Software
Latest Andru Edwards Videos
Windows Search Is Becoming a Chatbot, a Year After Microsoft Promised Less Copilot
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Microsoft, Software, Artificial Intelligence,
Type a file name into Windows search and you get web results. Type an app name and you wait. Microsoft knows, and the fix it showed today is to turn the Search Menu into something you talk to.
Pavan Davuluri, Microsoft's executive vice president of Windows and Devices, demoed the rebuilt Search Menu on stage in San Francisco. It's a chatbot-style box that takes short typed commands and then does things: toggling settings, pulling up apps and files, or holding a conversation with the Copilot app without you opening Copilot at all. It arrives this fall.
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GPT-6 Reaches Every ChatGPT Tier This Week. It Can Answer You With a Bill Splitter.
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Announcements, Software, Artificial Intelligence,
Ask ChatGPT to split a dinner bill four ways and you get a paragraph of arithmetic back. Starting this week it can hand you a bill splitter instead, a small tool with fields you type into, sitting inside the conversation.
That capability is called Intelligent UI, and OpenAI announced it on Wednesday alongside the rollout of GPT-6 to every ChatGPT tier. GPT-6 Sol starts reaching Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise accounts on October 7 in the Chat tab, with GPT-6 Luna arriving for Free and Go users on the 8th. Paid customers got the first GPT-6 models last month. This is everyone else's turn.
On Friday, Free Gemini Is Just Flash-Lite. Paying $4.99 Still Won’t Get You Pro.
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Google, Software, Artificial Intelligence,
Three days from now, the free version of Gemini runs exactly one model. Google's own support page has the table: starting October 9, accounts without a paid plan get Flash-Lite, and that is the whole list. Flash and Pro move behind a subscription.
A cheap subscription does not fix it either. Google AI Plus, at $4.99 a month, picks up Flash and still does not get Pro. The only way to keep Pro is Google AI Pro at $19.99.
Nintendo’s Two New Free Switch Apps Are for Toddlers, and a Wooden Block Calls Up the Character
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Software, Toys, Video Games,
Nintendo put out two new Switch releases this week that cost nothing, run with the Wi-Fi off, and are built for someone who cannot read the title screen. Hello, Peach! and Hello, Luigi! are on the eShop now, free on Switch and Switch 2, and here is the complete list of things to do in them: poke a cartoon face, stretch it, spin it, and play peekaboo.
There is no score, no levels and nothing to unlock, and both run single player in handheld mode only. Nintendo's store pages file them under the genres "Action" and "Simulation," which is funny until you picture a toddler dragging Luigi's nose across the screen and decide the tag is doing its best.
Google’s Pixel Watch Can Now Estimate Your Blood Pressure
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Wearables, Google, Software,
Google's Health Guardian tools start rolling out to the Google Health app this week, which means your Pixel Watch is about to start estimating your blood pressure. It reads your pulse and your motion all month, with no cuff and no calibration, and then tells you whether your numbers have been drifting higher. The first reports land in early October.
That word "estimating" is carrying a lot of weight. Blood pressure trends, insulin resistance trends and sleep breathing quality are all free on the Pixel Watch 3, 4 and 5. Google's own fine print calls all three general wellness features, says they cannot diagnose anything, and says they are not a replacement for the cuff in your bathroom drawer.
Click to continue reading Google’s Pixel Watch Can Now Estimate Your Blood Pressure
YouTube Studio Will Soon Test Three Cuts of Your Video to Find the Best Hook
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Google, Software,
Every creator has an intro they aren't sure about. You cut the cold open, put it back, trim four seconds, and publish whichever version was on screen when you ran out of patience. YouTube Studio is about to let your audience make that call.
The biggest Studio news from Made on YouTube today is video A/B testing, which lets you run up to three cuts of the same video to see which hook performs best. YouTube says it's coming soon. It arrives with a batch of AI additions to Studio: feedback on early drafts, thumbnails generated to match your channel, and thumbnails that change depending on who's looking.
Meta Muse Can Now Run Your Mac and Shop at Walmart, and Meta Takes a Cut of What It Buys
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Software, Artificial Intelligence,
Mark Zuckerberg opened tonight's Meta Connect keynote with software you can't wear. Before any glasses or headsets, he and Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang spent the first stretch of the show on Muse, the personal AI agent Meta launched on September 8. Muse can now operate any app on your Mac, it works with Box and GitHub, it can shop at Walmart, Best Buy, Sephora and a long list of other stores, it's getting its own email address, and you can rename it and change how it looks and sounds.
Zuckerberg also explained how Meta gets paid. Muse is free, with a large allowance of tokens, and over time Meta expects to make money by taking a small fee on the transactions Muse handles. Meta makes money on Muse when Muse spends your money.
Apple Intelligence Now Wants 14GB Free, and 256GB iPhone Owners Pay for It
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Software, Artificial Intelligence,
Before you update to iOS 27 and switch on the new Siri, check your free space. Apple now asks for up to 14GB of it on its newest high-end iPhones. The old number was 8GB.
Per Apple's support document, the 14GB tier covers iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max and iPhone Air. Every other Apple Intelligence phone, from the iPhone 15 Pro up through the standard iPhone 17, still needs up to 8GB, and Apple Watch needs up to 1.5GB. iPhone Air starts at 256GB and so does iPhone 18 Pro, so the bigger bill lands on the people who already paid the most.
Click to continue reading Apple Intelligence Now Wants 14GB Free, and 256GB iPhone Owners Pay for It
Google’s CC Is a Family AI With Its Own Google Account. Six People Choose What It Sees.
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Google, Software, Artificial Intelligence,
There is a new Google account in some households this week, and it does not belong to anyone who lives there. Google Labs has relaunched CC as an AI agent for families and groups, and it runs on its own Google account. Up to six people connect to that account and decide, one at a time, what it gets to see.
Google says the separate account gives CC "a distinct identity and clear permissions model," which is a polite way of saying the company knows a shared agent with a line into six inboxes is a harder sell than a personal one. What you get in return is one place where the household calendar, the task list and the school emails all land. Each morning CC sends a brief it calls "Your Day Ahead": who needs to be where, what needs to be done.
Meta’s Muse AI Agent Will Book the Flight and Haggle the Bill (Invite Codes!)
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Internet, Software, Artificial Intelligence,
You know the part of a chatbot conversation where it hands you a tidy plan and then you go do all the work yourself? Meta's new Muse is built to skip that part. It's a personal AI agent, a separate product from the Meta AI app, and its pitch is that it goes and does the thing: sends the email, books the trip, fills out the form, negotiates the bill.
It launched September 8 in the US on iOS, Android. You can sign up at muse.ai/join or in the app. You need a Meta account, not a Facebook or Instagram login, and on the web you sign in with your phone number.
Once you're in, open Settings and enter CC2P24 as your invite code. Do that within 48 hours of creating the account, and you get 1 billion free tokens.