Google is jazzing up videoconferencing and chat features in its Workspace suite with new generative AI (genAI) features, including image and background enhancements for Google Meet and built-in translation for Google Chat, the company said on its Workspace update page. 

The latest features rely on Google’s Gemini AI model, which the company is integrating into its Workspace Business and Enterprise plans. The company started the integration earlier this year without the need for customers to buy an add-on plan for Gemini.

The Gemini model used for Google Meet can generate or improvise custom backgrounds, touch up the looks of a participant in a meeting and use machine-learning to reduce background noise and adjust lighting. And Google Chat now gets built-in real-time translation features for 120 languages. Because the feature is built on Gemini, users don’t have to switch to another window to translate.

Systems administrators can decide which users get access to the features, and the users can then choose whether to enable the new options. 

Google’s efforts to include better Gemini-powered tools in Workspace — and now offering them for no additional charge — make the software more competitive, said J.P. Gownder, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. “But Microsoft isn’t standing still, and Microsoft 365 Copilot continues to improve,” he said. “It remains a big challenge for Workspace to unseat Microsoft 365, regardless of the quality of individual Gemini-based features.”

Over time, Google’s investments in AI and migration tools might reach a tipping point for some companies to switch. But most of Workspace’s problems lie outside of the AI space.

“Transitioning from the Microsoft stack, and the millions of documents a large company has in Office formats, is a daunting challenge, despite Google’s attempts to create migration tools,” Gownder said.

Organizations would have to overcome a great deal of inertia to make the switch, Gownder said. “Imagine using thousands of Excel macros in the finance department, all of which no longer work in Workspace. And Google Workspace hasn’t reached feature parity with Microsoft 365,” he said.

As for Microsoft, it recently announed it was shutting down Skype and moving the software’s functionality to Teams. Videoconferencing providers are also constantly plugging more AI tools into interfaces; Zoom has a feature to touch-up appearances, and also provides an AI assistant.

Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt French satellite operator Eutelsat was thrust into the spotlight last week as a potential replacement for Elon Musk’s Starlink in Ukraine — and potentially, broader Europe.  Eva Berneke, Eutelsat’s CEO, said the company was in advanced discussions with the EU about expanding its internet service in Ukraine. She also said Eutelsat was in “very positive talks” with Italy to provide an encrypted communications service for government officials. In the same week, investors rallied behind Eutelsat, sending its shares soaring over 500%. But what exactly is Eutelsat? And could it realistically replace Starlink in Ukraine and beyond?  An independence mission In…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Siôn Geschwindt Social media platform X was hit by a series of outages yesterday in what its owner Elon Musk has called a “massive cyberattack” stemming from Ukraine. Analysts believe the disruption was caused by botnets — but finding the culprits will be a tall order.   The outages began at around 14:00 CET and lasted for most of the afternoon, trailing off at around 18:00, according to Down Detector. While the outages appeared to have flatlined overnight, there was an uptick in reports of downtime starting from 08:00AM today up until the time of writing. “We’re not sure exactly what happened,”…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Deepti Pathak Snapchat is filled with slang, abbreviations, and sometimes confusing symbols, particularly if unfamiliar. One of those…
The post TM Meaning on Snapchat Explained: Use Cases & Examples appeared first on Fossbytes.

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By Deepti Pathak Instagram allows users to customize their profiles by modifying their username and display name. It’s easy,…
The post How to Change Instagram Username and Display Name: 2025 Guide appeared first on Fossbytes.

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Companies creating generative AI (genAI) tools that can clone voices are not doing enough to prevent scammers from using them to defraud customers, according to a study from Consumer Reports.

The study found that four of six companies providing the services didn’t construct enough barriers to prevent individuals’ voices from being fraudulently cloned.

Consumer Reports tested voice cloning tools and found that four companies — ElevenLabs, Speechify, PlayHT, and Lovo — didn’t provide any way to ensure the user had a speaker’s consent to clone their voice. The software also placed no technical guardrails to prevent voice cloning.

The publication was able to easily create voice clones using publicly available audio with tools from the four companies. It only required marking a check box that the user had the legal right to create a voice clone.

Two companies, Descript and Resemble AI, had more safeguards in place by limiting uploads of pre-recorded audio. 

Descript required a user to read the consent statement, which was used as a basis to create the voice clone. Resemble AI required a person to do a voice recording in real time to create a high-quality clone; attempts to create a clone based on pre-recorded audio were of poor quality.

Still, the testers were able to bypass those safeguards, prompting the magazine to call for tighter standards. “We argue that the nascent voice-cloning industry should adopt norms and standards to mitigate the risk of fraud,” Consumer Reports said.

GenAI tools have made voice-cloning a possibility, and it is increasingly being used for fraud.

Scammers use the tools as a form of social engineering to cheat victims out of money or to spread misinformation. In many cases, they create realistic audio of a close relative or friend in trouble and deceive callers to fraudulently send money or to divulge sensitive information.

The technology is also being used to access bank accounts by bypassing voice identity verification. The FBI issued an alert in December about video- and voice-cloning schemes being used for financial fraud.

One UK-based bank, Starling, is recommending customers use phrases to verify the person on the line isn’t a clone. The bank also recommends that users protect their voice by limiting social media access.

Productivity tools from Synthesia and D-ID that create digital avatars from voice and video cloning are being used in enterprises for marketing and presentations. The tools can create realistic videos that combine the video and voice clones of individuals, which saves on the cost of hiring production teams.

Synthesia has an ethics and AI policy to prevent abuse. It prevents non-consensual cloning by putting biometric-based checks in place to ensure the person initiating the cloning request is the same as the person in the footage, said Alexandru Voica, a Synthesia spokesman.

The company also applies robust content moderation at the point of creation, before a video is generated, based on publicly available policies to prevent the creation of harmful content. 

“We work with independent red teaming organizations to ensure our approach is as robust as possible,” Voica said.

Source:: Computer World

One of the hottest trends right now involves work on reasoning AI models — tools that can more or less arrive at the right conclusion on their own. (The best-known reasoning models at the moment are the Chinese Deepseek-R1, as well as o1 and o3-mini from OpenAI.

However, credible reports suggest Microsoft has decided to seriously challenge Deepseek and OpenAI by developing its own set of reasoning AI models called Microsoft AI (MAI).

If successful, Microsoft would eventually not have to use its partner OpenAI’s o1 models in Copilot, Bloomberg reports.

Exactly when MAI might be released to the public is unclear at the moment, though experts expect a launch later this year.

Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt EU governments are in talks with four European satellite firms about providing a back-up service for Starlink in Ukraine, as the region pushes to boost tech sovereignty amid mounting transatlantic tensions.  Starlink has provided a vital communications system to Ukraine’s military since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022. It allows the armed forces to coordinate drone strikes, identify targets, and stream battlefield data to troops on the ground in real-time. However, European leaders are increasingly concerned about relying on Starlink — fears stoked by a Reuters report that US officials had threatened to cut off the system in Ukraine if…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Siôn Geschwindt Edge Impulse, a TNW community member that produces an AI platform for developers, has been acquired by American chip giant Qualcomm for an undisclosed sum.  Qualcomm said it had bought Edge Impulse to boost its machine learning software capabilities, particularly for its Dragonwing line of AI-powered chips.  Nakul Duggal, Qualcomm’s head of IoT, said the acquisition would strengthen his firm’s “leadership in AI” and bolster “critical sectors such as retail, security, energy and utilities, supply chain management, and asset management.” Under the deal, Edge Impulse will integrate its operations with Qualcomm’s, but maintain its own offices, employees, and website.     “Our team…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Hisan Kidwai Tower defense games are a staple of Roblox, and one of the most popular options is…
The post Anime Royale Codes [UPD 5.5] (March 2025) appeared first on Fossbytes.

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“Sluggish” might be the best word to describe the IT job market after the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published its data for February employment today.

The data offered mixed signals for US tech jobs: even though the number of tech roles grew, unemployment rose. And while tech companies cut staff, nearly 490,000 job postings were made.

The unemployment rate continued to climb for the IT marketplace, to 3.3% in February from 2.9% in January. It was the second month in a row the unemployment rate grew, according to ComTIA, a non-profit trade association. The numbers represent a dramatic increase in tech unemployment compared with December’s 2.0% rate.

Janco Associates, which uses different metrics than CompTIA to determine tech unemployment, pegged February’s unemployment rate at a much higher 5.4% — though that number is still down from 5.7% in January.

Janco said the number of unemployed IT professionals dropped slightly in February to 148,000 from 152,000 in January.

“There continues to be uncertainty in the outlook for IT initiatives,” said Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis. “A preliminary impact of DOGE is being felt, as many contracts for IT professionals have been put on hold and government IT pros do not have a clear picture of what the future holds for them.”

DOGE stands for the unofficial “Department of Government Efficiency” put into place by President Donald J. Trump; it is being overseen by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.

According to BLS data, the IT job market shrank by 9,100 positions in early 2025, Janulaitis said. Economic uncertainty, including stock market fluctuations and concerns over inflation, tariffs, tax cuts, and global conflicts, is responsible for the hiring slowdown, he said.

Kye Mitchell, head of tech recruiting firm Experis North America, agreed that tech demand so far this year is down 6%. “It remains challenging for those looking for new jobs, even as employers face talent shortages,” he said. “However, there is optimism that AI can be used to effectively upskill and reskill existing employees as hiring continues to stall and people hold on to the jobs they have, given economic uncertainties.”   

Employer hiring for those with AI skills continues to trend upward, according to a CompTIA analysis of Lightcast job posting data. Active job listings referencing AI skills in some capacity was up 116% in February compared to the same period last year, while hiring for dedicated AI job roles increased 79% during the same time frame, according to CompTIA.

February’s IT unemployment rate remained well below the national unemployment rate of 4.1%. The overall number of unemployed Americans, 7.1 million, changed little from January, and the overall national unemployment rate has remained in a narrow range of 4.0 percent  to 4.2 percent since May 2024, according to the BLS data.

Typically, January and February see increases in employment and a drop in unemployment.

The jobs report shows a market trying to balance itself amid falling consumer confidence and ongoing economic uncertaintyr, according to Ger Doyle, US country manager for staffing firm ManpowerGroup. While the labor market remains resilient, job seekers face challenges, and signs of cooling indicate cautious employer behavior.

“This year, our real-time data shows that demand is down 6%,” Doyle said in a statement. “We’re also seeing month-over-month declines in areas tied to consumer confidence and goods production — particularly with retail managers, where demand has dropped 16% — and in wholesale and manufacturing, down 20%. These declines are noticeable and indicate that the pace of hiring has slowed.”

Employment by tech sector companies declined by a net 11,514 positions in February, with tech services and tech manufacturing accounting for most of the retreat. At the same time, tech employment across all industry sectors increased by an estimated 177,000 for February, according to CompTIA’s analysis.

“As expected, the report paints a mixed picture, as labor market data catches up to market developments,” said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA. “Recent employer tech hiring and future hiring intent indicators remain steady, so [that offers] a degree of reassurance.”

The march toward skills-based hiring continued, as nearly one-half of all tech occupation job postings did not specify a four-year degree requirement for applicants, CompTIA said.

Some IT jobs had a far higher percentage of openings without four-year degree requirements. Those included: network support specialists (85%), tech support specialists (71%), computer programmers (57%), network systems administrators (54%) and web and UI/UX designers (53%).

According to BLS data, employment trended up in vertical markets such as healthcare, financial activities, transportation and warehousing, and social assistance. But US government employment declined, a result of President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to cull the federal workforce through firings and steps by DOGE to eliminate positions and even whole agencies.

Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt Elon Musk’s allegiance to Trump is once again stirring up controversy — this time over Starlink. The satellite internet provider, owned by Musk’s firm SpaceX, has become embroiled in a hot debate among Italian politicians, as Rome weighs its strategic alliances amid mounting tensions between Europe and the US. Italy’s right-wing League party is pushing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government to choose Starlink to provide satellite communications for government officials, citing the superiority of its technology over French rival Eutelsat. Starlink has around 6,700 active satellites in orbit, while Eutelsat has just over 600. “In the Italian interest it would…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

After nearly two years of intensive beta testing, Duckduckgo has launched the live version of the AI assistant previously known as Duck Assist. Similar to Google’s AI Overviews, the AI Assistant can provide quick answers to users’ questions, such as why Pluto is no longer classified as a planet.

If users want more information, they can ask follow-up questions via the built-in chatbot Duck.ai; users can choose between generative AI (genAI) models, including GPT-4o mini, o3-mini, Llama 3.3, Mistral Small 3 and Claude 3 Haiku.

Both the AI assistant and the chatbot are free to use, and don’t require an account, The Verge reports.

Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or DeepSeek have radically disrupted the way we access and generate information. However, these systems are general — they are jacks of all trades but masters of none.  Increasingly, though, scientists are training AI to solve very specific problems and fast-track everything from creating new drugs to designing fusion reactors. One area where they’re gaining traction is enhanced material discovery. Their advances are creating a growing range of promising startups. PhaseTree is one of them. Spun-off from the Technical University of Denmark in 2021, PhaseTree has developed a platform that integrates computer simulations, lab automation,…This story continues at The Next Web

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By Deepti Pathak Have you ever seen the “SND” abbreviation in Snapchat and had no idea what it stands…
The post SND Meaning in Snapchat Explained: Use Cases & Examples appeared first on Fossbytes.

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By Deepti Pathak Are you worried that someone might be tracking your phone? It’s not always easy to tell,…
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Google on Thursday unveiled new security controls for Chrome Enterprise, allowing IT departments to help employees better distinguish between work and personal browsing profiles.

Employees using Google Workspace or Google Identity will see a new sign-in experience that shows what’s managed and shared with their organization when they create a separate work profile for bookmarks, history, and other data.

Chrome Enterprise Core businesses also have new policies and customizations, while Chrome Enterprise Premium provides advanced data protection and secure access, the company said.

The browser suite includes new secure sign-ins, user authentication, and identity management across Google services. Google Identity integrates with Google Workspace and other third-party applications, allowing businesses to streamline access management, bolster security, and make sure users have the correct permissions and access.

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IT teams also benefit from better profile reporting and data protection for unmanaged devices in BYOD environments, the company said, and can enable reporting for managed users across Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. In one view, they can access key info such as browser version, OS, policies, extensions, and device management status, making it easier to monitor BYOD or contractor setups.

With Chrome Enterprise Premium, companies can apply data controls and access restrictions, such as blocking copy/paste or screenshots, when employees or contractors sign into a work profile. Those company policies can be enforced on all devices through Chrome.

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The browser suite upgrades are designed to enhance transparency for employees, allowing them to clearly recognize separate work and personal browsing, especially on personal devices, according to Julia Lomakina, product manager for Chrome Enterprise.

“With the browser playing a more critical role in daily work, it’s more important than ever for IT teams to make it clear to employees that they are logged into a corporate browsing experience that is managed and monitored by their company,” Lomakina wrote in a blog post.

In addition, Chrome Enterprise will now allow organizations to customize browser profiles with a company logo to help workers immediately see when they are using a managed browser profile.

Upcoming Chrome releases will also show employees they’re in a managed “Work” profile, even without custom logos, whenever policies are applied.

Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt Interplanetary travel might be about to get a whole lot faster — and hotter.  UK startup Pulsar Fusion today unveiled “Sunbird,” a nuclear fusion-powered rocket concept that could halve the time it takes to travel across our solar system — and, maybe, beyond it.  Machine learning models show the rocket could potentially propel a spacecraft with a mass of about 1,000kg (2,200lb) to Pluto in four years — less than half the time it took NASA’s New Horizons mission, which was powered by regular ion thrusters. Earth to Mars? Four months. Earth to Saturn? Two years.   Rather than launch from…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

Interest in LibreOffice, the open-source alternative to Microsoft Office, is on the rise, with weekly downloads of its software package close to 1 million a week. That’s the highest download number since 2023.

LibreOffice, which runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS, is a standalone desktop office productivity software that is free to use. Downloads have picked up since The Document Foundation, which manages its development, released version 25.2 last week. 

It has emerged as the most popular open-source suite, with alternative versions such as Apache’s OpenOffice losing steam. The last version of OpenOffice was released in 2023.

“We estimate around 200 million [LibreOffice] users, but it’s important to note that we respect users’ privacy and don’t track them, so we can’t say for sure,” said Mike Saunders, an open-source advocate and a deputy to the board of directors at The Document Foundation.

There is still noteworthy interest in LibreOffice as a standalone desktop alternative to paid office productivity suites, said Jason Wong, distinguished vice president and analyst at Gartner. “Usually these are clients seeking to keep their on-premises implementation, given that both Microsoft and Google have focused on their cloud offerings,” Wong said. 

Cost is a factor for evaluating software suites like LibreOffice, Wong said. “The downside is the additional specialized resources and new skills needed to maintain the [software],” he  said.

Downloads of LibreOffice have been steadily climbing with each new version, Saunders said. 

Though LibreOffice has traditionally been a favorite of home users, there’s growing interest in businesses and government, Saunders said. The northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein last year said it would move 30,000 PCs from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice.

“The majority of our users — 85% — are on Windows, followed by macOS and then Linux,” Saunders said. 

Many desktop Linux distributions pre-install LibreOffice, but it’s unclear how many users that represents.

LibreOffice users typically want a straightforward interface, Saunders said. “They don’t want subscriptions, and they don’t want AI being ‘helpful’ by poking its nose into their work — it reminds them of Clippy from the bad old days,” he said. 

There are genuine use cases for generative AI tools, but many users prefer to opt-in to it and choose when and where to enable it. “We have zero plans to put AI into LibreOffice. But we understand the value of some AI tools and are encouraging developers to create … extensions that use AI in a responsible way,” Saunders said. 

Although there are cloud-based versions of OpenOffice, The Document Foundation has focused on the desktop version, Saunders said.

Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt Europe’s space launch industry reopened for business today when the Ariane 6 heavy rocket lifted off at 17:24 CET from a spaceport in French Guiana. Originally scheduled for December, the Ariane 6 mission was delayed first to February 26 and subsequently to March 3 due to issues in transporting the satellite to the launchpad. However, just minutes before Monday’s launch, engineers identified an “anomaly” in one of the refuelling pipes, postponing the launch further. Finally, Ariane 6 had its first successful commercial launch today. The milestone came seven months after the rocket’s maiden flight, which restored sovereign access to space for Europe. …This story continues at The Next WebOr just read more coverage about: SpaceX

Source:: The Next Web