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The AI-powered search game is heating up, with OpenAI adding search capabilities to ChatGPT just yesterday, and Perplexity launching a macOS desktop app a week ago. Perplexity could be considered a leader in AI-powered search right now, and now Mac users can quickly use Perplexity’s advanced search engine right from their desktop without having to access it through a web browser.

If you’re not familiar with Perplexity, it’s a conversational search engine that launched the same year as ChatGPT. It allows you to ask questions and make queries using natural language (like how we communicate with each other in real life). Similar to ChatGPT, there are two tiers for users – a free ‘Standard’ tier which allows you to make unlimited ‘Quick’ searches, ideal for those seeking quick, basic answers produced by the Standard Perplexity AI Model (plus five free Pro tier searches a day), and the ‘Pro’ tier which includes Quick searches as well as 600 Pro searches a day.

It’s these Pro searches that are recommended for more complex and lengthy queries, allowing you to choose from several different AI models and tools, including OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Athropic’s Claude-3. It also includes the ability to analyze files like PDFs, spreadsheets, and images using AI tools. You can subscribe to Perplexity Pro for $20 a month or $200 annually.

What makes Perplexity on macOS so good?

Now, the macOS app brings these kinds of key Perplexity features straight to your desktop, allowing you to make Pro searches by typing or using your voice. Then, Perplexity will return real-time answers, powered by advanced AI models, which come with cited sources - so you can check the veracity of Perplexity’s answers for yourself.

The app also brings a new threaded conversation capability, letting you ask follow-up questions about your initial query without Perplexity losing the context of the original question, allowing for a more naturalistic back-and-forth. It also has a library feature that saves past searches and discoveries, along with the ability to create custom shortcuts to quickly access your favorite features.

Perplexity's new app could be the key to unlocking a better form of internet searches on your Mac. (Image credit: Shutterstock / Alex Ost)

Before you consider subscribing, I would recommend you try Perplexity for free first - either in your browser or by downloading the app for macOS, available from the Mac App Store now.

It’s interesting to watch the number of AI-powered conversational search products expand, and I’ve seen discussions around ChatGPT’s new search features on sites like Reddit arguing that this could (or perhaps, should) light a fire under companies like Google to stay competitive. If you’re a ChatGPT Plus user, Team user, or signed up to the SearchGPT waitlist, you should see ChatGPT offer you the option to search the web for answers. Enterprise and Education users will get access to this in the next few weeks, and it will become available to all free users in the next few months.

You can already get the ChatGPT desktop app for both macOS and Windows 11, and I assume its search capabilities extend to the app (or at least, they will soon).

I think it’s hard to call if Perplexity or ChatGPT will end up ahead when it comes to conversational search. ChatGPT has more recognition, but Perplexity has been in this specific game for a little longer. Either way, I’m intrigued and will be watching closely, and I’m pretty eager to dig into both of them.

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Investigators said warden Andrew Ciolli should have stopped abuse of prisoners. He faced disciplinary action. Now he's the director of a federal center that teaches others how to run prisons.

Black Friday is still a few weeks away, but you can already score big savings on some of the absolute best headphones and earbuds of 2024.

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At its recent Huawei Connect event, the Chinese tech giant unveiled one of the highest-capacity storage solutions on the planet.

The OceanStor Pacific 9928 features 36 high-density 61.44TB NVMe SSDs per 2U chassis, each just 9.5mm thick, delivering up to 2.21PB of raw capacity.

Huawei says the OceanStor Pacific 9928's efficient design reduces space consumption by 37% compared to traditional SSDs. Titanium fans and Wicking Fence reportedly reduce power consumption to as low as 1500W, and to just 0.25W/TB in a data compression environment.

New-Generation All-Flash Data Center

Additionally, the setup incorporates proprietary flexible RAID, which optimizes flash space utilization and extends SSD lifespan.

This RAID system also enhances data protection and recovery, using advanced algorithms to address failed data blocks. With a 2:1 compression ratio, the OceanStor Pacific 9928 can scale up to 4PB, positioning Huawei's offering as a strong competitor to traditional data storage solutions, including LTO tape which has long been favored for archival and backup purposes.

The OceanStor Pacific line is designed to handle the growing demands of AI, big data, and high-performance computing, offering flexibility with support for block, file, object storage, and HDFS. It can scale to 4,096 nodes, each delivering 2.4 million IOPS and 90GB/s throughput, providing enterprises with the scalability needed for future workloads.

Huawei’s New-Generation All-Flash Data Center solution offers a comprehensive range of products designed for high performance and efficiency.

In addition to the OceanStor Pacific 9928, with its 61.44TB SSDs, the suite features the OceanStor Dorado All-Flash Storage, equipped with a data-control plane separation architecture, AI accelerator cards, and SmartMatrix 4.0, providing a 99.999999% reliability rate. The OceanStor A800 supports AI model training with up to 500GB/s bandwidth, boosting the efficiency of training clusters by 30%.

Huawei is also targeting data protection and backup with the OceanProtect E series, which offers a data deduplication and compression ratio of up to 72:1. Huawei says this solution integrates seamlessly with its multi-layer ransomware protection.

"Industry's digital and intelligent transformation demands efficient data processing as well as secure and high-quality data," said Michael Qiu, President of Huawei Global Data Storage Marketing & Solution Sales.

"The New-Generation All-Flash Data Center significantly improves data service efficiency and enhances data resilience, helping enterprises embrace the AI era."

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AI chatbot Claude is now available as a desktop app for both Windows and Mac computers. The public beta for the apps is available for free users as well as subscribers to the premium version of the AI chatbot. Claude creator Anthropic describes the desktop versions of Claude as "fast, focused, and designed for deep work," implying that those who want to use Claude at home without opening a browser will find it just as helpful as going online or to the Claude mobile app.

One way the desktop app is more efficient is by having a keyboard shortcut to open Claude. After installing the app, you can press Ctrl + Alt + Space to access the AI. That's a boon if you have a lot of other tasks running and don't want to navigate to the website.

The other major benefit of the desktop app is that it frees you from relying solely on mobile devices or web browsers to access your conversations with Claude. You could start the chat on your smartphone, then open the desktop app when you get home or vice versa, with a visit to the website if you're at a public library or similar spot. This continuity can help speed up all kinds of Claude-based projects.

Anthropic also debuted a small upgrade to the Claude on mobile apps: native dictation. You can record up to 10 minutes of audio that Claude will transcribe and then respond to in text form on the app. It's not a full-on voice interactive feature, but it does mean you can at least submit prompts to the AI chatbot without typing.

AI at home

The desktop version of Claude uses Anthropic's latest AI model, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, but it can't do everything the web version does. In particular, it lacks the new Computer Use feature that lets Claude control your cursor and type on your behalf. That's not too much of a surprise since Computer Use and the desktop apps are still in beta. Presumably, the feature will arrive when both are more mature.

Anthropic's timing in releasing the Claude desktop apps is interesting as it is part of a sudden flurry from rival AI chatbots. Both OpenAI's ChatGPT and Perplexity AI have introduced desktop apps in recent weeks. They each have some variation of the web version of their respective chatbots, with many, though not all of the same features. The appeal of a more convenient and accessible AI chatbot is obvious.

That's why Microsoft embedded its Copilot AI directly into the Windows 11 operating system. All of the AI chatbot developers want to encourage current and potential users to stick with their products regardless of where they are or what they are doing. It's going to be another central frontier for the industry, just like mobile apps a decade ago.

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It comes as companies continue to navigate security and privacy challenges associated with generative AI.

People in Mauritius have been turning en masse to the best VPN apps as authorities have enforced a wide social media shutdown ahead of the general elections.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok all went dark on Friday, November 1, 2024 – internet watchdog NetBlocks could confirm (see tweet below). The blockage is expected to remain until November 11, the day after the voting. This forces users to find a workaround to keep accessing these services.

"People have rushed to download Proton VPN since early this morning when the social media ban came into force, and we expect them to continue to use VPNs heavily until at least 11th November, when the ban is due to lift," David Peterson, General Manager of Proton VPN, told me.

⚠️ Confirmed: Metrics show multiple social media platforms have been restricted in #Mauritius; the incident comes as authorities order ISPs to suspend access until after elections later this month, on grounds of national security after the leaking of "certain" audio clips pic.twitter.com/mRGqlR4XsuNovember 1, 2024

Peterson said the provider recorded a spike in usage of 16000% above normal levels so far – and it's "quickly growing." Other data shows VPN demand across the country is 16,107% higher than the daily average over the 28 days prior.

Authorities ordered the blockage to halt the spread of illegal content that may "threaten national security and public safety."

The country has recently been rocked by a wiretapping scandal, in fact, during which sensitive conversations involving politicians, police, lawyers, journalists, and members of civil society have been leaked on social media – Reuters reported.

Digital rights strongly condemn the move and urge the Mauritius government, a first-time offender of internet shutdowns, to end the ongoing crackdown on social media.

"This shutdown is a gross violation of national and international human rights frameworks and must not be allowed to continue," wrote the #KeepItOn coalition, a global network of over 334 human rights organizations from 105 countries working to end internet shutdowns, in an open letter.

How a VPN can help

A VPN, short for virtual private network, is security software whose primary goal is to keep you anonymous when browsing the web by encrypting all your internet connections to prevent third-party snooping.

At the same time, though, VPNs also mask your real IP address location. IP spoofing is not just advantageous from a privacy perspective, but it also enables you to access otherwise geo-restricted content.

People in Mauritius can then connect to a VPN server located outside the country to bypass the current block and keep using social media platforms as usual.

As Peterson explains, the provider has enabled some free election servers in Mauritius as part of its election support initiative. "We will continue to operate these servers as long as they are needed by citizens to circumvent internet censorship," he said.

This year, democracy is on the ballot. Over 60 countries — home to half the globe’s population — will hold national elections in 2024.To ensure that everyone has access to accurate information before they cast their vote, we’ll offer free #ProtonVPN servers in countries with a… pic.twitter.com/Vlgt6yVukXMarch 6, 2024

As I'm writing, people living in another African country are battling against a similar block. The likes of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp all went dark in Mozambique only a day before following mobile data disruptions that occurred the week before. These incidents coincide with a wave of violent protests contesting the election results.

"There, we recorded a spike in sign-ups of 8790% on 30 October, and currently nine of the top ten apps on the Mozambique Google Play store are VPNs," said Peterson.

If you are in need of a means to access the open web and evade internet restrictions, I suggest looking into our best free VPN guide to get the most secure freebie app right now.

Intel has plans for future GPUs that aren’t monolithic, but are built from separate chiplets, or at least there’s some thinking along those lines at Team Blue.

We’ve gathered that because TechSpot noticed a denizen of X, Underfox, who flagged up a patent filed by Intel for a “disaggregated GPU architecture” which will likely be the “first commercial GPU architecture with logic chiplets” from the chip giant.

Earlier this month, Intel was finally granted a patent for its disaggregated GPU architecture, which will likely be the first commercial GPU architecture with logic chiplets, also allowing for the power-gate of chiplets not used to process workloads. pic.twitter.com/XsNjjdVIOuOctober 26, 2024

What does this mean exactly? All existing consumer GPUs are thus far monolithic, which means they have a single graphics chip with everything inside. A disaggregated architecture refers to splitting up that single chip, so you have multiple chiplets instead.

This won’t happen with Battlemage, the next-gen of Arc graphics cards expected to arrive early in 2025. If it was something in the works for Battlemage, we’d surely have heard about this on the rumor mill by now.

So, this might be the plan down the line for Celestial, Druid, or one of the future generations of Arc GPUs – assuming Intel gets that far with its discrete graphic card line-up.

As ever with patents, we must bear in mind that they are often filed speculatively, and a lot of them don’t see the light of day in finished products on shelves.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler) Analysis: The benefits – and pitfalls – of disaggregation

Why go for a disaggregated GPU design like this? Chiplets have certain advantages in terms of chip design flexibility (modularity) and better power efficiency, with the latter being particularly important for high-end graphics cards when these days we’re getting into the realms of some truly wattage-sucking monsters.

The tricky bit, though, is effectively splitting up a monolithic chip into multiple chiplets leaves the problem of ensuring that those chiplets have fast enough interconnects to ensure that performance doesn’t drop by going this route.

AMD was rumored to be looking at a chiplet design for the RDNA 4 flagship, before seemingly canning it (and as we know, Team Red has purportedly retreated to just mid-range graphics cards for its next-gen RX 8000 GPUs now). Nvidia, too, was rumored to be looking at a multi-chip design for the Blackwell GeForce flagship, the RTX 5090, but any chatter from the grapevine around this idea has died down to nothing.

One way or another, we’re likely to see chiplet designs for consumer GPUs in the future, perhaps from AMD, Nvidia, and indeed Intel as evidenced by the patent here.

There are broader worries about how far Intel is going to push with its discrete Arc GPUs, mind you, and Battlemage graphics cards are likely to be low-end only. While work has apparently started on Celestial, it’s notable that Team Blue isn’t really talking about its Arc line of GPUs much these days (outside of integrated graphics, that is).

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ChromeOS’s latest update has added a host of new features to the operating system, including one convenient tool that’ll make it much easier for users to avoid distractions.

The most recent update, ChromeOS M130, was released for the stable channel and will soon be available on Chromebooks. Arguably the most useful addition is the Focus panel that allows you to set and adjust your focus time, quickly enable or disable Do-not-Disturb (DND) mode, create new or select from existing Google Tasks, and play music with focus sound (YouTube Music Premium if you have a subscription).

Other new features include simplifying inserting emojis, GIFs, and Google Drive links with the M130's new Launcher + f shortcut. There’s also the Quick Insert physical key that’s set to be included in the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus in 2025.

There are also tons of quality-of-life changes, making navigating ChromeOS more convenient. The new Suggestions section in Tote reduces the time needed to locate files like downloads and screenshots, on and offline access to the starred Drive files on the ChromeOS shelf, and the "Welcome Recap" that previews and restores apps and tabs from the previous session.

For those who dabble or specialize in audio or video editing and recording, there’s the Studio-style mic tool. It includes the existing noise cancellation and de-reverberation effects but also adds in advanced balancing, reconstruction of fine details, and room adaptation. The Google AI-powered Recorder app creates transcriptions that can detect and label speakers, as well as provide a summary of recorded content.

Finally, ChromeOS M130 integrates appearance effects into the platform's video call controls, adds support for multiple calendars and allows you to move Picture-in-Picture (PiP) windows to one side of your screen, and adds the "Help me read" tool to Chromebook Plus devices.

ChromeOS is moving on up

ChromeOS is often left out of the conversation when discussing popular and well-loved operating systems, mainly due to the perception of it being inferior - likely because of a far lower number of compatible apps and features. And even a few years ago this would have been an accurate assessment.

However, Google has been working hard to combat this, and now we have an OS that’s far more user-friendly with some truly helpful features. Some of the best ones include the “Help me” series which offers plenty of accessibility tools, the Focus panel, and all the enhancements made to audio and video recordings and editing options.

It’s great to see Chromebooks receiving so much more love and affection from Google. It’s slowly but surely moved from an second-class laptop meant as a cheap option, to a still cheaper but more premium version of itself. And this doesn’t even include how much better the best Chromebooks are for gaming now versus even two years ago. With all the progress made already, I’m excited to see how Google will continue to innovate and improve Chromebook and ChromeOS.

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In 2020, LinkedIn founder, tech investor, and Harris megadonor Reid Hoffman made a custom Monopoly board to celebrate Airbnb’s IPO. Instead of jail, it sent players to “Government Regulation.”

This year is a pivotal one for global politics and democracy, with over half of the world’s population participating in leadership elections, notably Russia, the EU, and the US. This has predictably translated into a serious increase in the number of cyberattacks targeting government organizations around the globe.

SonicWall has released its threat brief focusing on government organizations, and it found a shocking 236% year on year increase in malware-related attacks in Q1. The trend is particularly worrying when looking at the month leading up to the US election, which saw a 27% rise in attacks.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks this year are on track to surpass the previous by 32%, and SonicWall alone boasts a total of 12.9 million IP camera attacks prevented, which are often part of the DDoS process.

Undermining public trust

Governments, like everyone else, are increasingly reliant on digital services and online systems, which naturally creates vulnerabilities that threat actors will look to exploit.

“As attackers continue to attack critical government services and election-related systems, the importance of multi-layered cybersecurity measures cannot be overstated,” said Executive Director of Threat Research Doug McKee.

"In a rapidly evolving threat landscape, the stakes have never been higher. We must embrace cross-industry collaboration and threat intelligence information sharing to ensure the integrity of our electoral processes and protect our vital infrastructure from those seeking to exploit these systems," he continued.

The US election in particular has been a popular target for foreign interference, with misinformation campaigns from Iranian, Russian, and Chinese threat actors looking to cause chaos amongst an already deeply divided public.

Earlier this year, Iranian hackers targeted high ranking members of the Trump campaign with a cyber attack which compromised some of its communications, proving how urgent the need for robust cybersecurity really is.

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Hackers have been compromising online shops, redirecting people to copycat websites, and stealing both their data and their money there, experts have warned.

The scam, dubbed ‘Phish ‘n’ Ships’ by the Satori Threat Intelligence team from HUMAN which uncovered it, stole tens of millions of dollars until it was finally discovered and stopped.

Phish ‘n’ Ships most likely started in 2019. The crooks would break into legitimate online stores in different ways - leveraging n-day vulnerabilities, server misconfigurations, easy-to-guess passwords, or in other ways. Once they gain access, they would upload multiple scripts which would allow them to upload fake product listings.

Disrupting the campaign

The listings would come with SEO-friendly metadata, to make sure they are easy to find through search engines. The fake products, usually for hard-to-find items such as the Nintendo power glove oven mitt, would lead the victims away from the legitimate stores, and through a series of redirects, which end on a copycat website imitating the original, legitimate store.

There, the victims go through a checkout process, giving away not just sensitive information, but also money, to the attackers.

Satori says that “thousands” of legitimate websites were compromised this way, and “hundreds of thousands” of people victimized. The damages are being counted in tens of millions of dollars.

To make matters worse, the crooks were withdrawing the money with no problem, for years. However, Satori’s researchers managed to notify almost all of the victimized websites, and with the help of Google, removed all malicious listings from search engine results.

Finally, the payment processors who were facilitating the cashouts were also notified, and the accounts were banned.

While this means the campaign is disrupted, the researchers believe it’s not completely destroyed. Since no arrests were made, they believe it is only a matter of time before the crooks start rebuilding the network all over again. As we approach the holiday season, it is essential consumers remain vigilant and only shop on reputable websites.

Via BleepingComputer

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U.S. employers added just 12,000 jobs last month — but the number was depressed by a machinists' strike at Boeing and Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

(Image credit: David Ryder)

Apple’s big reveal of M4 Macs this week came with the introduction of the manufacturer’s new peripherals: the Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Keyboard, with USB-C replacing the previous Lightning charging ports - but they currently only work properly with macOS Sequoia 15.1.

This means if you’re still on macOS Sonoma (Sequoia’s predecessor), Ventura, or any older version of the OS, the new Mac accessories will not fully work as intended. The issues were spotted by users in MacRumors’ forums, which include claims of the Magic Mouse having scrolling issues, along with the Magic Keyboard’s Touch ID and function keys not working.

While it may come as a surprise to see Sonoma and Ventura’s compatibility for the peripherals seemingly left out (after all, even Ventura is no more than two years old), it’s also a shock to see that the macOS Sequoia 15.2 beta has the same issues - it’s important to note that Apple will likely add full support for the new peripherals later on, but this certainly isn’t a given for the previous macOS versions.

(Image credit: Ilona Kozhevnikova/Shutterstock) Will macOS Sonoma and Ventura have full support for the USB-C accessories?

Considering the omission of Wi-Fi 7 on M4 Macs (much to our surprise), this could be yet another strange decision from Apple, if the older OS versions remain partially incompatible with the new peripherals. The positive news is that at the very least, the Magic Keyboard maintains a standard level of functionality - though frankly, this still isn’t good enough for products that are so expensive.

As for the Magic Mouse, the main issue is the total inability to scroll - perhaps the biggest blunder from Apple this week, since that's one of the most basic functions a mouse should have. While it might be easy for most users to just upgrade to macOS Sequoia, this feels all too familiar to Microsoft Windows and its frequently-forced updates.

There is a chance that this is a temporary matter with the issues potentially being investigated already, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see Apple ignore previous macOS versions in an attempt to push users over to Sequoia - let’s hope that’s not the case, since some users on work systems might not have that option.

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• Apple has just acquired the popular photo editing app Pixelmator
• There won't be any changes to Pixelmator's app "at this time"
• The move could be a big boost for photo editing on iPhones and Macs

Apple has just bought the popular photo editing app Pixelmator – and that could be huge news for photo editing on iPhones, iPads and Macs.

The news was shared by Pixelmator in a surprise blog post, which says that it's "signed an agreement to be acquired by Apple, subject to regulatory approval". That approval is likely to be a formality, given Pixelmator is far from the biggest fish in the image editing pool.

If you're a Pixelmator fan, you don't need to worry about big changes for now – the app maker says there will not be "material changes to the Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator apps at this time".

However, it added to "stay tuned for exciting updates to come" and it's hard not look ahead to what Apple could do with the apps. The obvious parallel is Dark Sky, a relatively small startup that Apple acquired in early 2020, before folding it into its own Weather app.

It looks highly likely that Apple will do the same with Pixelmator's tech and its Photos app, which similarly exists on the iPhone, iPad and Mac. And that would be big news for photo editing on those platforms...

The new Aperture?

(Image credit: Future)

Apple once made a pro-level image editor and organizer called Aperture for the Mac, which existed between 2005 and 2015, when it was discontinued. This Pixelmator acquisition could potentially fill that hole – and also give Apple fans a powerful native alternative to the likes of Photoshop.

On the iPhone, many photography fans prefer Pixelmator to Adobe's apps. TechRadar contributor Paul Hatton recently wrote that the iOS app let him say goodbye to Photoshop, partly because it's designed specifically for iOS and iPadOS (so can take full advantage of Apple silicon).

We also rate Pixelmator Pro highly in our guide to the best photo editing apps for Mac, calling it a "great all-rounder" and better value than an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. If Apple does ultimately fold Pixelmator's tech into the Photos app, it could become even better value – perhaps even free, for Apple fans.

The potential for that move has understandably made Pixelmator fans a little nervous. Apple won't necessarily absorb Pixelmator into Photos, but it seems the most likely future scenario.

While Apple Intelligence does now power features like Clean Up for removing distractions from photos, the acquisition of Pixelmator suggests that Apple still thinks it's behind the likes of Google's Magic Editor and Adobe when it comes to native AI image editing and organizing.

That's certainly the case when you look at TechRadar's Phone of the year, the Google Pixel 9 Pro, but we could soon see Apple catch up

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