Microsoft’s Updated Phone Link to Connect iOS, Lottiefiles Simplifies Animations and Startup Together Raises $20M to Build AI Models

Hello! 🙋We have the following updates for you today! 📣

• Microsoft’s updated Phone Link app gets iOS support
• LottieFiles simplifies animations
• Together raises $20M to build open-source generative AI models

Microsoft’s Updated Phone Link App Gets iOS Support

Microsoft announced that Windows 11 users can now link their iPhones and use iMessage from a PC

Microsoft’s Phone Link app is now available for iPhone users allowing them to send and receive iMessage, make and receive calls, and see phone app notifications on Windows 11 PC or laptops.

Microsoft’s Phone Link app is updated and available in 39 languages across 85 countries, allowing for Bluetooth-enabled calling, messaging, and notifications on an iPhone. The app can utilize iMessage by intercepting and relaying incoming messages.

iCloud integration also allows easy access to iPhone photos from the Photos app in Windows 11.

To use this feature, search for “Phone Link” on your Windows taskbar and follow the guided installation to start using it.

LottieFiles

LottieFiles simplifies the conversion of animations made by software like Adobe After Effects into Lottie format for use in mobile apps. LottieFiles uses Lottie, a lightweight and scalable JSON-based file format, as its foundation to enable motion and animation on designs, apps, websites, and digital screens.

As per its blog, the company raised 37M in Series B funding led by Square Peg Capital, XYZ Venture Capital, Great Point Ventures, and existing investors.

Recently the company announced a Figma plugin that empowers designers to enhance their projects with motion, while Figma to Lottie features craft customized, high-quality animations within Figma. Integrating the Lottie animation library with design and developer tools simplifies animation.

The Figma plugin gives you access to over 80,000 free Lottie animations. It also allows easy customizations in order to create engaging animations. The plugin is available for free.

The platform is used by more than 5 million users across more than 250K companies, and some of the notable firms are Google, TikTok, Disney, Uber, Airbnb, and Netflix.

Together Raises $20M to Build Open-Source Generative AI Models

Startup Together, which is developing open-source generative AI, raised $20 million from Lux Capital in a seed round with participation from other high-profile angel investors like PayPal co-founder Scott Banister and Cloudera founding employee Jeff Hammerbacher.

Together aims to create open-source generative AI models and services to help organizations incorporate AI into their production applications.

The startup is building a cloud platform that offers scalable computing at lower prices compared to dominant vendors like Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure.

Together’s first projects include RedPajama, which fosters open-source generative models, and GPT-JT, a fork of the open-source text-generating model GPT-J-6B.

The Together Decentralized Cloud platform will pool hardware resources, including GPUs, from volunteers on the internet.

The company plans to expand its team, invest in R&D, infrastructure, and product development, and has received significant interest from various companies.

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