Tech Digest daily roundup: Google Chrome now has more Password Manager features
Google has announced a major security update to the Password Manager on its Chrome browser that is aimed at helping users maintain their passwords natively and rely less on third-party managers such as 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, and LastPass. The update will have support for Chrome on desktop and iOS. The first feature of the update is a dedicated Password Manager space within your Chrome menu, where you can find other options including Check up and Settings. Google notes that this design change makes it easy to access passwords. You can also set up a shortcut to the Google Password Manager on your PC desktop without going through the triple-dot menu on Chrome.
Thousands of Reddit communities will be inaccessible on Monday in protest at how the site is being run. Reddit is introducing controversial charges to developers of third-party apps, which are used to browse the social media platform. But this has resulted in a backlash, with moderators of some of the biggest subreddits making their communities private for 48 hours in protest. Almost 3,500 subreddits will be inaccessible as a result. A subreddit is the name given to a forum within the Reddit platform – effectively a community of people who gather to discuss a particular interest. BBC
The use of artificial intelligence in TV and film production could potentially render actors unnecessary, according to industry experts. Actors – including motion capture master Andy Serkis – have spoken to Sky News about their concerns for the impact of AI, with the acting union Equity insisting the government’s pro-innovation stance isn’t thinking about the human cost. “You can put anyone in any situation, saying anything, and that is risky for all of us,” The Lord Of The Rings star told Sky News. Sky News
Twitter has refused to pay its Google Cloud bills as its contract comes up for renewal this month, which could result in the social media company’s trust and safety teams being crippled, Platformer reported on Saturday. Before Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform last year, Twitter signed a multi-year contract with Google related to fighting spam and protecting accounts, among other things, the report said. The information said Twitter has been trying to renegotiate its contract with Google since at least March. Reuters
Google recently released its Wear OS 4 Beta software and Samsung was quick to integrate its One UI 5 Watch beta for its Galaxy Watch4 and Watch5 series, so people can get familiar with the changes before the final version of the software hits the masses. One of the most interesting new changes to Wear OS may be the ability to change phones without having to reset your watch.
The current Wear OS 3.5 version and Samsung’s corresponding One UI Watch 4.5 version force you to factory reset your smartwatch every time you change your phone. But in the beta version of One UI Watch 5, that’s no longer needed. Once you start the transferring process to a different phone, a prompt will ask you if the Google account on your watch matches the one on the new smartphone. GSM Arena
Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Google Bard can provide some decent answers to certain types of questions, but these computers are ironically pretty bad at computing stuff. Google has a new solution to try to get language models to do simple tasks, like math, correctly: have the AI write a program. Google says that now when you ask Bard a “computational” task like math or string manipulation, instead of showing the output of the language model, that language model will instead write a program. Ars Technica
