August 24 Tech news roundup: Windows will remove Control Panel soon, Chrome gets a critical security update, Access Apple Podcasts on any browser

Windows 11 Control Panel will be removed soon

Microsoft has confirmed it will remove Control Panel from Windows 11. This has been coming for a long time, since 2015 to be precise. A recent update to a document on Microsoft’s website reveals that the legacy app is being deprecated, in favor of the Settings app. Users have criticized the Redmond company for pushing to remove the Control Panel, arguing that the Settings app lacks
several options that are available in the old app. The design of the Windows 11 Settings app has also been a point of criticism, for hiding options under several menus, which makes it difficult to navigate. Microsoft has been slowly migrating options from Control Panel to the Settings app, such as the ability to uninstall Windows Updates.

It is not clear when CP will go away, but it could be retired as soon as Windows 11 22H4, which is expected to be released in Fall 2024.

Update Google Chrome now to patch a critical security exploit

Google has updated Chrome to versions 128.0.6613.84 or 128.0.6613.85 for Windows, macOS and Linux. The updates patch 38 security vulnerabilities related to passwords, fonts, autofill, etc. It also includes a fix for a zero-day exploit. This makes it the ninth zero-day security issue discovered in Chrome this year.

The issue, which is tracked as CVE-2024-7971, was discovered by Microsoft. Google has been rather vague about the bug, all it says that it is related to the V8 JavaScript engine in the browser, specifically, to Type Confusion. What is even more concerning is that the vulnerability has already been exploited by hackers. The vulnerabilities have also been patched on Chrome for Android and iOS, and users are advised to update their browser as soon as possible to protect themselves from attacks.

Apple Podcasts launches for web browsers

Podcasts fans now have a new way to access their favorite shows and episodes on desktops. Apple Podcasts is now supported on all web browsers, including Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari.

Avid listeners can head over to https://podcasts.apple.com/ and start listening to your favorite shows. Users can sign in to their Apple account to sync their subscriptions and data across devices, such as iPhone, iPad or Mac. The web version of Apple Podcasts is pretty basic, you can play/pause the audio stream, adjust the volume, view the episode notes and access the playing next section. Notably, it lacks support for transcripts, aka closed captions or subtitles, that are available in the Podcasts app for macOS, iOS and iPadOS.

Windows Recall is coming in October

Microsoft is still working on Windows Recall, the controversial feature which takes snapshots of your screen every five seconds. The idea is to gather user’s data and store it on their computer, process the data, and allow them to interact with something in their usage history. All of this is A.I-powered. Security experts and users had criticized the feature as it could expose personal data like images, videos, documents, browsing patterns, and other data, which could be stolen by malware. Microsoft had dialed down the risks by blocking the app from capturing data such as passwords, credit card information, etc., but it still didn’t convince privacy enthusiasts. Ultimately, Microsoft backed down, and removed Windows Recall when CoPilot+ PCs were launched a few months ago.

But, it appears that Microsoft intends to bring the AI app. Windows Recall will be launching in October 2024, but only for users in the Windows Insider Program. It is possible that the AI-powered feature could be made available in the stable version of Windows 11 in 2025.

Microsoft Teams is now a unified app for all users

Microsoft has finally addressed a problem that has been annoying users for a long time. It has launched a single unified app for Teams. To provide some context, Microsoft Teams launched for all users, regardless of whether someone had a Work or Education account, or just a personal account. But, the app was split into two, one for personal use, while the other one was for Education and Work. This was just part of the problem, because Windows comes with both apps, and merely searching for Teams, could show both apps, which was quite confusing for users.

The new Microsoft Teams app resolves these problems, anyone will be able to sign in to their account, in the app. Interestingly, the app also supports multiple accounts, and also lets users join in on a meeting as a guest. The app also brings a community feature exclusively for personal users.

Google Keep adds support for Gemini AI

Google Keep has gained AI-powered features thanks to Google Gemini. The note-taking app, which is quite useful for jotting down lists of things to do, now lets you create a list using AI. This is possible via a feature that is labeled, “Help me create a list“, which is available when you select create a new note.

When you select the option, you will need to describe the kind of list that you want to create, for example, create a grocery list for healthy dinners. The app will then create a list based on what you asked it to. This feature is currently being tested in the Android version of Google Keep.

Microsoft launches its most powerful AI model

Microsoft has announced that it is launching the Phi-3.5 series language models for its artificial intelligence products. This includes Phi-3.5-mini-instruct, Phi-3.5-MoE-instruct, and Phi-3.5-vision-instruct models.

The Phi-3.5-mini-instruct model has been designed for code generation, solving mathematical problems, logic-based reasoning, and supports up to 3.820 billion parameters. It outranked models such as the Llama-3.1-8B-instruct and the Mistral-7B-instruct in tests. The Phi-3.5 Mixture of Experts has 42 billion active parameters, combining several models into one, to perform efficient code comprehension, and handle multilingual language content. The Phi-3.5 Vision instruct is designed for text and image processing tasks like optical character recognition (OCR), diagram and graphic recognition including tables. It can also analyze content in multiple frames, which can be handy for summarizing content in videos, and summarizing videos. These could give Microsoft a significant boost in the world of commercial AI apps and research, to compete with the products from OpenAI, Google, and Meta.