Social Items




 Microsoft needs to address a number of issues with Windows 11 before concentrating on releasing Windows 12. Although Microsoft's taking far longer than necessary to fix problems like the inability to move the taskbar, the software behemoth is open about what features and enhancements people want to see in Windows 11 and how it plans to address them.





Microsoft was finally seen working on a solution to the long-standing problem of folders from a desktop or an external program not opening in new tabs in the existing window in File Explorer in the last several months. ViveTool allows Windows Insiders to access this specific change in File Explorer behavior, but if you're not an Insider, don't worry—all you need is the new ExplorerTabUtility program.


In Windows 11 22H2, Microsoft added tabs to File Explorer to facilitate file organization and folder switching. Nevertheless, the business was unable to accurately replicate how tabs function in a web browser. Although Microsoft is working on it, ExplorerTabUtility, a third-party tool, surpasses Microsoft in both problem-solving and setting the standard. ExplorerTabUtlity differs from File Explorer substitutes such as File Pilot. 





This implies that you may better manage your tabs without having to spend time acclimating to a new File Explorer application. Rather, the application modifies File Explorer to function how users have always desired. When the installation is finished, folders or links to external directories will open in new tabs rather than opening them in new windows.


Much more is possible with the ExplorerTabUtility. Additionally, you can open numerous directories in separate tabs within the same File Explorer window with this program. This is not how Windows 11 operates by default. Every folder will launch numerous File Explorer windows if you attempt to open multiple folders with Ctrl + click, regardless of the OS version you are using. You can modify it with the ExplorerTabUtility.




Additionally, like online browsers, the app allows tab history. This implies that you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + T to reopen closed File Explorer tabs. If this key combination doesn't work for you, you modify the combination using the app Settings. Additionally, it has what the makers refer to as "Smart tab switching," which makes sure that when you try to open a location that is currently open in File Explorer, it doesn't launch a duplicate tab.


Additionally, the ExplorerTabUtility can be useful if you need to replicate a tab. If you have the app installed, you can duplicate the tab by pressing Ctrl + D on your keyboard. Once more, if the hotkey doesn't work for you, you can try another one. Compared to the normal experience in Windows 11 File Explorer, which involves right-clicking the tab and then choosing the Duplicate option, this is far simpler.

Windows 11’s Long-Awaited File Explorer Upgrade was from a third party

 



Microsoft is dramatically lowering the cost of advanced AI reasoning by integrating OpenAI's powerful o1 model into Copilot's new "Think Deeper" feature, providing users with nearly unlimited access.




OpenAI's December release of the single o1 model, which CEO Sam Altman described as the most powerful available, points out the subtle meaning of "free," as it requires two subsBecause the Copilot app on Windows is now only a PWA, or webpage, you can access the o1 model by using either the Copilot app on Windows or via copilot.microsoft.com. You will need to sign in with a Microsoft account. 




On Wednesday, Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft's chief of Microsoft AI, announced that access to the model would be available to Copilot users "everywhere at no cost." Copilot's "Think Deeper" function will provide access to the model, requiring a few seconds to consider and research an answer before spitting out a response.criptions; one specific example is OpenAI’s ChatGPT Pro, costing $200/mo for unlimited access. ChatGPT Plus, a $20/mo service, offers access to the o1 model, although this access is limited.



Because the Copilot app on Windows is now only a PWA, or webpage, you can access the o1 model by using either the Copilot app on Windows or via copilot.microsoft.com. You will need to sign in with a Microsoft account. On Wednesday, Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft's chief of Microsoft AI, announced that access to the model would be available to Copilot users "everywhere at no cost." Copilot's "Think Deeper" function will provide access to the model, requiring a few seconds to consider and research an answer before spitting out a response.





In essence, Think Deeper is a more reflective version of Copilot, which lately appears to have tended toward shorter, more hurried responses. But don't think of it as a search engine; Think Deeper responded that its data was up to date as of October 2023 when questioned. Rather, Think Deeper specializes in what is sometimes referred to as "evergreen research"—for instance, analyzing a particular circumstance or historical occurrence or connecting the evaporation cycle to storm development. Additionally, Think Deeper will write and explain code: The task of "Write a basic Windows application that can be used to draw a maze based upon the letters of the user's first name" resulted in a comprehensive development process that, after a few seconds, generated custom C# source files.





From $200 to Free: ChatGPT’s Advanced AI Now Available for Windows Users



Up until now, the Nothing Phone line has only offered mid-range phones, but a recent leaked memo indicated that Nothing was developing a higher-end phone, so that could all change this year. Nothing has hinted at a significant hardware improvement that we would see in the Phone 3, but that document only mentioned a lot of AI capabilities.




Nothing has published a short video on X that just focuses on Nothing CEO Carl Pei's face. In the video, he is wearing sunglasses and working at a computer; the words "Launch 4 March" are plainly seen reflected in the lens. In essence, this indicates that the company's next phone would be unveiled on March 4, which we previously knew was likely based on a prior teaser for the Nothing Phone 3.





The way the camera zooms in is the more interesting part of the video since it appears as though the camera is changing from a wide to a telephoto lens in order to accomplish the zoom. That's intriguing because there isn't a telephoto lens on any of the Nothing Phones available right now. This isn't the only indication that such a lens might be included; a previous teaser indicated that the Nothing Phone 3 (or whatever this phone is called) might have a triple-lens camera. A telephoto camera would be a logical addition to the wide and ultra-wide lens arrangement seen on the Nothing Phone 2.





The Nothing Phone 3 may compete with the Samsung Galaxy S25, which also includes a triple-lens camera with a telephoto lens, thanks to this functionality, which is also a flagship feature. The Nothing Phone 3 may offer an advantage over phones like the Google Pixel 9 and the iPhone 16 in that regard alone, as they lack this functionality. We say the Nothing Phone 3, but the company hasn't made it clear which phone it's teasing with all these teasers, so it might be something else, like the Nothing Phone 3 Pro, which one source has suggested could be on the horizon.




Nothing Teases Potential Game-Changing Feature for the Phone 3



 Xiaomi gave the Xiaomi Community an update today on the company's efforts in resolving the issues that users had been reporting with Xiaomi HyperOS. The announcement focused on the album's smart beauty function optimization and layered alarm button optimization. To guarantee a more seamless user experience, the team is actively resolving further issues that have been found.




Issues Solved 

Alarm Buttons Overlapping: In some situations, some alarm buttons were showing up in an overlapping location, making them difficult to utilize. Unusual Intelligent Beauty Function: In album editing, anomalies in the Smart Beauty function have been corrected. 

Super XiaoAi Crash: Upon awakening, the Super XiaoAi helper crashed. Currently, if the wake is in specific situations, this should be rectified. 

Game Screens That Are Blurry: Enhanced: Game screens occasionally seemed hazy when using the Xiaomi 13 with OS2.0.3.0.




Ongoing issues under review

Turning Delay on Desktop sites: A few customers complained about unresponsive performance when switching between desktop sites. 

Blacked-out desktop wallpaper after restarting: The desktop wallpaper may occasionally turn black when the battery dies and it restarts.

 Inconsistent Wallpapers: In some situations, certain wallpapers don't apply correctly. 

Task Automation Failures: In certain usage cases, tasks are not being executed automatically. 

Screen flickering: The Xiaomi 15 running OS 2.0.101.0 has a flickering screen. 

Storage-Related Update Abnormalities: After installing updates, some Xiaomi 14 customers running OS 2.0.101.0 have noticed strange storage behavior.




Xiaomi keeps up the good work by using user feedback to improve the HYPEROS experience. Users have been urged to report any additional issues through an official channel so that improvements can be made regularly. This shows how committed the organization is to improving usability and finding solutions as soon as feasible. As Xiaomi resolves these problems one at a time, stay tuned for future updates!

Xiaomi Addresses Key Fixes in Latest HyperOS Update.

 



Google has released updated data that makes it clear how many charges its Pixel phones can store. A Pixel 8a or later should hold up to 80% of its battery capacity for roughly 1000 charge cycles, according to the Search giant (a cycle is a full battery charge from empty). The power efficiency of the latest Google smartphones is demonstrated by the fact that devices released between the Pixel 3 and Pixel 8 Pro should retain up to 80% of their capacity for about 800 charge cycles. The lithium-ion batteries that power smartphones have a limited lifespan, much like any other devices.





A similar stance was recently adopted by Apple, which claimed that the iPhone 14 and earlier generations should maintain up to 80% of its battery capacity for 500 charge cycles. By contrast, the iPhone 15 and 16 have a maximum capacity of 80% for up to 1000 cycles of charging.


By opening the Settings app and choosing Battery Information, Google users with Pixel 8a and later models can now keep an eye on their phone's battery life. The battery's manufacturing date, date of first use, and number of full charges are displayed here for users to observe. This should help consumers determine whether the phone's battery is the original one that came with it and how many charges are remaining in it. For those who purchase used smartphones, this is a tremendous help because the battery's condition is the most unknown aspect of the transaction.




Google advises using the adaptive charging feature, avoiding extended exposure to the sun or extreme temperatures (over 35°C), and not using the smartphone while charging in order to slow down battery degeneration. Google's initiative to increase battery health transparency is in line with a similar industry trend. Apple came under fire in late 2023 for its parts pairing policy, which was seen as anti-repair. 


Only parts made by Apple were permitted to be used for iPhone repairs and replacements under this policy. According to a repair specialist I spoke with, Apple was deleting battery health data from iPhones whose batteries had been replaced without permission. This meant that rather than using less expensive independent repair shops, Apple made iPhone users receive replacements at the Apple Store.




Since then, Apple has reversed component pairing and stated that iPhone 16 and later models will not be affected. This implies that Apple batteries can be effectively calibrated and transferred to the 16 model without compromising functionality.


Google Rolls Out Critical Battery Update for Millions of Pixel Phones

 



On Downdetector.com, over 50,000 ChatGPT outages have been reported, following a spike in reports at 1:30 p.m. EST. With 3,463 additional reports of disruptions, the issue seems to continue past 3:30 p.m. EST. When a Forbes query was submitted to ChatGPT at 3:40 p.m. EST, the Chatbot failed to respond and instead displayed the message "Internal Server Error." In an update published at 4:05 p.m. EST, OpenAI stated that it was "continuing to work on a fix for this issue," which was brought on by an unidentified ISP.




The outage was criticized by users of X, which is home to Grok, ChatGPT's competitor chatbot, who joked that they were once again forced to use their own brains. According to TechCrunch, which pointed out that a nearly six-hour outage happened two weeks ago, Thursday's outage marks ChatGPT's second of the month. In the past, OpenAI has resolved outages a few hours after they started. ChatGPT might be patched by nightfall if the business adheres to its track record of fixes. $157 billion. After its $6.6 billion funding round in October, OpenAI is now worth that much.




Apart from the numerous outages that have occurred this month, ChatGPT also encountered technical issues in early June, going down for a few hours. According to CEO Sam Altman, ChatGPT is widely considered the most popular chatbot in the artificial intelligence market. As of early this month, the AI assistant had over 300 million weekly users sending over one billion messages to ChatGPT daily. Although the chatbot is free to use, customers who prefer not to use subscription tiers may find some limits.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT downtime - Key things to know.



 Grok, Elon Musk's AI chatbot, is now accessible to X users for free. The move, which allows non-Premium subscribers to send up to 10 messages to Grok every two hours, was observed by a number of users on Friday. Grok, a "humorous AI assistant," was only accessible to Premium users when xAI first released it last year. Grok was given a text-to-image generating feature by xAI in August, and it proved to be able to generate some dubious-looking graphics.




Last month, TechCrunch revealed that Musk's xAI has begun testing a free Grok version in select areas. Expanding Grok's reach might help it compete with chatbots that are already free, such as Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Anthropic's Claude. According to a Wall Street Journal story, xAI, which collected $6 billion in its most recent funding round, is also thinking of releasing a stand-alone app for Grok, something that ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude already have.

Grok AI now available to all users.

 



The fifth Big Tech business to come under such scrutiny in recent years is Microsoft, which is the subject of a comprehensive antitrust investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. The agency is investigating Microsoft's AI offerings, cybersecurity services, and cloud and software licensing operations. The Verge verified the investigation with an individual with knowledge of the situation, who was given anonymity to talk to a confidential investigator after Bloomberg broke the story first.




Hundreds of pages of material are needed, and the request is the result of more than a year of unofficial conversations with Microsoft partners and rivals. One area of emphasis, according to the source, is how Microsoft bundles security and productivity tools with its Azure cloud. After multiple security problems affecting Microsoft's products, the FTC became more interested in the company's cloud business, especially since Microsoft is a major software provider to US government organizations. Microsoft and the FTC declined to comment.






"Microsoft's security culture was inadequate and requires an overhaul, particularly in light of the company's centrality in the technology ecosystem," the federal Cyber Safety Review Board found earlier this year. "If you're faced with the tradeoff between security and another priority, your answer is clear: Do security," CEO Satya Nadella wrote in a message sent to staff members shortly after.






Microsoft would find itself in a familiar, albeit outdated, situation if the FTC filed a lawsuit against the business. In the late 1990s, the Department of Justice filed an anti-monopoly case against the corporation for combining its web browser with the Windows operating system. However, in recent years, Microsoft has largely avoided the same kind of antitrust scrutiny that has been placed on Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Google—all of which are battling government accusations of monopoly.

FTC Launches Antitrust Investigation Into Microsoft: What It Means for the Tech Giant

 



After several years of arduous work, Sam Porter Bridges has finally made it to Xbox. Today, Kojima Productions revealed that the Xbox Series X/S now has the director's cut of Death Stranding. The port will be offered at launch for 50% off for "a limited time." 2019 saw the release of Death Stranding, Hideo Kojima's first independent game after a tumultuous breakup with Konami. The game has been ported to PC, Mac, and iOS, and two years later, the director's cut—which isn't truly a director's cut—was released on the PS5. The company also released the game on Luna, Amazon's new game streaming service, as part of today's announcement.






The announcement coincides with Kojima Productions' significant growth after the original Death Stranding's popularity. A24 is working on a live-action movie and a sequel, both of which are scheduled for release in 2025. In a press release, the company stated that it "now has full ownership of the Death Stranding IP" and that it will keep expanding the game's reach to "more platforms and audiences." In addition to Death Stranding, Kojima Productions is working on a mystery new tactical spy game and the horror game OD.

Surprise Launch: Death Stranding Makes Its Way to Xbox!


 Microsoft is updating Windows 11's Windows Hello authentication, which incorporates fingerprint and face recognition. Passkey enhancements, new iconography, and visual modifications are all part of the redesigned Windows Hello experience, which is currently in beta testing with Windows Insiders. In addition to the Windows 11 login screen, this new user interface will also show up when you use passkeys to access websites and applications.


 According to the Windows team, "We redesigned Windows security credential user experiences for passkey, creating a cleaner experience that supports secure and quick authentication." "Users will now be able to choose passkeys and devices more easily and switch between authentication options."





Although Microsoft still supports passkeys in Windows 11, using one from a mobile device requires scanning QR codes and has an antiquated user interface. As part of this Windows Hello UI redesign, a new sign-in user interface for passkeys and Microsoft account authentication will significantly enhance this. Microsoft has also developed a new API for third-party passkey and password managers that enables developers to integrate this contemporary Windows Hello experience natively. 




Additionally, it will enable Windows 11 users to authenticate with PC apps and websites using a passkey from a mobile device. Additionally, this new passkey experience will allow you to sync your passkeys to your Microsoft account or save them to third-party apps.

Microsoft Revamps Windows Hello with Enhanced Passkey Support and Modern UI

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)