Mike's Tech Reviews

 **  SAM BANKMAN-FRIED JUST  ain’t all that, says Pat Rabbitte. “He’s not that remarkable … I just don’t see it.” Rabbitte was a customer of FTX, the crypto exchange founded by Bankman-Fried that  filed for bankruptcy  in November. Bankman-Fried is set to go on trial in New York on October 3, charged with conspiracy and fraud relating to the collapse of the exchange. Like hundreds of thousands of others, Rabbitte’s money is tied up in the bankruptcy proceedings. What happens to those creditors is far worthier of attention, Rabbitte says, than what happens to Bankman-Fried. “He is not that interesting.”   In this opinion, Rabbitte is in the minority. Before FTX  collapsed , Bankman-Fried (or SBF, to some) was very much a main character. The 31-year-old, who styled himself as the respectable face of crypto, steered the exchange to a  $32 billion valuation  in only three years. He courted regulators, politicians, and venture capitalists. He frat...

 **  Binance said it will have no ongoing revenue split from the sale, nor will it maintain an option to buy back shares in the business.  Cryptocurrency exchange  Binance  said on Wednesday it will sell its Russia business to newly-launched exchange CommEX, becoming the latest company to pull out of Moscow since the country began its war against Ukraine.   Binance, the world's largest  cryptocurrency exchange , did not disclose financial details of the deal. The company said it will have no ongoing revenue split from the sale, nor will it maintain an option to buy back shares in the business.   "As we look toward the future, we recognise that operating in Russia is not compatible with Binance's compliance strategy," Chief Compliance Officer Noah Perlman said, without referring to the war in Ukraine, which Russia calls a "special military operation."   Binance also said that all the assets of its existing Russian users were safe and that ther...

 **  Meta  showcased a host of new products and services, including the  Meta Quest 3  mixed reality headset and a pair of smart glasses made in collaboration with Ray-Ban, at its Meta Connect annual conference on Wednesday. Alongside the hardware, the company also announced its own  AI  assistant, Meta AI, and a variety of AI experiences across Meta's suite of apps and devices, including AI stickers in Meta apps and AI editing tools for Instagram. Meta AI, a conversational generative AI assistant much like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Microsoft's Bing, will be available on WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram.   In addition to its default AI assistant, the company also showed off AI avatars with distinct personalities. Meta is bringing 28 AI characters, each with a unique backstory and behaviour. These AI characters can be conversed with in  WhatsApp , Instagram, and Messenger, and will also include some public figures and influencers that Meta has par...

 **   Apple’s former chief design officer, Jony Ive, is reportedly in discussions with OpenAI to build the “iPhone of artificial intelligence,” aided by over $1 billion in funding from Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son. According to  a new report by the  Financial Times , OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is looking to use Ive’s design firm LoveFrom to develop  OpenAI’s first consumer device , with the duo having discussed what such a product would look like during brainstorming sessions at Ive’s San Francisco studio. News of the venture was first reported by  The Information  on Tuesday.   According to three people familiar with the plan, Ive and Altman are aiming to create a device that provides a “more natural and intuitive user experience” to interact with artificial intelligence. The duo have taken inspiration from how the touchscreen technology on the original iPhone helped revolutionize our interaction with the mobile internet. Son is offering funding for the...

 ** Despite   doubts that the Raspberry Pi 5   would launch this year, the latest version of the microcomputer   has arrived   with some notable upgrades at a $60 starting price. Not only is it supposed to perform better than its predecessor but it’s also the first Raspberry Pi to come with in-house silicon.   Powering the brain of the Raspberry Pi 5 is a 64-bit quad-core Arm Cortex-A76 processor that runs at 2.4GHz, allowing for two to three times the performance boost when compared to  the four-year-old Raspberry Pi 4 . The device also comes with an 800MHz VideoCore VII graphics chip that the Raspberry Pi Foundation says offers a “substantial uplift” in graphics performance.   I got to try out the device for myself. While I didn’t have time to do much tinkering with it, I found that it boots up pretty quickly, while also loading webpages fast when compared to my older Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+. It does get pretty hot, but luckily, Raspberry Pi sen...

  ** Microsoft is releasing one of its biggest updates to Windows 11 today. It includes access to the new Windows Copilot, AI-powered updates to Paint, Snipping Tool, and Photos, RGB lighting support, a modernized File Explorer, and much more.    Windows Copilot  is the big new feature for this Windows 11 update, bringing the same Bing Chat feature straight to the Windows 11 desktop. It appears as a sidebar in Windows 11, allowing you to control settings on a PC, launch apps, or simply answer queries. Microsoft is integrating Copilot into  many parts of Windows , too.   Copilot will essentially exist as an AI-powered digital assistant, much like Microsoft’s vision for Cortana. While Microsoft  shut down the Cortana app  inside Windows 11 last month, Copilot looks like it’s very much Microsoft’s big push into AI.   Microsoft is also adding AI-powered features to Paint, Snipping Tool, and Windows 11’s Photos app. Microsoft Paint is getting Phot...