French upstart startup (see what I did there) Mistral AI has launched their flagship AI Mistral Large, their answer to Chat GPT-4, and has also has dropped an alternative to ChatGPT called Le Chat. The latter is available in beta, according to techcrunch.com. The startup was just incorporated in May of last year, and they picked up a half billion in funding just in December. Mistral AI was Founded by alums from Google’s DeepMind and Meta…originally with an open-source focus. The flagship looks more like OpenAI’s business model though, costing $8 per million of input tokens and $24 per million output tokens. A token represents small chunks of words…as the TechCrunch article says, their name would be split into two tokens…Tech and Crunch during processing by an AI model. On the other hand, anyone can sign up and try out Le Chat…just go to chat dot mistral dot ai. Mistral notes it is a beta, so could have some of what they call ‘quirks.’ Mistral has also partnered with Microsoft, which will provide Mistral models to its Azure customers. 

There are always lots of new gadgets at Mobile World Conference, and this year is no exception. Samsung has revealed its previously teased Galaxy Ring. Engadget.com reports that they did show a physical model, but didn’t give a ton of details. The ring will be centered around heath and wellness, and will come in 3 colors: platinum silver, gold, and ceramic black. Samsung plans to start selling it later this year. It looks a bit hefty…some who saw it note that it looks about the size as the Oura. It will be available in sizes 5 to 13, although they will be marked S through XL inside the band. The battery life will be less on the smaller ones due to smaller batteries inside. The Oura can make it 10 days between charges, so presumably it will be similar for the Galaxy Ring. the device will track sleep based on heart rate, movement and breathing, then provide users advice based on that. The company will also glean data from partner Natural Cycles, which already does fertility tracking on the Galaxy Watch, matching a key Oura feature.

Besides the large and pricy Vision Pro, Apple continues to look at other wearables in addition to the Watch and AirPods. Appleinsider.com says a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman notes that smart glasses are still in the mix…something that Apple has alluded to as a natural extension of the Vision Pro line. Besides glasses, a smart ring is being considered…and now with Samsung showing one, in addition to the Oura, that seems likely. Something you probably didn’t see coming…I didn’t…Apple is also looking at adding a set of cameras to AirPods. They will be low resolution. Rumors have this as more likely than the ring at this point. Apple has already fiddled with biometric sensors in AirPods. As for a ring, Cupertino has had a patent on a design since 2015. 

Not all gadgets that tech companies show see the light of day…and here’s one that the light of day can pass right through. Lenovo showed a laptop concept at Mobile World Conference in Barcelona that is transparent! Don’t expect to see the ThinkBook Transparent Display Laptop in stores or online any time soon. According to bgr.com, it may not even make it out of the concept stage. Drawbacks include its large size, bulk, and touch only keyboard. While it IS a cool concept to be able to see through the screen, I would be concerned that tech could be developed to read and steal what you were viewing on the screen. Lenovo thinks that the transparent screen could be useful for..say…architects working on site, or other users who need to see what’s going on around them. They also see users touching things within the screen’s view, and asking AI questions about them. Whether it makes it into people’s hands or not, it sure is a cool concept!

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.