1 844.742.7448

Email Us

Remote Support

Contact

Posts tagged "popular"

  1. Home
  2. Posts tagged popular

ChatGPT has become so popular it’s had to pause Plus subscriptions
  • No Comments

If you were about to start delving into the world of AI chatbots, then we have some bad news: signups for ChatGPT Plus have been paused as demand has spread beyond the capacity of OpenAI, the organization behind the chatbot/language model. 

For the uninitiated, ChatGPT Plus provides priority access to ChatGPT and faster response times for the artificial intelligence-powered language model, as well as priority access to new features and improvements all for some $ 20 a month. 

But with new subscriptions now paused, you won't be able to get access to the likes of the GPT-Turbo – a supercharged version of the ChatGPT AI model – and custom GPTs that can be tailored to particular tasks. 

See more

The base ChatGPT is still available for free and people can still sign up and use it, it’s just the premium tier is basically out of reach for new subscribers for the time being. So that means you can still use ChatGPT to come up with answers to all manner of queries, or finesse your CV, or even give you dating advice. Just don’t expect it to be super fast or especially accurate – while ChatGPT can be a powerful tool, it’s not quite up to the same level of intelligence as a garden-variety human.

As for the surge in subscribers for ChatGPT Plus, that may have come from OpenAI’s recent developer conference DevDay, which was held on November 6. This may have seen a spate of developers get a dose of inspiration and move to sign up for ChatGPT Plus.

“The surge in usage post-DevDay has exceeded our capacity and we want to make sure everyone has a great experience,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

So the flipside of this subscription pause could deliver a better overall service once OpenAI catches up.

Rise of the chatbots 

So what can we infer from this surge? Well, it would be a good indication of the continued appetite to embrace ChatGPT and other AI tools and chatbots. 

And as a result, we could see more apps and services come with ChatGPT-powered features, likely chatbots to provide a quick way to answer user queries or provide the core experience of a smart service. 

Then again with the likes of Samsung and Apple tipped to make greater use of AI in its future smartphones, we could see all manner of AI-related tech in near-future products. Time will, as ever, tell. 

You might also like

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

Popular AI art tool Dall-E gets a big upgrade from ChatGPT creator OpenAI
  • No Comments

If you’ve ever messed around with AI tools online, chances are you’ve used Dall-E. OpenAI’s AI art generator is user-friendly and offers a free version, which is why we named it the best tool for beginners in our list of the best AI art generators.

You might’ve heard the name from Dall-E mini, a basic AI image generator made by Boris Dayma that enjoyed a decent amount of viral popularity back in 2021 thanks to its super-simple functionality and free access. But OpenAI’s version is more sophisticated – now more than ever, thanks to the Dall-E 3 update.

As reported by Reuters, OpenAI confirmed on September 20th that the new-and-improved Dall-E would be available to paying ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise subscribers in October (though an official release date has not been announced yet). An OpenAI spokesperson noted that “DALL-E 3 can translate nuanced requests into extremely detailed and accurate images”, hopefully signally a boost in the tool’s graphical capabilities – something competitors Midjourney and Stable Diffusion arguably do better right now.

Another small step for AI

Although ChatGPT creator OpenAI has become embroiled in lawsuits over the use of human-created material for training its AI models, the Dall-E 3 upgrade actually does feel like a step in the right direction.

In addition to technical improvements to the art generation tool, the new version will also deliver a host of security and safeguarding features, some of which are arguably sorely needed for AI image production services.

Most prominent is a set of mitigations within the software that prevents Dall-E 3 from being used to generate pictures of real-world living public figures or art in the style of a living artist. Combined with new safeguards that will (hopefully) prevent the generation of violent, inappropriate, or otherwise harmful images, I can see Dall-E 3 setting the new benchmark for legality and morality in the generative AI space.

It’s an unpleasant topic, but there’s no denying the potential dangers of art theft, deepfake videos, and ‘revenge porn’ when it comes to AI art tools. OpenAI has also stated that Dall-E creators will be able to opt out of having their work used to train future text-to-image tools, which will hopefully preserve some originality – so I’m going to be cautiously optimistic about this update, despite my previous warning about the dangers of AI.

You might also like

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

Zoom is shutting down one of its most popular apps
  • No Comments

One of the most widely-used Zoom apps is closing as the company looks to modernize some of its offerings for users around the world.

The video conferencing giant has announced it is shutting its app for Chromebooks, the low-cost machines running Google's ChromeOS that have become incredibly popular among schools and universities.

Users shouldn't fear the loss of Zoom forever though, as the company says it is only making the change in order to build something better.

Zoom on Chromebook

“This app will no longer be officially supported after August 2022. Please use the new Zoom for Chrome PWA to join meetings on ChromeOS,” said a notice in the Zoom app for Chromebooks that has recently begun appearing.

The app is set to close by August 2022, meaning users have a few more weeks of the original offering, which was released during Zoom's heyday in the early weeks and months of the pandemic.

9to5Google, which first spotted the alert, notes that the Zoom app for Chromebooks is pretty basic, only offering standard access to video calls and meetings without any of the added functionality that has been added to other versions of Zoom over the years.

Read more

> Zoom is adding its own tiny metaverse for private meetings

> Zoom update delivers quick hack for more productive meetings

> LinkedIn is taking on Zoom with a new virtual events platform

Google had announced back in August 2020 that it would be phasing out Chrome apps on all platforms, with support on Windows, Mac and Linux ending in June 2021. This was later extended to all Chrome apps on ChromeOS for June 2022, with the company no longer accepting new apps, and existing apps no longer being listed or made available to download on the Chrome Web Store.

Zoom had shown off a Progressive Web App (PWA) for Chromebooks in 2021, offering much of the standard functionality familiar to users on other platforms, as well as up to date UI and apps.

The news comes shortly after Zoom recorded a huge rise in enterprise customers to go alongside its consumer base as hybrid working remains popular.

In its most recent financial results, the company said that the number of customers contributing more than $ 100,000 was up 46% year-over-year, as it now has around 198,900 enterprise customers, up 24% from the same quarter in its last fiscal year.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

One of the most popular Microsoft Office builds will soon be killed off
  • No Comments

Microsoft has confirmed that it will not be supporting its Office 2013 software suite for very much longer.

The company revealed that its office software offering will reach its official end of support within the next twelve months, after which it will no longer receive updates and security protection from the company.

Users of Microsoft Office 2013 are now being urged to upgrade or switch software before April 11, 2023, or possibly risk being hit by cyberattacks.

Farewell Microsoft Office 2013

“After five years of Mainstream Support, and five years of Extended Support, Office 2013 will reach the End of Extended Support on April 11, 2023. Per the Fixed Lifecycle Policy, after this date security updates for Office 2013 will no longer be available,” Microsoft said in an email to customers seen by BleepingComputer.

“After Office 2013 reaches the end of support, Microsoft won't provide any new security updates, and the continued use of Office 2013 after April 2023 may increase your organization's exposure to security risks or impact your ability to meet compliance obligations.”

In place of Office 2013, Microsoft has suggested users switch to Microsoft 365 Apps, a subscription-based model. Most commonly seen as part of Microsoft 365 and Office LTSC 2021 subscriptions, this package provides most of the key apps for business users, and receives regular updates and patches.

Read more

> Windows 11 may not be as popular as Microsoft had hoped

> > Microsoft quietly reverses one of the most outrageous Windows 11 changes

> How to download and install Windows 11 right now

“Please start upgrading to Microsoft 365 Apps, which is designed to receive regular updates, and will help you stay current by getting security updates and our latest features,” noted Microsoft.

“Alternatively, if your organization requires a static, unchanging product, consider moving to Office LTSC 2021.”

The news is the latest key Microsoft product to reach its end of life in recent months. Most famously, Windows XP was put out to pasture back in 2014, although following months of back-and-forth, Microsoft eventually relented and said it would still offer some forms of support for users of the ancient software.

Via BleepingComputer

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

One of the most popular Microsoft Office builds will soon be killed off
  • No Comments

Microsoft has confirmed that it will not be supporting its Office 2013 software suite for very much longer.

The company revealed that its office software offering will reach its official end of support within the next twelve months, after which it will no longer receive updates and security protection from the company.

Users of Microsoft Office 2013 are now being urged to upgrade or switch software before April 11, 2023, or possibly risk being hit by cyberattacks.

Farewell Microsoft Office 2013

“After five years of Mainstream Support, and five years of Extended Support, Office 2013 will reach the End of Extended Support on April 11, 2023. Per the Fixed Lifecycle Policy, after this date security updates for Office 2013 will no longer be available,” Microsoft said in an email to customers seen by BleepingComputer.

“After Office 2013 reaches the end of support, Microsoft won't provide any new security updates, and the continued use of Office 2013 after April 2023 may increase your organization's exposure to security risks or impact your ability to meet compliance obligations.”

In place of Office 2013, Microsoft has suggested users switch to Microsoft 365 Apps, a subscription-based model. Most commonly seen as part of Microsoft 365 and Office LTSC 2021 subscriptions, this package provides most of the key apps for business users, and receives regular updates and patches.

Read more

> Windows 11 may not be as popular as Microsoft had hoped

> > Microsoft quietly reverses one of the most outrageous Windows 11 changes

> How to download and install Windows 11 right now

“Please start upgrading to Microsoft 365 Apps, which is designed to receive regular updates, and will help you stay current by getting security updates and our latest features,” noted Microsoft.

“Alternatively, if your organization requires a static, unchanging product, consider moving to Office LTSC 2021.”

The news is the latest key Microsoft product to reach its end of life in recent months. Most famously, Windows XP was put out to pasture back in 2014, although following months of back-and-forth, Microsoft eventually relented and said it would still offer some forms of support for users of the ancient software.

Via BleepingComputer

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

Windows 11 could get this popular macOS feature
  • No Comments

Windows 11 would appear to be bringing in a popular feature from macOS, or at least a rough equivalent to Apple’s Quick Look capability is reportedly in testing at Microsoft.

Windows Latest claims that the feature is being considered for inclusion in Windows 11 – and Windows 10 for that matter – via the PowerToys suite of tools, and it’ll supposedly be called ‘Peek’.

Like the Mac’s Quick Look, the idea is that you can highlight a file – say an image – and tap a key to see a preview of that pic pop up on the desktop (then you can tap the key again to dismiss that preview). As the name makes clear, it’s a way of quickly peeking at a preview of the file in question.

Windows Latest reckons that this feature was experimented with during a hack week at Microsoft, and was well-received, so the functionality has been drafted into internal builds of PowerToys at this stage.

Whether or not it’ll make the cut and actually get released – and how much truth there is to this report, which remains speculation, of course – we’ll just have to see.

Analysis: You can already do this in Windows (sort of) 

It’s certainly true that this is a feature that a good number of Windows users have been longing for in the past. Indeed, there’s already an app for Windows 10 called ‘QuickLook’ (ahem) which can be grabbed from the Microsoft Store, and enables swiftly previewing files (or at least some files – ‘tons’ of formats are supported, the developer claims) by tapping the spacebar.

Having an official solution, rather than a third-party app, would of course be a much more preferable situation and a generally neater state of affairs.

The power of Peek or Quick Look is to be able to quickly glance at an image to, say, check if it’s the right one you want to upload somewhere, rather than having to fully open the photo and wait for an app to fire up. It’s a highly convenient way of working for certain situations.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

Windows 11 may not be as popular as Microsoft had hoped
  • No Comments

The explosive growth seen by Microsoft's Windows 11 operating system over the past few months is beginning to slow, new figures suggest.

The latest report from AdDuplex shows that Windows 11 user numbers are levelling out, perhaps suggesting Microsoft needs to up its game with some new updates or additions to the platform soon.

For the month of March 2022, Windows 11 took just 0.1% market share from other editions of Microsoft's software, accounting for 19.4% of the overall usage, with a further 0.6% using a Windows 11 Insider build.

Windows 11 upgrade

The numbers show that, despite Microsoft's push to get users to upgrade to Windows 11, its previous edition is still holding strong for many consumers.

Of the 80% using Windows 10, the larger proportion were found to be using the two most recent update families. Windows 10 N21U (21H2), released in November 2021, had 28.5% of the overall market, with its slightly older sibling, Windows 10 M21U (21H1), released in March 2021, taking 26.5% of the share.

The remaining 25% was made up of various older builds dating back to 2018, indicating that Microsoft does still have some work to do in order to get a large number of users upgraded to its latest editions.

AdDuplex takes its figures from 5,000 Windows Store apps, so may not be entirely representative of the true market share, but the figures do appear to corroborate recent findings from Microsoft itself.

Read more

> Microsoft quietly reverses one of the most outrageous Windows 11 changes

> Windows 11 Pro will soon force you to make a Microsoft account

> How to download and install Windows 11 right now

The company recently shared that 1.4 billion devices are running both Windows 10 and Windows 11, although it didn't reveal specific numbers for either build. 

This has posed a problem for some business users however, as recent research found that as many as a third of work laptops or PCs don't meet the minimum requirements to run Windows 11, with the lack of TPM 2.0 the main culprit.

The report from Riverbed added 19.45% of devices will need a storage upgrade, 11% will need to be upgraded to TPM 2.0 and 8% will need to be upgraded with UEFI – with 12% of work PCs needing to be replaced entirely.

Via OnMSFT

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

These were the most popular browser extensions during the pandemic
  • No Comments

The transition to working from home during the pandemic drastically changed the way in which we use technology with the browser becoming one of the most important tools for remote work.

Now as we've reached the two-year mark of the start of the pandemic, Mozilla has published a new blog post taking a closer look at which browser extensions were the most downloaded and used during the early days of the lockdown in Firefox.

As meetings went virtual with employees relying on video conferencing software like Zoom to connect with their teams, the browser extension Zoom Scheduler saw a 1,522 percent increase in installs. This is because it integrates Google Calendar with Zoom so that users can scheduler or start their Zoom meetings directly from their calendar.

Since remote workers also spent more time looking at their work from home monitors, the Dark Background and Light Text extension, which flips the colors of webpages to make them more visible, saw a 351 percent increase in installs at the beginning of the pandemic. Likewise, the Tree Style Tab extension also experienced a 126 percent increase in downloads as it can help users deal with tab overload by opening browser tabs in a cascading “tree” format similar to vertical tabs in Microsoft Edge. 

Protecting our privacy and staying entertained

Cybercrime ran rampant during the beginning of the pandemic so in addition to using a VPN and antivirus software when working remotely, Firefox users also began installing privacy extensions for their browser.

Cookie AutoDelete, which eliminates unused cookies whenever you close a tab in Firefox, saw its install numbers skyrocket by 386 percent and the browser extension also averaged more than 206k installs per month between March and May of 2020.

As remote workers used Facebook's social media platform to stay connected during lockdown, Mozilla's own Facebook Container was another popular browser extension. This extension isolates your Facebook identity into a separate “container” so that the social media giant can't track your moves around the web.

Read More

> The most popular Firefox extensions of 2021 were both adblockers

> Google, Microsoft set aside rivalry to build more secure browser extensions

> Microsoft Edge has nearly toppled a major rival in the desktop browser war

Blocking trackers was also important to those working from home during the pandemic which is why the Privacy Badger browser extension saw installs jump by 80 percent globally. An interesting thing about this browser extension is that it gets better at blocking trackers the longer you use it since Privacy Badger “learns” more about the hidden trackers you naturally encounter while online.

When it came to staying entertained while in lockdown, Firefox users installed the BetterTTV browser extension to alter the look and feel of Twitch, the Watch2gether extension to have watch parties with friends and colleagues online and YouTube Non-Stop to solve the problem of the video platform's annoying “Video paused. Continue watching?” prompt.

Regardless of which browser you're currently using, browser extensions can help add to your online experience and make the software and services you depend on while working from home even more useful.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More