June 29 Tech news roundup: Gmail is getting an AI, AMD wants to make game downloads faster, OneDrive is enabled automatically in Windows 11

Windows 11 will automatically back up your folders to OneDrive

Microsoft is enabling OneDrive folder back up in Windows 11 for new installations of the operating system. Prior to this change, on the first run, Windows 11 would ask the user for their permission to set up OneDrive on their computer. But now, the contents of your user folders such as the Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos will automatically be synced to the cloud storage service.

This could use up your storage limit quite quickly, and given that Microsoft only gives 5GB of storage for free users, this could pose a problem for many people. The company already advertises the advantages of using its premium subscription, Microsoft 365, in Windows 11’s Start Menu, Windows Defender, and even in the Settings app. So this change appears to be a marketing-oriented one, rather than to assist users to back up their files.

Vertical Tabs in Firefox are now available in the Nightly version

Mozilla had confirmed last month that it will bring Tab Groups, Vertical Tabs, and a new Profile Management system to Firefox later this year. Now, it has officially begun testing Vertical Tabs in Firefox. The Nightly version of the open source browser now comes with the highly requested feature. Users will need to enable a couple of preferences in the advanced config page before accessing the new tab bar design.

Once enabled, the horizontal tab bar disappears, and you can access your tabs from the Vertical Tab bar that appears on the left side of the screen. Toggling the browser’s sidebar switches between a compact view with the Tabs’ icons, and an expanded view that shows the title of each tab. The sidebar supports the right-click context menu, so you can interact with tabs just like you would with the regular tab bar. Tabs can be rearranged by drag-and-drop, thought it lacks support for scrolling with the mouse wheel. That is to be expected, as the Vertical Tabs feature is in an early phase of development.

The official ChatGPT app for Mac is now available for everyone

OpenAI has released the official ChatGPT app for Mac users. The desktop app allows users to access the popular chatbot quickly, and brings some unique features that are not available on the web version. You can access ChatGPT quickly by pressing the Option + Space keys on your Mac’s keyboard. The app can be used to generate text, summarize content, analyze code, etc. The best part is that it can be invoked from any app, so you can use ChatGPT on a system-wide basis.

ChatGPT for macOS can capture screenshots, and you may optionally upload files or photos and ask the chatbot to read the contents of the image. For example, if the image had instructions or a recipe, it will list them out for you in a neat manner. The app has an optional feature called Memory, that you can enable to make your conversations with ChatGPT tailored to your preferences. ChatGPT for Mac is available for Apple Silicon Macs running on macOS 14 Sonoma or above.

Game downloads could become smaller thanks to this AMD technology

AMD has announced a new technology called Neural Texture Block, which aims to make game downloads smaller. The chipmaker is yet to demo the tech, but has outlined its features. As the name suggests, it uses neural networks. The feature will compress textures while a game is downloaded to a PC. The compression is done before a game is run. AMD says that game developers do not have to make any changes to their games in order to load or display textures.

The best part is that it will work with existing games too. PC games have grown quite large, and some games are over 200GB to download, so AMD’s Neural Texture Block could be helpful for a lot of people.

Steam now has a built-in video recording tool

Valve has revealed a new feature for its Steam desktop app that allows users to record videos of their gameplay. The tool is called Game Recording, and is available in the Beta version of the Steam launcher. The tool can capture videos automatically when you start playing a game, or you may start/stop the recording process manually.

The videos that are captured can be accessed via the Steam Overlay, and played instantly. You can edit the videos using the Clip editor, and share them with your friends easily. The tool is not exclusive to PCs, Steam Game Recording works on Steam Deck too.

Google is bringing Gemini AI to Gmail

Google is adding a new sidebar in Gmail, to introduce Gemini AI to Workspace users. The feature is being rolled out, and can be accessed by clicking the star button in the top right corner of Gmail’s interface. The chatbot has been designed to help users with various tasks such as summarizing an email thread or suggest responses to it, drafting an email. You can ask questions to find specific information from your emails or files stored in Google Drive. The AI features are also available in the Gmail mobile app on Android and iOS.

Apple Intelligence will not be available in the EU

Apple’s AI, aptly named as Apple Intelligence, wowed viewers who watched the WWDC 2024 event. The enhanced capabilities of the artificial intelligence feature will help users perform tasks faster, get information quickly in iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS 15 Sequoia. But it turns out that Apple has decided not to bring the feature to devices in the European Union. In fact, two more features will not be available in the region: SharePlay Screen Sharing and iPhone Mirroring.

Apple has said that it is concerned by the regulatory uncertainties related to the Digital Markets Act, and that it would not launch the three features in Europe this year. Margrethe Vestager, a European Commission Executive, slammed Apple’s statement, terming it in an open declaration of the company’s anti-competitive practices.

Adobe AI Assistant can help you with your documents

Google isn’t the only one that announced the addition of AI into its products. Adobe has introduced its own AI Assistant that is designed to help users with their documents. The tool will be available in Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader.

The Adobe AI Assistant can be used to generate concise summaries of PDFs, PowerPoint or Word documents. You can also interact with the chatbot by typing your query, and it will provide insightful answers. Adobe’s AI Assistant is not free, users will need to subscribe to the Acrobat Standard or Pro plan to access the feature. It will also be available with the Teams subscription plans.