Indice dei contenuti per August 2024 in Tech Advisor

One of the reasons for consumers to buy into Microsoft’s Copilot Pro, Custom GPT Builder, is quietly being killed off. Microsoft said that GPT Builder is being retired, and if you have bought into it, you’ll have to remove all of your data by 14 July. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t consider the ability to build GPT models a consumer priority, the company wrote in a support document (fave.co/4euP7R4). Microsoft Copilot is a ‘neutral’, Microsoft-specific version of Copilot. In essence, it’s the same experience for all users. You can think of GPT Builder as a way to personalize Copilot in much the same way that you can personalize your PC: GPT Builder allowed you to train a custom Copilot on your own data, with your own style. In a way, it’s what…

According to a recently released study by Top10VPN (fave.co/4cm0b18), nearly all popular free VPNs through the Google Play store have potential privacy issues. Almost 90 percent suffer from data leaks, over two-thirds share your personal data with third parties, and almost one fifth of the VPNs tested were flagged as suspected malware by antivirus scanners. These are just some of the alarming findings uncovered by the report which analysed the source codes and network traffic for the 100 most popular free Android VPNs on Google’s Play store. In his exhaustive study, Simon Migliano, head of research at Top10VPN, spent months researching and compiling data on the security and privacy flaws of these apps. A VPN works by shielding your IP address and obscuring your browsing activity from view by outside…

Modern laptop designs are a far cry from their predecessors, but only because it’s been a long, iterative process with many major milestones along the way. The first laptop, the first thin-and-light design, the first 2-in-1 laptop, the first business laptop – they all made their marks on the industry and helped bring us to where we are today. Let’s take a look back at some of the most important, innovative, and iconic laptops in history and how they got us to our current state of high speeds, high connectivity, and incredible battery life. 1. 1981: OSBORNE 1 There’s some debate as to what constitutes the ‘first laptop’ or ‘first portable computer’, but for many it’s the Osborne 1. Sure, it required a mains power connection and lacked an internal…

Microsoft has made a big push for its ‘Copilot+’ program, enhancing Windows with new AI powers enabled by the latest processors and NPUs. But one of the headline features, Recall, immediately raised privacy concerns as it demonstrated an ability to essentially record every single action of the user. Microsoft has backed down on its initial claims and introduced new details in the hopes of making users more comfortable. First, Microsoft’s blog post on the subject (fave.co/4bgMgZy) reiterates that even on the Windows 11 hardware that’s capable of Copilot+ features, Recall will be entirely optional with the capability to be turned off. Snapshots – screenshots of everything done on the PC – are allegedly stored and encrypted on the local drive, never uploaded to the cloud. But in response to a…

What’s the first thing you think of when you read the words ‘web search’? According to market share data, nine out of ten of you would say “Google”, or at least that’s the web search of choice worldwide by a startling 90 percent. Google just rolled out a ‘Web’ search option along with its usual Images, News, Shopping, Maps, and so on tabs. It might just be a big deal. But wait, isn’t ‘web search’ what you’re supposed to get with a standard Google query, without any need to click on a secondary tab? Yes and no. Google’s official SearchLiason Twitter account explains (fave.co/4esQuzJ) that the Web tab filters results so that only text-based results will be returned, stripping out images, videos, shopping products, maps, and all the other allegedly…

When buying a tablet, which operating system it runs will probably be your first choice. And while there are a few Windows 11 tablets, it’s probably a straight fight between iPadOS and Android. Traditionally, Android tablets have been seen as inferior to the iPad and its wide range of dedicated apps. And while truly optimized software is still an issue on Android, the situation is much better than it once was. If you own an Android phone, there’s really no reason not to pair it with an Android tablet in 2024. This article proves it, with 10 great tablets that we’ve tested and can actually recommend. Samsung devices are the obvious choice, but you’ll also find slates here from the likes of Google, Xiaomi, OnePlus and Lenovo. Oppo, Nokia and…

Walk into an electronics store and you’ll find it almost impossible to find a TV that isn’t sporting a 4K display. While the TV market will practically beat you over the head with its 4K marketing, the laptop industry has been slower to adopt 4K displays, with a good many laptops – including high-end models – sticking to lower resolutions. But if 4K is so good for TVs, it stands to reason that it should be great for laptop displays too, right? Let’s dig in and explore what benefit a 4K display might provide on a laptop and what realities might keep it from being the wisest choice. HOW SHARP IS SHARP ENOUGH? The human eye can see a lot of detail, and it’s no fun looking at a display…

Windows 10 had a feature called Jump Lists that allowed you to open recently used files directly from the Windows Start menu. For whatever reason, this time-saving shortcut was removed in Windows 11, but apparently Microsoft wants to correct that. According to a Microsoft blog entry (fave.co/3XM2R4n), the test version ‘Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.3785’ (also known as KB5039319) will have new features for Windows 11 version 23H2, including: When you right-click on applications that are pinned to the Start menu, you’ll see jump lists for applications that have them, such as PowerPoint. Windows 11 will show you files in the Start menu that you last opened with certain applications. The prerequisite for this is that the application (for example, PowerPoint) needs to support Jump Lists. HOW TO TEST…

This year’s Computex was one of the most monumental in ages. Funnily enough, that made it feel both insanely packed and curiously quiet on the PC front. Qualcomm’s imminent entry into the premium PC space with Snapdragon X Elite-powered Copilot+ laptops cast a shadow over Computex after being announced in late May, with a wide array of top PC makers already on board for a 18 June launch. AMD and Intel’s keynotes focused heavily on their AI-infused laptop chips in response, but those aren’t launching until July and this autumn, respectively. So, we heard a lot about the chips underpinning the next generation of laptops, but little about the laptops they’ll actually be in, with a few exceptions. On the desktop, Nvidia focused on AI, but AMD rolled out its…

To date, PC vendors have shipped AI PCs. Microsoft has now announced the next step in the AI PC’s evolution, the Copilot+ PC, and announced AI-powered Windows 11 features like Recall. “The pursuit has always been about how to build computers that understand us, instead of having us having to understand computers, and I feel like we really are close to that breakthrough,” said Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, in a briefing with reporters on Microsoft’s campus. A Copilot+ PC combines local, on-device AI with cloud AI, according to Microsoft, to provide a range of services. Some of the new laptops shipping with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus processors will be classified as Copilot+ PCs, taking advantage of the NPU found within both chips. That NPU will…