What’s a company to do when it faces a multitude of existential crises and seems unable to regain control of the media message? It throws a few dead cats on the table to distract everybody.

This aeons-old approach to public relations has recently been rechristened as “flooding the zone” — and it is what I think Apple is doing as news surfaces that it plans to announce a change to the way it names its operating systems in June at its big developer event, WWDC.

That means we won’t ever see iOS 19 but will see iOS 26 instead.

It also means:

A new Apple OS order

iPadOS 26

macOS 26

tvOS 26

visionOS 26

watchOS 26

homeOS 26

You can see the pattern, I hope. The 26 refers to the main year in which an operating system exists, which is a little confusing, as it means we need to look forward to iOS 27 (et al.) in 2026. 

I don’t think there’s anything particularly contentious about this change: it’s great for me, as it makes it far less likely I’ll use an incorrect OS version number in my work. But for Apple it’s led to a tidal wave of reports around the decision, and while not all of those are positively spun, the fact that the yarns are being worked at all restores some of Apple’s control over the narrative.

Existential threats

That’s a degree of media management the company needs, given that almost every other story being written about it at this time involves tariffs, regulation, or its problems with artificial intelligence. Even its bigger stories that should have been good news are delivering unexpected results — for example, what should be seen as huge success in pivoting its manufacturing to India is being seen through the lens of nativist US regulation and tariffs. 

Also in politics, Europe’s regulators seem to want to turn Apple regulation into a weapon for use in negotiations over US trade. And in the background, the company’s former Chief Designer Jony Ive’s move to get to work on new devices with OpenAI raises all the ghosts of Expos past.

What’s Apple to do? Well, right now it can’t ask Siri for comfort, but maybe that will change next year — and we don’t want people paying too much attention to AI, do we?

Apple certainly doesn’t seem to want to discuss any of these challenges too much. The decision by Apple executives not to take part in John Gruber’s traditional WWDC ‘talk show’ represents a company whose leaders feel the need to manage the messaging. Apple has participated in these conversations for a decade, so the change is noteworthy.

Waiting for the sun (in the Solarium)

That Apple chooses these moments just before WWDC to use its official unofficial news and speculation reporters at Bloomberg to share news about the future of its operating system names represents something similar.

First, it gets people talking about something else in the here and now.

Second, it begins to set relatively low expectations for Apple’s big developer event. The operating systems will get a facelift (Solarium) designed to make them all work a little more similarly, the iPad will gain tools to make it more Mac-like, and Apple will adopt a new nomenclature culture for its operating system names.

What is Solarium? This is a UI update that changes the look of icons, menus, windows, buttons, and more. The idea is to deliver a consistent visual interface across all the devices, intentionally a little translucent like sitting in a glass-walled room dappled by sunlight. Which sounds nice, and probably also means rounder icons, floating controls, spatial depth, and visual cues strongly reminiscent of visionOS 1.0. 

Prepare for more shocks

Will any of this be enough for Apple to regain control of the narrative? I don’t think so.

There’s an outside possibility that Apple will introduce exciting digital health tools and maybe other services that provoke deep interest. But, assuming these do not transpire and Solarium is the hot spot for WWDC, then I strongly suspect Apple will play for time (and control of the media narrative) by throwing a few more dead cats into the ring — at least until Siri is at last capable of telling it when to stop. 

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Source:: Computer World

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By Siôn Geschwindt While Europe races to phase out fossil fuels and electrify everything from cars to heating systems, it’s turning a blind eye to a reliable and proven source of clean energy lying right beneath our feet.  Geothermal energy offers exactly what the continent needs most: clean, local, always-on power. Yet, it only accounted for 0.2% of power generation on the continent in 2024. Something needs to change. The recent blackout in Spain, triggered by a failure in the high-voltage grid, serves as a warning shot. While solar and wind are vital pillars of decarbonisation, they’re variable by nature. Without steady, around-the-clock…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

Microsoft and Google are taking distinctive approaches with AI agents in their productivity suites, and enterprises need to account for the differences when formulating digital labor strategies, analysts said.

In recent months, both companies have announced a dizzying array of new agents aimed at extracting value from corporate documents and maximizing efficiency. The tech giants have dropped numerous hints about where they’re headed with AI agents in their respective office suites, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.

Microsoft is reshaping its Copilot assistant as a series of tools to create, tap into, and act on insights at individual and organizational levels. The Microsoft 365 roadmap lists hundreds of specialized AI tools under development to automate work for functions such as HR and accounting. The company is also developing smaller AI models to carry out specific functions.

Google is going the opposite way, with its large-language model Gemini at the heart of Workspace. Google offers tools that include Gems for workers to create simple custom agents that automate tasks such as customer service, and Agentspace in Google Cloud to build more complex custom agents for collaboration and workflow management. At the recent Google I/O developer conference, the company added real-time speech translation to Google Meet.

“For both, the goal is to bring usable and practical productivity and efficiency capabilities to work tools,” said Liz Miller, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research.

But the differing AI agent strategies are heavily rooted in each company’s philosophical approaches to productivity. Although Microsoft has long encouraged customers to move from its traditional “perpetual-license” Office suite to the Microsoft 365 subscription-based model, M365 notably retains the familiar desktop apps. Google Workspace, on the other hand, has always been cloud-based.

Microsoft users are typically a bit more tethered to traditional enterprise work styles, while Google has always been the “cloud-first darling for smaller organizations that still crave real-time collaboration,” Miller said.

When it comes to the generative AI models being integrated into the two office suites, “Google’s Gemini models are beating out the models being deployed by Microsoft,” Miller said. “But as Microsoft expands its model ‘inventory’ in use across M365, this could change.”

Microsoft has an advantage, as many desktop users live in Outlook or Word. The intelligence Copilot can bring from CRM software is readily available, while that integration is more complex in the cloud-native Google Workspace.

“Microsoft still has an edge in a foundational understanding of work and the capacity to extend Copilot connections across applications as expansive as the Office suite through to Dynamics, giving AI a greater opportunity to be present in the spaces and presentation layers where workers enjoy working,” Miller said.

Microsoft’s Copilot Agents and Google’s Gems and Agentspace are in their early stages, but there have been positive developments, said J.P. Gownder, a vice president and principal analyst on Forrester’s Future of Work team.

Microsoft recently adopted Google’s A2A protocol, which makes it easier for users of both productivity suites to collaborate and unlock value from stagnant data sitting on other platforms. “That should be a win for interoperability,” Gownder said.

But most companies that are Microsoft shops have years or decades of digital assets that hold them back from considering Google, he said. For example, Excel macros, pivot tables, and customizations cannot be easily or automatically migrated to Google Sheets, he said.

“As early as this market is, I don’t think it’s fair to rank either player — Microsoft or Google — as being the leader; both of them are constructing new ecosystems to support the growth of agentic AI,” Gownder said.

Most Microsoft Office users have moved to M365, but AI is helping Google is making inroads into larger organizations, especially among enterprises that are newer and less oriented toward legacy Microsoft products, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates.

Technologies like A2A blur the line between on-premises and cloud productivity. As a result, “Google Workspace is no longer perceived as inferior, as it had been in the past,” Gold said.

And for budget-constrained enterprises, the value of AI agent features is not the only consideration. “There is also the cost equation at work here, as Google seems to have a much more transparent cost structure than Microsoft with all of its user classes and discounts,” Gold said.

Microsoft does not include Copilot in its M365 subscriptions, which vary in price depending on the type of customer. The Copilot business subscriptions range from $30 per user per month for M365 Copilot to $200 per month for 25,000 messages for Copilot Studio, which is also available under a pay-as-you-go model. Google has flat subscription pricing for Workspace, starting at $14 per user per month for business plans with Gemini included.

Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt Remote-controlled robots could one day build giant solar farms in space, according to a recent trial in the UK. British startup Space Solar conducted the test at the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) facilities on the University of Oxford’s Culham Campus, which hosts several fusion research initiatives. The company used two remotely operated robotic arms to assemble a section of the support structure for its future solar power satellite. The device aims to beam the Sun’s energy from space to Earth.  According to Space Solar, the trial proved that robotics can assemble gigawatt-scale solar power satellites. Sam Adlen, the startup’s…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

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Source:: The Next Web

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Microsoft is giving its Windows Update software stack more power, and the tool will soon be able to update other software and drivers within Windows systems.

The company is establishing the capability for system administrators to wrangle all software updates into a one-click experience, Microsoft said in a blog post on Wednesday.

Sysadmins today have to run Windows Update to keep the OS updated, and separately patch individual pieces of software, which can be a lot of work.

“To solve this, we’re building a vision for a unified, intelligent update orchestration platform capable of supporting any update (apps, drivers, etc.) to be orchestrated alongside Windows updates,” Microsoft said.

Typically, system administrators deploy patch management tools to update Windows and related enterprise software, but Microsoft wants to bring it all to a Windows Update-style deployment. Potential benefits include more streamlined and lower-cost deployment of updates, the company said. A unified patch management system also reduces computing requirements.

The current process for doing updates to Windows systems is a hodgepodge of different tools and techniques, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates.

“I applaud Microsoft for finally trying to bring all of this under one umbrella but wonder why it took them so long to do this,” Gold said.

In addition to Windows, Windows Update today updates Microsoft’s development tools such as .NET and Defender, and also updates system drivers. With ARM-based PCs, it also delivers system BIOS and firmware so users don’t have to download it from the PC maker’s website.

But how quickly companies adopt this new way of doing things will depend on how easy Microsoft makes it to adopt the new service, Gold said.

Microsoft is providing a tool for software providers to put their software updates into its orchestration platform. The company has only provided information on how developers can test it out with their applications, and Microsoft will then provide further information.

Developers who have access to the Windows Runtime environment can test it out and implement it. APIs are also available to test out the system.

Microsoft separately announced that Windows Backup for Organizations, a data backup feature announced last year, is now in public preview.

The product will allow for a smooth transition to Windows 11 from Windows 10 for enterprises, the company said. Windows 10 support ends in October 2025.

“This capability helps reduce migration overhead, minimize user disruption, and strengthen device resilience against incidents,” Microsoft wrote in a blog entry.

Microsoft’s Entra identity authentication is a key component of such transitions via Windows Backup for Organizations, Microsoft said.

Further reading:

How to handle Windows 10 and 11 updates

Windows 10: A guide to the updates

Windows 11: A guide to the updates

How to preview and deploy Windows 10 and 11 updates

How to troubleshoot and reset Windows Update

How to keep your apps up to date in Windows 10 and 11

Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt The European Commission has unveiled ambitious plans to cut red tape and make the EU a more attractive place for tech businesses to scale.  Launched today, the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy comes as the bloc scrambles to attract and retain tech startups amid stiff competition from the US and Asia.  Under the new initiative, the EU has laid out a five-point plan to close the gap with its rivals. It’s also in talks to deploy a public-private fund of at least €10bn under the new strategy, Reuters reports.  Here’s the lowdown: 1. Making rules less painful European startups regularly…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

Meta (Nasdaq:META) is restructuring its AI division into two distinct units, AI Products and AGI Foundations, marking its most significant internal overhaul as it races to compete with OpenAI and Google.

The move, detailed in an internal memo from Chief Product Officer Chris Cox and reported by Axios, appoints Connor Hayes to lead AI product integration while Ahmad Al-Dahle and Amir Frenkel will co-direct long-term AGI research.

The restructuring comes amid mounting crises, including the delayed Llama 4 Behemoth model and the departure of key Llama architects to competitors like Mistral AI. This marks Meta’s second major AI reorganization since CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s 2023 attempt to “turbocharge” generative AI efforts, which saw the company fall further behind rivals despite early promise.

“Structural changes alone won’t solve Meta’s AI challenges,” said Amandeep Singh, practice director at QKS Group. “While the new AGI Foundations unit creates clarity, retaining elite talent requires a seamless pipeline from research to real-world deployment. Meta has struggled with fragmented pipelines and unclear priorities,” added Singh.

Talent exodus and technical setbacks

The restructuring follows talent losses that have exposed fundamental weaknesses in Meta’s AI strategy. Only three authors remain from the original 14-person Llama research team, according to Business Insider. Internal surveys cited by The Information reveal plummeting morale in Meta’s AI division, where employees cite resource constraints and sluggish progress.

“Talent follows momentum, and right now, momentum lives where research decisions directly shape deployed capabilities,” noted Singh.

This talent drain coincides with technical setbacks, most notably the underperforming Llama 4 model, which has struggled with reasoning and mathematical tasks. These combined challenges have left Meta playing catch-up in the race toward artificial general intelligence, despite its early open-source advantages.

The company’s strategy, bolstered by initiatives such as Llama for Startups and the recent Llama API launch, aims to attract developers and differentiate it from competitors’ proprietary models. But analysts caution these initiatives alone may not be enough to win enterprise trust.

The enterprise adoption dilemma

While Llama’s cost advantages remain attractive to businesses, growing concerns about its governance controls and the looming copyright lawsuit over training data are giving enterprises pause.

“Companies love Llama’s affordability but expanding safety gaps and legal risks are becoming hard to ignore,” Singh said. “For mission-critical applications, many will ultimately choose more reliable, if more expensive, options like GPT or Gemini.”

These cost benefits can lose their appeal when weighed against operational risks. Meta’s reorganization attempts to mitigate these concerns through specialized teams, one deploying generative AI across products, another advancing AGI research, but analysts remain skeptical about whether structural changes alone can solve deeper issues.

Unlike Microsoft’s turnkey OpenAI integration or Google’s enterprise-ready Vertex AI platform, Meta lacks both the sales infrastructure and compliance pedigree for regulated industries. As Singh argued, “Enterprise AI adoption hinges on proven compliance frameworks, operational reliability, and mature support systems. Meta still needs to build that trust at Fortune 500 scale.”

Meta’s race to close the AGI gap

“Meta’s AGI push focused on models with reasoning, multimedia, and voice capabilities aligns with the broader industry trend toward multimodal AI as a catalyst for enterprise transformation,” said Surjyadeb Goswami, research director for AI and Automation at IDC Asia Pacific. He noted that open-source models are critical to enabling cost-effective, transparent, and customizable deployments, especially as organizations deepen their GenAI investments.

For Meta to truly capitalize on this opportunity and succeed in its AGI bid, it must rebuild trust especially for enterprise adoption. Singh highlighted the need for Linux-like community stewardship, OpenAI-level safety protocols, and robust enterprise tooling. “Balancing openness with responsibility is Meta’s real challenge, especially as models approach general-purpose cognitive capability.”

Meta now needs to show this reorganization yields meaningful improvements in model performance, talent retention, and enterprise adoption to validate its new approach. “Meta’s open-source vision is bold, but execution is everything,” Singh concluded.

Source:: Computer World

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By Siôn Geschwindt Swedish foodtech startup Millow has opened its first commercial-scale factory at a former LEGO production hall in Gothenburg.  The facility will use a patented dry fermentation process in which mycelium — the root-like structure of fungus — feeds on oats in a bioreactor. There, it rapidly grows into a meat alternative that can replace everything from beef mince to doner kebab. Millow aims to produce 500kg of the so-called mycoprotein per day at the site once fully operational later this year. The company’s founders hope its product, also called Millow, will iron out the kinks in the alternative meat sector. …This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

Long predicted, the end of the smartphone as we know it now seems to be gradually approaching. The reason: instead of laboriously moving from app to app, artificial intelligence (AI) will enable AI assistants to carry out cross-app tasks in the future, including by voice command.

A look back at the development of user interfaces shows just how significant this step is: While the command line still dominated in the early 1970s, it was gradually replaced by the graphical user interface (GUI) from the 1980s onwards. Touch operation followed in the 2000s and voice input was gradually added. Nevertheless, apps are still silos in which users operate in relative isolation — a situation that is now slowly disappearing with the triumph of generative AI (genAI) and AI agents.

Off to a shaky start

Pioneers in the field of AI devices include the Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit r1. These devices broke away from the classic form factor of a smartphone and were primarily operated by voice. But contrary to what the marketing promised, the technology was not ready for practical use and the commands were not well implemented, disappointing both reviewers and users. Although the Rabbit r1 is still available, the more expensive Humane AI Pin was discontinued in early 2025, less than a year after its launch.

The Humane AI Pin lasted less than a year.shutterstock.com – Tada Images

Deutsche Telekom also presented a concept AI phone at MWC 2024, in which the countless apps on a smartphone were to be replaced by an AI-based assistant.

The idea: like a concierge, the AI understands the user’s wishes and then takes care of the details. Instead of searching for a flight to the World Cup quarter-finals in various portals or airline apps, for example, the user should be able to order this simply by voice command via their smartphone. This is at least one scenario that appears to have been borrowed from the connected car sector.

Deutsche Telekom intends to stick with this idea. The company presented an updated version of its AI phone in Barcelona this year and announced that it would be available “at an affordable price” in the second half of the year.

While the unassuming exterior of the Android smartphone has remained the same, Deutsche Telekom’s technology partner has changed. Instead of Natural AI from Brain.ai, a genAI solution from Perplexity (also cloud-based) is now used. The Telekom phone will offer additional AI features in the form of applications from Google Cloud AI (object recognition), Elevenlabs (a podcast generator) and Picsart (a genAI design tool).

srcset=”https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 6000w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=300%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=768%2C432&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=2048%2C1152&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=1240%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=150%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=854%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 854w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=640%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 640w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=444%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 444w” width=”1024″ height=”576″ sizes=”(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”>Deutsche Telekom’s AI phone relies on a cloud AI solution from Perplexity.Deutsche Telekom

Users can get an impression of how it works with the Perplexity Assistant (not to be confused with the AI-supported search engine), which is freely available as an app. On Android devices, the AI tool is able to open various apps, send messages, reserve tables in restaurants via OpenTable, and translate texts on the screen, among other things.

On the iPhone, the app’s functionality is somewhat limited but can easily outshine Siri when accessing third-party apps. The iOS version of Perplexity also offers a function that the company calls “Persistent Listening.” If this is activated, the voice assistant continues to listen to the user’s voice, even if they leave or switch apps. This is a workaround, as Apple naturally does not allow a “wake-up word” such as “Hey Siri.”

OpenAI and Google are getting involved

In view of the current trend towards AI agents, or agentic AI, similar approaches can also be found among other providers. In January, for example, OpenAI presented Operator, an AI agent that can independently perform a range of repetitive tasks on the web. According to the provider, the agent, which is currently only available in the US (as a preview for Pro users of ChatGPT), can be tasked with a variety of repetitive browser-based tasks, such as filling out forms or ordering food. Operator is powered by OpenAI’s Computer-Using Agent (CUA), an AI model that combines the visual capabilities of GPT-4o with reasoning.

According to OpenAI, CUA is trained to interact with graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in the same way that humans do. This is done with the help of numerous “screenshots” of the website, which are evaluated by the AI in order to initiate the next step. According to the company, this makes the agent flexible enough to carry out digital tasks without using operating system or web-specific APIs.

It’s worth noting, too, that OpenAI is showing strong interest in developing AI devices with its $6.5 billion purchase of io, an AI hardware startup founded by former Apple design wunderkind Jony Ive.

Google is working on the topic of AI assistants in several projects. At its I/O 2025 developer conference, the tech giant demonstrated the latest advances in Project Astra, among other things. The most revolutionary innovation: Astra can now act proactively. Instead of only reacting to direct commands, the assistant continuously observes its surroundings and decides independently when it should intervene.

Project Mariner, which was first presented in December 2024, now comprises a system of agents that can perform up to 10 different tasks simultaneously. Among other things, they are able to look up information, make bookings, and make purchases — all at the same time.

In a demo at I/O, Google showed how a simple command such as “Plan a weekend trip to Berlin” led to a cascade of actions: the agent researched flights, hotels, and activities and presented a complete itinerary, all without further user interaction. As with the other tools, the principle of “Human in the Loop” (HITL) applies to such steps: the agents explain their actions, ask questions when important decisions are made, and can be interrupted by the user at any time.

On-device AI or cloud AI — or both?

While cloud AI promises further AI expansion and — with good connectivity — better performance, hardware manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm are focusing on “on-device AI” to differentiate themselves and create incentives to buy new, high-quality devices.

At the launch of its new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S25, Samsung proudly announced that the corresponding features had almost doubled compared to its predecessor. As an example of this, the Korean company cited the ability to activate settings such as dark mode via voice command. And Google’s Gemini assistant can be activated via the function key to use Samsung and Google apps without having to select them individually. Some third-party apps such as Spotify and WhatsApp can also be controlled in this way.

Qualcomm, which provides the necessary AI computing power for high-end smartphones such as the S25 with its Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (or the Hexagon NPU built into it), is also driving the trend towards on-device AI. The company provides a large number of small language models (SLMs) on its AI Hub. Although the language models are trained in the cloud, inferencing takes place on the device.

And Apple? The iPhone manufacturer is lagging far behind in the field of AI agents, although the original Siri app was already quite advanced in 2014 before Apple bought it and was able to make dinner reservations, find a movie theater, or call a cab. After the death of Steve Jobs, the development team had a hard time convincing software boss Craig Federighi to take AI seriously, Bloomberg reports, citing informed sources and quoting an insider: “When ChatGPT was publicly unveiled in November 2022, Apple Intelligence didn’t even exist as an idea, although it was no secret what OpenAI was doing.”

Apple is now working on “LLM Siri,” but the launch planned for 2025 is still delayed for technical reasons. According to Bloomberg, the biggest problem is that Apple had to split Siri’s infrastructure in half in order to bring the new functions to market as quickly as possible. The old code was used for old functions (such as setting an alarm) and the new code for requests that use personal data. However, this trick caused integration problems that led to delays.

How much personalization is needed?

In order to create context for some tasks, it is of course an advantage if the agents can incorporate personal knowledge about the user, such as gender and age, but also things like location and place of residence or culinary preferences. A classic marketing example is a scenario in which a user wants to eat something on the way home. He asks the AI assistant to find him a restaurant and reserve a table.

When it comes to finding a restaurant that suits the user’s eating habits and is on the route, classic data collectors such as Google have a clear advantage. However, a device such as the smartphone, as a constant companion, is also able to collect a lot of personal data about the user. At the same time, the inhibition threshold for sharing information should not be as high.

Announcements by companies such as OPPO prove that such a personal knowledge graph is not fiction. The smartphone manufacturer recently announced that it is developing a new knowledge system that will serve as a central repository for user data. “The system is designed to learn and adapt from users’ activities, interests, data and memories. This should enable highly personalized AI experiences and thus progress towards a future vision of intelligent, AI-driven operating systems,” the announcement states.

Samsung, for its part, laid the foundation for such a knowledge graph back in 2024 with the acquisition of Oxford Semantic and has now integrated it into its Galaxy S25 family. “RDFox is the technology behind Samsung’s Personal Data Engine, which creates hyper-personalized user experiences while ensuring the privacy and security of data on the device,” Oxford Semantic announced at the launch of the new Samsung flagship. By using knowledge graph technology to integrate and link data, RDFox improves the understanding of how people use a product or service and enables relevant information to be retrieved quickly and recommendations to be made.

Additional considerations

Once such a personal knowledge graph is up and running, the problems are only just beginning: To prevent misuse, it must be stored in a secure enclave in a highly encrypted form. In the case of the Galaxy S25, for example, they are stored in Samsung’s Knox Vault and protected by the blockchain-based Knox Matrix security system.

At the same time, however, numerous other questions arise, some of which still need to be answered, such as:

To what extent is this information passed on when devices are changed? What scenarios are there when switching to the successor model, a model from the same manufacturer, a model with the same operating system or even a different operating system?

Is there a backup in the cloud for migration or loss scenarios?

Do multiple devices — such as a tablet and smartphone — share knowledge?

Is there a cross-device knowledge graph for several agents or several separate ones?

Are there different databases for different personas (e.g., private or professional)?

But more technical aspects also need to be addressed if the AI is constantly listening — such as energy management. One option is to use several AIs: a power-saving AI module waits in the background for commands and then passes them on to other, specialized AIs.

Possible app applications

If the AI agents primarily access functions and services via APIs, this naturally also has consequences for the user interface of apps. “Apps will not become meaningless, but different,” comments the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE) on the development in a blog post.

A future-proof software concept must therefore be designed in such a way that it also works when users do not even see the software interface. “The ability to function seamlessly in different contexts and across different interfaces is becoming the decisive factor for success,” Fraunhofer IESE states.

“The challenge and the art of native app development will be to see these developments not as competition, but as an opportunity,” adds Mark Zimmermann, Head of CoE for Mobile Application Development at EnBW. “Successful apps of the future will not only rely on classic UI elements, but will also be intelligently interlinked with AI-controlled systems.”

Mobility expert Mark Zimmermann advises app developers to get to grips with the trend early on. EnBW

According to Zimmermann, the key to success lies in integration: “Customers need to be met where they expect to be — be it through voice interaction, multimodal interfaces, or directly in existing ecosystems. So it’s not about the end of the UI, but about its transformation. Those who get to grips with these technologies early on and integrate them will remain competitive in the long term.”

This article was originally published on Computerwoche.

Source:: Computer World

Apple continues to put forth the proposition that how it runs its App Store is good for customers. The company’s annual App Store fraud analysis puts a number to this benefit, revealing that Apple has prevented over $9 billion in fraudulent transactions at the App Store in the last five years.

Apple’s data comes as the company continues to trudge through ice and fire concerning how it runs the App Store, with payment methods and support for transactions outside its store all being attacked by regulators everywhere. And while the arguments against it gain favor, Apple wants its own arguments heard, countering the sometimes one-sided reportage around its mythical “Apple Tax.”

“In the last five years, the App Store has protected users by preventing over $9 billion in fraudulent transactions, including over $2 billion in 2024 alone, according to Apple’s annual App Store fraud analysis,” Apple said. 

That’s up about 10% over last year, when it prevented over $1.8 billion in fraud.

The cost of vigilance, the price of failure

The cost of security is, they say, eternal vigilance, which is what Apple promises at its stores. Achieving that vigilance takes a big investment, not just of time but also of money to pay people to do the watching. 

To give a sense of scale, Apple told us that 7.7 million apps were submitted to the App Store last year, and of these, 1.9 million were rejected. With Apple’s teams assessing 150,000 app submissions every week, third-party stores logically need to be able to provide the same degree of security oversight to protect their own.

Perhaps one of the more staggering takeaways is the scale at which attempts against the store are being made. Apple says that in the last month, it stopped almost 4.6 million attempts to install or launch illicitly distributed apps. It also blocked more than 10,000 illegitimate apps distributed by what the company calls “pirate storefronts.” 

What threats are users exposed to? 

Apple shares a few, including deceptive apps designed to steal personal information, and fraudulent payment schemes that attempt to exploit users. Some of the other commonly used attack forms Apple says it blocked last year: 

Apps with hidden features and functionality that are only enabled after the app passes App Review. Apple rejected over 43,000 apps for this kind of thing last year. 

More than 320,000 submissions that copied other apps, were spam, or otherwise misled users were rejected.

Risky software disguised as innocuous apps. Apple’s App Review team removed over 17,000 apps for bait-and-switch maneuvers such as these in 2024, the company said.

Apple also rejected 400,000 app submissions for privacy violations.

Of course, the company may have highlighted these attack categories as an oblique way to warn consumers using other stores of the kinds of attacks they may fall victim to.

Payment and ratings fraud

Fans of alternative payment methods to Apple Pay take note: Apple identified nearly 4.7 million stolen credit cards and banned over 1.6 million accounts from transacting again in the last year.

The company also stressed that the way its transaction system works gives customers a lot more privacy and security, as actual card details are never shared online. This of course helps prevent those details being stolen in future database attacks.

As Epic’s Fortnite storms up the App Store charts, it is also interesting that Apple’s report pays particular attention to apps that use insalubrious methods to achieve the same thing.

Apple says it removed more than 143 million fraudulent ratings and reviews from the 1.2 billion posted to the App Store last year as it identified attempts to use bots or paid services to game its reviews system. The company also kicked over 7,000 apps out of its store that made such attempts.

Developers, developers…

Of course, it’s not just customers who benefit from a well-curated app reviews system. Developers also benefit from a more equal chance to reach customers, Apple pointed out.

It is to be hoped that any future third-party stores share some of these commitments.

Those commitments should, logically, extend to discipline against developers. Apple says that in order to prevent fraud, it terminated over 146,000 developer accounts last year. It also blocked 139,000 developer enrollments.

Why are tens of thousands of attempts to overcome App Store security taking place? It could be the sheer number of people using the store, which is currently serving 813 million visits each and every week. 

What’s not being said, but could perhaps be inferred, is that once Apple is forced to open up access to third-party stores, consumers will need to become very, very certain the stores they use are delivering at least as secure a purchasing experience as Apple already does or face the consequences of that risk.

Given choice, some stay

Apple’s critics will likely mock the company’s approach, arguing that any good retailer should provide similar protections and that the company’s attempts to reinforce perception of the potential risks reflects its prime need to protect its own revenue.

Perhaps that is true, to some extent — but what is also true is that once Apple is forced to open up access to its stores and devices on a wider basis, then the gloves will be off when it comes to promoting App Store as a service.

Apple will continue to promote the advantages its already trusted service brings, while competitors will be forced to match those commitments or be exposed as providing a more insecure, less trustworthy service. For many customers, Apple’s service will still be the choice they make.

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Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt A quarter of European organisations have banned Elon Musk’s generative AI chatbot Grok, according to new research from cybersecurity firm Netskope.  In contrast, the most popular AI app, ChatGPT, is only blocked by 9.8% of organisations in Europe. The runner-up, Google’s Gemini, is banned by 9.2%. Grok has been under the spotlight recently for a string of blunders. They include spreading false claims about a “white genocide” in South Africa and raising doubts about Holocaust facts.  Such mishaps have raised concerns about Grok’s security and privacy controls. The report said the chatbot is frequently blocked in favour of “more secure…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Hisan Kidwai Inspired by platform fighters like Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros., Project Smash is a fun Roblox game…
The post Project Smash Codes (May 2025) appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

By Thomas Macaulay TNW is tapping a touch of AI magic to discover the next big things in tech. As part of our mission to elevate the startups shaping our future, we’ve partnered with Bounce Watch to bring its powerful analytics to our repertoire of tools. Bounce Watch is an intelligence platform for company performance — and it’s seriously impressed us. The AI-powered system tracks and analyses business activity in real-time, delivering data on over 1 million startups and tailored industry insights.  It offers instant alerts on funding rounds, leadership changes, and key business signals. Investors, scouts, and corporate innovators use the data to…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web