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Posts tagged "Plugins"

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Bing AI could soon be much more versatile and powerful thanks to plug-ins
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Microsoft’s Bing AI may be close to finally getting plug-ins, a feature that has been experimented with before, and will make the chatbot considerably more versatile and powerful (in theory, anyway).

Windows Latest reports that the update to add plug-ins has rolled out to a ‘small’ number of Bing Chat users over the weekend, and the tech site was one of those to get access.

Note that it appears the rollout is only happening for those using the Canary version of Microsoft’s Edge browser (and Windows Latest only got the feature in that preview release, not in the finished version of Edge).

We’re told that the AI currently offers five plug-ins to testers and you can pick any three of those to use in a session. If you want to change plug-ins, you’ll need to start a new Bing Chat session.

Windows Latest carried out some testing with a couple of those plug-ins, and the results seemed useful, with the OpenTable add-on providing some restaurant recommendations in a query.

Other plug-ins available in testing include Kayak, Klarna, and a shopping add-on for buying suggestions – we’ve already got you covered there, of course, especially for the imminent Black Friday sale – but it may be the case that different plug-ins appear for different users.

Analysis: Faster and better

Eventually, of course, there will be a whole load of plug-ins for the Bing AI, or that’s certainly Microsoft’s plan, although they’ll doubtless be rolled out in stages over time. One of those will be the much-awaited ‘no search’ function that was switched to be implemented via a plug-in not so long ago. (This allows the user to specify that the AI can’t use search content scraped from the web in its responses).

We’ve seen plug-ins in a limited test rollout before (in August), but they were pulled, so this is effectively a return of the feature – hinting it might arrive sooner rather than later.

Fingers crossed, and the good news is that Windows Latest observes that these new plug-ins seem to be more responsive and work better than the old efforts (performance-related concerns are likely one of the reasons that the test plug-ins got pulled earlier this year).

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Apple’s macOS Sonoma update won’t support your legacy Mail plug-ins
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If you plan to upgrade to macOS Sonoma later this year but also happen to make use of legacy Mail plug-ins, you're going to be in for a bad time. That's because the update will remove support for those plug-ins for the first time.

Plug-ins can be used for a variety of things, like bulk email management and automation. They can often be used by businesses and power users and now it appears that they're going to have to consider upgrading to something newer or ditching those plugins and their features altogether.

With Apple now putting the macOS Sonoma update through what is sure to be months of beta tests proper to a September or October launch, there is plenty of time for those decisions to be made. One other option is to just not update yet, but that's less than ideal and no use at all if there are new macOS features that you could make use of.

Legacy Mail

As MacRumors points out, Apple confirmed that it would kill off legacy Mail plug-ins previously, but didn't say when that would happen. The warning was given when macOS Monterey was released in 2021, and there was even a replacement for legacy plug-ins announced at the same time.

That replacement is the MailKit framework and developers have been tying into that ever since. However, there is still a good chance that some legacy plug-ins haven't been updated, leaving their users in a difficult position.

Some developers are already aware that Apple is deprecating legacy Mail plug-ins and are working to get their projects ready for the big day.

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However, while MailKit extensions can be more secure than their legacy counterparts, they don't have the same level of access which could impact the features they offer. As a result, it's also possible that some legacy plug-ins simply won't make the move over to MailKit at all.

Apple announced the macOS Sonoma update during the WWDC event on June 5, but it was far from the only update previewed. The new iOS 17, iPadOS 17, tvOS 17, and watchOS 10 updates were also shown off for the first time — they're all now available in beta and should be ready for the public this September.

That was just the software, too. Apple announced the first non-Intel Mac Pro, an updated Mac Studio, and the first 15-inch MacBook Air during the same event. The biggest announcement was undoubtedly the arrival of the Vision Pro AR/VR headset, however.

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