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Chrome’s new Declutter tool may soon help manage your 100 plus open tabs
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Recent evidence suggests Chrome on Android may receive a new Tab Declutter tool to help people manage so many open tabs. Hints of this feature were discovered in lines of code on Google’s Chromium platform by 9To5Google. It’s unknown exactly how Tab Declutter will work, although there is enough information to paint a picture.

According to the report, tabs that have been unused for a long period of time “will automatically” be put away in an archive. You can then go over to the archive editor, look at what’s there, and decide for yourself whether you want to delete a tab or restore it. 

Not only could Tab Declutter help people manage a messy browser, but it might also boost Chrome’s performance. All those open tabs can eat away at a device's RAM, slowing things down to a crawl.

This isn’t the first time Google has worked on improving tab management for its browser. Back in January, the company implemented an organizer tool harnessing the power of AI to instantly group tabs together based on a certain topic.  

These efforts even go as far back as 2020, when the tech giant began developing a feature that would recommend closing certain tabs if they’ve been left alone for an extended period of time. It was similar to the new Declutter tool, though much less aggressive, since it wouldn’t archive anything. Ultimately, nothing came of it, however it seems Google is looking back at this old idea.  

Speculating on all the open tabs

As 9To5Google points out, this has the potential to “become one of the most annoying features” the company has ever made. Imagine Chrome disappearing tabs you wanted to look at without letting you know. It could get frustrating pretty fast. 

Additionally, would it be possible to set a time limit for when an unused page is allowed to be put away? Will there be an exception list telling Chrome to leave certain websites alone? We'll have the answer if and when this feature eventually goes live.

We have no word on when Tab Declutter will launch. It’s unknown if Chrome on iOS is scheduled to receive a similar upgrade as the Chromium edition. It's possible Android devices will get first dibs, then iPhones, or the iPhone may be left out in some regions that don't get a Chromium-based browser. 

9To5Google speculates the update will launch in early May as part of Chrome 125. This seems a little early if it’s still in the middle of development. Late summer to early autumn is more plausible, but we could be totally wrong. We’ll just have to wait.

Until we get more news, check out TechRadar's roundup of the best Chromebooks for 2024.

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Samsung Galaxy Ring could help cook up AI-powered meal plans to boost your diet
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As we get closer to the full launch of the Samsung Galaxy Ring, we're slowly learning more about its many talents – and some fresh rumors suggest these could include planning meals to improve your diet.

According to the Korean site Chosun Biz (via GSMArena), Samsung plans to integrate the Galaxy Ring with its new Samsung Food app, launched in August 2023. 

Samsung calls this app an “AI-powered food and recipe platform”, as it can whip up tailored meal plans and even give you step-by-step guides to making specific dishes. The exact integration with the Galaxy Ring isn't clear, but according to the Korean site, the wearable will help make dietary suggestions based on your calorie consumption and body mass index (BMI).

The ultimate aim is apparently to integrate this system with smart appliances (made by Samsung, of course) like refrigerators and ovens. While they aren't yet widely available, appliances like Samsung Bespoke 4-Door Flex Refrigerator and Bespoke AI Oven include cameras that can design or cook recipes based on your dietary needs.

It sounds like the Galaxy Ring, and presumably smartwatches like the incoming Galaxy Watch 7 series, are the missing links in a system that can monitor your health and feed that info into the Samsung Food app, which you can download now for Android and iOS.

The Ring's role in this process will presumably be more limited than smartwatches, whose screens can help you log meals and more. But the rumors hint at how big Samsung's ambitions are for its long-awaited ring, which will be a strong new challenger in our best smart rings guide when it lands (most likely in July).

Hungry for data

A phone on a grey background showing the Samsung Food app

(Image credit: Samsung)

During our early hands-on with the Galaxy Ring, it was clear that Samsung is mostly focusing on its sleep-tracking potential. It goes beyond Samsung's smartwatches here, offering unique insights including night movement, resting heart rate during sleep, and sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep).

But Samsung has also talked up the Galaxy Ring's broader health potential more recently. It'll apparently be able to generate a My Vitality Score in Samsung's Health app (by crunching together data like your activity and heart rate) and eventually integrate with appliances like smart fridges.

This means it's no surprise to hear that the Galaxy Ring could also play nice with the Samsung Food app. That said, the ring's hardware limitations mean this will likely be a minor feature initially, as its tracking is more focused on sleep and exercise. 

We're actually more excited about the Ring's potential to control our smart home than integrate with appliances like smart ovens, but more features are never a bad thing – as long as you're happy to give up significant amounts of health data to Samsung.

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Feeling lost in the concrete jungles of the world? Fear not, Google Maps introduces a new feature to help you find entrances and exits
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Picture this: you’re using Google Maps to navigate to a place you’ve never been and time is pressing, but you’ve made it! You’ve found the location, but there’s a problem: you don’t know how to get into whatever building you’re trying to access, and panic sets in. Maybe that’s just me, but if you can relate it looks like we’re getting some good news – Google Maps is testing a feature that shows you exactly where you can enter buildings.

According to Android Police, Google Maps is working on a feature showing users entrance indicator icons for selected buildings. I can immediately see how this could make it easier to find your way in and out of a location. Loading markers like this would require a lot of internet data if done for every suitable building in a given area, especially metropolitan and densely packed areas, but it seems Google has accounted for this; the entrance icons will only become visible when you select a precise location and zoom in closely. 

Google Maps is an immensely popular app for navigation as well as looking up recommendations for various activities, like finding attractions or places to eat. If you’ve ever actually done this in practice, you’ve possibly had a situation like I’ve described above, especially if you’re trying to find your way around a larger attraction or building. Trying to find the correct entrance to an expo center or sports stadium can be a nightmare. Places like these will often have multiple entrances with different accessibility options – such as underground train stations that stretch across several streets.

Google's experimentation should help users manage those parts of their journeys better, starting with only certain users and certain buildings for now, displaying icons that indicate both where you can enter a place and exit it (if there are exit/entrance-only doors, for example). This feature follows the introduction of Google Maps’ recent addition of indicators of the best station exits and entrances for users of public transport.

Google Maps being used to travel across New York

(Image credit: Shutterstock / TY Lim)

The present state of the new feature

Android Police tested the new feature on Google Maps version 11.17.0101 on a Google Pixel 7a. As Google seemingly intended, Google Maps showed entrances for a place only when it was selected and while the user zoomed in on it, showing a white circle with a symbol indicating ‘entry’ on it. That said, Android Police wasn’t able to use the feature on other devices running the latest version of Google Maps for different regions, which indicates that Google Maps is rolling this feature out gradually following limited and measured testing. 

While using the Google Pixel 7a, Android Police tested various types of buildings including hotels, doctors’ offices, supermarkets, hardware stores, cafes, and restaurants in cities that include New York City, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Berlin. Some places had these new entrance and exit markers and some didn’t, which probably means that Google is still in the process of gathering accurate and up-to-date information on these places, most likely via its StreetView tool. Another issue that came up was that some of the indicated entrances were not in the right place, but teething issues are inevitable and this problem seemed more common for smaller buildings where it’s actually easier to find the entrance once you’re there in person.

The entrances were sometimes marked by a green arrow instead of a white circle, and it’s not clear at this point exactly what it means when a green arrow or a white circle is used. Google Maps has a reputation as a very helpful, functional, and often dependable app, so whatever new features are rolled out, Google probably wants to make sure they’re up to a certain standard. I hope they complete the necessary stages of experimenting and implementing this new feature, and I look forward to using it as soon as I can.

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Not spending enough on Amazon already? Its new AI chatbot is here to help
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If there's one tech innovation that our bank accounts didn't need in 2024, it's an Amazon chatbot with infinite knowledge of the site's array of potential impulse buys. But unfortunately for our savings, that's exactly what we've just been given in the form of Rufus.

Amazon says its Rufus chatbot has now launched in the US in beta form to “a small subset of customers” who use its mobile app, but that it'll “progressively roll out to additional US customers in the coming weeks”. Rufus is apparently “an expert shopping assistant” who's been trained on Amazon's product catalog and will help answer your questions in a conversational way.

Rather than Googling for extra advice on the differences between trail and road running shoes, the idea is that you can instead search for pointers in the Amazon app and Rufus will pop up with the answers. 

Quite how good those answers are remains to be seen, as Amazon says they come from “a combination of extensive product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&As, and information from across the web”. Considering the variable quality of Amazon's reviews, and the tendency of AI chatbots to hallucinate, you may still want to cross-reference your research with some external sources. 

Still, it's an early glimpse at the future of shopping, with retailers looking to arm you with all of the information you need so you can, well, spend more money with them. Amazon says that the questions can be as broad as “what are good gifts for Valentine’s Day?”, but also as specific as “is this cordless drill easy to hold?” if you're on a product page.

How to find and use Rufus

Right now, Rufus is only being made available to “select customers when they next update their Amazon Shopping app”. But if you live in the US and are keen to take it for a spin, it's worth updating your iOS or Android app to see if you're one of the early chosen ones.

If you are, the bar at the top of the app should now say “search or ask a question”. That's where you can fire conversational questions at Rufus, like “what to consider when buying headphones?”, or prompts like “best dinosaur toys for a 5-year-old“ or “I want to start an indoor garden”.

The ability to ask specific questions about products on their product pages also sounds handy, although this will effectively only be a summary of the page's Q&As and reviews. Given our experience with AI shopping chatbots so far, we'd be reluctant to take everything at face value without double-checking with another source.

Still, with Rufus getting a wider US rollout in “the coming weeks”, it is a pretty major change to the Amazon app – and could change how we shop with the retail giant. Amazon will no doubt be hoping it convinces us to spend more – maybe we need two chatbots, with the other one warning us about our overdraft.

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The Meta Quest 3 yoinks Vision Pro’s spatial video to help you relive your memories
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Just as the Vision Pro launches, Meta has started rolling out software update v62 to its Meta Quest 3, Quest Pro, and Quest 2. The new software’s headline feature is it’s now a lot easier to watch your spatial video recordings on Quest hardware – stealing the Vision Pro’s best feature.

You’ve always been able to view 3D spatial video (or stereoscopic video as most people call it) on Quest hardware. And using a slightly awkward workaround you could convert spatial video recordings you’ve made using an iPhone 15 Pro into a Quest-compatible format to watch them in 3D without needing Apple’s $ 3,500 Vision Pro. But, as we predicted it would, Meta’s made this conversion process a lot simpler with v62.

Now you can simply upload the captured footage through the Meta Quest mobile app and Meta will automatically convert and send it to your headset – even giving the videos the same cloudy border as you’d see on the Vision Pro. 

You can find the recordings, and a few Meta-made demo videos, in the spatial videos section of the Files menu on your Quest headset.

iPhone 15 Pro review front flat angled handheld

You need an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max to record 3D video (Image credit: Future | Alex Walker-Todd)

Spatial video has been a standout feature referenced in nearly every review featured in our Apple Vision Pro review roundup – with our own Lance Ulanoff calling it an “immersive trip” after one of his demos with the Apple headset. So it’s almost certainly not a coincidence that Meta has announced it’s nabbed the feature literally as the Vision Pro is launching.

Admittedly Quest spatial video isn’t identical to the Vision Pro version as you need an iPhone 15 Pro – on the Vision Pro you can use the iPhone or the headset itself – but over time there’s one potential advantage Meta’s system could have. Non-exclusivity. 

Given that other smartphone manufacturers are expected to launch headsets of their own in the coming year or so – such as the already teased Samsung XR headset created in partnership with Google – it’s likely the ability to record 3D video will come to non-iPhones too. 

If this happens you’d likely be able to use whichever brand of phone you’d like to record 3D videos that you can then convert and watch on your Quest hardware through the Meta Quest app. Given its typical walled garden approach, you’ll likely always need an iPhone to capture 3D video for the Vision Pro and Apple’s future headsets – and Samsung, Google, and other brands that make smartphones may also impose some kind of walled garden to lock you into their hardware.

A gif showing a person pinching their fingers to open the Quest menu

(Image credit: Meta)

Other v62 improvements 

It’s not just spatial video coming in the next Quest operating system update.

Meta has added support for a wider array of controllers – including the PS5 DualSense controller and PS4 DualShock – that you can use to play games through apps like the Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) or the Meta Quest Browser.

Facebook Livestreaming, after being added in update v56, is now available to all Meta Quest users. So now everyone can share their VR adventures with their Facebook friends in real-time by selecting “Go Live” from the Camera icon on the Universal Menu while in VR (provided your Facebook and Meta accounts are linked through the Accounts Center). 

If you prefer YouTube streaming, it’s now possible to see your chat while streaming without taking the headset off provided you’re using OBS software.

Lastly, Meta is improving its hand-tracking controls so you can quickly access the Universal Menu by looking at your palm and doing a short pinch. Doing a long pinch will recenter your display. You can always go back to the older Quick Actions Menu by going into your Settings, searching for Expanded Quick Actions, and turning it back on.

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Google’s new generative AI aims to help you get those creative juices following
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It’s a big day for Google AI as the tech giant has launched a new image-generation engine aimed at fostering people’s creativity.

The tool is called ImageFX and it runs on Imagen 2,  Google's “latest text-to-image model” that Google claims can deliver the company's “highest-quality images yet.” Like so many other generative AIs before, it generates content by having users enter a command into the text box. What’s unique about the engine is it comes with “Expressive Chips” which are dropdown menus over keywords allowing you to quickly alter content with adjacent ideas. For example, ImageFX gave us a sample prompt of a dress carved out of deadwood complete with foliage. After it made a series of pictures, the AI offered the opportunity to change certain aspects; turning a beautiful forest-inspired dress into an ugly shirt made out of plastic and flowers. 

Image 1 of 2

ImageFX - generated dress

(Image credit: Future)
Image 2 of 2

ImageFX - generated shirt

(Image credit: Future)

Options in the Expressive Chips don’t change. They remain fixed to the initial prompt although you can add more to the list by selecting the tags down at the bottom. There doesn’t appear to be a way to remove tags. Users will have to click the Start Over button to begin anew. If the AI manages to create something you enjoy, it can be downloaded or shared on social media.

Be creative

This obviously isn’t the first time Google has released a text-to-image generative AI. In fact, Bard just received the same ability. The main difference with ImageFX is, again, its encouragement of creativity. The clips can help spark inspiration by giving you ideas of how to direct the engine; ideas that you may never have thought of. Bard’s feature, on the other hand, offers little to no guidance. Because it's less user-friendly, directing Bard's image generation will be trickier.

ImageFX is free to use on Google’s AI Test Kitchen. Do keep in mind it’s still a work in progress. Upon visiting the page for the first time, you’ll be met with a warning message telling you the AI “may display inaccurate info”, and in some cases, offensive content. If this happens to you, the company asks that you report it to them by clicking the flag icon. 

Also, Google wants people to keep things clean. They link to their Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy in the warning listing out what you can’t do with ImageFX.

AI updates

In addition to ImageFX, Google made several updates to past experimental AIs. 

MusicFX, the brand’s text-to-music engine, now allows users to generate songs up to 70 seconds in length as well as alter their speed. The tool even received Expressive Chips, helping people get those creative juices flowing. MusicFX even got a performance boost enabling it to pump content faster than before. TextFX, on the other hand, didn’t see a major upgrade or new features. Google mainly updated the website so it’s more navigable.

MusicFX's new layout

(Image credit: Future)

Everything you see here is available to users in the US, New Zealand, Kenya, and Australia. No word on if the AI will roll out elsewhere, although we did ask. This story will be updated at a later time.

Until then, check out TechRadar's roundup of the best AI art generators for 2024 where we compare them to each other. There's no clear winner, but they do have their specialties. 

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OneDrive is getting a glow-up, promising an optimized interface and power-packed features to help you navigate your files
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Microsoft has given OneDrive a visual and functional makeover, rolling it out in an update for OneDrive personal users. 

The update was announced last month by Microsoft, promising a revamped OneDrive user experience with a revised sleek design and powerful new features. Now, the update is actually rolling out to OneDrive personal users.

The tech titan posted the announcement on its official blog and it’s begun the gradual rollout to users, stating that the changes will be available to all OneDrive personal users by the end of February. It elaborates that the changes are purposely designed to help users perform tasks more quickly in OneDrive, as well as find it easier to focus on their files.

One of the new features that users can look forward to is People View. This will show users their contacts with all of the files that they collaborate on together – so you don’t have to remember the names of files if they’re shared between you and a contact. Often, we can remember who we share files with or who shares files with us more easily than a specific file’s name. Additionally, users will be able to filter files by type, so if you want to see all the Word documents or Excel spreadsheets on your OneDrive, you can use specific Word or Excel filters while searching. 

 Additional OneDrive functionality 

Microsoft has also expanded the Add New button’s functionality to give users the options to both upload to OneDrive or to begin a new document. Being able to do either from a single button, Microsoft hopes this will make working on OneDrive more streamlined for users. 

It looks like these upgrades will apply to all users with a OneDrive account. You can access OneDrive on desktop with Microsoft 365 or online for free with a Microsoft account. In its announcement blog post, Microsoft also mentions that it’s open to feedback and you can provide your opinion in the OneDrive feedback portal. 

It’s a solid set of developments for OneDrive that Microsoft willlooks set to deliver for a better organized and faster serviceOneDrive, as long as these changes arrive on time. If Microsoft continues along this path for OneDrive, I could see OneDrive becoming more and more users’ choice of cloud storage. You may be able to see these changes already if you have OneDrive but everyone or should be able to access them before the end ofsome time in  February. 

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Google’s AI-powered NotebookLM is now available to help organize your life
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Google’s AI-powered writing assistant, NotebookLM, is leaving its experimental phase behind and launching as an official service with multiple performance upgrades.

First revealed during I/O 2023 as Project Tailwind, the tool’s primary purpose is to help organize your messy notes by creating a summary detailing what you wrote down. It will even highlight important topics plus come up with several questions to help people gain a better understanding of the material. The big update coinciding with the release is that NotebookLM will now run on Gemini Pro, which the tech giant states is their “best [AI] model” for handling a wide variety of tasks. It claims the AI model will enhance the service’s reasoning skills as well as improve its ability to understand the documents it scans.

What’s more, Google took the feedback from NotebookLM’s five-month testing period and has added 15 new features aiming to improve the user experience. 

Highlight features

The company highlights five specific features in its announcement with the first one being a “new noteboard space”. In this area, you’ll be able to take quotes from the AI chat or excerpts from your notes and pin them at the top for easier viewing. Next, citations in a response will take you directly to the source, “letting you see [a] quote in its original context.”

Highlighting text in said source will now suggest two separate actions. You can have the AI instantly “summarize the text” into a separate note or ask it to define words or phrases, which can be helpful if the topic is full of tough concepts. Down at the bottom, users will see a wider array of follow-up actions from suggestions on how to improve your prose to related ideas that you can add to your writing. NotebookLM will also recommend specific formats for your content that’ll shape it into an email layout or the outline of a script among other things.

NotebookLM sample

(Image credit: Future)

The full list can be found on Google's Help website. Other notable features include an increased word count for sources (they can now be 200,000 words total), the ability to share notebooks with others much like Google Docs, and support for PDFs.

Coming soon

There are more updates on the way. Starting on the week of December 11, NotebookLM will gain an additional seven features. They include a Critique function where you can ask the AI for constructive feedback plus a way to combine all your notes into one big page.

NotebookLM is available in the United States only to users ages 18 and up on desktop and mobile devices. When you visit, you’ll see some examples to help you get started with the service. It’s worth mentioning that despite this being an official launch, Google still regards NotebookLM as “experimental” technology, so it won’t be perfect. No word on if there are plans for an international release although we did ask. This story will be updated at a later time. 

While we have you check out Techradar's roundup of the best AI writers for 2023.

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Microsoft has tossed a Windows 11 help feature on the scrapheap – probably because of Copilot
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Windows 11’s 23H2 update has recently been released, and while that annual upgrade obviously adds features, some have also been dropped by Microsoft.

PhantomOfEarth picked up on this, spotting that Microsoft just added the latest round of cutting to its list of deprecated features for Windows 11, and posting on X (formerly Twitter) to let us know.

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The big move here – and the only one that’ll affect consumers (the others are business-related) – is the deprecation of the Tips app in Windows 11.

This means that Tips will remain in Windows 11 for now, but in stasis, with no further development – and it’s scheduled to be removed in a future update of the OS.

Microsoft does, however, observe that in this case the app will continue to get (small) updates with info about new Windows features.

The Tips app provides help for Windows 11 users regarding customizing the interface, as well as imparting useful keyboard shortcuts and other miscellaneous tips, and highlighting new features that have arrived in the operating system.

PhantomOfEarth also recently tweeted about another interesting change for Windows 11, namely the ability to make custom commands for the Voice Access feature. This is still a long way off, as it’s not even live in testing, but hidden in the background – even so, it’d be an excellent addition on the accessibility front.

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Analysis: Clearing the way for Copilot?

It’s likely that with the next major update for Windows 11 – which could turn it into Windows 12, maybe, later next year – the Tips app will get the axe and be fully removed.

In fairness, this app isn’t the greatest help resource anyway, but nonetheless, for those new to Windows, it could be useful. That said, we’re betting there’s a reason for it being ditched now – namely Copilot.

Remember that in a year’s time, a fully developed Copilot AI – which will doubtless have been considerably bolstered over the course of 2024 – will be able to handle all help duties ably. We’d imagine that’s the plan, anyway.

Microsoft appears to be on a spree of tidying up Windows 11 of late, as we recently saw the Windows Maps and Movies & TV applications being removed from default installations of the OS.

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Google Search can help you with your math homework thanks to new update
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Google is updating its search engine and Lens tool with new features to help students visualize and solve tricky math problems.

We’re not talking about basic arithmetic either. The upgraded Google Search can now tackle more complex forms of math like calculus and trigonometry. All you have to do is type in the equation or integral  into the text bar at the top or take a picture of your homework with Lens. You’ll then see a series of step-by-step instructions explaining how to solve it with the answer at the bottom. Geometry is also supported with the company recommending people use Google Lens to solve those since they can have diagrams. You won’t be able to draw shapes into the search bar so uploading a photo of the equation is your best bet. 

Google Search's new math tutor on mobile

(Image credit: Google)

Additionally, you can type in word problems for physics questions. Google Search will highlight the “known and unknown values” and then show you the correct formula to use for that particular equation. As an example, if you need to find out the average acceleration of a cyclist going down a hill, it’ll tell you the specific kinetic formula needed. 

Google Search helping with physics

(Image credit: Google)

The math update is currently live on desktop and the mobile app. Google states you can type the phrase “math solver” in the search bar to try out their new experience on desktop. However, when we did, nothing popped up. It's possible this could be referring to future expansion, but we're not sure. Either way, feel free to directly type the math problem into the search bar. You don’t need to bring up anything else.

Advancement in science

Alongside the mathematics help, Google is rolling out interactive 3D models for certain fields of science such as physics, biology, and chemistry. The diagrams will let you zoom into an object as well as provide definitions of what you’re looking at. 

At the time of this writing, the patch doesn’t appear to be widely available. We saw interactive 3D models for basic concepts like individual parts of a cell and periodic elements, but nothing for specific types of cells or molecules. You can look up a model for an oxygen atom, but not a carbon dioxide molecule for instance. What’s more, nothing had a definition. It was just the model.

We reached out to Google asking if this patch is seeing a global release or will only be available in a few countries like the United States. We’ll update this story if we hear back.

Undoubtedly, this will help students advance in their courses. But don't forget about the hardware. If you're in the market for a computer, be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best student laptops for 2023.

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