With iOS 15, your iPhone is about to get so much more powerful.
Patrick Holland/CNET
Apple announced iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 in early June, detailing new features and capabilities set to arrive on everyone compatible iPhone and iPad this fall. We’re a couple of months away from an official release, but if you’re feeling brave you can get a taste of the new software by joining the public beta.
The installation process is easy peasy, but testing unreleased software isn’t for everyone. Apps will break and some features simply won’t work. That said, whether you’ve decided to install the beta or not, there are plenty of features
With iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, not only will you be able to FaceTime someone who uses Android, but you’ll have new Do Not Disturb tools at your disposal, and notifications will be less of a headache. Here are six of the many features coming to iOS 15 that you’re sure to love.
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FaceTime comes to Windows and Android
When Apple first unveiled FaceTime, its video and audio calling platform, Steve Jobs infamously said the service would soon be open source and available to everyone. Well, that didn’t happen. Apple kept the feature to itself, adding it to every piece of hardware it sells.
Instead of releasing an app for either platform, you’ll send a FaceTime link via your preferred non-iMessage platform to your Android or PC using contacts who can then use a browser for the video call. To create a link, open FaceTime and tap either the Create Link or New FaceTime button at the top of the screen. Create Link will automatically generate a FaceTime link and open the Share Sheet for you to pick how you want to send the link to someone else, while New FaceTime will ask you to enter a contact’s name and then send the link through Messages and open the FaceTime call on your iPhone or iPad.
The person who receives the FaceTime link will need to open it, enter their name when prompted and then tap Join after previewing their video.
Better late than never, right?
Forget a cluttered notification tray. iOS 15 attempts to fix it.
Screenshot/Apple
Live Text is a magical tool for your Photos library
Google Lens has been around for a while now, using your phone’s camera to identify text in a photo, translate foreign languages or identify real-world items like animals or plants. And now, your iPhone is getting its own version of Lens called Live Text.
There are multiple ways to use Live Text. You can use it before taking a photo in the viewfinder by tapping on the Live Text button that shows up, or you can go into the Photos app and open any picture in your library. Whether you enabled Live Text before taking the photo or opened an old picture, you should be able to highlight any text, including items like phone numbers, email addresses or street addresses, and then share, call or use that information however you want. I haven’t stopped using Live Text since I installed iOS 15 a few weeks ago.
Notification summaries are a welcome change
The iPhone or iPad’s notification tray can look overwhelming at the end of the day as your phone receives countless alerts from random apps. With iOS 15, there’s a new Notification Summary feature that’s designed to help tidy up your notifications. The first time an app asks for permission to send you alerts right away, or if they should be included in your summaries.
To customize your notification summary, go to Settings > Notifications > Scheduled Summary. You can add as many scheduled summaries as you want, and pick the exact time they’ll be present under the Schedule section. Select Apps in Summary to view all of your installed apps, including the average number of notifications you receive from each app daily. Slide the switch to the On position for each app you want to delegate to your summary.
When it’s time for a summary to show up on your lock screen or in your notification shade, you’ll see the number of alerts you’ve received in a clean preview card that even shows you previews of some of the alerts. Tap on the number to expand the card and see your individual alerts. It’s a welcome addition to the iPhone and iPad if you ask me.
Focus modes make it easier to pay attention to what’s important.
Screenshot/Apple
New Do Not Disturb settings keep the Focus on what matters
Do Not Disturb is a convenient feature when you want your phone or tablet to be completely silent and avoid any interruptions, but the all-or-nothing approach isn’t ideal in every situation.
Apple added a new Focus mode in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 that takes DND to the next level. You can create custom Focus profiles that will allow only the apps you select to alert you while keeping the other apps quiet.
You can even select which contacts you’ll still receive alerts, be it messages or phone calls. Everyone else who messages you while you have a Focus profile enabled will see a status notification letting them know you’re currently busy and you’ll see the message at a later time.
Shared With You makes it easy to find anything that a friend has sent you in Messages.
Apple
Photos, links and recipes are always at your fingertips
Whenever a friend or family member shares a photo with you in Messages or sends a link to a recipe you’ve been bugging them for, it’s good practice to save the shared item right away. Otherwise, you’ll be forced to scroll back through your conversation history to find it. It’s a hassle.
Shared With You is a new feature that is debuting in iOS 15 that will make it easier to find, well, whatever’s been shared with you. More specifically, your iPhone and iPad will now automatically show you photos and videos that a close friend has shared with you in the Photos app. Links sent to you will be present in a new Shared With You section on the homepage in Safari. The same can be said about links to news articles in the Apple News app and TV shows and movies in the Apple TV app.
Better yet? You don’t have to do anything for it to start working. There’s no setup, no remembering to toggle a button. After updating to iOS 15, it’ll start showing you all the stuff you used to lose track of and forget.
I’m most excited about the Photos integration. I have so many pictures in conversations that I should have been saving to my Photos library, but now that will automatically be done for me.
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The Mail app is no longer a privacy nightmare
Virtually every newsletter or email you receive from a large company has small tracking pixels embedded into it. Even the links within an email can alert the sender when you’ve clicked on them.
Companies use these tools to measure and track if emails are being opened, links are being clicked and other important metrics. However, some people don’t like the idea of being tracked.
So Apple built a new privacy tool into its Mail app. You can find it by going to Settings > Mail > Privacy Protection, which should be on by default. Mail Privacy Protection hides your IP address so the person who sent the email can’t see where you’re located, and it also stops the tracking pixels from letting the sender know you’ve opened it.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The tiny Mideast nation of Kuwait has banned the release of the video game “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6,” which features the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and is set in part in the 1990s Gulf War.
The video game, a first-person shooter, follows CIA operators fighting at times in the United States and also in the Middle East. Game-play trailers for the game show burning oilfields, a painful reminder for Kuwaitis who saw Iraqis set fire to the fields, causing vast ecological and economic damage. Iraqi troops damaged or set fire to over 700 wells.
There also are images of Saddam and Iraq’s old three-star flag in the footage released by developers ahead of the game’s launch. The game’s multiplayer section, a popular feature of the series, includes what appears to be a desert shootout in Kuwait called Scud after the Soviet missiles Saddam fired in the war. Another is called Babylon, after the ancient city in Iraq.
Activision acknowledged in a statement that the game “has not been approved for release in Kuwait,” but did not elaborate.
“All pre-orders in Kuwait will be cancelled and refunded to the original point of purchase,” the company said. “We remain hopeful that local authorities will reconsider, and allow players in Kuwait to enjoy this all-new experience in the Black Ops series.”
Kuwait’s Media Ministry did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press over the decision.
“Call of Duty,” which first began in 2003 as a first-person shooter set in World War II, has expanded into an empire worth billions of dollars now owned by Microsoft. But it also has been controversial as its gameplay entered the realm of geopolitics. China and Russia both banned chapters in the franchise. In 2009, an entry in the gaming franchise allowed players to take part in a militant attack at a Russian airport, killing civilians.
But there have been other games recently that won praise for their handling of the Mideast. Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed: Mirage” published last year won praise for its portrayal of Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age in the 9th century.
Copenhagen, 22.10.2024 – COBOD International, the global leader in 3D construction printing technology, proudly introduces the BOD3 3D Construction Printer for 3D printing of real concrete. Equipped with an extendable ground-based track system, the BOD3 advances the construction process by eliminating printer downtime between multiple buildings on the same site, setting anew benchmark for productivity and efficiency. The BOD3 is the most advanced solution for high-volume low-rise construction and a very effective alternative to conventional construction methods.
The heart and key feature of the new BOD3 3D printer is the advanced extendable ground-based track system. This system enables limitless extension along the Y-axes (length), expanding the printable area to cover 2 or 3 buildings, and reducing setup time to a single installation for multi-building projects. It’s a game-changer, allowing continuous, uninterrupted printing across large sites, increasing efficiency for high volume and mass production at an unmatchable scale.
Render of COBOD BOD3 3D Construction Printer.
The BOD3, COBOD’s third printer model, is the outstanding achievement of years of dedicated research, development, and close collaboration with customers. It is a vital advancement in automated construction technology, directly addressing the urgent global demand for faster, smarter, more efficient and sustainable building solutions. Like every COBOD 3D printer, the BOD3’s modular design offers customization, allowing it to easily adapt to any customer’s size wishes in addition to complying with the various sizes of construction sites anywhere in the world.
The BOD3 follows COBOD’s vision to build smarter through automation. Its operational stand combines the control and monitoring of both the 3D printer and supplementary equipment in one user-friendly system. The Advanced Hose Management System (AHMS) transports 3D printable material from the materials delivery system to the printhead via hoses secured within E-chains, minimizing physical labor and optimizing material flow. With the addition of the dual dosing system for additives, operators can better control the concrete and adapt it to onsite environmental conditions. By introducing additives directly at the printhead, the system reduces drying time between layers, speeding up the overall construction process. Designed for easy operation and precision, the BOD3 can be operated by a small, trained, and certified team, reducing the costs of projects.
Incorporating the innovative Universal X-Carriage, the BOD3 is ready for future COBOD advancements and technologies, like the introduction of additional tools for the printer aimed at insulating, painting, sanding, etc. This ensures long-term versatility and performance that will keep the BOD3 at the forefront of the industry for years to come.
Universal X-Carriage with Printhead.
Already deployed to the global market, the BOD3 is currently active in Indonesia, by Modula Tiga Dimensi, Angola, by Power2Build, andBahrain, by Ab’aad 3D. The customers report faster project execution with near-zero downtime between individual buildings on the same site. The projects showcase the BOD3’s ability to speed up construction and print with real concrete, with 99% locally sourced materials and 1% of innovative D.fab, a co-developed solution by COBOD and Cemex to make concrete 3D printable.
Henrik Lund-Nielsen, Founder and General Manager of COBOD, commented on the BOD3: “The global housing crisis demands a more efficient construction solution that is faster, more efficient, and scalable. The BOD3 is our answer to this challenge. Drawing on years of research and expertise, we’ve designed the BOD3 with innovative features, making it our most cost-effective and efficient model yet for multiple low-rise buildings. Its design supports high-volume, linear production of houses, enabling mass production without compromising quality. The fact that six units have already been sold before its official launch speaks volumes about the BOD3’s market demand and the trust our customers place in our technology.”
Michael Holm, Chief Innovation Officer at COBOD, states, “The advanced ground-based track system was developed as a response to our customers’ needs to increase efficiency and productivity. Now the 3D construction printer can be easily extended, and multiple consecutive structures can be printed with minimal repositioning and zero downtime between projects, making 3D construction printing more efficient than ever before.”
The BOD3 is now available for purchase worldwide; for more information, please visit our website, www.cobod.com, or contact us at info@cobod.com.
COBOD stands as the global leader in supplying 3D printers for the construction sector, with over 80 printers distributed across North and Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Driven by a mission to revolutionize construction through multifunctional robots based on 3D printing, COBOD envisions automating half of the construction processes to achieve faster, cost-effective, sustainable results with enhanced design versatility.
From residential, commercial, and public buildings, COBOD’s 3D printers have been instrumental in erecting 1- to 3-story structures across all six inhabited continents. The innovative technology also extends to fabricate large-scale data centers, wind turbine towers, tanks, and more.
Embracing an open-source material approach, COBOD collaborates with global partners, including customers, academia, and suppliers. The company, backed by prominent shareholders such as General Electric, CEMEX, Holcim, and PERI, operates from its main office in Copenhagen, Denmark, and regional competence centers in Miami, Florida, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. COBOD’s dynamic team comprises over 100 professionals from 25 diverse nationalities.
ABOUT MODULA TIGA DIMENSI
PT Modula Tiga Dimensi is a joint venture between Bakrie & Brothers (BNBR) and COBOD. BNBR focuses on offering and providing solutions for housing backlog problems currently encountered by the country.
Teaming up with COBOD International, the company is now set to adopt the latest 3D printing construction technology and is ready to offer the Indonesian market a new and better solution to housing obstructions.
ABOUT POWER2BUILD
Reshaping the construction sector and adapting it to urgent human needs.
Power2Build is a technology company for the construction industry, prepared to establish partnerships with private, public, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) so that they can make the transition to Build 4.0 through 3DCP.
We offer our clients value-added services and high-quality projects, always with a multidisciplinary approach that brings together the necessary experience to deal with complex issues.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Artificial intelligence‘s recent rise to the forefront of business has left most office workers wondering how often they should use the technology and whether a computer will eventually replace them.
Those were among the highlights of a recent study conducted by the workplace communications platform Slack. After conducting in-depth interviews with 5,000 desktop workers, Slack concluded there are five types of AI personalities in the workplace: “The Maximalist” who regularly uses AI on their jobs; “The Underground” who covertly uses AI; “The Rebel,” who abhors AI; “The Superfan” who is excited about AI but still hasn’t used it; and “The Observer” who is taking a wait-and-see approach.
Only 50% of the respondents fell under the Maximalist or Underground categories, posing a challenge for businesses that want their workers to embrace AI technology. The Associated Press recently discussed the excitement and tension surrounding AI at work with Christina Janzer, Slack’s senior vice president of research and analytics.
Q: What do you make about the wide range of perceptions about AI at work?
A: It shows people are experiencing AI in very different ways, so they have very different emotions about it. Understanding those emotions will help understand what is going to drive usage of AI. If people are feeling guilty or nervous about it, they are not going to use it. So we have to understand where people are, then point them toward learning to value this new technology.
Q: The Maximalist and The Underground both seem to be early adopters of AI at work, but what is different about their attitudes?
A: Maximalists are all in on AI. They are getting value out of it, they are excited about it, and they are actively sharing that they are using it, which is a really big driver for usage among others.
The Underground is the one that is really interesting to me because they are using it, but they are hiding it. There are different reasons for that. They are worried they are going to be seen as incompetent. They are worried that AI is going to be seen as cheating. And so with them, we have an opportunity to provide clear guidelines to help them know that AI usage is celebrated and encouraged. But right now they don’t have guidelines from their companies and they don’t feel particularly encouraged to use it.
Overall, there is more excitement about AI than not, so I think that’s great We just need to figure out how to harness that.
Q: What about the 19% of workers who fell under the Rebel description in Slack’s study?
A: Rebels tend to be women, which is really interesting. Three out of five rebels are women, which I obviously don’t like to see. Also, rebels tend to be older. At a high level, men are adopting the technology at higher rates than women.
Q: Why do you think more women than men are resisting AI?
A: Women are more likely to see AI as a threat, more likely to worry that AI is going to take over their jobs. To me, that points to women not feeling as trusted in the workplace as men do. If you feel trusted by your manager, you are more likely to experiment with AI. Women are reluctant to adopt a technology that might be seen as a replacement for them whereas men may have more confidence that isn’t going to happen because they feel more trusted.
Q: What are some of the things employers should be doing if they want their workers to embrace AI on the job?
A: We are seeing three out of five desk workers don’t even have clear guidelines with AI, because their companies just aren’t telling them anything, so that’s a huge opportunity.
Another opportunity to encourage AI usage in the open. If we can create a culture where it’s celebrated, where people can see the way people are using it, then they can know that it’s accepted and celebrated. Then they can be inspired.
The third thing is we have to create a culture of experimentation where people feel comfortable trying it out, testing it, getting comfortable with it because a lot of people just don’t know where to start. The reality is you can start small, you don’t have to completely change your job. Having AI write an email or summarize content is a great place to start so you can start to understand what this technology can do.
Q: Do you think the fears about people losing their jobs because of AI are warranted?
A: People with AI are going to replace people without AI.
