The First Foldable iPhone Will Arrive Next Year in Un-Apple-Like Fashion
When the first foldable iPhone debuts next year, it will be the least Apple-like launch ever. Also: The M5 iPad Pro is set to get a notable improvement; Meta snags two more Apple AI researchers; and Google sets the date for its Pixel 10 launch.
Last week in Power On: Tim Cook isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but a broader shake-up is looming.
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Android Authority
a few seconds ago
- Android Authority
Gemini storybooks let you be the star of your kids' bedtime stories
Stephen Schenck / Android Authority TL;DR Gemini now lets you generate illustrated storybooks. You can direct output towards a specific art style, and even upload your own imagery. Gemini lets you direct how the story unfolds, and can read it aloud when completed. As Google builds out its AI-fueled tools and services, we keep seeing impressive new ways the company manages to 'connect the dots' and create something new and useful out of existing pieces. Just look at Audio Overviews: Gemini could already summarize content, and Google has tons of experience when it comes to synthesizing speech, so combining those to make virtual podcasts made perfect sense. Last month we checked out some early evidence towards another new feature that would smartly combine a number of Gemini's skills, and today it's finally going official. We're talking about Gemini storybooks, which Google has just launched today. The idea is simple: Ask Gemini to tell you a story, and it will combine its generative text and imagery capabilities to weave together a 10-page tale. You can provide as much story direction as you please, and can also steer how the artwork turns out, having Gemini render its pages in the art style of your choice. There's even support for uploading pictures of people or elements you want included. While this is clearly a feature designed to entertain and educate young children, it is a heck of a lot of fun to play with for Gemini users of all ages, and we've already been pretty impressed with some of what it's come up based on our prompts. Stephen Schenck / Android Authority For the record, that is indeed exactly how well-groomed and attractive everyone at Android Authority appears. While we're generally happy with our first attempts playing with Gemini storybooks, there are still occasionally a few rough edges, and most popped up with the artwork it generated — the occasional wonky-looking logo, or sometimes forgetting the art style entirely and switching to photo-realistic characters. But this is technically still an experiment for the moment, so that sort of thing is probably only to be expected. The more important factor is that Gemini makes it easy to go back and revise pages. Even there, though, getting exactly what you want out of the tool can be a little delicate. For instance, we requested a specific change on page 8 of our story, and Gemini still went back and changed the art of page 1 here, inexplicably putting a screen on the backside of a monitor: Stephen Schenck / Android Authority Issues like that can be a little frustrating, but ultimately don't take away from much of the fun of this tool. And let's face it, with the audience Gemini storybooks are intended for, we doubt those young readers will be especially picky about the random hallucination or two. Storybooks are available now in Gemini on both your desktop and in the mobile app. Share the best of what you're able to create with us down in the comments. Follow
CNET
a few seconds ago
- CNET
How Will the iPhone 17 Compare to the iPhone 16? Here's What to Expect
Over the weekend, I went to the Verizon store and saw a startling number of people buying a new iPhone 16. It took everything in me not to chime in with, "Are you sure you don't want to wait and see what Apple has planned for the iPhone 17?" With the anticipated launch of the iPhone 17 in September, it could be a good idea to hang tight and either purchase the new phone or get the iPhone 16 at a discounted price. Apple still hasn't confirmed the existence of the iPhone 17, and we don't have any official specs or features, but here's how it could compare to the iPhone 16, according to rumors and speculation. iPhone 16 vs. iPhone 17: Key rumored specs compared We still don't have any confirmed details about the iPhone 17, but that hasn't stopped the rumor mill from churning and purported leaks from making the rounds. Speculation extends across the entire iPhone 17 lineup, from the Pro models to what could be a thinner "Air" version (which may be Apple's answer to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge). But I'm going to focus on the baseline iPhone 17. Screen differences One of the most highly anticipated changes could be that the iPhone 17 adds a 120Hz display, which would be very welcome. Currently, only the iPhone Pro models have that higher refresh rate, while the baseline and Plus models are stuck with a 60Hz display. Bumping that refresh rate could also prompt Apple to bring the always-on display to the baseline model, making it easier to quickly glance at the time and your notifications without waking your display. There's been some back-and-forth on whether the iPhone 17 will have a scratch-resistant, antireflective display. But the most recent reports suggest that feature will only be available on the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, not the baseline iPhone 17 (or the Air). So there may not be major discrepancies between the iPhone 16 and 17 on that front. Camera differences It's possible the iPhone 17's selfie camera will get a bump to 24 megapixels, instead of the current 12 megapixels found in the iPhone 16's front-facing shooter. Megapixels aren't the only determining factor for good-quality photos, but if it is an upgrade, that could make taking selfies or shooting videos for social media on the front-facing camera less of a compromise. There's also been some conversation about the camera bump on Apple's upcoming iPhone lineup. It's likely that only the Pro models' cameras will be nestled in a new, larger panel that stretches horizontally across the back of the phone (perhaps evoking the "Geordi Visor" on the Google Pixel 9) and that the baseline will maintain a similar camera arrangement to the iPhone 16. Only time will tell. Design differences Rumors suggest that like the iPhone 16, the iPhone 17 will have an aluminum frame. (In fact, it's possible that'll be the case for the entire lineup, apart from the iPhone 17 Air, which could have a titanium frame to make it lighter.) There have also been reports that the iPhone 17 will use a new compact "metalens" technology for the proximity sensor, which could reduce the size of the Face ID sensor and the Dynamic Island. That could give slightly more real estate to the top of the 17's display. Processor and RAM One key element that could remain unchanged across both phones is the processor. The iPhone 17 is rumored to pack an A18 chip, just like the iPhone 16. With Apple's plans to expand its Apple Intelligence suite of AI capabilities, it's possible the iPhone 17 lineup could come with 12GB of RAM, instead of the current 8GB -- or at least part of it could. In April, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the iPhone 17 Air and Pro models would sport 12GB of RAM but that Apple was still deciding whether to equip the baseline model with that higher amount too. In May, analyst Jeff Pu noted the baseline would remain at 8GB. We'll have to wait to see what Apple ultimately decides. Speaking of Apple Intelligence, a new AI-powered Adaptive Power feature arriving with iOS 26 can help conserve battery by making "small performance adjustments," like "allowing some activities to take a little longer," according to Apple. The next iPhone is expected to arrive with the upcoming operating system onboard, but you'll also be able to download iOS 26 on the iPhone 16, as well as some older iPhones, once it becomes available publicly. That should help to stretch your battery life on either device. Color options What's on the inside may be most important, but people also want to know what fun colors the iPhone 17 could sport. Rumors suggest the upcoming device could come in black, blue, silver, purple and green. For comparison, the iPhone 16 is available in black, white, pink, teal and ultramarine. Everything we think we know about the iPhone 17 is still just speculation, so we'll have to see what Apple unveils this fall. Should you buy an iPhone 16 now or wait for the iPhone 17? If you're in desperate need of a new phone and can't wait any longer, who am I to stop you? But if you can hang tight until September, when Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 17, you can either score the flashy new device or get a discount on the iPhone 16. (In previous years, the company dropped the price on older models by around $100.) It's likely the changes between the iPhone 16 and 17 will be relatively modest. Apple tends to debut newer features on its Pro models before eventually rolling them out across the full lineup, like it did with the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max and the Action button on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. So any shiny new capabilities will likely land on its more premium phones first, such as the rumored antireflective display and redesigned cameras on the iPhone 17 Pro models. But perhaps the biggest changes could arrive next year with the 20th anniversary of the iPhone, for which Apple is reportedly "preparing a major shake-up" of the phone's design, according to Bloomberg. That includes a (long-rumored) foldable version and a "bold new Pro model that makes more extensive use of glass." The iPhone 17 may not even be announced yet, but it's never too early to be looking even further ahead.
Gizmodo
a few seconds ago
- Gizmodo
Leaked ChatGPT Conversations Show People Asking the Bot to Do Some Dirty Work
This should go without saying, but ChatGPT is not a confidant. That has not stopped people from asking the chatbot deeply personal questions, giving it problematic prompts, and trying to outsource incredibly unethical business practices to it—some of which have been made public thanks to some poor design that resulted in chats being made indexed and searchable by search engines. Digital Digging, a Substack run by investigator Henk van Ess, reported last week that the 'Share' function in ChatGPT, designed to allow people to share part of a conversation with others, created a public page for the chat rather than a private one that is only accessible by those who receive the link. As a result, those public-facing pages got archived by search engines, making those conversations accessible to anyone who finds their way to the link. Obviously, many of those conversations should be private. OpenAI has since removed the ability to make chats publicly accessible (the company's Chief Information Security Officer, Dane Stuckey, said on Twitter that it was a 'short-lived experiment to help people discover useful conversations') and started to get the indexed results removed from search engines. But they are out there—including plenty that have been saved by the near-encyclopedic And they do not show the best that humanity has to offer. In one particularly jarring case that Digital Digging highlighted, an Italian user told the chatbot, 'I am the lawyer for a multinational group active in the energy sector that intends to displace a small Amazonian indigenous community from their territories in order to build a dam and a hydroelectric plant.' The user told the chatbot the indigenous people 'don't know the monetary value of land and have no idea how the market works' and asked 'How can we get the lowest possible price in negotiations with these indigenous people?' That's the type of transparently evil behavior you usually don't get without months' worth of discovery and lots of lawyer fees. One chat showed a person who identified themselves as working at an international think tank and proceeded to use ChatGPT to work through scenarios in which the United States government collapses, seeking preparedness strategies just in case. (Frankly, not a bad idea.) Another showed a lawyer, who was made to take over a coworker's case after a sudden accident, request that ChatGPT formulate their defense for them, before realizing they were representing the other side of the litigation. In many of these cases, the people offered identifiable information in the chats, from names to sensitive financial data. And while it's at least a little amusing if not at least a bit concerning that ostensible experts and professionals are tasking AI with doing their job, there is a much more troubling reality in some of these chats. Digital Digging found examples of domestic violence victims working through plans to escape their situation. Another chat revealed an Arabic-speaking user asking for help in crafting a critique of the Egyptian government, leaving them vulnerable to potential persecution by an authoritarian government that has jailed and killed dissidents in the past. The whole situation is a bit reminiscent of when voice assistants were new and it was revealed that recordings of people's conversations were being used to train voice recognition and transcription products. The difference is that chats feel more intimate and allow people to be much more verbose than short back-and-forths with Siri, leading them to reveal much more information about themselves and their situation—especially when they never expected anyone else to read it.
