OpenAI has introduced a new feature to the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT that will allow the bot to properly remember your preferences and provide more personalized responses.
With the new update, you’ll be able to input ‘custom instructions’ per request, and the chatbot will then ‘remember’ those instructions in further conversations.
The announcement from OpenAI comes as a response to user feedback, with the company stating that “we’ve deepened our understanding of the essential role steerability plays in enabling our models to effectively reflect the diverse contexts and unique needs of each person”.
So what difference does the new feature actually make? The examples given to us by OpenAI paint a good picture of how the update could improve user experience with the chatbot. Say you’re a teacher, looking to make a lesson plan for your 3rd-graders. Rather than having to continuously state this with each new conversation, a custom instruction set means the bot can give age-specific recommendations without having to be reminded.
These ‘custom instructions’ could save a huge amount of time for heavy users of ChatGPT. (Image credit: Future viwa OpenAI)
If you use ChatGPT quite often, you’ll know how frustrating and often time-consuming it can be to repeatedly remind the bot of your prompt parameters. If you’re using the chatbot for work, school, or just as a daily assistant, setting custom inputs will save a lot of time and frustration.
Do keep in mind that, as it stands, the feature is exclusive to Plus subscribers for the time being – though it hopefully won’t be long until we see it rolled out to all users across the platform.
If you are a Plus subscriber and you’d like to give it a go, just head over to the ‘Beta features’ section of the settings on the ChatGPT website and enable ‘Custom instructions’. Presto, you're ready for the bot to remember your specifications!
After months of requests, tiny10 23H1 x64 is finally here, and just like tiny10 x86 and tiny11, it brings back a very important feature: the component store! This means that now you can add new languages and features, while still being a lightweight and dependable image. pic.twitter.com/mRLBPC2udRMay 31, 2023
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What’s the difference between x64 and x86? Well, the latter is 32-bit Windows 10, whereas the former and fresh version of Tiny10 is a 64-bit incarnation. This means it can run 64-bit software and is more performant in general, plus it’s more secure, too (though note that your PC must have a 64-bit CPU – which it should do, unless it’s really old).
In short, the new x64 version is the one you want unless your PC is incapable of running it (due to the processor not being 64-bit).
As the developer points out, the key element here is the inclusion of the component store (also in the x86 version), which allows for Tiny10 to receive Windows updates. That is, of course, vital to maintain the security of the OS.
Note that Tiny10 x64 is labeled version 23H1 purely because it has been released now – in the first half of 2023 – and this does not refer to the version of Windows 10 it’s based on (which, in fact, is Windows 10 LTSC 21H2, build 19044.3031).
Analysis: One tiny step for Windows 10
Tiny10 is designed to be installed on an old PC, as with its seriously streamlined and debloated nature, it’ll run fast enough even on pretty ancient hardware. And as mentioned, this x64 take has advantages for better performance and security over the previous x86 release of Tiny10.
You can run Tiny10 on a PC that only has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of drive space, that’s how lean it is – and it’s likely to work okay with less system memory than that (maybe much less, as previous experiments have shown). Indeed, 1GB should be enough.
While Tiny10 is a useful option to get some additional life out of an ailing potato PC, there are caveats to bear in mind. We can’t be sure of the exact contents of any modified Windows installation (ISO file), so if you download and install Tiny10, you do so at your own risk (grab it here if you’re happy to proceed). That said, the developer has been around for some time, with no complaints from users yet.
Also, this is still a Windows 10 installation – just a heavily tinkered with and stripped-back one – so you will still need a valid license key to run it (though a Windows 7 or 8 license should do fine, too).
Taking photos in iOS has always been a relatively simple affair, just by using the Camera app by Apple. But third-party developers have gone further to make the iPhone camera work harder for you and the photos you take every day.
This is what Obscura has been doing since its launch in 2015. Developed by the Obscura team of Ben Rice McCarthy, Adam K. Schmidt and Sara Lovic, the third version of the app launched this week (February 17) for $ 9.99 / £9.99 / AU$ 10.99.
This new version brings a redesigned gallery view, video capture, refined layouts for controlling exposure settings, and the multiple lenses of the iPhone models, alongside controller support. This allows anyone with an Xbox or PlayStation controller, to take a photo through Obscura 3.
Having used the update for a month, it’s a significant improvement over Obscura 2. The new gallery view brings your albums front and center, giving you a quick overview of what you want to select.
There’s also the ability to rate your photos, not just a thumbs up or down as in Apple’s Photos app. Here, you could take a selection of photos, say different locations for a wedding venue for instance, and rate them in order. It makes sorting some photos much easier, as it could help you decide on certain locations or products for those important situations.
(Image credit: TechRadar)
It’s the gestures that help make Obscura 3 shine – especially the exposure gesture. As you’re taking a photo, you can press the exposure icon on the bottom-left of the app to change how light or dark you need the image to be. But if you use your thumb to slide up and down on the icon, you can more accurately choose the exposure point instead.
These little touches are found across the app in this third version. While you can’t currently change the default camera app in iOS, Obscura 3 makes a compelling case for why the option should be there for pro users.
A chat with Obscura’s developer
Speaking with McCarthy after the launch of Obscura 3, I asked them whether the pandemic inspired the development of the new update, in regards to features and what users were asking for. “Not particularly. In an ideal world we would have taken a trip to somewhere exciting to take incredible marketing photos of rainforests or glaciers,” McCarthy clarifies. “But for the most part, the production of Obscura 3 wasn’t all that different to Obscura 2.”
With every major update to an app, there’s always the question of what the main objective was for the newest version. We asked McCarthy what the aim was for Obscura this time. “Am I allowed to say everything? Because we really did throw it all out and start from scratch,” McCarthy continues. “There are obvious changes like the new camera interface, but everything has been rewritten and improved, like the gesture to close the camera, the photo capture pipeline, the filters to support P3 color, I could go on all day.
“If I had to choose just one though, I’d probably say the Image Detail view,” McCarthy reveals. “There’s an astonishing amount of complexity to it. It was honestly pretty janky in Obscura 2. It now has better support for RAW files, depth data, video (for the first time!), and is much smoother at handling changes to the photo library while you’re browsing. The triage features are also really neat if you care about keeping your library organized.”
(Image credit: TechRadar)
We wanted to mention the Exposure wheel, which we found very intuitive for allowing certain amounts of light in. We asked McCarthy how this came to be, and why it’s arriving in this update.
“Conceptually, the Exposure and Focus dials were planned from the very start. In fact, I had built a very rudimentary version of them in Obscura 1, but it wasn’t great,” McCarthy explains.
“We played around with the functionality quite a bit. Should the dial have values displayed around the ring? Should the sensitivity vary as it expands? How sensitive should the haptic feedback be? But everything we added made it feel less intuitive and more distracting. In the end, the simpler it was, the more natural and like using a physical camera it felt.”
With the new gallery view being a tentpole feature of Obscura 3, we asked McCarthy whether there was going to be an option for opening the app and having the gallery appear first.
“I had thought of making that an option for the forthcoming iPad version, which is well suited to browsing and editing photos, but I hadn’t really considered it for the phone,” McCarthy explains. “But if we build that functionality anyway, I don’t see why we wouldn’t add it to the phone.”
(Image credit: TechRadar)
In-app purchases, or IAPs, are ways for users to buy more features for an app. In previous Obscura versions, this allowed you to buy additional filters, but for Obscura 3, there are no IAPs this time.
We asked McCarthy what the reasons for this were, and if IAPs have had their due, especially for photography apps.
“There were a few reasons behind this decision, benefitting both us and the user. The first is that we wanted to avoid the feeling of upselling, especially when the user is in the middle of taking photos,” McCarthy explains.
“Secondly, the StoreKit API has also been a pain to work with in the past and was the source of more support email than any other part of the app. And thirdly, having IAPs for filters necessitated having example photos for the product pages, and those added quite a considerable amount to Obscura’s download size (O2 was about 70MB and O3 is down to about 5MB, though the sample photos weren’t the only factor).”
The gallery view also shows promise for other Apple platforms, such as macOS, an operating system that doesn’t have an Obscura app. We wondered whether this is something up for consideration.
“I’m certainly not promising anything right now, but I have tried building it for the Mac using Catalyst and it mostly runs without issue,” McCarthy reveals. “The real work would be in making it feel more at home on macOS, so I guess we’ll have to see if we can find the time to make it happen.”
(Image credit: TechRadar)
A surprising feature was the integration of controller support in Obscura 3. You could use a Dual Sense controller to take a photo if needed. We asked whether this was always intended and if there are further plans to expand this in the future.
“As I was working on the Apple Watch companion app, it occurred to me that it would be nice if there was an alternative for people who don’t have one. And I had a spare PS4 controller (in theory for playing more games on iOS, though I rarely use it) and I realized that could be a decent alternative,” McCarthy reveals.
“There’s not much functionality there right now, but we have plenty of ideas on improving this feature that just didn’t make the cut for launch.”
Finally, widgets are still being heavily used on iPhone and iPad devices, where you can place bite-sized information on your home screen without launching the app. For Obscura, this seems to be a natural step, especially for rated photos and shortcuts for launching different modes of the app.
We asked McCarthy whether this was something that they were considering. “Definitely. As soon as the launch chaos is over we’re going to start work on widgets, and we already have a few planned,” McCarthy continues. “Having access via the lock screen is a big bonus that widgets also provide. And given that we may never see an option to set third-party camera apps as the default, we have to take what opportunities we can get.”
It's been a year since the game's release and modders are still coming to the rescue of players who are unable to use some features within the city.
Cyberpunk 2077's wide-ranging metropolis has had a metro system that you could visit, but not use. Thanks to a modder by the name of keanuWheeze, you can now use the metro system to get around the city as you please.
There are 19 stations that you can use, and as you ride one, you can also switch between a first or third-person perspective, so you can get a good view of the city as you travel.
The posts on the page by players are already full of praise, with some exclaiming how this one mod has convinced them to re-install the game again.
Analysis: modders to the rescue
It's well-established that Cyberpunk 2077 has not had the best of launches, with constant patches to fix up characters, vehicles, and much more to make it playable at least, and enjoyable at the most.
While CD Projekt RED is most likely planning to enable the NCART System in time, the priority is still to make sure the game plays as originally planned. But mods have also been able to improve games in ways that the developers never intended.
Sonic Mania is a great example – released in 2017, modders have been able to implement brand new zones that reimagine levels from previous Sonic games.
Mods can not only enable features such as the NCART System, but they can also give new experiences that can be seen as unofficial expansion packs.
This could be Cyberpunk's saving grace, as there's still a significant fanbase who want the game to meet expectations that CD Projeckt RED set many years ago.
The game can still be breathtaking in an official capacity, but it could be the mods that can really help the game shine in time.
Fujitsu has announced a new technology called Virtual Integrated File System that it says could help magnetic tape storage compete with hard disk drives as a low-cost, large capacity storage alternative.
With the feud between Sony and Fujitsu around LTO resolved late last year, all eyes are now on LTO-9, which is expected to be delivered in 2020. This iteration will deliver capacities up to 26.1TB (uncompressed) and raw throughput of up to 708MB/sec.
That’s a higher capacity than the largest hard drive on the market (currently 20TB) – also faster and likely cheaper too. Add in on-the-fly compression capabilities and, suddenly, it's all looking rosy for the venerable tape.
Fujitsu's Virtual Integrated File System (VIFS) allows “multiple tape cartridges to be consolidated into one”, which means users can access data without worrying about individual tape cartridges.
It sounds a little like RAID but for tapes, which means that you'll likely need multiple tape drives or a tape library. This limits the product to enterprise and large businesses, where storage demands are usually measured in Petabytes and Exabytes.
The Japanese company claims to have improved the read speeds by more than fourfold in one trial run, while another test yielded a speed improvement of nearly 2X.
“This technology enables high-speed tape access performance, such as random reads and writes of various sizes occurring in archive applications, and is expected to provide a cost-effective data archiving infrastructure for long-term archiving of large volumes of data," Fujitsu added.
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