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Signal says no to Windows 11’s Recall screenshots

21 May 2025 at 22:16

Signal is taking proactive steps to ensure Microsoft’s Recall feature can’t screen capture your secured chats, by rolling out a new version of the Signal for Windows 11 client that enables screen security by default. This is the same DRM that blocks users from easily screenshotting a Netflix show on their computer or phone, and using it here could cause problems for people who use accessibility features like screen readers.

While Signal says it’s made the feature easy to disable, under Signal Settings > Privacy > Screen Security, it never should’ve come to this. Developer Joshua Lund writes that operating system vendors like Microsoft “need to ensure that the developers of apps like Signal always have the necessary tools and options at their disposal to reject granting OS-level AI systems access to any sensitive information within their apps.”

Despite delaying Recall twice before finally launching it last month, the “photographic memory” feature doesn’t yet have an API for app developers to opt their users’ sensitive content out of its AI-powered archives. It could be useful for finding emails or chats (including ones in Signal) using whatever you can remember, like a description of a picture you’ve received or a broad conversation topic, but it could also be a massive security and privacy problem.

Lund notes that Microsoft already filters out private or incognito browser window activity by default, and users who have a Copilot Plus PC with Recall can filter out certain apps under the settings, but only if they know how to do that. For now, Lund says that “Signal is using the tools that are available to us even though we recognize that there are many legitimate use cases where someone might need to take a screenshot.”

Apple has a new ‘Viral’ playlist on Apple Music and Shazam

8 May 2025 at 21:01

Apple is launching a new global Viral Chart playlist in Apple Music that consists of tracks people are discovering through the company’s Shazam service. The playlist, which is updated daily, shows the top 50 songs people have heard playing out in the real world and have logged through Shazam. You can see charts on Shazam’s website as well.

The playlists use “Shazam’s data to offer a comprehensive view of today’s fastest-growing songs across the globe, David Emery, who works for Apple Music in the UK, says on Threads. Emery notes that charts reflect songs going viral on Shazam in “real time” and then ranks them based on “their weekly growth in Shazam volume.”

As of writing, the top viral songs in the list include Shake It To The Max (FLY) [Remix] by Moliy, Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship, and Hot Together by The Pointer Sisters. On Shazam’s website, you can look at the rankings by country, if you’d like.

Pinterest’s AI will help you find the ‘right words’ to search for fashion

5 May 2025 at 16:04

Pinterest is using AI to try and help you find the fashion accessories you’re looking for, even if you can’t describe them in your own words. The company is using a “Visual Language Model” to generate descriptive words of styles and the overall “vibes” of image Pins on its site, and will let you click into them to discover and refine your personal taste.

The new tool breaks down and decodes images to make it easier to search for specific details in outfits across the site, in turn making it easier for you to shop. So, if you like a skirt someone is wearing in a Pin on the site, you can view the image to see a description of the color palette, fit, aesthetic, and more. You can then refine the style by asking to change the colors and fabric — or even the occasion — so you can find a version that fits in elsewhere, like in a work environment.

The new visual search features are launching for women’s fashion content first and are available starting today in the US, Canada, and the UK. Pinterest plans to launch the feature to other categories and countries “over time.”

Apple ‘iPhone Air’ rumor suggests a bigger screen coming in 2027

5 May 2025 at 14:01

Apple’s rumored super-slim iPhone “Air” isn’t expected until this fall, but supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says development has already begun on a redesigned version with a bigger screen.

According to Kuo, Apple’s second iPhone Air / iPhone “Slim” model is planned for launch in the fall of 2026 as part of the usual annual refresh, but with the same overall size and design before the third iteration expands things the following year. Bloomberg reported in March that the 2025 iPhone Air was originally supposed to come with a 6.9-inch screen, but Apple reduced its size to 6.6 inches to avoid another bendgate scenario.

Kuo’s list also indicates Apple is already working on its second foldable device for release in 2027.

The rumor aligns with a report from The Information over the weekend saying Apple may begin to stagger releasing new iPhones. That would see high-end versions of the iPhone 18 – including the Pro, Air, and a rumored foldable iPhone – introduced in the fall, before the cheaper standard model and budget “e” version launch in the spring of 2027.

DHL restarts deliveries of international packages worth more than $800

28 April 2025 at 20:50

DHL Express is resuming shipments of packages valued over $800 that are bound for consumers in the US, Reuters reports. The international shipping company had suspended the shipments last week due to “a surge in formal customs clearances” amidst the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs on international goods.

Effective today, business-to-consumer shipments valued between $800 and $2,500 have resumed and are back to the standard “informal” entry process for clearance, according to DHL. The company says business-to-business shipments and packages valued under $800 were not affected by the pause. DHL warns that some consumer packages may still experience transit delays to the US.

DHL says normal operations are back after “constructive dialogue” with the US government, which “demonstrated a strong willingness to understand” the company’s challenges and agreed to “act quickly” in the interest of US consumers.

Chromebooks could get a boost from Snapdragon X Plus chips soon

25 April 2025 at 17:58

Chromebooks on Arm processors are about to get a big boost as developers prepare new versions of ChromeOS with support for Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon chips, reports Chrome Unboxed.

According to a new developer commit message posted in the Chromium project Gerrit code review, the SoCID for a Qualcomm X1P42100, aka the Snapdragon X Plus, is now being included in the Chromium repository, which likely means active development of Chromebooks with the chip is underway.

The Snapdragon X Plus isn’t Qualcomm’s flagship “Elite” processor used in some of the top Windows 11 Arm laptops, but it is capable of the same 45 TOPS of AI performance from its NPU.

Qualcomm’s previous Arm-powered Chromebooks haven’t exactly been powerhouses. The 2021 Acer Chromebook Spin 513 that we’ve tested has great battery life, but a very slow Snapdragon 7c chip powers it. And although the 7c Gen 2 version was faster in devices like the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3, Qualcomm ended up not bringing the Gen 3 to Chromebooks. That left Chromebooks with chip options from MediaTek and Intel, the latter of which hasn’t been known for excellent battery life.

YouTube’s new AI tool generates free background music for videos

11 April 2025 at 20:16

YouTube is giving creators a new AI tool that can generate instrumental tracks to use in videos for free without worrying about copyright claims, TechCrunch reports. The new feature was demonstrated in a video posted on the company’s Creator Insider channel this week.

In the video, the host, Lauren, shows a new tab in the Creator Music beta section on YouTube called “Music assistant” where you can enter a prompt like “give me uplifting and motivational music for a workout montage.” The tool then generates several tracks you can review and download so you can add them to your video editor. Lauren says it’s gradually rolling Music assistant out for users who have access to Creator Music.

screenshot of music assistant tab in YouTube studio dashboard

Music assistant is one of several AI music-generating tools out there. Companies like Stability AI have a diffusion model that can make background audio for projects, and Meta’s open-source AudioCraft and MusicGen models can synthesize sounds and media using prompts, too.

YouTube has also experimented with AI music in other ways. It built a music remixer that lets you “restyle” popular songs to add to your Shorts. And its Dream Track feature, powered by Lyria from Google’s DeepMind, lets you hum songs and turn them into music tracks in the style of participating artists like T-Pain.

Adobe is building AI agents for Photoshop and Premiere Pro

9 April 2025 at 21:10

Adobe is building AI agents for Photoshop and Premiere Pro that can suggest ways to edit your photos or videos and then carry out the tasks for you, according to a blog written today by Ely Greenfield, Adobe’s CTO of digital media.

Adobe Photoshop’s agentic AI, or what the company calls its “creative agent,” will be presented in a new floating Actions panel that will recommend context-aware edits after analyzing your photo. For instance, it will be able to suggest removing people standing in the background or creating a greater depth of field by blurring everything behind the subject. All you need to do is click the suggestion and it will be carried out automatically.

Long-time Photoshop users are used to manually manipulating photos by tediously masking people and objects and then creating layers so changes can be made to only certain parts of the image. Adobe has already added AI features that let you extend and fill photos across a larger canvas, or delete unwanted objects or people from the background using Distraction Removal.

video of photoshop and new panel where user is typing to replace sky in the image of two people walking downtown in Europe

Adobe’s vision is that Photoshop users will be able to prompt agents with natural language, making it easier to learn the steps needed to perform a task (although the agent will still be able to do it for you). And you can continue prompting the agent to make more changes, or manually make adjustments in the layers. In one example video, someone asks the agent to clean up an image and add a text box behind a person, and the agent then lists out steps including: remove background people, auto brighten, remove distracting objects, create “subject” layer, create text layer, and organize layers.

For Premiere Pro, Adobe will build on the new Media Intelligence feature introduced last week, which analyzes videos for objects and composition so you can find the footage you need. A future agent will let you direct the agent to make a rough video cut.

“While AI can’t replace human creative inspiration, with your input it can make some educated guesses to help you get your project off the ground,” Greenfield wrote in the blog. “It can also help you learn how to perform complex tasks with a few simple keystrokes, helping you grow as an editor.” Premiere Pro’s creative agent will eventually help editors refine shot choices, adjust color, mix audio, and more. Adobe also just launched Generative Extend, which uses AI to add seconds to your clips to help fit a transition.

Adobe will introduce the technology behind the first AI agent, which will be for Photoshop, at its Max event in London on April 24th.

Google’s regular Pixel 10 will reportedly get worse (but more) cameras

3 April 2025 at 22:22
The Pixel 9A’s main camera might go to the base Pixel 10.

Google’s upcoming base Pixel 10 might come with primary and ultrawide cameras that match the hardware recently introduced in the budget Pixel 9A, which aren’t as good as the cameras on the Pixel 9, Android Authority reports. However, the new phone may get a telephoto camera, which the Pixel 9 and other base Pixels haven’t had. 

As for the Pixel 10 Pro devices, Android Authority reports that they will have the same camera hardware as the 9 Pro, which could indicate that Google may lean more on the abilities of its expected next-generation Tensor G5 chip to improve photos.

Meanwhile, the upcoming Pixel 10 Pro Fold, which is rumored to have an almost identical design to the previous model, might also get the Pixel 9A’s primary shooter.

Last year, Google announced its Pixel 9 lineup in August, and it’s possible that the company could pick that timeframe again to launch the Pixel 10 series. The company will release the Pixel 9A on April 10th.

Windows 11 tests taskbar icons that scale up and down like on a Mac

3 April 2025 at 20:41

Microsoft is testing out resizable taskbar icons in Windows 11 that can shrink as you open more apps or stay at a smaller size for good. The new options are included in the latest Insider Preview Beta.

If you’re on the beta, under Taskbar settings > Taskbar behaviors, you can now select options under Show smaller taskbar buttons: Always, Never, or When taskbar is full. The third option will scale down icons so that they all can fit and not get hidden away in a second menu.

The behavior appears to be similar to macOS where icons on the dock get smaller as more applications or minimized windows are added.

X user phantomofearth, who frequently digs through Insider builds, posted that there’s an update to the Start menu as well. Now, it has a larger layout that includes the ability to hide the recommended recent apps and can show all of your apps on the page.

Microsoft notes that people who update to this Insider Build might lose those cool new battery charge status icons it introduced in January, but the company plans to bring it back to Insiders soon.

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