Speechify The Speechify text-to-speech app enables its over 50 million users worldwide to convert any text, including documents, articles, PDFs, and images into audio, with over 200 voices to choose from. Now, the company is delving into a new type of audio: AI-generated podcasts. Also: I finally gave NotebookLM my full attention – and it […] More
Kerry Wan/ZDNETOnePlus is holding a new Back to School sales event for its most recent flagship phone, the OnePlus 13. Right now, you can buy the 256GB OnePlus 13 More
Microsoft / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET ZDNET’s key takeaways Microsoft has released new “lightweight” companion taskbar apps.Companion apps launch when you start your computer.The apps include People, File Search, and Calendar.Microsoft will be pushing an update to your work computer soon, and it might actually be fairly useful. A series of new lightweight Microsoft apps is on the way, but you’ll be able to launch them straight from your taskbar.Also: 5 free Windows PC apps I always install first (and how they improve your workflow)In an update on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, the company detailed a new suite of companion apps, or apps that automatically launch when you start your computer and give you quick access to important information straight from your Windows taskbar. Available apps include People, File Search, and Calendar. Here’s a look at each one, and why you’d want quick access.1. PeopleMicrosoft People is a contact management app and address book that lets you organize and connect with your contacts, plus look up anyone in your organization. You can sync contacts from different sources like email accounts, social networks, and other apps, or start a Teams call with a contact. 2. File SearchFile Search companion lets you quickly find Microsoft 365 files (from OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, and other services) straight from your Windows taskbar, meaning you don’t need to switch apps to find what you need. You can search by file name, file author, or keywords. There’s a comprehensive search, options to narrow down search results using filters, file previews to make sure you have the right document, and the option to share files directly within the app. 3. CalendarThe Microsoft 365 Calendar app is a collaborative calendar that lets you create events, set reminders, and more to keep your day organized. It syncs across all of your devices, and it integrates with other tools to let you view and manage your schedule, tasks, and to-do lists in one place. Also: Windows has a secret recovery tool – here’s how to find it and use itThis doesn’t bring any new functionality to these apps, but it ties 365 services a little deeper into Windows (and from Microsoft’s view, hopefully keeps you using the easily accessible Windows services instead of a competing one). More
Kerry Wan/ZDNETEvery month, Google sends me a report about where I’ve been, and I have to say that I’m not a fan. In fact, the idea that Google is following me around, via Maps, disturbs me. That’s not the only issue I have with the default Maps app. It seems every time I have to depend on the app, my Pixel 9 Pro battery gets drained faster than when using any other app.Those two issues alone are enough to make me question why I use such an app. That’s why, when I heard about CoMaps, I immediately wanted to know what it was all about.Also: Waze vs. Google Maps: Which navigation app is best?CoMaps is a fork of Organic Maps, which means it has quite a bit of history (Organic Maps was based on MapsWithMe, which turned into Maps.me). MapsWithMe was an early attempt at bringing the open-source concept to the maps space and used OpenStreetMap data. MapsWithMe was aquired in 2014 by the Maps.ru group and was part of the My.com brand.CoMaps is an open-source map app that’s available for both Android and iOS. CoMaps features:Offline search and route planning (with or without a network connection)Less battery drain than Google MapsNo identifying people, no tracking, and no data collectionFree and no adsVoice-guided directionsAccess to offline Wikipedia articles and subway mapsThe ability to mark and save locationsSupport for exporting and importing data (to KML, KMZ, and GPX formats)A built-in map editor (which helps improve the OpenStreeMap data)CoMaps is community-driven, open-source, transparent, and the developers aren’t concerned with making a profit. The app is fairly new (just hitting Google Play Store and the Apple App Store around July 3), but it’s still very functional and makes for a great Google Maps replacement. More
Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETA quick Google search will surface article after article claiming that Waze is far better than Google Maps. But is that actually true? I’m a longtime Google Maps (and Google Earth) user. I swear by the app, and I regularly side-eye anyone who says otherwise — especially, god forbid, Apple Maps users. Also: This hidden Google Maps feature is making people emotional – here’s whyI’m also a tech editor, though, which means I do my best to set aside personal bias in the name of journalism. Every now and then, I force myself to try alternative navigation apps — and that includes Waze, which, in case you didn’t know, Google acquired in 2013. So, if you’re looking for a true feature-by-feature breakdown of how Waze compares to Google Maps, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve tried both, and I’m here to tell you which one really gets you where you need to go faster, smarter, and better. Is Waze or Google Maps better? Let’s break down all the major features to find a clear winner. Will the final scorecard surprise us both? Maybe. More
Asus ProArt P16 <!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways Asus’ ProArt P16 is on sale for $2,500 at Best Buy. This year’s model keeps much of what made the previous generation so good, with key hardware improvements. It also means it has the same problems as before, such as running hot. –> If you’re familiar with Asus’ […] More
Is it worth updating to iOS 18.6? Absolutely. While there are no new bells and whistles, it patches a high-severity WebKit zero-day (CVE-2025-6558) and more. Can I change the Action button? Sure! Go to Settings > Action Button to customize the new Action Button on iPhone 15 Pro/16/16E/16 Pro. Just swipe to pick a task like Camera, Shazam, Remote for Apple TV, or even a Shortcut or Visual Intelligence action, then tap Choose to set it. Can I customize the home screen? Of course. Give your home screen a fresh look by entering jiggle mode (long-press the screen), tapping Edit > Customize, and then: Reposition apps anywhere on the grid.Expand icons into widgets by tapping the resize handles.Choose Automatic, Dark, Light, or Tinted icon styles (use the eyedropper to match your wallpaper).Toggle Large icons to hide labels and boost visibility.Tap anywhere to apply and then exit. Voila! Will these tweaks work on any iPhone model? Most of these work on any iPhone running iOS 18 or later. However, features like Prioritize Notifications and the Action Button require an Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 model. Get the morning’s top stories in your inbox each day with our Tech Today newsletter. More
Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETZDNET’s key takeawaysClaude Sonnet 4 now has one million context tokens.As a result, the model can process much larger developer tasks.Developers can access it now, but API pricing does increase for certain requests. We all have that friend who is a great active listener and can recall details from past interactions, which then feeds into better conversations in the future. Similarly, AI models have context windows that impact how much content they can reference — and Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet just got a huge upgrade that should let it do a lot more for you. Also: Microsoft Copilot 3D turns your 2D images into 3D models for free – how to tryClaude Sonnet 4 can now support up to one million tokens of context, marking a fivefold increase from the prior 200,000, Anthropic said on Tuesday. With this large context window, Claude Sonnet can process codebases with over 75,000 lines of code or dozens of research papers with a single API request. The longer context window allows developers to use Claude for more data-heavy projects, such as large-scale code analysis and document synthesis, as mentioned above, but also context-aware agents that require a lot of material to operate complex workflows. Anthropic describes Claude Sonnet as a “hybrid reasoning model with superior intelligence.” ZDNET’s own internal testing has found it to be a very capable model, even outperforming what Anthropic touted at the time as its most advanced coding model, Opus 4. Sonnet passed all four coding tests while Claude Opus failed two.Also: How you can still access GPT-4o, o3, and other older models in ChatGPTDevelopers interested in trying the upgraded Sonnet 4 can access it in public beta on the Anthropic API as customers with Tier 4 and custom rate limits. It is also available on third-party cloud computing platforms, starting with Amazon Bedrock, and coming soon to Google Cloud’s Vertex AI. The API pricing does increase for prompts over 200K tokens. Since launching the Claude 4 models in May, Anthropic has been riding a wave of steady upward momentum. Claude Code, a fan favorite coding assistant that can be called on directly in a developer’s workspace to write or manage code, shipped 10 features in the last month, and its highly anticipated Opus 4.1 was released last week. The company reports that its B2B run-rate revenue has grown 17 times YoY as of June 2025. Artificial Intelligence More
