Linked List: August 17, 2024

Saturday, 17 August 2024

Google Gemini Is Conversationally Precocious, But Still Awkward ★

Alex Cranz, writing for The Verge:

But then Gemini Live kept talking. And talking. The Verge team was packed in a glass booth, and as Gemini Live droned on, a friendly Google employee encouraged me to “go ahead and interrupt it.”

It felt weird! I don’t mind interrupting Google Assistant in my car. In fact, I can be downright abusive to most of these bots. I call them names and interrupt them with ease. But Gemini Live felt different. The pleasing masculine tone of the voice, the easy way it spoke. It felt a little too human for me to interrupt.

My next question led to a similar interaction. I asked for ideas on how to entertain my dog, and Gemini Live just started talking. The only way I could get it to stop was to interrupt it. Which I did repeatedly. It was like talking to my 9-year-old godson. Like him, Gemini Live doesn’t know how to read the cues on my face, doesn’t know when to acknowledge that, actually, I don’t care as much about the subject at hand as it does.

The comparison to a 9-year-old is apt. There’s no path to LLM assistants not being socially awkward without going through stages of sometimes-embarrassing awkwardness.

Joanna Stern: ‘Google’s Gemini Live AI Sounds So Human, I Almost Forgot It Was a Bot’ ★

Joanna Stern, writing for The Wall Street Journal (News+ link):

I’m not saying I prefer talking to Google’s Gemini Live over a real human. But I’m not not saying that either.

Does it help that the chatty new artificial-intelligence bot says I’m a great interviewer with a good sense of humor? Maybe. But it’s more that it actually listens, offers quick answers and doesn’t mind my interruptions. No “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand that” apologies like some other bots we know.

I had a nice, long chat with Google’s generative-AI voice assistant before its debut on Tuesday. It will come built into the company’s four new Pixel phones, but it’s also available to anyone with an Android phone, the Gemini app and a $20-a-month subscription to Gemini Advanced. The company plans to launch it soon on iOS, too.

The catch:

When I asked it to set a timer, it said it couldn’t do that — or set an alarm — “yet.” Gemini Live is a big step forward conversationally. But functionally, it’s a step back in some ways. One big reason: Gemini Live works entirely in the cloud, not locally on a device. Google says it’s working on ways for the new assistant to control phone functions and other Google apps.

It’s a fascinating — but unsurprising — strategic and culture difference that Apple Intelligence runs largely on device, and completely privately even when going to the cloud, and Google Gemini is currently only in the cloud, and with nothing like Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. To be clear, Google’s new lineup of Pixel 9 phones perform a lot of “AI” features on device, but not the Gemini voice assistant.

Epic Games Store Launches for iPhones in the EU ★

Epic Games:

Today the Epic Games Store is available for download on iPhones in the European Union and on Android devices worldwide. The store is launching with Fortnite, Rocket League Sideswipe and the all-new Fall Guys for mobile, and we are working to enable all developers to launch their games and apps through the Epic Games Store in the future. We are also bringing our games to independent mobile stores including AltStore PAL today.

No iPad support yet, but it’s coming.

AltStore, on Mastodon:

GOOD NEWS EU 🇪🇺 For innovation in app distribution, Epic Games has granted us a MegaGrant grant that we plan to use to cover Apple’s Core Technology Fee going forward — and we won’t take it for granted!

What does this mean? AltStore PAL is now FREE — no subscription necessary 🎉 altstore.io.

Beta 6 of MacOS 15 Sequoia Now Prompts Monthly, Instead of Weekly, for Screen Recording Permissions ★

Chance Miller, writing for 9to5Mac:

In macOS Sequoia beta 6, however, Apple has adjusted this policy and will now prompt users on a monthly basis instead. macOS Sequoia will also no longer prompt you to approve screen recording permissions every time you reboot your Mac.

Apple’s initial plan to require authorization weekly prompted a lot of blowback from Mac users, including Jason Snell at Six Colors and John Gruber at Daring Fireball. Apple seemingly heard all of this feedback and determined that a one-month approval window is a fair compromise. [...]

A permission request on a monthly basis is certainly better than one on a weekly basis, but I still think there needs to be a way to permanently grant an app screen recording permissions.

Agreed. Perhaps the seemingly under-documented Persistent Content Capture entitlement, pointed out by Craig Hockenberry (who works on the excellent longstanding Iconfactory utility xScope, the entire point of which requires screen content capture) could be a part of such an exemption?

I do think, after some off-the-record conversations this week, that both the MacOS and security teams at Apple are trying to get the balance right on these permission issues. I continue to think part of the problem is thinking too small, and requiring what’s effectively whack-a-mole with multiple recurring permission prompts. Playing that game of whack-a-mole monthly instead of weekly is absolutely an improvement. But I still think there ought to be a way to grant a properly notarized app permanent permission.

‘The Insane Engineering of the Gameboy’ ★

I always knew that the original Gameboy was remarkably clever, but this video from the Real Engineering YouTube channel shows just how clever it was. The price was low ($89), a set of 4 AA batteries lasted for 30 hours, and, of course, it was fun as hell.