Tag Archives: Software

Intel is bringing GPUs to cars

Posted on by

Intel has unveiled a discrete GPU for cars, the Arc A760A, designed to bring the "triple-A gaming experience" from home over to your car, the company announced. No automotive partners were revealed, but vehicles with the new chips will go on sale as soon as 2025. 

With car buyers increasingly focused on in-vehicle entertainment above all else, the chips are designed to "unlock a new era of AI-powered cockpit experiences," according to Intel's press release. 

The GPUs will allow voice, camera and gesture recognition to make it easy to control up to "seven high-definition screens rendering 3D graphics and six-in vehicle cameras and interactive features." At the same time, it can supposedly run demanding triple-A gaming titles, in-vehicle entertainment and AI-powered productivity apps.

Intel is bringing GPUs to cars
Intel

The system will also be highly personalized to the driver. It'll include the ability to "execute complex vehicle control commands through natural language processing, answer vehicle-related questions accurately, and even engage in leisurely chat with users, providing a more interactive and enjoyable journey," according to Intel.

Intel added that it has created over 500 features and AI apps for automobiles, with over 100 independent software vendors working on in-vehicle experiences. In addition, the A760A will be fully compatible with software developed for its iGPU PC platform, while scaling from entry- and mid-tier vehicles up to higher-end cars. 

Intel said it wants to be the "go-to partner for automakers." It's clearly looking to diversify its offerings in the wake of quality-control problems with recent PC chips and financial woes that may see it lay off up to 15,000 employees. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/intel-is-bringing-gpus-to-cars-120057738.html?src=rss

Proton Pass now supports Touch ID and Windows Hello biometric logins

Posted on by

Proton’s password manager is gradually catching up with rivals like 1Password. The company, known initially for its encrypted email and VPN services, added biometric authentication to its Proton Pass app, which came out of beta earlier this year. The feature works with Touch ID on macOS and Windows Hello on Microsoft’s desktop OS.

Like with many other services, biometric authentication lets Proton Pass users quickly unlock the security app using their fingerprint or face without typing the login password every time. However, it isn’t available for free users: Only those on a Pass Plus plan (and above) get access. The minimum plan costs $23.88 annually or $4.99 if you’d rather pay monthly.

Proton is also fleshing out its password manager to include identities, meaning it can autofill forms with your contact info in one click. Similar to biometric authentication, this type of feature has been seen countless times in competing products. Still, it (along with the recent addition of dark-web scouring) shows Proton is dedicated to building out its encryption-focused password manager, which initially launched in beta in early 2023.

Unlike biometric logins, identities are available for free users — not just those on a paid plan.

“With the introduction of identities and biometric authentication, Proton Pass is significantly boosting productivity for our users,” said Son Nguyen Kim, Proton Pass product lead. “These features not only enhance our security offerings but also streamline everyday tasks, allowing users to save time and reduce stress in managing their digital lives.”

The new features are available today in the Proton Pass app for Windows and Mac.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/proton-pass-now-supports-touch-id-and-windows-hello-biometric-logins-100025225.html?src=rss

Sonos is delaying two product launches until it fixes its buggy app

Posted on by

Last quarter should've been a triumphant one for Sonos with the launch of its first headphones, but the company is facing the realities of its botched app redesign. CEO Patrick Spence explained in the company's Q3 earnings press release that Sonos has reduced its 2024 fiscal guidance as a result of "problems" both customers and partners encountered with the software update. But, the issues don't stop with revenue. The company also said on its earnings call it will delay two new product launches planned for Q4 until the app is fixed.  

“Thanks to Ace, our long-awaited entry into headphones, we reported year over year revenue growth and delivered results that slightly exceeded our expectations in our third quarter,” Spence said. “This was overshadowed by the problems that our customers and partners experienced as a result of the rollout of our new app, which in turn has required us to reduce our Fiscal 2024 guidance. We have a clear action plan to address the issues caused by our app as quickly as possible."

Spence said the new products were ready to ship in Q4, but that right now "our number one priority is to make this right and ensure that the next chapter is even better than the previous ones." Of course, the company hasn't officially discussed exactly what those two products are just yet. Bloomberg reported late last year that Sonos was working on a set-top TV streaming box and a successor to its premium Arc soundbar. The CEO also admitted during the call that the total cost of fixing the issues with the app will cost the company $20-$30 million. However, Spence is confident Sonos will bounce back, describing this as only one "chapter" in the company's history.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/sonos-is-delaying-two-product-launches-until-it-fixes-its-buggy-app-213743460.html?src=rss

macOS Sequoia may require weekly permissions for screen recording apps

Posted on by

macOS Sequoia will require regular permissions updates to use screen recording and screen-sharing capabilities. The software is in its public beta, and the new Apple operating system has added pop-up notifications that will ask users to confirm that software has access to the device's video and audio. For now, there doesn't appear to be a way to permanently grant permissions to third-party apps. Developers confirmed with 9to5Mac that this is a feature, not a bug. We've reached out to Apple for more information and will update this post with any additional details we receive.

These permissions alerts in Sequoia will pop up weekly, as well as the first time a relevant app is opened after a reboot. This security feature will be triggered by both third-party apps focused on screen recording and general programs that have screen-sharing capabilities, such as Zoom, Slack or Discord.

This feature might remind you of the User Account Controls from the Windows Vista days. We haven't run into this permissions issue in our time with the beta version of macOS Sequoia, so it's hard to say if the Apple version will be quite as infuriating as the Microsoft pop-ups.

macOS Sequoia does bring other useful updates to the computing experience. As well as introducing AI features with Apple Intelligence, the update will let users see their iPhone screen mirrored on their Macbooks, and can block distracting pop-ups in Safari.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/macos-sequoia-may-require-weekly-permissions-for-screen-recording-apps-215854870.html?src=rss

Apple’s latest iOS 18 beta walks back some changes to the redesigned Photos app

Posted on by

Apple is pumping the brakes on some of its updates to the Photos app in iOS 18. The company made some changes — removing some features and tweaking others — on Monday to address user feedback. The pared-down version can be found in the software’s fifth developer beta, which app makers can install today.

The biggest change is that Apple removed the Carousel from the Photos app altogether. The iOS 18 feature used “on-device intelligence” (which, confusingly, isn’t the same as Apple Intelligence) to aggregate what it thought was your best content, placing them in a swipeable row. Previously found to the right of the photo grid, it’s now gone altogether, helping Apple clean up one of the features that earned a healthy dose of complaints from beta testers.

In addition, Apple tweaked the All Photos view in today’s update to show more of the photos grid. The company also added Recently Saved content to the Recent Days collection. Finally, Apple made albums easier to find for users with more than one. (The difficulty of locating that section was a frequently echoed complaint among testers.)

Two iPhones showing different views of the overhauled iOS 18 Photos app. White background.
Apple

Apple pitched the changes to the Photos app as one of the pillars of its 2024 software update. Although the app is streamlined into a single view and designed to be more customizable, it too often ends up as a mishmash of extra features most people won’t need, sometimes getting in the way of finding what you’re looking for.

A Reddit thread from July with over 1,000 upvotes gave voice to some of the most frequent complaints. “Once again taking a rapid-use app and making it into an experience for no reason,” u/thiskillstheredditor commented. “I just want a camera roll and maybe the ability to sort photos by location. It was perfectly fine, if maybe a bit bloated, before. But this is an unmitigated mess.”

Time will tell if today’s updates are enough to clean up the app’s user experience ahead of iOS 18’s fall launch to the public. The changes aren’t yet in the public beta but will likely appear there in the next version or soon after.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-latest-ios-18-beta-walks-back-some-changes-to-the-redesigned-photos-app-180145232.html?src=rss

Safari beta lets you selectively block distractions like pop-ups

Posted on by

Ahead of the full release of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia and more, Apple continues to bring updates to the betas it's made available to early testers. Today, the company has dropped the fifth developer beta to those platforms, and with it comes a few changes to Safari and Photos. Specifically, Apple's browser is getting some tools that could make surfing today's cluttered and overwhelming web pages a lot less distracting, with something called Distraction Control. 

To be clear, this isn't intended to be an ad blocker. It's for parts of a page that distract you, like an overlay asking you to subscribe or even requests to use cookies. When you land on a website, you can press the Page Menu button in the Search field (where the Reader and Viewer buttons are). There, you can tap "Hide Distracting Items" and go on to choose which parts of a page you want to filter out. Subsequently, that part will be blocked on that domain moving forward on repeated visits.

There are a few important caveats, though. The first time you click on Distraction Control, Apple will inform you that it won't permanently remove ads or other areas where content might change or get updated. Since on-page banner ads usually refresh on each visit, this renders Distraction Control useless for those elements. 

You'll also be the one selecting which parts of the site to hide, and there's no artificial intelligence automatically detecting which components might be deemed distracting. You'll see a blue outline over certain areas and can tap to select them. According to Apple, nothing will be hidden unless a user proactively selects it. You'll also be able to unhide items afterwards, by going back to the hide icon in the search field and choosing "Show hidden items."

If something you've chosen to block, like a headline or an ad, has changed in any way, it will resurface upon your next visit. 

Theoretically, you would also be able to use Distraction Control to hide the dialogs with the GDPR-stipulated cookies permission requests. If you choose to block those, the website would just be told you closed its request without an answer. Based on the legal requirements in different regions, the website would then have to proceed based on that information. 

It's not yet clear how Distraction Control will handle paywalls, especially since there are different ways that content is protected. 

The fifth developer beta also brings with it features that were teased at WWDC, like a redesigned Reader and Highlights, which brings up summarized information from a website like a business' hours or phone number. There's also a new Viewer experience that works when Safari detects a video on the page and puts in front and center. It'll also give you system playback controls in this mode, including picture-in-picture. 

If you're curious about how the new tools and Distraction Control work, you can run Apple's developer beta. Just know that since you'll be opting in to preview software, there may be bugs or quirks, so make sure to backup your data before you proceed. According to the information accompanying the iOS 18 beta 5 update, it requires 7.11GB of storage, too.

Update, August 5 2024, 1:31PM ET: This story has been updated to clarify that hiding distracting items only applies to that specific domain moving forward, and not all websites across the internet.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/safari-can-block-distracting-ads-and-other-website-clutter-with-the-latest-ios-18-and-macos-betas-172041678.html?src=rss

Meta’s Threads has 200 million users

Posted on by

The Threads app has passed the 200 million user mark, according to Meta exec Adam Mosseri. The milestone comes one day after Mark Zuckerberg said that the service was “about” to hit 200 million users during the company’s latest earnings call.

While Threads is still relatively tiny compared to Meta’s other apps, it has grown at a much faster clip. Zuckerberg previously announced 175 million users last month as Threads marked its one-year anniversary, and the Meta CEO has repeatedly speculated that it could be the company’s next one-billion-user app.

“We've been building this company for 20 years, and there just are not that many opportunities that come around to grow a billion-person app,” Zuckerberg said. “Obviously, there's a ton of work between now and there.”

Continuing to grow the app’s user base will be key to Meta’s ability to eventually monetize Threads, which currently has no ads or business model. “All these new products, we ship them, and then there's a multi-year time horizon between scaling them and then scaling them into not just consumer experiences but very large businesses,” Zuckerberg said.

While Threads has so far been able to capitalize on the chaos and controversy surrounding X, Meta is still grappling with how to position its app that’s widely viewed as an alternative to X. Mosseri and Zuckerberg have said they don’t want the app to promote political content to users that don’t explicitly ask for it. This policy has even raised questions among some Meta employees, The Information recently reported.

Thread’s “for you” algorithm is also widely viewed as slow to keep up with breaking news and current events. Mosseri recently acknowledged the issue. “We’re definitely not fast enough yet, and we’re actively working to get better there,” he wrote in a post on Threads.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-threads-has-200-million-users-211656147.html?src=rss

Meta’s Threads has 200 million users

Posted on by

The Threads app has passed the 200 million user mark, according to Meta exec Adam Mosseri. The milestone comes one day after Mark Zuckerberg said that the service was “about” to hit 200 million users during the company’s latest earnings call.

While Threads is still relatively tiny compared to Meta’s other apps, it has grown at a much faster clip. Zuckerberg previously announced 175 million users last month as Threads marked its one-year anniversary, and the Meta CEO has repeatedly speculated that it could be the company’s next one-billion-user app.

“We've been building this company for 20 years, and there just are not that many opportunities that come around to grow a billion-person app,” Zuckerberg said. “Obviously, there's a ton of work between now and there.”

Continuing to grow the app’s user base will be key to Meta’s ability to eventually monetize Threads, which currently has no ads or business model. “All these new products, we ship them, and then there's a multi-year time horizon between scaling them and then scaling them into not just consumer experiences but very large businesses,” Zuckerberg said.

While Threads has so far been able to capitalize on the chaos and controversy surrounding X, Meta is still grappling with how to position its app that’s widely viewed as an alternative to X. Mosseri and Zuckerberg have said they don’t want the app to promote political content to users that don’t explicitly ask for it. This policy has even raised questions among some Meta employees, The Information recently reported.

Thread’s “for you” algorithm is also widely viewed as slow to keep up with breaking news and current events. Mosseri recently acknowledged the issue. “We’re definitely not fast enough yet, and we’re actively working to get better there,” he wrote in a post on Threads.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-threads-has-200-million-users-211656147.html?src=rss

Reddit CEO wants Microsoft to pay for its content

Posted on by

Reddit’s chief executive officer Steve Huffman didn’t pull any punches with Microsoft in an interview with The Verge. He called out Microsoft and other AI search engines like Anthropic and Perplexity for not paying for the information they take from Reddit, some of which have already been blocked from Huffman’s website.

Reddit has deals in places with companies like Google and OpenAI to receive compensation for using its posts and information. The Verge paraphrased Huffman as saying Microsoft was one of several companies "refusing to negotiate," but a Reddit spokesperson disputed this characterization. The spokesperson told Engadget that Reddit and Microsoft did attempt to negotiate a solution, but didn't reach a deal they both agreed on.

“Without these agreements, we don’t have any say or knowledge of how our data is displayed and what it’s used for, which has put us in a position now of blocking folks who haven’t been willing to come to terms with how we’d like our data to be used or not used,” Huffman told The Verge’s deputy editor Alex Heath.

Huffman says if Microsoft and other AI search sites continue to use Reddit’s information without proper compensation, they’ll have to be blocked. He doesn’t want to do that because it’s “a real pain in the ass to block these companies.”

Reddit has started cracking down on search engines that expunge information from its various forms and communities. The website vowed to block unauthorized data scraping in June by updating its Robots Exclusion Protocol (robots.txt) and it’s already prevented Bing from accessing data from Reddit, a fact confirmed by Microsoft’s head of search Jordi Ribas on X.

Earlier this month, a source confirmed to Engadget's Will Shanklin that Microsoft’s refusal to work with Reddit’s terms of service led to the blocking of Bing. A spokesperson from Reddit also said, “Anyone accessing Reddit content must abide by our policies, including those in place to protect redditors. We are selective about who we work with and trust with large-scale access to Reddit content.”

Update, July 31, 7:40PM ET: This story was updated to include more detail on the talks between Reddit and Microsoft over scraping. A spokesperson for the site claimed that Microsoft and Reddit attempted to make a deal, but their negotiations ended without agreement.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/reddit-ceo-wants-microsoft-to-pay-for-its-content-212320245.html?src=rss

Microsoft is dropping ads from Skype

Posted on by

Skype is going ad-free, as indicated in a blog post by Microsoft. The latest update removes all ads from the entire platform, including Skype channels and the main chat interface. Microsoft said this move was a response to feedback and an attempt to make the “Skype experience cleaner and more user-friendly.” This is certainly welcome news, considering every other company seems newly obsessed with ads.

The “today” section of Skype will remain, along with the pre-existing newsfeed. There just won’t be any ads to accompany that feed. Users can also delete the newsfeed tab by heading to the settings menu.

This update also includes a little something for all of the AI-heads out there. Skype will offer a revamped AI image creation system on the desktop app. This lets people access the image creator from the chat window or the top bar. There’s a “more intuitive and visually appealing” interface and pictures now expand when clicked on. Otherwise, it’s just your standard image creator.

Redesigned image creator.
Microsoft

Finally, the latest update brings integration with the authenticator OneAuth to the iOS app. This already existed on Android. OneAuth replaces the old sign-in system, so users will login automatically if they’re already signed into other Microsoft apps like Teams. It’s pretty handy because there are already way too many passwords floating around our craniums. Who among us can remember exactly how many numbers or exclamation marks to put after the same word we’ve been using as a password since 2002?

The update is available to everyone enrolled in the Skype Insider Program, so sign up if you aren’t. It begins rolling out today but will take a few days to reach every user. Microsoft urges consumers to keep checking if it doesn’t show up right away.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-is-dropping-ads-from-skype-143155507.html?src=rss