt Deitke, co-founder; Kiana Ehsani, CEO; Ross Girshick, co-founder; Cam Sloan, member of technical staff; Kuo-Hao Zeng, founding researcher; Harshitha Rebala, member of technical staff; Eric Kolve, founding engineer; and Luca Weihs, co-founder. Not pictured: Oren Etzioni, co-founder. (Vercept Photo) Vercept revealed this week that it raised a $16 million seed round in January from venture capital firms and prominent tech leaders to build what it describes as the 'computer interface of the future.' The Seattle-based startup, founded last year by a group of former Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) research leaders, has some big name backers including Eric Schmidt, former CEO and chairman at Google; Jeff Dean, chief scientist of Google DeepMind; Kyle Vogt, founder and former CEO of Cruise; Arash Ferdowsi, co-founder of Dropbox; and other longtime tech vets. San Francisco-based Fifty Years led the seed round, which also included Point Nine and Seattle-based AI2 Incubator, the company's first institutional investor. GeekWire first covered Vercept in February when it emerged from stealth mode. Vercept last month revealed Vy, its Mac app that 'sees' and understands computer screens like a human would. It records a user performing tasks across different software or websites — and then autonomously runs the same workflow from a natural language command. The idea is to use AI to automate repetitive tasks, like entering data, producing video content, organizing invoices, and more. Vercept is similar to so-called robotic process automation (RPA) companies such as UiPath and Automation Anywhere, which deploy software robots that mimic human actions. But the startup is 'fundamentally different,' said Vercept CEO and co-founder Kiana Ehsani, who described the product as a 'unified paradigm for interacting with the computer.' 'Unlike traditional RPA solutions, Vy doesn't require hardcoded interactions, pre-built connectors, or APIs to engage with new software,' Ehsani said. 'Whether dealing with legacy applications that lack APIs or modern web platforms, Vy's form of interaction remains consistent, intuitive, and flexible.' OpenAI (Operator), Google (Project Mariner), Amazon (Nova Act), and others recently released tools that automate tasks across browsers and apps, fueled by advances in generative AI. Vercept is building its own model called VyUI, which powers its soon-to-be-released API. 'We envision developers using our API to build a wide range of products and applications, for example: automatic UI test suites, computer and web use agents, RPA solutions, and so on,' the company says on its website. Vercept says VyUI beats competitors on various benchmarks. Ehsani didn't share user growth metrics or revenue data, but said the reception to Vy has exceeded expectations. 'Our user community is wonderfully diverse, from individuals with disabilities integrating their own speech-to-text systems to remotely control their computers, to students leveraging Vy to streamline their homework tasks, to businesses using Vy to automate their workflows,' she told GeekWire. Ehsani previously oversaw the Ai2 robotics and embodied artificial intelligence teams as a senior researcher. Others on the Vercept founding team include: Oren Etzioni, who was the founding CEO of AI2 before stepping down in 2022. Matt Deitke, who led the development of Ai2 research projects including Molmo, ProcTHOR, and Objaverse. Luca Weihs, previously Ai2 research manager and infrastructure team lead, working in areas including AI agents and reinforcement learning. Ross Girshick, a pioneer in the combination of computer vision and deep learning, and a former research scientist at Meta AI and Ai2. Vercept has eight full-time employees. The company was spotlighted in a recent Startup Radar post on GeekWire.
Gizmodo
an hour ago
- Gizmodo
Fitbit Inspire 3 Is the Top-Selling Fitness Tracker on Amazon, Now at Its Lowest Price Just in Time for Summer
Right now, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is the number one best-selling fitness tracker on Amazon. Google bought Fitbit some years ago and the company has been improving its products bit by bit since then. The software as well as the hardware has been upgraded, and Fitbit products are now more convenient to use than ever. Out of their offerings, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is now a favorite among the majority of people: It gets the ideal balance of offering a lot of features that most consumers want and not having any big price sticker like more featured fitness watches. As of now, it's Amazon's best-selling fitness tracker and thanks to a deal that expires soon, you can get it for just $79 instead of the normal $99, which is a great 20% discount and lowest ever. See at Amazon Even though more intelligent smartwatches and activity trackers might be outrageously expensive, the Inspire 3 offers a solid array of health and exercise tracking features for a small fraction of the cost. That makes it an ideal choice for whoever would like to ensure that they are actually committed to health and fitness without spending too much. Technically speaking, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is surprisingly well-equipped for its price category: The fitness tracker has continuous 24/7 heart rate tracking and tracks your pulse during the day and during exercise to gain insight into your cardiovascular health. It has over 20 exercise modes and automatically recognizes physical activity so you don't miss a beat monitoring your toil. The Daily Readiness Score tells you how prepared your body is to exercise and Active Zone Minutes ensure that you're maximizing each workout session. Besides activity monitoring, the Inspire 3 is a wellness tracker: It offers an always-on wellness dashboard, a daily Stress Management Score, and mindfulness guided sessions to manage stress more effectively. The watch also offers irregular heart rhythm alerts, SpO2 tracking for blood oxygen saturation, menstrual health tracking, and high and low heart rate alerts. But there's more : It also tracks your sleep phases automatically and provides you with a personalized Sleep Profile and a comprehensive daily Sleep Score. The vibrating smart wake alarm gently awakens you during your best sleep period and Sleep Mode minimizes disruptions from notifications at night. All of this is displayed on a vibrant color touchscreen that is clear to read and customizable with an array of different clock faces. The tracker is very light and water-resistant to 50 meters so it's great for swimming and everyday wear. It includes an impressive battery life of up to 10 days which lets you get more than a week out of it before needing to recharge. The device keeps you connected to call, text, and app notifications from your phone so you never miss an essential update. As a reward, each purchase includes a six-month Fitbit Premium subscription which unlocks personalized insights, advanced analytics, and special content to help you get even more out of your device. With its low cost and great functions, it's no surprise the Inspire 3 is currently the number one best-selling fitness tracker on Amazon. See at Amazon
