Siri gets a new voice in iOS 15.4 beta

The latest beta of iOS 15.4 adds a fifth American voice for its Siri voice assistant. Apple’s user-facing interface simply calls it “Voice 5,” but iOS developer Steve Moser reports that its filename refers to the new voice as “Quinn.” The voice has arrived a little under a year after Apple added its last two American Siri voices, and stopped defaulting to using a female-sounding voice.

Axios notes that the new voice sounds more gender-neutral than earlier Siri voices. Apple confirmed to the publication that it was recorded by a member of the LGBTQ+ community, though the company didn’t offer any further details on the voice actor’s identity. Last year’s voices were recorded by Black actors as part of the company’s “long-standing...

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Pandora Stories lets artists add commentary to their own playlists

Pandora launched Stories today, a tool that lets artists and creators add voice commentary to their own playlists. The Stories feature merges podcasts with music playlists, and is meant for artists to add context to an album, or for podcasters to experiment with new storytelling formats. The feature is part of Pandora AMP, the streaming service’s free Artist Marketing Platform that helps creators promote their work. To kick off the launch, Pandora’s prepared some Stories by artists like John Legend and Daddy Yankee, who tell listeners their personal stories interspersed between their own songs. There’s also a Stories playlist called Love Songs That Aren’t Really Love Songs , which includes commentary on individual songs like a podcast... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Xz1oNc

Instagram’s updated algorithm prioritizes original content instead of rip-offs

Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge Instagram is making significant changes to how its system recommends content, with a focus on original content and increased distribution for smaller accounts. The slew of changes were announced by the company in a blog post today. The biggest change deals with aggregators — accounts that download or screenshot other users’ videos and photos and repost them. Sometimes aggregators will credit the original poster by tagging them in the post or caption, but often, content is wholesale ripped off with no acknowledgment, and engagement is siphoned off from the person who created the content in the first place. Instagram clearly has a problem with this and will begin removing reposted content from recommendations across the platform. The... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/ECgcPAU

We asked camera companies why their RAW formats are all different and confusing

When you set up a new camera, or even go to take a picture on some smartphones, youâ€™re presented with a key choice: JPG or RAW? JPGs are ready to post just about anywhere, while RAWs yield an unfinished file filled with extra data that allows for much richer post-processing. That option for a RAW file (and even the generic name, RAW) has been standardized across the camera industry â€” but despite that, the camera world has never actually settled on one standardized RAW format. Most cameras capture RAW files in proprietary formats, like Canonâ€™s CR3, Nikonâ€™s NEF, and Sonyâ€™s ARW. The result is a world of compatibility issues. Photo editing software needs to specifically support not just each manufacturerâ€™s file type but also make changes for each new camera that shoots it. That creates pain for app developers and early camera adopters who want to know that their preferred software will just work. Adobe tried to solve this problem years ago with a universal RAW form...

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