Category: Technology

Britain designated Google as having strategic market status in online search on Friday, paving the way for ‘proportionate, targeted’ interventions in the first use of the country’s new regulatory powers to tackle the dominance of Big Tech

The Competition and Markets Authority’s move, which enables it to compel the US company to change the way it operates, is not a finding of wrongdoing and does not introduce any immediate requirements, the regulator said.

“We have found that Google maintains a strategic position in the search and search advertising sector – with more than 90% of searches in the UK taking place on its platform,” the CMA’s Executive Director for Digital Markets Will Hayter said.

Competition regulators have long had Alphabet-owned Google in their sights.

The US Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into Google and Amazon’s search advertising last month, while the US Department of Justice wants to force Google to sell off some of its advertising technology tools.

In response to the British action, Google’s Senior Director for Competition Oliver Bethell said: “Many of the ideas for interventions that have been raised in this process would inhibit UK innovation and growth, potentially slowing product launches at a time of profound AI-based innovation.”

Google, which said last month it would invest 5 billion pounds ($6.65 billion) in Britain, hoped any outcome would reflect the CMA’s goal “to ensure the UK’s competition framework mirrors the best interests of UK consumers and businesses”, he added

Luxury watchmaker TAG Heuer has taken a major leap by ditching Google’s Wear OS in its latest smartwatch, the Connected Calibre E5. Instead, the company has built its own operating system — TAG Heuer OS — designed for smoother performance and stronger compatibility with iPhones.

With Made for iPhone certification, the Connected Calibre E5 becomes TAG Heuer’s most Apple-friendly smartwatch yet, signaling a strategic shift toward iOS users.

According to TAG Heuer, nearly 70% of its smartwatch customers use iPhones, making the shift from Android’s Wear OS to a more integrated iOS experience a natural move.

In a major educational initiative, Google has announced a free one-year subscription to its Gemini AI Pro plan for Pakistani students aged 18 and above.

The offer aims to empower students with cutting-edge AI tools to enhance learning, research, and creative skills — completely free of cost.

According to the company’s press release, the program is part of Google’s broader mission to make artificial intelligence accessible for education across Asia-Pacific countries, including Pakistan. 

Under this offer, eligible students will gain access to Gemini 2.5 Pro, Google’s most powerful AI model to date. The model enables advanced capabilities such as Deep Research, which helps students complete assignments, conduct academic studies, and develop creative projects more effectively.

The Gemini Pro Plan integrates AI assistance directly into popular Google Workspace apps, including Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Meet, allowing students to summarize emails, create presentations, and analyze data with ease.

As part of the free subscription, students will also receive access to NotebookLM, Google’s personalized AI-powered research and writing assistant. This tool helps users compile, summarize, and refine their notes and academic material efficiently.

In addition, the Gemini AI Pro package provides enhanced creative tools like Veo 3 in Gemini and Flow, enabling students to generate videos from text or photos for academic and creative projects.

Pakistan’s National Cyber Emergency Response Team (National CERT) has issued a nationwide alert over a surge in phishing attacks targeting citizens through SMS, WhatsApp, and phone calls.

Hackers are reportedly stealing personal and financial data using fake links, messages, and calls disguised as official communications.

In a public alert, the National Cyber Emergency Response Team cautioned citizens not to click on unknown links or respond to suspicious messages or calls. The agency revealed that hackers are using deceptive techniques to obtain sensitive information such as bank account numbers, identity card details, and one-time passwords (OTPs).

The alert emphasized that phishing messages often appear to offer prizes, lottery winnings, or bank alerts, tricking people into revealing confidential data.

National CERT advised citizens to avoid logging in through unverified websites and to use only official platforms when handling financial or personal transactions. “No representative of any institution asks for a password or code over the phone or SMS,” the warning stated.

Users were urged to keep their personal information private, enable two-factor authentication on mobile and email accounts, and avoid interacting with suspicious numbers.

The Emergency Response Team urged victims to change their passwords immediately if they clicked any suspicious link and to inform the relevant institution for follow-up action. It also encouraged users to block fake numbers and report phishing attempts directly to National CERT for swift action.

Authorities stressed that awareness and vigilance remain the strongest defenses against phishing scams,

Instagram has unveiled a new “Ring” awards program to recognize influential creators who are shaping digital culture.

The initiative will honor 25 standout creators across the world, each receiving a gold ring both physically and digitally on their profiles.

Announced on Monday, the Ring Award is Instagram’s latest move to celebrate creative voices driving cultural conversations. According to the company, the award will recognize creators “who aren’t afraid to take creative chances and do it their way.”

Each winner will receive a custom-designed gold ring by British fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner. In addition, recipients will have a digital golden ring displayed around their Instagram profile, symbolizing their recognition as top creators.

The judging panel for Instagram’s inaugural creator awards features a mix of entertainment, fashion, and tech personalities.
Among them are Instagram Head Adam Mosseri, filmmaker Spike Lee, fashion designer Marc Jacobs, tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee, actress Yara Shahidi, and legendary makeup artist Pat McGrath, among others.

Beyond basic applications such as generative photo or video creation and text editing, artificial intelligence is beginning to help in real-world situations. Live translation features, which remove language barriers in real time, are particularly popular.

There have been features in smartphones, earbuds, and even smart glasses. To be honest, the concept of live translation is not new, but it will gain traction in 2025 as support and performance improve. Apple recently highlighted Live Translate as a feature of its new AirPods Pro 3, and a similar feature that used Google Translate was already available on the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2.

So, which version of live translate is better: Google’s or Apple’s? While neither is perfect, here are the key differences between them—and which one we prefer.

Live Translate is marketed as a unique earbud feature for 2025, but the work is still done on your smartphone. To use Apple’s live translation with a supported pair of AirPods, you must have an iPhone 15 Pro or newer running iOS 26 or later. While this may appear to be an arbitrary cutoff, an iPhone 15 Pro is required because live translation relies on Apple Intelligence, which is not available on the base iPhone 15 or older models.

This also means that Android users with AirPods for wireless audio (yes, they exist) will be unable to use Apple’s live translation features.  In comparison, Google’s equivalent is far more forgiving. You only need an Android phone running Android 6 or later to use live translation with a pair of Google Pixel Buds.

This includes all Google Pixel phones, as well as a large number of Android phones from other manufacturers that meet the version requirement. You can use Google Pixel Buds with a Samsung or OnePlus phone while still using Google’s live translation feature, for example. You simply need to ensure that your phone has the most recent versions of the Google and Google Translate apps installed, as both are required for live translation.

Both the Apple and Google live translate implementations use off-device processing by default, so an internet connection is required. Languages can be downloaded for offline translation using the Settings app on iOS and the Google Translate app on Android.

Apple also has a “on-device mode” that always uses offline, on-device processing for translations. However, it should be noted that this mode only applies to the Apple Translate app, which is used to translate AirPods. IPhone users who use Siri or Safari to translate will always have their translations processed in the cloud.

Samsung appears to be on the verge of catching up with Google’s Pixel update pace, which will undoubtedly please Galaxy owners, as per a report from Android Central.

• According to firmware build leaks, Samsung’s One UI 8.5 update is based on Android 16 QPR2, implying that the South Korean brand may be adopting Google’s quarterly release schedule to deliver features to Galaxy devices more quickly.
• This move enables Galaxy phones to receive important Android features on a quarterly basis rather than just once a year for each major release.

To date, Samsung has not matched Google’s frequency of Android software updates, leaving owners of its handsets, such as the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy Z Fold 7, trailing their Pixel counterparts.

If you own a Samsung Galaxy, this could be very good news because you’ll get new features and security updates faster.

While this report should be taken with a grain of salt because Samsung has yet to confirm details about the One UI 8.5 update, the signs are looking good for Galaxy owners.  We will have to wait and see what announcements are made in the coming weeks.

Samsung’s next big flagship, the Galaxy S26 Ultra, may arrive with a groundbreaking privacy feature.

A new leak has revealed how the rumored “Privacy Display” could work, giving users more control over what’s visible on their screens in public places.

Leaks about Samsung’s Privacy Display have circulated for months, but now, thanks to a fresh UI leak, we may finally have our best look yet.
The feature, spotted by @achultra on X (formerly Twitter), was found in a teardown of the upcoming One UI 8.5 build. It reportedly makes it harder for others to view your phone’s screen from side angles — a feature that automatically activates when you’re in a crowded or public setting.

The leaked screenshots show that users will have customizable controls for the Privacy Display. You can choose when it turns on, whether it activates automatically, and which apps or content should stay protected.

Interestingly, the feature could even use environmental detection — for instance, switching on automatically when you’re traveling on public transport or sitting in a busy meeting room.

After the massive success of OpenAI’s video editing app Sora, which recently topped the U.S. App Store charts, Google appears to be planning a significant makeover for its Gemini AI app.

According to a report from Android Authority, the tech giant is experimenting with a new visually engaging interface that shifts away from the traditional chatbot-style layout. Instead, it introduces a scrollable feed of prompts paired with vibrant photos, aiming to make Gemini more interactive and user-friendly.

The updated design was discovered in a recent version of the Gemini Android app, though it’s not yet publicly available. A reverse engineer managed to activate the hidden interface by digging into the app’s code.

Hundreds of AI-generated Bollywood videos with 16 million views have been deleted from Google’s YouTube after Reuters reported they were similar to those at the centre of a legal challenge filed by a celebrity couple to protect their rights.

Bollywood stars Abhishek Bachchan and his wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan have asked a New Delhi judge to remove and prohibit creation of AI videos infringing their intellectual property rights. Their lawsuits also challenge YouTube’s AI training policy.

While a judge had ordered the takedown of a handful of YouTube links last month which the actors sought, Reuters reported this week that the platform was still showing hundreds of other similar videos, some showing celebrities kissing or their lookalikes romancing through AI manipulation.

One such popular YouTube channel sharing “AI-generated Bollywood love stories” has been removed. It previously had 259 videos, some sexually explicit in nature, that had been viewed 16.5 million times. On Friday its link stated: “This page isn’t available.” None of its videos are accessible anymore.

YouTube said in an email to Reuters the channel flagged in the news agency’s report was deleted by the creator and the content is no longer available on the platform.

It did not elaborate on that account — titled “AI Bollywood Ishq” — but said the company prohibits harmful misinformation and removes content that has been technically manipulated or doctored in a way that misleads users.