Science

Google previews an AI-powered future at I/O 2023

Google’s annual I/O developer’s conference highlights all the innovative work the tech giant is doing to improve its large family of products and services. This year, the company emphasized that it is going big on artificial intelligence, especially generative AI. Expect to see more AI powered features coming your way across a range of key services in Google’s Workspace, apps, and Cloud.  “As an AI-first company, we’re at an exciting inflection point…We’ve been applying AI to our products to make…

Science

How to make a QR code and share digital data with anyone, anywhere

Quick Response (QR) codes were popular before the COVID-19 pandemic, but now they’re everywhere, from restaurant menus to billboards. These square codes are quick and easy to use, and anyone can scan them on their mobile device using its built-in camera, no special app or update necessary.  If you’ve ever wondered how to make a QR code, know that it doesn’t require any great degree of technical know-how or a huge amount of time. You just need the right app…

Science

Ditch your Google password and set up a passkey instead

Password haters across the land—rejoice. Following the efforts of Apple and Microsoft, Google is now a step closer to being password-free after making passkeys available to all individual account users.  Of course, having the option doesn’t matter if you’re not sure what to do with it. Google’s new feature allows you to sign into your account from your devices with only a PIN or a biometric, like your face or fingerprint, so you can forget your ever-inconvenient password once and…

Science

Google joins the fight against passwords by enabling passkeys

The passwordless future is slowly becoming a reality. This week, Google announced that you can now log into your Google account with just a passkey. It’s a huge milestone in what promises to be the incredibly long, awkward move away from using passwords for security.  In case you haven’t heard yet, passwords are terrible. People pick awful passwords to begin with, find them really hard to remember, and then don’t even use them properly. When someone gets hacked, that may…

Science

Tech giants have a plan to fight dangerous AirTag stalking

Apple and Google have jointly proposed a new industry specification aimed at preventing the misuse of Bluetooth location-tracking devices like AirTags. The new proposal outlines a number of best practices for makers of Bluetooth trackers and, if adopted, would enable anyone with an iOS or Android smartphone to get a notification if they were the target of unauthorized tracking. Since launching in 2021, Apple’s AirTags have been controversial. The coin-sized Bluetooth devices work using Apple’s Find My network, which is…

Science

You can now use Android’s Nearby Share on PC

Android users are proud of our devices’ versatility, but many of us have been low-key jealous of Apple’s AirDrop, which allows iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers to seamlessly swap files within a certain physical distance. Google, naturally, came up with its own version of the feature—Nearby Share—but until recently it was only available on the company’s operating system. Thanks to a new beta app, anyone with an Android device can now also share photos and documents with Windows 10 and…

Science

‘Godfather of AI’ quits Google to talk openly about the dangers of the rapidly emerging tech

Geoffrey Hinton, known to some as the “Godfather of AI,” pioneered the technology behind today’s most impactful and controversial artificial intelligence systems. He also just quit his position at Google to more freely criticize the industry he helped create. Via an interview with The New York Times published on Monday, Hinton confirmed he told his employer of his decision in March and spoke with Google CEO Sundar Pichai last Thursday. In 2012, Hinton, a computer science researcher at the University…

Science

4 ways to protect your Google search history

Google has become so synonymous with search that the company’s name has found its way into the dictionary as a verb—and that means your Google search history can reveal a lot about your life. If someone manages to gain access to that treasure trove of information, they could learn about everything from the medical conditions you’ve been worried about to where you’ve been on your vacations. With so much sensitive data involved, you should make sure that your search history…

Science

Some of your everyday tech tools lack this important security feature

When it comes to computers, convenience and security are often at odds. A simple, easy-to-use system that you can’t lock yourself out of tends to be less secure than something a little less user-friendly. This is often the case with end-to-end encryption (E2EE), a system in which messages, backups, and anything else can only be decrypted by someone with the right key—and not the provider of the service or any other middlemen. While much more secure, it does have some…

Science

Cloud computing has its security weaknesses. Intel’s new chips could make it safer.

Intel and Google Cloud have just released a joint report detailing a months-long audit of a new security feature on Intel’s latest server chips: Trust Domain Extensions (TDX). The report is a result of a collaboration between security researchers from Google Cloud Security and Project Zero, and Intel engineers. It led to a number of pre-release security improvements for Intel’s new CPUs. TDX is a feature of Intel’s 4th-generation “Sapphire Rapids” Xeon processors, though it will be available on more…

Science

Free up space on your laptop by moving all your files to the cloud

Disk space is always at a premium, so you should take every opportunity to free up as much of it as you can. One of the best ways to do this is to back up a bunch of files to the cloud, then remove them from your computer entirely. Stashing your data in the cloud will allow you to access your files while still having hard drive space on your computer. The process is relatively easy, but don’t let this…

Science

6 Gmail sorting tips for a more efficient and less chaotic inbox

For a lot of us, checking our Gmail inbox is a daily ritual, and Google’s email client comes packed with labels, filters, stars, and other features meant to help you sort and manage your messages as quickly as possible. But those are just surface-level—you can go deeper. Experimenting with Gmail’s layout is a powerful, but often overlooked way to boost your email productivity. It can surface the most important messages first, help you avoid inbox clutter, and give you a…