Table of contents for June 2023 in Tech Advisor

Presence detection is a broad term that means your gadget can tell when you’re using it, and in some cases, even whether or not you’re paying attention. It’s a useful tool – for example, Windows Hello webcams use simple face scanning to replace login passwords – but it also has some privacy issues associated with it. To help address them, Microsoft is exposing a ‘Presence sensing’ setting in the latest beta version of Windows 11. Bleeping Computer reports (fave.co/41C99SC) that the setting has appeared in the Privacy & Security menu of Windows 11 version 22624.1610, now available in the Beta channel to Insider testers (1.). The toggle only applies to Windows and apps that call directly on the HumanPresenceSensor series of APIs. That means that third-party tools using a proprietary…

Attackers have been exploiting a new major flaw in Chrome – the kind that can be used to run malicious code on a compromised device. Revealed last month alongside the release of an emergency fix, the vulnerability requires a patch that should be now available to most users of Chrome and other Chromium browsers (like Edge). This vulnerability is being exploited in the wild so you’ll want to update Chrome pronto. If the update has already been pushed to your copy of Chrome, you should see a small notification in the upper right of your window (as will Edge users). Click on the button to apply the patch and restart the browser. Otherwise, follow these instructions to manually verify your browser version number and apply the patch: Chrome: Click on…

Over the past few months, AI chatbots have exploded in popularity off the surging success of OpenAI’s revolutionary ChatGPT – which, amazingly, only burst onto the scene around December. But when Microsoft seized the opportunity to hitch its wagon to OpenAI’s rising star for a steep $10 billion dollars, it chose to do so by introducing a GPT-4-powered chatbot under the guise of Bing, its swell-but-also-ran search engine, in a bid to upend Google’s search dominance. Google quickly followed suit with its own homegrown Bard AI. Both are touted as experiments. And these ‘AI chatbots’ are truly wondrous advancements – I’ve spent many nights with my kids joyously creating fantastic stuff-of-your-dreams artwork with Bing Chat’s Dall-E integration and prompting sick raps about wizards who think lizards are the source of…

Last month, Microsoft revealed that the Print Screen key’s function would be changing in Windows 11. This venerable artifact on modern keyboards will eventually open Windows 11’s Snipping tool by default, rather than taking a screenshot of your whole screen. This change won’t be the first time Print Screen has changed in utility. Nor are you stuck with this new update when it launches – you can toggle it back to the existing functionality. But reading this news made think about two things – one, the legacy of Print Screen (now often shortened to Prt Scr on keyboards). I remember the days of when hitting that key meant it would actually print what was on your screen to a piece of paper. And two, how much I hate it when…

As careers go, I have little to complain about. But I have to confess – there are parts of the job I like less than others. And Windows 11 is one of those things. I don’t think it’s a bad operating system. That (dis) honour goes to Windows ME, with Vista as runner up. (Serving as tech support for my parents’ PC with Windows ME ranks among my least favourite periods of my life.) But even after a year and a half since Windows 11’s launch, I still find myself longing for Windows 10 whenever I make myself use Windows 11. What makes Microsoft’s latest operating system a thing I tolerate between the weekday hours of 9am to 5pm? It’s the collection of multiple low‑grade annoyances I can’t easily evade.…

If you didn’t already believe that weak passwords could be cracked easily, artificial intelligence is here to prove the point definitively. An AI-driven tool cracked over half the passwords fed to it in under a minute – and 65 percent in under an hour. The experiment, which was run by cybersecurity firm Home Security Heroes, involved PassGAN, a new kind of password cracker. Unlike typical password cracking tools, which lean on fixed data sets, PassGAN is driven by two neural networks: one taught to generate passwords, and the other taught to distinguish between the first’s ‘fake’ passwords and passwords taken from real data breaches. As it’s trained, this kind of generative adaptive network learns to offer more sophisticated password predictions, allowing for faster and widespread cracking. For Home Security Heroes’…

ChatGPT, a powerful language model chatbot developed by OpenAI, has revolutionized the way we interact with artificial intelligence. With its advanced natural language processing capabilities, ChatGPT can help you with a wide range of tasks, from answering trivia questions to composing poetry. Here are 10 wonderfully fun, practical ways to put ChatGPT to work. 1. CREATE FUN RECIPES One interesting thing ChatGPT can do is generate recipes based on user preferences, ingredients, or specific dietary requirements. Give it a starting point by providing certain information about the desired dish, such as the type of cuisine, the main ingredients you want to use, or any dietary restrictions you may have. ChatGPT will then provide a recipe with step-by-step instructions, ingredient quantities, and cooking tips. I asked ChatGPT to create a whiskey-based…

By now you probably know that your web activity is tracked at pretty much every step. Things like your IP address, a number associated with your connection to your Internet service provider, and cookies, tiny files collected by your web browser, can identify you to websites, advertisers, and anyone who’s interested enough in your data to pay for it. But there are far more complex methods of tracking users on the open Internet – ways that can get past even blocked cookies or an IP address masked with a VPN. This collection of varied data to groups of users, and sometimes even a single user, is called a digital fingerprint. With a wide enough net cast to collect data through information gathered via websites and advertising, it’s possible to get…

If you spend hours a day staring at a computer screen, there’s a high possibility you may suffer from tension headaches and eye strain. While there are a few solutions available for purchase like screen films, Windows 11 has a built-in feature to block blue light without paying for anything extra. All you have to do is just make a few simple tweaks in your settings. HOW TO ENABLE THE NIGHT LIGHT SETTING To get to your settings, click the Windows icon on your taskbar and select the gear icon labelled Settings (1.). This will open your system settings menu. To access the Night Light settings, select Display (2.). If you’d like to block the blue light all the time, click the slider to switch the Night Light setting to…

Bouncing between apps and programs can become a time suck – a problem that Microsoft Edge’s newest features want to nip in the bud. Splashiest among them is the integration of Microsoft’s Dall-E powered Bing Image Creator, which lets you generate custom AI art right within the browser. Available for desktop users, Bing Image Creator generates four images for download in response to a prompt; for example, “smartphone with a thick case but broken screen”. For users who’ve had the feature roll out to them, you’ll need to first add it to Edge’s sidebar, or the strip of icons running along the right side of a browser tab or window. Afterward, getting started is merely a single click in the sidebar. But the new Drop and image editing tools are…

AI art generators have moved from novelty to niche to even commodity in just months, with numerous services promising the ability to create generative AI art instantly using natural-language text prompts. The very best AI art services offer superb imagery and superior tools, either for free or for a low price. Why use AI art? Many of us can appreciate a great painting, photograph, or drawing, without the ability to draw it ourselves. We may also be able to describe what we want to see, and that’s where AI art comes in. Instead of searching for a piece of art that matches that description, the service actually generates it, matching what it knows of the scenes depicted in its image database and comparing them to the scene and style you…

While Windows 11 provides a fine enough out of the box experience – terrible new task bar aside – it handles so much better after tweaking just a handful of settings to make it feel more like the Windows of old. No, I’m not talking about making Windows 11 look like Windows 10 through an extensive overhaul (though if you’re a Windows veteran that’s worth doing). I’m talking about fast, simple changes that improve the feel of the operating system, turn off annoying ads, reduce the data you send to Microsoft, and more. Better yet, you can do them all in under five minutes – something I did mere weeks ago when I needed to pick up a Windows 11 laptop for some travel. Here are six Windows 11 settings…

Battery life is an often vague and nebulous concept. In theory, it can be represented by a single number but, in practice, literally hundreds of factors can shorten or lengthen endurance. That’s frustrating if you’re trying to gauge the battery life and health of your notebook, especially if you’re trying to determine if it’s time to buy a new laptop. Windows has a secret feature called Battery Report that can help. It’s what we use while testing notebook endurance – and it’s how you can tell if your laptop’s battery life is dropping faster than you think. Here’s how to access Battery Report and understand what it reveals you about your laptop. HOW TO CREATE A BATTERY REPORT Battery Report is not a new feature, but it remains under-the-radar because…