Tech Advisor

Live commands, 2FA copying and content-aware brightness settings: Microsoft may be releasing these features for a Windows 11 test build, but they should soon arrive on your PC. It recently released Windows 11 Build 22621.1776 (KB5026446) to the Windows Insider Release Channel. That’s a signal that, unlike many of Microsoft’s test features, the changes that the new build brings about will actually land on your PC before long. The firm has said that it will release bundles of new features in ‘moments’ in between official major feature releases, and this looks like it could be the next one. We’ve seen many of these new features crop up in earlier test builds, but they’re worth recapping here. And there are a ton. Here are some of the highlights of the new…

The heyday of mobile devices with built-in keyboards is long past, eclipsed by bigger and bigger touchscreens that are now flipping and folding. But if your heart still burns for BlackBerry, the smartphone for anyone who sent more emails than text messages before the iPhone came along, there’s a new DIY project you might want to check out. It’s called the Beepberry, and though it isn’t actually reviving the form factor, it’s trying to give your thumbs the sweet, sweet feel of a tiny phone keyboard. The Beepberry (fave.co/41WwjmA) is a custom PCB with a tiny 2.7-inch black and white LCD screen, a Raspberry Pi Zero W ’round back covering the basic OS and wireless duties, a battery and what looks like a genuine BlackBerry keyboard, including the company logo…

Farewell, simple CPUs. AMD is moving toward a future where generic CPU cores will be replaced with performance cores, efficiency cores and accelerators, much like Intel. Tom’s Hardware (fave.co/3q5CIOQ) cornered AMD chief technical officer Mark Papermaster at a Belgium supercomputing conference, where Papermaster agreed to answer questions on a number of subjects. But it was Papermaster’s admission that AMD is moving to a hybrid architecture that most piqued our interest. “What you’ll also see is more variations of the cores themselves, you’ll see high-performance cores mixed with power-efficient cores mixed with acceleration,” Papermaster replied to a question from Tom’s deputy managing editor Paul Alcorn. “So where, Paul, we’re moving to now is not just variations in core density, but variations in the type of core, and how you configure the…

Microsoft said that it’s rolling out more visual features to its Bing Chat AI chatbot, including mobile, where Microsoft’s AI vision is now becoming more cohesive. It’s a quiet effort to essentially phase out the traditional search box and make search more conversational. In many ways, the evolution of AI has been like the evolution of the Internet: largely text-based, with later additions of graphics and then video. So, too, is Bing: Microsoft originally planned to add visual cards, ads and graphics, but scaled them down after launch – possibly because users didn’t like them. Microsoft also took a similar approach with the more creative elements of its Bing chatbot: it leaned strongly into the creative elements at launch, dialled them down significantly after long, weird conversations, than slowly turned…

Your dormant Gmail accounts could get wiped later this year if you haven’t logged in for a while – or interacted with any other of Google’s services while logged in. A new update to Google’s policy on inactive personal accounts now puts them on the chopping block after two years, a move the firm says is for better security. According to a blog post (fave.co/43filNy), Google reserves the right to delete the entirety of the fallow account, including your Gmail, Drive, YouTube and Photos content. The purges will begin in December 2023, with ample notice to be provided in advance. Users will receive multiple email notifications to their Gmail address as well as the recovery email address on file (if one exists). Deletions will also happen in waves. The first…

Samsung has had almost no competition for its Galaxy Z Fold phones in the West even though that line is now into its fourth iteration. Thankfully Google is here to rectify that, finally entering the fray with its first ever foldable: the aptly named Pixel Fold. A big screen, book-style foldable, the Pixel Fold has been built to be slim and lightweight. Google is also promising that its unique software position makes the Pixel Fold the best option around for apps optimized to use the larger display format. RELEASE DATE At the time of writing, you can pre-order the Fold now from Google’s online store (fave.co/3MdzYGS). The phone won’t actually ship until June, so there’s not long to wait before you can get your hands on one. PRICE While there…