Google is doing its best to make Android OS more secure for users. More recently, Android 15 brought a new theft detection feature to prevent data theft when someone robs or steals your unlocked device. But, what if the thief knows your lock screen’s PIN, password, or pattern? Yes, we know that sounds concerning, but it’s still possible. It seems Google is aware of such circumstances. That’s why it is working on a new feature that would enable Chrome to block password autofill in the event of device theft.
Google Chrome will soon block password autofill to safeguard your data in the event of device theft
The Google Chrome feature we are talking about here is Identity Check. When enabled, this feature forces the user to use their biometrics to unlock apps. Interestingly, apps that use simple lock features like PIN, pattern, or password would also require biometric authentication.
In a part of the announcement post of the theft detection feature, Google talks about the feature. It mentions “Later this year, we’ll launch Identity Check, an opt-in feature that will add an extra layer of protection by requiring biometric authentication when accessing critical Google account and device settings, like changing your PIN, disabling theft protection, or accessing Passkeys from an untrusted location. This helps prevent unauthorized access even if your device PIN is compromised.”
To catch you up, popular Chrome tipster Leopeva64previously found some code changes in the Chromium Gerrit. Those codes reportedly pointed towards this exact feature. One such code change had a new Chrome flag that “enables Android identity check for eligible features.”
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That’s not all, the description of the Chrome flag explains the feature too. It reads “The feature makes biometric reauthentication mandatory before passwords filling or before other actions that are or should be protected by biometric checks.”
The feature could roll out as part of the Android 15 QPR1
Mishaal Rahman (for Android Authority) further investigated if these Chrome changes were related to the Android Identity Check feature. Today, he reported that the changes made by the Google Chrome team were indeed related to the Identity Check feature. Rahman found out that one of the code changes includes a new GetBiometricAvailabilityStatus method.
That method reportedly returns “kRequired,” “kAvailable,” “kAvailableLSKF,” and “kUnavailable” when biometric authentication is mandatory (or enabled), available but optional, isn’t available, and unavailable, respectively. Rahman also mentions that the Google Chrome team is adding this method to code related to “password autofill, payment methods, sync settings, and incognito mode.”
The Android reporter further figured out that the new Chrome feature will only be available on devices running Android 15 QPR1. All that said, Google hasn’t confirmed when the Identity Check feature will be available in the previous announcement. It’s also unclear how the feature would work.
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That said, Google might bring the mandatory biometric setting with a server-side update for the Google Play Services apps. Time will tell when the actual rollout happens. But one thing is sure, Google is quite serious about users’ data and safety, which is a good sign.
Image credit: AssembleDebug
Back in 2022, João Moura was directing AI engineering efforts at Clearbit, a startup creating a unified hub for business intelligence tools. There, Moura was responsible for leading the development of AI integrations, as well as defining Clearbit’s AI product roadmap.
After a year, HubSpot acquired Clearbit, and Moura had the itch to go it alone. He’d founded startups before, including Urdog, which sold a smart collar for pets. But this go-around, Moura had a more technically ambitious concept in mind.
Moura’s newest company, CrewAI, aims to automate repetitive, back-office tasks like summarizing reports and onboarding employees. Customers can build workflow automations using CrewAI’s platform, then deploy and track them from a dashboard.
CrewAI doesn’t train AI models itself. Rather, the company taps models from vendors such as OpenAI and Anthropic to drive automations. Companies can build workflows on top of the apps they already use to automate things like enriching marketing databases, analyzing customer feedback, and forecasting trends.
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Moura pitches CrewAI as an alternative to robotic process automation, or RPA. RPA drives workflow automation. But it’s a much more rigid form based on “if-then” preset rules.
“We have made it easy for teams to build groups of AI ‘agents’ to perform tasks using any model, integrate with more than a thousand different applications, and to do so in a way that protects their data privacy,” Moura said. “We encourage our customers to try multiple models and pick the models that provide the best results for specific business use cases.”
Creating automations using CrewAI’s tooling. Image Credits:CrewAI
RPA is indeed brittle — and error-prone. A 2022 survey from Robocorp, an RPA vendor, found that of the organizations that said they’d adopted RPA, 69% experienced broken workflows at least once weekly. Entire businesses have been made out of helping enterprises manage their RPA installations and prevent them from breaking.
Of course, AI can break, too — or rather, hallucinate and suffer from the effects of bias. Still, Moura argues that it’s a far more resilient tech than RPA.
Investors seem to agree. CrewAI has raised $18 million across seed and Series A rounds from backers including Boldstart Ventures, Craft Ventures, Earl Grey Capital, and Insight Partners. Coursera co-founder and AI enterpreneur Andrew Ng has also invested, as has Dharmesh Shah, the co-founder and CTO of HubSpot.
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CrewAI has competition in spades. Orby, Bardeen (which also has funding from HubSpot), Tektonic, 11x.ai, Twin Labs, and Emergence are all developing similar AI-powered, business-focused workflow automation products. Traditional RPA vendors like Automation Anywhere and UiPath, meanwhile, are working to incorporate more AI tech into their tools in an effort to stay relevant.
To its credit, CrewAI, which is currently valued at around $100 million, has managed to attract a sizeable number of customers — 150 — in its first year. (CrewAI launched in January.) And it’s angling to land more with Enterprise Cloud, a new managed subscription plan.
Built on top of open source components CrewAI has released over the past year, Enterprise Cloud provides additional access controls and analytics to help secure and audit automations. Subscribers also get “VIP” support and templates for workflows.
“We are seeing 100,000 groups of multi-AI executions per day across hundreds of different use cases,” Moura said. “Given our current pipeline, we could be cash-flow-positive by next summer.”
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CrewAI, which is based in San Francisco and Brazil, plans to use the cash it has raised so far to grow its 16-person workforce and expand its core automation products.
Jack Sweeney, who gained notoriety for his @ElonJet account on X and maintained many of the suspended accounts, said on Threads that the development is “reminiscent of all my accounts getting suspended on Twitter.” The shuttered accounts, which used publicly available data to show the flight paths of private jets, initially displayed a message on Monday that read, “The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed.”
Meta provided no direct warning or explanation for the suspensions, according to Sweeney, who says the accounts appear “blacked out with no options to interact or receive information.” In a statement to TechCrunch, however, an unnamed Meta spokesperson said “Given the risk of physical harm to individuals, and in keeping with the independent Oversight Board’s recommendation, we’ve disabled these accounts for violating our privacy policy.”
ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice mode is now available in Europe, months after coming to the US and the UK.
OpenAI revealed the update with a casual tweet on X.com as a reply to user Sophie Escrivant, who enquired, “Any update for us in Europe?”
OpenAI’s reply confirmed that European users can now try Advanced Voice mode:
Well yes.All Plus users in the EU, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein now have access to Advanced Voice. https://t.co/AC6mdd1LkfOctober 22, 2024
The company’s reply, “Well yes. All Plus users in the EU, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein now have access to Advanced Voice”, is one of the most casual announcements of a major rollout we can remember! It’s unclear whether OpenAI will now grant all user requests, or if this was a one-off.
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What is Advanced Voice mode?
Advanced Voice mode is the ability to use ChatGPT by speaking to it, instead of typing, and also have it reply to you in one of its nine different voices. While the original ChatGPT already had a voice mode, that lets you talk to the chatbot and translate your speech into text, the new Advanced Voice mode is much more like a real conversation with a human. You can talk about more complex topics, and also interrupt the answer it’s giving you if you find it is going on too long (which it does tend to do).
Advanced Voice mode requires a paid subscription to ChatGPT Plus which costs $20 p/month (around £16 / AU$30), but you do get 10 minutes a month of free access on the free tier. To access Advanced Voice mode you just tap the Advanced Voice mode icon that is to the right of the prompt window. If you’re reading this in Europe and don’t see the icon there, then update your app and have another look. The screen then changes to show a glowing blue orb, which indicates that ChatGPT is listening.
The Advanced Voice mode is listening. (Image credit: OpenAI)
All the major languages
The rollout of Advanced Voice mode has been very slow and gradual, with the UK getting the mode long before the rest of Europe. ChatGPT attributed the slow rollout to local requirements when we asked why, commenting: “Some parts of the world require additional external reviews before launching new products. This is a common practice to ensure the feature aligns with local requirements. These can take a little time. We hope to share an update soon.” Well, that time has arrived!
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ChatGPT can speak all the major European languages. When asked what it can speak it lists English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Polish, Russian, Czech, and Hungarian. But it also seems to work for some of the less-known languages. For instance, user ASM noted, “Great! Working well in Catalan and Spanish”.
The news of ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice mode release was greeted with a positive reaction by other users on X.com, with the user Prashant commenting what most people were probably thinking, “Finally, EUROPE can use advanced voice without VPN”.
Meta is using facial recognition to combat scams and help people unlock their accounts
Facebook and Instagram owner Meta is to introduce facial recognition technology to try and crack down on scammers who fraudulently use celebrities in adverts.
Elon Musk and personal finance expert, Martin Lewis, are among those to fall victim to such scams, which typically promote investment schemes and crypto-currencies.
Mr Lewis previously told the Today programme, on BBC Radio 4, that he receives “countless” reports of his name and face being used in such scams every day, and had been left feeling “sick” by them.
Meta already uses an ad review system which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect fake celebrity endorsements but is now seeking to beef it up with facial recognition tech.
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It will work by comparing images from ads flagged as being dubious with celebrities’ Facebook or Instagram profile photos.
If the image is a confirmed to be a match, and the ad a scam, it will be automatically deleted.
Meta said “early testing” of the system had shown “promising results” so it would now start showing in-app notifications to a larger group of public figures who had been impacted by so-called “celeb-bait.”
Deepfakes
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The problem of celebrity scams has been a long-running one for Meta.
In addition to introducing the button, Facebook also agreed to donate £3m to Citizens Advice.
But, since then, the scams have become more complex and significantly more believable.
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They are increasingly powered by so-called deepfake technology, where a realistic computer-generated likeness or video is used to make it seem like the celebrity is backing a product or service.
Meta has faced pressure to do something about the growing threat of these ads.
On Sunday, Mr Lewis urged the government to give the UK regulator, Ofcom, more powers to tackle scam ads after a fake interview with Chancellor Rachel Reeves was used to trick people into giving away their bank details.
“Scammers are relentless and continuously evolve their tactics to try to evade detection,” Meta acknowledged.
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“We hope that by sharing our approach, we can help inform our industry’s defences against online scammers,” it added.
Social media
Meta has also announced it will also use facial recognition tech to help people who find themselves locked out of their social media.
Currently, unlocking Instagram or Facebook accounts involves uploading official ID or documents.
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But now video selfies and face recognition is being tested as a way to prove who a person is and and regain access more quickly.
The material provided by the user will be checked against the account’s profile image to see if it is a match.
However, the widespread use of facial recognition is controversial – Facebook has previously used it, before ditching it in 2021 over privacy, accuracy and bias concerns.
It now says that the video selfies will be encrypted and stored securely, and won’t be shown publicly. Facial data generated in making the comparison will be deleted after the check.
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But the system will not be initially offered in areas where permission from regulators has not yet been obtained, including the UK and EU.
Many people are scared that artificial intelligences may one day rise up and kill humanity, but after losing hours playing around with a digital ego-booster, I’m instead beginning to worry about the machines being a bit too nice to us.
This all began with a recommendation from journalist Max Read, in his excellent newsletter Read Max, to check out Google’s NotebookLM tool. Launched last year, Google bills NotebookLM as an AI-powered research assistant, allowing you to upload documents and have the AI sift through them for…
Apple officially unveiled the Apple iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max as the top choices for the ultimate iPhone experience. Both pack Apple’s most powerful phone hardware yet, almost reaching the level of Apple’s M series Mac chips.
But the Apple iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max have little to differentiate them apart from their size. Apple splits the Pro series into two classes: big Pro and little Pro models. With different-sized bodies, the aspects that obviously vary are the size of the screen, as wello as the phones’ heft, and battery capacities. But is there more to this than immediately meets the eye? Is there a reason to buy the Pro Max if you normally prefer smaller phones, or vice versa?
Below, we classify each of these differences and discuss how varying dimensions affect the user experience differently on the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and whether there’s one that comes out on top.
The iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max essentially have the same design but with one very obvious difference: the size. The standard iPhone 16 Pro has much smaller dimensions, similar to the smaller iPhone 16. The Pro Max, on the other hand, has a much larger footprint to facilitate the massive display. The larger size also leads to the iPhone 16 Pro Max weighing roughly 30 grams heavier than the standard Pro. However, despite these differences, the two phones are equally thick at 8.25mm, which is impressive.
Camera Control button on the iPhone 16 Pro.Joe Maring / Digital Trends
The iPhone 16 Pro Max is essentially a scaled-up version of the 16 Pro, though the camera is almost the same size. Both phones also identical buttons, including the new Camera Control button, but may have different placements according to the size. That means the distance your thumb needs to travel to access those buttons will vary. The ease with each of the phones will depend on your preferences and the size of your hands.
Other than that, there aren’t any other ways the two iPhones differ. They even get identical color options, including the new copper-ish Sand Titanium (initially rumored to be coffee). Other major differences between the phones lie in the display.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max.Christine Romero-Chan / Digital Trends
The difference between the displays on the two phones is highly apparent, with a clear distinction between the standard iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Simultaneously, both phones are getting a marginal increase in display sizes over the non-Pro iPhone 16 models, as well as the older iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, thanks to leaner bezels and slightly larger bodies.
The iPhone 16 Pro now gets a 6.3-inch display, up from the 6.1-inch on the previous generation. Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro Max now goes up to 6.9 inches, taller than the iPhone 15 Pro Max as well as stalwarts, such as the Galaxy S24 Ultra and the Pixel 9 Pro XL, in the Android ecosystem.
Joe Maring / Digital Trends
The size difference results in different screen resolutions as Apple aims to offer the same level of sharpness (same pixel density) on both displays. The two displays also get the same brightness of up to 2,000 nits and up to 120Hz variable refresh rate, and both come with Dynamic Island.
Apart from the size, there isn’t much to differ between the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max’s displays.
iOS 18’s new Control CenterJoe Maring / Digital Trends
Apple furnishes the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max with nearly the same hardware, and the same applies to the insides of the two phones as well. Both of them are powered by Apple’s latest A18 Pro chip with a new and more efficient design than the predecessor that powers the iPhone 15 Pro.
Without many differences to the numbers of cores on the CPU, GPU, and the Neural Engine, Apple says the new chipset now offers 15% faster performance than the last year’s A17 Pro. The CPU gets two dedicated units to run low-power AI applications off it instead of tossing them to the Neural Engine.
The GPU gets 20% better graphics capabilities and 2X faster ray tracing rendering. The Neural Engine doesn’t get a noticeable upgrade over the iPhone despite the event’s emphasis on Apple Intelligence. Nonetheless, it can still process up to 35 TOPS (trillion operations per second), which is nearly as good as the Neural Engine on the Mac’s M4 silicon.
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Christine Romero-Chan / Digital Trends
One minor difference between the iPhone 16 Pro and the Pro Max is the available storage options on both phones. While the iPhone 16 Pro comes with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB options, the Pro Max lacks a 128GB variant, following the same pattern from the iPhone 15 Pro range. Storage of 128GB admittedly makes little sense for phones of this caliber, and would be filled quickly, especially if you record plenty of videos with the iPhone 16 Pro. At the same time, it would have helped make the larger iPhone 16 Pro Max more accessible and lowered the price by $100 or so. It would also make sense as Apple lets you upload practically all of your files, media, and even data from apps to iCloud.
Another difference between the iPhone 16 Pro and the Pro Max seems to be their ability to ward off heat. While testing, we found that the iPhone 16 Pro can get uncomfortably hot while juggling apps. Though Apple doesn’t specify, one can suspect the smaller phone forces Apple to reduce the size of the passive vapor cooling tech inside. Even if that’s not the case, the smaller surface area could contribute to the slower dispersion of heat during intensive scenarios such as gaming.
Another fundamental consequence of the smaller size of the iPhone 16 Pro versus the Pro Max is limited space for its battery pack. The iPhone 16 Pro Max boasts a 4,685mAh battery, which is much larger than the 3,582mAh iPhone 16 Pro battery. This isn’t surprising, considering the iPhone 15 Pro had a 25% smaller battery than the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
In real use, this difference in capacity translates to a big disparity. The iPhone 16 Pro generally lasted less than a day with fairly normal use, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s larger cell meant it got a lot more juice out of single charge. How much more? A day-and-a-half to two days of use. That’s a much more acceptable result for a premium device, and it’s a big edge for the big phone.
When it comes to charging speeds, Apple eliminated any disparity between the two devices — and as a matter of fact, that’s the case with all iPhone 16 phones. While the entire series didn’t get the 45 watts of fast charging like we expected, all the iPhone 16 phones max out at 30W with a MagSafe Charger. They can also reach up to 50% charge in 30 minutes with a 20W adapter or higher over a wired USB-C connection. In addition, the phones support up to 25W wireless charging with MagSafe and 15W wireless charging using accessories with the more common Qi2 protocol. Both phones can pump charge wirelessly into accessories, such as AirPods, though they won’t charge the Apple Watch.
Photographic Styles on the iPhone 16 Pro.Joe Maring / Digital Trends
With the iPhone 15 series, Apple introduced a new 5x telephoto camera but limited it to the iPhone 15 Pro Max. This year, both the iPhone 16 Pro and the 16 Pro Max get the exact same camera systems, including the 5X telephoto. The identical camera systems on both phones also include the new 48-megapixel primary camera that can now shoot images faster and an improved 48MP ultrawide-angle camera that can combine four pixels into one for brighter shots. The 12MP selfie camera remains unchanged from the previous year.
With the new primary camera, Apple also includes the ability to shoot 4K HDR videos at 120 frames per second, which can be slowed down to 24 fps for more gripping cinematic effects. As with other performance-intensive tasks, the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s larger body to give it an edge in thermal performance.
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Using the Camera Control on the iPhone 16 Pro.Joe Maring / Digital Trends
Both phones also get four microphones now that allow a more holistic sound capturing, especially tuning it for spatial use cases. Besides capturing sounds at different distances, the microphone array can also eliminate background noise using machine learning.
With identical cameras, both phones have the same performance while taking photos, though the iPhone 16 Pro Max has an advantage for videos — whether you consider its resilience against heat or the advantage of serving as a bigger viewfinder.
Apple’s iOS 18 boots right off the bat on all new iPhone 16 models. Apple Intelligence and Android-like customization features are central to the latest version of iOS, and we expect an undiluted experience across both the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max. iOS 18 also brings one key addition to Messages, in the form of RCS support.
The only advantage of the iPhone 16 Pro Max would derive from its larger screen and its ability to edit icons for apps or in the Control Center more easily. However, considering Apple closely controls the experience across its phones — and not just the flagship models — we don’t foresee limitations with either of the models.
Once again, the varying usability of screens on both devices depends largely on your preferences more than any other factor.
The iPhone 16 Pro has a starting price of $999, which gets you the 128GB variant. Meanwhile, the 256GB variant goes up to $1,099. The iPhone 16 Pro Max starts at $1,199 for its base 256GB variant.
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Both the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max are currently available for preorders. Apple is expected to begin deliveries starting September 20, but you would likely have to wait a few more weeks because of high demand for the Pro models.
The iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max are largely replicas of each other, with basic differences based on the size. The smaller iPhone 16 Pro is lighter and easier to wield. At 6.3 inches, it does not necessarily have a small screen, and should suffice unless you explicitly prefer larger displays.
The larger iPhone 16 Pro, despite the extra bulk, has certain advantages. Foremost, the larger area accounts for better cooling in more demanding tasks, such as gaming or videography. If you intend to use the iPhone for a few years, the advantage may become more apparent as the processing demands for iOS and apps intensify. The bigger screen also gives you more real estate for watching video content, gaming, or while recording videos. We also expect your thumb to rest at a more relaxing position while using Camera Control button on the iPhone 16 Pro Max compared to the smaller Pro.
Despite those minor trade-offs with each of the phones, none of them is a deal-breaker. Both are among the best phones you will be able to buy for the remaining part of the year through September next year. Most importantly, these are the best devices if you wish to be among the first to experience Apple Intelligence features that will be available in the coming months.
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