1348 Stories
Bridging the Gap: Do My Messaging Apps Really Need Interoperability?
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While interoperability has been implemented across email services, messaging apps remain isolated. So in this piece, we go through all the developments around interoperability in the context of messaging apps and what the EU is doing with its regulation. We also take a look at the cons of interoperability in messaging apps.
Windows 11 Ads Bugging You? This Handy Tool Helps You Block Them
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A new tool called Winpilot lets you disable all types of ads on Windows 11 with a single click. The tool uses PowerShell scripts and Registry keys to modify key settings which disable the ads on Windows 11. The tool is free to use and works quite well. You can also use it to debloat your computer.
OpenAI to Challenge Google with Its Own Search Engine in May: Report
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OpenAI is reportedly working on a new search engine, an alternative to Google Search. And the company may launch it in May, just before Google I/O. Currently, the subdomain doesn't throw a 404 error, but displays "Not found".
You Can Chat with Gemini Directly in Chrome’s Search Bar; Here’s How
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You can now chat with Gemini right from Chrome's address bar. You just have to type "@" and select "Chat with Gemini" to summon the AI chatbot. Enter your prompt and hit Enter. It will take you to Gemini's portal where you can find the answer. The feature is currently available to Chrome desktop users only.
OpenAI Finally Relents; You Can Disable Model Training in ChatGPT While Retaining Chat History
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You can now opt-out of model training on ChatGPT via Settings and also retain chat history. Earlier, OpenAI used to disable chat history if you refused to share your data for model training. You can find the new data controls under ChatGPT Settings.
In Today’s AI Race, Don’t Gamble with Your Digital Privacy
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As we are moving towards the AI era, things are developing at a breakneck pace. In all of this, we have to be mindful of our privacy and how to protect it. In this article, we look at the privacy policies of popular AI chatbots and how companies handle private conversations. We have also discussed how you can minimize your data footprint and opt out of model training.
I Tried Arc on Windows: Likeable but Can It Replace My Current Browser?
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Arc browser is a new browser with unique UI and features like Spaces, vertical tab navigation, colorful themes, split view, and more. It's still under beta on Windows and some features are missing, but it has the potential to be a good Chrome alternative. Read my piece to understand why.
ChatGPT Extends Its AI Memory Feature to All Paid Users
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OpenAI is now making the Memory feature available to all paid ChatGPT Plus users. It can remember your preferences and key details about yourself to make the chat experience more personal. The feature is turned on by default, but you can disable it from the Settings page.
Snapdragon X Elite vs Apple M3: Qualcomm Does an Apple!
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We have extensively compared the Snapdragon X Elite and Apple M3 chipsets. In terms of CPU performance, both processors are on par, however, Apple achieves identical performance at a lower frequency. On the GPU front, the Adreno GPU on X Elite can't beat the Apple M3 GPU. But it does rival the older M2 GPU. Finally, on the NPU front, Qualcomm takes the lead with the powerful Hexagon NPU.
Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus: What’s the Difference, SKUs, and Benchmarks
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Qualcomm is all set to redefine the PC ecosystem with its Snapdragon X series lineup. There are a total of four chipsets: three are from the Snapdragon X Elite platform and one is from the Snapdragon X Plus platform. The top-tier Elite variant, X1E-84-100, offers a dual-core boost up to 4.2GHz. The Plus variant offers multithreaded frequency up to 3.4GHz. The Adreno GPU can perform up to 4.6 TFLOPs on the top-end variant, but the rest of the lineup offers performance up to 3.8 TFLOPs. That said, the Hexagon NPU is the same across all chipsets, which delivers performance up to 45 TOPS.
Snapdragon X Plus is Here to Take on Apple’s M-Series Chips
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Qualcomm has introduced its second chipset for Windows PCs, the Snapdragon X Plus. It features 10 Oryon CPU cores, instead of 12, and the CPU is clocked up to 3.4GHz. There is no dual-core boost in the Plus variant. And the Adreno GPU can perform up to 3.8 TFLOPS. The Hexagon NPU is the same on both SD X Elite and SD X Plus with performance of up to 45 TOPS.
Seeing Ads in Windows 11 Start Menu? Here’s How to Disable It
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Microsoft is now pushing ads in the Windows 11 Start Menu with the April 2024 optional update. If you are seeing promotional ads in the Start Menu, you can disable it from Windows Settings.
You Won’t Believe What’s Happening to the Windows 11 Cursor!
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A new leak showcases that Microsoft is working on a uniquely-designed cursor for Windows 11. The cursor is linked to an AI Explorer feature called screen understanding. We don't know much beyond that, but new strings related to AI Explorer suggest that AI models will run locally on the device.
Microsoft Unveils Phi-3 Mini Model, Small Enough to Run on Phones
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Microsoft is on a roll with smaller language models. It introduced a new family of Phi-3 models with the smallest, Phi-3 Mini available right away. The smallest model is trained on 3.8B parameters and beats larger models like Gemma 7B, Mistral 7B, and Llama 8B.
Meta Extends Horizon OS to Third-Party Headset Makers
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Meta has now decided to partner with third-party device makers to license its Quest headset OS called Harmony OS. Initially, Lenovo and Asus have signed the deal and may bring new headsets into the market with Meta's Harmony OS. In addition to that, Meta is also working to bring alternative app stores on the Quest platform.
Control Panel Loses Fonts Page to Settings on Windows 11
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Microsoft is continuously improving Windows 11 and upgrading the visual style of many old components. Now, users would be redirected to the Windows 11 Settings app when accessing the Fonts page under the Control Panel. If you don't like this change, you can check out our article for some workarounds.
Snapdragon X Plus Specs Leak: Spotted on Geekbench with 10 CPU Cores
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Just before the Snapdragon X series launch, a Geekbench listing appeared running the Snapdragon X Plus chipset. It's the toned-down version of Snapdragon X Elite and comes with 10 CPU cores. The base frequency is reported to be 3.42GHz and packs 16GB of RAM. The device named "OEMMN OEMMN" is said to be the upcoming Surface Pro 10.
How to Install and Run LLMs Locally on Android Phones
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Do you want to run AI models locally on your Android phone? Well, with the MLC Chat app, you can now download LLMs like Gemma, Phi-2, Mistral, Llama 3, etc., and chat with them natively on Android devices. The token generation is slow though, especially on older Snapdragon-based Android devices.
Llama 3 vs GPT-4: Meta Challenges OpenAI on AI Turf
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Meta released its Llama 3 models recently so we have taken the liberty to compare the 70B model with the flagship GPT-4 model. Surprisingly, Llama 3 performs as good as the GPT-4 model despite being a smaller model. In advanced reasoning tests, it demonstrates intelligence and does better than GPT-4 in following user instructions.
Qualcomm Teases Snapdragon X Series Launch for Next Week
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Qualcomm is officially going to debut the Snapdragon X series chipset for PCs on April 24th. Apart from the 12-core Snapdragon X Elite, there is another variant called Snapdragon X Plus with 8 CPU cores and 5G connectivity. Reportedly, there are as many as eight different SKUs of the chipset in different power profiles, from 23W to 80W. Lenovo is also reported to launch its first AI PC in China on April 20th with the Snapdragon X series processor.
How to Start Windows 11 in Safe Mode
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Safe mode can help you troubleshoot issues with Windows. There are five widely known ways to get into secure boot — click Restart while holding the Shift key, using Settings, using the Command line, forcing Windows into the recovery settings, and using the System Configuration tool. Once into advanced options, you'll need to go to Troubleshoot > Startup Setting > press F4 to boot into Safe mode.
Meta Launches Llama 3 Model; Integrates AI Across Meta Apps
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Meta has finally unveiled its next family of Llama 3 models in two sizes: 8B and 70B parameters. The company has launched its meta.ai portal where you can chat with Llama 3 models. Besides that, you can find Meta AI experiences on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and more. Currently, the context length is 8K tokens, but Meta will be releasing larger models with increased context length and multimodal capability in the near future.
Windows 11’s AI Explorer May Be Exclusive to Snapdragon X Elite PCs
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The much-hyped AI Explorer feature which is said to come with the 24H2 update on Windows 11, might be exclusive to Snapdragon X Elite PCs only. A code snippet found in the latest insider build shows the system requirements for the AI Explorer feature to work. The PC must be powered by an ARM64 CPU and Snapdragon X Elite NPU and must have 16GB of RAM, and 225GB of storage.
AnythingLLM Lets You Chat With Documents Locally; Here’s How to Use It
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If you are looking for an easy solution that lets you chat with your documents locally, you can check out AnythingLLM. It has a slick GUI interface and works even on consumer-grade PCs. No need to have high-end GPUs. Apart from that, you can ingest a variety of file formats including TXT, PDF, CSV, audio files, spreadsheets, and more.
First Look of Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Laptop with Snapdragon X Elite Revealed
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Here is a sneak peek of the first Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptop. Courtesy of an X user, the leaked images show the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 laptop with the Snapdragon X Elite processor in full glory. It also comes with a dedicated Copilot key. The specifications are not known as of now.
Snapdragon X Elite Can Redefine the Future of Windows Computing
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In the build-up to the launch of Snapdragon X Elite, we take a look at the x86 architecture, and how different is the ARM architecture. Can the Snapdragon X Elite fix poor battery life and thermal performance, mostly seen on Windows laptops? We tackle all these questions and try to understand the future of ARM-based PCs.
How to Use Phone as Webcam for Streaming or Video Conferencing
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Desktop and Laptop cameras have hardly improved in decades and offer laughable video output. Hence, you might want to use your phone's cameras to take video calls or record videos. We'll explain how you can use your Android phone as a webcam via Android's native "Device as Webcam" feature. There are also third-party apps that you can use to do the same on both iOS and Android.
This Essential New Chrome Feature Will Shield Your Account From Hijacking
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Cookie theft aka session hijacking has become a security menace where attackers gain access to users' online accounts without requiring a password or 2FA authentication. To put a stop, Google has developed Device Bound Session Credentials (DBSC) for Chrome that bind the authentication session to the device. It means attackers can't use the stolen cookie to access accounts on another device. You can enable DBSC on Chrome right away.
10 Best Screen Recording Apps You Can Use on Android
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Every Android device comes with an in-built screen recorder these days. However, in some phones like the Pixel series, you don't get a lot of control over the screen recorder. You can't tweak the screen recording quality, frame rate and other settings. This calls for reliance on third-party screen recording Android apps, like XRecorder, AZ Recorder and Mobizen. These are free too, with only certain features like recording at over 60 FPS being locked behind a paywall.
How to Enable or Disable Hibernate Mode on Windows 11
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If you use a Windows laptop, you should enable the hibernate mode on Windows 11. It allows you to save your current session and quickly resume the session with all your open apps and files. Hibernation consumes almost no power, as it completely switches off the PC, saving the current state of the session. You can enable it from the Control Panel, Command Prompt, or Registry Editor.
How to Access and Use Gemini 1.5 Pro API Right Now
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Google has finally given access to Gemini 1.5 Pro API to all users. You can generate the API key from Google AI Studio and start calling the API for both text and image inputs. The API access is currently free as part of a public preview. We have also added some coding examples so go through our guide to understand the documentation.
Gemini 1.5 Pro Now Listens to Audio and Is Available to All
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You no longer have to wait to access the Gemini 1.5 Pro model. Google has made the model generally available to all users via Google AI Studio. You can access a context window of 1 million tokens without paying any fee. In addition to that, Gemini 1.5 Pro can now process audio files too, apart from videos and images.
Google’s Imagen 2 Model Can Generate Four-Second Video Clips
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Google at the Cloud Next 2024 event made its Imagen 2 model generally available to enterprise customers. One of its new features is that it can generate short video clips aka live images of up to four seconds. In addition, the generation clips show different camera angles and motion. Users can also inpaint and outpaint images on Vertex AI.
Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Benchmark Comparison
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We have pitted the newly launched Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 with 2022's flagship, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The key takeaway from the benchmark comparison is that the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 matches the performance of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in all key benchmarks while maintaining better efficiency. Expect a lot of sub-Rs. 50,000 phones to feature the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 in 2024.
Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Benchmark Comparison
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We recently got our hands on the Xiaomi Civi 4 Pro from China which is powered by Qualcomm's newly launched, Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset. We tested the SoC on several benchmarking apps and compared the scores with the premium Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor. We have performed various tests including Geekbench, AnTuTu, CPU Throttling, Geekbench GPU, and more.
Snapdragon X Plus With a 5G Modem in the Works For Windows: Report
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Apart from Snapdragon X Elite, Qualcomm is also working on a new Snapdragon X Plus variant for Windows PCs. It may come with 10 Oryon CPU cores, instead of 12, and may pack a Snapdragon 5G modem as well. Qualcomm is testing two variants of the chipset internally.
YouTube CEO Says OpenAI Could’ve Violated Platform Rules For Sora Training
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Speaking to Bloomberg, the YouTube CEO, Neal Mohan said that OpenAI would violate YouTube's Terms of Service if the company used YouTube videos to train its Sora model. Google also uses some corpus of YouTube videos to train its Gemini model, but signs licensing contracts with individual creators. Earlier, the CTO of OpenAI, Mira Murati, refused to clarify whether Sora was trained on YouTube videos.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Benchmarks and Specs
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The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is targeted at the premium segment but comes with underclocked CPU cores and lacks some Snapdragon experiences. We got our hands on the first Snapdragon 8s Gen 3-powered smartphone, the Xiaomi Civi 4 Pro, and tested the chipset with multiple benchmark tests. It performed on expected lines and rivals the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset from Qualcomm.
Want to Continue Using Windows 10 Securely? Here’s How Much It Will Cost You
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If you are running a business or educational organization, and want to continue using Windows 10, you will have to pay a subscription fee to keep getting security updates. Microsoft has designed an ESU (Extended Security Update) program for Windows 10 that will keep your Windows 10 PC up-to-date for up to three years, after Windows 10 hits end-of-life in 2025.
There’s a Secret Way to Opt-Out of ChatGPT Model Training!
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While ChatGPT offers the option to disable model training on your content inside ChatGPT's settings page, it also disables Chat History. This discourages users from disabling model training. That said, OpenAI has a separate privacy portal page where you can request the company to not train its model on your data while keeping the Chat History functionality intact. OpenAI doesn't promote this privacy portal page inside ChatGPT's interface. In fact, a passing mention is found on its FAQ page.
Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Benchmark Comparison
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Qualcomm's newly released Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 is making headlines because of its sheer performance in the mid-range segment. In our benchmark tests, we found that it rivals the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC from 2022. The Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 comes very close to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in Geekbench, and AnTuTu benchmark tests. In fact, in the CPU Throttling test, it does better than the SD 8 Gen 2.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 Benchmarks and Specs
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Qualcomm has delivered a powerful mid-range chipset in the 7-series segment. In our benchmark tests on the OnePlus Ace 3V, which is powered by the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 chipset, the SoC performed consistently on all fronts, be it the CPU, GPU, modem, or memory. It has officially defeated MediaTek's Dimensity 8300 Ultra and stands as the top performer in the mid-range segment. You can read our detailed article to find all benchmarks, including Geekbench, AnTuTu, CPU throttling, 3DMark, and more.