Posts with «author_name|igor bonifacic» label

Google I/O 2025: What to expect from Android 16, Android XR and Gemini

In a couple of weeks, Google's annual developer conference will kick off on May 20. The event is probably the most important on the company's calendar, offering a glimpse at everything it has been working on over the past year. 

Judging from rumors and information Google has trickled out, I/O 2025 should be one of the more exciting tech keynotes in recent memory. Plus, this year Google has a dedicated Android showcase planned a whole week earlier. If you want to know what to expect from the company later this month, read on.

Android 16

In years past, some of my favorite I/O moments involved watching Dave Burke take to the Shoreline stage to talk about the latest updates for Android. But for the past couple of years, Android hasn't had much of a spotlight at Google's annual developer conference. That's about to change, with the company hosting a dedicated showcase that will air a week before I/O proper. Scheduled for May 13, Google says it has "so many things to share" during the Android Show: I/O Edition.

Get a front row seat to The Android Show: I/O Edition 🍿 May 13, 10 AM PT.

Meet our team and learn about new experiences coming to Android.

Set a reminder and be the first in the know → https://t.co/z8QLNSYkl6 #TheAndroidShow pic.twitter.com/RTzTOwUtFN

— Android (@Android) April 28, 2025

The presentation will feature Android Ecosystem President Sameer Samat, who took over for Burke in 2024. As for what to expect from Samat and company, a preview of Android 16 is an obvious bet. Google has already confirmed the new operating system will arrive sometime before the second half of the year. As such, it may even release a stable build of Android 16 that same day. One feature Google could announce for Android 16 is Live Activities-like "Ongoing notifications". Per Android Authority, Google could also add a more robust photo picker, with support for cloud storage solutions.

Android XR

Remember Google Glass? No, how about Daydream? Maybe Cardboard? After sending (at least) three XR projects to the graveyard, you would think even Google would say enough is enough. Instead, the company is preparing to release Android XR after previewing the platform at the end of last year. This time around, the company says the power of its Gemini AI models will make things different. We know Google is working with Samsung on a headset codenamed Project Moohan. Last fall, Samsung hinted that the device could arrive sometime this year.

Whether Google and Samsung demo Project Moohan at I/O, I imagine the search giant will have more to say about Android XR and the ecosystem partners it has worked to bring to its side for the initiative.

AI, AI and more AI

If Google felt the need to split off Android into its own showcase, we're likely to get more AI-related announcements at I/O than ever before. The company hasn't provided many hints about what we can expect on that front, but if I had to guess, features like AI Overviews and AI Mode are likely to get substantive updates. I suspect Google will also have something to say about Project Mariner, the web-surfing agent it demoed at I/O 2024. Either way, Google is an AI company now, and every I/O moving forward will reflect that.

Project Astra

Speaking of AI, Project Astra was one of the more impressive demos Google showed off at I/O 2024. The technology made the most of the latest multi-modal capabilities of Google's Gemini models to offer something we hadn't seen before from the company. It's a voice assistant with advanced image recognition features that allows it to converse about the things it sees. Google envisions Project Astra one day providing a truly useful artificial assistant.

However, after seeing an in-person demo of Astra, the Engadget crew felt the tech needed a lot more work. Given the splash Project Astra made last year, there's a good chance we could get an update on it at I/O 2025.

Wear OS

Last year, Wear OS didn't get a mention during the company's main keynote, but Google did preview Wear OS 5 during the developer sessions that followed. The company only began rolling out Wear OS 5.1 to Pixel devices in March. Given that, you might expect Google wouldn't have much new to share, but the official Wear OS X account told fans to watch the Android Show for updates. 

NotebookLM

Since 2023, Google has offered NotebookLM on desktop. The note-taking app uses machine learning for features like automated summaries. Based on App Store and Google Play listings, the company is getting ready to release a mobile version of the service on the first day of I/O 2025.

Everything else

Google has a terrible track record when it comes to preventing leaks within its internal ranks, so the likelihood the company could surprise us is low. Still, Google could announce something we don't expect. As always, your best bet is to visit Engadget on May 20 and 21. We'll have all the latest from Google then along with our liveblog and analysis.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-io-2025-what-to-expect-from-android-16-android-xr-and-gemini-203044170.html?src=rss

Alienware AW2725Q review: An exceptional OLED gaming display

In 2023, I tested my first OLED gaming monitor for Engadget, the LG 27GR95QE. Coming from an IPS LCD, the LG screen was transformational. Its WOLED (White OLED) panel produced inky blacks that made every game look incredible, and it allowed me to experience HDR gaming on a PC for the first time. But as amazing as that monitor was, it was a first generation product and it had a couple of problems.

It produced text fringing that made it distracting to use for productivity tasks, and it would flicker whenever I enabled NVIDIA's G-Sync smoothing. I ended up recommending the LG 27GR95QE with a few caveats in my first gaming monitor guide, but anytime in the last two years that I've considered buying an OLED for myself I've held off. The panels have gotten better, but if I'm going to spend $800 or more on a new monitor, it better be perfect or at least close to it.

I think I've finally found the OLED monitor I would recommend without reservation, and I'd even buy it for myself. As long as you own a GPU that can drive it, Alienware's new AW2725Q is an exceptional gaming display. With a 4K resolution and 240Hz refresh rate, it's fast, sharp and delivers nearly flawless image quality across both SDR and HDR applications. Oh, and did I mention it's substantially cheaper than the competition? If you're in the market for a high-end gaming monitor, this is the one to buy.

Design

Igor Bonifacic for Engadget

The AW2725Q marks the debut of Dell's new AW30 design language for Alienware products. It's been a while since I've seen one of the company's devices in person, and I was worried the monitor would look gaudy on my desk. Thankfully, the AW2725Q is not that; in fact, it has one of the more understated designs I've come across. Dell offers the AW2725Q in a single color: Interstellar Indigo. It’s a subtle hue that's more interesting than the usual black you see on so many competitors. The monitor also has minimal Alienware branding. On the back of the display, there's the company's trademark alien logo, while on the front you'll find its badge. The logo lights up. You can change the color of the LED or turn it off from the on-screen display (OSD) menu.

Like most Dell monitors, the AW2725Q offers plenty of ports. To start, it comes with two HDMI 2.1 connections. One of them supports eARC, so you can connect the monitor to a soundbar and a PS5 or Xbox Series X/S. It also has three USB-A ports and a single USB-C connection capable of 15W power delivery. The AW2725Q has the same flat Samsung-made QD-OLED panel as the $1,200 ASUS PG27UCDM and the $1,100 MSI 272URX.

Dell cut a few features to get its monitor to $900. First, it's missing a DisplayPort 2.1 output, meaning it's limited to the older 1.4 standard. As a result, the AW2725Q needs to rely on Display Stream Compression (DSC) to output a 4K signal at 240Hz. On paper and in practice, that's not much of a reason to skip over Alienware's monitor. As the name suggests, DSC is a compression algorithm. It's not technically lossless, but it is "visually lossless," and unless you pixel peep, it's difficult to notice a difference between a DSC signal and an uncompressed one over DisplayPort 2.1. Besides, you'll need one of NVIDIA or AMD’s latest GPUs to take advantage of the new standard anyway.

The AW2725Q's other compromises are more notable. The MSI and ASUS models offer faster 98W and 90W power delivery over their USB-C ports, making them better for charging a laptop quickly. The ASUS monitor also comes with a KVM switch, in case you want to use a single keyboard and mouse to control more than one computer. Those are all nice to have, but not features I would pay an extra $200 or $300 to get on a new monitor, especially one I plan to use primarily for gaming.

Display

Igor Bonifacic for Engadget

Although I've seen more than a few OLED monitors in the past, the AW2725Q was immediately impressive. As I mentioned earlier, it features a QD-OLED panel made by Samsung, and this specific model marks the first time that company has offered a 4K resolution on a 27-inch panel. That might seem like overkill, and in a way it is.

That said, there's one major benefit to the AW2725Q's 166ppi pixel density. This is the first OLED monitor I've used that doesn't sacrifice text clarity. With earlier generations of OLED panels from both Samsung and LG, I found the text fringing really distracting, making them impractical for most productivity tasks. With the AW2725Q, that problem is almost entirely solved, making it not just a great gaming monitor, but a great monitor period.

The AW2725Q offers 99 percent DCI-P3 coverage. Out of the box, my unit needed some calibration, as the green diodes were slightly overpowering everything else. Once I ran the monitor through DisplayCal, the AW2725Q looked nearly perfect. Colors were vibrant without being overbaked. If you want to use the AW2725Q for design work, Dell includes an option to clamp down the display to sRGB in the OSD. Speaking of the OSD, it's well laid out and easy to navigate thanks to a joystick that's just big enough not to feel fiddly.

Igor Bonifacic for Engadget

The AW2725Q has a glossy coating that accentuates the panel's ability to produce deep blacks and vibrant colors. In a dimly lit room, the Alienware monitor outputs an image that's almost three-dimensional. When I went to revisit older games, even ones that were mastered in SDR, I felt like I was seeing artistic details I hadn't noticed before. Of course, the tradeoff with a glossy coating is that reflections are far more pronounced. Additionally, one of the quirks of QD-OLED panels is that their black pixels can look gray in rooms with bright ambient light. At first I found this frustrating, but once I got better about using my blinds to manage the light coming through the window, the tradeoff was more than worth it. In that way, the AW2725Q is like any OLED screen: it needs proper lighting to look its best.

Once I had the screen dialed in, the AW2725Q was equally great for both immersive and competitive gaming, thanks in part to its 240Hz refresh rate. Coming from a 165Hz monitor, I didn't think the faster refresh rate would make games feel noticeably smoother, but I was wrong. Even when my NVIDIA RTX 3070 GPU wasn't able to saturate the display fully, in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Space Marine 2 for example, I didn't see any blur or smearing. Much of that is thanks to the 0.03ms pixel response time. One of the nice things about OLED monitors, especially if you're running a less powerful GPU like I am, is that you don't need to worry about overdrive modes. I saw VRR flicker when I had G-SYNC enabled, but it seemed less pronounced than what I've seen on older OLED monitors like the LG 27GR95QE.

Igor Bonifacic for Engadget

Everything I mentioned so far applies to SDR gaming, but the AW2725Q really comes into its own when you enable HDR. It's a VESA True Black 400-certified display. In dark, atmospheric games like Dead Space and Alan Wake, the AW2725Q's ability to produce true blacks and a near-infinite contrast ratio is transformational. The screen greatly enhances the ambience those games strive to achieve, thanks to dark scenes that aren't washed out by the glow you get on IPS displays.

Unfortunately, I don't have the equipment needed to measure peak brightness and panel uniformity. The reviewers at Rtings and Monitors Unboxed do rate the AW2725Q highly, though. They found the monitor can peak at 220 nits in its SDR mode, and sustain around 260 nits of peak brightness across a full screen during HDR operation. If you're coming from an LCD display, I imagine the AW2725Q won't disappoint, even if it doesn't get as bright as some other OLEDs on the market.

Burn-in protection

A few weeks is not long enough to stress the AW2725Q for burn-in, but from what I've seen so far, with decent care, the panel should last for years. First of all, the monitor comes with a suite of maintenance features. One of those will refresh all the pixels on the panel so they don't get stuck. You can start the process manually through the OSD. The AW2725Q will also initiate the process on its own after you turn off your computer or it goes to sleep. The entire procedure takes about five minutes. There are also self-diagnostic tools for the panel and fan at the back of the display.

In the US, Dell offers a three-year warranty on the AW2725Q, with burn-in protection included in the coverage. Not every manufacturer does this with their OLED monitors, so the fact Dell does is nice and makes the AW2725Q a smarter long-term purchase.

Wrap-up

Igor Bonifacic for Engadget

Normally, when I review a product, I can't wait to get back to the device I was using before. I try to be thoughtful about my buying habits, and only purchase things I know will serve me well for years to come. So the best thing I can say about the Alienware AW2725Q is that I'm not looking forward to sending it back. It is an amazing display that has made one of my favorite hobbies more enjoyable. The fact it costs $900 is icing on the cake.

Yes, it's still more expensive than your average IPS gaming monitor, but it's cheaper than the competition without sacrificing visual quality. If you're in the market for a 4K OLED, I would only skip the AW2725Q if you have the desk space to accommodate a 32-inch screen and you prefer that size.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/alienware-aw2725q-review-an-exceptional-oled-gaming-display-120046049.html?src=rss

Google prepares to start testing AI Mode with regular Search users

When Google debuted AI Mode at the start of March, the company promised to work quickly on bringing the feature to more users, and now it's doing exactly. Following a smaller expansion last month, the company says AI Mode is now available to all Labs users, with no wait list in place to limit access. As a reminder, AI Mode is a new chatbot that Google has built directly into Search. Labs, meanwhile, is a program you can sign up for to try out new Search features before they're widely available.      

With today's expansion, Google is also updating AI Mode to add new visual cards that will appear when you ask the chatbot for information related to places and products. "For local spots, like restaurants, salons and stores, you can quickly see info like ratings, reviews, and opening hours, and if you’re looking for a product, you’ll see shoppable options with real-time prices (including the latest promotions), images, shipping details and local inventory," Google says of the new feature.

Google

On desktop, Google is also adding a search history tool, allowing users to revisit and continue previous conversations they've had with AI Mode. The idea here is to allow people to pick up on research they might have left unfinished. 

If you're not enrolled in Labs and live in the US, there's a chance you might see AI Mode appear in Search sometime in the coming weeks. Google says it's doing this because the response to the feature has been "incredibly positive," and it wants to collect additional feedback before a broader rollout.     

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-prepares-to-start-testing-ai-mode-with-regular-search-users-160027861.html?src=rss

Microsoft is raising prices on the Xbox Series S and Series X

Microsoft is dramatically increasing the price of the Xbox Series X and Series S, as well as new games and accessories. As of today, the Series S will start at $380, up from $300, while the Series X will begin at $550, a $100 increase from its previous price. As for the 1TB Series S, it now costs $430, up from $350. Meanwhile, if you want the Series X with disc drive, it will now set you back $600. Lastly, the 2TB Galaxy Black Special Edition now costs an eye-watering $730. 

Additionally, Microsoft says beginning this holiday season "some" new first-party games will release at $80. At the same time, the company is increasing the price of nearly all of its first-party and peripherals. Most notably, a core controller will now set you back $65. 

"We understand that these changes are challenging, and they were made with careful consideration given market conditions and the rising cost of development," the company said. "Looking ahead, we continue to focus on offering more ways to play more games across any screen and ensuring value for Xbox players."

Developing... 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/microsoft-is-raising-prices-on-the-xbox-series-s-and-series-x-132004594.html?src=rss

Mark Zuckerberg 'predicts' AI will write most of Meta's code within 12 to 18 months

Mark Zuckerberg says he believes most of the Meta's code will be written by AI agents sometime within the next year-and-a-half. Zuckerberg made the prediction during an hour-long interview with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel. 

"I would guess sometime in the next 12 to 18 months, we'll reach the point where most of the code that's going towards these efforts is written by AI," said Zuckerberg, referring to the company's efforts to build internal AI agents. "And I don't mean like autocomplete... I'm talking more like you give it a goal, it can run tests, it can improve things, it can find issues, it writes higher quality code than the average very good person on the team already." 

Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg:

"within 12-18 months, most of the code is written by AI"

It won’t just be autocomplete.

AI agents will set goals, run tests, find problems, and write better code than top engineers. pic.twitter.com/2del08UA45

— Haider. (@slow_developer) April 29, 2025

This is not the first time Zuckerberg has made this type of prediction. During his awkward appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience earlier this year, he said, "Probably in 2025, we at Meta, as well as the other companies that are basically working on this, are going to have an AI that can effectively be a sort of mid-level engineer that you have at your company that can write code." 

Notice how the goal posts have moved. Less than five months ago, Zuckerberg said coding agents that could effectively replace most human programmers were within reach. Now, those same systems will not arrive by mid-2026 at the earliest.

The changing timelines underscore exactly why we should be critical of the AI industry and its many promises. AI agents may very well one day replace mid-level programmers, but right now predictions like the one made by Zuckerberg and many others are, at best, advertisements for technologies that don't yet exist and may never perform at the level their advocates say they will. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/mark-zuckerberg-predicts-ai-will-write-most-of-metas-code-within-12-to-18-months-213851646.html?src=rss

OpenAI rolls back update that made ChatGPT an ass-kissing weirdo

OpenAI is rolling back a recent update to GPT-4o, the default model that powers ChatGPT, following complaints from users that it made the chat bot act like a weirdo. "The last couple of GPT-4o updates have made the personality too sycophant-y and annoying (even though there are some very good parts of it), and we are working on fixes asap, some today and some this week," said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a X post spotted by TechCrunch

As of midday Tuesday, Altman said ChatGPT was running on an older, less sycophantic version of GPT-4o for all free users. The company hopes to get paid users back on an older release of the model by later today. "We're working on additional fixes to model personality and will share more in the coming days," Altman said, adding OpenAI would share more information about what went wrong "at some point." 

OpenAI released the new GPT-4o late last week. By the weekend, people began noticing ChatGPT was being overly agreeable and verbose in its praise. As you can see from the X post below, often that praise was also inappropriate and strange. 

When is OpenAI pulling the plug on the new GPT-4o ?
This is the most misaligned model released to date by anyone.
This is OpenAI's Gemini image disaster moment.

image credit : r/u/Trevor050 pic.twitter.com/kNcdnEYMDq

— AshutoshShrivastava (@ai_for_success) April 27, 2025

Improving the emotional intelligence of its models, in so far as an algorithm can posses the trait, has been a recent focus for OpenAI. For instance, with GPT-4.5, the company said the model was better at responding with warmth and understanding than its previous systems. In trying to bring that same capability to the more affordable GPT-4o, it seems OpenAI got something wrong. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-rolls-back-update-that-made-chatgpt-an-ass-kissing-weirdo-203056185.html?src=rss

Meta is making it easier to use Llama models for app development

Meta is releasing a new tool it hopes will encourage developers to use its family of Llama models for their next project. At its inaugural LlamaCon event in Menlo Park on Tuesday, the company announced the Llama API. Available as a limited free preview starting today, the tool gives developers a place to experiment with Meta's AI models, including the recently released Llama 4 Scout and Maverick systems. It also makes it easy to create new API keys, which devs can use for authentication purposes.     

"We want to make it even easier for you to quickly start building with Llama, while also giving you complete control over your models and weights without being locked to an API," the company said in a blog post published during the event. To that end, the initial release of the Llama API includes tools devs can use to fine-tune and evaluate their apps.  

Additionally, Meta notes it won't use user prompts and model responses to train its own models. "When you’re ready, the models you build on the Llama API are yours to take with you wherever you want to host them, and we don’t keep them locked on our servers," the company said. Meta expects to roll out the tool to more users in coming weeks and months.  

Despite the fact Meta's Llama models have been downloaded more than one billion times, the company typically isn't viewed as a leader in the AI space in quite the same way as OpenAI and Anthropic. It doesn't help push against that perception that the company was caught gaming LMArena to make its Llama 4 models look better than they actually were.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-is-making-it-easier-to-use-llama-models-for-app-development-171514630.html?src=rss

Subset Games co-founder Jay Ma went through hell to make Fulcrum Defender

Every video game is a miracle. Long hours, extraordinary technical and artistic requirements and cross-disciplinary collaboration: the very act of making games is difficult, and leaves room for catastrophic errors. It's a wonder any of them make it to release at all.

Fulcrum Defender, the new Playdate exclusive from Jay Ma, the co-founder of indie darling Subset Games, is one such miraculous game. It's the first new release from the studio since 2018's critically acclaimed Into the Breach. Ma began work on Fulcrum Defender following a life-changing Covid infection that has greatly diminished her quality of life and ability to do the thing she loves.

The story of Fulcrum Defender begins following a trip Ma made to Vancouver, Canada in August 2023 to see Subset co-founder Matt Davis and a few other members of the studio in-person. At the time, the team was working on more than one game. According to Ma, one of the larger, more promising projects was "struggling," but the trip led to a breakthrough. Then, she caught Covid-19. "It was pretty unfortunate timing," she said. "For the first time in a while, I was gung-ho about being able to figure this game out."

At first, Ma's latest bout with the coronavirus didn't seem all that different from her previous experiences. She returned to her home in Kyoto, Japan, quarantined and eventually recovered from the acute symptoms, but never bounced back completely. "I think it was the first day that I went out to be outside, bike, do normal things, and I just completely shut down," she said. "I couldn't get out of bed for like four days." She realized she was experiencing long Covid.

As we chatted over Google Meet, Ma frequently took long pauses to piece together her memories and find the right words to express her loss. "I'm a different person," she told me after one such break. "I walk around with a cane. I need to structure exactly how I do something outside. I need to know where all the chairs are. I walk at a grandma's pace, and I'm constantly forced to maintain awareness of my physical state, because if I do too much, it's already too late. It makes everything feel dangerous."

For the first four months of her illness, Ma couldn't work at all. "Even even when I was more used to needing to pace myself, not only was it harder to do things that used to come naturally to me, but I would also get lost in my own head," she said. She worried she might never make games again.

Subset Games

Fulcrum Defender was a chance to prove to herself she could still do the thing she loved. Subset’s Mauro López provided additional programming, and composer Aaron Cherof, best known for his work on Minecraft’s Trails and Tails update, made the music for the game. Panic contacted Ma about the project after she showed a few friends the game around the time of Kyoto's annual Bit Summit indie game festival in the summer of last year.   

"I would wake up in the morning and think about the game and make progress every day – even if it was only a couple of hours – that did something really important for my psychological state," she said.

In a preview released by Panic, Ma describes Fulcrum Defender as a game "that starts out slow and relaxing but gradually ramps up until it becomes frantic chaos." You can see the connective tissue between it and Ma's previous work. Players can earn upgrades to make their run easier. Success then depends on a combination of good aim (using the Playdate's signature crank), smart decision-making and a well thought out build. I expect it will have the same addictive "one more run" quality that Subset’s other games are known for.

This illness has shrunk my world and perception of time considerably.Jay Ma

"With Into the Breach, if I wanted to add one enemy, that one enemy would change how maps are designed, how character weapons are designed, and how scaling works," she said. "So a single new idea requires you to kind of keep everything in your head at once, and that specifically is just something that I struggle to do now." Fulcrum Defender taught Ma how much she had taken for granted the ease with which she one juggled those various dependencies in her mind.

Ma hasn't found a doctor in Japan who knows enough about the illness to offer her a conclusive diagnosis, and the state of research on long Covid in general is nascent. "They hate to make uncertain calls," she explained. The one thing she's found she can do is take frequent dementia tests to track the condition of her mind.

"I feel like I need to live with the possibility that it won't go away, so I just sort of operate with that mindset," she told me. "This illness has shrunk my world and perception of time considerably. My memory is way worse. I'll forget what happened like a week ago, and I don't really think about the future at all. And so I'm just in a constant present. It feels like I'm being forced to train to be a monk."

When I asked what her illness might mean for the future of Subset, Ma took a long time to consider her answer. "We set a rule that we will not announce anything unless we're absolutely certain it's coming out. We want to live with the freedom of being able to cancel rather than feeling we're stuck in having to release something we don't like," she said. "So Subset is doing fine, but my output has dropped to like 20 percent of what it used to be."

Subset Games

Davis, she adds, has been productive, but he too has had to adapt his work schedule, in his case due to two young kids. "If we want to make another Into the Breach-scale game, it feels like we might need more help in the long run. I need to come to terms with the fact I can't do all the art the way I used to."

Ma has been through so much, and yet Fulcrum Defender isn't a game about chronic health concerns, disability or memory loss. It seems to studiously avoid borrowing any biographical detail from Ma's life whatsoever. People will play and enjoy it knowing nothing of the challenging circumstances in which it was made. It turns out, that's the only way Ma would have it.

"I know of a lot of developers who put themselves into their game. You can see the author's intent, emotional state and the things they were processing in it. I've wondered what it would be like to make a game like that, but I have no idea how. Basically, the only thing that drives me is mechanics," she told me. "So I have no expectation, or really desire for people to see the author in the little arcade games I make. I would be very happy to never be perceived."

Fulcrum Defender — along with 11 other games — arrives as part of Playdate's second season of weekly games beginning on May 29. You can pre-order Season Two for $39 through the Catalog store.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/subset-games-co-founder-jay-ma-went-through-hell-to-make-fulcrum-defender-153028909.html?src=rss

Adobe's new AI agent can show you how to use Photoshop

If you're a frequent Photoshop user, there's a good chance you've run into this scenario. You open the program after a long break to edit an image, but this being Photoshop we're talking about, there are about five different ways to complete the task before you and you can't quite remember the way you learned to do it. Adobe is trying to make it easier to use its flagship app with the introduction of a built-in AI agent that can navigate Photoshop and complete tasks for users. At its Adobe Max London event today, the company demoed this agent, showing how it can automate multi-step workflows.      

Users can access the tool from the redesigned Actions panel. If you've used an AI chat bot before, the interface will be familiar. There's a text box for users to input what they want the agent to do for them, with a list of suggested prompts above. Once you hit enter, the tool will display all the steps needed to complete your request, allowing you to follow along as it does the work for you. Judging by the demos Adobe shared with press before the event, the agent can complete nearly any task you might turn to Photoshop to do. In one example, the tool first applies a color gradient to text, and then does the same for the background behind it. 

Adobe

At the same event, Adobe showed off a new version of its Firefly app, which brings together all of the company's AI image, video, audio and vector generation tools in one easy to find place. The redesigned Firefly is available to use on the web today, with Android and iOS apps coming soon. Additionally, each part of the app is powered by new underlying models that offer better performance. 

With image generation, for instance, Adobe is offering two new in-house systems, the imaginatively named Firefly Image Model 4 and Firefly Image Model 4 Ultra. Of the former, the company says it can produce 2K resolution images, making it possible to print what the model generates. Adobe claims both systems offer best-in-class human rendering. All of Adobe's own models are commercially safe, meaning they weren't trained on copyrighted material, and creative professionals can feel safe using them. 

"By unifying image, video, audio and vector generation and providing unmatched creative control, Firefly empowers creative professionals to work more productively and with an unmatched degree of precision," Adobe said. "Seamlessly integrated with Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Express and Adobe’s other creative applications, it offers AI-powered assistance throughout every stage of the content creation process – from ideation through production."

Adobe

If Adobe's models aren't thing, the company is also — for the first time — offering third-party models directly within the Firefly app. With today's announcement, some of the more notable options include Google's Imagen 3 and Veo 2 models, as well as ChatGPT image generation, with more to come later. As part of Adobe's agreements with Google, OpenAI and other model providers, those companies have agreed to not use data from Adobe users for training their future AI systems.   

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/adobes-new-ai-agent-can-show-you-how-to-use-photoshop-090049772.html?src=rss

The best cheap kitchen gadgets in 2025

You can sink a lot of money into your kitchen without even realizing it. There’s no doubt that some of the best kitchen gadgets are on the pricey side, but there are also plenty of budget-friendly tools that can make your time meal prepping, cooking for a party and reheating leftovers much easier. All the recommendations on this list are either products I use currently, or more affordable versions of something I decided to splurge on after years of food prep. You may not consider every single item an essential for your kitchen, but all of them can save you time when you need to get dinner on the table quickly.

Best cheap kitchen gadgets for 2025

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/best-cheap-kitchen-gadgets-130049897.html?src=rss