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Google adds biometric verification to Play Store to keep your in-store wallet safe
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Google has been emailing Android users about an update to the Play Store allowing you to enable biometric verification for purchases. We got the message over the weekend buried in our inbox. It states users can set fingerprint or facial recognition on the digital storefront as long as they have a mobile device that supports the technology. Once set up, “you’ll be asked to verify it’s you with biometrics” every time you buy something on the platform. 

We can confirm the update is live as it appeared on our phone. To turn it on, open the Play Store app then tap Settings near the bottom. Expand Purchase Verification and toggle the switch to activate Biometric Verification. The storefront will then ask you to type in your password to confirm the setting change. 

It’s important to mention that the final step will change within the coming weeks. According to the email, Google will let users use biometrics instead of requiring them to enter their account password.

The purpose of this feature is to seemingly provide an extra layer of safety to protect yourself against unauthorized transactions in case your phone is ever compromised. You don’t have to use a password anymore, although you will always have the option.

Google Play Store's new biometric verification

(Image credit: Future)

Minor, yet important detrails

There are a few minor details you should know regarding the feature. 

At a glance, it seems the biometric verification will primarily live on the Play Store. We attempted to purchase an ebook and were met with a fingerprint reader to authenticate our identity before checkout. Then we discovered the security feature will appear on third-party apps, but its presence on them varies. 

We purchased items for the game Arknights on our Android phone to see if a biometric verification reader popped up. It didn’t. The checkout went through without any hindrance. However, when we signed up for a three-month trial on Amazon Music, a Play Store message showed up asking if we would like to enable biometrics for future purchases. 

This leads us to believe that some apps will support the new verification method while others won’t. It may depend on whether or not a developer decides to support the security fixture on their product. 

Do note this has been our personal experience with the tool. It may operate differently for you. Google didn’t provide much information in their email or Play Store Help page. Of course, we reached out to the tech giant for clarification and will update the story if we learn anything new.

If you're looking for a great new app to download, be sure to check out the best 10 Android apps of 2023 according to Google.

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Nvidia’s GeForce Now’s free tier will soon show you up to two minutes of ads while you wait to play – proving nowhere is safe from commercials
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Nvidia’s free tier of GeForce Now, its cloud gaming service, will soon run up to two minutes of ads before you play, according to Nvidia spokesperson Stephanie Ngo.

GeForce Now is a service offered by Nvidia that allows you to connect to digital PC game stores and stream games you already own across a multitude of different devices – including Macs, Windows laptops, iPhones and iPads, Android phones, and more.

It offers three membership tiers, with the free membership offering a queue system with an hour-long gaming session length that will then bring you back to the start of the queue once your time is up. It’s in this waiting time that the ads will be shown, so while it could be a little annoying, your actual gameplay time won’t be interrupted. 

The ads will help pay for the free tier service and keep it free, with Ngo adding that the change is also expected to reduce wait times for free users in the long run – though it’s not entirely clear at this point how that’s going to work. Perhaps Nvidia is expecting the arrival of ads to push users to pay for the premium tiers or simply drive some users away from the platform entirely – either would, in theory, help reduce queues for the free tier.  GeForce Now users should expect an email on 27 Feb to let them know about the changes. 

 Major inconvenience or just … meh?  

I’m not a user of Nvidia’s game-streaming service myself, but I reached out to GeForce Now Members within the TechRadar team and learned that wait times currently fluctuate between five to fifteen minutes – and scrolling through the GeForce Now subreddit proves that wait times can go on even longer. 

Most people who use the free tier of GeForce Now go in aware that they will be spending a not-insignificant amount of time in a queue, so in reality, two minutes of ads when you know you’re likely going to be waiting for longer anyway isn’t much of an inconvenience – it might even help kill some time. Many users are likely to simply do something else while queuing for their free hour timeslot anyway, so why shouldn’t Nvidia get some extra ad revenue from it?

That being said, it is a gloomy example of the inescapable modern torture of being advertised at non-stop. Almost every facet of the internet is packed with ads at this point (this article included – sorry about that, but we’ve got to eat!) and while a lot of platforms offer ad-free paid tiers, it seems like that isn’t enough anymore. 

Amazon Prime has received a lot of (well-deserved) flak for slapping ads onto paid memberships, and Netflix’s ad-supported free tier wasn’t very well-received either. While Nvidia’s latest move seems fairly innocuous right now, who’s to say the ‘up to two minutes’ won’t extend further in the future, until you’re sat watching a full ten minutes of commercials to play an hour-long session of your current favorite game? Do you just give in and buy a paid membership? I just might, personally – but I wouldn’t be happy about it.

Via The Verge 

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Google is shutting down Play Movies & TV, but don’t worry, your purchases are safe
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Google will be pulling the plug on the last vestiges of Play Movies & TV, and to help with the transition, it’ll be moving users’ purchased content to other services.

The tech giant has been slowly shutting down the platform for the past two years beginning with its removal from various smart TVs. The storefront has since existed on Android TV devices and Google Play undisturbed until recently when a post on the Android TV Help website announced the changes. According to the page, the update will roll out over the coming weeks, but the day you’ll receive the patch depends on what country you live in. Then on January 17, Google will officially move everything you bought on or are currently renting from Play Movies & TV to its new home. Something you should know is access to your content depends on what hardware you own.

For example, if you have an Android TV or streaming device, you can find your purchases over “in the Your Library row on the Shop tab.” People who own a cable or set-top box “powered by Android TV” will have to open the YouTube app and then go to the Movies & TV section. Media will be under the Purchased tab. On web browsers, it’s the same process: head over to YouTube and hop on over to Movies & TV on your account.

Also, the post from earlier mentions you can view content on the Google TV mobile app. It doesn’t say exactly where people can find their media, but if we have to take a wild stab in the dark, it’ll most likely be under Your Stuff.

A small limitation

There aren’t a lot of restrictions. One we found is the fact that the ability to buy or rent movies on YouTube isn’t available around the globe. It's only in a few regions. A full list of supporting countries can be found on Google’s Help website. It’s worth mentioning some online reports claim they’ve already received the patch as they’re “already seeing old movie buys” on YouTube so the release may be happening sooner than expected.

We reached out to Google asking for some clarification on the rollout, like are certain countries being prioritized first? Additionally, what if someone gets the update earlier than January 17? Does this mean they'll be locked out of their purchases until then? We’ll let you know what the company says if they respond.

Be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best Android box of 2023 if you're looking for a way to upgrade your TV.

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You can now play a retro 90s game while your new Microsoft Surface device sets up
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Microsoft has recently introduced a bunch of major updates to Windows 11, and now, it’s even updated how you get the updates. If you happen to be getting one of the new Microsoft Surface laptops or tablets anytime soon, you’re in for a treat. 

When you first open up your sparkling new device, you’ll inevitably have to sit through a setup and update process for a little while before you can dive in. Now, Microsoft has made the installation process less lonely by being able to play a game while you wait. 

You can also see our impression of Microsoft's Surface models.

This development was first spotted by Tom Warren of the Verge when he opened and started up the Surface Laptop Studio 2, he was able to play a modernized version of SkiFree, originally an online game created by Microsoft programmer Chris Pirih and released in 1991. 

Where else can you find the game?

This isn’t the first time Microsoft has mined SkiFree for nostalgic mini-game distractions – it’s actually been something of an easter egg you could stumble upon in Microsoft’s Edge browser since 2020. You can still access the game by typing in edge://surf in your Edge browser.

If you have pending Windows updates that are available or are restoring settings from a previous Windows Backup, it might be possible to play the game. It’s not totally clear if this is only available during the setup process of new Surface devices or if you can also play the game while updating any existing device with Windows 11. The Verge asked for more information on the topic from Microsoft but the company has yet to respond. 

Either way, it’s still a fun tidbit to pass the time and it’s the latest improvement Microsoft has made to make the dreaded Windows update process a little less dull. I think it shows that Microsoft developers do pay attention at more precise levels than people realize to improve the overall user experience. The current setup process is already a big step up even from recent Windows versions, which would have Cortana talking you through the process extensively – something some users found unhelpful or annoying.

Microsoft Surface X Liberty London collaboration, showing Surface Pro 9 tablet with a blue floral print design.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Where Microsoft may have found inspiration

BetaNews goes as far as to speculate that Microsoft actually nabbed the idea from a third-party Windows enthusiast developer, concept designer 'AR 4789', who developed his own version of Windows with additional features named 'Windows Utopia'. Windows Utopia also lets you play games, as well as browse the web, while you install the custom operating system. 

This news has seemingly been received quite positively by Windows fans so far, and Microsoft could use the goodwill as it rolls out its very novel AI assistant, Windows Copilot, which has been received with a less enthusiastic response. The appearance of the surfing minigame does show that Microsoft is still very detail-oriented when it comes to the user experience, so I hope that it continues to be that way when it comes to delivering huge new features just as it does with the smaller ones.

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Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar are finally going to play nice together
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Google and Microsoft have come a step closer to becoming amicable with the announcement that their respective calendar apps will become a whole lot more interoperable in a bid to keep users organized whichever service they decide to use.

A support page details how “users in both systems share their availability status so everyone can view each others' schedules.”

Furthermore, changes are being rolled out to how invitations are managed between the two rival companies.

Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook interoperability

In its announcement, Google explains that “Calendar Interoperability is the critical component to help ensure events created in one calendar system are accurately propagated for guests using different calendar systems.”

Taking a move to recognize and support third-party services will inevitably work in favor of the company, with many individuals and businesses preferring to split their digital footprint between multiple companies, all of whom have their own merits and preferred use cases.

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As part of the update, Outlook users who also have a Google Calendar with the same email address can receive Google Calendar invitations and RSVPs directly in Outlook without having to be in the Google ecosystem (which incidentally doesn’t have a dedicated desktop client). As standard, default reminders will also be created for Google Calendar invitations in Outlook.

On the flip side, non-Google Calendar recurring events are now hoped to be more “systematically and accurately” reflected in Google’s portal.

Unlike some changes, this is a Google-wide feature that applies to both business and individual customers, and is already available.

Having already announced other interoperability missions, like Meet and Zoom, it’s clear that Google is trying to broaden its appeal by more subtly integrating into third-party platforms, in turn giving customers a central ecosystem that they can work from with fewer limitations.

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Sumplete is a Wordle rival made entirely by ChatGPT – here’s how to play
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ChatGPT might have created the next Wordle in the shape of Sumplete, an engaging online number puzzle game.

The rules of Sumplete are pretty simple. You’re given a grid of numbers – with sizes ranging from a three-by-three grid up to one that’s nine-by-nine – and you have to delete numbers such that the ones remaining in the columns and rows add up to specific totals.

As you can see in the example below, we’ve removed the six and nine from the leftmost column so that the remaining digits (two, two, and three) add up to seven, while for the middle row, we had to delete everything except the central nine to achieve the target of nine.

A 5-by-5 grid of numbers with green circles and red crosses over some of the entries

(Image credit: Future)

As the grids get larger there are more possible combinations of numbers in each row and column that add up to the targets, making it progressively more difficult to find a solution. Those of you who are up for the ultimate challenge will enjoy the nine-by-nine grid, as not only is it the largest, but it introduces negative numbers as well.

If Sumplete isn’t your thing, then you still have Wordle to sink your teeth into, and if you need a hand with today’s puzzle check out our Wordle clues for hints on how to solve it.

How did ChatGPT create Sumplete? 

ChatGPT didn’t conjure up Sumplete entirely on its own, and it didn’t create Sumplete on its first attempt at a game either. Instead, it was steered by Substack user Puzzled Penguin.

He initially asked the bot to suggest existing Sudoku-like puzzle games, but he’d played all of them before, so Puzzled Penguin thought the AI bot might be able to create something new. Several iterations later it had Sum Delete – which was later renamed Sumplete – and ChatGPT was even able to create HTML and JavaScript code for the game so that Puzzled Penguin could share the fun.

As for how the idea for Sumplete came about, ChatGPT seems to have combined two games into one. Sudoku is one of its inspirations, but Sumplete shares a few similarities with Picross too; just as in Sumplete, in Picross you use clues about each row and column's contents to identify the correct points in a grid.

Only time will tell if Sumplete has the staying power of Wordle, but even if it doesn’t stick around we expect Sumplete won’t be the last game to be made using ChatGPT’s help.

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Microsoft Teams will finally play nice with Mozilla Firefox
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Using Microsoft Teams on Mozilla Firefox could soon be a much nicer experience after a number of key features were announced to be finally coming to the browser.

The company has said it is working on bringing what it called “improved meeting support” for Teams users looking to work with the Firefox browser.

This includes full audio and screensharing support for any Microsoft Teams meetings carried out in Firefox, which up until now has struggled to allow users to utilize the video conferencing tool to its full strength.

Microsoft Teams and Firefox

In the Microsoft 365 roadmap entry, the update is still said to be in development, however the company says it should roll out by the end of April, meaning users should not have to wait too long.

Firefox had been one of a number of browsers unable to fully support Microsoft Teams calls, alongside the likes of Safari and Internet Explorer. 

Anyone attempting to join a Teams meeting using Firefox would be directed towards downloading the software's desktop client, a somewhat more lengthy process that could make you late for a call.

Although some users of these browsers may have been able to join a Microsoft Teams call, they would have had to deal with a potential lack of video or audio, as well as lacking desktop, window and app sharing.

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> We're all much more dependent on Teams than we want to believe

When available, Microsoft says the upgraded experience will be available to all Teams users in the Firefox browser across the world. The latest data suggests Teams has racked up more than 270 million monthly active users (MAUs), up from fewer than 50 million daily active users before the pandemic began.

Microsoft Teams has enjoyed a regular schedule of updates and upgrades in recent months as the company looks to ensure its platform remains on top of its game.

The news follows a similar recent update from the company revealing that Microsoft Teams apps will soon be available on Office.com and the Office for Windows app as the company looks to further expand the reach of its video conferencing service. This should help improve the user experience for Teams customers around the world, meaning there’s no longer a need to switch between platforms to use specific apps.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

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Microsoft Teams will finally play nice with Mozilla Firefox
  • No Comments

Using Microsoft Teams on Mozilla Firefox could soon be a much nicer experience after a number of key features were announced to be finally coming to the browser.

The company has said it is working on bringing what it called “improved meeting support” for Teams users looking to work with the Firefox browser.

This includes full audio and screensharing support for any Microsoft Teams meetings carried out in Firefox, which up until now has struggled to allow users to utilize the video conferencing tool to its full strength.

Microsoft Teams and Firefox

In the Microsoft 365 roadmap entry, the update is still said to be in development, however the company says it should roll out by the end of April, meaning users should not have to wait too long.

Firefox had been one of a number of browsers unable to fully support Microsoft Teams calls, alongside the likes of Safari and Internet Explorer. 

Anyone attempting to join a Teams meeting using Firefox would be directed towards downloading the software's desktop client, a somewhat more lengthy process that could make you late for a call.

Although some users of these browsers may have been able to join a Microsoft Teams call, they would have had to deal with a potential lack of video or audio, as well as lacking desktop, window and app sharing.

Read more

> There will soon be no escape from Microsoft Teams, even in the office

> Why Slack isn't afraid of Teams or any other competitor

> We're all much more dependent on Teams than we want to believe

When available, Microsoft says the upgraded experience will be available to all Teams users in the Firefox browser across the world. The latest data suggests Teams has racked up more than 270 million monthly active users (MAUs), up from fewer than 50 million daily active users before the pandemic began.

Microsoft Teams has enjoyed a regular schedule of updates and upgrades in recent months as the company looks to ensure its platform remains on top of its game.

The news follows a similar recent update from the company revealing that Microsoft Teams apps will soon be available on Office.com and the Office for Windows app as the company looks to further expand the reach of its video conferencing service. This should help improve the user experience for Teams customers around the world, meaning there’s no longer a need to switch between platforms to use specific apps.

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Spotify users’ lives will get a lot simpler with Google’s new Play Store update
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Spotify and Google are teaming up to give users on Android smartphones more choice on how they pay for a Premium subscription to the music platform.

From later this year, you'll be able to choose for the payment to either go through Spotify's own system or Google Play Billing instead, according to the latest Spotify Blog Post. The change is expected to come to other big-name apps as well, though we’ve yet to hear specifics.

The initiative is being called ‘User Choice Billing’, and it will give you the option to choose between giving more to the creators of the apps you use or continuing to contribute to Google’s Play Store infrastructure. 

But, which payment system is likely to be best for you?

Analysis: Which payment system will be better? 

Giving people more choice is rarely a bad thing, but here it definitely feels like you’re being asked to weigh up two nearly identical options.

When Epic Games tried to circumvent Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store payments in Fortnite mobile, it attracted customers by charging less for in-game goodies than if they bought via the third-party. Unfortunately, we don’t expect this will be the case here, as it’s a Google-led initiative.

If Spotify Premium costs less through Spotify than through Google’s Play Store (or vice versa), then you’d have no reason to opt for the pricier option.

So, assuming both systems are equally expensive for the customer which is better? If you want to maximize the portion of your money going to Spotify, then most likely its own private system will be best. 

But, for convenience, Google’s billing is likely to be your best option. As all of your subscription payment data is stored in one place, the next time that you get a new debit or credit card you won’t have to remember everywhere that it’s used – you just have to update your details once, and your subscriptions will all continue.

Additionally, it’ll be easier to keep an eye on the subscriptions that you have. It’s not hard to forget that you have recurring billing set up for an app you rarely use, so by storing all of your subscriptions in one location within Google Play, you’d be able to quickly scroll through and find out what you’re paying without having to decode your bank statements.

If the service spreads to other apps and services, it might also give you the option to pay for digital goods without having to give your card details to a platform that you aren’t familiar with.

However, as with all upcoming features, we’ll have to wait and see just how much of a time or money saver 'User Choice Billing' ends up being when it launches.

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