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Google Bard finally gets a free AI image generator – here’s how to try it
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Considering how popular image generating is right now, Google Bard’s recent update that adds AI image generation seems all but inevitable.

According to the official Google Bard update page, using the tool is quite simple. You can activate the AI image generator by simply entering “a few words” into the search bar, “starting with English prompts.” Then you “click ‘Generate more’ for more options and download the ones you like.”

Those generated images are stored in pinned chats, recent chats, and Bard Activity, and can be deleted from your Bard Activity by deleting the prompt that generated them.

Bard’s image generation is powered by its updated Imagen 2 model, which is meant to balance speed with quality to deliver photorealistic images. The new feature is available worldwide including in the US, except in the following regions/countries: European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland, and the UK. It’s also only available in English and only to those 18 and above, though how Google would enforce the age restriction beyond a generic ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ question is unclear.

In terms of responsibility, Google states in its official blog that “Bard uses SynthID to embed digitally identifiable watermarks into the pixels of generated images,” which makes its AI-generated images distinct from works created by humans. Most likely this feature was developed to prevent people from using generated images for commercial use, which tracks since that would open up a legal can of worms.

Google also asserts that it seeks to limit violent, offensive, or sexual content from the training data, as well as applying filters to prevent named people from being involved in image generation. 

Bard with Gemini Pro will also be enhanced with this new update. The update page states that “Bard will be far more capable at things like understanding, summarising, reasoning, brainstorming, writing, and planning.” This upgrade to Bard’s AI is most likely what allowed Google to offer the free AI image generator tool in the first place, along with the support.

Google Bard Image Generation

We created the first two images with a simple prompt and clicked “Generate more” to see the second two. (Image credit: Future)

Google Bard is taking over 

Google has been going all in with its Bard AI, even using it to slowly replace Google Assistant, which was the tech giant’s previous answer to Apple’s Siri. It was discovered that Google changed the greeting pop-up for various devices from ‘I’m Assistant with Bard’ to simply ‘I’m Bard.’

It was also announced that Google would be removing 17 features from Assistant in the coming weeks, including playing audiobooks on Google Play Books through voice command and asking for information about your contacts. The official announcement even implied that more features would be removed.

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Microsoft just launched a free Copilot app for Android, powered by GPT-4
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If you're keen to play around with some generative AI tech on your phone, you now have another option: Microsoft has launched an Android app for its Copilot chatbot, and like Copilot in Windows 11, it's free to use and powered by GPT-4 and DALL-E 3.

As spotted by @techosarusrex (via Neowin), the Copilot for Android app is available now, and appears to have arrived on December 19. It's free to use and you don't even need to sign into your Microsoft account – but if you don't sign in, you are limited in terms of the number of prompts you can input and the length of the answers.

In a sense, this app isn't particularly new, because it just replicates the AI functionality that's already available in Bing for Android. However, it cuts out all the extra Bing features for web search, news, weather, and so on.

There's no word yet on a dedicated Copilot for iOS app, so if you're using an iPhone you're going to have to stick with Bing for iOS for now if you need some AI assistance. For now, Microsoft hasn't said anything officially on its new Android app.

Text and images

The functionality inside the new app is going to be familiar to anyone who has used Copilot or Bing AI anywhere else. Microsoft has been busy adding the AI everywhere, and has recently integrated it into Windows 11 too.

You can ask direct questions like you would with a web search, get complex topics explained in simple terms, have Copilot generate new text on any kind of subject, and much more. The app can work with text, image and voice prompts too.

Based on our testing of the app, it seems you get five questions or searches per day for free if you don't want to sign in. If you do tell Microsoft who you are, that limit is lifted, and signing in also gives you access to image generation capabilities.

With both Apple's Siri and Google Assistant set to get major AI boosts in the near future, Microsoft won't want to be left behind – and the introduction of a separate Copilot app could help position it as a standalone digital assistant that works anywhere.

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BlackPink is performing a free VR concert for Meta Quest 3 and Oculus Quest 2 owners as a post-Christmas gift
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If you’re a K-Pop fan who owns a Meta Quest headset or gets one for Christmas, Meta has a gift for you; free front-row seats to a BlackPink concert in virtual reality taking place on December 26 at 5pm PT / Wednesday 1am GMT / Wednesday 12am ACT.

The recording is from the group’s finale show of its recent World Tour – performed at the Gocheok Sky Dome – and will be available inside Meta’s Horizon Worlds metaverse platform.

And this isn’t some 10-minute clip show, this is a full-on 70-minute performance that has been custom-made for VR according to a Meta press release. It’ll feature a number of the group’s most popular tracks including Shut Down, Pink Venom, and How You Like That and more.

Get in early to avoid disappointment

You can RSVP for the BlackPink concert on the event’s page but to watch it you’ll need a Quest headset – specifically an Oculus Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, or Meta Quest 3 – and the latest version of Meta Horizon Worlds installed.

I’d recommend setting an alarm about 1 hour before the start time. This should give you time to install any updates if your app or headset isn’t up to date, get your avatar into the right outfit or created if you don’t yet have one, and go through the Horizon Worlds tutorial and into the Music Valley event space if you haven’t played it already.

From experience, I can tell you it’s better to wait for a while in the event than it is to try and hop in last minute and be stuck in long virtual queues that cause you to miss the concert.

Popular artists are known to cause server crashes when an influx of people try to load in all at the same time. Meta’s first big Foo Fighters VR concert suffered from this, and more recently Eminiem’s performance in Fortnite’s Big Bang event was missed by a lot of fans because of similar issues.

Thankfully if you do miss the BlackPink concert premiere because of server issues, simply can’t make it because of other commitments, or want to watch it again later, replays will be available until “the end of January” according to the official press release.

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Meta Quest 3 owners check the phone app as 12 free games might be waiting for you
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If you own a Meta Quest 3 you should check your Meta Quest smartphone app as you might have a six-month free trial of Meta Quest Plus waiting for you.

Previously this offer was an exclusive order incentive for people who bought the 512GB Meta Quest 3 model, but Quest 3 owners on Reddit have noticed that the 6-month trial is available to them even if they bought the 128GB version. This means rather than saving only $ 7.99 / £7.99 from a one-month trial everyone can get $ 47.94 / £47.94 worth of subscription value for no cost.

Meta Quest Plus is like a Netflix for Quest VR games. Each month you’ll get 2 free VR titles that you can add to your Quest library, and for as long as you are subscribed you can play them. If you unsubscribe, you’ll lose access to your free games until you rejoin Meta Quest Plus.  So with this trial that’s 12 free games, which is a pretty excellent deal that rivals this year’s best Black Friday deals.

To see if you can get this free six-month trial you’ll need to open open the Meta Quest app on your smartphone. Use Search to look for Meta Quest Plus, then on the Quest Plus store page tap the blue button at the bottom of your screen that says “Start your six-month trial.”

Meta Quest Plus advert showing Pistol Whip and Pixel Ripper 1995

(Image credit: Meta)

This offer doesn’t appear to be exclusive to new subscribers either. Comments on the original Reddit post suggest that people can get the six-month trial if they’ve tried the one-month trial before, and even if they’re subscribed – with the six free months being added on top of the subscription they already have.

It also appears to be available in every region, though some users have reported they can only see the one-month trial; that said it’s not clear if they’re Meta Quest 3 or Oculus Quest 2 owners.

If you’re looking to expand your VR library then Meta Quest Plus is a good way to do it, as the two games you get are worth more than the monthly $ 7.99 / £7.99 fee. However, you don’t get to pick which games you get so you might prefer to spend more but get the games you actually want.

The two free titles at the time of writing are NFL Pro Era and Angry Birds: Isle of Pigs. We've not tried either but both titles have been fairly well received with a four and four-and-a-half star rating, respectively, on the Quest Store.

If you don’t have a Meta Quest 3, or an Oculus Quest 2, then you can check out our Black Friday Oculus Quest 2 deals guide to see the latest and greatest offers. If it’s still available you might want to go after Amazon’s incredible Quest 2 deal as it gets you $ 50 / £50 off the headset and free $ 50 / £50 Amazon credit too.

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You can now talk to ChatGPT like Siri for free, but it won’t reveal OpenAI’s secrets
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ChatGPT has conveniently distracted us from OpenAI's boardroom drama, which has just seen Sam Altman return to the company as CEO, by making its Voice chat feature available to all free users.

The AI chatbot got its impressively conversational voice powers in September, but this feature was limited to the paid Plus and Enterprise tiers. But now OpenAI, which is looking for a shiny object to take eyes away from its recent meltdown, has made 'ChatGPT with voice' available to all users.

To use it, you just need the latest version of ChatGPT's iOS or Android app. Tap on the headphones icon at the bottom of the screen and you can start quizzing the chatbot about anything you like – as long as your question isn't about recent events, like OpenAI's CEO merry-go-round.

That's because the GPT-3.5 model that's available to free users has only been trained on data going up to January 2022. So when you ask it, for example, 'Why was Sam Altman fired from OpenAI?', it answers that there are “no public reports or indications” of this happening. How convenient.

Still, if you're looking for a voice assistant that's a bit chattier and more knowledgeable than the likes of Apple's Siri, then the ChatGPT voice function is a fun new tool (assuming the service hasn't gone down, like it did at around 2pm PT / 10pm GMT yesterday).

You can choose from five different voices and your chats (but not the audio clips) are saved just like your text-based conversations. It'll also auto-detect languages, though you can also choose this in the Settings menu.

 A Siri replacement?

A phone on a pink background showing ChatGPT's voice feature

(Image credit: Future)

Given it's now possible to use ChatGPT with Siri, the arrival of voice powers on the chatbot's free version is a potentially big deal. That's particularly the case for owners of the iPhone 15 Pro, who can map ChatGPT to the new Action button (by going to Settings > Action Button > Shortcut).

Siri and ChatGPT still have notable differences though. For example, Siri is deeply integrated with the iPhone, allowing it to perform actions like setting timers and controlling your phone's volume.

But ChatGPT's depth of knowledge and more conversational style is arguably better when it comes to general knowledge questions – as long as you're aware of its propensity to hallucinate.

It's certainly a fun, free feature to play with and will no doubt take some of the attention off OpenAI's Succession-like boardroom tussles, which could ultimately have a big impact on how the AI chatbot tussle plays out in 2024.

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Microsoft’s closing of free upgrade loophole appears to be breaking some Windows 11 and 10 PCs
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Microsoft recently closed a loophole that allowed people to continue to access the free upgrade to Windows 10 (and then Windows 11), from Windows 7 or 8, but it appears there’s been an unwelcome side-effect here.

Namely that those who have previously taken the free upgrade offer in years past have reportedly found that their license key is suddenly deactivated.

Let’s outline a quick example to make the situation clearer. Say you owned a PC with Windows 7 way back when, then took the free upgrade to Windows 10 when it emerged. And down the road, you further upgraded to Windows 11.

So, you’ve been happily carrying on with your Windows 11 PC, but last week – since the mentioned loophole was closed – you decided to upgrade your graphics card.

After that upgrade, you found that Windows 11 is telling you that your license key isn’t valid – so you have to buy a new one.

That’s what has happened to The Verge, and some of its readers, and other folks who have been complaining about the situation on Reddit and other online platforms.

Okay, so it’s not clear how many Windows 11 and 10 users this is happening to, but it’s certainly occurring in some circumstances. It may arise without a hardware component upgrade, The Verge suggests, and the deactivation of the license could even take place due to a simple BIOS update.

Reader Daniel Mittelman tells a story of having his activation blocked after upgrading some hardware in his PC, and he contacted Microsoft customer support about the problem.

Mittelman observes: “They told me because my Windows 10 license had been upgraded from Windows 7, and that they had discontinued support for Windows 7 product keys, that they could not continue my license for Windows 10 Pro after the hardware change.

“They also acknowledged that changing the hardware is not a violation of the Windows license so there is no reason my Windows 10 license should be revoked or altered in any way.”

Analysis: Microsoft is investigating, thankfully

That’s the key point here, of course. While you can’t get an entirely new PC and use a Windows license from your existing computer – it’s tied to one machine – upgrading components should not mess with your license (it’s still the same PC, just with a bit of it swapped out, or maybe several bits).

So, this shouldn’t be happening, and as theorized it may be something to do with Microsoft squashing the upgrade path from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10/11. That free offer officially expired a year after the launch of Windows 10, but remained an unofficial route until just recently when Microsoft finally did away with it.

Microsoft is looking into this issue, you’ll be glad to hear.

Principal product manager of Windows at Microsoft, Bill Babonas, told The Verge: “Microsoft is aware of these customers reports and is investigating. Customers who are experiencing technical difficulties should contact customer support.”

You can use Windows without activating the OS, it should be noted, but there are a sizeable number of limitations including not being able to customize the operating system, and indeed not getting updates (except critical security patches). There are other annoyances such as a watermark and pop-ups nagging to activate Windows, too. In short, it’s far from ideal to be limping along in this manner…

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Hate Copilot in Windows 11? Free privacy tools can now get rid of the AI
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DoNotSpy11, a free anti-tracking tool that aims to keep your privacy levels tighter in Windows 11 (and 10), just got an update that allows it to deal with Copilot – as did O&O ShutUp10 (we’ll come back to that later).

Tom’s Hardware spotted that the new version of DoNotSpy11 (v1.2.0.0) comes with support for Windows 11 23H2, the freshly unleashed annual update for this year.

The 23H2 update comes with Copilot, as you may be aware, and drops the AI into your taskbar as a default icon. If you don’t want that, DoNotSpy11 now allows you to disable that button – although you can already do this in Windows 11 anyway.

However, beyond that, DoNotSpy11 has an option to entirely ‘Disable Copilot’ which is a new introduction in the app’s raft of measures for maintaining privacy.

There are a lot more privacy options here besides that, including disabling various elements of Windows 11 telemetry (data on usage of the OS sent back to Microsoft), getting rid of lock screen notifications, disabling widgets, and more.

DoNotSpy11 also makes a big effort to tackle a lot of Microsoft’s attempts to sneak adverts into the UI of Windows 11. That includes disabling ads in File Explorer, suggestions in Windows Ink Workspace and the Settings app, as well as Start Menu app suggestions, and more besides.

Another similar offering, O&O ShutUp10 (which supports Windows 11 as well as Windows 10), tackles Windows privacy issues and tweaks settings to evade Microsoft’s telemetry in a similar vein.

That app was recently updated to also disable Copilot, and remove the taskbar button.

You can check out and download DoNotSpy11 here, or O&O ShutUp10 here, both of which are free.

Analysis: Two long-standing options

Both DoNotSpy11 and O&O ShutUp10 have been around for some time (indeed, the former used to be DoNotSpy10 before Windows 11 existed).

We should note that the original version (the initial DoNotSpy10 for Windows 10) allegedly carried an advert-pushing plugin (ironically, for something designed to keep your privacy). This wasn’t malware, but we’re told it was identified by some antivirus apps as a potentially unwanted program (or PUP). At least the free version of DoNotSpy10 had this anyway, when it first launched, but that’s no longer the case (the product description of DoNotSpy11 is clearly marked as ’ad-free’ thankfully).

One advantage of the alternative O&O ShutUp10++ is that it doesn’t have to be installed – it can just be run directly from the download folder, which is useful.

However, in either case, you proceed at your own risk, although that’s true for any piece of third-party software for Windows 11.

Having the ability to ditch Copilot is certainly going to be a tempter for some folks who don’t want the AI on their desktop. While many users are embracing Copilot, and are excited about its potential, there will always be more cautious types who don’t want the AI on their desktop – particularly not now, in its initial stages, when Copilot’s powers to interact with Windows 11 settings are still very limited.

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Been putting off that free Windows 11 or 10 upgrade? Windows 7 and 8 diehards need to move fast
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Microsoft just implemented something we never thought we’d see the software giant do – namely closing the loophole allowing for Windows 7 and 8 users to upgrade to Windows 10 or 11 at no cost.

We need to rewind time considerably to return to the start of this particular story, all the way back to when Windows 10 was first launched, and Windows 7 and 8 users were allowed a free upgrade to the new OS.

That freebie offer only lasted for a year after the launch of Windows 10, officially, but even after the deadline expired, it actually remained in place.

In short, anyone with a valid Windows 7 or 8 key could still upgrade their PC to Windows 10 just fine (and by extension, Windows 11 too, when that emerged – assuming the various additional system requirements were met including TPM).

Essentially, this was a loophole Microsoft never bothered to close – until now, because as Windows Central spotted, the company just made an official announcement that this unofficial upgrade path is now blocked (with a caveat).

The software giant said: “Microsoft’s free upgrade offer for Windows 10 / 11 ended July 29, 2016. The installation path to obtain the Windows 7 / 8 free upgrade is now removed as well. Upgrades to Windows 11 from Windows 10 are still free.”

However, as Windows Central points out, it’s important to note that technically, an upgrade is still possible as we write this. This change has just been applied with Windows 11 preview builds for now, but it will come through to the release version of the OS before long, no doubt.

So, if you do want to avail yourself of a free upgrade from Windows 7 or 8, you better move sharpish. It may even no longer be possible by the time you read this.

Analysis: An unexpected development

This is something we didn’t believe would ever happen, frankly, simply because the free upgrade has remained in place, on the sly, for so long. As Microsoft points out, the offer officially expired in mid-2016, over seven years ago – yes, seven years.

So, we just figured, like many others, that Microsoft was happy enough to let Windows 7 and 8 users continue to upgrade at no expense. Our presumption was that bolstered adoption figures for newer versions of Windows were to be welcomed. Apparently, this is no longer a concern for Microsoft (if it ever was – but we can’t imagine why the loophole remained open if it wasn’t).

Anyhow, as we observed above, act quickly if you have been holding off an upgrade, but intend to make the move. You may not have long at all left to pull the trigger.

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Adobe’s free version of Firefly finally exits beta – here’s how to access it
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Adobe has announced it is expanding the general availability of its Firefly generative AI tool on the company’s free Express platform. 

More specifically, the Text to Image and Text Effects tools are finally exiting their months-long beta. The former, as the name suggests, allows users to create unique images just by entering a word prompt such as horses galloping or a monster in a forest. The latter lets people create floating text bubbles with fonts sporting special effects. These two are mainly used to create compelling content for a variety of use cases from enhancing plain-looking resumes to marketing material. Apparently the tools were a huge hit with users during the beta.

Firefly’s text features are available in over 100 different languages from Spanish, French, Japanese, and of course, English. What’s interesting is Adobe tells us the AI is “safe for commercial use.” Presumably, this means the model won’t generate anything inappropriate or totally random. What it does generate will fit the prompt you entered. 

How to use Firefly

Using the generative AIs is very easy to do. It honestly takes no time at all. First, head on over to the Adobe Express website, and then create an account if you haven’t done so already. Scroll down a little on the front page, and you’ll see the creation tools primed and ready to go.  

Adobe Express website

(Image credit: Future)

Enter whatever text prompt you have in mind, give Adobe Express a few seconds to generate the content, and you’re set. You can then edit the image further if you’d like via the kit on the left-hand side.

Adobe Firefly

(Image credit: Future)

Future updates

The rest of the Firefly update is mainly geared towards an entrepreneurial audience. Subscribers to either Adobe Creative Cloud or Express Premium will begin to receive Generative Credits that can be used to have Firefly create content. Additionally, the AI is being integrated into an Adobe asset library for businesses. There aren’t any new features for everyday, casual users – at least not right now. 

Adobe states it has plans to expand its Express platform within the coming months. Most notably, it wants to bring the “latest version” to mobile devices. So we might see the Firefly AI on smartphones by the end of the year. We reached out to Adobe for clarification. This story will be updated at a later time.

While we have you, be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of the best AI art generators for 2023. Any one of these is a good alternative for Firefly.

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Adobe Express adds Firefly AI to its free plan for next level creativity
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The all-in-one creative suite Adobe Express is getting a wave of new features; chief among them is the introduction of the Adobe Firefly generative AI.

With Firefly being added, you will be able to create “custom image and text effects” using nothing more than a simple text prompt. The official trailer displays these tools in action as it showing the steps of how to create a poster for a neighborhood event. Firefly is used to change the basic lettering of a short phrase into a “purple gloss balloon” font. It can also be used to generate decorative backgrounds for posters. 

So it's nothing groundbreaking or anything that will blow your mind, but it is a nice addition to the Express toolbox. The best part is it’s available on the free version of Adobe Express, meaning anybody can take the AI feature out for a spin. 

We do want to warn you to not expect too much from this rendition of Firefly. Like a lot of other free image generators, the results can look rather nightmarish, especially when they involve people. It’s nowhere on the same level as Generative Fill on Photoshop. We recommend keeping things simple, like throwing in graphical flourishes, if you ever decide to try out the Express AI.

The company states the prompts support over 100 languages including French, German, Japanese, Spanish, as well as Brazilian Portuguese. Something we found a little funny is how Adobe clarifies that the content Firefly generates is “designed to be safe for commercial use.” Given how several companies with AIs are currently being sued over copyright issues, it looks like the Photoshop-developer felt the need to offer some reassurance to its customers. 

Notable non-AI features

The update introduces a lot of other non-AI tools. For the sake of brevity, we’re just going to focus on the more notable ones. 

For instance, you have Quick Actions for faster editing. These actions can remove the background in images, immediately convert a video into a GIF, edit PDFs, and “animate a character using just audio”. That last one is fittingly called Animate from Audio which will have “characters come to life” as their bodies automatically sync up to recorded dialogue. It takes some of the busy work out of animating the finer details.

Adobe is also introducing an all-in-one editor consisting of various design elements and pre-made templates for social media platforms. So if you want to make videos for TikTok or Instagram but don’t know how to start, the editor can help you out tremendously. 

Availability

Everything you see here is currently available on Adobe Express for desktop. A full list detailing each feature can be found on the official website. The company says it has plans to bring the update to the mobile app soon, but declined to give an exact date for the future patch in its announcement. 

It is great to see Adobe offer some of its latest tech for free. Photoshop can be very expensive. If you’re looking for other options, check out TechRadar’s list of the best Photoshop alternatives for 2023. 

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