Author: GT

Perplexity is extending its bet on chat-powered shopping, aiming to stand out in the crowded generative artificial intelligence market against OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.The company said on Wednesday that it’s partnering with PayPal to let users make purchases directly in chat. U.S. customers will soon be able to book travel, buy products, and secure concert tickets without leaving the platform.Payments will be completed in the chat with PayPal or Venmo, and PayPal will handle processing, shipping, tracking, and invoicing. Purchases will be completed with one click, with the help of the payment company’s passkey checkout.”Perplexity wants to be wherever users…

Russia’s war in Ukraine and President Donald Trump’s reluctance to support NATO allies has led to a boost in funding for European defense tech. And across industries, startups are leveraging the opportunity. One such company could be U.K.-based startup Vertical Aerospace, which is developing eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft mainly for air-taxi operations. The startup has more than 1,500 preorders for its VX4 eVTOL from customers like American Airlines, Japan Airlines, GOL, and Bristow. Now Vertical is speaking more publicly about the opportunities in defense and logistics. On Monday, Vertical took its first public step by announcing a…

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership with Apple for its generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence, the release of GPT-4o with voice capabilities, and the highly-anticipated launch of its text-to-video model Sora. OpenAI also faced its share of internal drama, including the notable exits of high-level execs like co-founder and longtime chief…

Chinese tech company Tencent is a gaming giant and the parent company of WeChat, the ubiquitous social messaging app in China.Cheng Xin | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesTencent on Wednesday reported an annual rise in its top and bottom line in the first quarter fuelled by accelerated growth in its key gaming business.While revenue beat expectations, its net profit fell short.Here’s how Tencent did in the first quarter of 2025 versus LSEG estimates:Revenue: 180.02 billion Chinese yuan ($25 billion), versus 174.63 billion yuan expectedNet profit: 47.8 billion yuan, versus 52.2 billion yuan expectedRevenue rose 13% year-on-year, while net profit…

Google is bringing Gemini, its generative AI, to all cars that support Android Auto in the next few months, the company announced at its Android Show ahead of the company’s 2025 I/O developer conference. The company says adding Gemini functionality to Android Auto and, later this year, to cars that run Google’s built-in operating system, will make driving “more productive — and fun” in the blog post. “This is really going to be, we think, one of the largest transformations in the in-vehicle experience that we’ve seen in a very, very long time,” Patrick Brady, the VP of Android for…

During the Android Show on Tuesday, leading up to Google I/O, Google announced that it’s bringing Gemini to Wear OS smartwatches and Google TV. The announcement is part of Google’s plans to replace Google Assistant with Gemini across all of its devices and platforms. Tuesday’s announcement doesn’t come as a surprise, as users have been expecting Google to bring its AI assistant to Wear OS smartwatches and Google TV. The tech giant says this expansion will make its AI assistant accessible beyond phones to allow people to use it when they’re doing things like going on a run or relaxing…

Google on Tuesday unveiled its new Android design language, Material 3 Expressive, at the Android Show ahead of Google I/O. The update is designed to make your phone more customizable and fluid, the tech giant says. Material 3 Expressive brings new springy animations that Google says will make your phone feel more fluid. For example, when you dismiss a notification, you will see a detach transition and feel a haptic rumble. You will see similar sorts of animation and feel haptics when you’re doing things like dismissing an app in your recent apps screen, fidgeting with the volume slider, or…

At the Android Show, taking place ahead of Google I/O 2025, Google announced that it is adding new device-specific features to its Advanced Protection program, which is designed to protect public figures such as politicians and journalists from different digital threats, with the Android 16 release. The new features include a new way of storing device logs that are accessible only by the user, protection from spam calls, and an auto-restart feature for when the device is locked for a certain amount of time. These features are aimed at adding an extra layer of security for public figures and preventing…

At the Android Show on Tuesday, ahead of Google I/O, Google announced new security and privacy features for Android. These new features include new protections for calls, screen sharing, messages, device access, and system-level permissions. With these features, Google aims to protect users from falling for a scam, keep their details secure in case a device is stolen or taken over by an attacker, and enhance device-level security for various attacks. Phone scammers often ask users to take actions like tapping on unsafe links or downloading unknown apps. In order to protect users, Google is blocking some actions and warning…

During the Android Show leading up to Google I/O, Google on Tuesday offered a brief update on the adoption of the RCS (Rich Communication Services) protocol, an upgrade to SMS that offers high-resolution photos and videos, typing indicators, read receipts, improved group chat, and more. The company shared that the messaging standard now supports over a billion messages per day in the U.S. This metric is based on an average of the last 28 days, Google noted. The stat is notable because Google fought for years to get Apple to adopt support for RCS on iOS, allowing for better communication…