APFS, Shutdown, Messages, and Notifications – Mac Geek Gab Podcast 720

Every time your two favorite geeks get together, something interesting happens: everyone learns at least five (5!) new things. This week’s topics include two very specific features of APFS (a pro and a con), noise-canceling headphones for travel, a solution to drives not appearing on your Desktop, some Cool Stuff Found, and much, much more. Press play or download and enjoy!

AI Mania. Can We Keep Up?

New payment systems abound. Artificial Intelligence mania continues. AIs interrogating other AIs and probing their minds. AIs doing cancer diagnosis. And mostly right but sometimes wrong. Facial recognition bites back. Can we keep up?  It’s all in Particle Debris page 2.

Watch This Robot Hand Learn How to Manipulate a Block

Check out this video from OpenAI of a robot hand learning how to manipulate a block. This an incredibly difficult task, and the level of difficulty is one of the many reasons Apple needs humans assembling iPhones. OpenAI used machine learning and virtual simulations for the robot to spend 100 years of trial and error to learn what you’ll see in the video (TechnologyReview has more details). Those virtual lessons were then used by the real-world robot hand, and it’s pretty darned cool. Check it out.

TMO Background Mode Special Edition Chat with Kelly Guimont: TV Mysteries

Kelly Guimont is a Contributing Editor for The Mac Observer and Social Media Manager for Smile Software. She first appeared here in December, 2015 to tell her career story and has returned several times for interesting technical discussions. In this special edition, we chat about our favorite movie or two, and how, for some movies, the music has become a thing in itself, the soundtrack of our lives. Then we delved into the legendary BBC/CBC mysteries: Foyle’s War, Murdoch Mysteries, Shetland, Death in Paradise, and Broadchurch. For most of these mysteries, we look at their celebration of place that becomes an integral part of the show. Join us as we explore together what makes these shows so cool.