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    Google is building a Linux terminal app for native Android development – here’s why that’s huge

    Jack Wallen/ZDNET ZDNET’s key takeaways Google is developing another Linux terminal app.The app runs a full Debian environment.Developers will be able to build Android apps on device.For some time, Android has had access to a terminal app that ran a full-blown, text-only Linux environment. This app is enabled via Android’s developer options feature and makes it possible for users to run Linux commands (even SSH).From Google’s perspective, that wasn’t enough. Also: 5 Linux terminal apps better than your defaultBut it seemed a bit odd when they went mum on the Linux Terminal app at the annual I/O developer conference. Even with that silence, a bit of new news has surfaced that points to Google releasing a new take on the Linux terminal app, one that targets developers. Build directly on Android devicesThis new Linux terminal app will allow developers to build Android apps directly on Android devices. That’s a huge change from having to build on emulators running on top of a desktop OS. Also: 5 surprisingly productive things you can do with the Linux terminalThe new Linux terminal app uses the Android Virtualization Framework to boot into a Debian image running on a virtual machine. This new terminal app provides a full-blown Linux development environment that allows developers to leverage the tools they need to build native apps. That includes Android Studio. More

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    My go-to LLM tool just dropped a super simple Mac and PC app for local AI – why you should try it

    Jack Wallen / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysOllama AI devs have released a native GUI for MacOS and Windows.The new GUI greatly simplifies using AI locally.The app is easy to install, and allows you to pull different LLMs.If you use AI, there are several reasons why you would want to work with it locally instead of from the cloud. First, it offers much more privacy. When using a Large Language Model (LLM) in the cloud, you never know if your queries or results are being tracked or even saved by a third party. Also, using an LLM locally saves energy. The amount of energy required to use a cloud-based LLM is growing and could be a problem in the future.Ergo, locally hosted LLMs.Also: How to run DeepSeek AI locally to protect your privacy – 2 easy waysOllama is a tool that allows you to run different LLMs. I’ve been using it for some time and have found it to simplify the process of downloading and using various models. Although it does require serious system resources (you wouldn’t want to use it on an aging machine), it does run fast, and allows you to use different models. But Ollama by itself has been a command-line-only affair. There are some third-party GUIs (such as Msty, which has been my go-to). Until now, the developers behind Ollama hadn’t produced their own GUI.That all changed recently, and there’s now a straightforward, user-friendly GUI, aptly named Ollama.Works with common LLMs – but you can pull othersThe GUI is fairly basic, but it’s designed so that anyone can jump in right away and start using it. There is also a short list of LLMs that can easily be pulled from the LLM drop-down list. Those models are fairly common (such as the Gemma, DeepSeek, and Qwen models). Select one of those models, and the Ollama GUI will pull it for you. If you want to use a model not listed, you would have to pull it from the command line like so: ollama pull MODELWhere MODEL is the name of the model you want. Also: How I feed my files to a local AI for better, more relevant responsesYou can find a full list of available models in the Ollama Library. After you’ve pulled a model, it appears in the drop-down to the right of the query bar. The Ollama app is as easy to use as any cloud-based AI interface on the market, and it’s free to use for MacOS and Windows (sadly, there’s no Linux version of the GUI). I’ve kicked the tires of the Ollama app and found that, although it doesn’t have quite the feature set of Msty, it’s easier to use and fits in better with the MacOS aesthetic. The Ollama app also seems to be a bit faster than Msty (in both opening and responding to queries), which is a good thing because local AI can often be a bit slow (due to a lack of system resources). More

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    This palm-sized power bank can charge multiple devices at once – and I’m all for the price

    Voltme Hypercore 10K power bank <!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways Voltme’s Hypercore 10K power bank is available on Amazon for $23. It’s very compact and easy to carry, with both USB-C and USB-A ports to charge two devices simultaneously. Its small but chunky, as some might prefer a flatter charger. –> Power banks are a tradeoff: […] More

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    I tested 3 text-to-speech AI models to see which is best – hear my results

    Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysThere are several AI tools available that can generate humanlike speech.Some AI voices can whisper, laugh, and perform other expressive feats.TTS tools vary in terms of level of realism and their intended audiences.Synthetic voices generated by artificial intelligence are, for better or worse, becoming commonplace. Meanwhile, the number of companies developing this technology is growing rapidly.Recent innovations in AI, such as the transformer architecture — which forms the backbone of many generative AI tools, including large language models, generative adversarial networks (GANs), and diffusion models — have led to the rise of AI systems that can convert text prompts into natural-sounding artificial speech. There are now a wide variety of these text-to-speech (TTS) systems available, each with its particular benefits and shortcomings. To gain a clearer sense of which are the most advanced, I tested three of the most popular free TTS tools currently on the market. ElevenLabs [embedded content]ElevenLabs is widely considered an industry leader in voice realism, and I found this to be a reasonably accurate assessment in my own experiments with the company’s TTS tool. But that realism feels more closely aligned with the voice of a trained voice actor or professional podcaster than it does with ordinary human conversation — it’s almost a little too polished. In that sense, however, it tends to be the preferred choice for many businesses and professionals looking for reliable automated narration. It also supports more than 20 languages, further expanding the platform’s reach and appeal. The company also released a new text-to-speech model called v3 as a research preview last month. It supports more than 70 languages, and users can spice up their AI-generated dialogue with audio tags that cause it to laugh, sigh, or speak in a whisper, to name just a few examples. Also: ElevenLabs’ new AI voice assistant can automate your favorite tasks — and you can try it for freeYou can sign up for a free account with ElevenLabs, and you’ll automatically receive 10,000 free credits. Select the “Text to Speech” option under “Playground” in the left-hand menu, and you’ll be redirected to a page where you can enter a custom prompt you’d like the AI system to narrate, select from a range of custom voices, and adjust parameters like speed and stability. Prompts are limited to 5,000 characters, and every character in each iteration of a voice generation uses a single credit. Hume AI [embedded content]Hume AI’s TTS model is another contender for the most realistic voice-generating tool. The company has positioned its proprietary Empathic Voice Interface (EVI) as an AI system that can capture and simulate the subtleties of human speech, imbuing it with a deeper layer of believability. Like ElevenLabs, Hume offers a broad set of premade AI voice characters, each with its own expressive quirks. You can also generate custom voices by describing them in natural-language prompts. To test it out, I did my best to describe the voice of Samwise Gamgee from “The Lord of the Rings,” as portrayed in the films by Sean Astin. My prompt: “Gentle but brave hobbit, with a working-class, West Country British — possibly with a hint of Welsh — accent. He should sound frightened but resolved to complete his mission.” Also: This new text-to-speech AI model understands what it’s saying – how to try it for freeAfter I prompted it to say a famous line from the film, “If I take one more step, it’ll be the furthest away from home I’ve ever been,” it produced three samples, varying in tone and emphasis. All of them were impressive; to my ear, they contained a degree of realism and emotional depth that isn’t replicable by its competitors. They didn’t sound much like Astin’s Sam, but that was undoubtedly a reflection of the admittedly imperfect description I used as a prompt. You can also pepper pauses by adding “[pause]” into your prompt, or add slangy infusions like “y’all” to enhance the believability of your custom voices. Descript [embedded content]If you’re looking for an AI voice-generating tool that offers a range of editing features, Descript is the one to choose. The company’s TTS model generates audio files in a waveform format, which you can edit just as you would in Adobe Audition or a similar platform. You can choose from a library of premade AI voices or submit a short recording of your own voice, and the system will clone it for you. I tested the voice-cloning feature by asking the system to read a short prompt: “Summers in New York City are getting brutal, and I need to invest in more high-quality air conditioning.” (Which is true.) The first time around, the AI-generated version of my voice definitely sounded like me, but there was also a mechanical quality that detracted from the realism. I decided to give it another try and re-record my voice, this time taking off my Bluetooth headphones and reading the script more slowly and deliberately. The results this time were much more realistic — a more convincing simulation of my voice, in my opinion, than a similar voice-cloning feature offered by Hume. Also: I spoke with an AI version of myself, thanks to Hume’s free tool – how to try itYou can also adjust each piece of AI-generated audio by directly editing your written prompt. It wasn’t perfect, of course; my close friends and family members would probably be able to spot the difference, but it would likely fool my more distant acquaintances. I can easily imagine using the tool to narrate my own articles or for some similar use case. For podcasters and other content creators looking to quickly polish their audio recordings, Descript also offers an AI feature that identifies and eliminates filler words, unnecessary pauses, “umms” and “uhhs,” and other unwanted bits of audio. More

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    People are using ChatGPT to write their text messages – here’s how you can tell

    Kirill Stytsenko/Getty Images ZDNET’s key takeaways People are using AI to write sensitive messages to loved ones. Detecting AI-generated text is becoming more difficult as chatbots evolve. Some tech leaders have promoted this use of AI in their marketing strategies. Everyone loves receiving a handwritten letter, but those take time, patience, effort, and sometimes multiple […] More

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    Got 6 hours? This free AI training from Google and Goodwill can boost your resume today

    Coursera / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET ZDNET’s key takeaways Google and Goodwill are offering a free intro to AI course.I took the 6-hour course, and it’s quite good.If you want to come up to speed on AI, sign up here.I think we can all agree that AI is here. It is becoming more and more embedded in our digital world. It’s also becoming more and more necessary for everyone in the workforce (or who wants to be in the workforce) to have at least a passing understanding of the basics of AI, and generative AI specifically. Also: The best free AI courses and certificates in 2025 – and I’ve tried many More