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Posts tagged "finally"

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A huge Meta AI update finally arrives on Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses… for some
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After months of waiting the moment is here: Meta AI features have arrived on the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses for everyone – well, everyone in the US and Canada, for now.

The exclusivity to those regions is not the only caveat unfortunately. Another big one is that while the Meta AI tools are no longer locked behind an exclusive beta, Meta notes in its blog post announcement that they are still beta features – suggesting that you’ll likely run into several problems with regard to reliability and accuracy.

But while the update isn’t quite as complete as we’d have liked, it’s still a major leap forward for Meta’s smart glasses – finally having them deliver on the impressive AI promises Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made when they were revealed back at Meta Connect 2023 in September last year.

What can Meta AI do?

A video call shot on the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses

(Image credit: Ray-Ban / Meta)

The main Meta AI feature you’ll want to take advantage of is ‘Look and Ask.’ To activate it simply start a phrase with “Hey Meta, look and …” then ask the glasses a question about something you can see. 

You could try “… tell me about this animal,” or “…tell me about this building,” or even “…tell me what I can make for dinner with these ingredients.”

The glasses will then use your command alongside an image captured by the camera to search for an answer in its database – which include data the Meta AI has been trained on, and information it has gathered from Google and Bing.

As with all AI responses, we’d recommend taking what the Meta AI says with a pinch of salt. AI assistants are prone to hallucinating – which in the AI context you can read simply as “getting stuff completely wrong” – and this Meta model is no different. It will get stuff right too, but don’t take its advice as gospel.

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses covered in water droplets

(Image credit: Meta)

Beyond Look and Ask you can use the Meta AI assistant like the Google or Siri assistant on your phone. This means starting video calls (above), sending texts and images, or playing music all with just voice commands.

Just be prepared to get some attention as you walk around talking to your smart glasses – we got some odd looks when we were testing a different pair of specs the other day.

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Spotify finally unveils a desktop app miniplayer to end window-juggling, but there’s a catch
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Spotify Premium users rejoice – the music platform is finally adding a ‘miniplayer’ for its desktop app to improve users’ experience – a whopping three years after the web app got a similar feature.

The new miniplayer has two different designs and can be activated in the bottom right corner of the full-screen player, prompting the app to shrink into a minimized view showing media controls and song information. As I mentioned above, this isn’t the first appearance of a condensed Spotify player, but it’s the first implementation of the feature for the app's desktop version. 

The new miniplayer will be available for Windows, macOS, and ChromeOS, and looks like the miniplayers of other apps (like Apple Music) and users have been requesting this desktop feature for a long time. Some users have been so desperate for it that they’ve made their own, with a multitude of user-created apps currently available on GitHub. 

Before this addition, there was a small preview box with media controls that would appear while Spotify was minimized and users hovered their mouse over it, so combined with the existing web app miniplayer this development hasn’t come totally out of the blue. It makes me wonder why it took so long to bring it to the desktop version, considering it already existed in the web version for years. 

Man at a computer jamming out to music

(Image credit: Shutterstock/Andrey_Popov)

The benefits of this feature update are pretty obvious – many people have Spotify running in the background while doing other activities on their PCs. Before this update, you’d have to minimize your present activity (or resize your open windows) and switch to the Spotify tab, even if you wanted to do something simple like skip to the next track or episode or adjust the in-app volume – unless you have dedicated media controls on your keyboard, that is. This was outlined in a community post on Spotify's official website, with the aim being to give users better control of the player without having to interrupt their activities. 

Once users open the Spotify miniplayer, it appears as an “always on top” floating window that stays visible in front of all other opened windows on your desktop, and operates independently of whatever you’re doing in the main Spotify window. The miniplayer will also be able to play any media you can play in the main app, including music, short videos, and podcasts.

The bad news is that the feature is currently only available to Spotify Premium users, so you'll need to shell out for a subscription if you want to use it. It’ll be interesting to see if Spotify makes it available to all users in the future.

A promo shot of Spotify's new DJ feature.

AI DJ was fun, but this is a far more practical feature. (Image credit: Spotify)

To use the feature, open your Spotify desktop app, and start playing some content. Then, click the miniplayer icon: the small white square that’s in a larger white outlined square. This should open the miniplayer, and if you’re unable to see either the icon or your miniplayer doesn’t pop up when you click it, try reinstalling the Spotify app. 

Spotify is just catching up with Apple Music after a decade by giving this feature to desktop users. What makes it a little more puzzling is that there have been Spotify miniplayer features in other versions of the app (such as a Google Maps integration on Android phones) for a while now, so Spotify had already worked it out to some degree at least.

Maybe Spotify thought the demand for a widget-like feature simply wasn’t there, but how many third-party apps there are and how many users have been asking for such a feature paints a confusing picture. In any case, I’m glad it got around to giving users exactly what they’ve been asking for, and hopefully, it carries on putting in features that users explicitly tell Spotify they want to see. Fun novelty features are impressive and entertaining, like AI DJ and Spotify Wrapped, but at the end of the day, users appreciate products that work well. 

Via Digital Music News.

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You can now finally use Sonos Voice Control with Spotify tunes – here’s how
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Audio brand Sonos is expanding the reach of its Voice Control software to now support Spotify, allowing users to verbally command the streaming service.

All you have to do to control the app, according to the company, is to say the words “Hey Sonos, play Spotify” into one of the brand’s supported speakers. That’s literally it. Doing so will play one of your Spotify playlists at random. If you want the software to play a specific playlist, you’ll have to mention it by name, like “Discover Weekly,” for example. The feature does extend beyond just being a glorified play button, as it can also be used to help manage your library. 

You can instruct Sonos to add certain songs to a playlist. It can also like or dislike tracks for you with the right command. Telling it “Hey Sonos, I like this song” will make the AI save that piece of music into your account’s 'Liked Songs.' 

Additionally, Voice Control can play specific genres or subgenres of music, be it jazz or classic alternative from the 1990s. You don’t have to be super specific; Spotify’s algorithm has a good understanding of what people are looking for.

Security and availability

It’s worth mentioning commands are processed locally on your Sonos speaker to ensure “fast response times and easy follow-ups”. The company also states no audio – be it from your voice or the surrounding environment – will be saved on any cloud server or listened to by some random third-party. 

Now, there are two ways to connect a Sonos speaker to Spotify. You can either manually choose Spotify to be the default source or make the platform be the most prominent music service played through the speaker. Users won’t have to login or make any changes to the settings.

It’s unknown if Voice Control will learn your listening habits. That is, if a Sonos device notices you frequently access Spotify, will it automatically adjust music sources? 

Spotify’s new support on Sonos Voice Control is available right now to both Premium subscribers as well as free users. Simply download the latest patch on your devices.

While we have you, check out TechRadar's roundup of the best soundbars for 2024. Spoiler alert: Sonos makes an appearance on the list.

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Google Drive is finally getting a dark mode – and this makes me happy
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It looks like Google Drive could finally get a dark mode option for its web version, meaning perusing documents could become a lot easier on the eye for people who like their web pages muted rather than a searing while. 

This information comes courtesy of 9to5Google, which reports that one of its Google accounts received an update that prompts users to try out a “New Dark mode” so that they can “enjoy Drive in the dark”. The option to trigger this dark mode is reportedly under the ‘Appearance’ option in the Settings menu of Drive, but I’ve not seen this in either my personal Drive or my workspace Drive. 

However, from the images 9to5Google provided, it looks like the dark mode in Drive is rolling out bit by bit, and will be a fairly straightforward integration of the mode that one can find in Android, Chrome and other Google apps. No icons are changed in terms of design or color, rather the background switches from white to black, with text flipping to white – all fairly standard. 

There’s some difference in shading between the inner portion of Drive, where one will find documents and files, compared to the sidebar and search bar; the former is black, while the latter is slightly grey in tone. 

Is this a huge deal? Not really, but for people who work late into the evening, the ability to switch from light mode to dark can be a blessing on tired eyes. And having a dark mode can offer a more pleasant experience for some people in general, regardless of the time of the day. 

I’m definitely up for more dark mode options in Google services and beyond. Where once I thought dark mode was overhyped, I started using it on some of the best Android phones and my iPhone 15 Pro Max and haven't really looked back – it makes scrolling through various apps in bed more comfortable, though common sense would say you’re better of putting your phone down when in bed and picking up a book instead. 

My hope is that by bringing dark mode Drive, Google will better integrate dark options into more of its apps and services, especially in Gmail, which has a dark mode but won’t apply it to actual emails when using the web versions, which is jarring. So fingers crossed for a more ubiquitous dark mode from Google.

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YouTube Music will finally let you look up tracks just by singing into your phone
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It took a little while, but YouTube Music is, at long last, giving users the ability to search for songs just by singing a tune into a smartphone’s microphone.

The general YouTube app has had this feature since mid-October 2023, and judging from recently found images on Reddit, the version on YouTube Music functions in the exact same way. In the upper right corner next to the search bar is an audio chart icon. Tapping it activates song search where you then either play, sing, or hum a tune into your device. 

Using the power of artificial intelligence, the app will quickly bring up a track that, according to 9To5Google, matches “the sound to the original recording.” The tool’s accuracy may depend entirely on your karaoke skills. 

Missing details

Because there hasn't an official announcement yet, there are a lot of missing details. For starters, it’s unknown how long you're supposed to sing or hum. The original tool required people to enter a three-second input before it could perform a search. Presumably it will take the same amount of time, but without official word from the platform, it’s hard to say with total confidence.

Online reports claim the update is already available on YouTube Music for iOS. However, 9To5Google states they couldn’t find the feature on either their iPhones or Android devices. Our Android phone didn’t receive the patch either so it’s probably seeing a limited release at the moment. 

We reached out to Google asking if it would like to share official info about YouTube Music’s song search tool alongside a couple of other questions. More specifically, we wanted to know if the feature is rolling out to everyone, or will it require a YouTube Music Premium plan? We will update if we get answers. 

You can't listen to music without a good pair of headphones. For recommendations, check out TechRadar's list of the best wireless headphones for 2024.

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Nvidia finally catches up to AMD and drops a new app that promises better gaming and creator experiences
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Nvidia has announced plans to bring together the features of the Nvidia Control Panel, GeForce Experience, and RTX Experience apps all in a single piece of software. On February 22, Nvidia explained on its website that this new unified app is being made available as a public beta. This means that the app could still be changed in the hopes of improving it, but you can download it now and try it for yourself.

The app is made specifically to improve the experience of gamers and creators currently using machines equipped with Nvidia GPUs by making it easier to find and use functions that formerly lived in separate programs. 

Users with suitable Nvidia GPUs can expect a number of significant improvements that come with this new centralized app. Settings to optimize gaming experiences (by tweaking graphical settings based on your hardware)  and downloading and installing new drivers can now be found in one easy interface.

It’ll be easier to understand and keep track of driver updates, such as new features and fixes for bugs, with clear descriptions. While in-game, users should see a redesigned overlay that makes it easier to access features and tools like filters, recording tools, monitoring tools, and more. Speaking of filters, Nvidia is introducing new AI Freestyle Filters which can enhance users’ visuals and allow them to customize the aesthetics of their games. As well as all of these upgrades, users can easily view and navigate bundles, redeem rewards, get new game content, view current GeForce NOW offers, and more.

Screenshot of the webpage where users can download the Nvidia app beta

(Image credit: Future)

Nvidia's vision

It certainly seems like Nvidia has worked hard to create a more streamlined app that makes it easier to use your RTX-equipped PC. It’s specifically intended to make it easier to do things like make sure your PC is updated with the latest Nvidia drivers, and quickly discover and install other Nvidia apps including Nvidia Broadcast, GeForce NOW, and more. The Nvidia team also claims in its announcement that this new centralized app will perform better on RTX-GPU-equipped PCs than its separate predecessors. That’s thanks to reduced installation times through the app, better responsiveness from the user interface (UI), and because it should take up less disk space than its predecessors (I assume combined). 

This isn’t the end of the new Nvidia app’s development, and it seems some legacy features didn’t make the cut, including 360/Stereo photo modes and streaming directly to YouTube and Twitch, because they see less use. Clearly, Nvidia felt it wasn't worth including these more niche features in the new app, and anyone who wants to continue to use them can still use the older apps (for now, at least). The new app is focused on improving performance, and making it easier to install and integrate new features into users’ systems. 

An Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 slotted into a PC with its fans showing

(Image credit: Future)

By combining its apps into one, easy-to-use piece of software, Nvidia is finally catching up to AMD in one aspect where Team Red has the advantage: software. AMD's Radeon Adrenalin app already offers a lot of these features, as well as others, like a built-in browser and HDMI link assurance and monitoring that can automatically detect any issues with the HDMI’s connectivity – all in one single interface.

Finally, AMD doesn’t require users to make an account to be able to use its app. We don’t expect that Nvidia will fully catch up to AMD’s app just yet (though it would be nice not to have to sign in), but this is definitely a push in the right direction and hopefully users will see a lot of use out of the new app.

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This upcoming feature on Google Keep may finally sway me away from Apple Notes for good
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Google Keep is a popular task management and note-taking tool integrated with Google Suite so you can create and tick off to-do lists as you work on your computer or phone. The mobile version of Google Keep could be about to get a new feature that may tempt people away from their other note-taking apps – lock screen access to your notes.

According to 9to5Google, the team behind Google Keep has been pushing to become the default note-taking app on Android devices. In the same way, Apple Notes is the default note-taking app on every iPhone, iPad, and Mac. If Google Keep does become the de facto note-taking app of choice on Android devices, this opens the door to the app having more features that can be integrated more intimately into your phone. 

Alongside lock screen access to recent notes, we could also see improved stylus support so you can jot down your thoughts quickly and do fun doodles with a bit more control of your strokes. In version 5.24 of the app, there’s a new section of the settings menu that lists the lock screen access as ‘coming soon’, which gives me hope that we’ll see the feature sooner rather than later. 

I have no memory, I need lock screen access, please

As an extremely forgetful person who needs to make lists for everything, I am so excited about the possibility of being able to look at my lock screen and see all my important to-dos at a glance, especially if the feature becomes available to non-Android users too. 

You can have shopping lists, reminders, positive affirmations, and reflections all on your lock screen and tick them off as you go through them without even needing to unlock your phone. I currently use Google Keep on my work computer exclusively to tick things off as I go through the day. If I can have my professional to-do list not just on a mobile app but very visible on my lock screen, I can keep tabs on what needs to be done while on my commute to work, and jot down tasks to carry over to the next day on the way back home. 

Apple Notes has been my default note-taking app mostly because I’m an iPhone user, and while it has had a few improvements here and there (like adding grids, text formatting options, and being able to drop in photos into the app) it’s ultimately nothing special in the world of note-taking apps. If Google Keep can implement lock screen access outside of just Android phones, you’d better believe I’m shifting all my shopping list reminders over immediately and saying goodbye to Apple Notes for good. 

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Microsoft finally teaches Copilot AI some new tricks – but is this enough to stop Windows 11 users getting impatient?
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Windows 11 just received improvements in testing to make its Copilot AI more useful with implementing changes in the actual OS environment – in other words, the features that we’re all waiting for.

Copilot has a pretty limited repertoire in terms of what the AI can do for manipulating Windows settings (as opposed to its standard tricks in terms of replying to queries, image creation and so forth).

However, the bag of settings tricks just got considerably heavier, with a raft of additions having just been made to preview build 26058 of Windows 11 (in the Canary and Dev testing channels).

That build was actually released a week ago, but Microsoft just ushered in these extra improvements as Neowin noticed.

So, what can Copilot do for you now? There are a number of important accessibility changes, so for example the AI can be instructed to turn on Narrator or Live Captions, or voice functionality (Voice Access or typing).

And you can get Copilot to take out the trash (empty the Recycle Bin), turn on battery saver mode, or even tell you the IP address of your device.

Here’s the full list of the new capabilities of Copilot when it comes to engaging with Windows settings:

  • Ask for available wireless networks
  • Ask for system or device information
  • Ask for battery information
  • Ask to clean storage
  • Ask to empty Recycle Bin
  • Ask to toggle Battery Saver
  • Ask to show startup apps
  • Ask for your IP address
  • Ask for system, device, or storage information

And the new accessibility features are as follows:

  • Ask to turn on Narrator
  • Ask to open Voice Access
  • Ask to turn on Magnifier
  • Ask to change text size
  • Ask to start Live Captions
  • Ask to turn on high-contrast
  • Ask to start voice typing

This expands on Copilot’s existing powers to tweaks settings, which already includes taking a screenshot, or changing between the dark and light themes, for example.

Analysis: Expansion pack

There are 16 new abilities introduced in testing here, which should be coming through to the finished version of Windows 11 soon enough. That more than doubles the existing abilities of Copilot at the moment – there are just 12 ways to operate Windows 11 settings via the AI right now – so it’s a welcome expansion.

At the same time, progress on this front feels rather sluggish, given that Copilot and more broadly AI is such a major focus for Microsoft, ever since Bing Chat burst onto the scene about a year ago.

Windows 11 users were sold Copilot partly on its features related to operating various settings and modes easily and conveniently, rather than having to dive into a search deep in the Settings app (or hunting elsewhere in the interface). And thus far, not a lot of capabilities have been added, really.

We’re hoping Microsoft will get its foot to the floor on this side of the Copilot experience later this year, with the Windows 11 24H2 update, but for now, a doubling of numbers is at least a sign of some decent forward momentum.

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Windows 11 could finally make color management easier, and that’s great news for artists and gamers
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Microsoft might be planning to release a new color management panel that’ll make picking the perfect color profile for your PC much easier. The perfect color settings make games pop out of the display more vividly, and if you’re a digital artist or photographer, the right color profile could make or break your next masterpiece. 

According to VideoCardz, the change was spotted in the Windows Insider program's latest Insider Preview Build 26052. This is a community of Windows enthusiasts and developers that get early access to potential new features and upgrades, and give feedback before the features are available to regular Windows 11 users. 

The new color management panel showcased in the build has been updated to the modern Windows 11 aesthetic and relocated to the main Settings menu, with easy-to-navigate options and a simpler layout. The old color management menu, which had to be accessed via the Windows Control Panel, has been effectively removed in Build 26052.

See more

Better control,hopefully … 

Most people who just use their PC for office work or school projects might never venture to this section of the Settings menu, but this could be great news for photographers, digital artists, video editors, and gamers who rely on getting the most out of their monitors. 

From the side-by-side screenshot comparison in the above tweet (sorry, 'X post'), you can see some new features too: the option to color-calibrate your monitor for specific profiles and enable automatic color balancing for compatible Windows apps. If you don’t want to manually color calibrate, you can either select the best option from the available profiles or create your own so you get the most accurate hues. 

While we're excited about this change, we do have to keep in mind that some features that are put into the Dev channel don’t always make it out to the public, so there is a chance we might never see it reach the public build.  We do however hope to see it come to Windows 11 soon because it’ll be a convenient way of managing your color preferences and profiles within the menu layout you’re already familiar with. 

If you want to give it a go, you’ll have to sign up to join the Windows Insider program first. Once you’ve done that you’ll be able to go straight to the ‘display’ section of your general settings and see the ‘Color Management’ option, where you can play around with different profiles and settings. 

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Microsoft finally exorcises digital poltergeist that messed with desktop icons and stopped some users from getting Windows 11 23H2
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Remember that really strange bug where Windows 11 caused havoc with multi-monitor setups, shuffling desktop icons around, or even moving them onto different screens?

Well, the good news is Microsoft has now fixed this (but the not-so-great news is that it isn’t remedied for Windows 10 users, not yet – we’ll come back to that shortly).

Affected Windows 11 PCs were seeing icons being moved about on the desktop, or seemingly randomly shifted to their other monitors in a highly confusing fashion. Rather like the digital equivalent of a poltergeist possessing your system and causing mischief.

The problem was first spotted in Windows 11 back in November 2023, with the root cause being Copilot – and this led to Microsoft putting a block (a so-called compatibility hold) on rolling out the AI assistant to those with multiple monitors attached to their PC. (And furthermore, there was a block on the Windows 11 23H2 upgrade, for those who hadn’t yet migrated to that version – as it introduces Copilot).

However, all that’s now lifted as the issue has been resolved, as Neowin spotted.

Microsoft updated its known issues with Windows 23H2 (in the release health dashboard) to say that: “This issue was resolved on the service-side for Windows 11, version 23H2 and Windows 11, version 22H2 on devices with updates released January 9, 2024 or later. Non-managed consumer Windows devices with no other compatibility hold should now have Copilot for Windows available. The safeguard hold has been removed as of February 7, 2024.”

Analysis: Ghost in the machine

A service-side tweak means that Microsoft has applied the fix on its end, so there’s no actual update or tinkering that needs to happen with your Windows 11 PC. The fix is just there, and the compatibility hold on Windows 11 23H2 is lifted, so those who’ve been stuck without 23H2 or Copilot should now be able to upgrade just fine.

However, Microsoft observes that it may take up to 48 hours for 23H2 to be offered to your computer. Restarting the PC and manually checking for updates may help to prompt Windows to discover the upgrade.

This is true for Windows 11 PCs previously blocked from 23H2, and also Windows 10 users who wanted to upgrade their device to Windows 11 23H2. The twist here, though, is this icon-flinging bug isn’t actually resolved with Windows 10, if you want to stick with the older OS rather than migrate to Windows 11.

If you recall, Windows 10 users were also affected, and blocked from getting Copilot (when it was subsequently rolled out to them). And sadly, that’s still the case, so those with multiple monitors running Windows 10 still won’t get the AI assistant. With the problem solved in Windows 11, though, presumably it won’t be long before it’s also cured for those staying on Windows 10.

Microsoft updated the Windows 10 release health dashboard to note that: “We are working on a resolution for this issue on Windows 10, version 22H2 and will provide an update in an upcoming release.”

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