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Google Bard now requests your actual location for better answers by Paul Hill Google has pushed out another update for its generative AI chatbot, Bard. This time, it has added the ability for users to allow access to their location so that Bard can use this and provide more relevant results. One popular Google Search query is “What time does X close?”, you’ll typically see the searched-for business in your Search results with a list of closing times. You can now do this in Bard with the location update and it will give you the closing times of the local stores you asked about. Google didn’t really expand too much on what else the precise location would enable you to do, but Bard itself says you can get location-specific information on places like coffee shops and restaurants, get directions from your current location, find events that are happening near you, and get local weather information. Having tested the weather forecast, Neowin can report that it works well but there is a small grievance. In the UK, where a hodgepodge of imperial and metric measurements are used, the main unit for measuring the temperature is Celsius. Despite knowing that the query was coming from the UK, Bard still decided to put out its response in Fahrenheit, a quick clarification swiftly resolves this though. To see which location Google Bard has for you, just look in the bottom-left corner and you should see a blue dot if you’ve given permission for it to use your location, followed by your town or city. You can also press update location if it’s now out of date due to travelling. OpenAI took an early lead in the generative AI race but while it still gets updates, its knowledge is still stuck in 2021 and it cannot do as much now as Bard, such as accessing your location or grabbing relevant pictures from the web and inserting them into your query results (at least on the free tier). We are still early on with regards to the maturity of these generative AI projects so we should see a lot more new features arriving over time. It’s so early that Google still refers to Bard as an experiment.

Reading Practice arrives on Google Play Books to help improve literacy skills by Paul Hill Google has announced that users of Google Play Books in the United States can now use a new feature called Reading Practice. The company said it is designed for new readers to get on independently and learn new vocabulary and comprehension skills through thousands of children’s stories. To use Reading Practice, you must be in the US and on the Google Play Books Android app in the Google Kids Space. If you want to know whether a book supports Reading Practice, look on the book’s store page for the Practice badge which is like a microphone. According to the search giant, you can browse thousands of English-language children's books to get started, most of these support Reading Practice. It said some books in the children’s section are also free of charge, this is great if you’re currently looking to save a bit of money. The key features of Reading Practice were outlined by Google as follows: Track their reading position: They’ll see the text highlighted as they read out loud, tracking where they are in the book and helping them focus on the next word. Hear a word: If they’re stuck on how to pronounce a word, they can simply tap it to hear what it sounds like. Sound it out: With a quick tap, they’ll also hear a word broken down by syllable. Hear a sentence: For even more context, new readers can listen to an entire sentence. Define a word: To learn more, they can tap to see or hear a child-friendly definition of a word. Set a new reading position: They can tap any word to update their position in the book and start tracking from there. Practice a challenging word: At the end of the page, they’ll have the option to practice any words they skipped or mispronounced. If you need more help using Reading Practice, you can check out the dedicated Google Play Help page.

Google adds seven new features for Android, US users can get Dark Web reports as well by Anushe Fawaz Google I/O 2023 happened a few weeks ago when the company announced several features for Android devices alongside Google Pixel products like Pixel 7a. Today, it is introducing seven new capabilities to increase productivity and user safety and help them learn new skills. Among the seven features is Reading Practice. It helps readers improve their vocabulary and comprehension skills. Users can run it on their Android Tablets or phones and gain access to thousands of books. The children’s ebooks are marked with a “Practice” badge and let users hear and practice pronunciation of unfamiliar words and receive feedback in real-time. Additionally, users are getting three new widgets to customize their devices and add their desired shortcuts. The new widgets allow users to get personalized TV show and movie recommendations, receive headlines about their topics of interest, and track selected stocks. These are done through Google TV, Google News, and Google Finance respectively. The announcement also mentions a new watch face by Spotify for Google’s Wear OS. It provides users access to personalized music and podcasts they want to listen to. They can also access their playlists, 'like' the current song, or skip to the next or previous song right from the watch shortcut. Google is also offering users who commute in Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Bay Area SmarTrip and Clipper cards via Google Wallet that they can access from their Wear OS. This lets them simply tap and ride and skip the line. On Google Keep for Wear OS, users can add a tile for fast access to a selected note or to-do list on their watch. They can swipe through the tiles to find the pinned notes they want quick access to. Furthermore, with GBoard and Emoji Kitchen, users can remix their favorite emoji into stickers. The Emoji Kitchen lets users combine their selected emojis to create a new and customized emoji they can share with others as messages. Lastly, Google is increasing user protection, especially for those in the US, by adding Dark Web Reports on the Google One website and app. With this, users can scan their email addresses to check if their emails have been exposed to the Dark Web. Additionally, Google One members in the US can check other details like their social security numbers and receive guidance on how to increase safety. Google mentioned that this feature will expand to 20 new countries in the coming months.

Google Chrome 114.0.5735.91 (offline installer) by Razvan Serea The web browser is arguably the most important piece of software on your computer. You spend much of your time online inside a browser: when you search, chat, email, shop, bank, read the news, and watch videos online, you often do all this using a browser. Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier. Use one box for everything--type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and Web pages. Thumbnails of your top sites let you access your favorite pages instantly with lightning speed from any new tab. Desktop shortcuts allow you to launch your favorite Web apps straight from your desktop. Chrome has many useful features built in, including automatic full-page translation and access to thousands of apps, extensions, and themes from the Chrome Web Store. Google Chrome is one of the best solutions for Internet browsing giving you high level of security, speed and great features. This update includes 16 security fixes: $15000][1410191] High CVE-2023-2929: Out of bounds write in Swiftshader. Reported by Jaehun Jeong(@n3sk) of Theori on 2023-01-25 [$10000][1443401] High CVE-2023-2930: Use after free in Extensions. Reported by asnine on 2023-05-08 [$9000][1444238] High CVE-2023-2931: Use after free in PDF. Reported by Huyna at Viettel Cyber Security on 2023-05-10 [$9000][1444581] High CVE-2023-2932: Use after free in PDF. Reported by Huyna at Viettel Cyber Security on 2023-05-11 [$9000][1445426] High CVE-2023-2933: Use after free in PDF. Reported by Quang Nguyễn (@quangnh89) of Viettel Cyber Security and Nguyen Phuong on 2023-05-15 [$NA][1429720] High CVE-2023-2934: Out of bounds memory access in Mojo. Reported by Mark Brand of Google Project Zero on 2023-04-01 [$NA][1440695] High CVE-2023-2935: Type Confusion in V8. Reported by Sergei Glazunov of Google Project Zero on 2023-04-27 [$NA][1443452] High CVE-2023-2936: Type Confusion in V8. Reported by Sergei Glazunov of Google Project Zero on 2023-05-08 [$4000][1413813] Medium CVE-2023-2937: Inappropriate implementation in Picture In Picture. Reported by NDevTK on 2023-02-08 [$4000][1416350] Medium CVE-2023-2938: Inappropriate implementation in Picture In Picture. Reported by Alesandro Ortiz on 2023-02-15 [$3000][1427431] Medium CVE-2023-2939: Insufficient data validation in Installer. Reported by ycdxsb from VARAS@IIE on 2023-03-24 [$2000][1426807] Medium CVE-2023-2940: Inappropriate implementation in Downloads. Reported by Axel Chong on 2023-03-22 [$500][1430269] Low CVE-2023-2941: Inappropriate implementation in Extensions API. Reported by Jasper Rebane on 2023-04-04 Important to know! The offline installer links do not include the automatic update feature. Download web installer: Google Chrome Web 32-bit | Google Chrome 64-bit | Freeware Download: Google Chrome Offline Installer 64-bit | 92.6 MB Download: Google Chrome Offline Installer 32-bit | 88.3 MB Download page: Google Chrome Portable Download: Google Chrome MSI Installers for Windows (automatic update) View: Chrome Website | v114.0.5735.91 Release Notes Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware

Official keyboard and stylus for Pixel Tablet 'under development,' but that's all we know by Tushar Mehta After a year-long wait, the Google Pixel Tablet is set to go on sale on June 20th. While announcing its details at I/O 2023, Google also unveiled two official accessories for the tablet, including a case and a speaker mount to convert it into a smart display. Now, a new leak hints that more official accessories, including a keyboard and a stylus, for the Pixel Tablet are on the way — but may be delayed just like the tablet itself. Tipster Kamila Wojciechowska tweeted that the accessories for Pixel Tablet are "still in development." The purported stylus and keyboard can be expected to expedite the promised optimizations for Android tablets and reduce the productivity gap they share with iPads. Wojciechowska also remarked the Pixel Tablet is "still not finished" yet. If that's true, Google may have trouble fulfilling orders when it starts delivering the tablet next month. im not too surprised, they delayed the tablet a whole year because it wasnt ready and its still not finished now (the situation is about the same in case of the stylus/keyboard, its still in development) — kamila 🌸 (@Za_Raczke) May 29, 2023 The tipster does not reveal any other details about the keyboard and stylus for the Pixel Tablet or whether these accessories will be available in time when it goes on sale. For those wanting to use a stylus with the Pixel Tablet, Google has a backup in the form of Universal Stylus Interface (USI) 2.0 standard support, which allows compatibility with specific third-party digital pens from brands such as Wacom, Lenovo, HP, etc. Google was already seemingly aware of potential hiccups in production with its first Android tablet since the Pixel C launched almost a decade ago. First unveiled at Google I/O 2022, the Pixel Tablet received a vague launch window of "2023" and was only officially launched at the following year's I/O conference. The Pixel Tablet comes bundled with a speaker dock designed to hold the tablet in place magnetically while also charging it. While the speaker dock makes for a quirky accessory — and adds a smart speaker's functionality, the lack of an official keyboard and stylus makes the Pixel Tablet less compelling despite its flagship-grade internals, including the Tensor G2 chipset. As Google focuses on tablets again and prepares to optimize apps for devices with larger screens, such as the Pixel Tablet and the Pixel Fold, the official keyboard and stylus may help make Android tablets more useful for work than they currently are.

Google's head of hardware design confimed a second foldable Pixel was canceled by Omer Dursun In a recent podcast, Ivy Ross, head of design for hardware products at Google, confirmed the existence of a canceled second foldable phone. While details about the device remain scarce, Ross emphasized the company's commitment to delivering a product that surpassed existing foldable offerings, leading them to hold back on its release. Google's decision to scrap the second foldable Pixel highlights the company's dedication to quality and innovation. Ross expressed pride in the team's discipline and determination to wait until they could create something "good enough or better than what was out there already." Rumors have been circulating that Google was working on a foldable phone with a clamshell design, similar to Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip series. Although it is unclear whether the canceled and rumored devices are the same, Ross's confirmation suggests that Google explored alternative form factors for its foldable devices. While Google's intentions regarding the clamshell design remain uncertain, it seems probable that the company could eventually release a flip-style foldable phone. A folding Pixel in a clamshell design would have filled a notable gap in Google's product lineup. With the Pixel Fold priced at $1,799 and the upcoming Pixel 8 series expected to top at $1,000, there currently needs to be a mid-range option for a stock Android experience on a foldable phone. Ross's revelation of Google's plans for a potential clamshell foldable underscores the possibility of future competition between Google and Samsung in this segment. Google's decision not to launch the second foldable device likely came as a relief for Samsung, especially considering the incremental upgrades expected in its upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5. The canceled second foldable Pixel phone may never see the light of day. However, confirming its existence provides an intriguing glimpse into Google's ongoing efforts to push the boundaries of smartphone design. Source: Made by Google Podcast

Editorial: It's right that big tech leans up with layoffs, focusing on profitable activities by Paul Hill With more than a decade of cheap money coming to an end thanks to higher interest rates, we’ve seen many big tech companies lay off employees, with some continuing to make more cuts. It’s awful to be one of the affected employees who may have made big life decisions based on having the job and now having to give all those plans up. Nevertheless, I think that companies are right to lean up and focus on their profit-making operations. At the end of the day, profits are made when you offer services that society needs and is willing to pay for and by keeping the costs to provide those services low - one of the biggest costs to companies is employees. Perhaps one of the most notable instances of a company spending money on an experimental project is Meta with its metaverse ambitions, it even renamed itself. To develop this project, Meta would have had to take on people to help develop its VR headsets and the software to run on them, before even knowing that the technology would be successful. Not only does the company need to sink huge amounts of money into this project, it also takes up countless hours of labour (that could be spent doing something more beneficial) and it has to hope that it can sell the metaverse to the public and to businesses. Meta has not given up on its metaverse ambitions as a result of the cuts but it will have to think more carefully as it proceeds with fewer engineers. In a recent statement on the so-called ‘Year of Efficiency’, Zuckerberg said that Meta was cancelling projects that were “duplicative or lower priority”. While it may be good for the person being paid, you do have to ask yourself what is the point of a company hiring several people to do duplicate work. It suggests that companies have been a bit sloppy in recent years and have not really been paying much attention to what’s happening internally and to what products and services would actually provide a benefit to shareholders and society. Several weeks ago, after Google I/O, CNBC reported that Google employees had been mocking staff for constantly spouting buzzwords such as “AI” throughout the event. One of the memes that were shared internally showed Google’s stock price in the red with the text “Execs cutting cost and buying back stock” and the stock price in green with text reading “[Engineers] getting stuff done”. Employees at Google made a meme mocking execs, via CNBC While it’s true that Google does benefit from unveiling new products, it’s a bit fallacious to suggest cost cutting isn’t important either. If you look at both the Meta and Alphabet stock prices, you can see that they reached lows in November 2022 just as the cuts were beginning and the share prices have been climbing ever since. A common criticism of businesses is that they only do what the shareholders want them to do. This is true because shareholders are a very good barometer of a company’s future. A five year price chart for Meta stock. It shows a sharp reversal in November 2022 when job cuts were announced. An investor who puts money into a company expects the share price to increase in the future; investors are the epitome of the common saying “Put your money where your mouth is”. If your share price is falling, it’s because investors wouldn’t gamble their money on your company based on all the public information. It’s pretty clear that the economizing going on at the companies, and the continued unveiling of revolutionary products like generative AI, are giving investors confidence because the share prices of these companies are increasing; investors feel that these companies will be doing well in the future and will be able to sell the shares in the future for a higher price because they’re more sought after and the company’s operations justify the price. Just like Meta experienced, Alphabet's stock price reversed after job cuts revealed in January. I said at the start of the article that it's awful to be one of the people affected by these cuts, it can be a very stressful experience to lose your job and it means putting plans on hold until you can find another one. What’s interesting, though, is that at the end of 2022, tech workers who had recently been laid off were able to find new jobs relatively quickly. A survey by ZipRecruiter found that 79% of those laid off found new jobs within just three months of starting their job hunt - the main reason for this quick turnaround was that they already have experience in the field. Assuming these people are moving into jobs where the business has properly thought out the job opening, they will probably be moving into a job that will help the company attain profits. If this is the case, you have people moving from jobs where they were doing duplicate, low-priority, unprofitable work that’s not as much benefit to society, to roles that generate profit and provide a real service. This is my thinking on the whole matter of efficiency pursuits by big tech. It’s certainly detrimental for those who are in an affected role, but in terms of wider societal benefits and the long-term health of these companies, it’s certainly a positive move rather than a negative one. Let me know in the comments if you have any comprehensive thoughts about what big tech is doing. If you believe contrary to this editorial, let us know what you think companies should be doing instead. The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the author and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, positions, or strategies of Neowin

Android 14 Beta 2.1 update for Pixel phones fixes multiple bugs from the previous update by Tushar Mehta Google's latest Android version — Android 14 — is set to launch during the fall season this year. As the tradition goes, Android 14 is currently available in beta for owners of select smartphones to try out the upcoming features before a wider release. Following the Android 14 Beta 2 that was released during Google I/O 2023 developers' conference nearly two weeks ago, Google is now releasing Beta 2.1 for Pixel 4a and newer Pixel phones. Google recently took to the Android Beta Program subreddit to announce the massive changelog of the latest Android 14 Beta 2.1 update with the build number UPB2.230407.019. Being an X.1 build, the update primarily aims to iron out a long list of issues with Beta 2. Foremost, Android 14 Beta 2.1 patches the bug that prevented users from exiting Android 14 beta testing. The update adds the May 2023 security patches to specific models, including the Pixel 6 series and Pixel 6a on Verizon. Next, the update fixes a bug that previously hid the actual battery percentage and showed 0% instead. It also patches issues with the phones' audio and rubs out what was causing several apps, including Google Photos, to crash. Additionally, the update fixes problems with Always-On Display, including scenarios with missing Google Messages notifications or jitter when using Android Auto. Lastly, it also patches the issue that made the Google TV app disappear in picture-in-picture mode when gesture navigation was turned on. If you are already registered as an Android beta tester, you can check for the update under Settings > System > System Update if it hasn't already popped up in the notifications. But if you aren't part of the beta yet and would like to test it, you can enroll for Android 14 Beta on your Pixel phone(s) by going to the dedicated portal and selecting the suitable device. However, before you enroll to receive Android 14 Beta updates on your phone, remember that it may still not be free of bugs as we are still a few months away from receiving a release candidate. Besides a buggy performance, beta updates may also break functionality for crucial apps, especially for banking and payments. Returning from the beta to a stable Android 13 version will require you to factory reset your smartphone, so ensure you weigh the prospects before making the leap. With Android 14, Google pegs many features around AI, such as lockscreen customizations, emoji-based and AI-generated wallpapers, a major update to Find My Device, contextual back gesture, and much more announced at Google I/O 2023. However, a lot of these features have yet to make it to the available builds and can be expected to be added in the weeks leading to the final release (tentatively in August or September based on previous releases). We, thus, recommend you wait for a few months and avoid enrolling in Android 14 if you are especially looking to try out these new features.

The limited time YouTube Stories videos are going away for good on June 26 by John Callaham Google's YouTube is getting rid of one of the least used formats. Today, it was revealed that YouTube Stories will not be available for creators after June 26. The announcement was made on a Google support page, It stated: Today, there are many ways to create on YouTube – from Community posts to Shorts, to long-form and Live. To prioritize these key features, Stories are going away. Starting on 6/26/2023 the option to create a new YouTube Story will no longer be available. Stories that are already live on that date will expire 7 days after they were originally shared. YouTube Stories was originally launched in 2017 as YouTube Reels. At the time, the video service was feeling some competition from rivals like Snapchat and Instagram, both of which offered ways for people to post brief videos that would later disappear after a certain period of time, YouTube Reels, which switched over to using the name Stories in 2018, was made for channels that had 10,000 or more subscribers, which made it inaccessible to many more casual YouTube creators. The uploaded videos would disappear after seven days, and users could even have multiple Stories, with each having several videos, live at the same time. However, the format never really caught on with most YouTube creators. However, in 2020, it did launch another short-form video format, called YouTube Shorts. Like Stories, Shorts was created as a response to the rising popularity of another social network, this time TikTok. Shorts allow creators to upload brief clips, or a series of brief clips, into one longer, but still brief, video. Originally, the length of each Short was 15 seconds but since the launch, it has expanded to 60 seconds. Users can also quickly remix content from their longer videos for new Shorts. They are designed to be easy to make with the YouTube smartphone app. In the end, the appeal of Shorts quickly superseded that of Stories, so it's a simple choice for YouTube to get rid of the less popular short-form format.

Google opens Search Generative Experience to US Search Labs users by Paul Hill Google users in the United States that signed up to Search Labs after Google I/O can now start using some of the early experiments including SGE (Search Generative Experience), Code Tips, and Add to Sheets. If you want to try out the features, you can sign up by visiting this website, you can also check your waitlist status there if you’ve signed up. The company said that its generative AI-powered Search will make searching easier. You will be able to learn about topics faster, get more viewpoints and insights, and have information pieced together for you instead of having to sift through information yourself. If you need to ask the AI any follow-up questions, you’ll find an option to “ask a follow-up question” which will take you into conversational mode. If you do try out the features, Google warns that this experiment is just a first step into adding generative AI into Search and that improvements will be made over time. In its announcement, Google laid out some examples of how SGE could provide you with better search results. It gave an example search query of “Learning ukulele vs guitar”. It said that SGE would help you get a snapshot of the benefits of both instruments to help you make a more informed choice. It also said that it could help you learn quick tips to queries such as “How to get an old coffee stain out of a wool sweater?” and help you discover new products with queries like “Peel and stick wallpaper for kitchen”. The inclusion of generative AI in Search is convenient but will also lead to problems for publishers of content. If you ask Google for a quick way to remove those coffee stains and Search tells you directly, you never need to go to the publisher’s website and view the ads that keep the website going. Google also has to ramp up the SGE feature to users quite quickly as both Bing and Brave Search already incorporate AI into their results so Google Search is falling behind a little bit. Hopefully, users outside the US won’t need to wait long for SGE and other Labs features.

Google Play Games on PC is now available in Europe and New Zealand by John Callaham In January 2022, Google Play Games on PC was launched as a beta in a few select countries. In November 2022, it expanded to the US and a few more countries. Since then, the service that offers PC owners a way to play over 100 Android-based games on their machines has stayed fairly limited to that small list of countries. Today, Google quietly update one of its support pages. It now shows a much longer list of countries that now support Google Play Games on PC. Here's the newly expanded list of markets for the service: Australia Austria Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Canada Croatia Cyprus Czechia Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hong Kong Hungary Iceland Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Korea Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malaysia Malta Mexico Moldova Monaco Netherlands + Netherlands Antilles Norway Philippines Poland Portugal Romania San Marino Serbia Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Türkiye Ukraine United Kingdom United States If you live in one of these countries, you can now download and check out the beta from Google's website. The company is still labeling this as a beta, so don't be surprised if you encounter any glitches. Here are the hardware requirements for Google Play Games on PC: Windows 10 (v2004) Solid state drive (SSD) Gaming-class GPU 8 logical cores of CPU 8 GB of RAM 20 GB of available storage space Windows admin account Hardware virtualization must be turned on Compatible PC device and configuration If you want to know what GPU you need in your PC to run Google Play Games, here's a list from Google itself NVIDIA GeForce GTX 600, 700, 800, 900 or 10 series NVIDIA Volta series NVIDIA GeForce 16, 20 or 30 series Intel Iris Xe Graphics AMD Radeon HD 7790, 7850, 7870, 7950, 7970 or 7990 AMD Radeon HD 8970 or 8990 AMD Radeon R9 200 series AMD Radeon R7/R9 300 series AMD Radeon RX 400 series AMD Radeon RX 570, 580 or 890 AMD Radeon RX Vega series AMD Radeon VII series AMD Radeon RX 5000 or 6000 series Keep in mind that this is a different setup than Microsoft's effort to allow Android games to be played on Windows 11.

Google disables the Mica material in Chrome due to high power consumption by Taras Buria Several weeks ago, Google brought the Mica Alt material to Chrome Canary on computers running Windows 11 version 22H2 and newer, significantly improving the browser's look. However, the new visuals have one hard-to-ignore downside: with Mica Alt enabled, Chrome consumes more power and drains your device's battery much faster. For that reason, Google decided to turn off the updated looks in Chrome Canary. A new CL on Chromium Gerrit (via) reveals why Google has pulled the eye candy from its browser. According to the post, the change requires more optimization before it ships to all customers enabled by default, and the power usage in its current state "may not be good enough." Although Chromium developers need more time to optimize the visuals, you can still enable Mica on Chrome's tab strip. Chrome Canary now ships with the material disabled by default, which you can turn on using an experimental flag. Go to chrome://flags. Search for "Windows 11 Mica titlebar" or use the direct chrome://flags/#windows11-mica-titlebar link. Change the flag's value from Default to Enabled and restart the browser. Enjoy the new looks. The Mica material is a part of Google's upcoming visual revamp for its browser. Chrome Canary users are already testing the redesigned tab strip, new icons in the main menu, better fonts, and more. You can look at the latest stuff by downloading Chrome Canary from the official website. Note that Canary builds are bug-prone, so we do not recommend using the channel as your primary browser. Google Chrome is not the only browser offering Windows 11's new UI materials. During Build 2023, Microsoft announced a new Microsoft Edge redesign with improved visuals, translucent UI elements, rounded corners for tabs, and other changes across the browser. Some of these improvements are already available in Microsoft Edge Canary, but they still need extra polish and fixes.

Google Bard can now bring in images from Search by Paul Hill Google has updated Bard again today, this time it has enabled the ability to bring in images from Search. For example, you can now say to Bard “Show me a dog” or something more advanced like “Show me a red dog chasing a stick”, both of which yield acceptable results. While Google Bard supports English, Japanese, and Korean, the image support only works with English requests right now. If any of the results rendered are interesting to you, and you’d like to follow them up, the source is attached to the image and you can click through to it. According to the company, it has added image support because the medium can help communicate ideas more effectively. It said that “They can bring concepts to life, make recommendations more persuasive and enhance responses when you ask for visual information.” Ever since Google I/O at the start of the month, updates have been coming to Bard on a regular basis. It has added a new PaLM 2 LLM under the hood, an export option, dark mode, and more useful summaries and source information. To be clear, this latest update is just fetching relevant images from Search. Bard cannot yet generate its own images via Adobe Firefly, but that should arrive sometime in the coming months. When you ask for images from Bard, it can display several images separately. After a bit of experimenting with different queries, it seems that it can create a gallery of images with left and right buttons to scroll through the images. It usually provides a small description of the image underneath so you can better understand what you’re looking at. Keeping on top of all the new capabilities of Bard can be a bit tricky. An easy way to see what it can do is by heading to the Updates tab on the left-side menu. There, you’ll find all the major updates to Bard, when they were added, and why they have been added.

At Build 2023, Microsoft unveils new Fabric OneLake Shortcuts for ADLS, AWS, Google Storage by Sayan Sen At Build 2023 today, Microsoft unveiled its new Fabric analytics platform which essentially unifies the power of the different products into one, all wrapped up with the goodness of AI. Alongside Fabric, the company also unveiled its new OneLake software as a service (SaaS). Fabric and OneLake will go hand in hand since it will be the unified storage solution available to all Fabric tenants. Microsoft is referring to OneLake as the "OneDrive for data" as it is similar to how OneDrive is for Microsoft 365 services. Microsoft on its blog post explains: Microsoft Fabric comes with a SaaS, multi-cloud data lake called OneLake that is built-in and automatically available to every Fabric tenant. All Fabric workloads are automatically wired into OneLake, just like all Microsoft 365 applications are wired into OneDrive. OneLake serves developers, business analysts, and business users alike, helping eliminate pervasive and chaotic data silos created by different developers provisioning and configuring their own isolated storage accounts. Instead, OneLake provides a single, unified storage system for all developers, where discovery and sharing of data is easy with policy and security settings are enforced centrally. The new Microsoft Fabric OneLake is based on and fully compatible with Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLSg2). Speaking of Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS), OneLake has the capability to virtualize Data Lake storage too, using a feature known as "Shortcuts". Not only ADLS, Shortcuts will work with AWS S3 (Amazon Web Services Simple Storage Service) as well. And Microsoft adds that Google Storage support is also coming soon. You can sign up for a free trial of Microsoft Fabric on the official website on this page. You can also learn more about Fabric if you are curious on at this link. In case you want to read more, you can find the rest of the Build 2023 coverage here.

Google shows off a new Chrome sidebar with extra customization features by John Callaham Even though Microsoft is stealing most of the developer and app thunder today with Build 2023, Google wants you to know it has some cool developer news as well. Today, it prompted some new features it has added to its desktop Chrome web browser that allows users to customize its look. Google's blog post states: You can test out different colors, themes and settings in real time by opening a new tab in Chrome and clicking the “Customize Chrome” icon in the bottom right corner. A new side panel will open with the available customization features. Here, you can experiment with different features and easily see how they will show up on your New Tab page as you make changes. And don’t worry about saving your work — our new side panel remembers your customization edits as you go. In terms of the browser background and themes, Google says there are hundreds of images to choose from in the Chrome sidebar. There are also in a number of different categories like “Landscapes” and “Seascapes". Alongside these, there are curated theme collections from various artists as well, along with creations from Asian and Pacific Islander, LGBTQ+, Latino, Black, and Native American artists. The sidebar lets users just automate the theme changes by using the “Refresh daily” toggle if they don't want to bother going through all those collections. You can also change the colors on Chrome with the options included in the new sidebar. Google stated: Start by picking a theme and watch your browser adjust its color to match it. If the color isn’t your style, you can always pick a different one on the overview page to get it just right. These new options should make using Chrome a more fun and colorful experience compared to the basic white options that are normally in use.

Bing is now the number one desktop search engine in China thanks to AI by Omer Dursun Microsoft Bing has surpassed Baidu to become China's leading desktop search engine. Recent data from StatCounter has revealed Bing's remarkable achievement, capturing a historical market share of 37.4% in April 2023. This milestone demonstrates the dynamic nature of the search engine market and highlights the AI competition among major players to innovate and provide enhanced search experiences for users. The success of Bing can be attributed to its deep integration within various Microsoft products and services. As Microsoft's fourth prominent product line, Bing has established close ties with Windows, Office, and Xbox. This integration has allowed Bing to gain significant exposure and reach a wide user base in China, contributing to its increased market share. Moreover, Microsoft has consistently enhanced Bing's capabilities by integrating the latest technologies. Microsoft confirmed that Bing's search engine now operates on GPT-4. Baidu's market share has now decreased to 27.01%. The rankings following Bing and Baidu include Sogou with a market share of 16.36%, Yandex with 7.45%, Haosou with 6.25%, and Google with 5.2%, respectively. According to Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind, a Google subsidiary focused on artificial intelligence, there will be a significant shift in the internet landscape. Suleyman anticipates that conventional search methods will no longer be relevant in the next ten years as interactive search experiences will replace them. The rise of Bing in China's desktop search market is a testament to the ever-evolving nature of search engine competition. As major players like Bing and Baidu continuously innovate and integrate advanced technologies, users can expect more sophisticated search experiences in the future. The evolving search landscape also holds implications for businesses and content creators who rely on search engines for visibility and user engagement. As search engines become more intelligent, optimizing content for these advanced algorithms and leveraging conversational and interactive search elements will become increasingly important to ensure better visibility and engagement with target audiences. Source: StatCounter via onMSFT

Google expands its AI-powered Flood Hub to 80 countries by Paul Hill Google has announced that it has expanded its AI-powered Flood Hub service so that it’s now available in 80 countries globally. The Flood Hub has pins in various flood-prone areas around the world and clicking on them will bring up a 7-day forecast for where water levels are expected to be. With the latest expansion, new countries from Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Europe, and South and Central America have been added. The Flood Hub now covers 460 million people around the world and will help them deal with the planet’s changing climate which is accelerating sea level rises and floods. Aside from expanding Flood Hub’s coverage, the service now offers 7-day forecasts, up from 48-hour forecasts. This data can be used by individuals or governments and organizations for larger-scale actions such as evacuations. “Flood Hub’s AI uses diverse, publicly-available data sources, such as weather forecasts and satellite imagery,” said Yossi Matias, VP of Engineering & Research and Crisis Response Lead at Google. “The technology then combines two models: the Hydrologic Model, which forecasts the amount of water flowing in a river, and the Inundation Model, which predicts what areas are going to be affected and how deep the water will be.” While the Flood Hub is very useful, it’s still siloed off in its own little space. Google said this will change in the future as it’s already working to make these forecast alerts available more directly through Search and Maps. By expanding it to flagship products, Google will make flood forecasts available to many more people who may not yet know about the Flood Hub research project. Unfortunately, Google didn’t give a timeline for when it plans to bring these flood forecasts to Search and Maps. The Flood Hubs project is just one component of Google’s Crisis Response work. Crisis Response also provides information about wildfires and earthquakes to help protect residents of affected areas and emergency workers.

Google search rival Neeva is shutting down its search engine to work on AI products by John Callaham Neeva, a search engine company that was founded in 2019 by a former executive at Google, announced on Saturday it is shutting down the search engine part of the business. It will instead concentrate its efforts on developing AI and large language models (LLMs). In a blog post, the company stated it discovered that it was difficult to make a new search engine with just 50 team members. It stated: We overcame these obstacles and built a search stack from the ground up, running a crawl that fetched petabytes of information from the web and used that to power an independent search stack. Neeva decided not to use ads for its search engine, unlike Google's business model. This is ironic because the person who founded Neeva, Sridhar Ramaswamy, was previously Google's senior vice president of advertising and commerce. Instead, Neeva used a subscription model to fund development, which cost $5.99 a month or $49.99 for an annual plan. For that price you could use its search browser extension for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, and others, along with iOS and Android apps. The subscription also threw in a password manager and a VPN with that plan. Neeva officially launched in 2021 in the US and expanded to other countries in 2022. In January 2023, the company launched NeevaAI, which beat Google's Bard and Microsoft's Bing Chat to the punch by offering AI answers to search questions. It expanded to other countries in February just as Bard was announced and Bing Chat launched. However, it would appear that wasn't enough to keep Neeva's search business going. This weekend's blog post stated: Contrary to popular belief, convincing users to pay for a better experience was actually a less difficult problem compared to getting them to try a new search engine in the first place. Neeva will shut down its consumer search engine in the coming weeks, along with the Neeva.com site. All of its user data will be deleted, and people who signed up for Neeva Premium will receive a refund. More information has been posted on an FAQ page. Neeva's blog post states that the company itself will go on. It says it wants to help develop LLMs more effectively and more affordably for enterprise users. It added that it will reveal more "future of our work and our team in the next few weeks."

Report says Samsung has decided not to replace Google with Microsoft's Bing in its phones by John Callaham In April, The New York Times reported that Samsung was considering replacing Google Search as the default search engine for its Galaxy smartphones for Microsoft's Bing. Now it appears that the Korean giant has pressed the "pause" button on such a move. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, claims that Samsung has now suspended an internal review that was considering switching from Google to Bing for its smartphones. When the original NYT story hit, it stated that Samsung was impressed with Microsoft's efforts into adding generative AI into its search program via Bing Chat. As a result of that report, Google's stock price went down by 2.5 percent on that day. However, it was pointed out after that report was published that Google has what it calls the Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA). It basically stated that any smartphone company that wanted the Google Play Store installed must also set Google Search as the default search engine on their phones. Having said that, since Samsung is the largest worldwide Android-based smartphone company by a pretty fair margin, it's more than possible that it has a special agreement with Google that is not available for other Android smartphone companies. For example, Samsung has its own Galaxy Store for downloading apps on its smartphones which is something other Android phones with the Google Play Store don't have. In any case, it would appear that Samsung is sticking to what it knows and will keep Google Search as the default search engine for its smartphones. Microsoft and its Bing search engine will have to find their way into the mobile space in other ways. It's already doing so by adding Bing Chat services to its Bing mobile app, and it's also adding AI chat to other mobile app services like its SwiftKey keyboard, its Edge browser, and its Skype messaging service. There's are still rumors that Bing could replace Google Search as the default in the Firefox browser, but so far there's been no official indication that might happen.

Google now says it will not delete unused accounts that have YouTube videos by John Callaham Earlier this week, Google announced plans to start deleting personal accounts on its service that had not been used or accessed for two years. In the original version of the blog post announcing this move, it stated: Starting later this year, if a Google Account has not been used or signed into for at least 2 years, we may delete the account and its contents – including content within Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar), YouTube and Google Photos. Well, that mention of deleting Google accounts that have YouTube videos caused many people to sound alarms online. There were concerns that people who have uploaded popular YouTube videos that have since passed away might have them deleted. Since then, Google has quietly amended that blog post. It eliminates "YouTube" from the above paragraph and then adds the following sentence: Additionally, we do not have plans to delete accounts with YouTube videos at this time. So if you haven't checked into your Google account in a while, and you have uploaded some YouTube videos via that account, you should be safe. As previously mentioned, Google is making this move to delete unused or inactive accounts for security purposes. There are concerns that older and unused accounts could have passwords that have since been compromised and that those older accounts might not have extra measures to protect them like two-factor authentication. The company plans to start deleting Google accounts in December 2023 and will begin with accounts that were established but never actually used. If you have such an account, Google says it will send you "multiple notifications over the months leading up to deletion". Those notices will be sent to both the account email and to its recovery email address. In order to keep an account active in Google's eyes, all you have to do is sign into it and use it for simple activities like reading or sending emails, using it with Google Search, or ironically watching a YouTube video.

Chrome desktop gets URL autocorrect, coming to mobile in the coming months by Paul Hill Google has announced that Chrome desktop will now autocorrect typos you make in the URL bar. The search giant said that it will roll out the feature to mobile in the coming months but for now, it’s just on desktop. If you make a typo in the URL bar, Chrome will show you suggestions based on corrections but shouldn’t mess with what you’re typing. The company has announced the feature as part of Global Accessibility Awareness Day. It hopes the feature will help people with dyslexia but also those still learning the language and anyone else who makes typos from time to time, which is basically everyone. Aside from making Chrome’s URL bar a bit more user-friendly, Google also said that it's making the Accessible Places wheelchair icon available in Google Maps for all users. If you open Maps and find a venue or business you’d like to go to, you will now see a wheelchair icon in the business summary section as well as a complete list of accessibility services offered in the About tab. Finally, the company said that it's bringing its Live Caption feature to more Android devices such as the Pixel 4, Pixel 5, select Samsung Galaxy phones, and more. Google will also add support for French, Italian, and German.

Leaked Google Pixel 8 Pro video showed a rear body temperature sensor [Update] by John Callaham A newly leaked video that appears to show the unannounced Google Pixel 8 Pro concentrates on a feature that few smartphones currently have: a rear temperature sensor. The video, posted on YouTube by 91Mobiles, shows the sensor beneath the phone's rear photo flash. More importantly, it shows the sensor being used by the owner. She places the Pixel 8 Pro close to her forehead so that the sensor can take a temperature reading. The user then taps on the phone's main screen and moves the phone across her temple for a few seconds. The Pixel 8 Pro then buzzes so that the user can see her temperature reading. What's not clear from this clip is what applications will be using the Pixel 8 Pro temperature sensor. It's possible that it could be used in fitness apps such as the Google-owned Fitbit app. Google is expected to officially announce the Pixel 8 phone series this fall, and it's also expected to have Android 14 installed, which is currently in public beta testing. A new version of the Pixel Watch is rumored to be revealed alongside the Pixel 8 phones. Update: The video has now been pulled from YouTube, which of course is owned by Google.

After AVIF, senior Microsoft exec confirms WebP support on Windows 11 Photos app by Sayan Sen Microsoft's Jennifer Gentleman, who is a Senior Program Manager at the company, has confirmed that the New Photos app on Windows 11 now supports WepP image format. Earlier this month, Microsoft released a major update for Photos app on the Dev and Canary Insider channels. This new version, 2023.11050.2013.0, brought several new features, and though unannounced, WebP support is certainly one of them. We know of this because as support for WebP was a very highly requested on the Feedback Hub with 147 upvotes. Here's a link to the feedback. Thanks for taking the time to share feedback about this - I believe this has been addressed with the Photos app update which is currently rolling out to Insiders in the Dev and Canary Channel. Please note, you'll need the Wepb Image Extensions installed: https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/webp-image-extensions/9PG2DK419DRG [..] We have made changes based on this feedback. Try them out in app version 2023.11050.2013.0 or higher. Check the Microsoft Store for updates. We tested some WebP images (samples) here and they work perfectly on Photos app version 2023.11050.5007.0. Out of curiosity, we also tested two AVIF images from Link-U's GitHub repo. Both 10-bit and 8-bit YUV420 samples worked without issues. However, the Photos app failed to load a 10-bit YUV444 file (that has slightly higher color accuracy) displaying a "format is currently unsupported error". Via: fancemon (Reddit)

You can grab the Google Pixel 6a for as low as $199 from Best Buy today by Mehrotra A Google recently introduced the Google Pixel 7a at its annual I/O conference. However, if you are looking for an affordable option with great hardware then you are in luck. Currently, Best Buy is running a deal on the Google Pixel 6a and you can own one for as low as $199, netting you an awesome 56 percent discount. While the Pixel 6a is almost a year old, it still offers respectable specs compared to the competition. In case you are unfamiliar, the Google Pixel 6a features Google's Tensor SoC with Titan M2 security chip. It also boasts 6 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and an FHD+ OLED display. For storage, the Pixel 6a comes with 120 GB of UFS 3.1 storage. The Pixel 6a also features a 12 MP primary rear camera and a 6 MP front-facing camera. If you are looking for an affordable Android device then you can head to Best Buy to claim the deal. While the device is currently available for $299, you can get it for $199 if you get it with a new AT&T or T-Mobile connection. You can further save on the purchase by trading in your old device on Best Buy. Google Pixel 6a for $199 However, if you are looking to go for the newer model then you can get a $50 gift card from Amazon when buying the Google Pixel 7a, bringing the cost down to effectively $449.

Surprising no one, Google will reportedly use generative AI for ads and customer service by John Callaham Google gets the vast majority of its money from ads created via its Search engine, along with YouTube ads and more. So it's not a shock to learn that the company's efforts into developing the new and hot generative AI services like its Bard chatbot and its PaLM 2 large language model will also be extended into its ads business. CNBC reports that, based on viewing internal documents from Google, the company plans to use generative AI to automate ads. It will also be used to automate ad-based customer services. CNBC says: Certain groups within Google are now planning to use PaLM 2-powered tools to allow advertisers to generate their own media assets and to suggest videos for YouTube creators to make, documents show. Google has also been testing PaLM 2 for YouTube youth content for things like titles, and descriptions. For creators, the company has been using the technology to experiment with the idea of providing five video ideas based on topics that appear relevant. In addition, Google's documents state that generative AI chat models could automate service inquiries from its ad customers, including suggesting ad plans for those users. More info on those plans could be revealed on May 23, which is when the company will hold its annual Google Marketing Live online event.