Tag: google

Google Adds a New Gemini AI Feature That Will Let Users Fine-Tune Its Responses

Google has introduced a new feature for Gemini, its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot. The new feature provides users with granular control over the generated response to a prompt and allows them to make changes to a particular portion of the text. Users can regenerate the selected portion, edit its length or get it entirely removed. The feature is currently only available for the web app version and has not been extended to the app. Notably, Google recently announced multiple new AI features for Android devices.

Announcing the new feature in a post, Google said, “We’re launching a more precise way for you to tune Gemini’s responses. Starting in English in the Gemini web app, just select the portion of text you want to change, give Gemini some instruction, and get an output that’s closer to what you are looking for.” The feature is being added to offer more control to users’ creative process by letting them make changes to a small part of the response instead of regenerating it entirely.

Once a response for a prompt has been generated, users can select and highlight any part of the text. Highlighting it now will show a pencil icon in a circle. The Gemini logo also appears next to the pencil. Hovering the arrow over the icon brings the description “Modify selected text. Clicking on this icon shows four options — Regenerate, Shorter, Longer, and Remove.

The options work as the name suggests. Regenerate will change the portion of the text and it will be generated again. Shorter and Longer increases or decreases the length of the topic, and Remove deletes it entirely. Further, users can also add a prompt for that particular portion to modify it as well.

It is a handy feature. Those who have spent time on AI chatbots know that oftentimes, it generates a great response which is ruined by one sentence. So far, the solution to it was to regenerate the entire content or make modifications to the prompt, and repeat it ad infinitum till the desired result appears. Making granular changes via this feature can potentially save a lot of time for users.

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Google Maps is Reportedly Testing Entrance and Exit Icons on Large Buildings

Google Maps might be working on an important accessibility feature, as per a report. The popular mapping platform is said to be working on a new feature that shows the entrances and exits of large buildings to help users navigate directions and park vehicles in more convenient locations. The feature reportedly showed up in the Google Pixel 7a, so it is likely being tested for Android, however, it could not be confirmed if the same feature was being built for iOS as well.

A report by Android Authority highlighted that the feature showed up while testing the app. It was available in Google Maps for Android version 11.17.0101 on the Google Pixel 7a. At Gadgets 360, we were unable to see the feature on the Google Maps app with the same version number. This is likely because the Pixel smartphone was running a beta Android build. As per the report, the entrances and exits were visible when zoomed in on a building.

While zoomed in, selecting a building will show white circular icons with green outlines and will highlight the building in a red shade. The circle contains an entrance icon (an open square bracket with an arrow symbol pointing towards it). The icon appeared in front of where the entrances to the buildings are supposed to be, as per the report. The publication found the entrances across New York, Las Vegas, and San Francisco in the US and around Berlin, Germany.

One anomaly was also seen in the feature. While some buildings had the abovementioned icon, some others reportedly showed a simple circle with an arrow icon. The publication also highlighted that for some buildings, the icon was not accurately placed where the entrance was. However, these anomalies can be attributed to the feature being in the testing phase and these will likely be ironed out by the time it is rolled out for the general public.

Last month, a report revealed that Google Maps might soon roll out an update that overhauls the design of certain elements. The tech giant is said to have reworked how the user interface while searching for directions and selecting locations is displayed in the app, ditching the full-screen in favour of a bottom sliding sheet layout. Further, the report claimed that clicking on a particular transport mode only extends a bottom sheet with the map still visible in the background.

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BRICS Nations Plan to Create Payment Network Backed by Digital Currencies in Quest of De-Dollarisation: Report



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Reddit Signs AI Content Licensing Deal With Google; Said to Be Worth $60 Million a Year

Social media platform Reddit has struck a deal with Google to make its content available for training the search engine giant’s artificial intelligence models, three people familiar with the matter said.

The contract with Alphabet-owned Google is worth about $60 million (roughly Rs. 497 crore) per year, according to one of the sources.

The deal underscores how Reddit, which is preparing for a high-profile stock market launch, is seeking to generate new revenue amid fierce competition for advertising dollars from the likes of TikTok and Meta Platform’s Facebook.

The sources were not authorized to speak to media and declined to be identified.

Reddit and Google declined to comment.

Bloomberg previously reported Reddit’s content deal without naming the buyer.

Last year, Reddit said it would charge companies for access to its application programming interface (API) – the means by which it distributes its content. The agreement with Google is its first reported deal with a big AI company.

San Francisco-based Reddit, which has been looking at a stock float for more than three years, is preparing to make its initial public offering filing this week, which would detail its financials for the first time to potential IPO investors.

The filing could be available as early as Thursday, two of the sources said.

The company, which was valued at about $10 billion (roughly Rs. 82,897 crore) in a funding round in 2021, is seeking to sell about 10 percent of its shares in the offering, Reuters has previously reported. 

Reddit’s stock market launch would mark the first IPO of a major social media company since Pinterest floated its shares in 2019.

Makers of AI models have been busy clinching deals with content owners in recent months, aiming to diversify their training data beyond large scrapes of the internet. That practice is rife with potential copyright issues as many content creators have alleged that their content was used without permission.

Founded in 2005 by web developer Steve Huffman and entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian, Reddit is known for its manifold niche discussion groups, some of which boast tens of millions of members.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

Google I/O 2023 saw the search giant repeatedly tell us that it cares about AI, alongside the launch of its first foldable phone and Pixel-branded tablet. This year, the company is going to supercharge its apps, services, and Android operating system with AI technology. We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Gboard Tests ‘Scan Text’ Feature to Insert Text from Captured Images: How it Works

Gboard — Google’s keyboard app for smartphones — is picking up a useful new feature that will make it easier for you to insert text, using your smartphone’s camera. The latest version of the keyboard app adds support for a new “Scan Text” mode that uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology to recognise text and enter it into a text field. A similar feature to scan and insert text is also available on iPhone models running on iOS 15.4 or newer versions.

An image of the feature shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Mishaal Rahman shows how the new Gboard feature works. Using your smartphone’s rear camera, Google’s keyboard app will let you take an image of text — this can be a document, a screen or an object with words on it — and then uses OCR technology to extract the text and insert it into your current app.

In order for the feature to work, you’ll need to update the Gboard app on your Android phone to version 13.9, which is currently in beta. According to Rahman, users have claimed that the feature is now rolling out, but Gadgets 360 staff members were unable to try the feature on multiple Android smartphones — so you might have to wait until it is officially announced by the company.

When the Scan Text feature is available on your smartphone, it should be listed alongside other features like Translate, Sticker, One-handed, and Theme. The keyboard will prompt you to grant it access to the camera permission, after which you can begin to use the feature.

You can point your phone’s camera at some text and tap on the capture button once it is inside the half-screen viewfinder. You can then select the text that is recognised using OCR and insert it in your current app — this image is deleted after the text is inserted. You can also move it to the toolbar that appears on top of the keyboard, if you plan to use it often.

The arrival of the feature on Android comes two years after Apple brought a similar feature to iOS 15.4, allowing users to point their phone at text to add it to the Notes app and text fields in other apps. It lets users automatically select text using their iPhone camera — without capturing an image — and displays the text to be inserted as it updates in real-time. 

If the feature is yet to be enabled on your smartphone, you can also open the Google Lens app and point your camera at some text in order to extract text, copy, and paste it into another app. Adding the feature to Gboard will simplify this process, by eliminating the need to open the Lens app.

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Google Pay to Roll Out SoundPod With Audio Alerts to Merchants in India After Year-Long Pilot

Google is rolling out the SoundPod — the company’s wireless speaker that can verify payments received over the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) instant payment system — to small merchants in India, the company announced on Thursday. The company started testing the device as part of a limited trial last year and has revealed that the rollout will take place later this year. Google Pay rivals PhonePe and Paytm — the latter faces RBI strictures over non-compliance with multiple rules — already offer similar products for merchants in the country.

In a blog post on Thursday, Google VP of Products for Google Pay Ambarish Kenghe announced that the company’s SoundPod would be rolled out to small merchants in the country “over the coming months”. During Google’s year-long trial of the SoundPod in India, the firm received positive feedback from merchants who participated in the trial, including faster checkouts, Kenghe said.

The SoundPod is equipped with an LCD screen and a single speaker. It supports 4G connectivity, according to Google. It has three LED indicators to show battery, charging, and connectivity status of the device, and features menu, volume, and power buttons.

The SoundPod has an LCD display and speaker that face the merchant
Photo Credit: Google

 

Paytm’s ‘Soundbox’ speakers offer between four to 12 days of battery life and feature 2G or 4G connectivity — two models are equipped with LCD screens, while another supports music playback over a Bluetooth connection. On the other hand, PhonePe’s SmartSpeaker offers up to four days of battery like on a single charge and supports multiple languages.

While the company hasn’t offered a concrete timeline for the arrival of the SoundPod in India, rivals like Paytm and PhonePe offer similar audio devices that are already in use by merchants across the country. Merchants also pay a monthly subscription — between Rs. 50 to Rs. 125 — to access these audio-based announcement service.

Google says that merchants will be able to choose between two subscriptions for the SoundPod — a Rs. 499 one-time fee followed by a Rs. 125 monthly subscription plan, or an annual subscription priced at Rs. 1,499. Merchants won’t have to pay the one-time fee when choosing the annual plan. Customers who receive 400 payments in a month via QR codes will get a guaranteed Rs. 125 cashback, according to the company.

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Google Pixel Phones to Be Manufactured in India by Q2 2024: Report

Alphabet Inc’s Google has told suppliers to start making its Pixel smartphones in India by next quarter at the earliest, as part of its plan to ship more than 10 million Pixel phones this year, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Thursday.

Google would start manufacturing smartphones in India and its flagship Pixel 8 will be available in 2024, it said last October, as it focuses more on a key growth market.

The move will also help Google diversify its supply chain away from China, the Nikkei report said, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

The tech giant will prepare production lines for its high-end Pixel 8 Pro smartphones in the coming weeks and start producing phones in the April-June quarter, the report added, citing multiple sources.

The report did not say how many phones Google plans to manufacture India nor if the phones will be for sale in the country or for exports.

Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Airtel Launches In-Flight Roaming Plans for Prepaid and Postpaid Users; Price, Validity

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Google Pixel Fold 2 Leaked CAD Renders Hint at Triple Rear Camera Layout, Larger Displays

Google Pixel Fold 2 — the purported successor to the first-generation Pixel Fold — renders have been leaked by a tipster, revealing the foldable phone from various angles. These images suggest that unlike the company’s recent Pixel-branded smartphones, the Pixel Fold 2 is unlikely to feature a horizontal camera visor. In addition to the new camera island design, the dimensions of the foldable phone’s inner and outer displays are also visible in the leaked images of the handset.

Tipster Steve Hemmerstoffer (@OnLeaks) leaked CAD-based renders of the Pixel Fold 2 in collaboration with Smartprix. These images show the inner and outer design of the foldable smartphone in a Charcoal (dark grey) colourway, along with the location of several components including the camera module, buttons, and the USB port.

The most prominent change on the second-generation Pixel Fold is a new camera island that replaces the visor design found on the company’s recent smartphone models including the Pixel 8 and Pixel 7 series. This camera module is shown to feature three cameras and an LED flash.

Pixel Fold 2 could arrive with a new rear camera layout
Photo Credit: Smartprix/ @OnLeaks

 

The Pixel Fold 2 will sport a 6.4-inch outer screen that has rounded corners and a centre-aligned hole punch cutout at the top of the screen for the selfie camera. When unfolded, the phone has a 7.9-inch inner display. The renders indicate the presence of a camera sensor at the top right corner of the inner screen, which is said to house an under-display camera.

The leaked renders also show other, smaller elements including the buttons on the foldable phone. Both the power and volume buttons are found on the right side of the screen, when unfolded. According to the publication, the top edge only contains a speaker grille and an antenna band, while the bottom edge contains a USB Type-C port, another speaker grille, a SIM card slot, and a microphone.

While these are the first leaked renders that give us a detailed look at the purported Pixel Fold 2 from a reputed leaker, it’s worth taking these images with a grain of salt as Google is yet to announce plans to launch a second-generation foldable phone. Previous leaks suggest the handset will run on Android 14, feature Google’s Tensor G4 chip. Google announced the first Pixel Fold in June 2023, so we can expect to hear more details about its purported successor in the coming months.

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Android 15 Could Offer a Boost to Two-Factor Authentication Security to Keep User Data Safe: Report

Android 15 is still under development, but on Friday, February 16, Google released the first Developer Preview of the upcoming operating system. The tech giant said that the new Android software will largely focus on security, and a new report claims to have found three new ways it will make your smartphone and your sensitive data more secure. According to it, Android 15 will be able to better protect the notifications that arise from two-factor authentications (2FA) so that a malicious app or malware cannot access it to steal user data.

According to a report by Android Authority’s Mishaal Rahman, Android 15 will be implementing new ways to cover the gaps left behind by its predecessors. Currently, most two-factor authentication methods for social media profiles, emails, and banking apps use SMS to send a one-time password (OTP). However, there is a risk if a malicious third-party app can read this notification and use it to hack into sensitive data or get into your banking apps and steal money.

To reduce the risk, Google has already begun placing strings of codes in the current edition of the OS. The report found a line of code in the Android 14 QPR3 Beta 1 update that mentions a new permission named RECEIVE_SENSITIVE_NOTIFICATIONS. This permission comes with a higher protection level and can only be given to apps that Google personally verifies. The exact role of this permission is not known but given its naming, it appears to deal with a special category of notifications that will not be accessible for third-party apps to read.

The report highlights that it is likely aimed at 2FA-related notifications. The belief comes from a separate string of code found by Rahman, which points to an under-development platform feature, to which the permission is tied. The feature is named NotificationListenerService and it is an API that lets apps read or take action on notifications. A general use case would be how many apps ask for access to notifications to auto-fill OTP when creating a new account. However, once this API becomes active (it isn’t in the Android 14 build), this will get more difficult.

This API will require the user to enter Settings and then manually grant permission to apps before they can be turned active, the report highlights. Such stringent measures are likely for two-factor authentication. However, even in the second case, it cannot be said for sure.

Rahman found a third hint that likely ties all the developments together. A new flag was seen in the codes labelled OTP_REDACTION. It redacts OTP notifications on the lock screen of the smartphone. Google currently does not use this flag, but the report suggests it can be made active with Android 15. All three separate developments point towards protecting OTP notifications from third-party apps, which makes it likely that the tech giant will use these to protect financial and other important apps that may contain sensitive information.

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Android 15 Developer Preview 1 Released By Google: All You Need to Know

Android 15 is currently in development and Google on Friday released the first Android 15 Developer Preview to give software developers and companies an idea of what to expect from the next version of its open source mobile operating system. According to Google, Android 15 will improve device security while allowing apps to take advantage of flagship hardware including advanced cameras, GPUs, displays, and AI. Other components like Privacy Sandbox, Health Connect, File Integrity are also set to receive upgrades when the update rolls out to users later this year.

In a blog post on Friday, Google revealed that the first Android 15 Developer Preview is now available for Pixel smartphones. These builds are unlikely to contain new user-facing features or changes to the interface — they are intended for developers to test their apps on the latest version of Android that is still in development and are expected to contain bugs.

With Android 15, applications will be able to boost the camera preview’s brightness via new low light enhancements, and control flash intensity precisely thanks to advanced flash strength adjustments, according to Google. It will also enable the use of a smartphone as a virtual MIDI 2.0 device using a composition app to control a synthesizer app. 

Android 15 beta releases are expected to begin in April
Photo Credit: Google

 

Privacy Sandbox — Google’s new system to enable developers to show targeted ads that claims to preserve user privacy — is also getting an upgrade with Android 15. Health Connect will also support “new data types across fitness, nutrition, and more”, the company states.

Android 15 also contains new application programming interfaces (APIs) that can protect users from malware or changes to their files, by tapping into a powerful feature in the Linux kernel. Meanwhile, the next version of Android will enable support for partial screen sharing, allowing users to only record one app window instead of their whole screen.

The company says another developer preview is coming in March, and Android 15 beta releases will begin in April. Users who want to try out the upcoming version of Android can try out the public beta versions, but these are generally recommended to be installed on a secondary smartphone. Platform stability is expected to be achieved by June, which means that no new features or major changes will be made to the operating system beyond that milestone, according to Google.

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Google, Meta, OpenAI and More Firms Sign Tech Accord to Fight AI Election Interference Globally

A group of 20 tech companies announced on Friday they have agreed to work together to prevent deceptive artificial-intelligence content from interfering with elections across the globe this year.

The rapid growth of generative artificial intelligence (AI), which can create text, images and video in seconds in response to prompts, has heightened fears that the new technology could be used to sway major elections this year, as more than half of the world’s population is set to head to the polls.

Signatories of the tech accord, which was announced at the Munich Security Conference, include companies that are building generative AI models used to create content, including OpenAI, Microsoft and Adobe. Other signatories include social media platforms that will face the challenge of keeping harmful content off their sites, such as Meta Platforms, TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter.

The agreement includes commitments to collaborate on developing tools for detecting misleading AI-generated images, video and audio, creating public awareness campaigns to educate voters on deceptive content and taking action on such content on their services.

Technology to identify AI-generated content or certify its origin could include watermarking or embedding metadata, the companies said.

The accord did not specify a timeline for meeting the commitments or how each company would implement them.

“I think the utility of this (accord) is the breadth of the companies signing up to it,” said Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta Platforms.

“It’s all good and well if individual platforms develop new policies of detection, provenance, labeling, watermarking and so on, but unless there is a wider commitment to do so in a shared interoperable way, we’re going to be stuck with a hodgepodge of different commitments,” Clegg said.

Generative AI is already being used to influence politics and even convince people not to vote.

In January, a robocall using fake audio of U.S. President Joe Biden circulated to New Hampshire voters, urging them to stay home during the state’s presidential primary election.

Despite the popularity of text-generation tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the tech companies will focus on preventing harmful effects of AI photos, videos and audio, partly because people tend to have more skepticism with text, said Dana Rao, Adobe’s chief trust officer, in an interview.

“There’s an emotional connection to audio, video and images,” he said. “Your brain is wired to believe that kind of media.”

© Thomson Reuters 2024

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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