Nothing has a brand new smartphone—the Phone (2a) Plus—practically an identical to the Phone (2a) it launched earlier this yr, however with barely beefed-up specs. It prices $399 and is obtainable within the US by the identical beta program. Nevertheless it is not the brand new Android handset we discover most fascinating, it is the corporate’s new widget.
The “Information Reporter” widget, accessible by default on all Nothing and CMF smartphones plus different Android and iOS gadgets by way of the Nothing X app, permits you to rapidly play a information bulletin summarized by synthetic intelligence. It’s learn out by the synthesized voice of Tim Holbrow, the corporate’s chief monetary officer. (Nothing is utilizing ElevenLabs’ tech for sound synthesis and output.) As quickly as you faucet the widget, you are greeted by a soothing British voice:
“Welcome to Nothing Information, the place the one factor we take significantly isn’t taking something significantly. I am Tim, your CFO and reluctant information reader. Immediately, we’re making one thing out of nothing, as a result of that is actually our job.”
The widget will begin biking by a number of information tales—you’ll be able to press and maintain the widget and faucet Edit so as to add or take away classes you are concerned with, reminiscent of enterprise, leisure, tech, and sports activities. These information tales are pulled from “trusted English-language information sources” by News API, utilizing Meta’s Llama large language models for the summarization.
You’ll be able to swipe down the notification bar and press the subsequent button on the media playback notification to skip a narrative, to which Holbrow will add a quip. “Not feeling that one? Let’s discover one other.” After I skipped fairly a number of in a row, AI Holbrow requested, “Do you even like information?”
The summaries are one minute every (roughly), and also you get eight tales per day. Each morning, the widget will refresh with a recent batch. Sadly, and frustratingly, the widget would not offer you a lot to go on if you wish to learn extra. There isn’t any attribution to the place it pulled the information from, and no hyperlinks are offered to learn immediately from the supply.
Each smartphone firm has been touting some type of generative AI function in new gadgets this yr. Samsung has Galaxy AI; Google has its Gemini chatbot and a bevy of AI options in Pixel phones; Motorola launched Moto AI recently; and even OnePlus has been teasing a number of AI features in its telephones, like AI Eraser, which helps you to take away undesirable objects from photographs. Nothing launched a ChatGPT integration in its earbuds earlier this yr, and this widget is the newest generative AI function to land.
