Got a Meta Quest 3? There are 12 new reasons to get a Quest Plus subscription

Meta Quest 3 and Oculus Quest 2 owners with a Meta Quest Plus subscription are about to get a lot more bang for their buck as the program is getting a Netflix-style catalogue of rotating software.

Previously, Quest Plus owners got two free games a month that they could keep and use for as long as they were subscribed – the software for March 2024 is shooter Contractors and immersive puzzler Shadow Point. Now, on top of those two free VR apps they’ll also get access to a rotating library of other free titles they can enjoy while they’re available at no extra cost.

The current selection of 12 joining the service in March 2024 includes some excellent sports apps in The Climb and Sports Scramble, as well as some of my favorite VR games with Walkabout Mini Golf and Until You Fall.

The first 12 Meta Quest Plus catalogue titles including Demeo, Fruit Ninja, Walkabout Mini Golf and A Township Tale

The first 12 Meta Quest Plus catalogue titles (Image credit: Meta)

If the deal wasn’t sweet enough for you already there’s an extra offer available for people who buy an annual Meta Quest Plus subscription before May 31, 2024 – this includes people who buy new subscriptions, but also existing users who upgrade from a monthly Quest Plus plan.

That’s because you’ll not only get the best-value Meta Quest Plus subscription – paying just $ 59.99 / £59.99 a year instead of the $ 95.88 / £95.88 it’d cost by paying $ 7.99 / £7.99 monthly – but you'll also get $ 25 / £25 store credit to buy any Quest game or app you want.

Unlike the Meta Quest Plus software, you won’t lose access to it when you unsubscribe.

It’s unclear how long apps will be available in the rotating catalogue – if they’ll all change monthly, or if it depends on the specific title title. We also don't know if you'll get a discount on the software if you choose to buy it before it leaves (which is a benefit offered by other similar services). 

At the very least, this catalogue will offer you an extended demo for any games and apps you’re interested in – informing you if it’s worth buying once it’s gone, or not. You might even manage to finish a whole single-player adventure before spending a dime (ignoring the subscription cost).

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Microsoft introduces Copilot AI to Windows 10 – but there are reasons you might not get it

Windows 10 has now got the Copilot AI with the latest patch for the release version of the OS – or at least some users have.

The cumulative update for December, which just arrived (patch KB5033372), debuts Copilot (in preview) on the desktop, as well as applying the usual security fixes, and a few extra features besides.

Copilot’s icon is positioned on the taskbar, at the far right in the system tray. However, if you don’t see the AI assistant on your taskbar after installing KB5033372, that could be due to a slight complication for Windows 10 users regarding the interface, which we’ll come back to shortly.

Or it might be simply because this is a limited rollout of the AI to begin with. As Microsoft notes: “[Copilot] is available to a small audience initially and deploys more broadly in the months that follow.”

If you do see the Copilot icon, and don’t want the AI on your desktop, the good news is that you can right-click to disable it, as Windows Latest reports.

The December update for Windows 10 also gives the News & Interests panel more screen real-estate, and it introduces another feature from Windows 11 aside from Copilot.

That’s the ‘Get the latest updates as soon as they are available’ option, which as the name suggests, is a way to offer up your PC to get updates as soon as possible – with the catch that you may experience wonkiness as an early adopter. But more choice is always good in our book.

Analysis: Sidestepping Copilot

Copilot is the major move here, of course, but what about that mentioned interface issue? Well, there’s a problem for those who’ve moved their taskbar away from the bottom of the screen, and to the side, in Windows 10. Admittedly, that’s a niche set of users who are seriously into their desktop customization, but still, there are people who will likely be annoyed by this.

Microsoft informs us: “Copilot in Windows (in preview) is not currently supported when your taskbar is located vertically on the right or left of your screen.”

The obvious workaround, as Microsoft points out, is to move your taskbar back to the bottom of the screen (or the top). If you’re a hardcore customizer, though, relocating your taskbar from its preferred vertical position at the sides will probably mess with your mojo and workflow in a meaningful way.

At any rate, Microsoft tells us that it’s working on resolving this hiccup with the UI, and will keep us updated as to the progress on that fix.

The reason this isn’t a problem in Windows 11, by the way, is that you can’t move the taskbar away from the bottom of the desktop (much to the chagrin of those mentioned keen desktop tinkerers).

At the moment, Copilot is only on a limited rollout anyway, and it could take months to arrive on any given Windows 10 PC – but at least the process has now kicked off.

You’re not missing that much, mind, given the AI’s current condition, where it’s basically just a glorified version of the Bing chatbot (now renamed Copilot itself). It can manipulate some Windows settings, but not many to begin with – that functionality will be ramped up as the months pass, though.

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Be careful: There are reports of nasty bugs with the latest Windows 11 update

Windows 11 users have run into trouble with the latest patch for the OS going by some reports, and that includes nasty boot loops.

This is the cumulative update for November that Microsoft deployed last week, known as KB5032190, and Windows Latest has picked up on some problems with the patch.

As noted, the worst issue here is reports of people trying to install the update and getting stuck in a boot loop, meaning that their PC keeps failing during installation, rebooting, failing again, rebooting, and so on.

One Redditor reports: “I have tried installing this update twice now, only for it to get caught in an endless boot loop. It kept getting to 95% and restarting, then would try again. Now it just gives me the ‘Something didn’t go as planned. No need to worry – undoing changes’ message before going back into the endless reboot. At least I can do a System Restore.”

Another Windows 11 user replies to that post observing that they hit a few boot loops before their system rolled back the update – and that it was the same case with this update in preview (released in late October), noting that eventually they “got to the point the laptop wouldn’t boot” with that test update.

Ouch indeed, though that was the preview version, so hopefully any danger of having to reinstall Windows – which is what this user ended up doing – will now have been removed with the final release.

Needless to say, the user in question is not continuing to try to install the update, which certainly seems like a sensible precaution.

There are four reports of this problem in that Reddit thread, and it seems that the boot loop isn’t an endless one, and the system pulls itself out of the loop after a few fails – at least for most folks anyway.

Another problem that is bugging (literally) some Windows 11 users is disappearing icons on the taskbar.

Either the icons are vanishing – though the functionality is still present if you click the blank space on the bar – or there are reports of them being displaced by one, meaning that the icon for, say, Word will open Microsoft’s Edge browser (the icon next to it). Confusing, to say the least.


Analysis: Curious case of the invisible icons

The missing icons problem was introduced with Moment 4 (which ushered in all the new features that have come to Windows 11 lately, including Copilot). So, it has been hanging around for a while, and really annoying those who have encountered it – seemingly a fair few people judging from reports.

The good news is that Microsoft has actually fixed this glitch in the Canary preview build of Windows 11, so hopefully, the solution should be coming through testing soon enough to reach the release version of Windows 11.

Microsoft hasn’t said anything about boot loops, but there are far fewer reports of this from what we can see. Still, it’s a nasty problem, though as noted in most cases, it seems the looping will only run a few times before the system corrects itself and comes back to the desktop. (Still leaving the user unable to install the update, mind, so that’s not great of course).

It’s worth remembering that Microsoft itself has flagged up some known issues with the patch, including a bug whereby those with multiple monitors might see desktop icons shift between one display to another unprompted (or other icon alignment weirdness) when using Copilot. The software giant has pulled the AI assistant from those PCs, so if you aren’t seeing Copilot any longer on a multi-screen setup, that’s why. A fix is being worked on as we type this.

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WhatsApp just made transferring chat history so easy but there may be one big limit

WhatsApp is making it easier to transfer chat logs from your old phone to a new one just by scanning a QR code.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the initial announcement on his Instagram channel where he states this method lets you move your data privately without ever having to leave your devices.” Looking at the video he posted, you first open up the QR code on the older device, then scan said code on the newer phone. Give it about 10 seconds to finish up and you’re done. Other reports state the Chat Transfer tool can be found under the Chats section in the Settings menu.

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Compared to the old method of having to back up your history on either Google Drive or iCloud, this is a lot more straightforward. You’re effectively cutting out the middleman plus you don’t have to worry about hitting storage limits if your WhatsApp account has several gigabytes worth of media saved on it.

As great as this new feature may be, it appears there is a catch. TheVerge claims the QR code chat log transfer “only works between devices running the same operating system, so Android to Android or iOS to iOS.” If you want to move your data from, say, a Samsung Galaxy phone to an iPhone or vice versa, you’ll have to head over to WhatsApp’s Help Center for instructions on how to do so.

We asked Meta to confirm if this is true. We’ll update this story at a later time.

Availability

Meta is currently rolling out the Chat Transfer tool in waves to all its users. Be sure to keep an eye out for the patch once it arrives. No word if there are plans to add a similar feature to the desktop version of WhatsApp.

If any of this sounds familiar to you, that’s because WABetaInfo first revealed the update back in early May when it was only available to beta testers. The publication has since shown off other interesting changes coming to WhatsApp. For instance, a WhatsBeta beta on Android from late May introduces screen-sharing for video calls, which you can activate right after installation and try out with others. There are also plans to introduce multi-account support to the platform giving people a way to swap between profiles on the same smartphone.

While we have you, be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best secure smartphones for June 2023.

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Holopresence means never having to say, ‘Sorry, I can’t be there’

In Holopresence land you can be two places at once. One is sitting on a director’s chair in front of a green screen, sweating under a half dozen stage lights. The other is half a world away on a semi-translucent screen, addressing an audience who almost believes you’re sitting right there with them.

I walked across midtown Manhattan in the soaking rain to see ARHT Media’s Holopresence experience in person earlier this week. (And with water dripping off my hat and coat, I found myself wishing I’d done this meeting as a hologram.)

To be clear, what ARHT provides is not, technically, a hologram. It’s a canny projection system that employs mostly off-the-shelf technology, a proprietary screen, and special software to make people believe someone is sitting in front of you, as opposed to – in my case – Toronto.

He was never really there

ARHT Media is a Toronto, Canada, telepresence company that just opened its first Holopresence studio in a WeWork building in midtown Manhattan. They invited me for a look.

As I walked into the WeWork space, basically a vast, mostly unfurnished office floor, I was greeted by ARHT Media SVP Terry Davis and company CEO Larry O’Reilly, who was standing off to the side looking at his phone. O’Reilly looked a little odd, as though he was standing before a bright light that I couldn’t see. Suddenly he abruptly dematerialized and was gone — my first experience with this Holopresence technology.

I wanted to try this for myself, but before anyone could transform me into a Holopresence, Davis walked me through the technology's fundamentals.

“We’re a projection system,” Davis told me. Gesturing toward the cube-like set up in a semi-darkened space on the far side of a cavernous WeWork room, where O’Reilly had “stood” just moments ago, Davis explained that the entire system is portable and “breaks down into a couple of duffle bags. We go anywhere in the world.”

The cube that “virtual you” beam in and out from consists of poles, black curtains on the back and sides, and a special screen stretched across the front. Unlike a standard movie screen, this one is a nylon-like mesh with a high-gain reflective coating. “It’s transparent and reflective at the same time,” explained Davis.

Aside from ARHT’s matrixed software (handling multi-channel communication for various holopresences in real-time), the screen is the company’s only other piece of proprietary technology. Still, it is effective.

Behind the screen, I note a few props, including a pair of plants and some floor lighting. These and the distance to the back curtain create the illusion of a depth of field behind a Holopresence. “You have to have a certain degree of depth of field in order for your brain and eyes to perceive that parallax,” said Davis.

A world of Holograms

AHRT is by no means the only company creating virtual people for events, concerts, panels, exhibits, and families. There’s Epic HoloPortl, for example. It has white, booth-like boxes, called PORTLs, in which people appear to materialize. The effect is arresting. Davis, while not wanting to criticize Epic HoloPortls, called them “white coffins with no depth of field.”

He also noted that his product can accommodate multiple people from multiple locations on one screen, while PORTL fits one in a box.

Plus there’s the portability factor. A Holopresence system, which would include the screen, curtain, poles, an off-the-shelf projector (they were using a Panasonic DLP for my demonstration), and microphones and speakers, can fit in a large bag. It’s not clear how portable the PORTL boxes are.

Still, on the other side of a Holopresence presentation is someone sitting in front of a green, black, or white screen. They’re mic-ed-up, facing a camera, and, in my case, hunkered down under substantial lighting. Meaning that for a live Holopresence event, there are always two sides to the technology equation.

Davis told me that the technology they use to create these hologram-like presences is not much different than what we’ve seen with virtual Michael Jackson in Concert or Tupac Shakur at Coachella. In those instances, the projection was from the ground up to a reflective surface that bounces it off a giant screen. Holopresence’s projector is outside the curtained area, facing the screen.

Lance Ulanoff and ARHT CEO Larry O'Reilly

Lance Ulanoff and ARHT CEO Larry O’Reilly (beaming in) (Image credit: Future)

Most of ARHT Media’s clients are businesses, enterprises, and billionaires (there was an Antarctic yacht cruise where people like Malcolm Gladwell beamed in to talk to a select audience). Davis described multiple panels where they beamed people in from around the world. Back at each of their studios, panelists are surrounded by screens that stand in place of other panelists. If someone is seated to the left of you, that’s where the screen will be. They even try to accommodate height differences. If the speaker on the left is much short than you or, say, on a different level on the stage, they adjust the screen height accordingly. A feed of the audience is usually placed in front of the speaker. What they see is holo-panelists looking back and forth at other holo-panelists.

To accommodate large panels or events with large audiences, ARHT offers a range of screen sizes that can be as small as 5 feet and as large as, well, a stage.

ARHT does have some consumer impact. During COVID travel restrictions, the company helped a bridesmaid in England virtually attend a wedding in America. In New Jersey’s Hall of Fame, the company has built a kiosk where visitors can “speak” to life-sized video versions of Bon Jovi and Little Steven.

Still, ARHT is not priced for your average consumer. A single-person Holopresence can run you $ 15,000. For more people on the screen, it could cost as much as $ 30,000.

Beaming in

Lance Ulanoff in ARHT studio becoming a Holopresence

Lance Ulanoff in ARHT studio becoming a Holopresence (Image credit: Future)

After a power outage at the Toronto headquarters (no amount of tech magic can overcome a lack of electricity), we finally got ARHT’s CEO back for a quick virtual chat. The roughly 6ft tall O’Reilly looked solid. As we talked and he reiterated many of the points Davis and I covered, I found myself focusing on the image quality. Dead-on, it was perfect. From O’Reilly’s white hair down to his shoes, he appeared to be standing before me (on a slightly raised stage). I shifted to the left and right and found the effect holding up pretty well. Davis claims the projection doesn’t flatten out until you hit between 120 -to-140-degree off-axis. I’d argue the viewport is a bit narrower.

As we conversed, though, I experience another key part of ARHT’s Holopresence secret sauce: latency. The conversation between the two of us was free-flowing. Even when we did a counting test (we counted to ten with each of us alternating numbers), there was, perhaps, a sub-second delay.

To achieve this effect, ARHT uses low packet bursting transmission to create a smooth, conversational experience between people in Hong Kong and Australia or a reporter in New York City and a CEO in Toronto.

Lance Ulanoff materializes

(Image credit: Future)

One thing I noted throughout the demo were the references to Star Trek transporter technology. There was even a screen in the space showing a loop from the original Star Trek series where the team beams down to an alien planet. When you start a Holopresence experience, people “beam in” with a very Star Trek-like graphic flourish and sound effect. I asked O’Reilly if he's a Star Trek fan and what he thought about the connection. He didn’t answer directly and instead pointed out how the sound and graphics are completely customizable.

Finally, it was my turn. I sat in the green screen space and tried to look like I wasn’t about to experience a lifetime dream of mine. My beam-in moment was, initially, a little underwhelming. I couldn’t see myself; the Holopresence space was across the room. 

When it was over, I walked over, and Davis replayed my big moment. Seeing myself teleport into the room like a bald Captain Kirk was everything I hoped it would be.

Beam me up, Scotty.

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Holopresence means never having to say, ‘Sorry, I can’t be there’

In Holopresence land you can be two places at once. One is sitting on a director’s chair in front of a green screen, sweating under a half dozen stage lights. The other is half a world away on a semi-translucent screen, addressing an audience who almost believes you’re sitting right there with them.

I walked across midtown Manhattan in the soaking rain to see ARHT Media’s Holopresence experience in person earlier this week. (And with water dripping off my hat and coat, I found myself wishing I’d done this meeting as a hologram.)

To be clear, what ARHT provides is not, technically, a hologram. It’s a canny projection system that employs mostly off-the-shelf technology, a proprietary screen, and special software to make people believe someone is sitting in front of you, as opposed to – in my case – Toronto.

He was never really there

ARHT Media is a Toronto, Canada, telepresence company that just opened its first Holopresence studio in a WeWork building in midtown Manhattan. They invited me for a look.

As I walked into the WeWork space, basically a vast, mostly unfurnished office floor, I was greeted by ARHT Media SVP Terry Davis and company CEO Larry O’Reilly, who was standing off to the side looking at his phone. O’Reilly looked a little odd, as though he was standing before a bright light that I couldn’t see. Suddenly he abruptly dematerialized and was gone — my first experience with this Holopresence technology.

I wanted to try this for myself, but before anyone could transform me into a Holopresence, Davis walked me through the technology's fundamentals.

“We’re a projection system,” Davis told me. Gesturing toward the cube-like set up in a semi-darkened space on the far side of a cavernous WeWork room, where O’Reilly had “stood” just moments ago, Davis explained that the entire system is portable and “breaks down into a couple of duffle bags. We go anywhere in the world.”

The cube that “virtual you” beam in and out from consists of poles, black curtains on the back and sides, and a special screen stretched across the front. Unlike a standard movie screen, this one is a nylon-like mesh with a high-gain reflective coating. “It’s transparent and reflective at the same time,” explained Davis.

Aside from ARHT’s matrixed software (handling multi-channel communication for various holopresences in real-time), the screen is the company’s only other piece of proprietary technology. Still, it is effective.

Behind the screen, I note a few props, including a pair of plants and some floor lighting. These and the distance to the back curtain create the illusion of a depth of field behind a Holopresence. “You have to have a certain degree of depth of field in order for your brain and eyes to perceive that parallax,” said Davis.

A world of Holograms

AHRT is by no means the only company creating virtual people for events, concerts, panels, exhibits, and families. There’s Epic HoloPortl, for example. It has white, booth-like boxes, called PORTLs, in which people appear to materialize. The effect is arresting. Davis, while not wanting to criticize Epic HoloPortls, called them “white coffins with no depth of field.”

He also noted that his product can accommodate multiple people from multiple locations on one screen, while PORTL fits one in a box.

Plus there’s the portability factor. A Holopresence system, which would include the screen, curtain, poles, an off-the-shelf projector (they were using a Panasonic DLP for my demonstration), and microphones and speakers, can fit in a large bag. It’s not clear how portable the PORTL boxes are.

Still, on the other side of a Holopresence presentation is someone sitting in front of a green, black, or white screen. They’re mic-ed-up, facing a camera, and, in my case, hunkered down under substantial lighting. Meaning that for a live Holopresence event, there are always two sides to the technology equation.

Davis told me that the technology they use to create these hologram-like presences is not much different than what we’ve seen with virtual Michael Jackson in Concert or Tupac Shakur at Coachella. In those instances, the projection was from the ground up to a reflective surface that bounces it off a giant screen. Holopresence’s projector is outside the curtained area, facing the screen.

Lance Ulanoff and ARHT CEO Larry O'Reilly

Lance Ulanoff and ARHT CEO Larry O’Reilly (beaming in) (Image credit: Future)

Most of ARHT Media’s clients are businesses, enterprises, and billionaires (there was an Antarctic yacht cruise where people like Malcolm Gladwell beamed in to talk to a select audience). Davis described multiple panels where they beamed people in from around the world. Back at each of their studios, panelists are surrounded by screens that stand in place of other panelists. If someone is seated to the left of you, that’s where the screen will be. They even try to accommodate height differences. If the speaker on the left is much short than you or, say, on a different level on the stage, they adjust the screen height accordingly. A feed of the audience is usually placed in front of the speaker. What they see is holo-panelists looking back and forth at other holo-panelists.

To accommodate large panels or events with large audiences, ARHT offers a range of screen sizes that can be as small as 5 feet and as large as, well, a stage.

ARHT does have some consumer impact. During COVID travel restrictions, the company helped a bridesmaid in England virtually attend a wedding in America. In New Jersey’s Hall of Fame, the company has built a kiosk where visitors can “speak” to life-sized video versions of Bon Jovi and Little Steven.

Still, ARHT is not priced for your average consumer. A single-person Holopresence can run you $ 15,000. For more people on the screen, it could cost as much as $ 30,000.

Beaming in

Lance Ulanoff in ARHT studio becoming a Holopresence

Lance Ulanoff in ARHT studio becoming a Holopresence (Image credit: Future)

After a power outage at the Toronto headquarters (no amount of tech magic can overcome a lack of electricity), we finally got ARHT’s CEO back for a quick virtual chat. The roughly 6ft tall O’Reilly looked solid. As we talked and he reiterated many of the points Davis and I covered, I found myself focusing on the image quality. Dead-on, it was perfect. From O’Reilly’s white hair down to his shoes, he appeared to be standing before me (on a slightly raised stage). I shifted to the left and right and found the effect holding up pretty well. Davis claims the projection doesn’t flatten out until you hit between 120 -to-140-degree off-axis. I’d argue the viewport is a bit narrower.

As we conversed, though, I experience another key part of ARHT’s Holopresence secret sauce: latency. The conversation between the two of us was free-flowing. Even when we did a counting test (we counted to ten with each of us alternating numbers), there was, perhaps, a sub-second delay.

To achieve this effect, ARHT uses low packet bursting transmission to create a smooth, conversational experience between people in Hong Kong and Australia or a reporter in New York City and a CEO in Toronto.

Lance Ulanoff materializes

(Image credit: Future)

One thing I noted throughout the demo were the references to Star Trek transporter technology. There was even a screen in the space showing a loop from the original Star Trek series where the team beams down to an alien planet. When you start a Holopresence experience, people “beam in” with a very Star Trek-like graphic flourish and sound effect. I asked O’Reilly if he's a Star Trek fan and what he thought about the connection. He didn’t answer directly and instead pointed out how the sound and graphics are completely customizable.

Finally, it was my turn. I sat in the green screen space and tried to look like I wasn’t about to experience a lifetime dream of mine. My beam-in moment was, initially, a little underwhelming. I couldn’t see myself; the Holopresence space was across the room. 

When it was over, I walked over, and Davis replayed my big moment. Seeing myself teleport into the room like a bald Captain Kirk was everything I hoped it would be.

Beam me up, Scotty.

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Microsoft Teams update will mean there really is no escape

Microsoft has announced that Teams applications are now available outside of the collaboration platform for the first time.

In a blog post, the company revealed that members of the Targeted Release early access program can now use a small number of Microsoft Teams apps from within email service Outlook and Office.com.

“With this enhancement, apps built for Teams not only run everywhere Teams runs, but also in more of the places that users spend their time in Microsoft 365,” Microsoft explained.

Microsoft Teams apps

Since the start of the pandemic, Microsoft has fought to establish Teams as the central hub for working. The objective was to give workers access to all the tools they need in one place, by integrating a variety of first- and third-party services into the platform.

And the strategy appears to have paid dividends. 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.

However, Microsoft has now shifted its approach to focus more closely on creating fluid experiences that streamline the transition between various Microsoft 365 services. The introduction of Teams applications to other Microsoft platforms can be seen as part of this process.

At first, there will only be a handful of Microsoft Teams apps available outside the regular client; some from Microsoft itself (e.g. Power BI) and some from third-party vendors like Zoho and Mural. And these apps will also only be available to a small number of users in preview.

However, the company has promised to double down on the program, with a raft of Teams apps migrating to other Microsoft spaces in the months to come.

Microsoft says IT administrators can control which “enhanced Teams apps” are available to employees from within the regular Teams admin center.

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Microsoft Teams update will mean there really is no escape

Microsoft has announced that Teams applications are now available outside of the collaboration platform for the first time.

In a blog post, the company revealed that members of the Targeted Release early access program can now use a small number of Microsoft Teams apps from within email service Outlook and Office.com.

“With this enhancement, apps built for Teams not only run everywhere Teams runs, but also in more of the places that users spend their time in Microsoft 365,” Microsoft explained.

Microsoft Teams apps

Since the start of the pandemic, Microsoft has fought to establish Teams as the central hub for working. The objective was to give workers access to all the tools they need in one place, by integrating a variety of first- and third-party services into the platform.

And the strategy appears to have paid dividends. 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.

However, Microsoft has now shifted its approach to focus more closely on creating fluid experiences that streamline the transition between various Microsoft 365 services. The introduction of Teams applications to other Microsoft platforms can be seen as part of this process.

At first, there will only be a handful of Microsoft Teams apps available outside the regular client; some from Microsoft itself (e.g. Power BI) and some from third-party vendors like Zoho and Mural. And these apps will also only be available to a small number of users in preview.

However, the company has promised to double down on the program, with a raft of Teams apps migrating to other Microsoft spaces in the months to come.

Microsoft says IT administrators can control which “enhanced Teams apps” are available to employees from within the regular Teams admin center.

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There are better ways to take a photo of your pet in iOS 15, thanks to Obscura 3

Taking photos in iOS has always been a relatively simple affair, just by using the Camera app by Apple. But third-party developers have gone further to make the iPhone camera work harder for you and the photos you take every day.

This is what Obscura has been doing since its launch in 2015. Developed by the Obscura team of Ben Rice McCarthy, Adam K. Schmidt and Sara Lovic, the third version of the app launched this week (February 17) for $ 9.99 / £9.99 / AU$ 10.99.

This new version brings a redesigned gallery view, video capture, refined layouts for controlling exposure settings, and the multiple lenses of the iPhone models, alongside controller support. This allows anyone with an Xbox or PlayStation controller, to take a photo through Obscura 3.

Having used the update for a month, it’s a significant improvement over Obscura 2. The new gallery view brings your albums front and center, giving you a quick overview of what you want to select.

There’s also the ability to rate your photos, not just a thumbs up or down as in Apple’s Photos app. Here, you could take a selection of photos, say different locations for a wedding venue for instance, and rate them in order. It makes sorting some photos much easier, as it could help you decide on certain locations or products for those important situations.

Gallery view in Obscura 3

(Image credit: TechRadar)

It’s the gestures that help make Obscura 3 shine – especially the exposure gesture. As you’re taking a photo, you can press the exposure icon on the bottom-left of the app to change how light or dark you need the image to be. But if you use your thumb to slide up and down on the icon, you can more accurately choose the exposure point instead.

These little touches are found across the app in this third version. While you can’t currently change the default camera app in iOS, Obscura 3 makes a compelling case for why the option should be there for pro users.

A chat with Obscura’s developer

Speaking with McCarthy after the launch of Obscura 3, I asked them whether the pandemic inspired the development of the new update, in regards to features and what users were asking for. “Not particularly. In an ideal world we would have taken a trip to somewhere exciting to take incredible marketing photos of rainforests or glaciers,” McCarthy clarifies. “But for the most part, the production of Obscura 3 wasn’t all that different to Obscura 2.”

With every major update to an app, there’s always the question of what the main objective was for the newest version. We asked McCarthy what the aim was for Obscura this time. “Am I allowed to say everything? Because we really did throw it all out and start from scratch,” McCarthy continues. “There are obvious changes like the new camera interface, but everything has been rewritten and improved, like the gesture to close the camera, the photo capture pipeline, the filters to support P3 color, I could go on all day. 

“If I had to choose just one though, I’d probably say the Image Detail view,” McCarthy reveals. “There’s an astonishing amount of complexity to it. It was honestly pretty janky in Obscura 2. It now has better support for RAW files, depth data, video (for the first time!), and is much smoother at handling changes to the photo library while you’re browsing. The triage features are also really neat if you care about keeping your library organized.”

Focus feature in Obscura 3

(Image credit: TechRadar)

We wanted to mention the Exposure wheel, which we found very intuitive for allowing certain amounts of light in. We asked McCarthy how this came to be, and why it’s arriving in this update.

“Conceptually, the Exposure and Focus dials were planned from the very start. In fact, I had built a very rudimentary version of them in Obscura 1, but it wasn’t great,” McCarthy explains.

“We played around with the functionality quite a bit. Should the dial have values displayed around the ring? Should the sensitivity vary as it expands? How sensitive should the haptic feedback be? But everything we added made it feel less intuitive and more distracting. In the end, the simpler it was, the more natural and like using a physical camera it felt.”

With the new gallery view being a tentpole feature of Obscura 3, we asked McCarthy whether there was going to be an option for opening the app and having the gallery appear first.

“I had thought of making that an option for the forthcoming iPad version, which is well suited to browsing and editing photos, but I hadn’t really considered it for the phone,” McCarthy explains. “But if we build that functionality anyway, I don’t see why we wouldn’t add it to the phone.”

Obscura 3 video mode in landscape

(Image credit: TechRadar)

In-app purchases, or IAPs, are ways for users to buy more features for an app. In previous Obscura versions, this allowed you to buy additional filters, but for Obscura 3, there are no IAPs this time.

We asked McCarthy what the reasons for this were, and if IAPs have had their due, especially for photography apps.

“There were a few reasons behind this decision, benefitting both us and the user. The first is that we wanted to avoid the feeling of upselling, especially when the user is in the middle of taking photos,” McCarthy explains.

“Secondly, the StoreKit API has also been a pain to work with in the past and was the source of more support email than any other part of the app. And thirdly, having IAPs for filters necessitated having example photos for the product pages, and those added quite a considerable amount to Obscura’s download size (O2 was about 70MB and O3 is down to about 5MB, though the sample photos weren’t the only factor).”

The gallery view also shows promise for other Apple platforms, such as macOS, an operating system that doesn’t have an Obscura app. We wondered whether this is something up for consideration.

“I’m certainly not promising anything right now, but I have tried building it for the Mac using Catalyst and it mostly runs without issue,” McCarthy reveals. “The real work would be in making it feel more at home on macOS, so I guess we’ll have to see if we can find the time to make it happen.”

Obscura 3 and DualSense controller

(Image credit: TechRadar)

A surprising feature was the integration of controller support in Obscura 3. You could use a Dual Sense controller to take a photo if needed. We asked whether this was always intended and if there are further plans to expand this in the future.

“As I was working on the Apple Watch companion app, it occurred to me that it would be nice if there was an alternative for people who don’t have one. And I had a spare PS4 controller (in theory for playing more games on iOS, though I rarely use it) and I realized that could be a decent alternative,” McCarthy reveals.

“There’s not much functionality there right now, but we have plenty of ideas on improving this feature that just didn’t make the cut for launch.”

Finally, widgets are still being heavily used on iPhone and iPad devices, where you can place bite-sized information on your home screen without launching the app. For Obscura, this seems to be a natural step, especially for rated photos and shortcuts for launching different modes of the app.

We asked McCarthy whether this was something that they were considering. “Definitely. As soon as the launch chaos is over we’re going to start work on widgets, and we already have a few planned,” McCarthy continues. “Having access via the lock screen is a big bonus that widgets also provide. And given that we may never see an option to set third-party camera apps as the default, we have to take what opportunities we can get.”

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Did Apple win CES 2022 without even being there?

Google, Intel, Nvidia, AMD. These and other companies made it a mission to mention Apple in some way at this year’s CES.

While Apple wasn’t actually at the event in Las Vegas, it still felt like everyone was talking about the company.

If you watched Intel and Nvidia’s live streams, you would have heard about products that were faster than Apple’s M1 Max chips for example (although further research looks to have put cold water on these claims by both companies already).

It’s only when you scratch the surface that you find that Apple has already been regarded as the winner at CES this year in a variety of categories, without being there in any official capacity.

Apple was in the eye of many at CES 2022

Intel was quick to compare its newest Alder Lake chips with the M1 Max, currently available in the MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch models. The press release directly states that the Intel Core i9 chip is faster than the M1 Max, but when you consider the heat that dissipates from this CPU compared to Apple’s chips, there’s more than just speed that Apple beats the competition on.

Intel comparing its Core i9 chip with Apple's M1 Max

(Image credit: Intel)

The Core i9 can draw up to 115 watts of power, while the M1 Max requests 60 watts in regular use, and it usually doesn’t exceed 90 watts when macOS demands more power from the chip.

But this is just one example from Intel, as the company also showcased Apple Watch and iMessage integration with upcoming Evo PCs through Screenovate, an app that was recently acquired by the company in December.

Google also announced an effort to mimic the connectivity that Apple’s ecosystem of devices boasts. Soon, you’ll be able to pair multiple devices through an upcoming feature called Fast Pair. This allows your Android phone to unlock your Chromebook, or having your Pixel Buds being able to swap between your phone and laptop with no issue.

However, this isn’t just about Google and Intel being inspired by Apple’s software features.

But wait, there’s more

Find My is Apple’s service of integrating with other products that can be found through the Find My app. It’s the same method that AirTags offer, but the company is allowing other companies to use the same technology. Targus was one example at CES by integrating Find My into a backpack.

Belkin also announced earbuds that would feature Find My, alongside a mount for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 series that will be able to track your face, ideal for video calls or for creating the next viral TikTok video.

There’s also more efforts by companies such as Eve to integrate Apple’s HomeKit, which is a way of managing your home devices through the Home app, so you can control lights, your heating, and soon window blinds to switch on and off around your home when needed.

These are just some examples of what was announced at CES 2022, but it only shows how Apple was everywhere at the event, but not present itself. The only time where someone from Apple appeared at CES was in 2020 when Jane Horvath, Apple's senior director of privacy, took to the stage in a privacy roundtable.

And, the year before, the company decided to put up a banner in front of CES promoting the fact that your information is stored on your iPhone only.

Apple showcasing a privacy banner back at CES 2019

(Image credit: Future)

This just proves that Apple doesn’t need to be at CES – companies such as Belkin with its products and Intel with its charts do the hard work for the company regardless. While there’s still doubt on whether events like this are still needed in a post-pandemic world, the underlying theme was that companies are getting ready to suit up for a battle that’s mostly, already been won by Apple.

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