One of the best secure email providers on the market has just taken a step further into its post-quantum transition by releasing a new quantum-safe and encrypted Calendar app for mobile.

After becoming the first quantum-resistant email service last March, Tuta (formerly known as Tutanota) also claims to be the first to offer these protections on a Calendar. The company is currently working on an encrypted file storage solution, Tuta Drive, that will also be quantum-safe.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistants with “really good long-term memory” are about a year away, according to Microsoft’s head of AI, Mustafa Suleyman.

Products which can recall conversations, projects and problems will encourage users to invest more time and share more of their personal history with them, he said in an exclusive interview with the BBC.

“I think we’re moving to a fundamentally new age where there will be ever present, persistent, very capable co-pilot companions in your everyday life,” he added.

Critics have voiced strong concerns around this level of integration, including data security, privacy, the possibility of AI tools giving bad advice or wrong information, or displaying inbuilt bias towards the person they are supposed to be helping.

But AI supporters argue that in order to be truly useful, these tools have to be deeply embedded into our lives: that they can only be really helpful if they know the history and context behind what they are being tasked to do.

For example, an AI diary manager can only organise your diary if it can access that diary, edit it, and retain information about your activities.

Mr Suleyman argued that many people’s privacy expectations have changed over time.

He said that devices such as TVs, laptops, phones, in-car cameras and earbuds are already “recording continuously everywhere” in ordinary environments, and gave a further example of an iPhone feature called Live View in which video and audio is recorded at the same time as a photo is taken.

“Most people love that feature,” he said.

“Some people turn it off but that’s a very distinct shift in the default expectation of what a photo is.”

He added that the benefits of this kind of tech, whether people felt they could control their use of it, and whether they trusted the provider of it, were important factors in deciding whether to embrace it.

Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and has emerged as a market leader as the tech giants jostle in the race to develop and control the powerful and rapidly evolving technology.

But some research suggests people are not consistently using it. A poll published by the Reuters Institute in August found that 29% of people in the UK that it spoke to had used ChatGPT, but only 2% used it every day.

Mr Suleyman conceded that perhaps consumer AI tools would never be as globally popular as the smartphone.

“Maybe this is different to the smartphone,” he said.

“Nearly 90% of the planet has a smartphone. Maybe that will be different. Maybe 50% will reject [AI tools}.”

But he added that so far, AI had been the fastest growing and adopted technology in history, despite its potential risks.

He strongly rejected the idea, posed by many industry watchers including Jim Covello, head of stock research at Goldman Sachs, that AI might turn out to be a bubble, like some tech trends before it.

He told me about a woman he met who said she had set up her business using guidance and motivation from a chatbot he developed called Pi.

“We are clearly producing personalised, interactive knowledge at your fingertips at zero marginal cost,” he said.

“The idea that this could be a bubble is utterly beyond me.”

Microsoft has today unveiled a range of new additions to the tech giant’s AI assistant range CoPilot, including a voice function, a daily news digest and a slower chatbot for more difficult or in-depth questions called Think Deeper.

It also includes CoPilot Vision, a tool which will sit within its Edge web browser and, when activated, observe web pages and “assist” with online activity.

The firm says Vision will not record or store data, has to be switched-on manually and will close at the end of each browser session.

Microsoft says it has chosen to limit which sites it will work with and there is as yet no release date for it.

In the summer the tech giant paused the release of an AI tool called Recall, which takes screenshots every few seconds in order to help users find things they were looking at or working on previously, following a backlash from privacy campaigners and enquiries from the UK’s data watchdog about it.

It will be re-launched in November with additional security measures.

Motorola may be catching up to companies like Samsung and Google regarding the number of years of Android updates it provides for its smartphones. A new Motorola phone could come with five years of updates, and it represents the second Motorola phone to do so in as many months.

The recently announced Motorola Moto G75 will come with five Android OS upgrades and six years of security patches. By our count, this would mean that users will be able to update their phone to at least Android 19, considering that the Moto G75 ships with Android 14. Last month, it was announced that the Motorola Edge 50 Neo would include five years of OS upgrades and security patches.

While five years of updates isn’t as many as the seven years that companies like Samsung and Google promised, it still represents a significant increase from what Motorola had previously offered.

Motorola confirms this update guarantee on its product page for the Moto G75, writing, “Keep up with the latest version of Android by getting five OS upgrades—and six years of security updates—guaranteed through 2029.”

The Motorola Moto G75 is a mid-range smartphone with impressive features at its price point. It includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset, a 6.78-inch Full HD+ LCD with a 120Hz refresh rate, and support for expandable storage via a microSD card of up to 1TB.

The new phone also boasts a 50-megapixel main primary with OIS and Quad Pixel technology and a 5,000mAh battery that supports 30W TurboPower wired and 15W wireless charging.

The new phone is available in Charcoal Grey, Aqua Blue, and Succulent Green. The Charcoal Grey model features a matte-finished back cover, while the Aqua Blue and Succulent Green models have vegan leather rear panels.

It looks like a very competent budget phone, though the real interest lies in its update policy. This is an area Motorola has long struggled with, and while it remains to be seen if the company actually makes good on this promise, it’s a very encouraging step in the right direction.

Motorola has not yet announced the pricing and availability details for the Moto G75.

Macro photography got a pretty big upgrade on the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max this year, with Apple upgrading the ultrawide sensor to a 48-megapixel lens. This is adding more details into your macro shot, which is really important, seeing as you are very close to the object when shooting in macro and thus blocking out some of the light. So, quadrupling the details is a big deal.

You can shoot macro photos and videos across the entire iPhone 16 lineup (that’s iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max), but it will look better on the Pro models, since the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are still using the older 12-megapixel sensor. In this article, we’re going to aim to show you how you can take a macro shot or video with the iPhone 16.

How to shoot Macro Photos and Videos

To get started, open the Camera app on your iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Next, move as close to the subject you want to take a macro photo or video or, until the Macro Control icon appears. This will appear as a flower icon in the corner.

Move back and forth until the object is in focus correctly. For instance, if it is still blurry, move back a bit.

Once you’ve framed your picture properly, go ahead and snap your photo or press record.

Keep in mind that when using Macro, the iPhone is using the ultrawide camera sensor. You can also get as close as 2cm to your object. For those of us in the US, that’s less than an inch. Sometimes, it’s better not to use the macro option, which you can tap the Macro Control button in the corner to turn it off. But with this turned off, you will need to back up from the object to take a picture that is not blurry.

And that’s macro on the iPhone 16.