Claude AI summarizes major events, themes of books
I just pasted 63,226 words into a search bar and got a great summary in a flash. In 14 sentences, Claude AI listed all the major events and themes of a book I edited called “A Woman from Iran.”
“This is a revolution!” the author said. “A book that took me so long to write can be summarized in less than one minute by AI.”
I agree. Claude AI is amazing. ChatGPT 3 can only understand 3,000 words at once, and ChatGPT 4 can only understand 25,000, but the latest version of Claude can understand 70,000.
To use it, go to the website Claude.ai and type or paste anything you want into the search box, then ask for a summary, answers, programming code or what have you. Recently, it got 76.5% of the multiple-choice questions on a bar exam correct. In a test of coding skills it got 71% right.
ON WITH THE SHOW
When I traded my Sonos speaker for an Amazon gift card, I used part of the $85 to buy an Amazon Echo Show 8, a smart speaker with an eightinch touchscreen and Alexa inside. I never dreamed that playing Jeopardy would turn out to be one of my favorite activities.
It’s almost like being on TV. I play against real people, known to me only by their nicknames. Recently, I won the “Teen Challenge.” Maybe the other contestants were in middle school.
The Echo Show displays news, movies, videos, exercises, tips, trivia, recipes and more. In the Alexa app, you can choose your favorite news source from a list including ABC, Bloomberg, Fox, NPR and others. From the device itself, turn off the stuff you don’t care about by swiping down from the top, tapping “Settings” and choosing “Home Content.” There, you can also choose a slideshow to run when nothing
else is playing. I could have selected my own photos, but I’m hooked on the nature slides. The Echo Show 8 is also great at playing tunes. I often say: “Alexa, play 50s music.”
But what about the web? Just ask her to open the Silk browser, then type in your favorite site if you haven’t bookmarked it already. I love reading recipes on the screen instead of printing them out.
At press time, the Echo Show 8 was $75 in a “Deal of the Day,” though I got it for $60. Normally, it’s $130.
PROBLEMS WITH OFFICE
A reader wrote: “I am using a 2007 version of Office and am having problems. It took over 30 minutes to save a four-page Word document. Is this Microsoft’s revenge? The problem seems to have started after I downloaded Windows 11.”
He nailed it. Microsoft no longer supports Office versions from 2013 or earlier. An alternative is Wordpad, built into Windows. It’s a simplified version of Word, without spell check, word count or templates. I prefer Google Docs, but I also use Office 365.
NON-DATERS ON TINDER
Tinder, the world’s biggest dating site, isn’t getting used much for dating. Two-thirds of its 75 million members are either already married or in a committed relationship, according to a report by ZMEScience. They’re not interested in offline activities. They want either a boost to their self-esteem or a bit of entertainment.
In surveying 1,387 English-speaking users between the ages of 17 and 84, researchers discovered that Tinder has become much like Facebook. Yet those who use it only for online activity don’t get as much out of it as those who meet in person. Even more interesting, the seniors are the happiest. They’re leery of this new-fangled, dating-app stuff, so they’re much more selective. The research was published in the journal “Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking.”
REMEMBERING WHAT YOU READ
I just discovered “Reading Insights,” a feature in the Amazon Kindle app. I’ve now tried it on my phone, iPad and Amazon Fire. It lets you see a tiny icon of a book cover for each book you’ve read since the beginning of 2019.
To start, open the Kindle app and tap “Library.” Then, from the bottom of the screen, tap “more,” then “Reading insights.” Besides your books, you can see how many days or weeks in a row you’ve read. My record is 133 weeks.
SPEED UP YOUR SEARCH
If you’re reading an article on your phone and see a word or phrase you’d like to do a web search on, here’s a fast way to do it. On an Android phone, highlight the text by moving your finger over it, then choose “web search.” On an iPhone, highlight the text, then tap “look up.”
INTERNUTS
■ GreatAmericanEclipse.com has info about the next total solar eclipse, which is visible from North America on April 8, 2024. It’s the only one like it until 2044. Prices are already going up for hotel rooms, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The Hilton Garden Inn in Texarkana, Texas, for example, is charging $743 a room. The Comfort Inn in Plattsburgh, N.Y. is charging $559.
■ Solarsystem.nasa.gov shows you where you can view the 2024 total eclipse. For example, it will be viewable from Little Rock at 12:33 p.m. and in Lancaster, N.H., at 2:16 p.m. To find more locations, hover over “Solar System” and click “Eclipses.” Joy Schwabach can be reached by email at joy.schwabach@gmail.com.