Author: zppiot
Snapseed, the classic and beloved photo editing app, has recently seen a series of small updates for its Android version. This comes as no surprise to long-time users, who have noticed the app has been in a bit of a maintenance mode for the past several years.Google acquired Nik Software, the original developer behind Snapseed, back in 2012. Since then, the app has experienced a major redesign in 2017 and the addition of a dark theme a year later. However, substantial feature updates have been less frequent.In 2023, Snapseed saw two updates with noticeable version number jumps within a few…
Music discovery app Shazam has been updated to version 17.11 today for the Apple iPhone and Apple iPad Shazam apps. Thanks to the update, Shazam will now continue to multitask and run even if you’re using another app. In other words, Shazam will continue to work in the background finding information about a song even while you’re running another app. You can even use Shazam to identify a song playing on another app.While Shazam is listening in the background, you’ll see the Shazam icon appear in the Dynamic Island and the results will be displayed via Live Activities on the…
YouTube is once again venturing into redesign territory, rolling out a new look that has previously sparked controversy. This isn’t the platform’s first rodeo with this particular layout, having tested it earlier this year only to be met with widespread disapproval.The redesigned interface shifts the video title, description, and comments to a sidebar, making room for larger video recommendations directly beneath the currently playing video. This move was widely disliked during its initial test phase, prompting YouTube to revert to the original layout for many users. However, in recent days, the redesign has made a comeback, appearing for a subset…
Google Pay, the wallet and payments platform and not the standalone app that will be discontinued in the U.S. next month, has rolled out a trio of new features aimed at enhancing the online shopping experience for its users. The company, prioritizing security, convenience, and smart spending tools for its users, is introducing improvements that address these concerns.One of the most notable additions is the ability to view card benefits at checkout. This feature aims to simplify the decision-making process for consumers who own multiple credit cards with various rewards and benefits. For instance, American Express and Capital One cardholders…
Bluesky has finally unveiled its new direct messaging (DM) feature, allowing users to privately chat one-on-one directly within the app. This was previously announced as an upcoming feature at the beginning of the month, and it looks like it has been quickly rolled out and subsequently shared on the Bluesky roadmap blog.To kick off a private conversation, users can simply click on the chat icon, which can be found at the bottom of the screen on mobile devices and on the sidebar for desktop users. From there, starting a new chat is as easy as clicking the plus icon on…
As voters will head to polls this year in more than 50 countries, experts have raised the alarm over AI-generated political disinformation and the prospect that malicious actors will use generative AI and social media to interfere with elections. Meta has previously faced criticism over its content moderation policies around past elections—for example, when it failed to prevent the January 6 rioters from organizing on its platforms. Clegg defended the company’s efforts at preventing violent groups from organizing, but he also stressed the difficulty of keeping up. “This is a highly adversarial space. You play Whack-a-Mole, candidly. You remove one…
Google’s big developer conference this year, I/O 2024, was all about artificial intelligence. The company showed off its own AI projects and gave us a sneak peek at how other companies are using their AI tools to make our favorite apps even better. However, the most notable thing talked about during the conference was none other than Gemini Nano, the smaller, more efficient version of the Gemini AI chatbot technology that can run right on our phones.So, what’s the big deal about Gemini Nano? It’s designed to be super lightweight, so it can work on phones without needing a ton…
The head of the Federal Communications Commission introduced a proposal Wednesday that would require political advertisers to disclose when they use AI-generated content in broadcast TV and radio ads.The proposal, if adopted by the commission, would add a layer of transparency that many lawmakers and artificial intelligence experts have been calling for as rapidly advancing generative AI tools produce lifelike images, videos and audio clips that threaten to mislead voters in the upcoming U.S. election.But the FCC, the nation’s top telecommunications regulator, only has authority over TV, radio and some cable providers. Any new rules would not cover the explosive…
One of the reasons to use Waze for navigation is the community that is quick to share their recent driving experience over the same roads that you travel on. So if there is a pothole causing an issue on a road, you’ll know about it thanks to those who already suffered through the experience of driving over it. The best way to understand Waze is to look at Google Maps and Apple Maps as the apps to use for the all-around experience of driving to a location, finding places to eat, where to stay, and how you can be entertained.Waze…
Nebraska is sueing social media giant TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, claiming the platform targets minors with “addictive design” and is “fueling a youth mental health crisis.””TikTok has shown no regard for the wreckage its exploitative algorithm is leaving behind,” Attorney General Mike Hilgers said in a statement. The lawsuit, filed in state court Wednesday, claims the platform engages in “deceptive and unfair trade practices” by claiming it is “family-friendly” and “safe for young users.” The lawsuit alleges TikTok does not adhere to its own Community Guidelines, which states the platform does not allow “content that may put young people…
The big AI infusion to iOS 18 isn’t the only change coming to the iPhone this September according to a report from Economic Daily (via AppleInsider). According to this report, all of the mechanical buttons on the iPhone 16 series will be replaced by those of the capacitive type. Economic Daily says that Apple placed a huge order with supplier Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) for capacitive buttons that will replace all of the regular buttons on the upcoming iPhone 16 line. That would include the power button, volume button, the Action Button, and the new Capture button. The latter would…
Today, T-Mobile announced that monthly prices for each line will go up by up to $5 for older plans including Magenta, Magenta MAX, Magenta 55+, Magenta First Responder, ONE, and Simple Choice. Some Sprint plans were also affected. If you thought T-Mobile was done was done for the day, that’s not true, as a new report claims that more price hikes are on the way.According to The Mobile Report, T-Mobile will also increase prices on Go5G 55 plans from May 23. The Plus and Next versions will also be impacted. Customers can expect to pay $5 more each month for…
During the recent Google I/O developer conference, Google unveiled the latest version of Android TV, Android 14 for TV. This update will be available on new Google TV devices, and developers have been given access to an updated emulator to prepare for the release. As reported by Android Authority, a closer look at the update revealed references to a highly anticipated feature: “Find my remote.”This feature is a welcome addition for many users who frequently misplace their TV remotes. The frustration of searching for a lost remote is familiar to many, and Google’s solution promises to alleviate this common issue. In…
It’s been years since Apple started using the iPad “Pro” moniker and launching tablets that are well too big to be looked at as actual tablets. The old 12.9-inch iPad Pros, the new 13-incher — these things are as huge, if not bigger than a MacBook. And the hardware inside has the power to match — most recently, the Apple M4 made its debut in an iPad, not in any type of Mac!For all those years, the tech community has always had one question, and one hope — why can’t we run macOS on these things? And people were analyzing…
Last fall, Amazon dropped the news that it has been using generative AI to upgrade many of Alexa’s features and that it’s gearing up to unleash a more chatty and intuitive Alexa, powered by a new large language model tailored for voice interactions. Back then, it was mentioned that this upgrade would reach US customers sometime in 2024.Amazon’s decade-old voice assistant set for major upgrade Now, there’s buzz that Google Assistant’s top rival is finally getting the big AI makeover, but it is not going to be without a price tag. CNBC reports that insiders say Amazon is revamping its…
The time where a minority of people complain about the majority for staring at their phones, instead of actually interacting with each other and being present in the moment, might be coming to an end.Sure, technological progress in thеse last few decades has been pretty rapid. We went from people living with no phones, to people living in their phones, because phones are just so amazing, and addictive.Millennials and Gen Z can’t even imagine life without the entire world’s information at their fingertips, and every person they ever knew being immediately reachable.But as great as phones are, they have a…