All posts tagged: offline

Bond Is a New Social Media App That Encourages You to Get Offline

Bond Is a New Social Media App That Encourages You to Get Offline

Published by skeptic

The creators of a new social media app called Bond want you to stop doomscrolling and to create bonds… in person. Bond, which launched on Tuesday, was created by a team of developers who previously worked for platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. The Bond app is currently available for iOS.  Co-founder and CEO Dino Becirovic said that the app is designed to encourage you to interact with your friends rather than passively consume social content or make posts for the algorithm.  “We use a ‘friending’ model and remove feeds to eliminate performative behavior and give you psychological safety,” Becirovic told CNET.  Bond uses the photos, videos and audio files you upload to help generate real-life interactive ideas that interest you through its AI function. The more memories you share with Bond, the more tailored its activity suggestions will be. For example, if you recently attended a Bruno Mars concert and shared a picture on your Bond account, it might recommend similar or upcoming concerts in your area.  Like other social media platforms, you …

This is the free, offline, no-account Evernote replacement that most people have never tried

This is the free, offline, no-account Evernote replacement that most people have never tried

Published by skeptic

While note-taking apps have been all the hype in the past decade, services like Evernote propose an idea that makes many uncomfortable: storing all your important, personal, and often sensitive information on someone else’s web servers. While platforms like Evernote offer a certain level of convenience, you end up trading quite a lot in that process. Something worse than this privacy nightmare is being unable to access your own notes when you are offline or when you exceed the number of supported devices. Yet, things would have been okay if you were getting everything for free, but limits are also on the rise as Evernote subscription costs soar. All these make one wonder: is a better alternative possible? Related My note-taking setup doesn’t cost me a cent because I run it myself Notes without subscriptions—just how it should be. Evernote used to be the answer. Now it’s a problem Paywalls, device limits, and a free tier that insults your intelligence Tashreef Shareef / MakeUseOfCredit: Tashreef Shareef / MakeUseOf Evernote used to be a great option for …

Google quietly launched an AI dictation app that works offline

Google quietly launched an AI dictation app that works offline

Published by skeptic

Google on Monday quietly released an offline-first dictation app called “Google AI Edge Eloquent” on iOS to take on the likes of Wispr Flow, SuperWhisper, Willow, and others. The app is free to download, and once its Gemma-based automatic speech recognition (ASR) models are downloaded, you can start dictating on your phone. In the app, you can see the live transcription, and when you hit pause, the app automatically filters out filler words like “um” and “ah” and polishes the text. Below the transcript are options like “Key points”, “Formal”, “Short”, and “Long” to transform the text. Image Credit: Screenshot by TechCrunchImage Credits:Screenshot by TechCrunch You can also turn off the cloud mode to use local-only processing. (When cloud mode is on, the app uses cloud-based Gemini models for text cleanup.) The Google AI Edge Eloquent can import certain keywords, names, and jargon from your Gmail account, if desired. Plus, you can add your own custom words to the list. The app displays the history of the transcription session and lets you search through all …

I tested the ‘survival computer’ that has all the offline utility you need – including AI

I tested the ‘survival computer’ that has all the offline utility you need – including AI

Published by skeptic

Jack Wallen/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways Project NOMAD is an offline info database and AI tool. This platform could come in handy if you can’t get online. It can be installed on any Debian-based Linux distro. Imagine that you’ve landed in some sort of post-apocalyptic, dystopian future. In that future, it’s not necessarily the strong that will survive, but rather those with access to information. Information could wind up being the most sought-after commodity, the difference between survival and, well, not. But how do you gain access to information? You might not have a network connection, which means no internet. And that means no search engine or AI.  Also: How my portable wind turbine compares to solar panels – 2 years of testing later What do you do? If you have already installed Project NOMAD, which stands for Node for Offline Media, Archives, and Data, and is a self-contained, offline “survival computer”, then no need to worry. This project’s tag line is “Knowledge That Never Goes Offline.” Jack Wallen/ZDNET …

Fast AI Vision Model on Laptop Uses WebGPU for Private, Offline Tasks

Fast AI Vision Model on Laptop Uses WebGPU for Private, Offline Tasks

Published by skeptic

Liquid AI’s LFM 2.5 sets a new standard for vision-language models by prioritizing local processing and resource efficiency. As highlighted by Better Stack, this model operates entirely on everyday devices like laptops and smartphones, eliminating the need for cloud-based computation. By using frameworks such as WebGPU and ONNX Runtime, LFM 2.5 ensures smooth performance even in offline or low-connectivity environments. With features like a 32,000-token context window and support for high-resolution images up to 512×512 pixels, it is designed to handle a wide range of tasks, from document analysis to real-time video processing, all while maintaining enhanced privacy and efficiency. Explore how this model’s hybrid architecture, combining convolutional blocks with grouped query attention, enables it to excel in complex scenarios like image captioning and visual question answering. Gain insight into its Linear Input Varying Architecture (LIIV), which optimizes memory use for large-scale tasks and discover how its tiling strategy ensures accurate high-resolution image analysis without overwhelming system resources. Whether you’re working in dynamic environments or tackling precision-driven applications, this explainer provides a detailed breakdown of …

Highguard to Go Offline After Rapid Player Drop

Highguard to Go Offline After Rapid Player Drop

Published by skeptic

Highguard found itself in the spotlight of the online video game discourse back in December during The Game Awards show, when host Geoff Keighley made a special introduction for the game’s trailer, which came very late in the show, a time reserved for some of the night’s biggest reveals. The next day, there were questions as to what this free-to-play multiplayer shooter from a new studio was. Now, less than two months after its release, Highguard is being shut down.  Developer Wildlight Entertainment posted on X about Highguard’s shutdown on Tuesday. The developer says it was unable to gain the player base it needed to get the game going, and it will shut down servers on March 12.  “Despite the passion and hard work of our team, we have not been able to build a sustainable player base to support the game long term,” the studio said. “Servers will remain online until March 12th. We hope you’ll jump in with us one more time to show your support and get those final great matches in while …

Heaper File Organizer for Local-First Storage & Easy Offline Access

Heaper File Organizer for Local-First Storage & Easy Offline Access

Published by skeptic

Traditional folder-based systems for file organization often struggle to keep up with the demands of modern workflows. As explained by app creator Jan Lunge, these systems rely on rigid hierarchies that can lead to inefficiencies, especially when managing large volumes of files across multiple devices or cloud platforms. Heaper addresses these challenges by offering a more adaptable approach, combining features like local-first access for offline reliability and smart syncing to prevent conflicts during collaboration. By focusing on flexibility and user control, Heaper aims to simplify file management for both personal and professional use. In this overview, you’ll learn how Heaper’s browsable heap system eliminates the constraints of traditional folder structures, allowing you to organize and locate files more intuitively. The guide also explores features like automatic deduplication, which reduces clutter by identifying and removing duplicate files, and rich text context, allowing you to add searchable annotations and metadata. These capabilities not only streamline your workflow but also provide greater clarity and efficiency in managing digital content. Heaper A Smarter Way to Organize TL;DR Key Takeaways …

Spotify’s offline cache might be taking up more space than your music

Spotify’s offline cache might be taking up more space than your music

Published by skeptic

Streaming your music is great until you hit a patch with no connectivity or a long flight where you might need to download your music. Being able to download your music to your phone also sounds great, until you realize that Spotify’s online cache is eating up more storage than the music itself. Apart from adding features no one really asked for, Spotify can’t seem to figure out local storage. For anyone on a small SSD or a phone with limited storage, that means several gigabytes of space disappearing without a clear explanation from the app. Offline downloads and cache are not the same thing One is intentional. The other quietly hoards storage in the background. When you think about Spotify’s storage consumption, you’re dealing with two separate aspects: your offline downloads and the cache. Offline downloads are the obvious part. These are the albums, playlists, and podcasts you explicitly mark to be available when you’re not connected to the internet. They live in a dedicated storage location, and on many devices, you can even …

One of Europe’s largest universities knocked offline for days after cyberattack

One of Europe’s largest universities knocked offline for days after cyberattack

Published by skeptic

The computer systems of La Sapienza in Rome, one of the largest universities in Europe with around 120,000 students, have been down for three days following an apparent ransomware attack.  In a post and stories on Instagram published Tuesday, the university said that it took down its systems out of precaution following the cyberattack, that it was investigating the incident and working on restoring all digital services, and that some communication channels such as email and workstations are “partially limited.”  The school also said that it was working to restore systems based on backups, which were not affected by the hack.  As of this writing the Sapienza website remains down.  Italian daily news outlet Il Corriere della Sera reported this week that the disruption is due to a ransomware attack, something that the school nor other authorities have confirmed so far. The hackers allegedly sent the university a link to a request for a ransom, which has a countdown of 72 hours, which would start only once the link is clicked.  Contact Us Do you …