Google Wallet just got a lot more useful thanks to a sizable update that focuses on meeting users’ everyday needs.
The update comes alongside Google's big June feature drop and adds three new features to the ID, credit card, and ticket-management app. Chief among them is the official launch of state ID and driver’s license support for people living in Maryland. We first saw the ID support late last year when the beta rolled out. From the looks of it, the requirements are still the same: you need to have a “phone running Android 8.0 or later,” plus the device lock must be enabled.
Those digital ID cards can also be used at TSA PreCheck lines at certain airports to speed up the screening process. The full list can be found on the official TSA website. In the coming months, digital ID support should be rolling out to residents of Arizona, Colorado, and Georgia.
Moving down the list, users will be able to digitize passes that contain either “a barcode or QR code” simply by taking a photo of it. You’ll be able to upload things like gym membership cards, transit tickets sporting a QR code, and parking passes. Additionally, Google Messages will now be able to directly upload a received boarding pass or train ticket to Wallet. However, RCS (Rich Communication Services) must be enabled first. The newfound Messages support is seeing a limited rollout as it’ll only work with “Vietnam Airlines and Renfe, Spain’s leading train operator.” No word on whether or not the feature will expand to work with other travel businesses.
Future plans
The work isn’t over yet as Google plans on growing the Wallet app even further. The company states it’s currently working with American health insurance company Humana on “developing a digital version of [the latter’s] insurance card”. Because it would contain sensitive information, this type of pass will require card owners to verify themselves before adding or using the data. People can use either biometrics, a PIN, “or other methods.” For UK users, there are plans to allow residents a way to “save their National Insurance Number” onto Wallet via the HMRC app.
Later this year, the tech giant states it’ll introduce support for “corporate badges… giving employees convenient and secure access to buildings” at their workplace. Speaking of access, Google Wallet is slated to release to more countries “in the next few weeks” although it’s unknown where exactly. We reached out to Google for clarification on launch windows for other regions and future updates. This story will be updated if we hear back.
AI could be about to make 3D modeling in a whole lot quicker and easier, if Nvidia has its way.
Fresh from the company’s research lab, Neuralangelo is an AI model that transforms 2D video clips into “extremely high fidelity” 3D structures.
“Creative professionals can then import these 3D objects into design applications, editing them further for use in art, video game development, robotics, and industrial digital twins,” the company explained in its latest paper.
Real-world high-fidelity
Using videos as reference points is hardly anything new – even when you do throw relatively new and experimental AI into the mix. But, as Nvidia notes in its latest paper, “current methods struggle to recover detailed structures of real-world scenes.” In other words, they can replicate objects and scenes, but it won't feel lifelike.
And it’s that high fidelity Neuralangelo is promising to deliver. According to Nvidia Research, the minds behind the model, it's able to vividly recreate the textures of different materials, like glass, marble, and even roof shingling. The model has also proved capable of reconstructing building interiors and exteriors.
“The 3D reconstruction capabilities Neuralangelo offers will be a huge benefit to creators, helping them recreate the real world in the digital world,” said Ming-Yu Liu, senior director of research and one of the paper's co-authors.
Neuralangelo’s applications in art and games development are already clear: think of the vast cityscapes of Grand Theft Auto, the real-world historical setting of Assassin’s Creed. Whole virtual towns could soon be realized based on videos recorded on a smartphone. But it’s only a matter of time before AI models like these also form a core part of all the best architecture software and best landscape design software, if it really can streamline real-life reconstructions.
In a demo released by the company, results were admittedly impressive: highly detailed AI renderings of Michelangelo's David based on video footage that lived up to boasts of “detailed large-scale scene reconstruction from RGB video.” But we're still a way off from dropping AI 3D models straight into projects without requiring some finishing touches.
Windows 11 is causing trouble for some users with AMD graphics cards, thanks to antics involving installing an outdated driver for Team Red’s GPUs.
What’s happening here is that Windows Update is going ahead with an automatic driver ‘update’ that actually installs an older graphics driver.
Windows Latest explains that it has received reports from readers, and via its forums, complaining about the issue, and also there’s a post on Reddit with some affected Windows 11 users making their feelings known, too.
Those hit by the glitch get an error message from AMD’s Adrenalin software informing them: “Windows Update may have automatically replaced your AMD Graphics driver. Hence, the version of AMD Software you have launched is not compatible with your currently installed AMD Graphics driver.”
In other words, Windows 11 has installed a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) driver, but this is an old version and incompatible with the AMD Adrenalin suite.
The good news is that it’s easy enough to fix this problem, as we’ll discuss next.
Analysis: A fairly easy fix – but don’t forget the extra step
The cure, fortunately, is relatively simple. You need to download the latest AMD Adrenalin driver for starters – then uninstall the current driver, and reinstall the new AMD driver. (Some also advise disconnecting from the internet while uninstalling and reinstalling the graphics driver in this way).
The next and very important step to take is to turn off Windows Update’s automatic graphics driver updates, to avoid this happening again. To do that, in the search box (taskbar), type ‘Device installation settings’ and click on this when it pops up in the panel above.
You’ll be presented with a question asking if you want to use automatic downloads for hardware manufacturers’ apps, to which you should reply ‘no’ (even though it says your device may not work as expected – don’t worry about that). Then click ‘Save Changes’ and the automatic graphics driver update will no longer happen. (If you don’t do this, you might find that Windows 11 changes the driver again, even after you’ve reverted it – and so on, ad nauseum, until Microsoft sorts out whatever the issue is here.)
Why is this happening? Good question, it’s a bit of an odd one. There’s clearly been a mistake somewhere at Microsoft, or maybe something has gone awry with the driver supplied by AMD. Hopefully, the situation will be rectified soon enough, but at least you can cure the problem manually as described above.
With each new year we get a new version of Android, and this year it’s Android 14’s turn. So you can expect a major upgrade to your phone, with new features and potentially a new look, once Android 14 – or Android Upside Down Cake as it’s codenamed – rolls out.
We’ve probably got a while to wait until it does formally arrive, but the operating system update has already been announced, and a Developer Preview of it is now available. We’re expecting that public betas will likely launch soon too, and with them, we'll likely learn a lot more about what’s in store.
Below, you’ll find details of when Android 14 might launch in both beta and finished forms, along with all the other information we have about Android 14 so far; both rumored and confirmed. As soon as we hear anything new we’ll also add it to this article, so check back soon for updates.
Cut to the chase
What is it? The next version of Android
When is it out? Probably August or September
How much will it cost? It will be a free upgrade
Android 14 release date
Android 14 was announced by Google on February 8, 2023, and the first Developer Preview launched on the same day, with the second Developer Preview also now here, having landed in early March. These are early – and likely unstable – betas designed specifically for developers, but public betas are on the way too.
Google has revealed a timeline for the roll out of Android 14 versions, with the first public beta expected to land sometime in April, so that’s the earliest we’d suggest trying it out, and even then you should be prepared for bugs and unfinished features.
The final beta is planned for July, with the actual finished release not being given a month yet in the timeline, but August or September seems likely, as there’s unlikely to be a huge gap between the final beta and the finished release.
Plus, August and September have been the most common release months for new Android versions in recent years – though Android 12 didn’t launch until October of its release year.
The current state of the Android 14 timeline (Image credit: Google)
Another important date to note is May 10, as that’s when the Google IO 2023 developer conference is scheduled to take place. We’ll likely see one of the betas roll out there, with new features possibly also set to be announced at this event.
Android 14 supported phones
If you’ve used Android for a while then you’ll know it isn’t like iOS, where every phone made in the last five years or so gets the new version on day one. With Android, support is a lot more volatile, and many phones are left waiting months to receive their tailored update.
That said, if you have a recent Google Pixel phone, then you will definitely be getting the update, and probably on day one.
The Pixel 7 series, Pixel 6 series (including Pixel 6a), Pixel 5 series, and Pixel 4a 5G all support the Android 14 developer preview, so you can pretty much count on them all getting the finished version too. Older Pixels won’t though.
Beyond that, most other phones that came out in the last year or so will get it, and many phones that are a couple of years old will too, as will some older handsets.
Other recent big-name phones like the OnePlus 11, OnePlus 10 Pro, Sony Xperia 1 IV, and the Xiaomi 12 will, of course, get Android 14 too. But so will most niche smartphones, just as long as they’re recent models. Again though, many of these phones won’t get the update on day one.
The OnePlus 11 is one of many phones that will definitely get Android 14 (Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)
Android 14 beta
There aren’t any Android 14 public betas yet, which means that unless you’re a developer you should really wait.
However, there is a Developer Preview, so if you are a developer – or are comfortable putting really early software on your phone – then you can try Android 14 out now, just as long as you have a Google Pixel phone from the Pixel 4a 5G onwards.
This isn’t just a simple download and again, we wouldn’t recommend doing it. But if you’re set on trying Android 14 now, you can head to the Android developer site to get it.
Android 14 features
(Image credit: Google)
We don’t know everything about Android 14 yet, as the initial Developer Preview doesn’t have every feature included, but based on that preview, along with some leaks, we are aware of some key things. You’ll find the most significant expected features below.
Satellite communication
The iPhone 14 series sports emergency satellite communication for when there’s no cell signal, and Google is building support for this feature directly into Android 14, so soon it might be common on Android phones too.
Of course, Android phone makers will still need to choose to support this feature and equip their handsets with the necessary hardware, but native software support may make them more keen to do so.
Apps on the Google Play Store already have to be aimed at fairly recent versions of Android, but currently there’s nothing to stop users from going to third-party stores or websites and getting apps built for even the very earliest Android versions.
That’s not secure, as hackers can create apps that target flaws in these earlier operating system versions, so with Android 14, wherever you get your apps from you should be a little safer from these vulnerabilities.
Passkeys are a more secure alternative to passwords, and they work via sets of encryption keys. While passkey support already exists in Android, currently the keys have to be stored within Google’s own password manager system, whereas with Android 14, third-party password managers like Dashlane and LastPass will be able to store the keys, so you don’t have to be tied to Google’s own security.
Regional preferences
(Image credit: Google / XDA Developers / @MishaalRahman)
One other feature being tested for Android 14 – as spotted by XDA Developers – is the ability to set your preferred temperature units, first day of the week, calendar type, and number system, which will then be applied across apps.
Health Connect
(Image credit: Google / XDA Developers)
Health Connect lets you sync data between your health and fitness apps and devices, so that you can potentially see all of this data in one place. It’s not a new app, but – as spotted by XDA Developers – with Android 14 it’s seemingly being integrated into the platform, rather than being a separate app that you have to download.
App cloning
(Image credit: Google / XDA Developers)
One feature Google is testing for Android 14 – via XDA Developers – is known as ‘cloned apps’, and allows you to create a second instance of an app, so you can be logged in with two different accounts at the same time, for apps that don’t natively support multiple accounts.
We’ve seen this sort of feature before from some phone makers, but this is the first time it’s been a part of stock Android.
Font scaling
The first Developer Preview of Android 14 includes font scaling up to 200% to help low-vision users. It’s cleverly designed too, as it uses a non-linear scaling curve, which means that while the smallest elements might grow by 200%, already large text won’t increase by the same amount, so that it won’t get impractically large.
View apps installed in the background
(Image credit: Google / XDA Developers)
Your phone likely won’t just include the apps you installed on it. There will also be pre-installed apps, much of which could be considered bloatware.
Worse, manufacturers and carriers will sometimes add apps to your phone at a later date, without your permission or knowledge, and of course viruses and the like could also add apps to your phone without your knowledge.
These are described as apps that were installed in the background, and with Android 14, XDA Developers has found that you’ll be able to view a list of all of these, so you can keep on top of them.
Emoji wallpaper
(Image credit: Google / XDA Developers)
If you're a Pixel user then it looks like Android 14 will let you create a wallpaper for your phone, using a combination of up to 14 different emojis of your choice, along with a choice of patterns and colors. You can see some examples of this from XDA Developers above.
Auto-confirm PINs
A small feature spotted like so many others by XDA Developers, this time in the second Developer Preview of Android 14, is the ability to have correct PINs automatically confirmed.
What that means is that when you enter the final digit of a PIN, it would automatically accept it, rather than you having to press 'OK' or 'Confirm' or the like. This feature will only work for PINs of at least six digits.
Twitter thrives on shares, not just within the social media platform but from partner links all over the Internet. Except on Monday, most of those links stopped working.
For approximately an hour, anyone trying to share recently published articles on Twitter was met with an error message clearly intended for developers:
(Image credit: Future)
It was almost as if Twitter was informing publishers that they didn't pay their water bill and, as such, couldn't publish links on the social network.
What went wrong?
We didn't have to wait too long for Twitter CEO Elon Musk to explain. In response to a tweet from former Netscape founder and well-known venture capitalist Marc Andreessen pointing out how four of the five top Twitter trends were about Twitter, Musk tweeted, “A small API change had massive ramifications. The code stack is extremely brittle for no good reason. Will ultimately need a complete rewrite.”
A small API change had massive ramifications. The code stack is extremely brittle for no good reason. Will ultimately need a complete rewrite.March 6, 2023
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This seemingly clear-headed tweet though should be cause for alarm. Musk claims the code stack (basically a massive stack of programs that all work together to create the Twitter whole) is brittle and needs a rewrite. What he fails to mention is that among the thousands of Twitter employees he laid off since November, a good number of them were engineers and, it's safe to assume, some were in what's known as QA or quality assurance.
Typically if you plan on making any kind of code change to a website, online service, or app, QA tests it on an offline copy of the platform. In this way, they ensure that the updates, no matter how small, won't adversely impact the live environment.
The concept is known as “production,” the live site or service, versus “staging,” an environment that's identical to live but can not be seen or touched by users. You run your new code or feature through staging, a group of QA testers applies a set of known scenarios (maybe they throw in an edge case or two) and as long as there are no red flags, the update gets pushed from Staging to Production.
Twitter, which has seen its overall reliability drop (from going offline to having features appear and disappear unexpectedly) since Musk took over, may be getting its updates in a different way.
There is some disagreement on whether or not there is a Twitter QA team.
Some argue one exists but Musk grows impatient and then pushes untested code live.
Others insist that Elon Musk arrived at Twitter and discovered that Twitter had no QA team and it was long in the practice of pushing untested code live. That though seems highly unlikely.
The assumption he made here, that a small API change would have little impact on the site was a poor one. And, yet, Musk still doesn't understand that he's doing it wrong.
Testing features of any kind on a live version of a complex platform like Twitter will inevitably result in bugs and crashes.
Will rewriting the code stack solve all this? Maybe, but very few platforms stay as clean as they were on launch and even if the rewrite is robust and perfect, frequent updates and fresh features will test that stability.
As long as Musk refuses to fully test what he launches before he launches it, there is no scenario in which Twitter escapes regular downtime.
This is a simple fix, Elon, make QA an inescapable part of the development pipeline and save yourself and us a lot of headaches. Or keep doing it your way because that's working out so, so well.
It seems that Apple forgot about the A13 Bionic processor that powers its own Studio Display, as a recent firmware update caused the monitor to malfunction.
On April 8, Apple stopped signing iOS update 15.4 after it pushed down update 15.4.1 on March 30. Normally when an update stops signing, it’s not available anymore and can no longer be installed. But since Studio Display uses 15.4 and cannot install 15.4.1, this meant that over the weekend users were out of luck.
According to MacWorld, anyone with issues using the monitor was met with a message stating: “Apple Studio Display firmware update could not be completed. Try again in an hour. If the problem persists, contact an authorized Apple service provider.”
As of April 10, Apple has fixed the issue and users have reported that the firmware update was installed without a hitch. However, the tech giant will most likely need to overhaul the signing and un-signing of iOS updates since multiple products require various versions to operate.
This isn’t the first time the Apple Studio Display needed a fix. Soon after its launch, the monitor received an update in order to fix the low quality of its webcam, as reported by multiple outlets such as TechCrunch and The Wall Street Journal.
Analysis: the perils of an ecosystem
When you have a whole lot of products that are supposed to work with each other seamlessly, but they aren't running on the same system, problems are bound to pop up.
While Apple is known for a very tight product catalog that keeps the number of models currently being sold to a fairly lean lineup, Apple has been expanding its offerings in recent years.
Whether it's the Apple HomePod, the recent Apple AirPods 3, or any number of its MacBook and Mac products, Apple is having to juggle a lot more discrete systems that are supposed to work without the user even really thinking about it. It's kind of Apple's thing, so while it's kind of funny to think that Apple accidentally nerfed its own high-end workstation monitor by mistake, it's also symptomatic of a growing number of interlocking products where it becomes harder to predict what any single change to the system will have.
While Apple typically runs a tight ship, we wouldn't be surprised if we saw more of this kind of thing in the future.
It was only a matter of time really: after blocking access to Facebook within its borders, Russia has now announced that another Meta-owned platform, Instagram, is also going to be banned in the country from the start of next week.
The decision was made by Russian communications agency Roskomnadzor (via Protocol) after Meta said it would permit certain calls for violence against invading Russian soldiers on Instagram and Facebook – something the Kremlin was not happy about.
Meta as a whole has now been labeled as an “extremist” organization by Russian authorities, and legal proceedings have been started against it. The block will begin on Monday, March 14.
For its part, Meta has emphasized that its relaxing of the rules around calls to violence are specific to the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. They only apply in Ukraine itself, and only to Russian military forces, not the Russian people.
More blocks
“Our policies are focused on protecting people's rights to speech as an expression of self-defense in reaction to a military invasion of their country,” said Facebook's Nick Clegg in a statement. It's for “ordinary Ukranians expressing their resistance and fury” at the invasion, the statement continued.
As the war has played out over social media, Russia has been busy trying to stem the tide of anti-Russian sentiment while also spreading misinformation of its own. Twitter seems to be unofficially blocked or at least heavily restricted, while TikTok is only displaying content from Russia inside Russia.
On the other side, Russian state-owned media outlets have been banned from both the Google and Apple app stores. In recent days, pro-Russia accounts on social media have been suggesting scenes of suffering and devastation in Ukraine are actually staged.
With the wider world continuing to show anger and disbelief at the actions of Russia, the country finds itself increasingly isolated. Numerous tech companies, including Amazon and Microsoft, are no longer doing business in Russia as the war continues.
It was only a matter of time really: after blocking access to Facebook within its borders, Russia has now announced that another Meta-owned platform, Instagram, is also going to be banned in the country from the start of next week.
The decision was made by Russian communications agency Roskomnadzor (via Protocol) after Meta said it would permit certain calls for violence against invading Russian soldiers on Instagram and Facebook – something the Kremlin was not happy about.
Meta as a whole has now been labeled as an “extremist” organization by Russian authorities, and legal proceedings have been started against it. The block will begin on Monday, March 14.
For its part, Meta has emphasized that its relaxing of the rules around calls to violence are specific to the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. They only apply in Ukraine itself, and only to Russian military forces, not the Russian people.
More blocks
“Our policies are focused on protecting people's rights to speech as an expression of self-defense in reaction to a military invasion of their country,” said Facebook's Nick Clegg in a statement. It's for “ordinary Ukranians expressing their resistance and fury” at the invasion, the statement continued.
As the war has played out over social media, Russia has been busy trying to stem the tide of anti-Russian sentiment while also spreading misinformation of its own. Twitter seems to be unofficially blocked or at least heavily restricted, while TikTok is only displaying content from Russia inside Russia.
On the other side, Russian state-owned media outlets have been banned from both the Google and Apple app stores. In recent days, pro-Russia accounts on social media have been suggesting scenes of suffering and devastation in Ukraine are actually staged.
With the wider world continuing to show anger and disbelief at the actions of Russia, the country finds itself increasingly isolated. Numerous tech companies, including Amazon and Microsoft, are no longer doing business in Russia as the war continues.
Microsoft is testing an update for Edge that will introduce a new Skype integration to the web browser.
In the latest early access build, available to members of the Edge Insider program, users can immediately launch into a Skype video call using the “Meet now” button positioned next to the address bar.
Clicking the button will open a pop-up panel that lets users name their meeting, create a link that others can use to dial in, and join a separate meeting using a link provided by someone else.
An unexpected alliance
To the untrained eye, it may seem unremarkable that Microsoft is moving to blend together Edge and Skype, which it purchased in 2011 for a whopping $ 8.5 billion. But in the context of the meteoric rise of Microsoft Teams, the latest Edge update appears strange indeed.
Since the start of the pandemic and transition to remote working, Microsoft Teams has emerged as the company’s flagship communication platform. The latest data suggests the service now boasts more than 270 million monthly active users.
Not only has Microsoft delivered a constant stream of feature updates for Teams, but the platform has also been built into the heart of the company’s new Windows 11 operating system, with a Teams icon affixed permanently to the taskbar. In years gone by, it was Skype that was installed by default on the Windows platform.
Given this state of affairs, and the closure of Skype for Business in 2021, the widespread assumption was that Microsoft would continue to invest fewer and fewer resources into the Skype brand moving forward. In turn, all the indicators suggest the company will attempt to push Teams further into the consumer market.
However, the latest early-access Edge build suggests there is life in Skype yet. Whether the update is an indication of a deliberate campaign to revive the older platform, or simply an attempt to service the remaining pool of users, will become clear with time.
If you're seeing issues with Slack not working for you today, you're not alone. The online collaboration tool is currently down for users across the world.
The issue began around 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm GMT on Tuesday 22 February, 2022, with users in multiple continents reporting issues.
There's been no word from Slack yet on what is causing the outage, so stay tuned and we'll keep you posted on all the latest updates and news below…
As we mentioned above, issues with Slack began appearing just as many workers in the US were signing on for the day.
Outage tracker site DownDetector showed a huge spike in complaints, with users also flocking to Twitter to report problems.
(Image credit: DownDetector)
The issues appear to be affecting users of the Slack desktop app, with multiple browsers affected.
Here's what we're seeing when trying to access Slack on Google Chrome – but users on other browsers have also reported not being able to access.
(Image credit: Future)
The official Slack status Twitter account isn't reporting any issues just yet, but we're keeping an eye on it – the outage reports have now topped six thousand within less than half an hour, so something serious must be wrong…
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