Apple has released the next version of Final Cut Pro, version 10.6.2, and introduces a host of new improvements and new features, including optimizations for Mac Studio workstations, and introduces new Duplicate Detection and Voice Isolation features.
For the Mac Studio, the new update is somewhat vague other than indicating that there have been optimizations for playback and graphics performance on both the M1 Max and M1 Ultra versions of the Mac Studio, but users should see an overall improvement in performance.
Duplicate detection, as the name suggests, searches for duplicate ranges within the timeline and marks the clips for easier editing, something that would be especially helpful for long-form content.
Meanwhile, Voice Isolation, as the name suggests, is a feature that uses machine learning to isolate voice frequencies from other sounds in the background.
Other improvements to Final Cut Pro include updates to its companion apps Motion and Compressor, various updates to Tracker Options/Object Tracker, and other performance and reliability enhancements.
iMovie has also been updated to its 3.0 version, which adds Storyboards and Magic Movie features.
WhatsApp’s voice messaging feature will soon get some nifty updates to help compose, send, and listen to those convenient audio messages.
The Meta-owned app is the main mode of communication for over two billion people every month. It’s free, highly accessible, and end-to-end encrypted, making it an important app for users around the globe to connect with family and friends. These updates could enhance the already pretty good voice messaging feature of the app by helping avoid miscommunications in audio messages and helping listeners speed through long-winded conversations.
Included features are:
WhatsApp didn’t provide a release date in the announcement or information about which platforms it will arrive on and in what order, but you can expect the features to roll out over the next few weeks.
(Image credit: WhatsApp)
Analysis: WhatsApp stays on top for a reason
The updates that Meta steadily brings to WhatsApp aren’t anything groundbreaking, and that’s by design. There’s a reason that the app continues to be the most popular global messaging app out there.
Small features brought about in incremental updates maintain the app’s ease of use by not getting in the way of how the app’s two billion monthly active users already interact with it.
With these updates, it looks like the majority of the interface remains the same, and the new draft previews will help users avoid sending messages that weren’t ready yet. It’s the little things that count the most.
WhatsApp’s voice messaging feature will soon get some nifty updates to help compose, send, and listen to those convenient audio messages.
The Meta-owned app is the main mode of communication for over two billion people every month. It’s free, highly accessible, and end-to-end encrypted, making it an important app for users around the globe to connect with family and friends. These updates could enhance the already pretty good voice messaging feature of the app by helping avoid miscommunications in audio messages and helping listeners speed through long-winded conversations.
Included features are:
WhatsApp didn’t provide a release date in the announcement or information about which platforms it will arrive on and in what order, but you can expect the features to roll out over the next few weeks.
(Image credit: WhatsApp)
Analysis: WhatsApp stays on top for a reason
The updates that Meta steadily brings to WhatsApp aren’t anything groundbreaking, and that’s by design. There’s a reason that the app continues to be the most popular global messaging app out there.
Small features brought about in incremental updates maintain the app’s ease of use by not getting in the way of how the app’s two billion monthly active users already interact with it.
With these updates, it looks like the majority of the interface remains the same, and the new draft previews will help users avoid sending messages that weren’t ready yet. It’s the little things that count the most.
The Metaverse, that immersive virtual world where Meta (née Facebook) imagines we'll work, play, and interact with friends and family is also where we may someday build entire worlds with nothing but our voice.
During an online AI development update delivered, in part, by Meta/Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday (February 23), the company offered a glimpse of Builder Bot, an AI concept that allows the user to build entire virtual experiences using their voice.
Standing in what looked like a stripped-down version of Facebook's Horizon Worlds' Metaverse, Zuckerberg's and a co-worker's avatars asked a virtual bot to add an island, some furniture, clouds, a catamaran, and even a boombox that could pay real music to the environment. In the demonstration, the command phrasing was natural and the 3D virtual imagery appeared instantly, though it did look a bit like the graphics you'd find in Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
The development of Builder Bot is part of a larger AI initiative called Project CAIRaeoke, which is an end-to-end neural model for building on-device assistance.
Mark Zuckerberg’s legless avatar and Builder Bot. (Image credit: Future)
Zuckerberg explained that current technology is not yet equipped to help us explore an immersive version of the internet that will ultimately live in the Metaverse. While that will require updates across a whole range of hardware and software, Meta believes AI is the key to unlocking advancement that will lead to, as Zukerberg put it, “a new generation of assistants that will help us explore new worlds”.
“When we’re wearing [smart] Glasses, it will be the first time an AI system will be able to see the world from our perspective,” he added. A key goal here is for the AI they're developing to see as we do and, more importantly, learn about the world as we do, as well.
It's unclear if Builder Bot will ever become a true part of the burgeoning Metaverse, but its skill with real-time language processing and understanding how parts of the environment should go together is clearly informed by the work Meta is doing.
Mark Zuckerberg talks AI translation (Image credit: Future)
Zuckerberg outlined a handful of other related AI projects, all of which will eventually feed into a Metaverse that can be accessed and used by anyone in the world.
These include “No Language Left Behind,” which, unlike traditional translation that often uses English as a mid-translation point, can translate languages directly from the source to the translation language. There's also the very Star Trek-like “Universal Speech Translator”, which would provide instantaneous speech-to-speech translation across all languages, including spoken languages.
“AI is going to deliver that in our lifetimes,” said Zuckerberg.
Mark Zuckerberg talks image abstraction (Image credit: Future)
Meta is also investing heavily in self-supervised learning (SSL) to build human-like cognition into AI systems. Instead of training with tons of images to help the AI identify patterns, the system is fed raw data and then asked to predict the missing parts. Eventually, the AI learns how to build abstract representations.
An AI that can understand abstraction could complete an image just from a few pieces of visual information, or generate the next frame of a video it's never seen. It could also build a visually pleasing virtual world with only your words to guide it.
For those full-on freaked out by Meta's Metaverse ambitions, Zuckerberg said that the company is building the Metaverse for everyone and they are “committed to build openly and responsibly” while protecting privacy and preventing harm.
It's unlikely anyone will take his word for it, but we look forward to watching the Metaverse's development.
WhatsApp is testing a new look for being in a call, both on iOS and Android, which shows who's speaking in a group call with waveforms, alongside a more modern design.
But calling in WhatsApp has been relegated to the standard user interface of what iOS and Android offer to third-party apps with call features.
However, version 22.5.0.70, currently available to beta testers, the new look for calling in the app is going to benefit group calls more than those that are one-to-one.
Analysis: Making your voice calls look much better
(Image credit: WABetaInfo)
For years, the interface when you're in a call on iOS and Android has barely seen any improvement since their first versions. While iOS 14 brought a compact view for when you would be in a call, the full-screen view has been relatively unchanged.
More users are preferring to choose to call over other apps, from WhatsApp to Skype, especially with group calls, which is why an update to the interface for WhatsApp is welcome.
Here, you've got an elegant design that shows who's speaking thanks to the audio waveforms for when someone speaks, alongside three options that's available to you at all times if you want to go on mute, end the call, or go on loudspeaker.
It's a modern design that only goes to show how much of an update the call screen in iOS and Android needs, especially for group calls.
Windows 11 has a new preview build which extends voice control capabilities to allow typing on the virtual keyboard.
Voice access is a feature which was introduced in testing for Windows 11 in December 2021, allowing for a range of different voice controls including the ability to operate mouse clicks with your voice – so adding the same functionality for the touch keyboard in this new build 22538 makes sense.
The way it works is simple: open the virtual keyboard with a command, and each key has a number on it. To press a key, you simply say “click 27” if you want number 27 (which is the letter ‘s’), for example. You can also easily access numbers, punctuation or emoji.
Microsoft further notes that it's starting to roll out the ability to download Speech Packs (from the Microsoft Store) for “device-based speech recognition that provides a better performance of transcription.”
Also present in this fresh preview release for the Dev Channel is some useful work with Alt-Tabbing and the Task View (the focus rectangle highlighting what’s selected now uses your chosen accent color), and a bunch of other minor changes and bug fixes as ever, all of which are listed in Microsoft’s blog post.
Analysis: Making Dragon a more fiery beast
As we’ve pointed out before, the Windows 11 voice access features are pretty much all drafted across from Nuance’s Dragon speech recognition app (Microsoft bought Nuance last year).
What’s interesting with the on-screen touch keyboard controls brought in with this preview build is that this is a new endeavor not seen in Dragon (at least, not in the version we use – namely Dragon Professional 15, which is the latest release). There are some ways of using your voice to control keys in Dragon 15, but they’re limited (to the likes of function keys, Tab and backspace).
We can expect Microsoft to further build on voice access as Windows 11 matures, and we’re keen to know what comes next. Further honing dictation accuracy – which is already admittedly good – would be great to see.
The FBI is seeing so much activity around malicious Google Voice activity, where victims are associated with fraudulent virtual phone numbers, that it sent out an alert this week. Threatpost
Voice messages are, by their very nature, an audio experience – but this is something that WhatsApp is looking to change. When you receive a voice message form a contact (or, indeed, if you send one yourself), you will be used to seeing a progress bar during playback.
This is a handy visual aid that helps let you know how long a message is and how much more there is to listen to. But now the feature is getting a bit of an upgrade to make it more visually appealing thanks to voice waveforms.
We've seen WhatsApp playing around with waveforms previously, with Android users who are signed up for the beta program having been given a sneaky glimpse at the feature. But it was only a brief look, as voice waveforms were swiftly disabled without a word of explanation
However, they appear to be back. The fact that the new visual accompaniment to voice messages is now available for iOS and Android beta testers (but still only beta testers) could be indicative of the feature being almost complete and ready for an even wider rollout. But what's all the fuss about?
Sound and vision
On one hand, these are just pretty animations to watch while you listen to a message you have received. On the other, they are helpful visual tools that can be reassuring when there is a period of silence in a message; if there is no activity in the waveform, you can safely assume that there is no sound to hear, rather than there being a problem with your speakers… or ears.
As is often the case with WhatsApp, although this new feature is being made available to beta testers, it is not necessarily going to be available to all beta testers immediately. It's something that's controlled server-side, so while ensuring that you have the latest version of the app installed is undoubtedly a good idea, it's sadly no guarantee of getting access to voice wave forms right now.
WABetaInfo reports that WhatsApp beta for Android 2.21.25.11 and WhatsApp beta for iOS 2.21.240.18 are compatible with the feature, so make sure that you have one of these installed for the best possible change of getting to try out the new feature.
WhatsApp is said to be working on a new voice message transcription. The transcription will be done on-device, or locally, and your voice messages won’t be sent to WhatsApp or Facebook server for getting the transcription.
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