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Posts tagged "getting"

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Bing AI may be getting crushed in the battle against Google search – but Microsoft might not care
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Microsoft doubtless hoped that the launch of Bing AI would help attract users to the Bing search site, but that hasn’t happened going by some fresh stats.

Statcounter has just aired some figures on search volume and the bad news (for Microsoft) is that Bing’s share of the search engine market in the US has dropped by half a percentage point.

Bing was on 7.4% this time last year, but is now on 6.9%, whereas Google has notched up from 86.7% in 2022 to 88% now.

Okay, so it’s not a big drop for Bing, but nonetheless, it shows that – at least according to one source – Microsoft’s AI chatbot hasn’t made any difference to its search traffic.

The better news in these stats (spotted by Windows Central) is that Edge is up 1% in the browser market, but it’s only on 5.5% in total, so Google’s Chrome remains just as dominant as its search engine.

Analysis: A reversal of priorities?

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about Bing AI not helping Microsoft’s search traffic efforts. A few months ago, Statcounter’s global stats also showed that Bing.com traffic fell slightly (to be fair, by 0.04% which is margin of error stuff, so effectively it stayed the same). The global stats for October 2023 also show a slight drop year-on-year.

The broad conclusion, then, is that Bing AI is not managing to drive any meaningful level of traffic to Microsoft’s search engine.

Does Microsoft really care overly about that, though? Maybe not so much now we’d suggest.

While the initial aim with Bing AI (or a big part of it) was to boost the attractiveness of Bing.com, since the launch of the chatbot, the AI explosion has been so pronounced – and the bandwagon so attention-grabbing – that artificial intelligence has become overrulingly important itself.

By which we mean that Bing search considerations, or persuading folks to adopt Windows 11 to get the Copilot AI (essentially integrated Bing with bells and whistles, though not many of the latter yet), have now taken a back seat.

If a fresh rumor is to be believed, Microsoft is bringing Copilot to Windows 10 – a surprising move after the software giant said that the older OS was no longer getting any new features (except for very minor tweaks – and the AI assistant most definitely is a major upgrade).

What this shows – if true – is that Microsoft is less worried about encouraging Windows 11 adoption (which has been seriously slow) and using Copilot as a carrot to persuade upgrades, and more concerned about getting all the many folks on Windows 10 using its AI, bolstering the figures for that.

We can believe this might be the case, given that in the bigger picture, AI has become such a huge deal – with everyone getting in on the act, and for example the likes of Nvidia making a ton of profit from its AI-targeted GPUs. Team Green is very keenly focused on those products now, to the extent that we even worry about the future of the best gaming GPUs (the GeForce ones, that is).

It’s likely the end goal is shifting to Microsoft advancing its AI tech across web properties and its desktop OS ecosystem alike, getting people used to Bing or Copilot being their everyday helper – and that being the primary goal.

Rather than leveraging AI to push the company’s other products, Microsoft is now prioritizing the other way round, possibly. Maybe also thinking that if its AI systems gain enough clout, users will follow to other products eventually, anyway.

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Google Maps could soon be getting its own AI chatbot
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Google hasn't been shy about pushing artificial intelligence into its various apps and services, and it seems that the venerable Google Maps could be next in line to get an integrated AI chatbot of its own.

Code hidden in the latest beta version of Google Maps for Android, as spotted by Android Authority, makes various mentions of in-app conversations – including the line “you're talking with a chatbot”, which sort of gives the game away.

However, only a few strings of related code have been spotted so far, so we don't have too much more information about this chatbot in terms of what form it will take, what it's designed to do, and how it will integrate with the rest of Google Maps.

Nothing is certain yet, and of course Google could easily change its mind about the Maps chatbot – but given the company's focus on AI these last few months, we wouldn't be surprised to see this new feature arriving in the app very soon.

Getting chatty

Without any official word from Google, we're left to speculate what an AI chatbot in Google Maps might do. As Android Authority points out, it could well be something to do with submitting reviews and comments to Google Maps, perhaps via the Local Guides program.

The line of code that says “thank you for your contribution” certainly backs that up. Perhaps a chatbot might swing into action when you've visited a place, asking what your experience was like or what you thought of the service.

Another possibility is that the upcoming bot will actually give you travel advice: what to see in a particular area, where the best places to stay are, and so on. This would be similar to the advice that Google Bard (now with Google Maps integration) can already give.

AI chatbots might also be used to field questions from Google Maps users to businesses – questions about opening hours and facilities, for example. Right now, these questions can be posted and answered by humans, but AI might be about to step in.

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Getting a new M3 Mac? Apple is already pushing out a macOS Sonoma update to optimize performance
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If you’re planning on being the owner of any of the new M3, M3 Pro, or M3 Max MacBook Pro or iMac models that were announced during Apple’s October Scary Fast event, you’ll need to install an update for macOS Sonoma immediately when you get your device.

All of the new devices are expected to arrive with a custom version of macOS Sonoma 14.1, build 23B2073. Once you begin to set up your new device, you should then follow that up by downloading the newer version, build 23B2077, and install it. Apple released macOS Sonoma 14.1, the very first update for macOS Sonoma, on October 25 just ahead of the Scary Fast event, and the current macOS Sonoma version that freshly-built Macs will ship with is build 23B74.

As explained by AppleInsider, Apple has not yet put out release notes for the custom update macOS Sonoma build. However, it’s expected that it’ll include the most up to date bug fixes and performance upgrades probably to do with the M3 processor chip.

No cause for alarm, just business as usual

This isn’t a cause to panic according to MacRumors, because we see what are known as day one updates fairly often. Day one updates just mean updates that are released upon the launch of a product (on day one of users having them). This happens because as the devices are being manufactured, they have to be prepared, packaged, and shipped with what ends up being a slightly older version of macOS. 

In the future, it’s feasible that new Macs will automatically check for an update as soon as they’re booted up for the first time, or even while still in the box. Reportedly, Apple has engineered a way to do this for the very newest iPhone models, which can upgrade their software to the newest iOS versions before leaving the Apple store.

Apple opened up ordering for the new Mac M3 devices after its Scary Fast event and you can order one now. The first M3 Macs are expected to start arriving to customers on November 7, namely the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3), MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3) and iMac (M3). However, certain configurations of MacBooks Pro laptops will be delivered later in the month. 

This was first discovered by known Apple observer and code investigator, @aaronp613, on X (formerly known as Twitter). 

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It’s good to see Apple looking out for users, and frequent updates have become an industry standard for operating systems and browsers, as well as other software – and as I mentioned earlier, a day one patch doesn’t necessarily mean a problem has been found at the last minute. Instead, it can ensure your new device has all the latest features and is fully protected as well.

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Google Maps is getting a big accessibility update that could change how people connect with the world
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Google is introducing new accessibility features to several of its platforms to help people with disabilities get around town more easily.

A few of the six changes will be exclusive to smartphones. Search with Live View on Google Maps will receive “screen reader capabilities… [giving] auditory feedback of the place around you”. This tool is meant to help “people who are blind or low-vision” get helpful info like the name or category of a location and how far away it is from their current position. All users have to do to activate it is tap the camera icon in the Google Maps search bar and then aim the rear camera at whatever is around them.  

Google Maps screen reader

(Image credit: Google)

The screen reader is making its way to iOS starting today with the Android version rolling out in the coming months. Also coming to mobile, the Chrome app’s address bar will be able to detect typos in text and display “suggested websites” according to what the browser thinks you’re looking for. This second tool is meant to help people with dyslexia find the content they’re looking for.

Google points out these two build on top of the recently released accessibility features on Pixel phones like the Magnifier app as well as the upgraded Guided Frame. The latter can help blind people take selfies by utilizing a “combination of audio cues, high-contrast animations, and haptic feedback”. 

Guided Frame is available on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro with plans to expand it to the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 by the end of the year.

Magnifier on Google Pixel

(Image credit: Google)

Easier navigation

The rest of the update consists of minor tweaks to select apps.

First, Google Maps on mobile is adding a “wheelchair-accessible transit” option for people looking for locations that don’t have any stairs at the entrance as well as buildings that are wheelchair friendly. Similarly, Maps for Android Auto will indicate “wheelchair-accessible places” on the screen with a little blue icon next to relevant results. Additionally, local businesses have the opportunity to label themselves as “Disabled-owned” on Google Search in case you want to support them directly.

The last change sees Assistant Routines on Google Home become more like the company's Actions Block app as users can configure the icons on the main screen however they want. For example, the on-screen icons can be increased in size and you can alter the thumbnail image for one of the blocks.

A Google representative told us this batch is currently rolling out so keep an eye out for the patch when it arrives.

We recommend checking out TechRadar’s list of the best text-to-speech software for 2023 if you’re looking for other ways to help you navigate the internet. 

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Google Assistant is finally getting Bard’s AI smarts – and it could help run your life
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It makes sense for the generative AI engine Google Bard to add some of its smarts to the Google Assistant tool that's been setting alarms and looking up facts on the web for years – and that's exactly what Google has just announced at its Made by Google 2023 event.

Assistant with Bard is described as “a step towards a more personal assistant” by Google exec Sissie Hsiao, and it builds on the recently added integrations between Bard and other Google products like Gmail and Google Drive.

So, for example, you could ask Assistant with Bard to highlight the most important emails you've had this week for you, or get the tool to write a social media post for you, to accompany a photo of your very cute puppy.

Another demo Google ran through was checking where a party was (based on a Gmail invite), finding out how long it would take to get there (via Google Maps), and then sending a text offering to travel there with a specific friend.

Personalization and reasoning

“[Assistant with Bard] combines Bard's generative and reasoning capabilities with Assistant’s personalized help,” writes Hsiao. “You can interact with it through text, voice or images – and it can even help take actions for you.”

So you get all the creativity of Bard, plus the functionality of Google Assistant, plus the personalization offered by the integrations with other Google products. It's a pretty comprehensive package, and it's going to be available on Android and iOS over the next few months.

It looks as though some features will be exclusive to Android, because of Assistant's deeper hooks into apps and settings on that platform. Google has also emphasized that the product will be “built with your privacy in mind” and have individual privacy settings – so we'll wait and see what that means.

Generative AI was a big part of the multiple announcements at the Made by Google 2023 event today, from photo editing tricks on the Google Pixel 8 Pro to clearer voice calling on the Google Pixel Buds Pro. You can catch up on everything that happened on our Google Pixel 8 liveblog.

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Microsoft Paint is getting its biggest upgrade in over a decade thanks to Windows Copilot
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During Microsoft’s Surface Event, the tech giant revealed a ton of new features and updates. One of the most interesting and possibly biggest was the Copilot all-in-one AI assistant, which is coming to Windows 11 on September 26, 2023.

Microsoft Copilot is a more general version of 365 Copilot that uses AI to help users with any Windows 11 programs including popular programs like Paint, Snipping Tool, Photos, and more. And now we have even more information about the standalone app, which just might be the most important update to Windows OS yet.

A new blog post from Yusuf Mehdi, CVP & Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, explains how Copilot works with a multitude of Windows programs. For instance, the Paint Cocreator app (which will be available to Windows Insiders starting September 26) allows users to input a text prompt, select a style, and generate a unique image, which can then be further modified by using the new layers feature for Paint, or by simply drawing on top of the generated image.

Microsoft Clipchamp, meanwhile, is a new companion AI tool for video editing with the use of enhanced AI tools like Auto Compose. By answering a few questions on the type of video you're developing, Clipchamp will provide recommended scenes, edits, and a narrative for you based on your input and creative assets. Then you can upload the video to, for instance, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or LinkedIn as well as to OneDrive or Google Drive.

Snipping Tool also received several new upgrades. You can now capture sound using audio and mic support along with visuals, by simply pressing Win + Shift + R or Print Screen to activate. Two new text actions, text extraction and redaction, were also added. 

Text extraction is used to scan content from an online article, a video call, or any other source and then copy it text directly into other documents like Word or PowerPoint. Text redaction is a safety feature that completely blacks out any text you don’t want to show, like an email address within your screenshots or a category of information.

A person using a touchscreen Windows 11 laptop.

(Image credit: Surface/Unsplash)

Photos app has been upgraded as well with a new feature called Background blur that offers a way to enhance image resolution and apply blur effects. Enhanced search capabilities make it easier to find photos saved in OneDrive by typing in keywords related to objects, locations, or dates. There’s also a new slideshow feature that organizes photos into a presentation to share with family and friends.

Voice also has gotten a boost and now works in more places including during the log-in process. You can now dictate complex and nonstandard words through the new spelling experience, and the corrections functionality will fix words that were recognized incorrectly. Narrator supports even more languages including Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and English (UK, India).

The Passkeys tool creates a unique, unguessable credential and allows you to sign in using your face, fingerprint, or device PIN. It will now be integrated into Windows OS and will work on multiple browsers including Edge, Chrome, Firefox, and more.

Adaptive Dimming is another new feature that allows users to conserve energy. If your PC presence sensor detects you are no longer paying attention, it will slowly dim your screen and save energy. It can also serve as an alert to refocus if your attention has been wandering.

John Cable, Microsoft’s, VP, Program Management, Windows Servicing & Delivery, released his own blog post which outlines how to access all these new features and updates. Windows 11 devices will gradually get access to these updates over the next few weeks. Anyone with Windows 11, version 22H2 running on their device can get access to these tools as soon as they're ready by going to Settings > Windows Update and turning on ‘Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available.’ 

All of these Copilot updates are expected to be broadly available in the November 2023 security update release. The Windows 11 23H2 update, meanwhile will not be dropping next week but in Q4 2023, which is October at the earliest.

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Windows 11 is getting two new features that’ll save you time in spades
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The latest preview build for Windows 11 shows off a new Settings homepage, complete with fresh backup capabilities for the OS.

This is build 22631 in the Beta channel, and the Settings homepage is a major move that’s been in the works for a while (it was previously seen in earlier test channels).

The homepage shows some status details along the top – the name of the PC, internet connection status, and when Windows Update last checked for updates – and a bunch of panels with various bits of info underneath.

Those panels (Microsoft calls them ‘cards’) include cloud storage details (OneDrive) – and how full it is – and a personalization panel that offers the ability to quickly change the Windows theme or color mode.

Another important card offers up recommended settings, providing access to recently used settings, or ones that you use a lot based on your past history of tweaking Windows 11.

Microsoft has also implemented panels for Xbox (with details like your Game Pass subscription, if you have one), and a card for Bluetooth devices to give you quick access to all the peripherals you might hook up wirelessly with.

Windows 11 Settings Homepage

(Image credit: Microsoft)

The other big introduction here is a revamped backup system for restoring your Windows 11 environment to a new PC (or your existing one, should the OS somehow crash and burn irrevocably).

The Windows Backup app is on hand for beta testers to back up their PC. When restoring Windows 11, the app will pull in all your settings and customization, as well as your pins on the taskbar and Start menu, and Microsoft Store apps. (Third-party apps from elsewhere will still get their pins kept on, but you’ll be directed to download the relevant installer from the web when you first fire them up).

Elsewhere in build 22631, there’s been a change to Dynamic Lighting whereby the Windows 11 accent color can be synced with your RGB peripherals, a neat little touch.

As expected, there are a bunch of bug fixes and other minor features, all of which are summarized in Microsoft’s blog post about the preview build.

Windows 11 Backup App

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Analysis: Time is of the essence

The theme here is timesaving. The new Settings homepage lets you easily adjust customization elements, and change commonly used settings in a single click, all in one place (rather than having to hunt in different Settings submenus, and let’s face it, these can be a bit of a maze to navigate at times, perhaps requiring Googling to find things).

Another major timesaver is the ability to have all your bits and pieces where you left them when restoring your PC from the Backup app. Having to redo all your customization and pinned elements is a real drag – a potentially lengthy process, and you may even forget stuff – so this is very helpful.

With these features progressing to the Beta channel, they’re coming close to arrival now. The next step is the Release Preview channel, and from there, it’s a short hop to what’ll surely be inclusion in the Windows 11 23H2 update due later this year.

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Windows 10 is getting a new cloud backup feature – with a catch
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Windows 10 is getting a new feature to backup and restore your system that was previously thought to be exclusive to Windows 11 – but there’s a twist in this tale.

We’re talking about the Windows Backup app which Microsoft pushed out to test versions of Windows 11 earlier this year (in May).

What this does is to back up pretty much everything for you – not just your files and folders, but apps, system settings, login details, the lot, so you can be up and running with a new PC in no time. These details are tied to your Microsoft account and backed up online to the cloud (OneDrive, or one of the other best cloud storage services).

So, this application is coming to Windows 10, and as PhantomOfEarth on X (formerly Twitter) noticed, it’s present in the new Release Preview build for the OS (version 19045.3391, KB5029331).

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However, the mentioned catch here is that while this works to facilitate a full (and seamless) Windows 10 cloud backup, it doesn’t actually let you restore the system to a Windows 10 PC.

Analysis: What’s this all about, then? Migration, in a word

Huh, you might now be thinking – so, what’s the point? Well, while you can’t restore to a new Windows 10 installation as part of setting up a fresh OS, you can restore your backup to a Windows 11 installation.

In other words, this is designed to be used to help those upgrading to Windows 11 bring across all their bits and pieces with a minimum of effort.

This makes sense, as you may recall that earlier this year, Microsoft told us that it would no longer be adding any new features to Windows 10 – outside of very minor tweaking (and security fixes, of course). This does indeed count as a pretty big feature, but as it’s just to aid in migration to the newer OS, it’s not technically of much use to those sticking with Windows 10.

This, then, is essentially a Windows 11 feature, or one to bridge the gap between the two operating systems in a seamless manner when upgrading – which is still a welcome ability. It’s just that it’d have been nice to see it introduced fully for Windows 10, too. Ahh well.

Via Neowin

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Cortana is finally getting the boot by Microsoft in favor of an actual AI
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If you recently updated Windows 11, you may have spotted the following message when trying to open the Cortana app: “Cortana in Windows as a standalone app is deprecated.”

Microsoft is finally cutting off support to Cortana, its Windows Phone-era assistant that first launched with Windows 10 back in 2014, in favor of AI features like Bing Search and Windows Copilot. Cortana was released in response to Apple’s Siri, which had been growing in popularity since its own debut. Microsoft even released a playful commercial poking fun at Siri’s more robotic voice while promoting how human-sounding Cortana was,

But thanks to this update, Siri has outlasted Microsoft’s robotic assistant. Here's the official post from Microsoft: “We are making some changes to Windows that will impact users of the Cortana app. Starting in August 2023, we will no longer support Cortana in Windows as a standalone app.” And for those asking for an assistance program, Microsoft is recommending Windows Copilot which is set to release with the Windows 11 23H2 update. The tech giant has already been testing out first-party and Bing third-party plugins for Copilot.

The app is still working on Windows 10 for now but, according to a source from Windows Latest, Microsoft plans to kill off the app on Windows 10 within a few weeks. For now, Cortana will remain with other apps like Outlook and Microsoft Teams, though it mostly likely won’t be permanent.

Should Microsoft have canned Cortana? 

It’s rather ironic that Cortana, which was made as a fake AI assistant of sorts based on the iconic one that aids Master Chief in the long-running video game franchise Halo series, is getting ousted by actual AI tools. But considering how AI has skyrocketed in popularity and in growth potential, it makes sense that Microsoft would completely drop app support that hasn’t received an update in two years.

But was this the right move for Microsoft? On one hand, it feels obvious to dump tools that haven’t been supported for so long. But maybe there could have been a way to integrate Cortana with AI technology to create a more personalized AI assistant experience. Imagine having Cortana combined with Bing search or Windows Copilot, giving you your results and aiding you.

Of course, this opens up a huge can of worms in regards to using the voice actress Jen Taylor's audio likeness in ways that were never covered by her original contract with Microsoft. Ethically she would need to give her consent and be paid royalties for that purpose.

But with Microsoft officially closing the chapter on Cortana, we’ll never know what could have been.

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ChatGPT-powered Bing AI is getting a feature some folks desperately want
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Microsoft’s Bing AI is getting a ‘no search’ feature and it’s coming soon, we’re told.

What does this ability do? Much as the name suggests, it instructs the Bing chatbot to answer off its own bat, and not search the web to use that data in the reply to your query.

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OnMSFT spotted that Mikhail Parakhin, who is head of Advertising and Web Services at Microsoft, let us know about the incoming functionality on Twitter.

Parakhin has actually mentioned the feature a few times in tweets over the past week, and in the most recent message, said that ‘no search’ is coming “soon” (as you can see above).

We shouldn’t be waiting long, then, to get this capability, and it’ll add to the growing armory of features that Microsoft is building out for Bing AI.

In case you missed it, Bing AI was recently furnished with improved sports knowledge for queries on the big game(s), and a major incoming feature is image recognition (so you can sling a picture at the chatbot, and have the location or building identified, for example). Bing Vision, as it’s called, is due to arrive for all users in the very near future.

Analysis: Another useful option for Bing AI

Another facet of the chatbot Microsoft is working on is to reduce the time it takes Bing AI to respond in the case of certain queries (eliminating so-called latency spikes). Presumably, using ‘no search’ will also have the benefit of speeding up the chatbot’s answers too (as Bing will be doing less in this case). We shall see, but better performance is clearly something Microsoft wants to gun for with the AI.

Why would you want to use a ‘no search’ query in general, though? Well, as the Twitter user who Parakhin replied to makes clear, with some questions, you don’t need Bing to go rifling around the web – and in some cases, scraping data from multiple websites could potentially make an answer less useful. (As another user points out, this affects Bing’s coding abilities detrimentally, for example).

Also, you may just want a quick and streamlined reply, rather than a heap of web references thrown at you. So, while this might be a somewhat niche feature, it’s going to be a very useful one to have for some folks.

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