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Boox, a company that makes E Ink gear ranging from palm-sized devices to desktop monitors, has a new pair of ereaders. The Go 7 and Go Color 7 (Gen II) combine a Kindle Oasis-like form factor with Android 13. For the first time in this lineup, they support handwriting, courtesy of a $46 stylus. And since the E Ink tablets ship with the Play Store, you can use any ebook storefront you like. The Boox Go Color 7 (Gen II) uses E Ink Kaleido 3 tech, also found in the Kobo Libra Colour and Kindle Colorsoft. (However, Amazon modified the latter with a custom display stack.) Like those competitors, the Go Color 7 shows color content at 150 ppi and black and white at 300 ppi. Meanwhile, the Go 7 has a monochrome Carta 1300 Monochrome display that shows content at 300 ppi. Boox Both devices have an asymmetrical form factor with physical page turn buttons on one side. They're the latest design inspired by the Kindle Oasis, which Amazon discontinued last year. Variations of this form are also found in the Kobo Libra, Sage and Elipsa lines. If you've never tried one of these offshoots, they're made for maximum one-handed ease. One advantage Boox's readers have over competitors is that, since they run Android and include the Play Store, you can install whatever reading app you like. Ditto for note-taking apps, browsers, mail clients, social apps or anything else you want. (But don't expect anything with video to be usable on E Ink screens.) The Go 7 and Go Color 7 each have 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage and microSD support. Each device weighs 195g (6.9oz). Boox Although both Go 7 readers support pen input for note-taking, highlights and markups, you'll have to spend more to enjoy that. That's because, alongside the devices, Boox is launching a $46 InkSense stylus with 4,096 pressure levels of sensitivity. The pen, which looks a bit like a gray Apple Pencil, has a multifunction button on the side and recharges via USB-C. You can preorder the $250 monochrome Go 7 from Boox's website today. The company expects it to ship around May 7. Meanwhile, the $280 Go Color 7 is listed as "coming soon." This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/booxs-new-go-7-e-ink-tablets-support-handwriting-with-a-46-stylus-182026839.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Google has announced that it will no longer be bringing new Nest Thermostats to Europe due to the "unique" requirements of heating systems in the region. The company launched its redesigned fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat in 2024. "Heating systems in Europe are unique and have a variety of hardware and software requirements that make it challenging to build for the diverse set of homes," Google says. "Therefore moving forward well no longer launch new Nest thermostats in Europe." The third-generation Nest Learning Thermostat and the Nest Thermostat E will continue to function, receive security updates and be sold while supplies last. If you're in the market for a new thermostat that works with Google Home, though, you'll have to turn to a third-party option. Besides leaving behind a whole continent's worth of customers, Google announced that it's also ending software support for a few older Nest devices. The first and second generation Nest Learning Thermostats, along with the second generation model released in Europe, will no longer receive software updates or connect to the Google Home app starting October 25, 2025. Google says any routines you've programmed will still work and you can manually adjust the temperature on the Nest Thermostat themselves, they'll just otherwise become a bit less "smart" after October. As a consolation, Google is offering $130 off a new fourth-generation Nest Thermostat to affected customers in the US, $160 off for customers in Canada, and 50 percent off a Tado Smart Thermostat X for European customers. All three thermostat models Google is dropping are over a decade old, so on one hand, the decision makes sense. On the other hand, most people don't purchase a thermostat and expect it to have an expiration date. That's one of a few reasons to be skeptical of Google's continued commitment to its Nest products. It's nice that there's a snazzy new Nest Thermostat, but there's been little indication the company will ever make a new Nest Hub or Nest Audio, beyond plans to incorporate Gemini.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/google-wont-bring-new-nest-thermostats-to-europe-181136806.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Almost a year since Microsoft announced its controversial Recall feature, and after several delays, the company has finally started bringing it to Copilot+ AI PCs today. The launch comes just a few weeks after Microsoft started testing Recall broadly with Windows Insiders. There are also a few other AI-powered features coming along with this release, including an improved Windows Search and Click to Do, which lets you quickly use AI features from within your existing apps. As usual, the release won't immediately roll out to all Copilot+ PCs, instead Microsoft is gradually releasing it over the next month (and likely monitoring potential issues along the way). Recall was one of the biggest announcements at Microsoft's Copilot+ debut last May, but almost immediately, it came under fire for some glaring privacy issues. At a basic level, Recall constantly records what you're doing on your PC via screenshots, and it uses AI to search them for specific words and images. The idea is that you'll never forget where you put a document you were working on weeks ago, or which random website you've lost track of. Security and privacy advocates were initially concerned that Recall was automatically enabled on Copilot+ PCs and that it wasn't storing its database of screenshots securely. That led to an immediate delay for Recall that lasted for several months. In November, Microsoft finally revealed how it will make the feature even more secure. Its snapshots and related data will be stored in VBS enclaves, which the company describes as "software-based trusted execution environment (TEE) inside a host application." Additionally, you'll have to turn Recall on manually when you set up a Copilot+ machine, it will rely on Windows Hello biometric security to make any settings changes, and it can be completely uninstalled if you want to be rid of it entirely. While it's heartening to see Microsoft take security more seriously after all of Recall's initial criticism, it's still worrying that it took widespread condemnation for any of it to happen. The company's rush to deliver a shiny new AI feature to sell Copilot+ PCs, and snub the likes of Google and Apple, ultimately got in the way of delivering the best product for consumers. It'll be hard to trust Recall, or really any of Microsoft's AI-enabled Copilot features, because of its initial blunder. Less controversial is the improved Windows Search, which will let you find documents and images in your own words. That means you shouldn't have to worry about remembering specific file names or other minutia to find what you need. Like all of the Copilot+ features, including Recall, the improved search runs locally using the neural processing units (NPU) in AI PCs. There's nothing being sent to the cloud. I'm personally the least excited about Click to Do, but there may be an audience for people who want easy access to Microsoft's AI tools. You'll be able to highlight text and quickly have it summarized or rewritten by Copilot, without dumping it into the Copilot app specifically. You can enable the feature by pressing the Windows key and clicking on your screen, swiping right on a touchscreen or hitting the Click to Do icon as it pops up throughout Windows (you'll see it in places like the Start menu and Snipping Tool). Microsoft says Click to Do actions for images are available on all Copilot+ PCs with the new Windows 11 April update, and text actions will be available on Snapdragon systems today, and eventually on Intel and AMD AI PCs. I've briefly used all of these features on a Surface Pro Copilot+ machine using the latest Windows 11 Insider build, but I've been waiting to test their official release before making any final judgements. I can say that Recall mostly works as advertised it was easily able to bring up a document I was viewing a week later, and it quickly found a few websites I was viewing but it also didn't add much to my Windows experience. At this point I religiously save websites I need to revisit via Pocket, and I'm well-versed enough in Windows to know where I've put my files. Recall isn't really made for me, though, it's for less experienced users who just want to find their stuff. Even power users will like the improved Windows search, though, but that's only because the platform's search has always been notoriously awful. And while I'm not a huge proponent of AI text summarization, but Click to Do did a decent job of summarizing a few long articles.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/microsofts-recall-and-improved-windows-search-start-rolling-out-to-copilot-ai-pcs-today-170014913.html?src=rss
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If youve performed a Google search lately, youve undoubtedly come across an AI Overview in your search results. This tool, powered by Googles Gemini, tries to save you some clicks by aggregating information from the links populated in your search results and succinctly delivering what it believes to be the information youre looking for. The accuracy of these overviews, however, often leaves a lot to be desired, and the tool has been plagued with hallucinations since its launch (with varying degrees of hilarity). Now Google is bringing the tool to YouTube, testing a video version of AI overviews for a small number of YouTube Premium members in the US across limited English search queries. While Google search results show LLM-generated text summaries, YouTubes AI overviews will function as something of a highlight reel for certain videos. In a post on YouTube Community forums, Google said that, "This new feature will use AI to highlight clips from videos that will be most helpful for your search queryThis is most likely to show when you search for more information about products youre shopping for (such as 'best noise cancelling headphones'), or when you search for more information about locations or things to do in those locations (such as 'museums to visit in San Francisco')." This raises some questions about the revenue model for creators on YouTube and how AI-generated clip reels would affect their incomes. A major concern with AI overview in search is Googles own summary absorbing traffic that would otherwise have gone to the publications shown in the search results. Bringing these tools to YouTube is likely to raise the same concerns for video content creators. Google will be collecting feedback on these overviews from Premium members, who can vote with a thumbs up or thumbs down on the AI-generated highlight clips. Google hasnt said how long this pilot will run for, or whether Google intends to expand YouTubes AI overview to anyone beyond Premium subscribers.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/youtube-is-testing-its-own-version-of-ai-overviews-145353147.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Beleaguered chipmaker Intel has confirmed plans to restructure in a shift that will involve an unspecified number of layoffs. It was reported this week that the company could lay off around 20 percent of staff (it had 108,900 employees at the end of last year). In a memo, new CEO Lip-Bu Tan declined to detail the extent of the downsizing, which is largely aimed at reducing "unnecessary bureaucracy" and layers of middle management. "Im a big believer in the philosophy that the best leaders get the most done with the fewest people. We will embrace this mindset across the company, which will include empowering our top talent to make decisions and take greater ownership of key priorities," Tan wrote. "There is no way around the fact that these critical changes will reduce the size of our workforce. As I said when I joined, we need to make some very hard decisions to put our company on a solid footing for the future. This will begin in Q2 and we will move as quickly as possible over the next several months." Intel has been downsizing significantly over the last few years. Just last August, the company said it would cut more than 15,000 jobs to reduce costs. Intel has been struggling with slowing sales it didn't act quickly enough to keep up with the industry's shift toward artificial intelligence. Unsurprisingly, AI will be a focus for Intel going forward. "My focus will be ensuring that our team builds products that are highly competitive and meet the needs of our customer as we enter a new era of computing, defined by AI agents and reasoning models," Tan said in a call with investors on Thursday. "To achieve this, we are taking a holistic approach to redefine our portfolio to optimize our products for new and emerging AI workloads. We are making necessary adjustments to our product roadmap, so that we are positioned to make the best-in-class products while staying laser focused on execution and ensuring on time delivery." Tan is aiming to speed things up by turning Intel into a company that's focused on engineering. "Many of the changes we will be driving are designed to make engineers more productive by removing burdensome workflows and processes that slow down the pace of innovation," he wrote. The company is planning to reduce costs elsewhere in order to "make necessary investments in our engineering talent and technology roadmaps." It's hoping to lower its operating expenses by $1.5 billion over the next two years. Efficiencies are the name of the game here. Tan wants managers to get rid of unnecessary meetings and reduce the number of people who attend meetings as "too much valuable time is being wasted." Intel is also expanding its return-to-office mandate by requiring workers to be on site four days a week (up from three) starting in September. Tan certainly has lofty goals as he looks to turn around Intel's fortunes. "Im talking about the opportunity to fundamentally reinvent an industry icon. To pull off a comeback that will be studied in business schools for generations to come. To create new technologies and deploy them at scale to change the world for the better," he wrote. "Intel was once widely seen as the worlds most innovative company. Theres no reason we cant get back there, so long as we drive the changes needed to improve."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/intel-confirms-layoffs-as-it-tries-to-make-engineers-more-productive-143825752.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
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