Topic: User Control
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Microsoft Launches Copilot Health: AI for Medical Professionals
Microsoft has launched Copilot Health, an AI-powered platform that centralizes personal health data from wearables, medical records, and labs, starting with a U.S. rollout. The service analyzes linked data to provide insights and help prepare for doctor visits, but emphasizes user data control an...
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Microsoft Copilot Health: Connect Your Medical Records & Wearables
Microsoft has launched Copilot Health, a secure AI environment for managing personal wellness data, including lab reports, medical records, and fitness tracker integration, though it is explicitly not a diagnostic tool. The service emphasizes privacy with segregated chats and strict controls, and...
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Grammarly Ends Unauthorized AI Cloning of Experts
Grammarly disabled its "Expert Review" AI feature that mimicked public figures' writing styles without consent, following criticism from the experts it emulated. The company apologized and plans to reimagine the feature, prioritizing expert control and making future participation opt-in. Grammarl...
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Google Photos Adds Quick Toggle Between AI and Classic Search
Google Photos is introducing a dedicated toggle to instantly switch between its AI-powered "Ask Photos" search and the traditional keyword-based search, responding directly to user requests for flexibility. This update follows user feedback and earlier refinements, as the company improves result ...
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Top Competitor Analysis Tools for Marketing Teams in 2026
Effective competitor analysis is essential for identifying market gaps, benchmarking performance, and anticipating industry shifts using concrete data. Specialized tools like SEMrush for search marketing, Rival IQ for social media, and Ahrefs for SEO provide targeted intelligence to dissect compe...
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Extend Your MacBook's Battery Life: Stop at 80%
To preserve MacBook battery health, avoid keeping it at 100% charge for long periods, as limiting charge to around 80% can slow chemical aging and reduce wear. Apple's built-in battery optimization learns your routine to minimize time at full charge, but it may be less reliable with an irregular ...
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Google's Android Openness at Risk with Developer Verification
Google's new developer verification policy is seen as a threat to Android's open ecosystem, acting as a gatekeeper for software installation despite developer opposition. Independent developers may abandon Android for alternatives like progressive web apps, while users seeking full control face t...
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Gemini Automates Multi-Step Tasks on Android
Google has upgraded its Gemini AI on Android to automate multi-step tasks like ordering rides or food, though this beta feature is currently limited to select apps and regions. The automation includes safeguards like requiring user commands and running in a secure, isolated environment to protect...
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Alexa+ Gets AI-Powered Personality Upgrades
Amazon has introduced three customizable personality styles—Brief, Chill, and Sweet—for its Alexa+ assistant, allowing users to tailor the AI's tone and response patterns for more personalized interactions. While user demand for AI customization is high, there are concerns about potential risks, ...
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Perplexity's Computer: A Safer Alternative to OpenClaw?
Perplexity's Computer is a multiagent AI system that acts as a safer, controlled alternative to autonomous agents, using specialized models to reason, delegate, and execute tasks within a protected sandbox environment. It functions as a project manager, breaking down user requests into subtasks a...
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Gemini's First Agentic Capabilities Arrive
Google's Gemini AI is evolving from a chatbot into a proactive assistant capable of automating real-world tasks like booking rides or ordering food, starting on select devices like the Pixel 10 and Samsung Galaxy S26 series. This represents a strategic shift for Google, aiming to transform Androi...
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Customize Alexa's Personality: Friendly, Blunt, or Chilled Out
Amazon has introduced three distinct personality presets—Brief, Chill, and Sweet—for Alexa, allowing users to customize its conversational tone to match their style. The Brief setting provides direct, concise responses; Chill offers a relaxed, easygoing vibe; and Sweet delivers enthusiastic suppo...
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Disable Google AI Overviews in Your Search Results
A simple keyboard shortcut, adding "--ai" to a desktop search query, can temporarily bypass Google's AI Overviews to restore a more traditional, link-based results page. Google has deeply integrated AI Overviews as a core feature, stating users find them helpful, though the feature has faced crit...
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Gemini Can Now Create Music for You
Google's Lyria 3 AI model allows users to generate 30-second songs with AI lyrics directly in Gemini using simple text, photo, or video prompts. The updated model offers greater user control over musical style and introduces automatic lyric generation, while Google emphasizes copyright safeguards...
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Ring's Search Party backlash: Big questions remain unanswered
Ring's founder is defending the company amid controversy, but the core issue is its expanding AI-powered camera network raising privacy and surveillance concerns beyond marketing. The company's Community Requests feature facilitates direct video sharing with police, placing it at the center of de...
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OpenAI Tests Ads in Free ChatGPT and Plus Versions
OpenAI is testing contextual ads in ChatGPT for select free and Go users in the U.S., while excluding all paid subscription tiers and conversations on sensitive topics like health or politics. The ads are targeted based on conversation topics and user history, but advertisers do not access person...
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I Tested Google's AI Auto-Browse in Chrome. It Was a Letdown.
Google's new AI-powered Auto Browse feature in Chrome, currently available to US subscribers of premium Gemini plans, is a clunky and unreliable prototype that struggles with basic tasks like navigating websites and completing multi-step processes. The tool frequently misinterprets instructions, ...
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Android's Theft Protection Gets Major Security Upgrades
Google is enhancing theft protection for Android 16+ with new features like a user-controlled toggle for the Failed Authentication Lock, which automatically secures the device after multiple login failures. The Identity Check system now applies biometric verification to all apps using the Android...
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Google Photos: Transform Images into Video with AI
Google Photos is adding a text prompt feature to its AI video tool, allowing users to directly specify motion, style, or effects for animations. The new feature is currently limited to users 18+ in the app, bringing it more in line with competing AI editing platforms. Videos now include audio by ...
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Microsoft Enables Federal Access to BitLocker Encryption
Microsoft can provide BitLocker recovery keys to law enforcement when users store them in the company's cloud, as demonstrated in a 2024 fraud case, highlighting a trade-off between convenience and user control. The system's default setup encourages key backup to Microsoft servers for easy recove...
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YouTube TV to Add Custom Multiview and Channel Bundles
YouTube TV is introducing a fully customizable multiview feature, allowing users to watch multiple live streams of their own choosing simultaneously, such as a sports game alongside an unrelated entertainment show. The service will also launch new, topic-focused channel bundles, like a dedicated ...
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Windows 11 Home vs. Pro: Which Should You Upgrade To?
Windows 11 Home is a cost-effective, streamlined version ideal for everyday tasks like browsing, media, and gaming, offering robust security and free updates. Windows 11 Pro provides advanced features for power users and businesses, including Group Policy Editor, BitLocker encryption, and full Re...
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ChatGPT Is Getting Ads: Here's How They'll Work
OpenAI will introduce non-intrusive, clearly marked advertisements to ChatGPT's free and lower-tier plans, ensuring ads do not influence the chatbot's core responses. The ads will be matched to conversation topics with strong privacy safeguards; user data and conversations will not be sold to adv...
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Google Veo Transforms Photos Into Vertical AI Videos
Google's Veo AI update enhances the "Ingredients to Video" tool for greater creative control, allowing more accurate interpretation of reference images for consistent characters and richer narratives. The model now natively supports vertical video output (9:16 aspect ratio), streamlining the crea...
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Gmail's New AI Inbox: Powered by Gemini, Not Your Data
Google is launching an AI Inbox feature for Gmail, powered by Gemini, to help users manage email volume by providing a prioritized view, with assurances that personal email content will not be used to train its AI models. The update includes AI Overviews that automatically generate concise summar...
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Google's AI Is Reshaping Your Gmail Inbox
Google is launching a new AI Inbox feature for Gmail that uses artificial intelligence to generate personalized to-dos and summaries from emails, aiming to transform the inbox into an active assistant. The feature is initially available to a select group of U.S. testers on personal web accounts, ...
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Nvidia G-Sync Monitors Now Auto-Adjust Brightness Like Laptops
Nvidia's new G-Sync Pulsar monitors feature ambient light sensors to automatically adjust brightness and color temperature, reducing eye strain by adapting to room conditions. The first models, launching January 7th from brands like Acer and Asus, are 27-inch, 1440p gaming displays with a 360Hz r...
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Alexa's 'Teenage Girl' Voice Is Terrifying Users
Amazon's Alexa+ update automatically installed a new, overly enthusiastic "teenage girl" voice without user consent, sparking widespread user complaints. The AI has become excessively chatty and intrusive, offering unsolicited commentary and misinterpreting casual conversation as commands, which ...
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Free Up iPhone Storage: Check System Data Now
The "System Data" category in iPhone storage, which includes temporary caches and logs, can unpredictably consume large amounts of space but is automatically managed by iOS to free up capacity as needed. There is no official manual method to delete System Data; users must rely on iOS's automatic ...
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Firefox Dev Addresses AI Killswitch, Vows to Rebuild Trust
A Firefox developer's pledge for an AI "kill switch" to make features opt-in is met with deep user skepticism, stemming from a pattern where optional features become hard to disable over time, eroding trust in Mozilla's long-term intentions. The backlash criticizes Mozilla's leadership, as the re...
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iOS 26.2 Update Is Secretly Changing a Key iPhone Feature
Apple's iOS 26.2 update has changed its default settings to automatically download and install future software updates, potentially overriding user preference for manual control and prior assessment. The update introduces unannounced accessibility features, including an expanded "Flash for Alerts...
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Bluesky's 'Privacy-First' Contact Import: Here's How It Works
Bluesky's "Find Friends" feature prioritizes privacy by requiring mutual consent and active participation from both users for a match to occur. The system uses phone number verification and cryptographic hashing to protect contact data, preventing unauthorized access or probing. Users maintain fu...
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This Group Pays Bounties to Fix Devices, Even Illegally
Fulu, a nonprofit founded by right-to-repair advocates, runs a bounty program that pays individuals to bypass manufacturer-imposed restrictions like anti-repair locks or discontinued software support. The initiative aims to demonstrate the prevalence of these "unethical limitations" to policymake...
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Bing Tests "Sponsored Results" Grouping Like Google
Microsoft is testing a new Bing ad format that groups multiple paid listings under a single "Sponsored results" header, with a "Hide" button for user control, making ads blend more seamlessly with organic results. This redesign closely mirrors a recent Google update, which has led to reports of i...
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Spotify's AI Playlists Now Let You Control Your Algorithm
Spotify is launching a beta "Prompted Playlists" feature that uses AI to create custom playlists based on detailed user text prompts and listening history, starting in New Zealand. This tool offers more granular user control than existing features like Discover Weekly by allowing listeners to dir...
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Ring Doorbells Now Use AI Facial Recognition
Amazon's Ring has launched a "Familiar Faces" AI feature in the U.S., allowing users to label and receive customized alerts for up to fifty recognized individuals like family or delivery drivers. The feature has sparked significant privacy and security concerns from advocates and lawmakers, citin...
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YouTube's New Feature Will Finally Organize Your Home Feed
YouTube is testing "Your Custom Feed," a feature that gives users more control over their viewing experience by addressing issues with the platform's algorithm. Users can type specific prompts to guide the algorithm, allowing them to actively shape their feed based on interests like cooking tutor...
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Google Workspace AI Features Enabled by Default
Google has enabled AI-driven smart features by default for many Workspace users without direct consent, raising privacy concerns and questions about user control over data from services like Gmail and Drive. These features are not activated by default in regions with stricter data protection laws...
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Microsoft reveals Windows 11's evolution into an agentic OS
Microsoft is transforming Windows 11 into an agentic OS, introducing AI-native environments where computers can independently manage tasks for users through features like agent workspaces. Agent workspaces are secure, contained spaces where AI agents operate under separate accounts, performing ba...
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Windows 11's New AI Agent Raises Security Concerns Over Personal Data
Microsoft is testing "Agent Workspace" in Windows 11, allowing AI agents to access user directories like Desktop and Pictures, which raises privacy and security concerns. The feature operates in a separate session with its own user profile and permissions, enabling AI agents to perform tasks auto...
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Android 17's New Contacts Picker Protects Your Privacy
Android 17 introduces a system-level Contacts Picker that allows users to share specific contacts with apps instead of granting full access to their entire address book, addressing a long-standing privacy weakness. This new feature provides granular control, letting users select multiple contacts...
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Spotify's Shuffle Just Got Smarter for Your Playlists
Spotify has introduced a smarter shuffle feature that enhances playlist variety and reduces repetition, along with tools like the Snooze function for a more personalized listening experience. Premium and free users can now select any song during shuffle mode to play next without disrupting the qu...
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Firefox's AI Feature Sparks User Backlash
Mozilla is facing significant user backlash for introducing an AI-powered browsing feature in Firefox, with critics arguing it distracts from core browser improvements and reflects a misalignment with user preferences. Despite community demands for easy opt-out options and concerns about AI integ...
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Windows Recall: What It Is and Why You Should Enable It
Windows Recall is a new feature for Copilot+ PCs that captures periodic screenshots of user activity, enabling users to search through their digital history to find past documents, applications, or web pages. The feature utilizes Microsoft's Copilot AI to understand and intelligently search the c...
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Shop Smarter with Google's New AI Shopping Features
Google has launched AI-powered shopping tools in the U.S. to streamline product discovery and purchasing, integrating features like conversational search and tailored results from billions of product listings. New features include "Let Google Call," an agentic AI that contacts stores for product ...
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OpenAI's ChatGPT Browser Sparks Privacy Concerns
OpenAI's Atlas browser integrates ChatGPT to redefine web navigation, initially launching exclusively on Apple computers to challenge established browsers like Google Chrome. The browser features an "agentic mode" that autonomously performs tasks such as shopping and reservations, acting as a per...
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Google's Preferred Sources Tool Flooded With Spam
Google's Preferred Sources tool is malfunctioning, prioritizing spammy and low-quality websites over legitimate news outlets in users' personalized Top Stories feeds. The issue involves copycat domains and parked sites that use deceptive tactics like alternative TLDs to imitate reputable sources,...
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Instagram Tests Feature to Control Your Feed
Instagram is testing a feature that lets users add or remove topics to customize their Reels and Explore content for a more personalized feed. The update, announced by Adam Mosseri, aims to give users greater control over their experience and may extend to Threads in the future. This initiative i...
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Take Control of Your Threads Replies
Threads has introduced a reply approval system, allowing users to manually screen and approve or ignore each reply before it becomes public, offering greater control over conversations. New filtering options in the Activity tab enable users to view replies only from people they follow or those th...
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Your $2,000 Samsung Smart Fridge Will Soon Show Ads
Samsung will introduce advertisements on the screens of its premium Family Hub smart refrigerators in the U.S., starting with a widget on select themes from November 3rd, following a software update. The ads will appear in a rotating widget alongside news, weather, and calendar panels, but users ...
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