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Apple starts work on macOS 16 – and it sounds like a bigger deal than a MacBook Pro redesign

July 1, 2024
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While we’re eagerly awaiting the public release of new operating systems like iOS 18 and macOS 15 (Sequoia) later this year, it seems like Apple has already begun work on macOS 16 (and iOS 19, for that matter). This fresh rumor, coupled with whispers of a MacBook Pro refresh for later in 2024, has us buzzing about the future of Apple’s best tech.

Reputable leaker and industry commentator Mark Gurman noted in his most recent ‘Power On’ newsletter (for Bloomberg) that Apple has started development of all its major operating systems for 2025, meaning macOS 16, iOS 19, watchOS 12, and visionOS 3.

Mind you, we’d expect that Apple would be kicking off work on next year’s big software refreshes at this point, though it’s still exciting to hear that the development of macOS 16 is underway. It’s too early even to speculate about what next year’s version of macOS could look like, and Gurman doesn’t drop any hints as to possible features, but if Sequoia has shown us anything, we’re certain we are in for another big, AI-driven refresh.

Indeed, by the time we get to 2025, we wonder whether Apple might be planning to incorporate AI in a much bigger way with macOS 16, maybe bringing in features that will change the way we use our Mac devices entirely! Given the pace of development in the world of artificial intelligence, this can’t be ruled out.

New MacBooks on the horizon?

Software aside, as for the future of Mac hardware, we’re already hearing rumors about the M4 refresh due to happen with Apple’s Mac lineup, with some reports speculating that the MacBook Pro could be the first Mac in line for the new chip (which is only in the iPad Pro right now).

According to Gurman’s earlier reports, we may only see the MacBook Pro 14-inch base model get an M4 refresh this year (with the vanilla M4), with the other models (with M4 Pro and Max) only debuting early in the following year. Furthermore, we’re not likely to get any major hardware changes to Apple’s MacBook ranges for the next couple of years, and it sounds like the big move with the MacBook Pro – when it gets OLED, which is likely to be a good time for a full redesign – may not happen until 2026.

So, Apple might feel the need to make up for only ushering in more minor improvements on the hardware front, by taking a big leap on the software front – meaning a much-improved macOS 16 (with lots of fresh AI powers as mentioned, most likely). Take all this as the speculation it very much is, mind you.

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TechRadar – All the latest technology news

February 15, 2024
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Google’s Gemini AI has only been around for two months at the time of this writing, and already, the company is launching its next-generation model dubbed Gemini 1.5.

The announcement post gets into the nitty-gritty explaining all the AI’s improvements in detail. It’s all rather technical, but the main takeaway is that Gemini 1.5 will deliver “dramatically enhanced performance.” This was accomplished with the implementation of a “Mixture-of-Experts architecture” (or MoE for short) which sees multiple AI models working together in unison. Implementing this structure made Gemini easier to train as well as faster at learning complicated tasks than before.

There are plans to roll out the upgrade to all three major versions of the AI, but the only one being released today for early testing is Gemini 1.5 Pro.

What’s unique about it is the model has “a context window of up to 1 million tokens”. Tokens, as they relate to generative AI, are the smallest pieces of data LLMs (large language models) use “to process and generate text.” Bigger context windows allow the AI to handle more information at once. And a million tokens is huge, far exceeding what GPT-4 Turbo can do. OpenAI’s engine, for the sake of comparison, has a context window cap of 128,000 tokens.

Gemini Pro in action

With all these numbers being thrown, the question is what does Gemini 1.5 Pro look like in action? Google made several videos showcasing the AI’s abilities. Admittedly, it’s pretty interesting stuff as they reveal how the upgraded model can analyze and summarize large amounts of text according to a prompt.

In one example, they gave Gemini 1.5 Pro the over 400-page transcript of the Apollo 11 moon mission. It showed the AI could “understand, reason about, and identify” certain details in the document. The prompter asks the AI to locate “comedic moments” during the mission. After 30 seconds, Gemini 1.5 Pro managed to find a few jokes that the astronauts cracked while in space, including who told it and explained any references made.

These analysis skills can be used for other modalities. In another demo, the dev team gave the AI a 44-minute Buster Keaton movie. They uploaded a rough sketch of a gushing water tower and then asked for the timestamp of a scene involving a water tower. Sure enough, it found the exact part ten minutes into the film. Keep in mind this was done without any explanation about the drawing itself or any other text besides the question. Gemini 1.5 Pro understood it was a water tower without extra help.

Experimental tech

The model is not available to the general public at the moment. Currently, it’s being offered as an early preview to “developers and enterprise customers” through Google’s AI Studio and Vertex AI platforms for free. The company is warning testers they may experience long latency times since it is still experimental. There are plans, however, to improve speeds down the line.

We reached out to Google asking for information on when people can expect the launch of Gemini 1.5 and Gemini 1.5 Ultra plus the wider release of these next-gen AI models. This story will be updated at a later time. Until then, check out TechRadar's roundup of the best AI content generators for 2024.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

December 28, 2021
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Although Zoom may be best known for its video conferencing software, its platform also supports virtual events and the company's latest acquisition will allow these events to be both larger and more complex.

According to a new blog post, the company believes that the future of events will include a combination of virtual and in-person formats. As a result, its customers will require a holistic solution that allows them to build, host and manage virtual and hybrid events.

Zoom first introduced Zoom Video Webinars back in 2014 to enable organizations to share information and interactive video presentations with up to 50k people. However, back in July of this year, the company unveiled Zoom Events to make it possible for businesses and other organizations to host in-person events that also have a virtual element.

In order to showcase some of the exciting new capabilities in Zoom Events, Zoom used its new Conference event type for Zoomtopia 2021 which saw over 33k virtual guests attend the tech conference from around the world. Now though, the company has acquired several tools as well as some top talent from the startup Liminal to make it easier for organizations to produce professional programs and performances from anywhere in the world.

Bridging the gap

As reported by The Verge, Zoom has announced that it has acquired two add-ons from the startup Liminal that can be used to create professional virtual events.

The first is ZoomOSC that will allow its customers to enhance professional meetings and events using the Open Sound Control (OSC) protocol. This add-on also enables users to integrate Zoom Events with third-party software, hardware controllers and media servers. The second add-on, ZoomISO, makes it possible to export each participants' video feed as a separate output to professional production hardware with the capability to export five feeds in HD.

With the acquisition of these two add-ons, it will be possible to bridge the gap between emerging and traditional event control tools according to Zoom. This will likely be quite useful for broadcast studios, theaters and other organizations that want to create professional streams using the company's video conferencing software.

However, in addition to acquiring Zoom OSC and ZoomISO from Liminal, two of the startup's co-founders (Andy Carluccio and Jonathan Kokotajlo) will also be joining Zoom.

We've also rounded up the best video conferencing software and best online collaboration tools

Via The Verge

TechRadar – All the latest technology news