Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

The head and co-founder of OpenAI, Sam Altman, entered into discussions aimed at striking a deal to bring ChatGPT Plus to everyone in the UK at no cost to end users.

In a meeting between the UK’s technology secretary Peter Kyle and Altman, there was talk of granting UK residents access to a more advanced tier of ChatGPT as standard. The deal – while not definitely dead in the water – appears to have stalled, but the idea is an extremely interesting one.

WhatsApp beta testers have access to a new option that allows them to link to a verified Instagram profile, complete with a special icon that others should recognize.

This ability is not necessarily something that will appeal to or interest all WhatsApp users, but it is certainly something that has value for some types of user. Creators are among those who are likely to welcome this addition, as are companies and brands looking to build trust and drive engagement.

Many of the concerns about artificial intelligence can be overcome through transparency. And it is in the name of transparency that Elon Musk has announced the open sourcing of its Grok 2.5 model.

More than this, the AI firm will also make the Grok 3 model open source is around six months.

What started off as a simple screen-grabbing tool has evolved into something powerful and impressive. The Snipping Tool goes from strength to strength, and for Windows Insiders Microsoft has a new option to play with.

The feature is an expansion of Snipping Tool’s screen recording capabilities, this time making it possible to limit recording to a specific window.

Microsoft has been slowly showing more and more love towards Android and its interoperability with Windows 11. This is something that is abundantly clear in the latest builds of Windows 11 released to Insiders on the Dev and Beta channels.

The latest feature to start rolling out is the ability to seamlessly resume apps from Android phones on PC. This is not something that works with all apps – indeed, it is not something you would want or need to work with all apps – but it is an interesting feature which has a lot of potential. For now, however, it is starting small.

Google Drive is home to every type of file imaginable, and a decent proportion of those files are videos. It is with this in mind that Google has decided to make it easier to edit videos which have been uploaded to its cloud storage service.

Rather than adding video editing tools directly into Google Drive, the company is instead making it easier to access the option to do so using Google Vids.

WhatsApp would like you to leave a message after the beep. In what feels like a blast from the past, Meta is testing what equates to an answerphone service in WhatsApp.

Currently undergoing beta testing with a limited number of users, the feature seeks to encourage conversation and connectivity. You have almost certainly been notified of a missed WhatsApp call on your phone, but how many times has the person who called followed up with a text message? Probably not often, and this is something WhatsApps is looking to address.

The death of the Control Panel has been slow and painful. The long and drawn out move from the Control Panel to the Settings app started years ago, and it is still an ongoing process in Insider Builds of Windows 11.

It is not really clear why Microsoft is taking so long to migrate options across from the Control Panel to Settings, other than factoring in the idea that it is really not considered a priority. But with the release of Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27928 to the Canary Channel this week, the Control Panel continues to be subjected to a death by a thousand cuts.

There is nothing that technology companies will not try to enhance with AI. Google is no stranger to this with Gemini, and the company has announced an AI-powered fitness coach for the Fitbit platform.

But this is more than just a fitness coach. Google describes it as a “a fitness trainer, a sleep coach and a health and wellness advisor” all rolled into one. The aim is to be the AI coach that is suitable for everyone, so what can it do?

Microsoft could be accused of many things in relation to Copilot on Windows, but standing still is not one of them.

Both in terms of functionality and design, the company seems to be constantly at work and this is something that is evident in the latest Insider build of Windows 11. Microsoft is rolling out new features such as Semantic Search, and also a completely redesign home page for Copilot on Windows.

Whether you have been waiting for it or not, Google Password Manager is now available as a standalone app for Android users.

Breaking the Password Manager component out of the Chrome browser is an interesting move. There is no real reason for Google doing so other than making it slightly easier to access saved passwords and usernames.

The UK is no longer seeking a back door that would have allowed it to access encrypted data of Apple users. Controversial from the start, the UK has been pushing for technology firms such as Apple, Meta and others to provide it with access to encrypted users data.

Billed as a crime-fighting measure, the requests outraged not only the companies involved, but also privacy advocates and concerned individuals. But now the US Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, says that the UK has had a change of heart.

We have already seen Microsoft bringing Copilot to Excel. The company only recently added the AI assistant to its spreadsheet as a way to explain formulae to help users better understand them.

Now Microsoft is bringing Copilot to Excel in more ways – arguably more useful ways. Currently available to Insiders, the latest addition sees Microsoft giving users the option to “bring AI to your formulas with the COPILOT function in Excel”.

Microsoft’s approach to Windows 11 means that the operating system is never complete. This is evident in many areas, including dark mode.

Like so many companies, Microsoft jumped on the dark mode bandwagon quite some time ago – almost a decade ago, in fact. Work started on the eye-saving option back in Windows 10 but it is still not complete. However there are signs that Microsoft has not given up, and there are still more changes to come.

If you can rely on Microsoft for anything, it is that the company will use Windows to push its own products and services – just look at Copilot.

You will have noticed that Microsoft is busy squeezing Copilot into everything it possibly can. The latest victim of this treatment is the Start menu in Windows 11. This should come as no surprise – Microsoft is not only hellbent on shoving Copilot down people’s throats, it is turning to its tried and tested technique of using the Start menu to do so.