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Google has been getting into the generative AI trend by incorporating it into its own search results as part of Search Labs with Search Generative Experience (SGE) recently going public. And now Google seems to be experimenting with a drag-and-drop feature for Google’s search app for Android.

According to a new video posted by Telegram user @theoj22 through the unofficial Google news group (reported by Android Police), this new feature is still under development and not visible to the public. But you can still see how it works, by long-pressing a link, piece of text, or image, prompting users to drop the result in the ‘Drop here to start’ search box. 

From there, search results immediately crop up. Or at least that’s the concept, because for most people right now if you attempt it Google Lens tries to open but nothing else happens. 

Google AI isn’t all good either 

Once this new drag-and-drop feature properly makes its debut it could really be a search game-changer. But not everything from SGE is all butterflies and rainbows, however. 

The first real danger is how Google plans to integrate generative AI directly into its search results, which would fill the top spots with those answers and ‘sources’ while pushing down links to verified and currently top-ranking websites closer to the bottom. This is a move that could absolutely kill digital journalism as we know it, because those sites need high Google search rankings for visibility and, most importantly, revenue to keep running.

The second is how Google Bard will be getting an Adobe-powered AI image generator, which you can already guess why that’s a bad thing. But if not, this means that the image generator will be plagiarizing art that’s already online to train its AI transformer, which is rapidly becoming a huge copyright issue.

It’s not all bad, as Mozilla Firefox’s recent initiative — the Responsible AI Challenge — has awarded its top three entrants for creating programs that will hold AI accountable in a variety of ways. If more tech companies would focus on tangible solutions and proper regulation like this instead of creating false panic around AI turning us all into paperclips to distract from its actual problems, we would have very little to worry about from Google or any other AI applications.

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NetherRealm has revealed how Mortal Kombat 1 will play at the Summer Games Fest with faster combat and a fully immersive story. The game looks to be incredibly fast-paced with an emphasis on colourful brutality. 

Some cues for Mortal Kombat 1 have clearly been taken from the developer's Injustice series, however, animations have taken received a serious glow-up. One thing that immediately stands out is the pop of color and the youthful energy that all the characters showcase, with iconic scenes such as Kano's heart rip and Sub-Zero's spine rip present and accounted for. It also happens to be bloody as hell. 

We also got our first look at how Kameo fighters will work in the upcoming game. Similar to tag-ins worked back in Mortal Kombat (2011), Mortal Kombat 1 uses additional characters in the roster to add a new dimension to fighting. The speed of the game is the biggest surprise, looking incredibly aggressive, as with Mortal Kombat X. 

Classic versions of the characters return, as can be seen with Sonya Blade and Kano as well as new versions of Scorpion and Sub-Zero looking far younger than ever before. The new Kameo system seems reminiscent of how things work in the likes of Marvel vs Capcom and Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid.  The old Mortal Kombat energy appears to be alive and well with this title. 

Mortal Kombat 1 launches on Xbox Series X, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch on It launches on September 19.

For more info on games released this week, check out all our E3 2023 coverage.

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Google News Showcase Is Finally Coming To The US This Summer - CNET

The tech giant says it's partnered with more than 150, mostly local, news publications.

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You Can Still Return Amazon Packages for Free. Here's How It Works - CNET

Learn how to drop off your items at return centers, or have UPS pick them up at your home.

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Google Meet Update Lets You Do More From Picture-in-Picture Window - CNET

Raise your hand, use in-meeting chat or resize your view.

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The season of E3 2023 kicked off with a bang at Summer Game Fest, as Ubisoft announced Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

The game is launching on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, last-gen console, and Amazon Luna on January 18, 2024.

This latest Prince of Persia title might not be what fans were expecting when we're still waiting on the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, but what Ubisoft showed with this original title looks promising.

A 2D side scroller much like the series' roots, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown also features multi-weapon combat, and fantastical bosses. It doesn't look too far removed from something like Metroid Dread or Hollow Knight, but it remains to be seen if Ubisoft's game has any Metroidvania DNA.

This story is developing, more to follow...

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June is ‘Adopt a Shelter Cat Month’ and in order to properly celebrate, Drop is launching its fourth installment of ‘Caps for Causes’ with unique, limited edition keycaps.

The MT3 NoveltyCats keycaps come in a pack of four, fittingly cat-themed, based on the iconic black cat Jiji from Studio Ghibli’s Kiki’s Delivery Service. There are only 550 sets in total and the proceeds from each purchase will be entirely donated to the ASPCA, ensuring that you can help fund rescue care and adoption for real-life shelter cats.

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(Image credit: Drop)

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(Image credit: Drop)

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(Image credit: Drop)

For those interested, the full specs of the keycaps from Drop (via TechPowerUp) are below. To support the initiative, you can purchase them here.

• Made by Drop
• Designed by Matt3o
• Profile: MT3, Row 0
• Material: Doubleshot ABS
• Compatible with Cherry MX switches and clones

Cute gaming accessories are (hopefully) on the rise

Though these are meant to be limited-edition keycaps supporting a charity, the fact that they’re designed with adorable cats shows the slow shift in gaming accessory aesthetics. For too long, gaming accessories have been plagued with the same black color – sometimes given a green, blue, or red highlight to ‘liven it up’ – with little variation. The dreaded ‘gamer aesthetic’ has been the front face of gaming for too long.

It’s more than refreshing to see companies put out unique designs and accessory color palettes. For instance, HyperX’s personalization line, which I previewed before CES 2023, seeks to completely flip the concept on its head by offering tons of brightly colored cute or cool skull and dragon-themed work desk accessories. And its current keycap collection features some extremely cute animal designs that will absolutely stand out on any keyboard.

The fact that it’s gradually becoming more acceptable to release cute accessories for products made for a ‘hardcore’ gamer or PC enthusiast is very possibly why Drop, a company that normally releases very practical and high-quality products like its Drop ALT keyboard, can sell keycaps that have a cute anime cat on them.

As a lover of both the cute and cool for gaming, I’m extremely excited to see this change in perception and hope that more mainstream manufacturers will latch on to the concept. At the very least, there should be a colorful option every time a manufacturer offers a product in black. 

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It just might be time to finally make that upgrade from Windows 8 and 8.1, as the Google Drive app will no longer support them as of August 2023. 

The news comes from a Google support page, reported by Android Police. The tech giant will be ending support for both the 8 and 8.1 OS, as well as Windows 10 32-bit version. After August, users will not be able to use the app to sync or upload files through the app and will need to upgrade to a newer OS to continue to use those features.

The good news is that you can still use Google Drive through your browser if you’re using an older OS. But the bad news, according to The Verge, is that browser support is ending for Windows 8 and 8.1 with Microsoft Edge ending support in January 2023, Google Chrome releasing the first version that doesn’t support them in February 2023, and Mozilla Firefox planning to end security support for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 next year.

Not to mention the issue of auto-syncing files, which is a feature only available through the Drive app. For that only you’ll need to make the jump to either Windows 10 64-bit version or Windows 11.

Google Drive has been pushing out solid updates

Google Drive has been improving its services in 2023, making the application much easier to use and navigate. This is on top of its new Material You redesign, which cleaned up its UI and completely changed the aesthetics.

In May 2023, Google redesigned the Drive homepage, making it easier to find files. In the ‘Home’ view, two view buttons at the top of the page allow users to alternate between a ‘Suggested’ and ‘Activity’ view. Earlier that same month, Google added a new Spam folder. Moving a file there unsubscribes you from activity notifications and removes the file from all other Drive locations.

February 2023 brought along two updates. The first one introduced a new toolbar for multi-selecting files that made it clearer and easier to make bulk changes, while the second one added new search parameters to help users narrow down their results.

There was the brief file limit update that Google rolled out to a small number of Drive users, before removing it in response to negative publicity. The limit of 5 million items is a large one that most people won’t hit, but the sudden error message with no advanced warning of the rollout was probably quite alarming to see anyway.

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Should You Avoid Using Your Gas Stove When Air Quality Is Poor? - CNET

Gas stoves have been shown to decrease air quality. A few rules and adjustments will help lower the risk for you and your housemates.

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Apple gaming is as robust as it's ever been but is still lacking, with many Windows-based blockbusters and recent titles still not available on macOS. But thanks to new software, that could change for the better.

During WWDC 2023, Apple revealed plans for Windows PC game emulation with its new Game Porting Toolkit, which would allow anyone with the knowledge to use a DX11/DX12 Wine-like translation layer to bring Windows games to Mac systems, according to VideoCardZ. The company responsible for this software is called CodeWeavers, and its CrossOver app is one that allows Windows apps to be emulated on macOS through the Game Porting Toolkit in the first place.

It’s important to note that right now the software isn’t perfect, as even Wine translation still has plenty of bugs to fix or optimizations to make to keep it running smoothly, so it’s not reasonable to expect a flawless port right out of the box using the Game Porting Toolkit. Despite this, it seems that modders have already gotten titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Diablo IV to run on both the M1 and M2 Mac systems using the new software toolset. 

Gamers have reported Cyberpunk 2077 running at below 15 fps on the M1 system with Ultra settings, and at about 40 fps with Ultra settings on M2 Max. Diablo IV and other titles like Hogwarts Legacy or GTA Vice City run quite well on M2 Max chips.

Apple's new game porting toolkit is fantastic. Here's Cyperbunk 2077 running at Ultra on an M1 MacBook Pro 16 GB! pic.twitter.com/hylzMU6U46June 6, 2023

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Diablo IV on M2 Max using macOS Sonoma and game porting toolkit from r/macgaming

Mac gaming continues to evolve

Apple announced other Mac gaming news during WWDC 2023 as well, with surprise guest Hideo Kojima revealing that he would not only be bringing Death Stranding Director’s Cut to Mac systems but his studio’s future titles as well. As you can imagine, this is huge news considering the level of prestige and recognition that he carries in the gaming industry.

As I previously discussed in depth, Kojima’s partnership with Apple could be what the tech giant needs to jumpstart Mac gaming again, getting more titles to play natively on macOS. And on the heels of this reveal is one in which Apple is making it possible for gamers to play any of the best PC games currently available only on Windows.

Though it doesn’t run perfectly and the framerate can sometimes wildly differ between games, the fact that titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Diablo IV can run at all is incredible. Hopefully, this could inspire Apple to continue to establish partnerships with various studios, bringing even more recent titles to macOS. 

Having a robust lineup of games is key to garnering more interest in Mac gaming, which would help Apple increase its market share in the PC market.

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Apple Pumps Up Music Features in Next Versions of iOS, iPadOS and MacOS - CNET

After previewing new streaming and sharing features at WWDC, Apple has announced more music features for its upcoming operating systems.

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Cisco has unveiled plans for a major sustainability push as the company looks to go greener than ever.

With rising energy bills affecting businesses across the world, the company has revealed a number of initiaties aimed at lessening the environmental impact of technology.

The push was emphasized by company CEO Chuck Robbins, who took to the stage at Cisco Live 2023 to declare that sustainability is now among the company’s top five customer priorities.

Cisco sustainability

“Operating sustainably and equitably is the only way to do business," Robbins added, highligthing Cisco's goal to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its value chain by 2040, and its commitment 100% product return upon request with no extra cost to customers.

Data centers are increasingly being identified as a hugely energy-hungry entity, with Cisco quoting figures that data center servers and switches draw up to 2% of all electricity in the United States alone, with energy consumption representing up to 30% of data center costs.

In order to give customers more insight into their energy consumption, the company has upgraded its Cisco Nexus Dashboard to include energy management analytics, giving extra visibility across the entire Cisco Networking Cloud.

With help from Cisco API integration partners Panduit and Vertiv, this will include real-time and historical insights into the energy consumption, energy costs, and greenhouse-gas emissions of Cisco Nexus switches and other IT equipment in the data center.

The service will also monitor the ambient temperature of data centers to help improve cooling efficiency, while keeping an eye on any additional servers, switches or storage.

(Image credit: Cisco)

In the wider Interet of Things (IoT) scope, the company was keen to show off its Cisco IoT Operations Dashboard, which gives organizations real-time insight into the equipment, no matter where it is located. 

Also falling under scrutiny are Webex services such as meetings, video conferencing calls and meetings, which will now provide insights to Webex Control Hub, allowing users to estimate their emissions and examine monthly trends on energy consumption.

The company also appointed Mary de Wysocki as its first chief sustainability officer last year, and she was keen to highlight the work Cisco is doing.

“One of the fascinating areas going forward will be how we think about incorporating sustainable decisions deeper into our business,” she said. “I do think that as we show up into the community, we can have a positive impact as we think about the right technologies, policies, and practices.”

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Death Stranding Is Coming to Mac This Year, Hideo Kojima Says at WWDC - CNET

MacOS Sonoma is also getting a new game mode.

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Without any sort of formal announcement or tease, OnePlus recently revealed its next mid-range device for the US: the Nord N30 5G, a direct successor to the Nord N20 5G.

Although the new model still runs on a Snapdragon 695 chipset, the Nord N30 5G introduces a variety of hardware upgrades. The processing unit is paired up with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB of onboard storage. It runs on the company’s proprietary OxygenOS software which, itself, is “based on Android 13”. 

On the front is a 6.72-inch (about 170 millimeters) LCD display with Full HD Plus resolution (2400 x 1080 pixels) and a 120Hz refresh rate. Additionally, there’s a punch hole at the top center of the screen for the 16MP (megapixel) selfie lens.

Slight differences

Looking in the back, you’ll find the three-camera system led by a 108MP lens with f/1.7 aperture, backed up by a two-megapixel depth lens and a two-megapixel macro lens. Users will be able to shoot videos up to 1080p resolution (1920x1080 pixels) at 30 FPS. It is good to see the rear camera system getting an upgrade. If you read our review of the Nord N20 5G, you’ll find that while we liked the phone, the camera left a lot to be desired.

Other notable features include a 5000mAh battery supporting 50W SuperVOOC for fast charging, a fingerprint scanner on the side, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The last entry may not seem like a big deal, but with so many smartphones nowadays eschewing a physical audio jack, we thought it was worth pointing out.

Availability

If any of this rings a bell, that's because the Nord N30 5G is nearly identical to the Nord CE 3 Lite with a few differences.  

For example, the Nord CE 3 Lite comes with noise cancellation whereas the Nord N30 doesn’t. The battery on the Nord CE 3 Lite supports 67W SuperVOOC meaning its fast charging capabilities are a bit better. The Nord N30, however, does come with a few extra features not present on its cousin such as Screen Flash for better-illuminated selfies and Face Unlock allowing facial recognition on the device.

You can pre-order the Nord N30 5G right now for $299 – the exact same price point as the N20 5G – on OnePlus’ website. It will only be available in one color: Chromatic Gray. No word if there will ever be a Pastel Lime green like with Nord CE 3 Lite. We reached out to OnePlus asking if there are plans to increase the color options and for clarification on software patches. Another online report states the Nord N30 5G will get just “one major Android update.” 

This story will be updated at a later time.

• TechRadar's best OnePlus phones of 2023: all the best premium and bargain OnePlus Androids

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Siri, it’s not a Chatbot, it’ll never be a chatbot. I’m not sure Apple cares if it’s ever a viable competitor to ChatGPT. It’s not that Apple doesn’t care about AI – far from it. However, the Cupertino tech giant made it crystal clear during its WWDC 2023 keynote that the pursuit of generative AI domination is a distant priority behind platforms like iOS 17, macOS Sonoma, Apple Silicon, and, of course, Vision Pro and spatial computing. 

I sat in the audience on Monday (June 5) waiting for Apple CEO Tim Cook to make a pronouncement about AI's position in the pantheon of Apple technologies. It never came. So while Google and Microsoft made AI the centerpiece of their respective developers' conferences, AI was, in some ways, noticeable for its absence here. If Apple didn't want to focus WWDC on AI, surely, I thought, at least Siri will get the significant update we've been clamoring for.

It did not.

RIP "Hey" #WWDC23 pic.twitter.com/pVRhYeaHzdJune 5, 2023

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Am I disappointed that the only Siri update of note is the ability to finally drop the rude wake-word expression before its name? Since my grandmother always told me "Hey was for horses," I'm happy to bid farewell to "Hey Siri," and use iOS 17's more succinct "Siri."

I'm not so naive to think that Apple's failure to stuff its WWDC keynote with references to AI is an indication that Apple doesn't care about or use it. In fact, Apple employs AI throughout its product line. It lives, for instance, at the core of every iPhone, in the onboard Neural network inside its powerful A16 Bionic CPU.

Still in the Grand Prix race that is generative AI, Apple is, it would seem, idling at the starting line.

AI the Apple way

At least, that's one way to look at it. I'd venture that Apple sees it very differently. Siri isn't on a path to becoming another ChatGPT, Google Bard, or Bing AI. For Apple, Siri isn't the only path to, if not AI dominance, then at least AI prominence.

Throughout the keynote, Apple made multiple references to "Transformers Models" and Machine Learning. These are models built from on-board deep learning, but, despite helping with word prediction, in the case of Autocorrect in iOS 17, it is not generative AI. It's not a flashy update, but it does mean that Autocorrect might stop getting in the way of your words and sometimes salty language.

What's interesting about Autocorrect's predictive model is that it's based in part on the very same models that led to the development of ChatGPT. I'm not sure where things branched off, but it's not based on GPT-4 or even the more widely used GPT-3.

The new Live Voicemail, which types out voice messages as they're being spoken, is the work, again, of Apple's Neural Engine, which, of course, is designed to quickly carry out machine learning and artificial intelligence functions.

Similarly, the recently unveiled Personal Voice, which allows the iOS system to recreate your voice (intended for use by people in danger of speech loss) uses the on-device Neural Net to do its work.

Not flashy but useful AI, and, above all, by Apple's measure, more secure and private.

We have seen this Apple Privacy Lock multiple times during the #WWDC23 keynote pic.twitter.com/UtOKDBQkUJJune 5, 2023

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If Apple is consistent on one thing, it's putting user privacy above almost all other imperatives.

Appel didn't repeat "AI" throughout its WWDC keynote but there was a different repeated term and associated iconography: the Apple Privacy Lock logo (it looks like an apple refashioned into a sort of Yale Lock). If you were looking for a keynote drinking game, that was it. I even tweeted about how often I saw that logo throughout the keynote.

If there was any question about just how far Apple would take its privacy principles, and if it would ever sideline them in pursuit of the AI ChatBot crown, I think we have our answer.

Siri is not Apple's chatbot, but AI is still a big part of Apple's strategic product plan and the future of all Apple products and services.

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