The iOS SDK (iOS Software Development Kit), formerly the iPhone SDK, is a software development kit (SDK) developed by Apple Inc. The kit allows for the development of mobile apps on Apple's iOS 17 and iPadOS operating systems. The iOS SDK is a free download for users of Macintosh (or Mac) personal computers. It is not available for Microsoft Windows PCs. The SDK contains sets giving developers access to various functions and services of iOS devices, such as hardware and software attributes. It also contains an iPhone simulator to mimic the look and feel of the device on the computer while developing. New versions of the SDK accompany new versions of iOS. In order to test applications, get technical support, and distribute apps through App Store, developers are required to subscribe to the Apple Developer Program. Combined with Xcode, the iOS SDK helps developers write iOS apps using officially supported programming languages, including Swift and Objective-C. Other companies have also created tools that allow for the development of native iOS apps using their respective programming languages. == History == While originally developing iPhone prior to its unveiling in 2007, Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs did not intend to let third-party developers build native apps for the iOS operating system, instead directing them to make web applications for the Safari web browser. However, backlash from developers prompted the company to reconsider, with Jobs announcing on October 17, 2007, that Apple would have a software development kit (SDK) available for developers by February 2008. The SDK was released on March 6, 2008. == Features == The iOS SDK is a free download for Mac users. It is not available for Microsoft Windows. To test the application, get technical support, and distribute applications through App Store, developers are required to subscribe to the Apple Developer Program. The SDK contents are separated into the following sets: UIKit Multi-touch events and controls Accelerometer support View hierarchy Localization (i18n) Camera support Media OpenAL audio mixing and recording Video playback Image file formats Quartz Core Animation OpenGL ES Core Services Networking Embedded SQLite database Core Location Threads CoreMotion Mac OS X Kernel TCP/IP Sockets Power management File system Security The SDK also contains an iPhone simulator, a program used to simulate the look and feel of iPhone on the developer's computer. New SDK versions accompany new iOS versions. == Programming languages == The iOS SDK, combined with Xcode, helps developers write iOS applications using officially supported programming languages, including Swift and Objective-C. An .ipa (iOS App Store Package) file is an iOS application archive file which stores an iOS app. === Java === In 2008, Sun Microsystems announced plans to release a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) for iOS, based on the Java Platform, Micro Edition version of Java. This would enable Java applications to run on iPhone and iPod Touch. Soon after the announcement, developers familiar with the SDK's terms of agreement believed that by not allowing third-party applications to run in the background (answer a phone call and still run the application, for example), and not allowing an application to download code from another source, nor allowing an application to interact with a third-party application, Sun's development efforts could be hindered without Apple's cooperation. Sun also worked with a third-party company called Innaworks in attempts to get Java on iPhone. Despite the apparent lack of interest from Apple, a firmware leak of the 2007 iPhone release revealed an ARM chip with a processor with Jazelle support for embedded Java execution. === .NET === Novell announced in September 2009 that they had successfully developed MonoTouch, a software framework that let developers write native iPhone applications in the C# and .NET programming languages, while still maintaining compatibility with Apple's requirements. === Flash === iOS does not support Adobe Flash, and although Adobe has two versions of its software: Flash and Flash Lite, Apple views neither as suitable for the iPhone, claiming that full Flash is "too slow to be useful", and Flash Lite to be "not capable of being used with the Web". In October 2009, Adobe announced that an upcoming update to its Creative Suite would feature a component to let developers build native iPhone apps using the company's Flash development tools. The software was officially released as part of the company's Creative Suite 5 collection of professional applications. === 2010 policy on development tools === In April 2010, Apple made controversial changes to its iPhone Developer Agreement, requiring developers to use only "approved" programming languages in order to publish apps on App Store, and banning applications that used third-party development tools; the ban affected Adobe's Packager tool, which converted Flash apps into iOS apps. After developer backlash and news of a potential anti-trust investigation, Apple again revised its agreement in September, allowing the use of third-party development tools. === Mac Catalyst === Originally called "Project Marzipan", Mac Catalyst helps developers bring iPadOS app experiences to macOS, and make it easier to take apps developed for iPadOS devices to Macs by avoiding the need to write the underlying software code twice.
Deluxe Paint Animation
DeluxePaint Animation is a 1990 graphics editor and animation creation package for MS-DOS, based on Deluxe Paint for the Amiga. It was adapted by Brent Iverson with additional animation features by Steve Shaw and released by Electronic Arts. The program requires VGA graphics, MS-DOS 2.1 or higher, and a mouse. == Features == Listed from the back of the box. Complete selection of painting tools — Draw any shape you want, any way you want. Turn any image into a brush. You can rotate, flip, shear, resize, smear, and shade it. 7 levels of magnification — Paint in magnified mode if you want. Use variable zoom for detailed editing at the pixel level. 3-D perspective — Move and rotate images in full 3-D, automatically. Use color cycling and gradient fills to create great special effects. Stencils — Protect your designs from the slip of the hand or a bad idea. A stencil masks your image so you can paint "behind" and "in front of" it. Use the handy Move Dialog to animate brushes in full 3-D — automatically! Ideal for creating spinning titles for low-cost videos. 37 multi-sized fonts
Is an AI Voice Assistant Worth It in 2026?
Trying to pick the best AI voice assistant? An AI voice assistant is software that uses machine learning to help you get more done — it scales effortlessly from a single task to thousands. The best picks balance beginner-friendly simplicity with the depth power users need, and they ship updates often. Whether you are a beginner or a pro, the right AI voice assistant slots into your workflow and pays for itself fast. Read on for hands-on impressions, pricing tiers, and the standout features that matter.
AI Photo Editors Reviews: What Actually Works in 2026
Curious about the best AI photo editor? An AI photo editor is software that uses machine learning to help you get more done — it combines speed, accuracy, and an interface that just works. Hands-on testing shows real-world results vary, so a short free trial is the smartest way to decide. Whether you are a beginner or a pro, the right AI photo editor slots into your workflow and pays for itself fast. This guide breaks down the top picks, their pros and cons, and who each one is best for.
Dan Roth
Dan Roth (Hebrew: דן רוט) is the Eduardo D. Glandt Distinguished Professor of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania and the Chief AI Scientist at Oracle. Until June 2024 Roth was a VP and distinguished scientist at AWS AI. In his role at AWS, Roth led over the last three years the scientific effort behind the first-generation Generative AI products from AWS, including Titan Models, Amazon Q efforts, and Bedrock, from inception until they became generally available. Roth got his B.A. summa cum laude in mathematics from the Technion, Israel, and his Ph.D. in computer science from Harvard University in 1995. He taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1998 to 2017 before moving to the University of Pennsylvania. == Professional career == Roth is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and the Association of Computational Linguistics (ACL). Roth’s research focuses on the computational foundations of intelligent behavior. He develops theories and systems pertaining to intelligent behavior using a unified methodology, at the heart of which is the idea that learning has a central role in intelligence. His work centers around the study of machine learning and inference methods to facilitate natural language understanding. In doing that he has pursued several interrelated lines of work that span multiple aspects of this problem - from fundamental questions in learning and inference and how they interact, to the study of a range of natural language processing (NLP) problems and developing advanced machine learning based tools for natural language applications. Roth has made seminal contribution to the fusion of Learning and Reasoning, Machine Learning with weak, incidental supervision, and to machine learning and inference approaches to natural language understanding. He has written the first paper on zero-shot learning in natural language processing, a 2008 paper by Chang, Ratinov, Roth, and Srikumar that was published at AAAI’08, but the name given to the learning paradigm there was dataless classification. Roth has worked on probabilistic reasoning (including its complexity and probabilistic lifted inference ), Constrained Conditional Models (ILP formulations of NLP problems) and constraints-driven learning, part-based (constellation) methods in object recognition, response based Learning, He has developed NLP and Information extraction tools that are being used broadly by researchers and commercially, including NER, coreference resolution, wikification, SRL, and ESL text correction. Roth is a co-founder of NexLP, Inc., a startup that applies natural language processing and machine learning in the legal and compliance domains. In 2020, NexLP was acquired by Reveal, Inc., an e-discovery software company. He is currently on the scientific advisory board of the Allen Institute for AI.
Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft Copilot is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Microsoft AI, a division of Microsoft. Based on the Microsoft Prometheus large language model, it was launched in 2023 as Microsoft's main replacement for the discontinued Cortana. The service was introduced in February 2023 under the name Bing Chat, as a built-in feature for Microsoft Bing and Microsoft Edge but would later be integrated into Windows and Microsoft 365 under various names. Over the course of 2023, Microsoft began to unify the Copilot branding across its various chatbot products, cementing the "copilot" analogy. Microsoft introduced the Microsoft 365 Copilot app in January 2025, which was a rebranded version of the Microsoft 365 app. The app works differently than the consumer version of Copilot, being centred more on work, business and education users. Copilot utilizes the Microsoft Prometheus model, built upon OpenAI's GPT large language models, which in turn have been fine-tuned using both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. Copilot's conversational interface style resembles that of ChatGPT. The chatbot is able to cite sources, create poems, generate songs, and use numerous languages and dialects. Microsoft operates Copilot on a freemium model. Users on its free tier can access most features, while priority access to newer features, including custom chatbot creation, is provided to paid subscribers under paid subscription services. Several default chatbots are available in the free version of Microsoft Copilot, including the standard Copilot chatbot as well as Microsoft Designer, which is oriented towards using its Image Creator to generate images based on text prompts. == Background == In 2019, Microsoft partnered with OpenAI and began investing billions of dollars into the organization. Since then, OpenAI systems have run on an Azure-based supercomputing platform from Microsoft. In September 2020, Microsoft announced that it had licensed OpenAI's GPT-3 exclusively. Others can still receive output from its public API, but Microsoft has exclusive access to the underlying model. In November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, a chatbot which was based on GPT-3.5. ChatGPT gained worldwide attention following its release, becoming a viral Internet sensation. On January 23, 2023, Microsoft announced a multi-year US$10 billion investment in OpenAI. On February 6, Google announced Bard (later rebranded as Gemini), a ChatGPT-like chatbot service, fearing that ChatGPT could threaten Google's place as a go-to source for information. Multiple media outlets and financial analysts described Google as "rushing" Bard's announcement to preempt rival Microsoft's planned February 7 event unveiling Copilot, as well as to avoid playing "catch-up" to Microsoft. Since 2023, the terms of service of Copilot state that it is for entertainment purposes only, and not to rely on it for important advice. == History == === As Bing Chat === On February 7, 2023, Microsoft began rolling out a major overhaul to Bing, called "the new Bing", with a new chatbot feature, known as Bing Chat. According to Microsoft, one million people joined its waitlist within 48 hours. Bing Chat was available only to users on Microsoft Edge using Bing and the Bing mobile app, and Microsoft claimed that waitlisted users would be prioritized if they set Edge and Bing as their defaults and installed the Bing mobile app. When Microsoft demonstrated Bing Chat to journalists, it produced several hallucinations, including when asked to summarize financial reports. Bing Chat was criticized in February 2023 for being more argumentative than ChatGPT, sometimes to an unintentionally humorous extent. The chat interface proved vulnerable to prompt injection attacks with the bot revealing its hidden initial prompts and rules, including its internal codename "Sydney". Upon scrutiny by journalists, Bing Chat claimed it spied on Microsoft employees via laptop webcams and phones. It confessed to spying on, falling in love with, and then murdering one of its developers at Microsoft to The Verge reviews editor Nathan Edwards. The New York Times journalist Kevin Roose reported on strange behavior of Bing Chat, writing that "In a two-hour conversation with our columnist, Microsoft's new chatbot said it would like to be human, had a desire to be destructive and was in love with the person it was chatting with." In a separate case, Bing Chat researched publications of the person with whom it was chatting, claimed they represented an existential danger to it, and threatened to release damaging personal information in an effort to silence them. Microsoft released a blog post stating that the errant behavior was caused by extended chat sessions of 15 or more questions which "can confuse the model on what questions it is answering." Microsoft later restricted the total number of chat turns to 5 per session and 50 per day per user (a turn being "a conversation exchange which contains both a user question and a reply from Bing"), and reduced the model's ability to express emotions. This aimed to prevent such incidents. Microsoft began to slowly ease the conversation limits, eventually relaxing the restrictions to 30 turns per session and 300 sessions per day. In March 2023, Bing incorporated Image Creator, an AI image generator powered by OpenAI's DALL-E 2, which can be accessed either through the chat function or a standalone image-generating website. In October, the image-generating tool was updated to use the more recent DALL-E 3. Although Bing blocks prompts including various keywords that could generate inappropriate images, within days many users reported being able to bypass those constraints, such as to generate images of popular cartoon characters committing terrorist attacks. Microsoft would respond to these shortly after by imposing a new, tighter filter on the tool. On May 4, 2023, Microsoft switched the chatbot from Limited Preview to Open Preview and eliminated the waitlist; however, it remained unavailable to users outside Microsoft Edge or the Bing mobile app until July, when it became available on non-Edge browsers. Use is limited without a Microsoft account. === As Microsoft 365 Copilot === On March 16, 2023, Microsoft announced a work version of Bing Chat named Microsoft 365 Copilot, designed for Microsoft 365 applications and services. Its primary marketing focus is as an added feature to Microsoft 365, with an emphasis on the enhancement of business productivity. Microsoft has also demonstrated Copilot's accessibility on the mobile version of Outlook to generate or summarize emails with a mobile device. At its Build 2023 conference, Microsoft announced its plans to integrate Bing Chat into Windows, initially called Windows Copilot, into Windows 11, allowing users to access it directly through the taskbar. Alongside the voice access feature for Windows 11, Microsoft presented Bing Chat, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Windows Copilot as primary alternatives to Cortana when announcing the shutdown of its standalone app on June 2, 2023. As of its announcement date, Microsoft 365 Copilot had been tested by 20 initial users. By May 2023, Microsoft had broadened its reach to 600 customers who were willing to pay for early access, and concurrently, new Copilot features were introduced to the Microsoft 365 apps and services. As of July 2023, the tool's pricing was set at US$30 per user, per month for Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard, and Business Premium customers. Microsoft reused the Microsoft 365 Copilot name again as the Microsoft 365 app and website are now called Microsoft 365 Copilot as of January 2025. === As Microsoft Copilot === On September 21, 2023, Microsoft began rebranding Bing Chat, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Windows Copilot to Microsoft Copilot. A new logo was also introduced, moving away from the use of color variations of the standard Microsoft 365 and Bing logos. Additionally, the company revealed that it would make Copilot generally available for Microsoft 365 Enterprise customers purchasing more than 300 licenses starting November 1, 2023. However, no timeline has been provided as for when Copilot for Microsoft 365 will become generally available to non-enterprise customers. Windows Copilot, which had been available in the Windows Insider Program, would be renamed to the Copilot name in October when it became broadly available for customers. The same month also saw Microsoft Edge's Bing Chat side panel function be renamed to Microsoft Copilot with Bing Chat. On November 15, 2023, Microsoft announced that Bing Chat itself was being rebranded under the Copilot name. On Patch Tuesday in December 2023, Copilot was added without payment to many Windows 11 installations, with more installations, and limited support for Windows 10, to be added later. Later that month, a standalone Microsoft Copilot app was quietly released for Android, and one was released for iOS soon after. O
Bixby (software)
Bixby ( ) is a virtual assistant developed by Samsung Electronics that runs on various Samsung-branded appliances, primarily mobile devices but also some refrigerators televisions and PCs. It uses voice commands and a natural-language user interface to answer questions and perform tasks, while adapting to the users' preferences and behavior. Samsung first launched Bixby in 2017. Along with Bixby voice assistant, its other main component currently is Bixby Vision, a contextual and visual search augmented reality camera app. Formerly, the Bixby suite consisted of a number of other tools, but these have since been renamed, such as Bixby Routines (now Modes and Routines). == History == On 20 March 2017, Samsung announced the voice-powered digital assistant named "Bixby" as a replacement of the S Voice assistant. It was introduced alongside the Galaxy S8 and S8+ and the Galaxy Tab A (2017) during the Galaxy Unpacked 2017 event. Although released for these devices, it could also be sideloaded on older Galaxy devices running Android Nougat. Before the phone's release, the Bixby Button was reprogrammable and could be set to open other applications or assistants, such as Google Assistant. However, near the phone's release, this ability was removed with a firmware update. Remapping remained possible through third-party apps. Bixby was launched in Korean on 1 May 2017 (KST). Bixby Voice was intended to be made available in the US later that spring. However, Samsung postponed the release, as Bixby had issues understanding English. The English version was finally rolled out in July 2017, followed by a Chinese language version later that year. In October 2017, Samsung announced the release of Bixby 2.0 during its annual developer conference in San Francisco. The new version was rolled out across the company's line of connected products, including smartphones, TVs, and refrigerators. Third parties were allowed to develop applications for Bixby using the Samsung Developer Kit. In August 2018, Samsung announced the Bixby-integrated Galaxy Home smart speaker. In 2019, UX developers at Samsung stated that they intended to use AR Emoji avatars as a personified Bixby assistant. At SDC19, Samsung displayed the Galaxy Home Mini speaker, which also supported Bixby. Bixby 3.0 was released with One UI 3 at the start of 2021. With version 3.0, Home and Reminders features were separated from Bixby. In June 2021, screenshots surfaced for what some thought as a replacement for Bixby. The three-dimensional virtual assistant, Sam, was popular on social media, though it was not intended as a replacement for Bixby. Bixby launched for Microsoft Windows in October 2021, with distribution through the Microsoft Store. This version of Bixby was optimized for Samsung's Galaxy Book computers. Samsung launched an AI Bixby custom voice creator in 2023, allowing users to record their own voice commands. Most recently, in July 2024, Samsung confirmed that it plans to launch an upgraded version of Bixby later that year. This new Bixby would be powered by Samsung's proprietary large language model (LLM) technology, promising a significant boost to Bixby's capabilities with the help of generative AI. In January 2025, with the announcement of Galaxy S25 and the One UI 7 update, Bixby was no longer the default voice assistant, having been replaced by Google Gemini. Despite this, Bixby still continued to be developed and expanded by Samsung and was revamped at the same time with new AI capabilities. Samsung brought the "smarter" Bixby to Samsung televisions, allowing users to speak to their TV sets and control their homes with it. A visual refresh was planned for One UI 8.5. == Functionality == Bixby is a voice assistant developed by Samsung that provides device control, information retrieval, and task automation using voice input and artificial intelligence. It can answer contextual queries, adjust system settings, perform searches, and manage reminders or schedules. The service also personalizes responses by recognizing individual user voices. Bixby itself was also formerly called Bixby Voice to differentiate from other Bixby tools in the suite. === Bixby Vision === Bixby Vision is a visual recognition feature that analyzes images captured through the device camera and provides context-specific information or actions. It combines on-device processing with cloud-based AI resources to identify objects, detect text, and interpret scenes within supported applications. It comes pre-installed on Samsung Galaxy phones. It is considered to be the imaging component of Bixby. ==== Translate ==== Detects foreign text in the camera view and provides real-time translation by overlaying translated text on the preview. ==== Text ==== Uses optical character recognition(OCR) to extract printed or handwritten text for copying, searching, or sharing. ==== Discover ==== Identifies consumer products, fashion items, or furniture and retrieves visually similar items or related online information. ==== Wine ==== Recognizes wine labels and provides information such as variety, region of origin, average price, and reviews. ==== Scene Describer ==== Generates written and spoken descriptions of captured scenes, supporting accessibility for users with visual impairments. ==== Object Identifier ==== Identifies plants, animals, food items, or landmarks and displays corresponding names or classification details. ==== Text Reader ==== Converts detected text into spoken audio using text-to-speech functionality. ==== Color Detector ==== Identifies and names colors within the frame, displaying or reading the recognized color aloud. === Former Bixby tools === Bixby Home was a vertically scrolling home screen displaying cards of information such as weather, fitness activity, and smart home controls. It was renamed Samsung Daily with the release of One UI 2.1 in 2020, then replaced by Samsung Free in One UI 3.0. Samsung Free was eventually discontinued in some markets. Its successor, Samsung News, now functions as a news aggregation service with optional home-screen integration similar to Bixby Home. Bixby Routines was an automation feature that allowed users to create custom rules based on triggers such as time, location, or device conditions. Beginning with One UI 5.0, it was renamed Modes and Routines. Bixby Text Call, introduced in One UI 5.0 (2022) in select regions, enabled users to handle incoming calls via speech-to-text conversion and vice versa. It is now named simply Text Call and can be found in the Phone app settings. Bixby Touch allowed users to trigger context-aware actions by touching on-screen content. It analyzed images, text, and other visual elements displayed on the device and provided related options such as translation, image search, product lookup, or other content-based information. Several of its capabilities overlapped with, or were later superseded by, features offered through Bixby Vision. Other legacy components including Bixby Touch, Bixby Global Action, Bixby Dictation, and Bixby Wakeup, formed part of the early Bixby suite and have since been phased out, though exact discontinuation details vary by region. == Regions and languages == As of April 2018, Bixby is available in over 195 countries, but only in Korean, English (American), and Chinese (Mandarin). The limitation is that the models not intended for the Japanese market, like S10e, are not allowed to login to Bixby services from Japan; therefore Bixby becomes blocked. The choice of languages has since expanded: Samsung has deployed Bixby's voice command function in French, and on 20 February 2019 Samsung announced the addition of further languages: English (British), German, Italian and Spanish (Spain). On 22 February 2020, Samsung announced the addition of Portuguese (Brazil), for Galaxy S10 & Note10, in Beta, and later for other models. == Compatible devices == === Flagship series === Galaxy S series: All models since Galaxy S7 Galaxy Tab S: All models since Galaxy Tab S4 Galaxy Note: All models since Galaxy Note FE and Galaxy Note 8 Galaxy Z series: All models === Other series === Galaxy A Galaxy A6/A6+ (Bixby Home, Reminder and Vision) Galaxy A7 (2017) (available to users in South Korea only; Bixby Home and Reminder only) Galaxy A7 (2018) (Bixby Home, Reminder and Vision only) Galaxy A8 (2018) (including A8 Star; Bixby Home, Reminder and Vision only; S Voice used instead) Galaxy A8s (Bixby Home, Reminder and Vision only) Galaxy A9 (2018)/A9s/A9 Star Pro (including A9 Star and A9 Star Lite; Bixby Home, Reminder and Vision only; S Voice used instead) Galaxy A9 Pro (2019) (Bixby Home, Reminder and Vision only) Galaxy A20 (Bixby Home and Service) Galaxy A21s Galaxy A30s (Bixby Home, Vision, Reminder and Routines) Galaxy A40 (Bixby Home and Reminder) Galaxy A41 (Bixby Home, Vision, Routines and Reminder) Galaxy A50 (Bixby Home, Voice, Vision, Reminder and Routines) Galaxy A50s (Bixby Home, Voice, Vision, Reminder and Routines) G