Google Bard is getting update after update as of late, with the newest one being the incorporation of Google Lens – which will allow users to upload images alongside prompts to give Bard additional context.
Google seems to be making quite a point of expanding Bard’s capabilities and giving the chatbot a serious push into the artificial intelligence arena, either by integrating it into other Google products and services or simply improving the standalone chatbot itself.
This latest integration brings Google Lens into the picture, allowing you to upload images to part, identify objects and scenes, provide image descriptions, and search the web for pictures of what you might be looking for.
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(Image credit: Future)
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(Image credit: Future)
For example, I asked Bard to show me a photo of a kitten using a scratching post, and it pulled up a photo (accurately cited!) of exactly what I asked for, with a little bit of extra information on why and how cats use scratching posts. I also showed Bard a photo from my phone gallery, and it accurately described the scene and some tidbits of interesting information about rainbows.
Depending on what you ask Bard to do with the image provided, Bard can provide a variety of helpful responses. Since the AI-powered chatbot is mostly a conversational tool, adding as much context as you possibly can will consistently get you the best results, and you can refine its responses with additional prompts as needed.
If you want to give Bard's new capabilities a try, just head over to the chatbot, click the little icon on the left side of the text box where you would normally type out your prompt, and add any photo you desire to your conversation.
Including the image update, you can now pin conversation threads, get Bard to read responses out loud in over 40 languages, and get access to easier sharing methods. You can check out the Bard update page for a more detailed explanation of all the new additions.
Windows 11 (and 10) users can now easily share files between their Android devices and Windows PC, thanks to Google’s Nearby Share app which has been officially released for Microsoft’s desktop operating systems.
You may recall that Nearby Share was brought to Windows 11 as a beta app in March – before that, it was a tool for Chromebooks – so this represents the full release of the now-finished software.
For the unfamiliar, Nearby Share lets you share files (or indeed website links) just by selecting the option and tapping on the destination PC. You’ll then receive a notification of the file arriving on your computer.
Or working the other way round, from a Windows desktop, you can simply drag a file to the Nearby Share app, and it’ll be whizzed over to the Android smartphone.
Google has made a couple of nifty additions for this final incarnation of Nearby Share, too.
Firstly, an image preview is shown in the device notification to allow you to see that the correct file is being shared. And secondly, the file transfer is now furnished with an estimated time to complete, which for larger files that might take a while, is pretty handy.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Analysis: Faster and more reliable – just plain better
Those are some useful improvements, and overall Nearby Share is a smart feature to get on Windows 11 and Windows 10, particularly now any rough edges should have been smoothed out in beta testing.
On top of those additional features mentioned, Google also notes that it has made the file transfer process speedier since the beta app, and ensured better stability with fewer crashes encountered.
It’ll be no surprise to hear that the Nearby Share app was already popular. Even as a beta, Google tells us that 1.7 million people across the globe installed the app, so we can expect those ranks to swell considerably now we have the finished version.
For those keen to take the Nearby Share plunge, bear in mind that the transfer process is all the more seamless if you’re signed into your Google account on both your PC and phone.
Windows 11 just got a whole bunch of new features which are now available to all-comers.
As you may, or may not, realize, the Moment 3 update turned up in the Windows-verse quite some time back, but not everyone running Windows 11 was able to install the new functionality.
When Moment 3 was first made available, it wasn’t to all PCs – just those with the ‘Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available’ option turned on. And on top of that, the update remained a staggered rollout even among those selected users, with only some folks receiving it.
Fall into that category? Then all you have to do is head to Windows Update and check for the latest updates, and you’ll get Microsoft’s freshly released patch (KB5028185) which enables Moment 3 features.
Analysis: Some cool functionality is here – and something unwanted too
Is Moment 3 worth having? We think so, as it brings some nifty additions to the mix for Windows 11. For starters, there’s a good deal of work on the accessibility front, with the help system for Voice Access commands being revamped to give users a much better understanding of how everything works, plus there are new commands too (for selecting and editing text). On top of that, Microsoft now supports more dialects for Voice Access and more languages for live captions.
Elsewhere, some important bits of the Windows 11 interface have also been improved, such as the Settings app, Task Manager, and widget board. We discuss these changes in more depth here.
Unfortunately, there’s a sting in the tail here with what Microsoft calls the expanded rollout of “notification badging for Microsoft accounts” on the Start menu. What does that mean? More folks – but still not everyone – will be receiving nag prompts on the Start menu to sign up for a Microsoft account (or to finish configuring their account).
We’ve been voicing our opposition to this move since Microsoft kicked off this badging scheme (which would be better named badgering, as we’ve noted in the past), but it seems the software giant is determined to push ahead with it for now. These are thinly disguised adverts by any other name, even if they are designed to ‘help’ the user as Microsoft argues.
Whatever the case, the odds of seeing these badges are increasing with the delivery of Moment 3, and the update is not something you can avoid, of course. (Windows 11 Home users can only postpone a cumulative update for a short time, as they are mandatory and will be automatically installed eventually).
We knew that getting our hands on the Apple Vision Pro would be a challenge – unless you happen to have a spare $ 3,499 (around £2,800 / AU$ 5,300) lying around that is. But even if you're able to afford the super-expensive VR headset you might still be out of luck, as new reports suggest Apple will produce limited numbers this year.
That’s according to a report from Bloomberg, which cites a paywalled Financial Times article claiming that Apple is having to rethink its sales targets for the Vision Pro, as it likely won’t be able to make as many as originally planned.
Apple had apparently hoped to sell one million headsets in 2024, but sources from Apple and Luxshare, which is currently the sole manufacturer of the headset, say they'll struggle to produce 400,000, while suppliers of key Vision Pro components have suggested that Apple may only be able to make around 150,000 with the parts it's requested.
It's worth nothing that these latest reports are based on uncorroborated leaks, and while Apple may be struggling to hit its targets now, that situation could change, and Apple and Luxshare might be able to speed up production. What’s more, if the Apple Vision Pro doesn't prove hugely popular with consumers, 100,000 units could be all Apple needs to meet demand; low production numbers would only become a problem if the headset sells like hotcakes.
What could be causing Apple’s production problems?
Apple’s VR headset may struggle take the VR crown from Meta (Image credit: Apple)
So how is Meta able to produce millions of VR headsets a year while Apple is reportedly struggling to make a fraction of that? We don’t know for certain, but there are a couple of possible and reported reasons for the Vision Pro’s rumored production problems.
For one, Meta has been in the VR game for a while now, and as a result it has well-established production pipelines, and it also has a better grasp of how popular its gadgets will be thanks to sales data that goes back to 2016, when the original Oculus Rift launched. Apple is flying blind to some extent – this is its first foray into XR tech (a catchall term for virtual, augmented, and mixed reality), and it doesn’t yet know how things will pan out. By limiting production there’s a much lower risk that it’ll wind up with warehouses full of a gadget no one wants to buy.
Also, Apple’s Vision Pro isn’t like other VR headsets – and this isn’t simply because of the ethereal ‘Apple difference’ that makes its tech so attractive fans. The Vision Pro has features we haven’t really seen before in VR headsets – especially not all packaged together. It has dual micro-OLED displays that boast a higher resolution than the current best VR headsets, an outer display that can show off the headset wearer’s eyes via its EyeSight tech, a 3D camera for mapping a person’s face or an object, and a bevy of other sensors to facilitate next-generation hand-tracking, to name just a few.
Cramming all this into the headset is a challenge, according to insiders familiar with the situation, causing the Vision Pro to have low production yields – read: it’s slow to produce, and a number of Apple’s headsets may have defects that mean they can’t be sold.
As we've mentioned, we won’t know how easy it will be for would-be buyers to get our hands on the Apple Vision Pro until it launches sometime in 2024. When it does go on sale, you’ll want to make sure you’ve read our Apple Vision Pro hands-on review, and checked out the competition (like the Meta Quest Pro) to know if you want one or not – as you may need to move quickly if you want to order one before stock runs out.
WhatsApp is making it easier to transfer chat logs from your old phone to a new one just by scanning a QR code.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the initial announcement on his Instagram channel where he states this method lets you move your data privately without ever having to leave your devices.” Looking at the video he posted, you first open up the QR code on the older device, then scan said code on the newer phone. Give it about 10 seconds to finish up and you’re done. Other reports state the Chat Transfer tool can be found under the Chats section in the Settings menu.
📱📲 Now you can transfer your full chat history seamlessly, quickly and securely across the same operating systems without ever having to leave the app. Out today 👀 pic.twitter.com/UqNpyw8bCCJune 30, 2023
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Compared to the old method of having to back up your history on either Google Drive or iCloud, this is a lot more straightforward. You’re effectively cutting out the middleman plus you don’t have to worry about hitting storage limits if your WhatsApp account has several gigabytes worth of media saved on it.
As great as this new feature may be, it appears there is a catch. TheVerge claims the QR code chat log transfer “only works between devices running the same operating system, so Android to Android or iOS to iOS.” If you want to move your data from, say, a Samsung Galaxy phone to an iPhone or vice versa, you’ll have to head over to WhatsApp’s Help Center for instructions on how to do so.
We asked Meta to confirm if this is true. We’ll update this story at a later time.
Availability
Meta is currently rolling out the Chat Transfer tool in waves to all its users. Be sure to keep an eye out for the patch once it arrives. No word if there are plans to add a similar feature to the desktop version of WhatsApp.
If any of this sounds familiar to you, that’s because WABetaInfo first revealed the update back in early May when it was only available to beta testers. The publication has since shown off other interesting changes coming to WhatsApp. For instance, a WhatsBeta beta on Android from late May introduces screen-sharing for video calls, which you can activate right after installation and try out with others. There are also plans to introduce multi-account support to the platform giving people a way to swap between profiles on the same smartphone.
Online shopping can be difficult as you’ll have to sift through a ton of information before finding the right product for you. Microsoft aims to take some of that busy work out by introducing some, naturally, AI-powered shopping tools to Bing and Edge.
In total, there are three. First, you have Buying Guides, which as you can probably guess from the name, has Bing write up a literal buying guide telling you what to look for according to a certain category. The AI will show “specifications of multiple, similar items next to each other” on a table so you can easily compare your options without having to jump around a thousand different websites. It’ll even make some suggestions on what you should purchase.
Microsoft claims Buying Guides are already available on Bing Chat in the United States, however, when we checked, it wasn't as widespread as we had hoped. It was able to create a guide for college supplies like in the video above, but when we asked the AI to make something for gaming headphones, nothing new came up. It was still the old version of Bing where you have to do a lot of the legwork yourself. It appears the update is releasing in waves.
Later on in the year, Microsoft plans on launching the tool internationally. As for Edge, its rendition of Buying Guides is “starting to roll out worldwide”. Be sure to keep an eye out for the patch when it arrives.
Price tracking
Next is Review Summaries to help you decide between two products you’re interested in. What it does is grab information from reviews to then “briefly summarize what people are saying about it online” through Bing's chatbot. Microsoft states the tool will “provide a quick look at top insights and popular opinions about [a] product”, all in an effort to save you a ton of time. The feature is currently rolling out to all global regions.
The final tool is Price Match, which will monitor an item’s price tag over time and then help you request a retailer match the new number “if it drops.” To make this helpful tool possible, the company partnered up with US retailers that already have price match policies in place. We don’t know the companies honoring the feature apart from Microsoft itself. Interestingly enough, there are plans to have more retailers honor the policy down the line.
Microsoft says Price Match will soon launch exclusively in the United States. It’s unknown if there are plans to expand this tool internationally. We reached out to Microsoft for more information regarding a global rollout plus if it can tell us the retailers honoring Price Match. We’ll update this story at a later time.
As good as these shopping tools may seem, be sure to stay vigilant when dealing with generative AIs. They can’t totally be trusted as chatbots are “prone to spewing out misinformation”. We're not saying Bing's Buying Guides tool will lie or make up information, but the chance does exist. Developers like OpenAI are working on ways to stop hallucinations from appearing in their tech. However, sometimes, you just can’t beat the human touch.
Microsoft is in the process of adding a new feature to its Bing chatbot that will considerably increase the utility value of the AI, namely image recognition.
Bing Vision is being tested with a small number of chatbot users at present, as Neowin reports, and it lets those folks upload an image for a query. In other words, instead of typing text, you can sling the AI a picture, and it’ll identify it and provide information on the image.
Neowin flags up some of the people on Twitter who’ve got to play with Bing Vision, and their results include the chatbot identifying an Egyptian temple from a photo, which is a good example of how you might be able to use the facility.
Oh, how cool is that! Just noticed that I have access to #Bing chat’s image features! @MParakhin reading German text from images needs some work. ☺️ #ai pic.twitter.com/04JfV66PALJune 23, 2023
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In another instance, a scan of a maths equation was fed to the chatbot which correctly identified it as the ‘Schrodinger equation’, and there’s a further example where a humorous cartoon is analyzed and explained by the AI.
If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to get Bing AI to flex its image recognition muscles, that’s because only a niche set of users are getting the feature right now, as mentioned at the outset. We’re told by Microsoft’s head of advertising and web services, Mikhail Parakhin, that it’s currently just over 10% of the user base.
Analysis: Bing Vision is coming to everyone soon
You’re pretty lucky if you’ve got this image recognition system enabled, then, as not many folks have at this point. Do note that it is only available on desktop PCs, by the way, as Bing Vision isn’t yet being offered on mobile devices.
Clearly, this is a useful extra string to the bow of the AI that can help in all sorts of potential ways for image-based queries, as we can see from those who’ve already tried it out on Twitter.
See a picture of a beautiful beach, lake, mountain, or town, and wonder where it is? Chuck that image at Bing and it should hopefully be able to tell you not just the location, but further details, say, on how you might plan a trip there.
The feature should be much more broadly rolled out in a few weeks, Parakhin tells us, and that will include mobile users too – in fact, it should arrive for everyone by then. Good stuff.
Microsoft’s Bing chatbot is now more readily accessible for iOS users thanks to a new widget, plus the AI has been bolstered to perform more responsively when using voice input on an iPhone.
Windows Central spotted that Microsoft has implemented a Bing Chat widget that can be added to the Home screen, allowing you to initiate a session with the chatbot with a simple tap. That’s a handy ability indeed for regular users of Bing AI on iOS devices.
For instructions on how to add a widget to the iPhone Home screen, check here.
In the Bing blog post announcing this new feature for iOS, Microsoft also tells us that it has made progress on another front for iPhone owners – namely better performance for the voice input button on the Bing mobile app (for iOS, and Android as well). When you tap the button it should now indicate that it’s listening instantly.
Analysis: Catching up with Android
The widget is a very useful touch in terms of convenience for regular users on the iPhone, and it brings the Bing Chat experience up to parity with the Android version (which already had this feature).
Overall, Microsoft’s setting a pretty fast pace of development with its Bing AI, as considerable progress is being made on a weekly basis, with both the mobile and desktop incarnations of the chatbot.
Regarding the latter, we’ve just seen that Microsoft has brought voice input to desktop PCs (previously this had been a mobile-only feature). The idea is to make for a more natural chatting experience with the Bing chatbot, allowing you to speak to the AI, and have it reply via spoken words, too.
Google Maps’ best feature, Immersive View, just got a whole lot better. You can now explore 3D maps of four new cities and over 500 new landmarks thanks to Google’s AI.
Immersive View is Google Maps’ souped-up 3D map, and it’s a solid free tool for helping to plan trips. Using AI, Google has fused billions of images together to create fairly realistic 3D maps of cities (including the newly released Amsterdam, Dublin, Florence, and Venice) and hundreds of landmarks (such as Sydney Harbour Bridge and Boston’s Faneuil Hall).
While you're soaring over these virtual locations Google Maps will highlight nearby locations such as cafes, restaurants and hotels. This more immersive perspective provides an easy-to-understand sense of size and scale compared to using regular Google Maps. You can even go inside some locations, using a Google AI called NeRF – this allows you to peek into select restaurants and cafes before you book online.
We particularly like Immersive View’s timeline tool. This feature will show you the expected weather – complete with virtual clouds, sun, or rain – and how busy you should expect the destination to be over the following days. Google Maps has always had this data, but Immersive View makes it a lot less tedious to scan through it to find the optimal times to visit particular locations on your trip.
The new landmarks and cities should be rolling out from today to Google Maps users on Android and iOS.
More Maps updates on the way
Immersive View isn’t the only Google Maps feature getting an update.
Glanceable directions will be rolling out globally on iOS and Android later this month. Once you opt in to the service (Google doesn’t explain how you'll do this, but it’ll likely appear as a popup once the update goes live, and later will be found in your settings), you just need to call up directions and start walking, cycling, or driving to your destination – without hitting Start for in-depth directions or Live View for AR navigation.
(Image credit: Google Maps)
As you move, your location marker will travel with you, and your ETA will update in real time, and you can even swap to a different route if you decide to travel a slower but more scenic way. Google says this tool is aimed at people who are familiar with where they’re going; they don’t need constant callouts saying ‘Turn here’, they just need to occasionally glance at their phone to make sure they’re still headed in the right direction.
Next month, Google Maps users on desktop should look out for an update to Recents. Previously, this feature would show you the most recent destinations you’ve looked up in your current Google Maps session, but when you closed the Window this info would be lost. The upcoming update will enable you to see your recently visited locations from previous sessions, which should make it much easier to research potential places to visit on your next trip.
You can research hotels, landmarks, and other attractions across multiple sessions, then make a custom route or saved list when you've decided where you'd like to go. Plus, as you whittle down places to visit, you can remove them from your Recents list so that they aren’t cluttering up the list.
Windows 11 has implemented a major change for those who use a stylus, allowing for writing directly in the operating system’s interface and menus – though this is still in testing right now.
The move comes in preview build 23481 in the Dev Channel, where Windows Ink has been bolstered to allow for writing with a pen directly into, say, the search box in Windows 11.
The eventual goal, Microsoft notes in its blog post introducing the preview build, is to make it so you can write anywhere in Windows 11 with your pen. A further change has been applied to increase the accuracy of handwriting recognition, and also to bring in a ‘scratch out’ gesture to allow you to quickly edit (delete) text.
The catch is that so far this feature only supports English (US), but Microsoft assures us more languages are in the pipeline.
On top of this, build 23481 tweaks File Explorer to remove a bunch of outdated folder options. This is part of cleaning up this section of the interface ahead of a major revamp which is inbound for File Explorer, as you may have seen.
Finally, Microsoft has introduced a new Focus Session widget which allows users to quickly trigger (or halt) a session from the widget panel. And naturally, there’s the usual raft of minor tweaks, fixes, and known issues with this preview build as detailed in the full blog post.
Analysis: Playing catchup with Apple
The ability to write directly in the interface throughout Windows 11 is obviously going to be a major boon, but it’s a feature that is very much playing catchup with Apple. You may recall that Apple brought in its similar Scribble functionality with the Apple Pencil in iPadOS 14, which was released three years ago – so Microsoft has been slow to come to parity in this respect.
Not every Windows 11 tester will see the new Windows Ink capability either, as it’s a limited rollout to begin with, as Microsoft gauges early feedback. There are a number of known issues with the feature right now. (If you want to turn it on, you’ll find it in Settings > Bluetooth and devices > Pen and Windows Ink, where there’s a ‘Shell Handwriting’ option – though not for everyone yet, as noted).
Speaking of phased feature rollouts, preview build 23481 witnesses the completion of a few of these. That includes ‘never combined’ mode for the taskbar, and the ability to tear out (or merge) File Explorer tabs, both of which are now available to all Windows Insiders in the Dev channel.
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