The effects of MacBook Neo continue to ripple through the PC industry this week. As spotted by The Verge , Microsoft has introduced a new “ Microsoft College Offer ” initiative. Through this, college students in the US can score 12 months free of Microsoft 365 Premium and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with the purchase of an eligible PC, plus a free custom Xbox controller. more…
Google released a Gemini macOS app that brings its AI onto the desktop, but after I tried it, I found that it works more like a quick-access tool than a fully integrated assistant like Siri. Apple Intelligence and Google Gemini The app runs on recent macOS versions and lets users summon Gemini instantly with a keyboard shortcut. Users can analyze on-screen content with permission and work with files, images, and documents without leaving their current app. Google frames the release as a way to keep people "in flow" while they work. The broader goal is to position Gemini as a persistent layer across macOS instead of a standalone tool. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
Google is bringing Gemini to the Mac with a new native macOS app that's available starting today. Gemini for Mac can be activated with a keyboard shortcut, and it has built-in tools for generating images, analyzing what's on your screen, reviewing files, and more. Gemini is the last of the three major AI services to have a dedicated Mac app, because OpenAI and Anthropic have had Mac apps for quite some time. Gemini can be brought up anywhere on the Mac with an Option + Space keyboard command, so there's no need to swap over to a dedicated window. Option + Shift + Space is available for opening the full Gemini chat window. Gemini can also be accessed from the Dock or through the Menu Bar. Any window on the Mac can be shared with Gemini, allowing Gemini to provide contextual assistance on anything that you're looking at. After activating Gemini, selecting the Share Window option will let Gemini see what it is you want to ask questions about. Gemini will need Accessibility access to read full pages in a browser window. Nano Banana is available for creating images, and Veo can be used for generating videos. Gemini for Mac is available for Macs running macOS 15 and later, and it is free to download and use. Free access to Gemini is limited, and Google has subscription plans with increased usage limits. Google AI Plus is $7.99 per month, Google AI Pro is $19.99 per month, and Google AI Ultra is $249.99 per month. Google says that the Mac app is the first step toward a personal, proactive, and powerful desktop assistant, with more news to follow in the coming months. Tags: Gemini , Google This article, " Google Launches Native Gemini AI App for Mac " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
Apple privately warned Elon Musk's xAI company in January that it would remove the Grok app from the App Store unless the company put a stop to the chatbot's nude and sexualized deepfakes, according to a letter Apple sent to U.S. senators and obtained by NBC News ($). Earlier this year, Grok's AI capabilities came under scrutiny after X users shared nonconsensual sexualized images of women and children created by the app, many of which were based on photos of real people. What followed was a confusing rollout of moderation changes to Grok, some of which could be easily bypassed. Publicly, Apple did not comment on the controversy at the time, but it did respond, and was in fact the instigator of the changes. Internally, the company had found both X and Grok in violation of its App Store guidelines and demanded its developers submit a content moderation plan, the letter reveals. According to the letter, Apple rejected an initial fix from xAI as insufficient, saying the "changes didn't go far enough," and Apple warned it that additional alterations were required or Grok would be removed. After further back-and-forth, however, Apple eventually concluded that a later submission of the app had improved enough for it to be approved. The disclosure was apparently prompted by a January letter from Senators Ron Wyden, Ben Ray Luján, and Edward Markey, who urged Apple and Google to pull both apps, arguing the imagery violated App Store rules barring offensive, sexual, and exploitative content. The senators also said that Apple's response would test its own arguments, since the company has long defended its curated App Store by claiming its review process keeps users safer. Letting Grok continue to generate this kind of imagery, they argued, would undermine that case in the eyes of the public and in a court of law. After NBC News published its report, X posted the following statement on its platform: "We strictly prohibit users from generating non-consensual explicit deepfakes and from using our tools to undress real people. xAI has extensive safeguards in place to prevent such misuse, such as continuous monitoring of public usage, analysis of evasion attempts in real time, frequent model updates, prompt filters, and additional safeguards." While the amount of sexualized deepfakes created by Grok and posted to X appears to have decreased significantly, NBC News found that Grok is still able to generate similar imagery, with some users apparently having simply updated their prompt tactics to get around the safeguards. You can read that report in its entirety by following this link . Tags: App Store , Grok This article, " Apple Threatened to Pull Grok From App Store Over Sexualized Images " first appeared on MacRumors.com Discuss this article in our forums
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