Chipp.in Tech News and Reviews

Opera browser gets Tab Commands powered by AI

Posted on March 26, 2025March 26, 2025 by Ashwin

Opera has announced a new agentic AI feature for its browser AI, Aria. You can now manage your tabs by using Tab Commands.

The tab management feature supports natural language, so you can just tell it what to do.

How to use Aria AI’s Tab Commands in Opera

Open the command line by pressing Ctrl and / hotkey. Mac users will need to use Cmd and /
Type your command. e.g. group my YouTube tabs.
Press Enter.

Note: Opera says that users with a keyboard layout from the Nordics, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Latam and Turkey will need these shortcuts to activate Aria: Ctrl Shift 7 or Cmd Shift 7.

When you execute the command, Aria AI will automatically group all your YouTube tabs together. It will also explain what was changed, and lets you choose whether to keep the results, or undo the changes.

You can also right-click on a tab and select AI Tab Management from the context menu, but this option only appears when you have 5 or more tabs open.

Besides using it to group tabs, you can also ask the AI to pin tabs, close tabs, and to save your session. Opera will create a tab island (tab group) to save your session by bookmarking the tabs.

Here is a YouTube video that demonstrates Tab Commands in action. And here’s a nice graphic that explains how the feature works.

Aria processes all tab related features locally, to protect your privacy and security. That’s cool. It can be really useful when you have dozens of tabs open, and you want to close tabs from a specific website, or pin them and close all other tabs. This serves as a useful shortcut which would otherwise require quite a bit of manual effort.

However, the AI-powered tool has some cons too, the main problem is that it is slow to respond. It’s also a bit of a hit-and-miss, i.e. it doesn’t work sometimes. In my tests, it seems to be a case of not identifying the name of websites. For example, it didn’t work with Steam, but it worked with Google, Amazon, YouTube tabs, probably because it was optimized to recognize the domains.

Opera’s AI fails to unpin tabs when you ask it to, and instead closes them, which might sound a bit silly. Pinning and unpinning go hand in hand, as do grouping and ungrouping, closing and reopening tabs. The reason why these commands do not work is because they don’t exist, not yet. Tab Commands are clearly still a work in progress, but it is an impressive feature.

Download Opera One from the official website to try out Tab Commands. This AI feature is not available in Opera Air and Opera GX.

Writing Mode 2.0 and Aria in a Tab

Speaking of Opera Air and GX, these browsers have also been updated. According to the official announcement, Aria AI now has an improved version of Writing Mode, which is called Writing Mode 2.0. You can use it to generate text, or fill in text fields.

Users can now access Aria directly in a browser tab, as opposed to using the hotkey, or from the sidebar panel. To do this, open Aria from the side panel, click on the panel icon in the top left corner, and then on the pop-out icon (box with an arrow) to move Aria to a tab. These features are also supported in Opera One.

Note: Pay attention to your choices when installing Opera browser on your computer. I also recommend checking the Privacy settings in the app to disable Telemetry options.

Google Drive is now available for Windows on ARM PCs

Posted on March 25, 2025March 25, 2025 by Ashwin

Google Drive is now compatible with ARM PCs that run on Windows. Now, users with a Microsoft Surface or a Snapdragon powered Windows device can sync their data to the cloud with the official client.

Microsoft had partnered with Qualcomm and OEMs like HP, Dell, Acer, ASUS, Lenovo and Samsung to help launch computers that were powered by Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips. These were the first CoPilot+ PCs, that were designed for AI and promised all–day battery life.

But things didn’t go smoothly as Snapdragon PCs ran into some hurdles, not just in terms of hardware performance or controversies surrounding Windows Recall, but also due to some software support. Many popular apps were not available for ARM64 devices, one notable example of this was the lack of a native version of the Google Drive app.

The Mountain View company had released a beta version of Google Drive for Windows on ARM devices in December 2024, after acknowledging requests from users who had been asking Google to release an official version of the app for ARM PCs. After a successful test phase that lasted a few months, Google has finally announced that it has released the stable version of the app for all users.

Now, you could ask why bother with the app, while you can always access the cloud storage service via a web browser. Well, the Google Drive app offers some useful features for desktop users. You can set it to “Stream Files”, which will allow you to browse files that are stored in the cloud like a local folder via File Explorer, without actually downloading them permanently.

When you want to access a file from the cloud, you can download it to your PC. On the other hand, you may want to use the mirror files option in Google Drive, which saves the files on your computer’s local storage for quick access.

More importantly, the Google Drive app for desktop saves the edits you made to your files and syncs them to the cloud automatically.

The Google Drive app for ARM PCs is only compatible with devices running Windows 11 and Microsoft WebView2. The app is currently rolling out to users, and might take about 15 days before it is available to all users. Existing users on the beta version will automatically be updated to the stable version. You can download the Google Drive app for ARM on Windows from the official website.

Google says that the app will be available for all Workspace customers, Workspace Individual Subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts.

Many people were surprised when Google announced that it would bring its Chrome browser for Windows on ARM, as it is an operating system that is directly competing with its own ChromeOS platform. Google’s support for Windows on ARM is a big win, not just for users, but also for OEMs, Qualcomm, and Microsoft. Of course, Google will benefit from it more, if it manages to attract users to its paid subscriptions such as Google One, YouTube Premium and more.

OneNote for Windows 10 is being discontinued

Posted on March 24, 2025March 24, 2025 by Ashwin

Microsoft is discontinuing yet another of its apps. This time OneNote for Windows 10 is getting the axe.

According to a Microsoft Message Center post (via Neowin), the app will each end of support on October 14, 2025, after which it will no longer receive any bug fixes, security patches, or feature updates. That happens to be the same date when Windows 10 will reach its end of life support as well. That’s not a coincidence, so it may not sound surprising at first. You see, despite its name, OneNote for Windows 10, also works on Windows 11.

Clearly, there are some other reasons why Microsoft wants to shutter the app. The Redmond company is advising users of the OneNote for Windows 10 app to switch to its other note-taking app, OneNote for Windows, which is a part of Microsoft 365.

Microsoft says the older app does not support Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) sensitivity labeling that is used to secure sensitive data, and that the labeled content will be unavailable on OneNote for Windows 10. This may sound odd, but Microsoft says that users on the older version will experience slower sync performance from June 2025, and that this could affect multi-device access and real-time collaboration. It really does sound like the company will deliberately downgrade the experience of the app. Is that even legal?

One more thing that Microsoft highlighted is the fact that that OneNote for Windows has a lot more features, including AI-powered features like Copilot to enhance productivity. Now it makes sense, this could be a just another way to get more users over to Copilot.

OneNote for Windows 10 will display ads asking to switch to the newer app

And it gets worse, the document also reveals that OneNote users will see an in-app banner asking them to switch to OneNote on Windows from July 2025. Of course, it wants to show more ads, that’s what we need.

This is not the first time either, Microsoft already promotes the newer app, take a look at this gigantic banner that asks me to switch to the newer app. There is also a permanent button on the app’s header that serves as a reminder to migrate to the newest version.

Users who plan to move to the new app should take a backup of their data before removing the OneNote for Windows 10 app. You can then use the backup to import the contents of your notes to the new app. Follow Microsoft’s help article for more details about the process.

Alternatively, you could just uninstall the OneNote for Windows app, and access the web version of the note-taking service via your browser.

On the other hand, for users who wish to migrate away, you may want to consider switching to something like Obsidian, Joplin, Standard Notes, NotesNook, etc. All of these are free, open source apps which work offline, and offer an optional sign-up that gives you extra features including cross-platform sync, but there are some limitations that are behind a paywall.

France and Germany launch Docs, an open source alternative for Google Docs

Posted on March 22, 2025March 22, 2025 by Ashwin

France and Germany have announced an open source collaboration tool called Docs. Its description says that Docs was designed to be a secure alternative to Notion, Outline or Confluence.

Well, that definitely applies to Microsoft 365, and Google Docs, because they are the big players on the field.

Docs was developed as a joint initiative by France’s Interministerial Digital Directorate (DINUM), and Germany’s Center for Digital Sovereignty (ZenDiS). Open source tools like Docs will allow users, and businesses to move away from paid services. This may just be the start of many such services. The EuroStack report highlighted the importance of building an independent digital ecosystem for Europe, to address dependencies on foreign technologies and fostering innovation.

Now, you may wonder, what’s with the generic name? Docs, surely they could have done better there. Well, that’s because Docs isn’t just a product, it is a collaborative text editor which is part of a suite which is called “La suite numérique”, you can check the website here to learn more about it. It also has its own GitHub page with repositories for each tool.

Docs will allow users to edit documents and export them into various formats including DOC, ODT, and PDF. It supports markdown, various block types, slash commands, etc. Editors can collaborate on a document in real time. The best part is that you can keep editing the document when you are offline, and your edits will be synced when you’re back online. You can also share documents that you have created using the platform.

And like many modern programs, Docs also has some AI-powered features, these are called AI Actions and allow you to generate content, sum up, correct or translate text.

Docs is built on top of Django Rest Framework, Next.js, BlockNote.js, HocusPocus and Yjs. As a matter of fact, they are also the sponsors of BlockNote and Yjs. The tool uses the MIT license.

You can sign in to Docs using your FranceConnect account. There is a demo page that you can test by signing in using your web browser. Just head over to the official GitHub, scroll down to the getting started section, and you will find the credentials you need to test the app. It has a fairly simple interface, and is quite user-friendly. You can also see the documents that were created by other users in this test environment.

While it is designed as an online collaboration tool, you can download Docs and self-host it if you want to, but keep in mind it’s still a work-in-progress. But, if an offline office suite is what you want, there is a better option, LibreOffice. It is also free, open source, and supports Windows, macOS and Linux.

Did you know that it is also used by Governments? As noted by HowToGeek, Schleswig-Holstein, a state in Germany, switched from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice last year. And they also migrated over 30,000 PCs from Windows to Linux. A lot of people will be doing that later this year, when Windows 10 reaches its end-of-life support date.

Google Photos moves Memories to the Collections tab

Posted on March 21, 2025March 21, 2025 by Ashwin

Google has moved the Memories tab from the Photos app’s home screen. Don’t worry, the feature hasn’t been removed from the app.

For reference, Google had introduced Memories in 2023 to help users to revisit their old photos and videos from years ago, by curating some interesting pictures. Actually, there is a widget in the Photos app, which is also called Memories, it was released in 2021, and it kind of serves the same purpose.

A widget is cool, but it is easier to view Memories via a dedicated page. As I mentioned earlier, you can still access the scrapbook-like feature, but it has been moved to a new place. Memories are now part of Collections in the Google Photos app. The new section appears at the top of your image gallery, but it is no longer called Memories. It has been renamed to Moments.

Here’s something weirder, do you see the carousel at the top of the app’s main screen?, i.e. Photos, well it is called Memories. That’s not confusing at all, right? I’m not entirely sure why this was done, but there it is.

You can access your Moments from the Collections tab to add more details to the images and videos, search for something specific, or share them with your loved ones.

The Google Photos home screen on the other hand is now simpler, with just three options on the bottom bar: Photos, Collections and Ask/Search. This is what the Mountain View company was going for, to make the main page more compact. It did the same thing with Google Maps, so at least there is some uniformity in the design.

This change isn’t something that happened out of the blue, Google began pushing this change last year in the Photos app for iOS, before it was introduced in the Android version.

According to 9to5Google, the removal of the Memories tab started in January this year, but it seems to be rolling out on a wider basis with Google Photos version 7.2.0 on Android and iOS. If you don’t see the Moments section on your phone yet, you may want to check the Play Store or the iOS App Store manually to see if an update is available for the app.

Tip: Check out Martin’s article to learn how to use Google Takeout to organize your Photos automatically.

This renaming/redesign may feel like an unnecessary change to some users, and I agree. Memories was a fine name, renaming it was pointless, and now it takes an extra step to access your Moments, that doesn’t make sense either. It’s not like the shortcut was taking up a lot of space on the bar, and phone screens are getting bigger not smaller, resizing the icons to fit more options would be the user-friendlier choice. Burying options under menus and subsections usually result in fewer people using a feature.

Oh well, it’s just one of those Google things! I wouldn’t be surprised if these redesigns were done to make room for adding some AI-powered options in the future.

Google Pixel 9a announced for $499

Posted on March 20, 2025March 20, 2025 by Ashwin

Google has launched the Pixel 9a. The mid-range phone runs on Android 15 out of the box, with an update policy of 7 years of OS, security and Pixel drop updates.

As one might expect, the Pixel 9a ships with Gemini built-in, but it doesn’t include a subscription for Gemini Advanced.

The phone is powered by an in-house Google Tensor G4 processor, with 8 GB of RAM and 128/256 GB of storage. It has a Titan M2 security coprocessor, an optical fingerprint scanner, to protect user data which is end-to-end encrypted locally.

There is no camera island across the device’s rear panel, the dual cameras are instead housed in a regular array. The primary lens is a 48 megapixels wide angle camera that supports Optical Image Stabilization, Electronic Image Stabilization, and can record 4k videos at 60 frames-per-second. The other camera is a 13 megapixels ultra-wide angle lens.

The Pixel 9a is capable of AI-powered photography features like Add Me which combines group photos), Best Take which blends facial expressions from multiple photos, and Magic Editor that can reframe your photo, suggest best crop, auto-expand the scene, add effects, etc. In addition to these the Pixel 9a also supports various editing features such as Magic Eraser, Audio Magic Eraser, Night Sight, Astrophotography, Panorama with Night Sight, Photo Unblur.

Moving to the front, the Pixel 9a has a 13 megapixels wide angle camera for selfies, which is housed at the top of the screen. As for the design, the phone has thick bezels running around the edges. The screen is a 6.3-inches Actua Display, and it supports 120 Hz adaptive refresh rate, HDR, and is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

Google has managed to fit in a chunky 5,100 mAh battery in the phone, which it says will offer 30+ hours of battery life. The handset is IP68 certified for dust and water resistance. More interestingly, Google claims that the Pixel 9a has drop protection, which should make it durable.

Google Pixel 9a tech specs

Processor: Google Tensor G4
Security: Titan M2 security coprocessor, Fingerprint Unlock, Face Unlock
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Storage: 128 GB / 256 GB
Screen: 6.3-inches Actua Display, 120 Hz adaptive refresh rate, 20:9 aspect ratio, Corning Gorilla Glass 3, 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, HDR, 2,700 nits brightness
Operating System: Android 15
Front Camera: 13 MP f/2.2 aperture, 96.1° FoV, 4k video @ 30 fps
Rear Cameras: 48 MP Wide f/1.6 aperture, 82° FoV, OIS + EIS, 0.5x and 1x optical zoom, Super Res Zoom – up to 8x, 4K video capture @ 30/60 fps, 5x digital zoom + 13 MP Ultra-wide angle f/2.2 aperture, 120° FoV
Battery: 5,100 mAh, Fast Charging, Qi Wireless Charging
Port: USB Type-C 3.2
Audio: Stereo speakers, 2 microphones
Connectivity: Dual SIM (Single Nano SIM and eSIM), 4G LTE, 5G Sub 6GHz, Wi-Fi 6E with 2.4GHz+5GHz+6GHz, 2×2 MIMO, Bluetooth v5.3, NFC, Google Cast, Dual Band GNSS, GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, QZSS, NavIC
Sensors: Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Accelerometer, Gyrometer, Magnetometer, Barometer
Update policy: 7 years of OS, security and Pixel drop updates
Rating: IP68 water and dust resistance
Dimensions: 154.7 mm x 73.3 mm x 8.9 mm
Weight: 185.9 g

Google Pixel 9a price and availability

The Pixel 9a starts at $499 for the 128 GB model, while the 256 GB version costs $599. The device will be available at the Google Store and retail partners beginning in April. The Pixel 9a comes in 3 colors: Obsidian, Porcelain and Iris.

Vivaldi Browser 7.2: the speed boost it needed

Posted on March 18, 2025March 18, 2025 by Martin Brinkmann

Vivaldi Software has released a new version of its desktop browser today. Vivaldi 7.2 is available already. The company says that it implemented several speed optimizations in the browser as well as the usual mix of usability-enhancing options.

As for speed, Vivaldi has probably not been the fastest leanest browser out there in the past. Part of this comes from the awesome list of customization options that its users get. You can customize many aspects of the browser, including some that no other browser offers by default.

Vivaldi says that it has improved the performance of the web browser in two core areas:

The address bar.
Page loads.

As far as the address bar is concerned, it should deliver “quicker, and more relevant results” now. Vivaldi developers have tweaked suggestions and improved the accuracy of search. All this to help users find what they want faster.

Indeed, typing in Vivaldi’s address bar feels snappier after the upgrade to version 7.2. Mileage may vary though, so please let me know how you’d rate the experience after you have given it a try.

As for page load improvements. Vivaldi says it has optimized the browser’s connection handling and that this can lead in some cases to twice as fast page loads. I never really had issues with page loads in Vivaldi, but it surely feels as if pages load a bit snappier on my trusted HP laptop. Again, give this is a try and let me know how the experience is for you.

Priority shortcuts

Another new feature is the introduction of priority shortcuts. These are designed to take priority over any other shortcut, including those that websites may map when you visit them.

It is a power user’s feature, no doubt about that. Still, if you find the shortcut behavior on a particular site annoying, you may give it a shot.

Here is the list of other notable changes in Vivaldi 7.2:

You can now turn emails into events in Calendar.
There is a new Currency Widget to convert currency in real-time.
Quick Commands support Workspaces now.
Mail accounts can be reordered.

Additional information is available on the Vivaldi website. Existing users should receive the update automatically, but you can also select Vivaldi Menu > Help > Check for updates to get it right away. New users can download Vivaldi 7.2 from the official website to get started.

Now You: have you tried Vivaldi 7.2? What is your take on the new version? Noticed any speed improvements?

Curves Non-destructive filter being applied to a portrait of Sofiia being edited in GIMP. Photo by Sofia (CC by-sa 4.0 International)

Gimp 3.0 image editor is now available

Posted on March 17, 2025March 17, 2025 by Martin Brinkmann

When the Gimp development team started to work on Gimp 3.0 in 2020, it probably did not think that it would take five years to release the new version.

Gimp 3.0 is a major update that has been in the making for seven years, since the release of Gimp 2.10. The open source image editor is a popular alternative to commercial applications like Adobe Photoshop.

Highlights of the update are support for non-destructive effects, interface improvements, and the new GTK3 library, which improves scaling and tablet support. There is also an optional welcome dialog on start and improved color space management.

The release notes are available already, but download servers have not been updated yet. It may take a while before downloads become available officially.

Updated GTK3 user interface

The update to GTK3 brings several improvements along with it. Apart from better user interface scaling on high-resolution displays, it is also improving tablet input support.

Linux users may notice that GIMP 3.0 runs natively on Wayland now. An option to switch to X11 is still available, however.

Non-destructive layer effects

One of the big changes is support for non-destructive layer effects. Previously, adding a filter would have it merged automatically to the layer. This prevented you from making edits, as you had to use the undo function to do so.

Filters stay active in GIMP 3.0, which means that you can edit most filters without having to revert your work each time.

GIMP users who prefer the classic way can use the merge filters option when applying a filter to bring back the old functionality.

The team notes that the new filter effects can be saved “to XCF and reloaded for further editing” next to that.

Color space management

GIMP 3.0 offers extensive support for RGB color spaces beyond sRGB thanks to improved babl and GEGL libraries integrations.

The team notes:

For example, if you load an image with an AdobeRGB color profile, that information will be retained in all aspects of GIMP – allowing you to make whatever edits you need without losing color space information. This update also lays the groundwork for future CMYK and LAB image color modes.

Closing Words

GIMP 3.0 is a big update that improve things for users of the open source image editor in several meaningful ways. You can check out the full release notes, linked above, for additional release information.

Microsoft confirms bug that uninstalls Copilot app on Windows

Posted on March 16, 2025March 16, 2025 by Martin Brinkmann

Just a few days ago, Microsoft released the cumulative security updates for Windows 10 and 11 to the public. The company did not confirm any new issues at the time, but that has changed now.

A new issue has been confirmed that is affecting all supported client versions of Windows.

The details:

Windows 10, version 22H2 and Windows 11, versions 22H2, 23H2, and 24H2 are affected.
The bug uninstalls the Copilot app from the operating systems.
The Copilot icon is removed from the taskbar in the process as well.

Microsoft confirms furthermore that only the native Copilot app for Windows is affected. In other words, Microsoft 365 Copilot remains unaffected by the issue and won’t be uninstalled.

Microsoft writes:

We’re aware of an issue with the Microsoft Copilot app affecting some devices. The app is unintentionally uninstalled and unpinned from the taskbar.

Note: This issue has not been observed with the Microsoft 365 Copilot app.

It is unclear how widespread the issue is.

Workaround: affected users are asked to reinstall the Microsoft Copilot application from the Microsoft Store and pin it manually to the taskbar to restore the functionality.

Here are the links to the support articles and the KB IDs.

Windows 11, version 24H2 — KB5053598
Windows 11, version 23H2 / 22H2 — KB5053602
Windows 10, version 22H2 — KB5053606

Not all Windows users may be unhappy about this new bug. Granted, it is easy enough to remove Copilot from the system or hide it at least.

If you do not want to do it manually, you could give helper apps like O&O AppBuster or NoBloatBox a try.

Now it is your turn. Have you tried any of the Copilot apps on Windows ever since it was pushed onto systems by Microsoft?

Microsoft Edge for Android: more extensions now available, but one group is missing entirely

Posted on March 15, 2025March 15, 2025 by Martin Brinkmann

When Mozilla — finally — introduced support for extensions in Firefox, years to late, but still, it unlocked a whole new world for users of the mobile open source browser.

Up until that time, no major browser supported extensions no mobile. While there were some dedicated projects that supported mobile extensions, all major browsers did not. Imagine having to browse the Web without a content blocker.

The next best thing were browsers with integrated ad blockers. Vivaldi, Opera, or Brave come to mind.

Now that Firefox supports extensions, Microsoft has also moved on that front and integrated support for extensions in Edge for mobile.

Like Mozilla’s offering initially, Microsoft is limiting available extensions right now. Unlike Mozilla, Microsoft is not offering a single content blocker at this point.

Extensions in Edge Stable for Mobile

Once you have upgraded Edge Stable to the latest version on Android, you gain access to extensions with a click on Menu > Extensions. There you find the list of supported extensions. Some good ones are available, including Tampermonkey, Dark Reader, or Bitwarden Password Manager. There is also a video downloader, cookie manager, and some other useful extensions.

What you do not get is a content blocker. Granted, with Google’s decision to stop Manifest V2 extensions from working in Chromium and Chrome, popular choices like uBlock Origin are no longer compatible. But the lite version is also nowhere to be found. The same is true for other content blockers.

Microsoft does not explain why that is the case, only that more extensions “are coming soon”. So, the good news is that Edge is getting support for a wider range of extensions. The bad news is that no extension of, probably, the most popular extension type is available.

Closing Words

Support for extensions is a welcome feature on mobile, as it gives users more options to customize their experience while using the browser. Content blockers are a must, and it is puzzling that Microsoft has not added a single one to the list of supported extensions at this stage.

So, for now at least, you might want to stick to Firefox, the one browser with excellente mobile extensions support. Or, at least a browser with a proper content blocker, like Brave.