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Weekly Tech Recap: The 5 Biggest Stories Shaping Our Future There's a lot to pore over in this week's tech recap

By Muskan Singh

From Apple’s latest operating system, iOS 18, unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference to Google’s unveiling of the Pixel 8a. Let’s delve into the details of the top 5 tech stories of the week.

With the new iPad Pro, Apple reveals its ambition in AI

This tech giant never fails to fascinate the world. On June 10 at the Worldwide Developers Conference 2024, Apple introduced iOS 18, its latest operating system. This new release, featuring a suite of advanced AI functionalities known as “Apple Intelligence,” is all set to offer a range of new and innovative capabilities. Among these are an enhanced and nuanced Siri equipped with On-Screen Awareness, a new application called Image Playground for image creation, and comprehensive text generation and summarisation tools.

Leveraging Apple Intelligence, Siri can now handle queries by accessing data from various applications. For instance, it can summarise a meeting preparation document sent by a colleague, display the meeting’s time and location on your calendar, and provide weather-related impacts on your daily lives and lifestyles, thereby leaving no stone unturned.

These state-of-the-art AI features will be exclusively available on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models.

The Future of Job Hunting: LinkedIn’s AI Features You Need to Know About

LinkedIn has enhanced the job-seeking experience by adding new AI-powered features, which are exclusively accessible to Premium subscribers. These features are only available in English for the time being, but based on user feedback, more enhancements are planned. The AI-driven Jobseeker Coach is an extremely useful addition. It is an integrated chatbot that looks for jobs in response to basic text prompts. When users specify criteria for their job searches, like “Find me a job in cybersecurity within my network” or “Find me a UI/UX designer job in Bengaluru that pays at least Rs. 10 lakh a year,” the AI will give recommendations that are pertinent to the user’s requests. This new LinkedIn feature is ready to revolutionise your searches by giving them a new dimension.

LinkedIn is launching a tool that evaluates applicants and resumes and provides tailored comments and recommendations to help users stand out. This tool can also help with cover letter improvement by offering recommendations and rectifications that can be edited and reviewed by hand.

Personalised and exclusive coaching for users enrolled in courses on the platform is yet another new feature. You can ask questions about topics, content summaries, and real-time examples and insights using this feature. Although LinkedIn has started to roll out these features, it might take a few days before everyone can see them. The overall goal of these AI improvements is to give LinkedIn Premium subscribers a more efficient and customised job search and learning experience.

Gemini in India: More Competent for Your Daily Tasks, Now Available on Mobile and Multilingual

In India, Google has released the Gemini app, its AI assistant. The app, Gemini, supports and incorporates nine Indian languages: Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. It comes in two versions, Gemini and Gemini Advanced. New features in Gemini Advanced entail file uploading, chat integration with English-language Google Messages, and data analysis capabilities. Typing, speaking, or uploading images is how users can interact and engage with the app. For example, they can upload a picture of a flat tyre to get detailed instructions on how to change it. Gemini Advanced has new data analysis capabilities and the ability to upload files, among many other enhanced features. Gemini can now be directly communicated within Google Messages by users whose first language is English. The intention is to provide a seamless user-friendly experience by integrating the AI assistant into a widely used messaging platform.

Through speaking, typing, or uploading images, users of the app can communicate. This feature demonstrates the app’s versatility and usefulness. The Gemini app will be accessible to iOS users through the Google app in the upcoming weeks, ensuring that Indian users of Android and iOS can take advantage of these new AI features.

India saw the launch of Google Wallet

Google Wallet, a digital wallet app, has been released in India. Users of the application can safely secure and store IDs, loyalty cards, transit passes, and other private information. Google Pay, a well-known UPI app, will have no effect with the introduction of Google Wallet, as the company has made clear. Pre-installed on all Pixel smartphones in India will be the Google Wallet app. Meanwhile, non-Pixel users can download the digital wallet from the Play Store and use it to save their credit card information. But the Mountain View, California-based business has acknowledged that India will not be getting the Google Wallet app on wearables just yet.

Google unveiled the Pixel 8a

Following the iPad’s May 7 launch, Google shocked everyone by making the Pixel 8a secretly public. The latest model in the Pixel ‘A’ series supports up to 8GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. Like its more expensive siblings, it also sports the same Tensor G3 chipset.

For the Pixel 8a, seven years of OS updates and security patches are guaranteed. Google is adding Circle to Search, Magic Eraser, Best Take, Gemini AI, and additional AI features to the Pixel 8a as well. The Pixel 8a has two rear cameras: a 64MP primary sensor with optical image stabilisation and a 13MP ultra-wide-angle lens. A 13MP front-facing camera is also included to satiate all of your video call needs.

India Gets Meta AI

Months later the tech giant tested the AI chatbot with a handful of Indian users, and Meta finally curated its chatbot, Meta AI, for use in India. Across all of its apps, (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram) Meta has multitudes of users, making the nation its largest market base. It is one of the top AI assistants in the world and is already free and available for download on your phone across the globe. With Meta Llama 3 at its core, Meta AI is engineered to be more intelligent, responsive, and entertaining, offering a useful and adaptable tool for daily use. For your everyday tasks like email writing, poetry writing, text summarization, and multilingual translation, Meta AI leverages real-time search results and facilitates users to perform their tasks with much ease. Outside of chat windows, it even excels at making GIFs and images. To find vegan-friendly restaurants or to get road trip recommendations, for instance, you can ask Meta AI in a group WhatsApp chat. With the most competent large language model at work, Meta AI is more advanced than before.

By Muskan Singh
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By Muskan Singh