Adobe’s Firefly Generative AI-Models Are Now Generally Available

Adobe,

Adobe posted news titled: “Adobe Express With AI-Powered Firefly Integration Now Commercially Available”. Here are some parts of this news:

Latest Innovations in Express

AI-first, all-in-one editor gives users the ability to make high-impact design elements, engaging videos and images, stunning PDFs, animation and standout content ready for Instagram, TikTok, and other social channels and platforms.

Firefly integrated into Express makes it possible to quickly generate custom images and text effects from text prompts in over 100 languages and designed to be safe for commercial use. Plus, more AI-power helps creators to take the guesswork out of design and quickly find the perfect addition to content or get personalized template recommendations that fit unique styles, to create social media posts, videos, posters, flyers and more.

Deep workflows with Creative Cloud apps allow users to easily access, edit and work with creative assets from Photoshop and Illustrator directly within Express, or add linked files that always stay in sync across apps.

Brand Control Features unlock creativity across the Enterprise, given users the ability to create, edit, and version brand approved assets to deliver on-brand quality content at scale.

PDF Support in the new all-in-one editor makes it even easier to import, edit, and enhance documents to create visually stunning PDF’s.

Quick actions like remove background in images and videos, animate a character using just audio, convert to GIF and edit PDFs, makes it even easier to create standout content quickly and simply.

Real-time co-editing and seamless review and comment capabilities add speed to the creation process.

176 days after launching its Firefly generative AI models into beta, Adobe announced that Firefly is now generally and commercially available in its Creative Cloud, Adobe Express and Adobe Experience Cloud, TechCrunch reported.

According to TechCrunch, Adobe also announced how it plans to charge for Firefly going forward. The company is going to use what it calls “generative credits’ to measure how often users interact with these models. Basically, every time you click ‘generate’ to create a Firefly image, you’ll consume one credit (and the company retooled the Firefly web app, for example, so that it doesn’t automatically start generating images before you’ve made all of the tweaks you wanted to make.)

TechCrunch also reported that everybody on existing paid Adobe plans will get access to quite a few of these generative credits. Here is the full list:

* Cloud All Apps: 1,000
* Creative Cloud Single App (include Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Premier Pro, AfterEffects
Audition, Animate Dreamweaver, Stock, Photography 1TB): 500
* Adobe Stock paid subscriptions: 500
* Adobe Express Premium: 250
* Adobe Firefly Premium: 100
* Creative Cloud for Enterprise All Apps: 1,000
* Creative Cloud Pro Plus All Apps: 3,000
* Free Users with an Adobe ID; Adobe Express, Adobe Firefly, Creative Cloud: 25

TechCrunch noted that once you run out of those credits – at least on most of these plans – you won’t lose access to Firefly, but it will run significantly slower.

Engadget that generative AI has not exactly been greeted with the warmest of welcomes, mostly on account of it ripping off an entire internet’s worth of art for its training. Then there was the whole subsequent “replacing actual artists with cheap AI knockoffs after stealing their work for training purposes” issue as well.

Personally, I’m not a fan of AI-created content. I very much prefer making my own artwork by hand, like I was taught when I was in college. Any art I choose to post online is behind a locked account – specifically to prevent an AI from stealing my work.

FTC Says Elon Musk May Have Jeopardized Data Privacy And Security

X, ,

Court filings have revealed new details about the FTC’s investigation into Elon Musk over his handling of privacy and security issues at X. In newly public court documents, the Department of Justice says Musk fostered a “chaotic environment” at Twitter, now known as X, that prevented officials from complying with their obligations to the FTC, Engadget reported.

According to Engadget, the FTC investigation stems from a 2022 settlement between FTC and Twitter over the company’s use of deceptive ad targeting under the leadership of Jack Dorsey. Prior to Musk’s takeover, the company paid a $150 million fine and signed on to an agreement to implement specific privacy and security measures. It was this additional data protection measures that apparently fell by the wayside once Musk took control, triggering new scrutiny from the regulator.

In March, the FTC began investigating the rushed rollout of Twitter Blue, which reportedly launched without the privacy and security review required under the FTC order, as well as Musk’s handling of the so-called “Twitter Files.”

CNN reported that Elon Musk should be forced to testify in an expansive US government probe of X, the company formerly known as Twitter, the US government said.

The government said mass layoffs and other decisions Musk made raised questions about X’s ability to comply with the law and to protect users’ privacy.

According to CNN, the US government’s attempt to compel Musk’s testimony is the latest turn in an investigation that predates Musk’s acquisition of X that has intensified due to Musk’s own actions, according to a court filing by the Justice Department on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission.

The court filing dated Monday cites depositions with multiple former X executives, including its former chief information security officer and former chief privacy officer, who testified that a barrage of layoffs and resignations following Musk’s $44 billion takeover may have hindered X from meeting its security obligations under a 2011 FTC consent agreement.

The Guardian reported that the US Department of Justice alleged in a legal filing on Tuesday that depositions from former employees at Twitter, now rebranded X, raised “serious questions” about whether the company was complying with an order imposed by the consumer and competition watchdog, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

“The information obtained revealed a chaotic environment at the company that raised serious questions about whether and how Musk and other leaders were ensuring X Corp’s compliance with the 2022 administrative order,” the filing said.

According to The Guardian, Twitter’s former director of security engineering, Andrew Sayler, testified that he had “ongoing questions about Elon’s commitment to the overall security and privacy of the organization” because he thought “the manner in which Elon was requesting us to grant access to third parties that had not undergone our regular vetting process … [had] some degree of disregard for the overall sensitivity and security at that level of access”.

In a further example from the filing, another employee said the Tesla CEO “insisted on launching the new Twitter Blue user verification services on an accelerated basis, despite staffing limitations.” Musk, according to the testimony, insisted that the service had to launch “right now” even though Twitter’s staffing was reduced so drastically that remaining employees were “struggling to keep up.”

Personally, I think that Elon Musk should have slowed down the changes he made on (then) Twitter (and later) X. I think this lawsuit could have been avoided if Elon Musk didn’t try to do a speed-run of scattered policies shortly after he purchased Twitter.

Google Allegedly Monopolized Internet Search For A Decade

google,

The watershed antitrust trial pitting the US Government against Google began on Tuesday in a Washington district court, as the government started to argue its case that the tech giant illegally abused its power to monopolize internet search, The Guardian reported. The case is the biggest test of antitrust law in decades and the first such case against Google to go to trial in the US.

According to The Guardian, the trial is set to last 10 weeks, over the course of which the government will make its case that Google leveraged its market power and wealth to strangle competition. Google spent billions on deals with companies such as Apple and Samsung to make itself the default search browser on their devices, which the government alleges shut out competition and allowed Google to attain a monopoly on searching the internet.

Google denies the justice department’s allegations. The company’s longtime chief legal officer, Kent Walker, has argued that consumers can still freely use any rival search engines and that Google’s services represent a fraction of the ways that people browse the internet.

The Guardian also reported that Judge Amit Mehta, an Obama appointee from 2014, is presiding over the case and will decide on a ruling. There is no jury in the trial. Throughout the first day, Mehta challenged attorneys in both sides of the case to clarify their argument that people could easily switch internet browsers from their default setting, asking how often people actually do that.

CNBC reported lawyers for the Department of Justice and a coalition of state attorneys general led by Colorado faced Google on Tuesday, as the 10-week trial kicked off in Washington, D.C., District Court. Day one of the trial set the stage for how the government and Google would argue their opposing views of how the company has maintained a large slice of the search market for years.

According to CNBC, the government’s case is that Google has kept its share of the general search market by creating strong barriers to entry and a feedback loop that sustained its dominance.

Google says it’s simply been the preferred choice of consumers. That popularity, the company says, is why browser makers and phone manufacturers have chosen Google as their default search engine through revenue-sharing agreements.

TechCrunch reported that the Justice Department’s landmark antitrust case against Google marks the beginning of a trial that will stretch on for months, potentially upending the tech world in the process.

At issue is Google’s search business. The Justice Department says that Google has run afoul of antitrust laws in the course of maintaining its top spot in search, while the tech giant argues that it maintains its dominance naturally by offering consumes a superior product.

According to TechCrunch, the Justice Department filed the civil antitrust against Google in late 2020 after examining the company’s business for more than a year.

A large coalition of state attorneys general also filed their own parallel suit against Google, but Judge Amit Mehta decided that the states did not clear the bar that would allow them to go to trial with their own complaints about Google’s search ranking practices.

Personally, I think it is obvious that this is a court case that is going to take a very long time to sort out. We will just have to wait and see what Judge Mehta decides.

Unity Introduces New Fees – Developers React

Gaming,

Unity posted information on its blog that appears to have made game developers angry. The blog was titled: “Unity plan pricing and packaging updates”. Here is a piece of that blog:

Effective January 1, 2024, we will introduce a new Unity Runtime Fee that’s based on game installs. We will also add cloud-based asset storage, Unity DevOps tools, and AI at runtime at no extra cost to Unity subscription plans this November.

As many of you know, the Unity Engine is in fact two substantial software components – the Unity Editor and the Unity Runtime. The Unity Runtime is code that executes on player devices and makes Made with Unity games work at scale, with billions of monthly downloads.

We are introducing a Unity Runtime Fee that is based upon each time a qualifying game is downloaded by an end user. We chose this because each time a game is downloaded, the Unity Runtime is also installed. Also we believe that an initial install-based fee allows creators to keep the ongoing financial gains form player engagement, unlike a revenue share…

…Only games that meet the following thresholds qualify for the Unity Runtime Fee:

Unity Personal and Unity Plus: Those that have made $200,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 200,000 lifetime game installs.

Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise: Those that have made $1,000,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 1,000,000 lifetime game installs.

Game Developer reported:  As for why Unity has chosen to introduce these new fees, Unity Create president Marc Whitten told Game Developer the company is seeking to “better balance the value exchange” between Unity and developers.

After discussing the ins and outs of the fee, Whitten chose to speak more plainly about why Unity is charging developers an additional fee.  As he put it, “we want to make more money so that we can continue to invest in the engine.”

Axios reported that Unity, the tech company behind one of the most popular engines for creating video games, is scrambling to clarify how a price increase for its services will work, after its announcement Tuesday morning broadly infuriated the game development community.

The fees, which Unity said are essential for funding development of its tech, left many game makers wondering if having a hit game through Unity would cost them more than they could make, Axios reported.

Developers spoke throughout the day of delaying their games to switch to rival Epic Games’ Unreal Engine or other series on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

After initially telling Axios earlier Tuesday that a player installing a game, deleting it, and installing it again would result in multiple fees, Unity’s Whitten told Axios that the company would actually only charge for an install installation. 

Whitten also told Axios that runtime fees will also not charged for installations of game demos, unless the demo is part of a download that includes the full game (early access games would be charged for an installation, he noted). 

Games offered for charity or included in charity bundles will be exempt from the fees. Unity will provide a way for developers to inform Unity that their games are being offered that way, Whitten said.

As for Game Pass and other subscriptions,  Whitten said that developers like Aggro Crab would not be on the hook, as the fees are charged to distributors, which in the Game Pass example would be Microsoft.

Personally, I think that Unity is likely going to lose a lot of game developers who will move to a different system to build games with. Unity made a big mistake, one that game developers will remember.

 

Apple Unveils iPhone 15 Pro And iPhone 15 Pro Max

Apple, ,

Apple today debuted iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, designed with an aerospace-grade titanium that’s strong yet lightweight to deliver Apple’s lightest Pro models ever. The new design also features contoured edges and a customizable Action button, allowing users to personalize their iPhone experience.

Powerful camera upgrades enable the equivalent of seven pro lenses with incredible image quality, including a more advanced 48MP Main camera system that now supports the new super-high-resolution 24MP default, the next generation of portraits with Focus and Depth Control, improvements to Night Mode and Smart HDR, and an all-new 5x Telephoto camera exclusively on iPhone 15 Pro Max.

A17 Pro unlocks next-level gaming experiences and pro performances. The new USB-C connector is supercharged with USB 3 speeds – up to 20x faster than USB 2 – and together with new video formats, enables powerful pro workflows that were not possible before. And with the addition of Roadside Assistance via satellite, the iPhone 15 Pro lineup builds on Apple’s innovative satellite infrastructure to connect users to help if they have car trouble while off the grid.

iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will be available in four stunning new finishes, including black titanium, white titanium, blue titanium, and natural titanium. Pre-orders begin Friday, September 15, with availability beginning Friday, September 22.

“This is the most pro lineup we have ever created, with a state-of-the-art titanium design, the best iPhone camera system yet that enables game-changing new workflows, and the A17 Pro chip, which ushers in a new chapter of performance and games never before seen on iPhone,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max represent the best of Apple design and industry-first innovations to help enrich the everyday experiences of our users, while enabling them to unleash their creativity.”

A Stunning, Lightweight, and Durable Design

Available in 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch display sizes, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max feature a strong and lightweight titanium design – a first for iPhone. This premium alloy – the same used in spacecraft – has one of the highest strength-to-weight ratios of any metal, making this Apple’s lightest Pro lineup ever. Both models feature a new refined brush texture, contoured edges, and the thinnest borders on iPhone.

The Pro lineup is built to last, combining the strength of titanium with the toughest back glass in a smartphone and the industry-leading Ceramic Shield on the front. Using an industry-first thermo-mechanical process, the titanium bands encase a new substructure made from 100 percent recycled aluminum, bonding these two metals with incredible strength through solid-state diffusion. The aluminum frame helps with thermal dissipation and allows the back glass to be easily replaced. This new design highlights the Super Retina XDR display with Always-On and ProMotion technologies for an exceptional viewing experience.

The all-new Action button replaces the single-function switch used to toggle between ring and silent, offering additional options so uses can choose between quickly accessing the camera or flashlight; activating Voice Memos, Focus modes, Translate, and accessibility features like Magnifier; or using Shortcuts for more options. A press-and-hold gesture with fine-tuned haptic feedback and visual cues in the Dynamic Island ensure the new button launches the intended action.

A17 Pro: A New Generation of Apple Silicon for iPhone

Bringing pro performance and capabilities, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are powered by A17 Pro, the industry’s first 3-nanometer chip. Continuing Apple’s leadership in smartphone silicon, A17 Pro brings improvements to the entire chip, including the biggest GPU redesign in Apple’s history.

The new CPU is up to 10 percent faster with microarchitectual and design improvements, and the Neural Engine is now up to 2x faster, powering features like autocorrect, and Personal Voice in iOS 17. The pro-class GPU is up to 20 percent faster and unlocks entirely new experiences and energy efficiency.

Now with hardware-accelerated ray tracing – which is 4x faster than software based on ray tracing – iPhone 15 Pro offers smoother graphics, as well as more immersive AR applications and gaming experiences. iPhone 15 Pro brings true-to-life gaming to the palm of user’s hands with console titles never before seen on a smartphone, like Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4, Death Stranding, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage.

Lyft Launches Women+ Connect

Lyft

Lyft describes its new Women+ Connect as a “new preference feature prioritizes matches between some and nonbinary drivers and riders.” While women make up nearly half of Lyft riders, they account for just 23% of drivers on the Lyft platform, based on a recent survey, Lyft stated.

Introducing Women+ Connect, a new feature that matches women and nonbinary driver with more women and nonbinary riders.

This highly requested feature offers more control over the driving experience for women and nonbinary people, allowing them to feel that much more confident. And with fewer barriers to driving, more women can access flexible earning opportunities – whether they’re driving to build a business, support their family, or simply to enjoy earning good money while meeting great people.

Women+ Connect also offers riders more choice. And for both drivers and riders, we’ve been encouraged by how often camaraderie and comfort come up as additional benefits.

How it works

Women+ Connect puts women and nonbinary people in the driver’s seat – literally – by letting them choose to match with more women and nonbinary riders. The feature offers the option to turn on a preference in the Lyft app to prioritize matches with other nearby women and nonbinary riders. If no women or nonbinary riders are nearby, drivers with the preference on will still be matched with men as Women+ Connect is a preference feature, not a guarantee.

When the feature goes live in a city, women and nonbinary riders will be prompted in their Lyft app to select ‘Count me in,’ which will increase their chances of matching with women and nonbinary drivers. Women and nonbinary drivers will see the same opt in. Anyone can update their preference or opt out in their settings at any time.

The feature will roll out in select early-access cities in the US: Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose. We’ll be ensuring customers in each city have a great experience as we look to roll out to more cities very soon.

NBC News reported that Lyft is ramping up its efforts to provide women and nonbinary users worry-free rides, whether they’re the rider or the driver.

“Just for you own peace of mind, the ability to choose a woman driver might be exactly the thing that allows you to say, you know what, yeah, this really is making my life better,” Lyft CEO David Risher told NBC’s Savannah Sellers in an exclusive interview on TODAY.

Risher said in a press release that this feature gives women and nonbinary people “the opportunity to earn money on their terms.”

In the release, Lyft says that while women make up nearly half of the demographic of its riders, only 23% of its drivers are women. It says that by giving women and nonbinary drivers the option to be more selective when it comes to who they’re matched with, the company is creating an environment that allows women and nonbinary drivers to feel more “confident.”

TechCrunch reported that while a quarter of Lyft’s ride-hailing app’s drivers are women, about 50% are riders. Lyft has long been aware of the woman driver-to-rider gap, according to Audrey Liu, head of design. A concerted effort to increase the presence of women on the app began in 2019, but was derailed by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Personally, I like this idea that Lyft is launching. I think it will make women who are by themselves, and want to take a Lyft home, to feel more comfortable if the driver is also a woman. As a nonbinary person, I am happy that Lyft acknowledges people like me.

Google’s Antitrust Trial Gets Underway In Washington

google,

Google and the Justice Department square off Tuesday in opening arguments for the biggest antitrust trial in more than two decades, kicking off a case with major implications for the search giant and the future of antitrust law, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The nonjury trial, scheduled to go through mid-November, will be decided by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who could order a breakup or changes to the way Google promotes its search engine.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department has alleged Google’s agreements with companies including Apple and Samsung to make its search engine the default option on web browsers and mobile phones illegally helped maintain a monopoly in that market. Google has said it competes fairly for the contracts, and users can easily switch away from defaults.

The trial in Washington will be closely watched by lawmakers and policy experts who have pushed for stricter policing of U.S. tech giants. The DOJ hasn’t brought an antimonopoly case to trial since it successfully sued Microsoft in 1998 for using its dominance in personal computer software to squash upstart web browsers.

The Justice Department, Google and a group of state attorneys general also suing the company are all expected to make opening arguments on Tuesday. The state AGs sued Google for allegedly favoring its own search engine when building tools placing ads across multiple services, an accusation Google has also fought.

Politico reported that the Biden administration’s push to check the power of the tech giants gets its first big test Tuesday in a Washington courtroom where the Department of Justice will kick off a case designed to curb Google’s dominance in online search.

The trial against the $1.7 trillion company will be “the most significant U.S. monopoly case in a generation,” said Bill Baer, a fellow with the Brookings Institution and former DOJ antitrust head under President Barack Obama.

According to Politico, the DOJ’s suit against Google claims the company has become the overwhelmingly most-used search engine not because of a superior product but because it illegally uses its money to box out its competitors.

The case centers on a series of revenue-sharing agreements, worth tens of billions of dollars annually, that Google has with Apple, Mozilla, Samsung, and others to be the default search engine on web browsers and mobile phones, as well as its control of the ads that populate search results. Google does not disclose the exact value of the deals. The DOJ says these contracts have hindered the ability of rivals to compete and deprived customers of the benefits of high quality, innovative services that only competition can foster.

According to some estimates, including those cited in the DOJ’s lawsuit, Google controls about 90 percent of the search engine market in the U.S. and globally.

ArsTechnica reported that DC-based U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta will hear opening arguments in a 10-week monopoly trial that could disrupt Google’s search business and redefine how the U.S. enforces antitrust law in the tech industry.

“Google’s anticompetitive conduct harms consumers – even those who prefer its search engine – because Google has not innovated as it would have with competitive pressure,” the DOJ wrote in a pre-trial brief filed on Friday.

According to ArsTechnica, this trial will be “the federal government’s first monopoly trial of the modern era,” (the New York Times reported). For officials, the trial marks a shift away from opposing anti-competitive tech mergers and acquisitions – which attempt to stop tech giants from getting even bigger in desirable markets. Starting with this trial, officials will now begin scrutinizing more closely than ever before how tech giants got so big in the first place.

It seems to me that this trial – which is to last for ten weeks – should fill up news articles as new parts of the case are reported on. That said, I suspect that you won’t find anything about this case posted on Google’s search engine.