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What are large language models?
Large language models (LLMs) are the basis for AI chatbots and much more. Here's what's going on behind the scenes
With the online world obsessing about chatbots, some AI (artificial intelligence) phrases are entering the mainstream conversation. One of those is large language models or LLMs, and you can't read about OpenAI or chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Bard for long without running into it. But outside of computer science, not many people know what this technology is.
How to censor on Discord: Block what you don't want to see
Discord spoiler tags are here to save the day
There's nothing quite like going blind into chat and getting your fill of spoilers for the latest Final Fantasy XIV story update. Or maybe you're tired of discussing the newest Indiana Jones movie in secret code. In cases like these, Discord censorship becomes your best friend; you can hide text and images to prevent your unsolicited Discord chat visitors from being spoiled. It also sets a precedent that posts should always be filtered and edited so not everyone has to view them. So we've created a guide to teach all Discord users how to censor content on their favorite Android phone and PC.
Telegram was the big winner of Facebook's massive, multi-hour outage
The platform got a massive uptick in users while WhatsApp was dead
It almost felt as society plunged into chaos as Facebook's servers went out on Tuesday, October 4 and didn't come back up until several hours later, bringing down Instagram and WhatsApp along with it. The outage affected billions of people and made them scramble to look for an alternative to reach their friends and acquaintances. The result? The competing messaging app Telegram saw a massive increase in users during those downtime hours.
Viber messenger ups group video call limit once again (APK Download)
Now you can video call up to 30 people at once for free
Viber might not be a de-facto standard like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, but the platform still has a loyal following of at least 500 million people on Android alone. Like most of its competitors, it quickly upped the group video call cap at the beginning of the pandemic, but the service isn't done — in a Play Store update note, it has revealed that you can now make video calls with up to 30 participants at once, rather than 20.
Sick of Zoom video calls? You'll soon be sick of Telegram video calls, too
A full suite of video conferencing features are on the way
Telegram is on a roll this month. After announcing not one, but two new web apps and significant updates to its mobile offerings, the company has now set its sights on Zoom, Slack, and co. Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has just announced that the company wants to add a "video dimension" to its voice chats in May, making it a powerful video-conferencing platform.
Discord ends $10 billion plus sale talks with Microsoft
The gaming-focused communication platform is still interested in a public offering sometime later
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When the news broke that Discord talked to Microsoft regarding a $10 billion plus sale, people were quickly worried it might pan out like the Redmond Skype acquisition back in 2011. The communication platform gradually turned into a bloated, buggy piece of software that's next to impossible to shut down on Windows. It looks like Discord may not have to face that fate, after all. The gaming focused chat startup halted talks with Microsoft and other interested parties.
Telegram's ancient web app is probably getting close to retirement
Fortunately, that's because replacements appear nearly ready to go
Telegram Web has always been a great fallback when you're not on your own computer or using a platform that doesn't properly supports any of the beautiful native apps the social network offers (looking at you, Chrome OS), but it's far from pretty. It looks dated compared to the other Telegram apps and doesn't offer newer features like stickers and voice calls. That's where two new Telegram web applications come in — they feel much more modern, come with tons of animations, and they support stickers.
WhatsApp has supported stickers for a long time, but it has always been tedious to add a new pack if your friends didn't happen to send you a sticker from the desired collection via the chat app. The latest version of WhatsApp makes that easier with support for deep links, allowing you to add stickers to WhatsApp by simply tapping an address on your phone. For example, you can add the recently announced "Vaccines for All" pack via this link: https://wa.me/stickerpack/VaccinesForAll.
Signal wants to replace your Venmo and Cash apps with private crypto payments
Privacy and security first thanks to crypto, but it's not a well-known coin
Signal was being really secretive about its open-source server code over the last year, and now we know why: the nonprofit has been working on a payments feature and didn't want to spill the beans ahead of the announcement. Starting now, people living in the United Kingdom can send and receive a cryptocurrency using Signal beta builds.
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Signal has always been heralded as the security-aware alternative to WhatsApp and Co. due to its open-source nature, but the nonprofit behind the chat app hasn't always stuck to its original open-source promises. While it regularly publishes the code of its client apps, Signal failed to update the Github repository for its server for almost a year, as reported by German publication Golem — though earlier today, the company pushed out an update with a more recent release.
Telegram Beta gets widgets and QR codes for joining groups
Joining groups is about to get easier than ever
Telegram only recently gained huge momentum thanks to people switching from WhatsApp due to the upcoming new terms of service, but the company isn't resting on its laurels. TestingCatalog took an extensive look at the latest Telegram Beta, version 7.5, and found quite a few forthcoming changes: The update introduces widgets, QR codes for joining groups, and options for reporting content.
Microsoft Teams for personal use is now in preview on Android
Use it to connect with friends and family or organize your life
Microsoft has been offering a free, restricted version of Microsoft Teams since 2018, but it never really felt like a tool you'd use to organize your family or personal events — it was mainly targeted at freelancers and small teams. After a year worth of work and an announcement during its big Microsoft 365 reveal, the Redmond company is now ready to unleash a preview version of Microsoft Teams on consumers. As soon as it's rolled out, anyone can sign up for it, but you'll only be able to take full advantage of the service when you're a Microsoft 365 subscriber.
Ah, WhatsApp. It's a Facebook-owned chat client with more than 5 billion installs on Android and has been quite stubbornly behind the curve on bringing on a dark mode of some sort. The first hint of it came in 2018, then came a couple more signals last year, but it's now 2020 and we've still had no reason to pull out our Simon & Garfunkel jokes. Well, good news at last: the latest beta will finally let you give dark mode a spin.
If there's one thing we don't have enough of in this world, it's messaging apps. Thankfully, Yahoo's latest creation is exactly that, and it's designed to simplify group communication between friends, family, and colleagues. You may have read about the invite-only Yahoo Squirrel app a few months back — well now it's out of testing and open to everyone.
Tango, beside being a cool dance, is also a chatting application similar to WhatsApp, Telegram, Allo, and countless others. It may not be as well recognized as some of these brands, but it is popular in some countries around the world. And just like many of its competitors, Tango is now spreading from mobile to the desktop.
Tech companies are not immune to the ebbs and flows of the tide of fashion. The latest fad among mega-corps is voice-controlled interfaces - Google has half a dozen or so with the latest being Assistant, to say nothing of Siri, Alexa, Cortana, or any number of other vaguely feminine "bots." Location specialist Foursquare wants into this party, and they've decided to go masculine with their interpretation: Marsbot. It was previously available on the iPhone, but as of today the Android version is on the Play Store.
Remember way back in the golden days of earlier this month when we posted about possible upcoming desktop clients for the super-popular WhatsApp SMS alternative? Well the time has finally arrived, a whole nine days later. The company has announced on its official blog that the desktop versions are now available for Windows and Mac OS X. Sorry Linux users, you're stuck using the web client... but if it's any consolation, they look more or less identical.
I've used a bunch of team-based, business-oriented chatroom-style services, and Slack and Hipchat seem to be the two most popular choices for managers at this point. Maybe it's time to consider an alternative, and cloud storage giant Dropbox is giving us a pretty good reason to do so: Zulip. The funny-named client has been quietly developed by Dropbox for the last year, and now it's available as an open source tool.