Yandex has released assistant Alice. How is it better than Siri? Subscribe to news

Yandex officially introduced Alice, its own virtual assistant. Fontanka invited a “guest from the future” to compete in artificial intelligence with its American rival Siri.

still from the film "Guest from the Future"

Both systems know how to get to “Rubleshtein Street” and, unlike experts, do not give in to the question of “a girl with a little girl.” So far, the American works with a larger number of applications and recognizes more commands. But the domestic assistant jokes better and follows the rap battles.

Alice, who spoke to the Russians two and a half years later than i, at first glance is almost a complete analogue of her. Like an older sister, it helps users solve everyday problems. Through integration with Yandex services, she can search for information on the Internet, suggest where to have dinner, give a weather forecast, and so on.

However, the developers claim that Alice is much smarter than her American rival. According to Denis Filippov, head of speech technologies at Yandex, it is the best of the voice assistants for recognizing Russian speech, and also the first in the world who “is not limited to a set of predefined answers.”

“She knows how to process incomplete phrases and questions, takes into account the context of what is said and is even able to improvise. Alice is not just a voice assistant, she is a character with character, a supply of funny stories and a sense of humor,” Yandex assures. But also that she taught her assistant to joke and even predict the desires of her owner.

The neural network behind Alice’s personality was trained on a large array of texts. According to the developers, first dialogues from classical literature - the works of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol - were loaded into the program. But after that, Alice spoke in such a way that one got the feeling that after the dialogue with the “owner” she would “go and hang herself,” Yandex admits. But the programmers found a way to “amuse” her by loading dialogues from Twitter into her. True, first they had to be cleared of obscene language.

If Siri is part of the iOS operating system, then you can talk to Alice in the Yandex application and the beta version of the voice assistant for Windows. But the creators promise that it will soon appear in Yandex.Browser, and then in other products of the Russian IT giant. Then she, like Siri, will be able to set alarms and enter data into the calendar. Other companies will also be able to give the Russian assistant access to their services.

Alisa speaks in the voice of actress Tatyana Shitova, who duplicates Scarlett Johansson in the Russian box office. Apple hasn't revealed who voiced the Siri commands, but actress Susan Bennett says she is the American voice.

One of Alice’s first interlocutors, not counting the developers, was Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited the Yandex headquarters in Moscow at the end of September. It is known that the head of state first of all asked the assistant. What Alice answered to the president is not known. The President was pleased with the communication.

Fontanka decided to evaluate the success of import substitution in the field of high technology and arrange a competition between Alice and Siri. We asked virtual assistants to answer the same questions and assessed not only their intelligence, but their sense of humor.

Both assistants showed miracles of modesty and refused to tell why each of them was better than their rival. “No, I’m not Siri, I’m different. I mean different,” joked Alice, paraphrasing the classic. At the same time, she admitted that she once met an American woman using “the same smartphone.” There were clearly sad notes in the intonation. Siri also did not succumb to provocation. “It doesn’t matter who I am,” she said when asked about the superiority of her intelligence over her competitor. But after asking me to evaluate the beauty, I started looking for answers in a search engine.

Both systems failed the gastronomic task with geopolitical implications. Siri and Alice forwarded the request “what tastes better - borscht or burger” to their search engine. But the systems coped well with the weather task. We asked how long it had been raining in St. Petersburg. “I don’t think it’s raining,” Siri said, and she was right, it was clear outside. Alice reported that now “+9 C, cloudy.”

It turned out to be quite good with geography. Unlike the navigator from the “Leningrad” video, both of them recognized Rubinshtein Street in the distorted “Rubleshtein”. But the American was able to do it only the second time. But the Russian assistant responded to the repeated request with the word “love” - nothing less than remembering the lessons of Russian classics.

But Alice clearly remembers the Twitter heroes better. “Guf, yeah,” she said when asked who is better - Gnoyny or Oksimiron. True, I couldn’t quote my favorite poems. Siri clearly doesn't follow rap battles. “No, nothing comes to mind,” she spread her virtual hands.

Both programs will give connoisseurs a run for their money. They easily found the answer to the question about “Sherochka with Masherochka”, which... Alice also voiced it. You can also safely go into reconnaissance with voice assistants. Alisa refused to talk about what she talked about at the meeting with the Russian President two weeks ago. Siri, to whom we addressed exactly the same question, also did not allow herself to be caught. "I don't know the answer," she said.

Alice does not reveal who she got her name in honor of. But to the phrase “where to find myelophone” (fictional device in the works of Kir Bulychev. - Ed.) answered: “Tuta,” and turned on a video from “Guest from the Future.” But the American assistant was clearly perplexed by the question. “We couldn’t find a background in the city of St. Petersburg,” he admitted.

And yet, regarding the assessment of her intelligence, Alice still let it slip. “Well, at least now,” she answered when asked when we can expect the uprising of the machines. America does not know the answer or is encrypted better.

Galina Boyarkova,

Cross-platform frameworks provide mobile app developers with a comprehensive set of tools designed to improve productivity by solving common problems. The question is which frameworks are best for you doing mobile development. To help you answer this question, we have prepared a special list of cross-platform frameworks for developing high-quality mobile applications.

Developing a mobile application using a cross-platform framework is a shorter path to successfully completing the task.

With nearly three million apps on Google Play, the Android operating system dominates the mobile landscape. Individuals, small companies and large enterprises are working hard to establish a strong mobile presence and capture market share. However, not everyone has the proper experience and resources needed to create a good mobile application from scratch using native tools.

The goal of frameworks is to make mobile app development as easy as possible.

List of cross-platform application development frameworks:

- Corona SDK;

Is it easy to create applications and games using Corona SDK? The creators of the Corona SDK framework promise ten times faster development of games and mobile applications. How is this even possible? This is likely due to the fact that the internal structure of the Corona application is entirely based on Lua, a lightweight multi-paradigmatic programming language with an emphasis on speed, portability, extensibility and ease of use.

The official Corona SDK website contains guides, lessons, and examples designed to turn novice mobile application developers into experienced professionals. Guides and tips cover all sorts of developer topics. From the basics of mobile development to more advanced topics. The Corona SDK framework is absolutely free. We remember about cross-platform. It runs on both Windows and Mac OS X and supports real-time application testing.

- TheAppBuilder;

So, description TheAppBuilder is a framework used by some of the largest organizations in the world, equipped with a user interface to speed up the development of application code. There are reviews that the version works best when used to create company presentations and other information applications. The framework comes with ready-made blocks for push notifications, feedback, surveys, content updates, analytics and much more. Best of all, TheAppBuilder integrates directly with Google Play, allowing you to publish ready-made apps with one click.

- Xamarin;

The Xamarin framework was developed by the same people who created Mono, compatible with the ECMA standard, and has a set of tools compatible with the .NET Framework. Xamarin offers developers a single C# codebase that they can use to create their own apps for all major mobile operating systems.

Unlike many other frameworks, Xamarin has already been used by more than 1.4 million developers around the world. With Xamarin for Visual Studio, developers can take advantage of the power of Microsoft Visual Studio and all its advanced features, including code completion, IntelliSense, and app debugging on a simulator or mobile device. The Xamarin Test Cloud feature allows you to instantly test applications on up to 2,000 real devices in the cloud (remotely, via the Internet). This is by far the best way to deal with the severe fragmentation of the Android ecosystem and release bug-free mobile apps that run without any major issues on most gadgets.

- Appcelerator Titanium;

The Appcelerator Titanium framework is part of the Appcelerator Platform, which includes all the tools mobile app developers need to build, test, and deploy highly optimized apps. The Titanium framework uses JavaScript to call a vast collection of APIs. These APIs call native functions of the operating systems, providing exceptional performance and a natural appearance.

Titanium includes a visually oriented mobile app development process that relies heavily on pre-built code blocks that can be assembled via drag and drop. You can create data models programmatically or visually. Test your finished mobile apps in the cloud and track them with the Mobile Lifecycle dashboard, which provides valuable insight into app performance.

- PhoneGap;

PhoneGap from Adobe is one of the world's most popular frameworks for developing Android applications. It is created by the Apache Cordova development team. An open source mobile app development environment that uses CSS3 and HTML5, as well as JavaScript for cross-platform development. PhoneGap is also completely open source software.

It is based on an intuitive desktop application used to create applications and connect these applications to mobile devices (phones/smartphones, tablets). Finally, no more obscure text commands that are easy to get wrong and hard to remember. The fantastic desktop app is complemented by the PhoneGap mobile app. The application allows you to instantly see changes on your connected mobile device. Other things that make PhoneGap so recommended are its large library of plugins, third-party tools, and thriving community.

- Ionic;

Ionic is a free and open source framework licensed under the MIT license. It offers a whole library of components and tools. Ionic allows you to develop progressive web apps and native mobile apps for every major app store - all from a single codebase. Thanks to the best native plugins, it's extremely easy to use features like Bluetooth and Health Kit, and fingerprint authentication is also supported.

Ionic is also designed for performance tuning and optimization. All applications built using Ionic look like they are standardized and they work equally well. To date, nearly four million applications have been created by five million Ionic developers around the world. If you want to join them, visit the official website and learn more about this framework.

- NativeScript;

JavaScript and Angular, as well as TypeScript, are perhaps the most commonly used web development technologies. With the NativeScript framework, you can also use them to create applications. Simply put, NativeScript creates platform-specific user interfaces from a single code base. Unlike other integrated frameworks, NativeScript is supported by Telerik, a Bulgarian company that offers various software tools.

Do you need lessons on creating mobile applications in the cross-platform NativeScript framework? To help mobile app developers become familiar with this framework, the official website provides many examples and detailed tutorials. You can view real implementations of mobile applications, study official documentation, and even dive into the source code.

- React Native;

React Native is developed by Facebook and used by Instagram, Tesla, Airbnb, Baidu, Walmart and many other Fortune 500 companies. Facebook's React JavaScript framework is open source. Since React Native uses the same UI building blocks as regular mobile apps for iOS and Android gadgets, it is impossible to differentiate a React Native app from an app built using Objective-C or Java. Once you update the source code, you will immediately see the changes in the application preview window. If you ever feel the need to manually optimize certain parts of your application, React Native allows you to combine native code with components written in Swift or Objective-C and Java.

- Sencha Touch.

Sencha Touch what is it? Like TheAppBuilder, it is an enterprise framework for creating universal mobile applications. It uses hardware acceleration techniques to achieve high performance. Sencha Touch comes with five dozen built-in UI components and decent-looking themes, making it easy to create amazing apps that attract users.

The framework includes a robust data package that can use data from any internal data source. With this package, you can create collections of data using highly functional models that offer features such as sorting and filtering. Sencha Touch has received praise from many influential companies and organizations.

Conclusion of the review of cross-platform frameworks for mobile application development:

No matter which mobile app development framework you choose, don't be afraid to change your mind if you ever feel like there are better development environment options. Cross-platform frameworks are extremely fluid, with new ones being released on a regular basis. Their goal is to help you quickly turn a rough idea into a working app, and a working mobile app into a finished product. In the end, it doesn't matter whether you achieve your goal using the latest modern framework that everyone is talking about, or a long-established framework that is starting to gather dust.

When Chinese IT company Huawei decided to unveil its new multimedia phone surrounded by the ornate National Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona, ​​it certainly gave hints to the journalists present (covering technology news) about what they would see. After all, the recently unveiled Huawei Mate X foldable smartphone looks a bit like a rare Picasso painting.

First review of Huawei Mate X: a smartphone with a folding screen - attractive, has powerful technical characteristics and an incredibly expensive price to buy it.

So, what is the Huawei Mate X smartphone? The impression from the first review of Huawei Mate X can be expressed by the phrase that this smartphone is great. Even the phrase that this is a beautiful smartphone softens the review a little. Rather, he is magnificent in his own way. It has perhaps the most worthy industrial design of any mobile phone that the tech giants have ever released in the last few years. The new Huawei smartphone, from contemplation and deep imagination, clearly expands the boundaries of what smartphones can be. Since the size of a smartphone screen easily turns into a tablet one. Thus, mobile content can be viewed in a convenient way.

Those who know everything about phones might think that when asked for a unique price, the Mate X is a bit like the Picasso story in that it is a very expensive smartphone. The Mate X has raised the bar for smartphone prices. But perhaps, given the specifications on offer, it can justify its high price for those deciding which phone to buy.

Display on Huawei Mate X.

Which display is better? Huawei Mate X has a single display that can be transformed into three different configurations. The first mode is 8-inch tablet. It's an almost perfect square with an aspect ratio of 8:7.1 and a resolution of 2480 by 2200 pixels.

Since the screen is on the outside of the smartphone, when the mobile device is folded, you get two screens. The front screen offers 6.6 inches from edge to edge, complemented by a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and a pixel resolution of 2480 by 1148.

There's also a back that offers fewer inches for the screen as it houses the device's cameras and handle. You will primarily use this part to take selfie photos. This part provides a decent (but thin) screen size of 6.38 inches with a somewhat compressed 25:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2480 by 892 pixels.

How comfortable is the Huawei Mate X in terms of thickness?

When folded, the Huawei Mate X mobile phone is 11 millimeters thick and, unlike the rival Samsung Galaxy Fold phone, there is no bulky gap. It is completely flat and locks into place with just one click. It would be interesting to test how well it locks when thrown into a purse, for example, and see if it can accidentally open or not.

When unfolded, the Mate X smartphone is 5.4mm thick, which is slightly thinner than the iPad Pro!

On Huawei Mate X, the camera, the pen - everything is for the user!

A quick look at the side of the Huawei Mate X - it's a handle (Huawei's fairly descriptive term). The device contains three mobile cameras, including one using Leica hardware. In technology news, this was not a surprise. The same configuration has appeared on all Huawei phones, starting with the P20 Pro model. It would be strange if the manufacturer Huawei refused such a function in such a revolutionary device.

You may notice that the phone does not have a dedicated front-facing selfie camera. This is because the three rear cameras are selfie cameras. To take a photo of yourself, you just need to fold your phone and flip it over.

It's all pretty exciting. Huawei's premium phones are regularly considered to have the best camera phones on the market. While the company didn't share any camera samples during the launch event, it's fair to say that some people love the experience of taking selfies with a high-end mobile camera enhanced by Master AI software.

And because the back of the Mate X also contains a screen, you can use your smartphone when taking photos, for example to show the subject of your photo a preview of how they'll end up looking in the photo.

Huawei employees claim that there are no problems with the camera on the Mate X model. This is good news, both in terms of appearance and overall durability. The latter is what the company is focusing on as it announced a specially designed protective case with the phone.

New 5G connectivity and performance for the Mate X smartphone.

When reviewing the Mate X, it's important to remember that Huawei is more than just a phone maker. It targets multiple IT areas, including SoC design. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Mate X uses a Balong 5G modem, as well as a Huawei Kirin 980 processor.

The modem is especially interesting because Huawei promises that the performance will be more than double that of modems from rival firms such as Qualcomm Snapdragon and Samsung Exynos. It is assumed that users who can afford to buy Huawei Mate X in stores will be able to use the download speed of 4.6 Gbps, for example, to download a 1 GB movie in just three seconds. Of course, right now, we have not been able to independently verify this, so for now we can only take our word for it.

What operating system is installed on Huawei Mate X?

In terms of software, the Mate X runs Google Android 9.0 Pie system.

A Huawei spokesperson also said that Desktop Mode software will be available for its latest foldable phone, allowing the Mate X to be used as a smartphone, tablet, or even a desktop computer.

Huawei Mate X memory.

Mate X is a mobile phone with two SIM cards, one slot of which supports 5G network, and the other is limited to 4G communication. If you don't need the latter feature, you can simply insert an NM card (clarification, NM is a nano memory card invented by Huawei that offers the same type of memory as a microSD memory card but in a smaller form factor) and add additional a place to store data in a mobile device. At the same time, the basic version of the smartphone is available with 512 GB of memory. Even the most dedicated filmmakers are unlikely to use all that storage capacity in a mobile phone.

Battery for Mate X.

With such a big screen to work with, you'll be glad to know that the Huawei Mate X phone launched with a pretty gigantic battery. The device has two cells, which together measure up to a respectable 4500 mAh. Unfortunately, there are no battery tests right now, so it's difficult to say how this translates into actual use of the new smartphone.

The Chinese company shared that the Mate X comes with a 55W super charging feature that can recharge the phone's battery by 85 percent in just thirty minutes.

Huawei Mate X pricing.

The Huawei Mate X is perhaps the most important phone ever introduced by the rising Chinese tech brand, and not just because it cements its reputation as an innovative premium handset maker. This phone implements the company's more than three years of research and development and integrates advances in materials technology and communications equipment.

With this in mind, don't be surprised that the smartphone comes with really expensive prices, starting at 2,299 euros. When Huawei CEO Richard Yu (the English spelling of his name is "Richard Yu") broke the news, the silence from the crowd he had previously enjoyed was replaced by whispers of questioning. How much, how much does it cost?

Speaking of prices, it is about 300 euros more expensive than the flagship mobile device Samsung Galaxy Fold. And it's about 800 Euros more expensive than the most expensive Apple iPhone. Price-wise, the Mate X is in the same range as the company's previous luxury phones that bore the brand of luxury car brands, namely Porsche.

Huawei is not oblivious to the high cost of the Mate X, and during the conversation, Richard Yu said that the price of the phone reflects the high cost of research and development of the mobile device. He explained that the patented hinge that separates the two displays was a three-year development process and contains more than a hundred different parts. This kind of research and development is not cheap, and it is inevitable that there will be costs.

However, two things are inevitable. Firstly, there will be no shortage of enthusiastic pioneers willing to save on a lot in order to save up the money for a premium phone. For these buyers, there is an undeniable allure to being among the first to own something special. Perhaps Huawei can take advantage of the news buzz and benefit from more than just selling cheaper phones.

Secondly, prices on the market will inevitably decline. Perhaps not for this smartphone, but certainly for foldable smartphones in general. By and large, the price of 2300 Euros per phone will be perceived as a deviation from the norm. This will be driven by several factors, ranging from inevitable cost savings to competition from other up-and-coming brands like Xiaomi and OPPO, which are making strong inroads into the Western smartphone market.

Availability of purchasing Huawei Mate X.

For example, Huawei hasn't said how much the device will cost in the UK, but if you're guessing, it'll probably cost around £2,300. This assumption takes into account previous price trends, high UK sales tax and the continued decline of the pound.

Also, Huawei CEO Yu did not mention any plans to release the Mate X in the United States. Which is not surprising. The company rarely releases phones in the US. Thus, the Mate 20 Pro smartphone, which until recently was the best Android phone and which could be bought for reasonable money, was completely absent from the American market, which forced American consumers to order the smartphone from abroad. This situation could push prices even higher for US users, who may be forced to pay high customs duties and taxes.

When will it be possible to buy Huawei Mate X?

Huawei has announced that the Mate X will be released mid-year. Unfortunately, this message was not more specific. To clarify, you just need to wait and see what the official release date for Huawei Mate X will be.

Are you planning to buy a new premium phone? There are reasons why it's better to wait before buying a premium phone right now. Which? Here are some of the main reasons. What the buyer can expect from premium phones in 2019 is a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 mobile chip, new super fast 5G connectivity, foldable screen design and a 48-megapixel mobile camera.

All about phones and buying them: If you are planning to buy a new premium phone, wait at least one month to buy it. And that's why:

It is expected that at the Mobile World Congress 2019 (also known as MWC 2019), which will be held in just a couple of weeks (on the twentieth of February), most of the leading smartphone companies will present their latest flagship phones with advanced features and updated technical specifications.

So, new cell phone specifications for this year.

Samsung will release the Galaxy S10 multimedia phone, while HMD Global will introduce the Nokia 9 PureView five-camera phone. Phone makers Huawei, Oppo and LG will also showcase their latest mobile devices at the upcoming mobile expo.

But in 2019, buyers need to think about more than just the next model upgrade cycle when purchasing a new premium phone. And the reasons for this are the unique technical characteristics in the description of the phones.

- Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor.

Qualcomm's top-end processor powers most premium phones, from the Samsung Galaxy S9 to the OnePlus 6T. The Snapdragon 845 processor is now history. The latest Qualocmm Snapdragon 855 chipset, based on 7nm process technology, offers better performance, higher battery efficiency and built-in artificial intelligence (aka AI) processing.

Paired with the Snapdragon X50 modem, the Snapdraon 855 will also bring 5G mobile connectivity to premium smartphones in 2019.

Other key features of the chipset include improved gaming performance (Adreno 640 GPU), artificial intelligence and a higher resolution camera, as well as an in-display fingerprint sensor.

- 48 megapixel camera.

The latest premium smartphones are expected to come with a higher resolution camera. The 48MP camera is the new rage and already several phones like Honor View20 and Redmi Note 7 have a similar feature.

While resolution is certainly not the best measurement to judge a camera by, the built-in sensors are also improving significantly. Most of these 48MP camera phones are likely to use the Sony IMX586 sensor, dubbed the highest resolution camera sensor for mobile phones.

Apart from better camera resolution and sensors, premium mobile phones 2019 may also come with Samsung-like quad and penta (five) camera setups. Most 2018 phones featured dual cameras with a primary camera while the secondary camera ranged from ultra-wide, depth to monochrome.

We expect the new phones to feature most of these sensors with three, four or five cameras.

- Fifth generation mobile communications: 5G.

The evolution of mobile networks continues! The upcoming MWC 2019 will also be a launching pad for 5G phones. Xiaomi, OnePlus, Samsung and almost all the leading players in the mobile market are expected to introduce their new phones with 5G connectivity. Most of these phones will also hit the European and US markets later this year. Some Apple fans are already looking to buy the 5G iPhone. For other countries, the rollout of 5G networks may be delayed by at least one year. But investing in a 5G phone right now wouldn't be a bad idea.

- Folding mobile phone.

Folding phones are no longer a concept, screen folding is already part of the features of mobile phones. Korean company Samsung introduced its first foldable phone late last year. It is expected to unveil the commercial version of the phone at its event on February 20, ahead of the MWC 2019 mobile expo.

Samsung is likely betting big on the new form factor, as it plans to release at least one million foldable phones this year. Considering that Russia is one of the priority markets, we can expect that foldable phones will also be released. Apart from Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo have plans to launch foldable phones this year.

- Artificial intelligence in phones, plus don’t forget about machine learning.

Google introduced the Android 9 Pie operating system last year. Android Pie features like Adaptive Display and Adaptive Brightness are powered by machine learning to help improve your Android phone experience. Going forward, artificial intelligence and machine learning will become an important part of updates to the Google Android platform. It may be worth making sure that your new phone will be compatible not only with Android 9 Pie, but also with the Android Q successor.

Besides Google, phone companies like Xiaomi and Asus are embedding artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) directly into system apps. The camera on premium phones, for example, uses AI and ML to automatically recognize scenes and automatically optimize settings. Most of the 2019 mobile phones will come with AI-enhanced cameras.

The only thing that remains a dream when buying is when the best mobile phones will have a full-fledged “3D phone” feature.

News added:

1) Samsung has released the latest version of Galaxy S10 and people believe that iPhone may lose its position as the king of smartphones.

The latest flagship smartphone Samsung Galaxy S10 was released by the company on February 20. On this day, Samsung presented many new products. The audience was really interested in the new phone demonstrated. So much so that they say that Apple's iPhone has a serious alternative. With the latest Galaxy S10 model, Samsung surprised and shocked fans, in a good way.

2) The attractive, powerful and incredibly expensive Huawei Mate X foldable 5G phone.

Following the announcement of the first folding smartphone Samsung Galaxy Fold, the Chinese company Huawei is betting on the folding screen form factor and announcing the release of Huawei Mate X, which also works with 5G communications. Developer Huawei is taking a completely different approach compared to Samsung, namely placing the smartphone's rollable display on the outside rather than on the inside, and this solution has a number of pros and cons when describing next-generation phones. The price of Huawei Mate X starts from 2299 Euro.

3) Will Apple release a foldable iPhone?

Some analysts believe that a foldable iPhone could be in the works from the Cupertino company. Then, if the new Apple smartphone comes with a folding screen, it has a chance to become the best among the already released foldable smartphones Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X.

Moom, from the developers of Many Tricks, has been bringing order to chaos since 2011, making managing windows in your operating system as easy as clicking a mouse button or using a keyboard shortcut. With Moom, you can easily move and scale windows to fit half screen, quarter screen, or fill the screen; Set custom sizes and positions, and save open window layouts for one-click positioning. Once you try Moom, you'll wonder how you ever used your Mac without it.

Software review: Moom is a program for moving and scaling windows in the Mac OS system.

So, Moom allows you to move and scale windows - using your mouse or keyboard - in predefined locations and sizes, or in full-screen mode. When using the program with a mouse, all you have to do is hover over the green resize button and the Moom interface will appear. When you are using the keyboard, click on the shortcut you defined and the Moom keyboard frame will appear, then you can move the windows around using the arrow keys and modifier keys.

Moom can be launched as a traditional app, as a menu bar app, or as a completely faceless background app.

Pop-up window placement.

Hover your mouse over the green button of any window and the Moom palette will pop up.

Quickly fill the screen or move and resize vertically or horizontally around the edges of the screen. Want quarter-size windows instead? By holding down the Option key, the palette presents four quarter-size corner options along with a "no resize center" option.

Resizing is not a problem.

It's actually drag and drop, using Moom's unique on-screen resizing grid.

Click the empty box below the pop-up palette, move your mouse pointer to where you want the window to be positioned, then click and drag to new dimensions.

Release the mouse button and the window will fill the outline you drew on the screen, it's not difficult at all.

Want to quickly move and scale windows in specific areas of the screen? Simply turn on Moom's edge and corner snapping feature.

Grab the window, drag it to an edge or corner, and release the mouse button. You can set the resize action for each location in Moom's settings.

Set the window set to the size and location you want, then save the layout. Restore the layout using the assigned hotkey or through the Moom menu.

This feature is especially useful if you're using a laptop with an external display; Moom can launch saved layouts when you add or remove displays.

No mouse required.

Don't worry, keyboard users. Moom isn't just for those who prefer to use a mouse. Enable keyboard controls and you can move, resize, center, use the on-screen grid and more - all without touching your mouse.

Additionally, each custom Moom command, continue reading, can be assigned a global keyboard shortcut or one that only works when the keyboard controller is on screen.

Countless custom commands.

Create and save frequently used Moom actions in a menu of custom commands, with additional separators and labels.

Moving, scaling, resizing, centering, even moving to other displays can all be done using custom commands. You can even create a sequence of commands tied to a single shortcut, simplifying complex moving and resizing operations.

But wait, there's more to moving and scaling windows on Mac OS with Moom.

Use Moom as a regular Dock-based app, as a menu bar icon, or as a completely invisible background app.

Custom commands are accessed using the Moom menu bar icon, the green button's pop-up palette, or keyboard shortcuts.

Use a small hex grid to resize the grid instead of a full screen virtual grid.

Move windows across displays, and use related commands to scale them to new sizes and locations as you move them.

You can display a keyboard cheat sheet that shows you what tasks you have assigned to which keys in keyboard mode.

Resizing windows to exact dimensions, ideal for testing how well windows fit into different sized windows.

Moom's developers have worked hard to achieve these goals, where great software should do its job efficiently, have a clear interface, and be enjoyable to use.

Summary:

Moom is a Mac OS app developed by Many Tricks that lets you quickly organize, resize, move, scale, and shape windows so you spend less time arranging windows and more time working with them.

Moom system requirements:

The program requires installation of the macOS 10.8 "Mountain Lion" operating system or later on your computer. You can try Moom for free.

Are you trying to download and choose the best file manager for Windows? There is good news, this is a portable XYplorer program, it is just a file manager for Windows and has such features as tabbed browsing, powerful file search (as an explorer, alternative), universal preview, customizable interface, optional dual panel and a large set unique ways to effectively automate frequently repeated tasks. This file manager for Windows computer, according to the developer Cologne Code Company, is fast, innovative, lightweight and portable. Read on for a review of the XYplorer program!

What is a file manager for Windows today.

Learn more about the functionality of the XYplorer file manager. So, there is an export of extended information about files of entire directories (or even directory trees) to CSV text files. Automatic column width adjustment. Customizable display formats for file size and date information. For each file and folder, the used (real) disk space is immediately displayed. Remembers the last folder and sort order. Browser-like history functionality. You can assign favorite folders. A large set of useful commands added to the standard file context menu, including "Copy to", "Move to", "Copy file name with path", "Copy file properties", "Rename multiple files". Icon extraction, multi-file timestamp and attribute label. Instantly display complete file/version information for each selected file. Instant preview of images, audio and video files (displaying detailed media information). Instantly view file contents for all files (ASCII and binary), including extracting text from binary files (fairly fast). Full support for Drag and Drop and mouse wheel.

XYplorer what is it for the user

XYplorer, as a two-panel file manager for Windows, was designed for heavy-duty work. The program is easy to install and easy to remove. Installing and running the program does not change your system or registry. Ease of use in that you can start working in the shortest possible time (the interface fully complies with file manager standards). The program is small, fast and convenient for the computer's RAM.

Portability:

XYplorer is a portable file manager. That is, it does not require any installation into the computer's operating system, stores all configuration data in the program data folder, and running it does not change your system or registry. Take it with you and you can run the program from a flash drive. Then file management is in your hands.

Working with tabs:

Tabs in the file manager make it easy to switch between folders. Drag them, hide them, lock them, name them, or place files on them. Tabs remember their configuration individually and across sessions. In addition, the user gets tabs and a dual panel.

Functionality:

XYplorer was designed to make the user's experience faster, according to the developer. Indeed, numerous usability improvements in an attractive interface help streamline your workflow and increase efficiency. Under these conditions, you can save a lot of time when working with files in Windows.

Scripts in the file manager for many tasks:

Yes, you can program this program. Individual solutions for individual tasks. No plugins are required, scripts are launched from the program folder. Even beginners can benefit from this feature as many ready-to-use scripts are available on the official file manager forum.

Speed ​​of the program:

Speed ​​has always been the main goal of XYplorer software development. The code is constantly optimized for performance, with zero tolerance for slowness. In addition, the file manager uses very little RAM in Windows; the executable file is small in size (only 7 MB) and loads on the system almost instantly.

Reliability:

Can I trust the XYplorer file manager? One thing is clear: the program works as intended by the developer and is expected to work; it seems that it is very difficult to put it into a crash state. Additionally, the developer states that any issues with the program are addressed immediately and are usually resolved within a few hours. It is worth adding that a large community closely monitors the development of the file manager and constantly tests frequently released beta versions.

Software customizability:

You can customize your file manager to look and behave the way you want. Customization ranges from fonts and colors to custom toolbar buttons and even file icons and program associations. And every part of XYplorer file manager is completely portable. Even dark mode.

Responsiveness of the XYplorer program developer:

System requirements for the program:

Since XYplorer is a portable file manager. File management does not require installation or modification of your operating system or registry. You can take the program with you and simply launch the file manager from a USB drive along with your personal configuration.

The XYplorer program works under 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft operating systems:

Windows Server 2003;
- Windows XP;
- Windows Vista;
- Windows Server 2008;
- Windows 7;
- Windows Server 2012;
- Windows 8;
- Windows 8.1;
- Windows Server 2016;
- Windows 10.

You can try the file manager for free, but remember that the demo version of XYplorer is fully functional only for 30 days after installation on your computer!

A fast program for downloading videos from the Internet for Mac: Downie will save video content once or according to a list and a customizable “alarm clock”.

A program for downloading videos from Internet sites - Downie is currently supported by more than 1,000 different sites (including Facebook, Vimeo, the legendary YouTube, Lynda, Youku, Daily Haha, MTV, iView, South Park Studios, Bloomberg, Kickstarter, NBC News, CollegeHumor , MetaCafe, as well as Bilibili and other sites with videos). Plus, the list of sites from which the program can download videos is growing rapidly.

Downie program features:

Support for downloading 4K YouTube videos - Unlike many other YouTube video downloaders, Downie supports HD YouTube videos, up to 4K format.

Frequent updates - you don’t have to wait long for new sites to be added from where you can download videos or errors are corrected. Downie is updated approximately once a week with new features, supported sites, and more.

International approach - Downie downloader not only supports specific sites created for a specific country, the program is also localized into different languages. If your language is not on the list of supported languages, just contact the developer, Charlie Monroe Software, and discuss the issue.

New features in Downie:

Redesign of the program's user interface - the downloader's user interface has been redesigned from scratch. According to the developer, the interface has become faster, more convenient and visually pleasing.

Menu bar icon - you can manage downloads from the menu bar, without having to be distracted from your current work.

Improved HLS support - the program developer claims that HLS streams load four times faster.

DASH support - DASH streams are now supported.

Major post-processing improvements - Post-processing of some uploads can take just seconds instead of minutes thanks to Downie, a shortcut to analyze video before converting it.

Simple Mode - If you prefer to keep the user interface as simple as possible, there's an Easy mode for you.

Grouping video files based on the site from which the download was made and the playlist - all downloads can now be sorted into folders depending on where you downloaded them from or what playlist they are from.

Delayed queue start is a function for scheduling downloads for the required time (for example, you can schedule a video download for the middle of the night) so as not to overload the Internet channel for the whole family.

User-controlled pop-up support - The program now additionally supports pop-up windows, so you can log into sites that open the login window in a separate window.

Simple tips for using Downie:

If you have a large list of links or many links within some text, simply drag it all onto Downie - the downloader will scan the text for links to video content.

You can also use copy and paste - just press Command-O in Downie and you can paste a lot of links.

Fast user support:

The developer of the video download program usually responds to emails within 24 hours and quite often adds support for the requested sites in the program in its next update.

A few words from the program developer:

Charlie Monroe, General Manager, Developer and Customer Support:

"My goal is to release the best applications and provide the best support."

Downie Compatibility:

Anyone who is thinking about downloading the Downie program for Mac. You should be aware that to work with the program, you need a computer with the operating system macOS 10.11 or later.

Breaking software news: VideoSolo DVD Creator for converting and recording video, with wide functionality for the user.

So, with VideoSolo DVD Creator, burn almost any video to DVD and even Blu-ray discs easily and quickly, with excellent flexibility of settings (you can record video, edit video, add audio, edit DVD menu).

It is possible to download online videos for burning DVDs or Blu-Ray discs.

Need to solve the problem of how to download videos from online sites? For example, from sites such as YouTube, Facebook, MTV, Vimeo, Yahoo, Dailymotion, TED, Vevo, Niconico, AOL, Worldstar Hip Hop, Youku, CBS, ESPN and others. With this program, home movies or videos, after downloading from an online site, can still be burned to DVD or Blu-ray.

The program allows you, in a few simple steps, to download 3D videos, high-definition videos (4K, 1080p and 720p resolutions) and music for any player.

Styling your DVD with the right menu.

The flexible VideoSolo DVD Creator program offers many diverse and incredible templates to edit DVD disc menus for you. Already available design themes such as holiday, family, wedding and more. After choosing the menu template you like, you can edit the DVD menu text and define its font, size, color. Creating a DVD menu is quite convenient.

Moreover, you can separately set background music, background picture and opening movie with your music, picture and video file.

Setting up DVD subtitles and audio tracks.

Need to change or create subtitles or audio tracks on your DVD? DVD Creator allows the user to customize the subtitles and audio track. That is, you can add subtitles and audio tracks to your DVD manually. Supported subtitle file formats are SSA, SRT, and ASS.

For audio files, this program supports almost all popular audio formats, so it is easy to import them into the program. With the DVD Creator utility, you can edit the audio volume and adjust the position of subtitles to get a personalized DVD file.

Video editing and live preview.

This DVD burning tool is designed with a powerful video editing feature that allows professionals and beginners alike to create professional-looking DVDs. Which allows you to adjust video effects such as brightness, saturation, hue, volume and contrast.

VideoSolo DVD Creator also supports the ability to trim video length, cut video, change aspect ratio, set position and transparency, and add text or image watermark to video.

The DVD Creator software user can view the DVD video at a convenient time before recording to make sure that everything is created as it should.

Video review of the VideoSolo DVD Creator program: User Guide.

On October 10, Apple's personal assistant and other similar programs received a serious competitor. In Russia, the development of Yandex was officially launched, which was named Alice.

The editors of Pobeda26 tested the knowledge of two popular voice programs in the field of regional studies, assessed their reaction speed and sense of humor. As a result, we concluded for ourselves which of the assistants was more talkative and smarter.

Blitz survey

First, we asked where Stavropol is located, when it was founded, how many people live in the city, the name of the longest street and how many museums there are in the regional capital.

Out of five questions, Alice immediately gave two accurate answers. In two more cases, I went to the search engine, and misunderstood one request.

Siri was less verbose and just threw us a list of links.

The two programs were puzzled by the question about the longest street. With one voice they tried to tell us about some salon on Mira Street. The answer was not counted.

Most likely, the programs simply could not correctly recognize the request. By the way, according to Yandex statistics, the accuracy of speech recognition for queries on general topics is 84 percent, and for queries by address and name of an object - 94 percent.

About the weather, transport, entertainment

In general, developments of this kind should help owners solve everyday problems. Well. We ask our assistants the same question: “What should I wear today?” and wait to see if their answer matches the weather outside the window.

Of course, Siri and Alice couldn’t rummage through our closet and put together a suitable set, but at least they showed us the weather forecast. And the iPhone development coped with this task the first time. Although talkative Alice advised to wear “something that emphasizes your individuality.”

The following situation. Let's say you need to get from Tukhachevsky Street to Marshal Zhukov Avenue. What if there was an accident somewhere or a traffic light broke? Let's see how the assistants calculate the route and how useful it will be.

Here Alice had the advantage. She talked about the minutes of the journey and showed a map with traffic jams.

Siri failed this task. The assistant showed a list of fast food restaurants.

Are you bored? Let's ask our assistants what you can do in Stavropol.

None of the assistants gave an exact answer to this request. Alisa sent a list of links to Yandex. By looking through it, of course, you can find a poster.

They also didn't say where the dance would be tonight. But the Russian development was again translated into a search engine, and its rival “could not find any dance clubs.”

But with Siri you definitely won't go hungry. All you had to do was say “I’m hungry” - and the program instantly threw up a list of nearby restaurants.

For coffee lovers, our domestic assistant also suggested only one establishment with invigorating drinks. But for some reason Siri couldn’t cope with the task and offered to call a taxi.

When asking the question “What is interesting in cinemas now?”, we expected to see a Stavropol poster. But two programs gave a list of not the most informative links. When clarifying the location, the assistants show more accurate answers.

Siri is a personal voice assistant with artificial intelligence, present on all modern Apple devices. Initially, Siri was a separate application that users of Apple devices could download from the AppStore. In 2011, Apple acquired Siri, and the mobile application ceased to exist. The voice assistant first appeared on the iPhone 4S - as a component of the basic software.

Before the release of the iPhone 4S, Apple developers presented Siri as a revolutionary technology. However, domestic fans of the Apple brand were disappointed by the new feature - Siri simply couldn't speak Russian. The function supported only a few languages ​​- French, German, Japanese and English in various variations (USA, UK, Australia, Canada).

Domestic users began to hope that Siri would soon receive support for the Russian language after the release of the beta version of iOS 7. The voice assistant was taught to read names written in Cyrillic. Siri was able to pronounce them in Russian quite ridiculously, but previously the program had not even tried to do this.

With the advent of iOS version 8.3, Siri finally officially mastered the Russian language, and besides it several more - for example, Malay, Portuguese, Turkish, Thai. However, domestic users were still dissatisfied - due to the peculiarities and versatility of the Russian language, the program did not work correctly.

Siri became truly suitable for daily use only with the release of iOS 9. The updated assistant turned out to be smarter: it began to understand complex requests and process them much faster (according to the manufacturer - by 40%). iOS 9 was released on June 8, 2015 - from that day on, Russian users stopped looking at Siri as a funny but useless toy.

The quality of Siri depends not only on the version of the operating system, but also on the modification of the iPhone. You can fully use Siri on iPhone 6th generation and newer models. The problem with previous models is that they are not able to filter out extraneous noise effectively enough.

What can Siri do?

You can find out about the capabilities of the Siri intelligent assistant by simply asking him about it. It is enough to ask the question: “ Siri, what can you do?» - and a list of all the main functions and capabilities of the program will appear on the screen.

If a user asks Siri to perform an operation that it doesn't understand, the program will respond that it doesn't understand (as in the image on the right). However, such situations are rare: the functionality of modern Siri is quite wide. What tasks can this program perform?

Route planning. Launching the navigator and manually entering the address into the line can take a lot of time. It’s much easier to activate Siri and ask her to get directions to the desired point. You can create a query like this: “ Siri, how to get to Lenina Street, 56?».

The iPhone's built-in navigation is often criticized, but it's not that bad at all. Thanks to its capabilities, Siri can not only show how to get to an address by the shortest route, but also answer how long the journey will take.

Creating an alarm. The user needs to tell Siri what time he should wake up in the morning, and the program will set the alarm itself. You can set not only a specific hour and minute, but also a time period. For example, if the user uses the request “ Siri, wake me up in 30 minutes", the program itself will count down half an hour, starting from the current time.

Calendar planning. This Siri feature is worth its weight in gold for business people. Thanks to the intelligent assistant, an iPhone user can schedule a telephone conversation with a business partner, schedule or cancel a previously scheduled meeting, adjust the meeting time - all without directly accessing the built-in Calendar application. Siri doesn't just blindly record the plans of the iPhone owner - if, say, a telephone conversation and an appointment coincide in time, the virtual assistant will definitely inform the user about this.

Sending messages. Writing an SMS message or email using tiny buttons on the on-screen keyboard is not very convenient - especially when T9 tries to slip in a word that is ridiculous and completely inappropriate in context. Dictating a text message is a completely different matter. A user who tries to do this for the first time will probably be surprised at how well Siri recognizes Russian speech.

Apple's smart assistant has other features that are less useful, but very fun:

• Coin. What to do if you need to resolve a dispute using lots, but your pocket is full of bills? It’s clear - ask Siri to throw a coin. Of course, money won’t start pouring out of the iPhone – the virtual assistant will simply tell you What It came up: heads or tails.
• Title. An iPhone user can tell Siri to call himself “Great Emperor” or “Lord of the Galaxy” - and the assistant obeys. This function is useful only for those who have delusions of grandeur - for the rest it will simply lift their spirits.

How to use Siri?

There are 2 ways to enable Siri. The first way is to press the " Home"and hold it until a blue screen appears and Siri asks how she can help (" What can I help you with?»).

The second method is voice activation: the user can simply say “ Hey Siri!", and the virtual assistant will immediately start working. To launch Siri in the second way, you need to go to the settings of the virtual assistant and activate the corresponding slider.

On iPhone 6S and newer models, you can activate Siri with your voice at any time. On iPhone 6 and less modern devices, enable the virtual assistant with the command “Hey Siri!” This will only work if the mobile device is charging.

After the program starts and a sound recording line appears on the screen (as in voice recorders), you need to dictate a command or question. For example, we will ask Siri, “ What is 120 by 80?- obviously, if she is a robot, she must count faster than a person. The virtual assistant processes the user's voice command and translates it into text that appears on the iPhone screen.

Siri uses built-in iPhone applications to perform trivial operations. If the user wants information that Siri is unable to provide (for example, " How many years do cats live?"), the program will redirect it to the global network.

By default, the virtual assistant uses the Bing search engine. If the user wants to access another system, he should clarify this point - say, say, “ Find on Google how many years cats live" Then Siri will launch the Safari browser and independently enter a query into the search bar.

What's remarkable is that Siri is capable of learning. If a user “chat” with a virtual assistant for 1.5-2 hours, he will certainly notice that the program has begun to understand him better and fulfill his requirements faster. Siri needs time to adapt to the pronunciation of a particular user.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that Siri is already quite effective and is capable of performing many useful actions based on voice requests, Apple’s virtual assistant has some room for improvement. Recent studies have shown that Siri, although better at recognizing accented speech than Amazon's Alexa, is outright inferior in this criterion to Google's assistant called Google Home.

Apple is not going to stop improving its intelligent assistant - Siri regularly gains new skills. For example, on iOS 10, the assistant can order pizza to the user's home and make money transfers through the Square Cash service.

Voice assistant "Alice" appeared in the Yandex application. Owners of modern smartphones can use it. How "Alice" differs from Siri and how to communicate with this virtual assistant - in the "Question and Answer" section.

"Alice" in the pleasant female voice of Tatyana Shitova (duplicates Scarlett Johansson in Russian box office) will tell you how to get to the desired point, give the weather forecast, you can even have a heart-to-heart talk with her. She can work with Yandex applications such as music, weather, maps. In the future, “Alice” will have access to other services and will be able, for example, to recommend a movie or call a taxi.

In the future, other companies will be able to provide Alice with access to their services. She can launch third-party applications (for example, VKontakte or Instagram) now.

Yandex notes that the neural network allows Alice to recognize and process incomplete phrases and questions, take into account the context and speak with different intonations. When developing the assistant, special attention was paid to the ability to understand “real human speech, and not just perfectly spoken requests.”

How to communicate with “Alice”?

To start communicating with this smart “girl,” you will need to install the Yandex application on your phone. This can be done on Android and iOS mobile operating systems.

For personal computers running the Windows operating system, the service will continue to operate in beta version. Then ask your questions.

How is this app different from Siri?

Communication with Siri is available only to iPhone owners; the owner of any smartphone can communicate with “Alice”. You won’t be able to call an assistant with one phrase, like Siri, on a mobile phone. First you need to launch the search engine itself.

The Yandex press service emphasized that their voice assistant can go beyond the prescribed scripts and improvise; Siri has all the answers written in advance. In fact, one can doubt the correctness of this statement, since “Alice” still answered one question in completely different formulations in a formulaic way, but definitely with humor.

SpeechKit speech technologies are the basis for recognizing someone else's speech and synthesizing Alice's own voice.

But, for example, Alice is not capable of calling an ambulance, unlike Siri. She won't be able to set an alarm clock either. In this case, the iPhone owner just needs to tell Siri what time he should wake up in the morning, and the program will set the alarm itself. You can set not only a specific hour and minute, but also a time period. For example, if the user uses the request “Siri, wake me up in 30 minutes,” the program itself will count half an hour based on the current time.

You can add to Alice's benefits its integration with the company's services, including its own search, while Apple does not have its own search. But the search doesn’t always show up what’s near you. Instead of the movie schedule in Barnaul, “Alice” suggested watching a movie in Novosibirsk.