Some books become overnight blockbusters through a mix of online buzz, strategic reissues, translation, appealing design, and timing, rather than traditional marketing. Examples include 'I Who Have Never Known Men' and 'Perfection,' which gained popularity years after initial publication, often driven by social media and cultural relevance. The success of these sleeper hits highlights the unpredictable and deliberate efforts behind their rise, emphasizing the importance of timing, presentation, and community engagement.
Apple's Live Translation feature for AirPods, available on models with the H2 chip and iPhone 15 Pro or newer, allows real-time conversation translation. Users need to download language packs, set up a conversation in the Translate app, and activate the feature via various methods. The feature works offline and supports multiple languages, but is still in beta, so translations may be inaccurate.
Apple has launched the AirPods Pro 3, featuring pulse monitoring, improved fit, better noise cancellation, live translation, and extended battery life, aiming to enhance health tracking and user experience, with a focus on integrating health features and expanding high-end audio products.
Google has enhanced its Circle to Search feature to provide continuous translation as users scroll through content on their screens, making it easier to understand foreign language posts and menus without restarting the translation process. The update is rolling out on Android devices, starting with select Samsung Galaxy models, and aims to improve user experience by offering seamless, real-time translations while browsing.
Google is testing a new 'Live Translate' feature within Circle to Search that aims to translate dynamic content such as web pages, videos, and GIFs in real-time, with a rollout to some beta users. The feature includes options for translating the entire screen or specific app sections, with a floating overlay for language selection and cropping, although it is still in development and not fully functional yet.
A cartoon titled 'Lost in translation' by Mike Luckovich comments on the contrast between big media's paywalls and billionaire agendas versus the free, truthful reporting of Daily Kos, emphasizing the importance of accessible information.
iOS 26 introduces several playful and useful updates to Messages, including customizable backgrounds, polls for group decision-making, and automatic translation, making messaging more engaging and versatile compared to iOS 18, while maintaining familiar usability improvements like button placement for easier one-handed use.
Google is rolling out a beta feature that integrates Google Lens into YouTube Shorts, allowing users to interact with video content by searching for objects or translating captions directly within the app on Android and iOS, enhancing the viewing experience.
Scientists at EMBL Heidelberg have created the first real-time 'molecular movie' using single-molecule multi-colour fluorescence microscopy to observe interactions between RNA polymerase and ribosomes during transcription and translation in bacteria. This breakthrough provides insights into how these processes are coupled, potentially aiding in the development of new antibiotics by targeting these interactions. The study highlights the importance of basic research in understanding cellular mechanisms and combating antibiotic resistance.
At Microsoft Ignite 2024, significant updates to Microsoft Teams were announced, including support for multilingual meetings with transcription in 51 spoken languages and 31 translation languages. New features include intelligent meeting recaps in users' chosen languages and Copilot's ability to generate summaries of shared files. These updates aim to enhance accessibility and collaboration for the platform's global user base. Additionally, Teams will integrate with Storyline for content sharing across organizations, with public previews of these features expected in early 2025.
Microsoft Teams is introducing an AI-powered interpreter feature that allows participants to speak or listen in their preferred language during meetings, with a preview available in early 2025 supporting up to nine languages. This is part of broader AI enhancements, including multilingual meeting transcription, visual content recaps, and video call quality improvements through the Teams Super Resolution feature. These updates aim to enhance communication and collaboration in Teams meetings.
Haruki Murakami's latest novel, "The City and Its Uncertain Walls," is critiqued as a lackluster addition to his oeuvre, resembling fan fiction more than a fresh narrative. The book revisits themes and settings from his earlier work, "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World," but fails to capture the depth and strangeness of his previous novels. The review highlights Murakami's tendency towards verbose and banal descriptions, which detract from the novel's impact, and suggests that his writing has become overly formulaic and self-referential.
Translators play a critical role in international climate negotiations, ensuring accurate communication across languages. At events like the UN climate talks, they navigate complex terminology and political sensitivities, translating key documents under tight deadlines. The challenge lies in maintaining the original intent and connotation, especially with terms that have no direct equivalents in other languages. Effective translation is vital for achieving climate justice, as it enables inclusive dialogue and decision-making, particularly for indigenous and minority communities disproportionately affected by climate change.
The article explores the pervasive nature of computational processes, likening them to a form of music that can be felt and understood in various phenomena, from mailing a letter to machine learning. It delves into the concept of randomness as a complex computational process and highlights advances in AI and machine learning that help manage this complexity, drawing parallels to human cognitive processes like language translation.
Unbabel claims its new AI model, TowerLLM, has surpassed OpenAI's GPT-4 in translation accuracy for English and six other languages. TowerLLM, trained on a large multilingual dataset and fine-tuned with high-quality translations, outperformed GPT-4 in most tests, particularly in professional domains like finance and law. This development highlights the importance of data quality in AI training. Unbabel plans to expand TowerLLM's language support and fine-tune it for specific business translation tasks.
