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Google Bard could soon become Gemini, and appear inside more apps
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The AI chatbot Google Bard is one of the fastest evolving apps in the Google collection at the moment – and it looks as though its branding is about to evolve too, with Google set to rename it as Gemini.

This comes from developer Dylan Roussel (via Engadget), who has apparently found a list of updates coming to Google Bard. it's dated this coming Wednesday, February 7, and the headline change is that Bard will get renamed Gemini.

Google Gemini is the name of the next-gen AI model currently powering Bard, so in a way it makes sense to get rid of one of the monikers. Also of note: there is apparently a dedicated Android app coming too, at least in the US.

Gemini for Android will integrate with apps including Gmail, Google Maps, and YouTube, as per the update text. If you're on an iPhone, then Google says you'll be able to try out Gemini through the existing Google app for iOS.

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Get the message

Another tidbit from this leak is that a paid subscription tier is going to be introduced, called Gemini Advanced. This has previously been rumored, and means Google will match OpenAI and ChatGPT in having both free and paid-for AI bot tiers.

Speaking of previous rumors, tipster @AssembleDebug (via Android Police) has found a contact page for Bard (soon to be Gemini) inside Google Messages – the idea being that you can chat to the AI just as you would to any other contact.

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Hints about this integration first surfaced last month, and it's something that apps such as Snapchat have already done. It looks as though most apps are going to end up with Google's AI assistant in them somewhere.

All this is yet to be confirmed, but it would appear that we could be in for one of the biggest weeks so far for Google's AI projects. As for Apple, it's expected to unveil its own generative AI efforts later this year with the launch of iOS 18.

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Apple Vision Pro gets new mixed-reality weather forecasts as we wait for more apps
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Apple’s Vision Pro is just a couple of days away from launching, and while Apple has highlighted some astonishing apps that are coming to the device, there have also been questions over how many apps will be available for users upon release. Well, we now know that one of the best iPhone apps will be among that number, and it could provide you with a great way to use Apple’s mixed-reality headset.

The app is the ever-popular Carrot Weather. As the name suggests, this app provides you with forecasts, weather warnings, and everything in between. It’s known for its caustic sense of humor – your reports are delivered by a robot whose outlook ranges from gentle to misanthropic – and that’s helped it stand out among a slate of other excellent weather apps.

On the Vision Pro, though, Carrot Weather is going to do something a little different. According to screenshots posted by the M1 Astra account on X (formerly Twitter), Carrot Weather will come with a floating planet Earth that shows the weather at whatever global location you select, as well as mini-games you can play via an tool at the bottom of the app window.

That comes in addition to the range of weather data you’d expect from an app like this, including temperatures, wind speeds, sunrise and sunset times, and more. That information will be displayed in a large floating window that shows far more data at a glance than the Carrot Weather iPhone app is able to do.

As spotted by MacRumors, Carrot Weather developer Brian Mueller said the floating globe would be the “marquee feature” of the app and that “it's just really cool being able to look at a globe floating in your living room.” It shows one of the ways the Vision Pro may let apps do things they never could on an iPhone or iPad.

Is the Vision Pro selling well?

The Carrot Weather app shown in augmented reality using Apple's Vision Pro headset.

(Image credit: Grailr)

It comes as news emerged that Apple has reportedly sold around 200,000 Vision Pro headsets in the first 10 days since pre-orders opened on January 19 (via MacRumors). Given pre-release predictions, that seems like an impressively high figure, but there is a caveat to those numbers.

Analysts had previously predicted that Apple would sell about 400,000 headsets in the entire first year of its availability. Apple tipster Ming-Chi Kuo, meanwhile, forecast that Apple would produce between 60,000 and 80,000 units for the device’s launch, suggesting that even Apple was unprepared for the level of demand.

That said, Kuo also claimed in a later report that Apple sold between 160,000 and 180,000 headsets during the pre-order weekend. That suggests that demand might have slowed in the days since then, as Apple has now apparently hit 200,000 units sold after 10 days.

The big question is whether Apple can sustain Vision Pro demand throughout the year. A large number of those 200,000 sales would likely have come from developers, hardcore Apple fans and early adopters. Will Apple be able to sustain this level of sales going forward, or will interest slowly die off over time? We’ll be watching closely.

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Pour one out for MSN Messenger, Zune, and more: Microsoft Graveyard gives a salute to the tech giants’ retired creations
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Microsoft is an old (in tech terms, at least) company – and a very successful one at that, but not every product it makes is a success.

For every Windows 7, there's a Games for Windows Live. Every Microsoft Office, there's a Clippy.

To help people reminisce and revisit memories of Microsoft products gone by, a group of developers and tech enthusiasts has made an open-source site named Microsoft Graveyard. 

If that rings a bell, that’s probably because you may have come across Killed by Google, a similar website made by Cody Ogden, another developer and tech enthusiast, but for deprecated and discontinued Google products. Ogden made an analogous website for Microsoft products named Killed by Microsoft, and that heavily inspired the creation of the Microsoft Graveyard. 

Welcome to the (unofficial) Microsoft Graveyard

At Microsoft Graveyard, you can peruse the various products, services, apps, and other creations that Microsoft has launched and ended up ditching – both software and hardware. 

There’s plenty to reflect upon, as many people who have been using computing or mobile products for any portion of their lives have probably come across at least a couple of these. I know I have, and there’s also lots to learn about many of Microsoft’s attempts at innovation through the years (Microsoft Graveyard’s entries are in chronological order). 

The unofficial archive of discontinued Microsoft products was made by Victor Frye and a community of Microsoft enthusiasts, launching last week. The group calls the website “a passion project built because we have lovingly used many of these products before their untimely death.” You can read about products like MSN Messenger, Kinect, and many more. MSN Messenger (also known as Live Messenger) was a cross-platform instant messaging (IM) program used by many kids who grew up at the early stages of the internet as we now know it, and Kinect was a motion sensing gaming controller that was killed off just last year.

Go down memory lane for yourself to read about things like Windows Phone, Zune, the recently “deceased” Cortana, Clippy, and many more. Each entry is headed up with the name of the product, which links to a page where you can find more detail about it (sometimes a Wikipedia page). That followed the product’s lifespan and a paragraph description of the product. 

Clippy

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Go and see it for yourself, maybe even get involved

When you visit the website, you might notice that the first handful of entries are dated into the future and the icons are coffins instead of gravestones. That’s to indicate the Microsoft products that will be joining the rest of the discontinued “dead” products on the list in the near future. This includes products like Windows 10 (which still sees minor tweaks and updates), the Xbox 360 Store, and others. 

If you’re intrigued, I’d urge you to check out Microsoft Graveyard for yourself. As it’s an open-source project on GitHub, you can actually join the fun of compiling, contributing to, and maintaining the website. You can also follow the project’s ongoing development and updates on Threads. 

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Windows 11 update applies a bunch of fixes for a Start menu glitch, video chat bug and more
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Windows 11 just received a new update which comes with a whole load of bug fixes for versions 23H2 and 22H2, including the resolution of an issue affecting video chats, and a problem with the Start menu.

Patch KB5034204 just became available, but it’s worth noting upfront that this is a preview update, so it’s still in beta effectively.

As mentioned, one of the more important fixes here is the smoothing over of a bug relating to video calls – now this one has been squashed, these calls should be more reliable. (So if you were having problems with video chat stability in one way or another, hopefully that’ll no longer be the case after this update).

If you own a pair of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Audio earbuds, you may have experienced the sound dropping out when streaming music – that has also been resolved with KB5034204. Also, a problem with Bluetooth phone calls – where the audio fails to route through your PC, when you answer the call on the computer – has similarly been stamped out.

Another bug Microsoft has cured is search functionality failing to work on the Start menu.

Microsoft has also addressed a problem where troubleshooters fail – not very useful given that you only run a troubleshooter when you’re already trying to solve an issue with your Windows 11 system. That bug happens when using the Get Help app, we’re told.

There are a whole host of other fixes, too, including one for Gallery in File Explorer that means you can’t close a tooltip (a small flaw, but an annoying one). For the full list of fixes implemented, check out Microsoft’s support document.

Analysis: Take a chance – or not?

Should you download a preview update? This is a topic we’ve discussed before, and the short answer is probably not – unless you really need one of the fixes provided.

As mentioned, by its very nature, a preview update is not yet finished – that’s why these are marked as optional, and aren’t automatically piped through to your PC (you have to manually download them from Windows Update). In short, there’s more chance of things going wrong with a preview update.

However, if you’re one of the Windows 11 users who are experiencing a more aggravating issue, like video calls or your streaming music playback being ruined, then you might decide installing the update is likely worth the risk (which should be a limited risk, after all – these updates are nearly done at this stage).

That’s the other point to bear in mind, though – as they’re nearly done, you won’t have to wait long for the fully finished cumulative update to arrive next month. In this case, this preview will become the February update for Windows 11 released on February 13, so that’s only a few weeks away now.

Generally speaking, it’s probably worth holding out unless there’s something that’s really bugging you (pardon the pun) in Windows 11 right now, and it’s one of those listed fixes.

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The Apple Vision Pro 2 tipped to have more advanced, brighter displays
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With the Apple Vision Pro due to go on sale in the coming weeks, we're looking forward to properly testing it – but the rumors and leaks have already started around what Apple might do for a follow-up to the mixed reality headset.

As per market research firm Omdia (via The Elec and MacRumors), the Apple Vision Pro 2 is in line to get displays that are brighter and more efficient than those in the current model. They'll also reportedly be using more advanced micro-OLED technology.

This will apparently be because of a switch to a standard called RGB OLEDoS, which produces light and color directly from its RGB sub-pixels. A color filter is no longer needed, improving the user experience when it comes to the visuals.

Samsung is expected to be the manufacturer making the necessary panels, but you've got some time to save up first – the Apple Vision Pro 2 is said to be launching in 2027, which is further back than some earlier rumors that we've come across.

Keeping the Vision

The Apple Vision Pro hasn't been made available to consumers yet, but it got its grand unveiling back in June. We know pricing will start at a hefty $ 3,499 – that's about £2,755 or AU$ 5,145, though what it'll cost internationally has yet to be confirmed.

TechRadar is one of a select few tech news outlets that has been able to spend some time testing the Apple Vision Pro ahead of it going on sale, and we've been particularly impressed by the 3D spatial video that the headset is capable of displaying.

It's also able to show 2D videos and other digital elements on virtual screens, and you can use it for video conferencing too. It could turn out to be a powerful tool for both productivity and for escapism, but we'll have to wait to review it to know for sure.

Since Apple announced that the device existed, we've seen hints of how it might be sold in stores, and the latest rumors suggest it'll be available to purchase by the start of February. After that, it should become one of the hottest tech topics of 2024.

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Microsoft Store update brings a useful way to more easily find Windows 11 apps and games you’ll enjoy
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Windows 11 users are getting a rejig for the Microsoft Store to make it easier to find apps or games that might be relevant or interesting.

As posted on X (formerly Twitter) by Rudy Huyn, Principal Architect for the Microsoft Store, there’s a holiday update inbound for testers.

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This means that the store will no longer show apps and games installed on your device – or at least, it won’t show nearly as many – and will instead favor new apps and games that you might enjoy based on your past download history.

Hopefully, this adjustment won’t take long to arrive with a broader rollout to Windows 11 users who aren’t testers.

Note that the Microsoft Store did already show apps you might want to grab, it’s just that the balance has shifted more towards displaying these, rather than installed software.

Analysis: Another (small) step forward

This is another useful move for the Microsoft Store, as it’s not much help to show the user what they’ve already got installed on their PC. While we’re not keen on Microsoft’s ‘suggestions’ throughout Windows, in the case of an app store, recommendations can be more useful to glance at than a list of what you already know about.

That said, this change alone is obviously not going to do much in terms of persuading folks to use the Microsoft Store if they don’t bother with it. The move is hardly a major selling point in itself.

Still, Microsoft has been doing a lot of work on the store of late, and those improvements are building momentum. The store now loads up way faster, and we’ve seen meatier chunks of work, too. Most notably the introduction of AI (it’s getting everywhere) in the form of a dedicated hub for AI software – and also AI-generated review summaries.

The latter could be pretty handy indeed, as wading through a bunch of reviews isn’t much fun, so it’s a useful task where AI can do the proverbial grunt work.

Via Windows Central

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Microsoft is getting desperate for more Bing users – but this annoying Edge pop-up is definitely not the way to go about it
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It seems Microsoft is up to its old tricks in trying to push people into using its products, once again, and this time the play is to persuade Edge users to switch their search engine to Bing.

As Windows Central spotted, developer Brad Sams (of Stardock fame) brought our attention to Microsoft’s latest bout of “anti-user behavior” in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

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Sams uses the Edge browser, but was prompted to switch to Bing as the default search engine rather than Google, as you can see in the above screenshot.

This is not the first time Microsoft has been promoting Bing in such a manner, alongside driving other services including Edge itself and OneDrive. (Search for a new browser in Edge, for example, and you’ll get a banner telling you there’s no need to download a different web browser, and the various reasons why).

The Bing search engine continues to struggle for market share against the might of Google, with Microsoft’s creation securing only 3.2% of the market as of November 2023, according to Statcounter.

Analysis: Bing headway – or lack of it

Microsoft hoped that Bing Chat, its AI now-renamed Copilot, would help to swell the ranks of Bing search users when it was launched early this year – but as we can see, that hasn’t happened. The Bing search engine had a 3% share at the beginning of 2023 going by Statcounter’s figures, so has notched that up 0.2% over the course of the year – a pretty miniscule uptick.

It’s safe to say, then, that the AI angle has not panned out for Bing search, although Microsoft has now started thinking about what its various products can do for Copilot, rather than what the chatbot can do for those products. (Witness the debut of Copilot in Windows 10, driving user numbers of the AI forward, rather than keeping Copilot as a carrot to drive migration to Windows 11).

At any rate, whatever piece of Microsoft’s vast jigsaw of products and services we’re talking about, we don’t want to see prompts in Edge, or Windows 11, or anywhere else, trying to twist the arms of users to switch to another Microsoft creation.

And fair enough, Google does this kind of thing too, pushing Chrome and its own search – but not as often as Microsoft in our experience. Can we please lay off the various prompts for 2024, Microsoft? Because if anything, throughout 2023 they seem to have become more prevalent again.

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Your Alexa mobile app finally makes more sense thanks to a recent update
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Amazon has redesigned its Alexa mobile app with a focus on improving the software’s layout and reorganizing key sections.

The tech giant has been incrementally making changes to Alexa throughout 2023 like the time it added a new Home Shortcuts Bar. But instead of drip-feeding users, Amazon seemingly saw fit to roll out the rest of the update in one big push. 

The first thing you’ll notice is the Home tab is more structured than before. As TheVerge points out, the old app had a random assortment of “Most Relevant” and “Recently Used” items on the Home tab. The layout is more compartmentalized with a Shortcuts carousel at the top, an Activity section in the middle, and Favorites at the bottom taking up a large amount of space.

According to Amazon, Shortcuts “organizes devices by category and” displays commonly-used features like Routines. If you don’t use certain features, users can customize the carousel to better suit their needs. That area will even show you the current status of your smart home gadgets. The availability of the status readouts is a bit strange, however. The announcement states it will first come to users who have “20 or fewer devices” before expanding to others in the coming months.

Easily-accessible information

Activity cards will display “time-sensitive information” like reminders or upcoming alarms. Looking at the preview image, upcoming events are placed at the front. The rest will be hidden although you can tap See All to expand the menu.

Favorites offer quick access to frequently used devices, so you can control them with a single tap. At the time of this writing, eight device types are supported including smart lights, locks, and cameras just to name a few. Amazon says it has plans to expand this list later down the line.

The Devices page has been revamped too, effectively becoming the app’s new settings menu. Groups, located at the top of this page, pool all the connected hardware in a house’s room together for easier configuration. But if you prefer to tweak them individually, each gadget will appear in the list below. Amazon also took the time to upgrade the software’s search function. Now you can sort devices by alphabetical order, the date they were added, their name, or using certain keywords.

Availability

The updated Alexa app is making its way to Android and iOS, however, we should mention the latter will have an exclusive feature called Map View. 

This tool creates a digital floor plan of your house and then pins all your connected smart home gadgets so you can see where everything is located. It will only be available to a select group as a preview in the United States. No word on when it’ll see a widespread release or if it’ll roll out to Android although we did ask Amazon for more details. This story will be updated at a later time.

Until we hear back, check out TechRadar's list of the best smart speakers for 2023.

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Generative AI could get more active thanks to this wild Stable Diffusion update
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Stability AI, the developer behind the Stable Diffusion, is previewing a new generative AI that can create short-form videos with a text prompt.

Aptly called Stable Video Diffusion, it consists of two AI models (known as SVD and SVD-XT) and is capable of creating clips at a 576 x 1,024 pixel resolution. Users will be able to customize the frame rate speed to run between three and 30 FPS. The length of the videos depends on which of the twin models is chosen. If you select SVD, the content will play for 14 frames while SVD-XT extends that a bit to 25 frames. The length doesn’t matter too much as rendered clips will only play for about four seconds before ending, according to the official listing on Hugging Face.

The company posted a video on its YouTube channel showing off what Stable Video Diffusion is capable of and the content is surprisingly high quality. They're certainly not the nightmare fuel you see on other AI like Meta’s Make-A-Video. The most impressive, in our opinion, has to be the Ice Dragon demo. You can see a high amount of detail in the dragon’s scales plus the mountains in the back look like something out of a painting. Animation, as you can imagine, is rather limited as the subject can only slowly bob its head. The same can be seen in other demos. It’s either a stiff walking cycle or a slow panning shot. 

In the early stages

Limitations don’t stop there. Stable Video Diffusion reportedly cannot “achieve perfect photorealism”, it can’t generate “legible text”, plus it has a tough time with faces. Another demonstration on Stability AI’s website does show its model is able to render a man’s face without any weird flaws so it could be on a case-by-case basis.

Keep in mind that this project is still in the early stages. It’s obvious the model is not ready for a wide release nor are there any plans to do so. Stability AI emphasizes that Stable Video Diffusion is not meant “for real-world or commercial applications” at this time. In fact, it is currently “intended for research purposes only.” We’re not surprised the developer is being very cautious with its tech. There was an incident last year where Stability Diffusion’s model leaked online, leading to bad actors using it to create deep fake images.

Availability

If you’re interested in trying out Stable Video Diffusion, you can enter a waitlist by filling out a form on the company website. It’s unknown when people will be allowed in, but the preview will include a Text-To-Video interface. In the meantime, you can check out the AI’s white paper and read up on all the nitty gritty behind the project. 

One thing we found interesting after digging through the document is it mentions using “publicly accessible video datasets” as some of the training material. Again, it's not surprising to hear this considering that Getty Images sued Stability AI over data scraping allegations earlier this year. It looks like the team is striving to be more careful so it doesn't make any more enemies.

No word on when Stable Video Diffusion will launch. Luckily, there are other options. Be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best AI video makers for 2023.

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WhatsApp’s built-in AI chatbot looks like its rolling out to more people
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AI bots are rapidly being added to just about every app and platform you can think of – with more on the way – and WhatsApp is stepping up its testing of a chatbot of its own, with easier access to the feature now on the way.

Back in September, WhatsApp owner Meta announced a variety of AI upgrades that would be coming to its products. Since then, a small number of users have been able to play around with an AI chatbot inside WhatsApp, capable of answering questions, generating text, and creating art like stickers.

Now, as spotted by WABetaInfo (via Android Police), a shortcut to the AI chat functionality has been added to the conversations screen in the beta version of WhatsApp for Android. If you're running the early beta version of the app, you may see it soon.

It also means that it shouldn't be too long before the rest of us get the same feature, and we can see how WhatsApp's AI helper compares against the likes of ChatGPT and Google Bard when it comes to providing useful and accurate information.

WhatsApp and AI

From what Meta has said so far, the purpose of the AI chatbot inside WhatsApp is to help with daily activities, offering advice and suggestions: how to entertain the kids at the weekend perhaps, or what to look for when upgrading a smartphone.

WhatsApp is by no means the first messaging app to give this a try – Snapchat introduced a similar feature back in February, and the chats with the AI buddy appears alongside the rest of your conversations through the app.

Such are the capabilities of generative AI now, you can really ask these bots anything you like – from relationship advice to questions about complex technical topics. The point of them being built into apps is that you're less likely to leave the app and go somewhere else to get your AI-produced responses.

WhatsApp continues to be one of the most regularly updated apps out there: we've recently seen AI-made chat stickers, newsletter tools, and features to fight spammers introduced for users of the instant messenger.

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