AI, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning Explained

We hear the first two terms all the time from Apple. They can be confusing. So, in order to help differentiate between the terms, the TechRepublic has written up a short but helpful tutorial for business people.

The first step is communicating what the definitions are for AI, machine learning (ML), and deep learning. There is some argument that AI, ML, and deep learning are each individual technologies. I view AI/ML/deep learning as successive stages of computer automation and analytics that are built on a common platform.

A traffic planning example makes it clear.

Chronicle Pro Budgeting Tool for Mac and iOS: $9.99

We have a deal on Chronicle Pro Budgeting Tool for Mac and iOS. This app helps you estimate totals for future bills, calculates what you need to save, tracks all your spending, and more. There’s a dashboard, and you can pay (and log) bills within the app, too. It’s $9.99 through our deal.

Apple Offers $9.7 Million to Cupertino for Transportation

After the city of Cupertino agreed to hold changes to a business tax that would have cost Apple over US$9 million, the company has offered US$9.7 million on five transportation projects for cyclers and pedestrians.

[Last year’s proposal] would have generated $10 million in annual revenue, most which would have come from Apple, the city’s largest employer with 24,000 workers…The city decided to postpone a ballot measure to change the business tax until 2020, giving them time to work with Apple and other businesses on private funding to relieve commuter traffic. City staff have been meeting with Apple representatives once every two weeks since October.

Manage Faces in Apple’s Photos App

David Murphy has a nice tip out on how to organize photos by Faces on iOS. It’s a great way to manage photos of people.

On the three platforms you’re most likely to use to store your smartphone pictures—Apple Photos, Amazon Photos, and Google Photos—machine learning can categorize your photos by the faces in them, rather than rudimentary details like when or where they were taken.

Apple Shows The Power of its Products in The Workplace

The latest Apple video looks to show-off how its devices can empower people at work. After «bumping into» the boss, a member of small team secures a crucial meeting for her and her colleagues. Using a range of Apple’s devices and services, the team scramble to meet their tight deadline. Apple has always been associated with creative and glamorous industries. Showing its products in a more standard office environment makes for a nice change, and can perhaps be seen as something of a challenge to Microsoft. The clip’s title, The Underdogs, and it’s message underline the company’s corporate philosophy well too.

A Look Inside the New iPad Air

Following on from its teardown of the new iPad Mini, iFixit took its tools to the new iPad Air Wednesday. Essentially, the Air is just a bigger Mini and the teardown revealed many of the same features. Pleasingly, all the screws can again be removed with a single Phillips screwdriver. However, there is also lots of glue holding everything in place, making fixing it that bit more difficult. Like its smaller sibling, the iPad Air received a 2 out of 10 rating for repairability.

This new Air hails from the Pro line, inheriting its dimensions, a Smart connector, and a handful of other features from the 2017 10.5″ Pro….A single Phillips driver takes care of all the screws. Many components are modular and can be replaced independently, but the Lightning port is soldered to the logic board. Battery replacement is possible, but still unnecessarily difficult. Gobs of adhesive hold many parts and cables in place, complicating all repairs.

Addiction to Fortnite is a Real Thing

Fornite has racked up millions of players, and billions of dollars of profit. That is thanks in large part to how devoted players are to the game. It turns out though that the friend you joked is addicted to it might actually be. The Boston Globe spoke to psychologists and other health professionals who explained that Fortnite addiction is a real thing.

Parents worrying about kids spending too much time playing video games isn’t new. But a few significant factors have combined to make today’s games harder to stop playing….More insidious, game makers have taken a lesson from slot-machine designers and started employing a variable reward schedule, according to Ofir Turel, a professor of Information Systems and Decision Sciences at California State University Fullerton. In the case of “Fortnite,” the psychological manipulation combines with the game’s flashy colors, its many potential plots, and the element of social interaction to stimulate the brain and train it to “crave” more, he e-mailed the Globe.

Google Duplex Rolling Out to Google Assistant on iOS

Google Duplex is a feature that lets the Google Assistant make reservations on your behalf. The company is starting to roll out the feature to iPhones and other non-Pixel phones.

The support site for Duplex lists the iPhone as being part of this rollout, with Android phones simply requiring Android 5.0 or higher to use the automated calling service. iOS users simply need to have the Google Assistant installed to get started.

Eva Galperin Wants to Eliminate Stalkerware

Eva Galperin is the head of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) Threat Lab. Her latest project? Ending stalkerware once and for all.

In a talk she is scheduled to give next week at the Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit in Singapore, Galperin will lay out a list of demands: First, she’s calling on the antivirus industry to finally take the threat of stalkerware seriously, after years of negligence and inaction. She’ll also ask Apple to take measures to protect iPhone users from stalkerware, given that the company doesn’t allow antivirus apps into its App Store.