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How to turn off Gemini in your Gmail, Docs, Photos, and more - it's easy to opt out

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Are you frustrated by Google's insistence on injecting Gemini into everything? There's a way out. Also: Your Gmail inbox now includes Gemini summaries by default - how to stop them While some users enjoy Google's AI features that seem to roll out every week, others would rather have things the way they were before Gemini. Google somewhat sneakily buries Gemini under a setting called "Smart features," but if you know where to look, there's an option to completely t

How I use Synology and Google Photos to build the perfect photo backup system

Andy Walker / Android Authority Google Photos is the go-to photo backup app for quite literally everyone. It’s fast, reliable, and everyone has a Gmail account, so it’s the most accessible app out there for backing up your family memories. It’s got tons of smart features and uses AI like no other photos app, from its almost magical AI editing to something as simple as natural language searches. It just works. However, a lot of things have weakened the case for Google Photos. For instance, I ha

More (But Not All) of the Original ‘Trek’ Crew Will Come to ‘Strange New Worlds’

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is uniquely situated on the Trek timeline, showing us adventures that unfurled not long before the original series. That means that there’s no avoiding having some familiar character names popping up, and with that, the built-in fun of seeing, say, an iconic figure like Spock be played in a younger iteration, with Ethan Peck stepping in for Leonard Nimoy. This fun change in perspective is something fans already experienced in J.J. Abrams’ alt-world Star Trek movies

Topics: fans new star tos trek

As a millennial, I love this digital photo frame to display memories

Allison Murray/ZDNET ZDNET's key takeaways The Nixplay smart frame retails for $199 and comes in black, white, or wood. It's easy to set up, and you can invite family and friends to add photos to your frame (even if they don't own a Nixplay). The frame is expensive, especially given that horizontal photos show up pixelated and cut off. Remember digital photo frames? They were all the rage in the late 1990s/early 2000s -- when parents and grandparents alike had to own one. They seemed to dec

This security-minded Linux distribution makes it easy to browse anonymously

Ger Bosma/Getty There are some Linux distributions that were created for specific purposes. There are those for creating multimedia, developing software, network routing, ethical hacking, general use, and everything in between. And then there are some distributions that can easily serve multiple purposes. When I think of ParrotOS, I generally think of security: forensics, penetration testing, etc. I've used ParrotOS for similar purposes before, but always neglected to test the Home edition.

This security-focused Linux distribution is surprisingly good for everyday use

Ger Bosma/Getty There are some Linux distributions that were created for specific purposes. There are those for creating multimedia, developing software, network routing, ethical hacking, general use, and everything in between. And then there are some distributions that can easily serve multiple purposes. When I think of ParrotOS, I generally think of security: forensics, penetration testing, etc. I've used ParrotOS for similar purposes before, but always neglected to test the Home edition.

This hidden Pixel camera setting makes my photos absolutely pop - here's how

Kerry Wan/ZDNET One reason why the Pixel phones are so popular is the camera. There's a depth, a level of clarity, and brilliant/accurate colors that most phone cameras cannot match. Also: I changed 10 settings on my Pixel phone to significantly improve the user experience Google is always trying to one-up itself by improving the Pixel camera with every iteration. Back with the Pixel 8, Google introduced the P3 wide gamut capture feature that came along with the Ultra HDR format of Android 14

Explore 20 years of Mac UI design through emulations of a single app

What’s a Mac app that was included on the very first Macintosh back in 1984 – long before the internet – and still exists on today’s machines, albeit with a different name? Designer and author Marcin Wichery has not only traced the first 20 years of development of that app, but has also included emulators that let you experience it for yourself … The app in question: Control Panel, more recently renamed as Settings. That might not sound like the most fascinating of apps to track across time,

As a millennial, I love this digital photo frame to display memories, and it's discounted for Prime Day

Allison Murray/ZDNET The Nixplay Touch 10 Smart Frame is $20 off at Amazon when you apply the coupon before adding it to your cart. This deal only applies to the black/silver color combo, allowing you to snag it for just $120. Also: The best Prime Day deals you can shop now ZDNET's key takeaways The Nixplay smart frame retails for $199 and comes in black, white, or wood. It's easy to set up, and you can invite family and friends to add photos to your frame (even if they don't own a Nixplay)

Prime Day has our favorite digital photo frame in stock and on sale for 20 percent off

Engadget has been testing and reviewing consumer tech since 2004. Our stories may include affiliate links; if you buy something through a link, we may earn a commission. Read more about how we evaluate products . A digital frame may seem like too obvious of a gift — but that's for a reason. They actually improve upon something we all have around our homes, allowing you to display more of your favorite photos all the time. Engadget's favorite option in this space, the Aura Carver Mat, is on sale

Everything You Can Do in the Photoshop Mobile App

You know your software is a success when its name becomes a verb: You'll now commonly hear about images being photoshopped, even if the editing wasn't done with the Adobe image editor. Adobe might not like it, but the usage shows how dominant its flagship product has become. On mobile though, Photoshop hasn't achieved the same kind of ubiquity or brand recognition. We've had official Photoshop apps of various types down the years, but none of them have really translated the power and feature se

iOS 26 can freeze your FaceTime video if it detects nudity

The developer beta for iOS 26 has been out for a few weeks, and as always,tech sleuths are uncovering features and details that weren't explained during WWDC . Among the latest discoveries stirring up conversation online is a safety and privacy feature for FaceTime that blurs your feed when it detects you in a state of undress. Should FaceTime detect nudity, it will display a message reading "Audio and video are paused because you may be showing something sensitive. If you feel uncomfortable, yo

I'm a Pro Photographer: Here's How to Get the Best Firework Photos With Your Phone

Whether you're taking photos on July 4th, at New Year's or for another celebration, fireworks are always amazing opportunities for photos. The bright lights and vibrant colors contrast incredibly well with the dark night skies, making your photos look beautifully dramatic with very little effort on your part. While taking photos at night used to be something you'd need a big DSLR for, today's best camera phones, including the iPhone 16 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro and Galaxy S25 Ultra, are capable of takin

Prepare to Share All Your Pics With Meta If You Turn On Facebook's New AI Photo Tool

There's good news and bad news: The bad news is that Meta's continued development of generative AI has led it to add a privacy nightmare setting to its Facebook app. The good news is that, in a big departure from Meta's status quo, you have control over whether you participate. It's all about whether the company and its AI get access to your camera roll and all the pictures there, even the ones you haven't posted anywhere. Meta, Facebook's parent company, has been trying to keep up with AI hea

Turn Off This Facebook Setting Now to Avoid Sharing Your Entire Camera Roll With Meta AI

There's good news and bad news: The bad news is that Meta's continued development of generative AI has led it to add a privacy nightmare setting to its Facebook app. The good news is that, in a big departure from Meta's status quo, you can opt out. It's all about AI getting access to your camera roll and all the pictures there, even the ones you haven't posted anywhere. Meta, Facebook's parent company, has been trying to keep up with AI heavyweights for the past few years in an ultracompetitiv

Google Photos sees several app improvements

The Google Photos app has been updated to make it easier to navigate your gallery and view image information. Google says the photo view — the screen that appears when you open an image in Google Photos — has been redesigned to provide a “simpler, more modern, and more intuitive UI” while adding a new light mode, glanceable photo details, and streamlined action menus. These changes are available now for iPhone users, and will be coming to the Google Photos app for Android “soon,” according to G

Google Photos is getting a brand-new Photo view, but Android users will have to wait

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Google Photos is getting a new Photo view, with a light mode, streamlined menus, and clearer placement for image details. Photo view will also now display interactive badges that let you take various actions. The update is currently rolling out for Google Photos users on iOS and will come to Android users at a later date. Google Photos frequently refreshes its interface and settings, and it’s doing it again with a revamped Photo view, i.e., the scree

Here’s everything new for Apple Photos in iOS 26

Apple’s Photos app received a major overhaul last year, and iOS 26 brings a handful of new changes. Here’s everything new coming to the Photos app in iOS 26. New Liquid Glass design One of the biggest changes impacting all Apple apps this year is iOS 26’s new ‘Liquid Glass’ design. In the Photos app specifically, you’ll see Liquid Glass UI elements everywhere from the buttons and navigation tabs to popup menus and more. Since your photos and videos remain the visual focus of the app, Photos’

Eating Dairy Before Bed Can Give You Nightmares, Study Suggests

Has a late-night cheese session ever seemed to send you down your own personal Nightmare on Elm Street? You’re probably not alone. Research out today has revealed a link between lactose intolerance and a higher risk of bad dreams. Scientists in Canada conducted the study by surveying college students. People who reported having regular nightmares and poorer sleep in general were also more likely to report having food allergies, including lactose intolerance, they found. The researchers speculat

Meta Is Being Incredibly Sketchy About Training Its AI on Your Private Photos

Meta is demanding access to all of your photos, even the ones you haven't uploaded anywhere yet — and it's being incredibly shifty about what it intends to do with them. As The Verge reports, the Mark Zuckerberg-owned company refuses to rule out the possibility that it will use your phone's camera roll to train its AI models, and could only provide the assurance that it's not "currently" doing so. If the situation changes in the future, it would be a striking testament to the AI industry's desp

I Took Photoshop's Generative AI for a Spin. These Are the Tools That Stuck Out

Photoshop is all in on generative AI, and it wants you to give it a whirl, too. Adobe has added a number of AI features to its premiere photo editor over the past few years; if you use Photoshop regularly, you've probably seen these pop up on your task bars. I spend a lot of time reviewing AI image generators and other AI creative software, so I had to put the original photo editor's AI to the test. AI might not be right for every project, especially for professional creators who regularly use

Google just gave its Photos app the feature upgrade it deserves - here's what's new

Google / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET After hitting pause three weeks ago, Google is resuming rollout of its AI-powered Ask Photos feature. This time around, the company says, things should be better. Last fall, Google slowly began rolling out a new feature that lets you ask queries to find particular pictures in your Photos app. You might ask something like, "Where was that restaurant we ate at in San Francisco?" or "Show me all the selfies I took in NYC museums," and Gemini will find what yo

I hated Google Photos’ AI search feature, but after the latest update, I love it

Joe Maring / Android Authority At Google I/O 2024, Google introduced the world to “Ask Photos.” It was a new Gemini-powered search experience for Google Photos that would enable you to use natural language to easily find pictures in your library. The pitch sounded great and like a legitimately good use of AI. Unfortunately, Ask Photos’ implementation fell short. I’ve been using Ask Photos for the last several months, and in almost every scenario, it’s been significantly worse than the old sear

The Original Macintosh: Calculator Construction Set

The Original Macintosh: 35 of 125 Calculator Construction Set Author: Andy Hertzfeld Date: February 1982 Characters: Chris Espinosa, Steve Jobs, Donn Denman Topics: Software Design Summary: Chris tries to make a Steve-approved calculator The Calculator Chris Espinosa was one of Apple's earliest and youngest employees, who started work for the company at the ripe age of 14. He left Apple in 1978 to go to college at UC Berkeley, but he continued to do freelance work during the school year, like wr

Facebook is starting to feed its AI with private, unpublished photos

is a senior reporter for The Verge, covering the Trump administration, Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal government, and the tech industry’s embrace of the MAGA movement. For years, Meta trained its AI programs using the billions of public images uploaded by users onto Facebook and Instagram’s servers. Now, it’s also hoping to access the billions of images that users haven’t uploaded to those servers. Meta tells The Verge that it’s not currently training its AI models on those photos, but it

bootc-image-builder: Build your entire OS from a Containerfile

A container to create disk images from bootc container inputs, especially oriented towards Fedora/CentOS bootc or derivatives. 🔨 Installation Have podman installed on your system. Either through your systems package manager if you're on Linux or through Podman Desktop if you are on macOS or Windows. If you want to run the resulting virtual machine(s) or installer media you can use qemu. A very nice GUI extension for Podman Desktop is also available. The command line examples below can be all

Facebook is starting to feed its AI with private, unpublished photos

is a senior reporter for The Verge, covering the Trump administration, Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal government, and the tech industry’s embrace of the MAGA movement. For years, Meta’s trained its AI programs using the billions of public images uploaded by users onto Facebook and Instagram’s servers. But apparently, Meta has decided to try training its AI on the billions of images that users haven’t uploaded to those servers. On Friday, TechCrunch reported that Facebook users trying to p

Google Photos won’t downgrade your edited HDR pictures to SDR anymore

Joe Maring / Android Authority TL;DR HDR photos in Google Photos now keep their full dynamic range and HDR metadata when edited with tools like Photo Unblur and Magic Eraser. The app now has an “Ultra HDR” tool for brightening images. SDR photos can now be enhanced to HDR. Google is rolling out some improvements to how high dynamic range (HDR) and standard dynamic range (SDR) images are edited in the Photos app. The update will keep HDR photos from getting downgraded to SDR. Google is also u

Why is the Rust compiler so slow?

"Why is the Rust compiler so slow?" I spent a month repeatedly building my website in Docker, and now have horrors to share. I've got a problem. My website (the one you're reading right now) is mainly served by a single Rust binary. For far too long now, every time I wanted to make a change, I would: Build a new statically linked binary (with --target=x86_64-unknown-linux-musl ) Copy it to my server Restart the website This is... not ideal. So instead, I'd like to switch to deploying my we

“Why is the Rust compiler so slow?”

"Why is the Rust compiler so slow?" I spent a month repeatedly building my website in Docker, and now have horrors to share. I've got a problem. My website (the one you're reading right now) is mainly served by a single Rust binary. For far too long now, every time I wanted to make a change, I would: Build a new statically linked binary (with --target=x86_64-unknown-linux-musl ) Copy it to my server Restart the website This is... not ideal. So instead, I'd like to switch to deploying my we