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• Perplexity’s iOS app has updated with a revamped voice mode
• The upgrade adds six new voices and real-time search integration
• Perplexity also included new personalization features and a fresh design to the iOS app

AI conversational search engine Perplexity is speaking up in its latest iOS update. The AI chatbot's voice mode brings a new look and more natural-sounding voices to the app, along with some new interactive features. The upgrade sets up Perplexity's app to better challenge rivals with their own voice options like ChatGPT or Google Gemini.

Before this update, Perplexity’s voice feature was somewhat limited. It could read answers aloud but without much emotion and with a walkie-talkie sort of interface that slowed things down. Perplexity has now added six different voices. While it’s still a text-to-speech system, meaning it won't have the emotional nuance of ChatGPT's advanced voice mode, the improvement is noticeable. You can finally pick a voice that doesn’t sound like an audiobook narrator from 2005.

So, how does Perplexity’s voice mode stack up against the competition? From an unscientific comparison, I'd say ChatGPT's advanced voice mode wins in sheer realism, with an expressive sound, conversational tone, and surprisingly natural-feeling laughter and outright interruptions. Google Gemini is a little less fluid, but still very natural overall. And while Google Gemini's voice is very good, it's a little less fluid than ChatGPT. Perplexity's offering is very clear and easy to understand, but its voices linger in the more neutral tone that sounds a little more artificial. It's not a negative though, just a different approach. Instead of focusing on making AI sound human, it’s doubling down on utility and making sure that when you ask a question, you not only get an answer but also the sources to back it up.

Perplexity's voice mode is embedded in the AI's other features too. That means the real-time search tool links to the voice mode. When you ask a question, you don’t just get a spoken response, you also see live search results, with links to the sources. It's an ability that's crucial since so much of Perplexity's appeal is in how it melds AI with search capabilities.

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Perplexity resolved

The way you start voice mode and the look of the app when using the feature have also been changed. The microphone icon you tap to start talking has been replaced by a sphere of shifting dots that respond to your voice and touch, scattering and reforming at your touch. It's an unnecessary but fun touch to the app. You can also now personalize the app with widgets like stock tickers or sports score updates. It adds another layer of customization that makes Perplexity feel a little more like your assistant rather than just a generic chatbot. Those kinds of options will likely be necessary for Perplexity to keep up with and perhaps beat other AI chatbots.

That ambition is also evident in the other major upgrade to the app. Perplexity has also added the new Claude 3.7 Sonnet model to its lineup. Anthropic's new model is aimed at enhancing Perplexity's ability to respond capably to complex or multi-step questions. Claude 3.7 is still very new, and reviews haven't been unanimous, but it could exceed or at least match the models employed by ChatGPT and Google Gemini for reasoning and conversational engagement.

Perplexity's voice mode revamp suggests Perplexity isn’t looking to beat ChatGPT and Gemini at where they are strongest, but to augment its own strengths with features that make the whole interaction feel (and sound) smoother, more immersive, and more natural.

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• Apple's bolstering its parental controls and child account experience
• Later in 2025, global age ratings will be expanded, and you can convert any standard account to a child account
• There is also a new API designed to help customize the in-app experience by age

Apple has long offered parental controls on devices and child accounts but is now making some changes to bolster its offering and make it a safer experience for all parties involved. Some of these adjustments are on the end user's side, such as creating a child account and App Store adjustments, but several are on the developer's side, in the form of API changes.

The new features and functionality were shared in a new whitepaper titled “Helping Protect Kids Online,” which you can read in full here. The changes begin with streamlining the process of creating a child account. As seen in the latest betas for iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, Apple now allows you to select an age range when creating an account; once selected, this information informs the presets for parental controls.

Of course, creating the account adds your child as a user and allows for family sharing of iCloud services and purchases within the App Store. However, to streamline the process, you can still give the child access to the new device with more limited functionality if you want to complete the rest of the account setup later.

(Image credit: Future)

Likely even more important, and good news for some, is that later in 2025, Apple will let you update the age on an Apple Account. This way, if you input the wrong date of birth, you can adjust it. Apple requires that kids under 13 have a Child Account associated with a parental Apple ID in the United States. Those under 18 can choose to be set up this way for these advanced protections, and some presets.

The App Store experience currently offers four age ratings worldwide, two of them being 12+ and 17+. Apple aims to create a more curated, safe experience and will expand the global age ratings later this year. This will bring Apple's age ratings closer to those of Google and its Play Store, which already offer age-based ratings in several categories depending on region.

Apple's expansion is a bit more focused and standard across all regions, with four new categories targeting specific age groups.

• 4+, which means no objectionable content is in the app.
• 9+, meaning the app might have content unsuitable for children under nine. It’s described in the paper as “infrequent or mild cartoon or fantasy violence, profanity or crude humor, or mature, suggestive, or horror- or fear-themed content.”
• 13+, which is described as potentially featuring: “infrequent or mild medical or treatment-focused content, references to alcohol, tobacco, or drug use, sexual content or nudity, realistic violence, or simulated gambling; or frequent or intense contests, profanity or crude humor, horror or fear-themed content, or cartoon or fantasy violence.
• 16+, described as “including through unrestricted web access, frequent or intense mature or suggestive content, or medical or treatment-focused content.”
• 19+, “including through instances of gambling, frequent or intense simulated gambling, references to alcohol, tobacco, or drug use, sexual content or nudity, or realistic violence.”

These will be the minimum age recommended for the app. This should allow developers to more accurately determine the age rating for the experience they are creating, and parents might find it easier to decide if it's safe to download. If a parent has turned on parental controls for app downloads, the App Store will only serve up age-appropriate apps when this arrives later in 2025.

It comes at a time when, in the United States, on both a state and federal level, there is debate about who should be in charge of age verification for using apps, either the store – i.e. Apple's App Store – or the developers themselves. It's packaged within larger conversations around child protection laws pertaining to digital experiences and connected devices.

Apple believes a per-app level is better for age verification and reducing data sharing overall. That's where the forthcoming Declared Age Range API will come into play. Rather than asking a user to input a date of birth, the developer can opt into the API. If approved via a pop-up in the app, the app will pull the age range from the user's Apple Account.

It's very much in line with how other apps request to use things like the camera or microphone and even to enroll you in notifications for the app. Apple's stance here is to reduce a user potentially oversharing while still ensuring a safe experience; seemingly, the per-app level approach is a better way to do this.

The company also says in the paper that it's similar to purchasing alcohol at a store in a mall, "After all, we ask merchants who sell alcohol in a mall to verify a buyer’s age by checking IDs – we don’t ask everyone to turn their date of birth over to the mall if they just want to go to the food court."

Apple's approach is at odds with other companies and even legislators, who think the enforcement and verification should be handled by where you get the app. The information is there because Apple does ask for the age range for creating an Apple Account, and one is required for a user under 13. From a privacy perspective, Apple isn't just handing that information over but wants to use it securely through this API.

Apple’s approach to age verification is arguably better from a privacy perspective for all, but requires active parental involvement.

Avi Greengart, Techsponental

Avi Greengart, founder of Techsponental, wrote in a statement to TechRadar, "Apple is trying to thread the needle between forcing everyone to share data that proves their age and giving parents the ability to protect their children from content that’s inappropriate for them. Apple’s approach to age verification is arguably better from a privacy perspective for all, but requires active parental involvement. It also doesn’t – and perhaps can’t – address the responsibility of social media apps to police their algorithms to prevent harm to minors."

The approach here with the Declared Age Range API likely ties back to Apple's further bolstering of Child Accounts, making them easier to create and control and linking them up to make using devices like iPads and iPhones and the services on them safer.

We're already seeing some of these changes, like the new Age Range selection for creating a child account. However, the updated age ratings for apps, the ability to adjust an account's age, and the new API will all arrive before the end of 2025.

Ultimately, time will tell who is responsible for age verification. Still, it's excellent to see Apple making it easier to create child accounts that offer a bit more protection and safeguards. The full paper released by Apple can be viewed here.

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• Nvidia CEO confirms Blackwell Ultra and Vera Rubin names
• Both set to be revealed at GTC 2025 in March 2025
• Nvidia sees overall revenues grow 114% year-on-year as AI demand booms

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has teased that the company's next flagship chip will be shown off within the next few weeks - as well as apparently officially confirming its name.

Speaking to analysts on the company's fiscal Q4 2025 earnings call, Huang revealed the new hardware will bear the moniker of Blackwell Ultra, and will be unveiled at its Nvidia GTC 2025 event in March 2025.

“Come to GTC and I’ll talk to you about Blackwell Ultra, Vera Rubin, and then show you the one click after that,” Huang declared.

Nvidia Blackwell Ultra...and more

Huang went on to add Blackwell Ultra will be officially launched in the second half of 2025, and offer upgrades in processors, networking, and memory - but will be built on the same system architecture as Blackwell.

Both Blackwell Ultra and Vera Rubin were teased on a company roadmap document at Computex 2024, but Huang has now seemingly confirmed the naming of both.

Nvidia unveiled Blackwell at GTC 2024, promising a major step forward in terms of AI power and efficiency.

It has since seen a number of releases, including the first Blackwell "superchip", the GB200, which has the ability to scale up from a single rack all the way to an entire data center, as Nvidia looks to push on with its leadership in the AI race.

Blackwell contains 208 billion transistors (up from 80 billion in Hopper) across its two GPU dies, which are connected by 10 TB/second chip-to-chip link into a single, unified GPU, making it up to 30x faster than Hopper when it comes to AI inference tasks, offering up to 20 petaflops of FP4 power, far ahead of anything else on the market today.

Despite this, Nvidia says Blackwell can reduce cost and energy consumption by up to 25x, giving the example of training a 1.8 trillion parameter model - which would previously have taken 8,000 Hopper GPUs and 15 megawatts of power - but can now be done by just 2,000 Blackwell GPUs consuming just four megawatts.

Vera Rubin is the *next* step forward for Nvidia after Blackwell Ultra, with an expected release in 2026, with CPU and GPU products anticpated, including a Vera Rubin board combining the GPU and CPU into a "superchip".

Huang's tease came as Nvidia revealed its most recent set of financial results, with the company once again seeing record returns as it benefits from the huge surge in AI demand.

Overall Nvidia revenues more than doubled year-on-year, reaching $130.5 billion for the financial year, a 114% rise, largely helped by record data center revenues of $35.6 billion, up 16% from the previous quarter, and up 93% from a year ago.

“Demand for Blackwell is amazing as reasoning AI adds another scaling law — increasing compute for training makes models smarter and increasing compute for long thinking makes the answer smarter,” Huang said of the results.

“We’ve successfully ramped up the massive-scale production of Blackwell AI supercomputers, achieving billions of dollars in sales in its first quarter. AI is advancing at light speed as agentic AI and physical AI set the stage for the next wave of AI to revolutionize the largest industries.”

Via The Verge

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• Lookalike products on Temu spark authenticity concerns
• Temu’s review system faces scrutiny amid signs of manipulation
• Price alone won’t dethrone Amazon - Temu must earn consumer trust

Chinese ecommerce giant Temu has emerged as a strong competitor to Amazon by offering significantly lower prices on a wide range of products in recent months

A new Omnisend report has claimed Temu’s prices are, on average, 40% lower for items closely matching Amazon listings. The site relies heavily on discounts to attract shoppers, with around 65% of its listings featuring markdowns, compared to 47% on Amazon, with some items seeing price cuts as high as 98%.

Temu has gained traction in budget-friendly categories such as clothing, shoes, jewelry, and beauty products, where it offers cheaper alternatives to Amazon. The overlap in these categories is high, with a 94% match rate for items listed on both platforms. However, despite its aggressive discounting, it has yet to surpass Amazon in consumer trust and product transparency, which may limit its ability to shift customer loyalty.

Pricing strategies and consumer perception

Amazon remains dominant in trust-sensitive segments like automotive products, where it consistently offers lower prices - being about 12% cheaper than Temu. Shoppers also favor Amazon for food and beverages, where Temu’s match rate is the lowest.

Amazon also holds an edge in electronics and home appliances, where factors like warranties, reliable reviews, and trusted customer support play a significant role in purchasing decisions.

It also maintains an advantage in consumer trust, partly due to its robust review system. The average Amazon product has around 50,000 reviews, while Temu listings typically have only 1,500.

Researchers have found signs of possible review manipulation on Temu, such as disappearing negative reviews and low-rated products being reuploaded under new listings. While Amazon also faces issues with fake reviews, its enforcement measures are more transparent.

Meanwhile, many Temu listings closely resemble well-known brands but feature altered packaging or blurred logos, raising doubts about authenticity.

Ultimately, Temu’s ability to compete with Amazon depends not just on lower prices but also on building credibility. While deep discounts attract budget-conscious shoppers, trust and reliability remain crucial for long-term consumer preference.

On the subject of trust - Temu and similar marketplaces have attracted millions in the last year, but, in September 2024, Temu denied a data breach relating a database containing 87 million users' personal information.

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• Solidigm 122.88TB SSD provided the storage for a test involving Nvidia's Nano Super
• The system was used to run DeepSeek and although it worked, it wasn’t fast
• The Gen 4 PCIe SSD’s speed was restricted by the Nano Super’s Gen 3 connection

At the end of 2024, Solidigm added a 122.88TB QLC SSD to its product line. The D5-P5336 will be available in U.2 15mm to start and then in E1.L later in 2025, meaning it won’t fit in a typical consumer PC. Its price is expected to exceed $10,000 anyway, so you’d need deep pockets if you want to buy one.

If you’re wondering how such a giant-capacity SSD might perform, we have the answer - sort of - but it doesn’t come in the form of a traditional review.

StorageReview tested the Jetson Orin Nano Super - Nvidia’s compact AI single-board computer for edge computing - to see how it performed on AI development tasks, specifically LLM inference. The Nano Super comes with a 6-core Arm CPU, a 1024-core Ampere GPU, and 8GB of LPDDR5 memory. At $249, it is an affordable choice for AI developers, but its limited VRAM presents a challenge for running LLMs.

Not smooth sailing

“We recognized that onboard memory limitations challenge running models with billions of parameters, so we implemented an innovative approach to bypass these constraints,” the site explained. “Typically, the Nano Super’s 8GB of graphics memory restricts its capability to smaller models, but we aimed to run a model 45 times larger than what would traditionally fit.”

Doing this involved upgrading the Nano Super’s storage with Solidigm’s new U.2 drive, which has a Gen 4 PCIe x4 interface and promises sequential read/write speeds of up to 7.1 GB/s (read) and 3.3 GB/s (write), along with random performance of up to 1,269,000 IOPS.

The Nano Super has two M.2 NVMe bays, both of which offer a PCIe Gen3 connection. The team connected the SSD to an 80mm slot supporting a full four PCIe lanes using a breakout cable to get the most bandwidth and used an ATX power supply to deliver 12V and 3.3V to the SSD.

While the full potential of the drive was limited by the Jetson’s interface, it still managed up to 2.5GB/s of read speeds. Using AirLLM, which loads model layers dynamically rather than all at once, the site managed to run DeepSeek R1 70B Distilled, an AI model 45 times larger than what would traditionally fit on such a device.

Processing speed turned out to be a major bottleneck for the experiment. Running smaller models worked well, but generating a single token from the 70B model took 4.5 minutes. While not practical for real-time AI tasks, the test demonstrated how massive storage solutions, like the D5-P5336, can enable larger models in constrained environments.

You can see how the test was achieved, and the problems that were encountered and overcome along the way, in this YouTube video.

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• The fully recovered source code for Command & Conquer is getting a public release
• Steam Workshop support for several Command & Conquer games has also been added
• A 'C&C Modding Support' pack for all games is also available for modding

EA has announced that it's releasing the fully recovered source code for Command & Conquer.

Luke "CCHyper" Feenan, a veteran of the Command & Conquer community, modder, and Admin of CnCNet, shared the details on behalf of the studio in a new Reddit post, confirming that the source code for Command & Conquer, aka Tiberian Dawn, C&C Red Alert, C&C Renegade, and C&C Generals + Zero Hour will be released to the public under the GPL license.

In addition, Steam Workshop support will also be introduced for several Command & Conquer titles allowing users to upload their custom maps. These games include C&C Renegade, Generals and Zero Hour, C&C 3 Tiberium Wars and Kane’s Wrath, Red Alert 3 and Uprising, and C&C 4 Tiberian Twilight.

All Mission Editor and World Builder tools have also been updated, which means players can easily publish edited maps directly to the Steam Workshop.

A 'C&C Modding Support' pack containing the source Xml, Schema, Script, Shader, and Map files for all the games using the SAGE engine will also be released for modders to access.

"This has been another wish from the community for almost 15 years now so we’re excited to finally make this happen, and we hope this helps you all in continuing to make amazing content and mods for the years to come

These new initiatives were initially ideas proposed by Feenan, who was also a part of the development of the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection, following its release in 2020.

"I know this will empower those in the community who continue to create content for these classic entries in the franchise, and I hope it will aid communities like CnCNet to continue to support these games and keep them playable for future generations to come," Feenan added.

To celebrate the release of the source code, Command & Conquer Remastered Collection producer Jim Vassella shared that the team was able to discover and digitize some rare gameplay footage from the early development of C&C Renegade and C&C Generals. This footage is also now available in a compilation format for fans of the series to watch and enjoy.

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