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Meta’s Smart Glasses will get a sci-fi upgrade soon, but they’re still not smart enough
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There's a certain allure to smart glasses that bulky mixed-reality headsets lack. Meta's Ray-Ban Smart Glasses (formerly Stories), for instance, are a perfect illustration of how you can build smarts into a wearable without making the wearer look ridiculous. The question is, can you still end up being ridiculous while wearing them?

Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses' big upcoming Meta AI update will let you talk to your stylish frames, querying them about the food you're consuming, the buildings you're facing, and the animals you encounter. The update is set to transform the wearable from just another pair of voice-enabled glasses into an always-on-your-face assistant.

The update isn't public and will only apply to Ray-Ban Smart Glasses and not the Ray-Ban Meta Stories predecessors that do not feature Qualcomm's new AR1 Gen 1 chip. This week, however, Meta gave a couple of tech reporters at The New York Times early access to the Meta AI integration and they came away somewhat impressed.

I must admit, I found the walkthrough more intriguing than I expected.

Even though they didn't tear the glasses apart, or get into the nitty gritty tech details I crave, the real-world experience depicts Meta AI as a fascinating and possibly useful work in progress.

Answers and questions

In the story, the authors use the Ray Ban smart glasses to ask Meta AI to identify a variety of animals, objects, and landmarks with varying success. In the confines of their homes, they spoke full voice and asked Meta AI. “What am I looking at?” They also enabled transcription so we could see what they asked and the responses Meta AI provided.

It was, in their experience, quite good at identifying their dogs' breed. However, when they took the smart glasses to the zoo, Meta AI struggled to identify far-away animals. In fact, Meta AI got a lot wrong. To be fair, this is beta and I wouldn't expect the large language model (Llama 2) to get everything right. At least it's not hallucinating (“that's a unicorn!”), just getting it wrong.

The story features a lot of photos taken with the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, along with the queries and Meta AI's responses. Of course, that's not really what was happening. As the authors note, they were speaking to Meta AI wherever they went and then heard the responses spoken back to them. This is all well and good when you're at home, but just weird when you're alone at a zoo talking to yourself.

The creep factor

This, for me, remains the fundamental flaw in many of these wearables. Whether you wear Ray-Ban Smart Glasses or Amazon Echo Frames, you'll still look as if you're talking to yourself. For a decent experience, you may engage in a lengthy “conversation” with Meta AI to get the information you need. Again, if you're doing this at home, letting Meta AI help you through a detailed recipe, that's fine. Using Meta AI as a tour guide when you're in the middle of, say, your local Whole Foods might label you as a bit of an oddball.

We do talk to our best phones and even our best smartwatches, but I think that when people see you holding your phone or smartwatch near your face, they understand what's going on.

The New York Times' authors noted how they found themselves whispering to their smart glasses, but they still got looks.

I don't know a way around this issue and wonder if this will be the primary reason people swear off what is arguably a very good-looking pair of glasses (or sunglasses) even if they could offer the passive smart technology we need.

So, I'm of two minds. I don't want to be seen as a weirdo talking to my glasses, but I can appreciate having intelligence there and ready to go; no need to pull my phone out, raise my wrist, or even tap a smart lapel pin. I just say, “Hey Meta” and the smart glasses wake up, ready to help.

Perhaps the tipping point here will be when Meta can integrate very subtle AR screens into the frames that add some much-needed visual guidance. Plus, the access to visuals might cut down on the conversation, and I would appreciate that.

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Still running Windows 7 or 8? Prepare for an Epic fail – Epic Games Store follows Steam and drops support for older operating systems
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The Epic Games Store has followed in the footsteps of Steam in dropping support for Microsoft’s desktop operating systems which are older than Windows 10 – although this hasn’t happened quite yet.

Epic gave notice in an announcement that support for Windows 7 and Windows 8 (or 8.1) will cease from June 2024, so just over two months’ time. Note that Windows 10 32-bit will also be dropped, but not the 64-bit version of the OS that the vast majority of folks run. There's no 32-bit version of Windows 11, of course.

So, support from June will be limited to Windows 10 64-bit and Windows 11 – and for macOS, version 10.13 or newer of Apple’s OS.

As mentioned, Epic is a bit later than Valve in closing down support for these older operating systems, because Steam enacted this measure at the start of 2024. As you might expect, there weren’t many PC gamers that were affected, going by Valve’s stats – fewer than 1% of Steam users had Windows 7/8 installed at the time. And the same is likely true for the Epic Games Store.

Analysis: Time to upgrade?

For the small niche of gamers who will be hit by this move, this will obviously be somewhat disappointing. Mind you, when June rolls around, this doesn’t mean you won’t be able to use the Epic Games Store at all. It’ll still work, it just won’t get any updates going forward, or be supported in any way. This means that after a while, bits of functionality might fail and the launcher will eventually probably start to misfire or stop working entirely.

Naturally, without updates, you’ll also be open to any vulnerabilities in Epic’s client, but then if you’re still running Windows 7 or 8, that’ll be the least of your worries – the exploits open to leverage in those systems will be far more worrying in nature, of course.

And that’s exactly why you shouldn’t be running Windows 7 or 8 any longer, anyway. It’s time to upgrade, one way or another – by which we mean make the move to Windows 10 (or Windows 11, if your PC spec is up to it), or take the obvious alternate route, a Linux distro (there are some solid Windows-like choices out there, after all).

What about Windows 10 32-bit users? Well, Microsoft does still support them, but there are very few of these folks out there now (certainly in the gaming world – Steam’s hardware survey doesn’t even list Windows 10 32-bit anymore, and hasn’t for a long time).

Via Neowin

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Sticking with Windows 11 22H2? If you can dodge forced upgrades, you’ll still get new features… for a little while
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Windows 11 users holding out on version 22H2, rather than upgrading to 23H2 which was released late last year, just got a reprieve that means if they stick with the older incarnation of Microsoft’s OS they’ll still get feature updates – at least for a time.

Previously, Microsoft had stated that as of February 27, only monthly security updates would be provided for Windows 11 22H2 – meaning feature updates (non-security efforts) wouldn’t be piped through.

However, Neowin noticed that Microsoft just updated the release info for the February patch for Windows 11 22H2 to change the dates for those feature updates ceasing to be applied for 22H2.

What this means is Windows 11 Home and Pro users will now continue to get these non-security updates going forward, but the deadline has only been extended slightly – to June 26, 2024. (Although enterprise users will get these updates until June 24, 2025).

Analysis: Listening to feedback

So, in other words, Windows 11 Home and Pro will get non-security updates for March, April, May and June (when they weren’t going to previously). After that, though, it’s just security updates only, going forward.

This is an interesting move by Microsoft as the company isn’t in the habit of making such extensions to support deadlines. It does happen, but not often, and not usually in this kind of last-minute fashion.

What’s revealing is that in the blurb announcing the new end date, Microsoft says the change was made based on user feedback. Which would seem to suggest that Microsoft had some unhappy punters on their hands with the end date as it was.

Whatever the case, all updates will be halted by October 8, 2024, including security patches, as that’s when support ends for version 22H2.

However, very few people should be left on the OS at that point, as Microsoft is already forcing upgrades to Windows 11 23H2 (using an AI-powered automated process that started just last week).

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Apple has been forced to change App Store purchases, but it’s still found a way to win
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The long-simmering dispute over Apple’s App Store commissions and practices has just resulted in some pretty substantial alterations to the ways you’ll now be able to pay for apps. But in some respects, not a whole lot has changed – and you might not end up saving any money at all.

Recently, a judge dismissed any ongoing appeals in Apple’s legal case with Epic Games. The end result is that both sides have to comply with the original judgement, and that’s overturned a major App Store practice that caused a lot of contention among developers.

Previously, devs were forbidden from allowing users to sign up for in-app purchases (IAPs) on their own websites (or anywhere other than in the app itself). In fact, the developers weren’t even allowed to tell users that they could save money by paying elsewhere.

Now, as noted by Apple Insider, app creators can apply to Apple for an entitlement to include a link that goes to a payment portal on an external website they control. Apple must approve of the link, and it only applies to iPadOS or iOS apps in the US App Store.

In theory, those sound like pretty big changes, as previously you were forced to use Apple’s own IAP method for purchases. One of the complaints with this process was the 15-30% cut Apple charges to developers for in-app sales. If users no longer have to pay via IAPs, that means they can avoid higher prices prompted by these fees, right?

Well, not quite. The latest change actually makes very little difference to this situation – and the prices you pay are unlikely to drop any time soon.

High fees and hurdles

A person uses the Winnie app on an iPhone.

(Image credit: Apple)

While developers can now direct users to pay using a system outside of Apple’s control, they still have to pay a sizable commission to Apple on these payments. One of the conditions of the link entitlement is that IAPs must remain as an option within the app. That means developers can’t prevent users from paying with a method that gives Apple a slice of the pie.

There’s another caveat. Even when a user pays via a link entitlement, Apple takes a commission of between 12% and 27% on the purchase. That’s slightly lower than the standard 30% and 15% rates, but not by much.

The only exception is if a user purchases something to be used in the app through a method that does not involve either the link entitlement or IAP. So, developers can make direct sales that were generated through online advertising or email marketing, for example, without paying a commission. In that case, we might pay a lower price for apps.

There are a lot of other hurdles for developers. While they can mention that an external payment method might be cheaper, they can’t actively discourage anyone from using Apple’s IAP method. The external link can only appear once in the app and cannot be displayed using a pop-up or modal window either.

There’s more. App developers cannot include their external link as part of Apple’s IAP process, and must also show a “system disclosure” sheet when a user selects the link that tells them they’re leaving the Apple ecosystem and are heading to an external website. External links can’t contain tracking measures and can’t open in an in-app browser. The App Store info page can’t mention the external payment method, and the linked website cannot mimic Apple’s IAP system, which Apple says is to minimize fraud and user confusion.

In other words, there are a lot of hoops for developers to jump through. Even if they manage that, the benefit to going external isn’t that great at all. While some developers had hoped that overcoming Apple’s IAP stranglehold would reduce the cut Apple took from their proceeds, the most likely outcome is that little will change in this way.

And with all these requirements, actually using the link entitlement method might be a hassle for users, too.

What’s Apple’s motivation?

Apple's Ann Thai demonstrates the App Store redesign at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in 2018.

(Image credit: Apple)

Why is Apple insisting on taking a large commission, despite the unpopularity of this move? That’s simple: Apple views its commission as a fair compensation for the service it provides to both users and developers. That includes enabling developers to get their apps seen, the distribution of the apps, ensuring a secure environment for users to download and pay for apps, marketing, support, and more.

With these changes in effect, users might not save very much money since developers are being charged almost exactly the same rates by Apple, whether they use the IAP system or not. In fact, the user experience will probably be worse, since paying externally will involve more taps and might require additional account registrations.

Developers are likely to be frustrated with the way Apple has rolled out these changes, as it also means more work for them (to both implement external payment methods and to avoid falling foul of Apple’s rules) without much tangible benefit to their users.

Yet we probably shouldn’t be too surprised that it turned out this way. For one thing, Apple believes it has put a lot of work into its operating systems and App Stores, and that it should therefore be allowed to monetize those systems. For another, the judge in the Apple vs Epic trial clearly ruled that Apple’s charging of a commission was not a problem.

So don’t expect major changes to the way you pay for apps or their contents any time soon. Things might appear different on the surface, but underneath they’ll largely remain the same.

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Don’t panic, iPhone users – Google Maps is still bringing Live Activities to your lock screen
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Google announced around this time last year that it was working on the addition of Live Activities support to the Google Maps app for iPhone and iPads, and slated it for release later in 2023, but so far it still hasn’t been released. However, new assets found in the latest version in the app indicate that Google is still working on this feature, and the wait may soon be over.

The feature will display turn-by-turn directions on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island of iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 series handsets, providing users with real-time ETAs, directions for driving, biking, walking, public transit, and more kinds of navigation. Users can look forward to all of that in easy-to-read live notifications without having to unlock their phones and opening the app. 

I wonder if this feature will also be present on iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro models’ Dynamic Islands, and would assume this would become standard for future iPhone models. It would also be nice to see a similar feature for Android devices (Dynamic Islands is a feature that’s exclusive to modern iPhones). 

Young woman using smartphone in Sydney

(Image credit: Getty Images)

A sign to keep your hopes up

A contributor at MacRumors, Aaron Perris, looked into the app’s assets after its most recent update, and found signs that users can remain hopeful that Google hasn’t given up adding these features to Google Maps on iPhone, despite the delay. 

This is reassuring, as while the new features were still in development as of August of last year, after that there were no strong indications that Google was pushing forward with it until now. MacRumours says that this recent discovery suggests that we might see the new feature soon. 

Apple has also opened up the Live Activities API for third-party iPhone app developers in iOS 16.1’s release. Developers have since made some handy apps and added some useful support features to existing apps, like DoorDash and United Airlines, thanks to the Live Activities API.

As an Android device user, I’m pretty jealous – this sounds like an awesome feature that makes it easier to get up and go, and stay on the move. It will make commuting with the help of your iPhone safer and more convenient, as well. I understand why iPhone users might be getting antsy after such a long delay and limited communication from Google, but it’s worth it for the Google Maps team to get it right.

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Report: Google delays its biggest AI launch of the year, but it’s still coming soon
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Google has delayed a series of top-secret artificial intelligence (AI) events that were set to showcase the company’s Gemini generative AI tool, according to The Information. If true, it's another blow to Google’s efforts to compete with the likes of ChatGPT in the AI world – although Gemini is still expected to launch soon.

As detailed in a paywalled report from The Information, the Gemini event was due to take place just days from now, with the first one kicking off next week. Yet Google CEO Sundar Pichai has apparently taken the decision to push it back to January 2024, according to “two people with knowledge of the of the decision.”

The reason for the delay? Google was not confident that Gemini was able to “reliably handle some non-English queries,” The Information claims. Google wants to ensure its AI tool works well in a number of languages, and it’s clearly not quite there yet.

The events – due to be held in California, New York and Washington – would apparently have been “Google’s most important product launch of the year” owing to how keen Google is to catch up with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. That means that delaying them could be a sizable blow to Google, even if they do ultimately take place in early 2024.

In ChatGPT’s shadow

Google on a smartphone

(Image credit: Solen Feyissa/Unsplash)

Despite their imminent dates, Google hadn’t done much promotion for the events (perhaps due to concerns over Gemini’s abilities). In the end, that meant the company managed to avoid an embarrassing retraction or cancellation of already-announced events.

Yet Google isn’t likely to be very happy with the situation. The delay demonstrates how much the company is struggling to get on level terms with OpenAI, despite its vast wealth and engineering abilities. It’s also the second time in recent weeks that Google has reportedly had to delay its Gemini events.

It comes shortly after OpenAI reportedly had a major breakthrough with its own generative AI efforts. This tool is supposedly able to solve problems it has not been trained on, something that AI has traditionally found difficult, thereby ramping up the pressure on Google to hit back.

Google is likely to weave Gemini’s AI capabilities into its other products, such as Search, Google Assistant, Google Docs and more, The Information believes, so keep an eye out for AI updates if you regularly use the company’s apps. Just don’t expect to see these changes until early next year.

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Windows 11’s Microsoft Store gets slightly less annoying – but I still won’t use it
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The Microsoft Store has received a new update that allows it to launch much faster. Users that are using version 22309 of the store should see a noticeable difference in launch times – although I personally don’t think a meager launch time revamp is enough to draw users to the store. 

Independent developer Daniel (@kid_jenius on X/Twitter) noticed the change and noted that the launch time has apparently dropped from seven seconds to two seconds. Of course, that’s no guarantee that your results will be exactly the same, but it seems the app is certainly quicker than before. 

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If you’d like to update your Microsoft Store to version 22309, you’ll ironically have to use… Microsoft Store. If you’re brave enough you’ll open the store, when it eventually loads, select the library icon on the lower left corner, select the option that says ‘get updates’, and select the available updates. 

If you can’t see an available update your device may have automatically installed it already.

And then what?

So, you may be sitting here reading this and thinking ‘who cares?’ (harsh but fair) or a more polite ‘so what?’, and honestly? You’d be justified. Obviously, this is a move from Microsoft to start hammering out the kinks in the app, but not many people actually use it. 

For as long as I can remember, I’ve downloaded all my apps and software directly from the internet rather than subjecting myself to the frustrating horror that is the Microsoft Store. It’s always been laggy, clunky, and slow.

Microsoft has struggled to entice users to the store, and while it is making small steps to make the experience better, most Windows users are more accustomed to going straight to the app's site and downloading directly. 

At this point, I don’t think there’s anything Microsoft can do (barring a complete teardown and redesign, which we’re likely not seeing soon) to lure me into its buggy storefront. I appreciate the effort, but it’s too little too late. 

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Still on Windows 11 21H2? Forced upgrades are coming as Microsoft reminds us it’s on life support
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Windows 11 21H2 is about to run out of road for support, so if you’re still on this version of the operating system, then you need to upgrade very soon.

Bleeping Computer highlighted an end-of-servicing announcement Microsoft issued pertaining to Windows 11 Home, version 21H2 (and Pro versions, too, including Windows 11 Pro Education).

Microsoft reminded us: “These editions will no longer receive security updates after October 10, 2023.”

What does that mean? Feature updates are one thing – upgrades that add new capabilities and refine the interface of Windows 11 in one way or another – but security updates are the really important bit.

They patch up vulnerabilities that have been discovered in Windows 11, and if not fixed, could be exploited by attackers to compromise your system in some way (usually with dire results).

If you’re still running Windows 11 21H2 – which is the version of the OS from 2021, as the name suggests – then you need to upgrade to 22H2, and do so before October arrives.

Analysis: Get going on that upgrade

Upgrading to Windows 11 22H2 is an easy process. Just head to Windows Update (in Settings), and click the ‘Check for updates’ button, whereupon the upgrade should show up with the option to install it.

Not sure what version of Windows 11 you have? You can find out simply by typing ‘winver’ into the search box on the taskbar and clicking on ‘Run command’. Winver stands for Windows Version and will pop up a panel telling you if you are currently running Windows 11 21H2 or 22H2 (or whatever flavor of Microsoft’s OS you’ve got for that matter, if it’s another).

Windows 10 users have already seen their 21H2 version pushed out of support, which happened last month – the June cumulative update contained the final round of security patches for that incarnation of the OS. That means Windows 10 users should already have upgraded to 22H2, and indeed Microsoft is forcing the upgrade on folks (to ensure they stay protected).

Microsoft has also been forcing upgrades to Windows 11 22H2 for the same reason over the course of 2023, and as the final October deadline for 21H2 support approaches, more users are going to get an automatic upgrade coming into play, again to ensure their PC continues to receive security fixes.

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Microsoft is still hard at work improving this unloved Windows 11 feature
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We’ve caught a glimpse of how a part of the Windows 11 interface could work in the future, thanks to digging in a new preview build.

PhantomOfEarth, one of the regular sources of Microsoft leaks on Twitter, used ViVeTool to uncover how smart snap suggestions should pan out in Windows 11.

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You can see the results (this is in preview build 23493 in the Dev channel) in the video clip provided in the tweet above.

As noted by the leaker, the snapping process and tooltips are now working properly, so Microsoft is making progress with this part of the interface.

For the uninitiated – those who don’t use snap layouts – it’s a part of the interface that allows you to easily ‘snap’ multiple apps together in different layouts, with the suggestions providing predefined templates of how you might want those apps to sit on the screen.

Microsoft is also adding icons to the snap flyout carrying the suggested layouts, so you can see which windows will carry which apps (as the icon of the application is present in its relevant window).

We’re seeing Microsoft do a lot of work in build 23493, and it makes a big move in terms of the introduction of Windows Copilot (although the AI is very barebones to begin with), plus there’s some interesting work on the Settings app (yes, it’s an app, and yes, it just got improved in a major way).

Analysis: Heading for a multitasker’s paradise?

On top of all that other work on the UI (there’s a new volume mixer in 23493, to boot), this is a promising glimpse of how snap suggestions is coming along. It looks pretty slick even in this still early stage of the game, as remember, the feature isn’t even functional yet. (Not without using the aforementioned Windows configuration tool, ViVeTool, to turn it on).

As ever, features in testing may change, and as PhantomOfEarth points out, Microsoft is currently testing two variants of snap suggestions with the available layouts arranged somewhat differently, trying to work out which is optimal no doubt.

There’s even a chance that features in testing won’t make it to release at all – especially hidden functionality like this – but in the case of snap suggestions, we’re thinking this is a pretty safe bet for eventual inclusion in Windows 11. Particularly as snap layouts is an area Microsoft has been tinkering with a fair bit in recent times.

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Google Photos for web gets huge update, but is still missing one big feature
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The web version of Google Photos just got a major upgrade that brings a slew of editing features like Color Pop, Portrait Blur and Sky suggestions. But it’s not perfect. 

Google Photos has been a great cloud photo storage platform for some time, making it easy to share your snaps between devices, and on mobile it’s also a solid photo editor. It’s not on par with services like Photoshop, but you can pull off some great looking adjustments – we particularly like Color Pop which makes the image black and white except for objects you select, and Background Blur which artificially blurs the background of pictures.

While this update finally gives the web client these tools and others found on the version on your Google Pixel 7, there are unfortunately two catches to the new and improved Google Photos web version.

Firstly, you’ll need to be subscribed to Google One – Google’s paid subscription service – to be able to take advantage of these new features. The cheapest Google One tier is Basic; it costs $ 1.99 / £1.59 / AU$ 2.49 per month and gives you access to these Photos tools as well as 100GB of storage, the use of the Google One VPN and a handful of extra benefits.

The other catch is the new Google Photos web tools lack the best feature found on the Google Pixel version of the app: Magic Eraser. This AI-powered tool allows you to clean up your photos; the app removes the objects you’ve highlighted and then cleverly fills in the blank space with a background using context from the image. It’s not perfect, but nine times out of 10 you wouldn’t know the image was altered unless someone told you.

Opinion: Magic Eraser is like a photo cheat code

A phone screen showing a photo of a child on a beach being edited by Google's Magic Eraser feature

(Image credit: Google)

Magic Eraser isn’t a Google Photos editing tool you should always rely on. Our Cameras Editor Timothy Coleman recently argued that cleaning your messy photos with Magic Eraser is a bad thing. It removes authenticity from your snaps, and often options like Background Blur can create a much tidier looking image.

But there are plenty of times when a minor fix from Magic Eraser can help remove a distraction that blemishes a shot you love. When I took a holiday with my parents in December 2021, I snapped a picture of them next to a huge Christmas tree, but they’d left their brightly colored bags in the shot. Thanks to Magic Eraser I could clean up the offending items, and get a result we were much happier with.

Given my success with the tool, I’m disappointed to see it’s not coming to Google’s Photos web app yet. This is hardly a surprise though; Magic Eraser is one of the best features on Pixel phones and by making it available to any Google One subscriber, Pixel handsets would lose one of their unique appeals. 

Hopefully this Pixel exclusivity won’t last forever. But even if it does, with a bevvy of AI image tools on the rise alongside the best AI art generators, you might find a Google Photos rival can offer a good alternative to Magic Eraser.

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