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    The window to apply for Perplexity’s 2025 college AI program is closing – how to sign up

    Perplexity If you’re a college student looking to get hands-on experience in the world of AI, collaborate with other students around the world, and learn from industry leaders passionate about AI, you’ll want to be aware of Perplexity’s Campus Strategist program.  Perplexity is a leading name in AI these days, and the company says this […] More

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    This Android shortcut is my productivity life saver – and it’s hidden in plain sight

    Kerry Wan/ZDNETIt’s probably happened to you before: Your phone has received too many notifications, and as you instinctively tap on the “Clear all” button, you realize one or two of those alerts were actually very important. If you have a good memory, you’ll know exactly which apps and pathways to dig into to interact with those now-gone notifications. But if you’re like me, you’ll accept defeat, take a breather, and then remember that notification history exists.Also: How to enable notification history on your AndroidTo be clear, I’m not actually pitching Android’s “notification history” feature in this story; my colleague Jack Wallen already did a fantastic job breaking it all down, from how it works to setting it up. If you haven’t already turned on the feature — which logs all your notifications over the past 24 hours and automatically resets to preserve local storage — you absolutely should. More

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    You can access the latest DALL-E 3 model for free, just not through ChatGPT

    ZDNETOne of the most fun applications of AI is using it to generate images because it can bring anything you can think of to life visually. OpenAI kicked off the image generation craze with the release of DALL-E 2, but since then, it has paywalled unlimited access to its latest model, DALL-E 3. Now, Microsoft is offering a workaround.On Wednesday, Microsoft unveiled several upgrades to its Bing Image Generator. The biggest standout is that it is now powered by OpenAI’s latest DALL-E 3 model, PR16. This will guarantee users an improved experience that is twice as fast and of higher quality.Also: The best AI image generators of 2024: Tested and reviewedThe experience is free and accessible on the Image Creator standalone site, which has now been redesigned to have a more intuitive, clean, and minimalistic UI for easier navigation. Previously, the site was black, pink, and slightly overwhelming, making this upgrade much welcome.Users can also create images directly from the Bing and Microsoft Edge search bar, making image creation even more accessible. All you have to do is type a prompt such as “create an image of [insert what you want generated]” into the search bar to get results. More

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    Windows 11 not running smoothly? 4 things I always check first

    Kyle Kucharski/ZDNETWindows 11 has been around for a few years now, and if you were an early adopter like I was, there’s a good chance your computer has slowed down significantly since then. There are several reasons why a device’s performance may plummet. It could be the result of too many apps taking up resources, unoptimized settings, or even a virus infecting the hardware. The easiest thing you can do in the short term is restart your computer. A simple reboot restores the RAM and re-establishes connections.Also: The ultimate Windows 11 upgrade guide: Everything you need to knowBut to enjoy improved performance over the long term, you’ll need to alter how your computer operates. The advice I’m about to give you is all the things you can do right now to enhance your Windows 11 experience. And you won’t need to go into a device’s BIOS or download some random app from an unverified source; these changes can be made right from the system menus.1. Download the latest updates More

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    IBM’s new enterprise AI models are more powerful than anything from OpenAI or Google

    ZDNETIBM is zooming along with new open-source Granite Large Language Models (LLM) releases every few months. Granite 3.1  is the latest generation model, building upon the success of Granite 3.0. The model offers enhanced capabilities and performance optimized for business applications.Also: Gemini Advanced users can now access Google’s most experimental modelThe family of Granite 3.1 models boasts an impressive 128K token context window, a substantial increase from their predecessors. This expansion allows the models to process and understand much larger amounts of text — equivalent to approximately 85,000 English words — enabling more comprehensive analysis and generation tasks. By comparison, OpenAI’s ChatGPT 3, which ignited the AI revolution, could handle only 2,000 tokens.Outperforming the competitionBig Blue claims its new Granite 8B Instruct model outperforms its rivals, such as Google Gemma 2, Meta Llama 3.1, and Qwen 2.5, on HuggingFace’s OpenLLM Leaderboard benchmarks.Also: Want generative AI LLMs integrated with your business data? You need RAGThe Granite 3.1 family includes dense models and Mixture of Experts (MoE) variants. IBM states its Granite 2B and 8B models are text-only dense LLMs trained on over 12 trillion data tokens. The dense models are designed to support tool-based use cases and for retrieval augmented generation (RAG), streamlining code generation, translation, and bug fixing.The MoE models are trained on over 10 trillion tokens of data. IBM claims these models are ideal for deployment in on-device applications with low latency. More

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    A hidden Google Maps feature is making people emotional – here’s why

    @Tyra__Lynn (TikTok)/ZDNETA viral trend is currently sweeping TikTok, where people are revisiting the past by looking up old versions of their homes through Google Street View. As they do, many are spotting long-gone family members on front porches or mowing the lawn, catching glimpses of their younger selves riding a bike in the driveway, or seeing beloved trees that were cut down years ago. Also: Google Maps adds more incident reports to your drive, thanks to Waze usersWhile this Google Maps feature isn’t new, it has become an emotional and nostalgic internet sensation — inspiring others to open the app and see what moments were captured in past years by Street View cars quietly passing their homes. How to find old Google Maps Street View images of your home Google Maps makes it easy to see images of your home from the past, thanks to a “See More Dates” feature in Street View. If you’re ready to join this TikTok trend and look at old photos of your house from as far back as 2007, here’s a step-by-step guide. More

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    Fire TV just got three new accessibility features for people with disabilities

    Adam Breeden/ZDNETFire TV users with impairments that limit their hearing or vision might soon find life easier thanks to some new features from Amazon.Amazon has introduced three new features to make Fire TVs more accessible for people with disabilities.Also: Turn your AirPods Pro 2 into hearing aids: Testing and tracking hearing healthFirst up is an expansion of Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA). Amazon Fire devices already support ASHA, which lets you send TV audio directly to your hearing aids. But now, Amazon is adding a feature called Dual Audio, which allows users to listen to audio from the set’s built-in speakers and audio sent to a hearing aid simultaneously, meaning everyone can listen together.  More