Epic and Google agree to settle their lawsuit and change Android’s fate globally by Sean Hollister

Google is agreeing to reduce its standard fee to 20 percent or 9 percent, depending on the kind of transaction. It’s agreeing to create a new program in the very next version of Android where alternative app stores can register with Google and (theoretically) become first-class citizens that users can easily install. And it appears to be agreeing to offer “Registered App Stores” and lower fees around the world, not just in the US, through June 2032 — six and a half years from now.

The hope is that Apple would do something similar, worldwide and skip this process everywhere. That would require a new leader, I think.

One thing that was not clear to me was that they mentioned this is up to 2032. What would happen after that? I don’t see them going back from this.

Apple Hiring for 'Answers' Team Working on 'ChatGPT-Like Search'

"While still in early stages, the team is building what it calls an 'answer engine' — a system capable of crawling the web to respond to general-knowledge questions," wrote Gurman. "A standalone app is currently under exploration, alongside new back-end infrastructure meant to power search capabilities in future versions of Siri, Spotlight and Safari."

Makes sense if Apple and Google are made to end their agreement, that Apple would create their own search-esque product. In that sense, it makes sense for Apple to maybe acquire Perplexity.

Perplexity’s Comet is the AI browser Google wants

Comet also comes with an AI assistant built in, similar to the Gemini integration that Google is testing in Chrome. Selecting the Assistantbutton in the top-right corner of the browser will open up a sidebar with a chat interface. From here, you can type in a query or use voice mode to chat about different topics, as well as ask specific questions about the webpage you’re on.

I wrote About AI browsers some time back. I continue feeling the same way about them.

Google’s curated AI ‘notebooks’ talk you through topics from parenting to Shakespeare

The featured notebooks include original text from the source material, whether it’s a book, play, newsletter, or online article. NotebookLM automatically summarizes this information and comes preloaded with notes about the topics discussed in the source material. You can also interact with NotebookLM’s AI chatbot to ask questions about the information, as well as listen to pregenerated Audio Overviews, the podcast-like discussions featuring AI “hosts.”

The NotebookLM product famously came from a Googler’s 20 % time. I have not used this product, but I have found myself spending more time with voice (speech-to-text and audiobooks ).

This seems like a good idea in that aspect.

This new announcement seems like a good idea too, a natural evolution of the product.

There maybe just a little glimpse of the future AI-fied world here too, with individual creators creating things for the chat bots.

Gmail’s new tab is made for unsubscribing from emails

The view will show you who’s sending the most emails and exactly how many messages they’ve sent in the past few weeks so you can be better informed about who’s clogging up your inbox the most.

I use gmail’s current implementation of this aggressively. Anything that I do not want another email from, I immediately click on unsubscribe.

I get so many spam type emails that tracking any useful communication has become a challenge. Inbox zero is just not possible.

This would be a welcome addition.