Lock Files More Easily In Google Drive

Google is going to add an option allowing people to lock their files more easily in Google Drive. In order to lock files, users need to right-click the file and choose "File information." Then, they need to tap on "Lock". When a file is locked, it ensures that reviewers are unable to change a file. Besides, adding comments, edits and suggestions to the locked documents will not be possible. The procedure of restricting files in the drive, which is simplified & streamlined by this update, was earlier available via the Google Drive API or via file approvals.

How Will Lock Files More Easily In Google Drive Help Users?

Users will get benefits from the feature when many documents (that are viewable to the public) are used & shared. As soon as you see a file locked, it will go into read-only mode. Therefore, people with access to the file will be able to view this only. Earlier, users were able to lock a file or document via a Google Drive API call. Now, the locking process is simplified by the new feature.

End Users:

• If you want to lock your Drive file, you need to have edit-access to the drive file.
• When you hover over a file in Drive, you need to right-click into the context menu. Then, your task is to select "File information." After that, you should choose the "Lock" option. Now, select "Lock" to ensure that you are willing to lock the document.
• As soon as a file is locked, no one will be able to make edits to the Doc until it is unlocked. Unlocking a file is possible through the context menu.

Rollout Pace:

• Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout for up to fifteen days to view the feature started on September 5, 2023.

• Scheduled Release domains: In this case, the Gradual rollout starts on September 20, 2023.

Google Drive Lock File Availability:

All Google Workspace customers can get this feature.

Duet AI in Workspace apps:

Recently, Google announced that it is adding some AI-powered enhancements to the Workspace apps. Google Duet AI assists users in generating results based on text prompts in Gmail & Google Docs.

The drag & drop feature was added last month by Google to Google Drive multi-instance support on Android devices that have large screens. These let you share files & folders between two different accounts quickly. Google also added an extra feature that allows the users to empty a shared drive's whole trash folder for making the management of shared drive files easier. Thus, users do not need to remove items in the trash folder manually.

The option to lock files more easily in Google Drive will prevent accidental edits to ensure the authenticity of files. The tweak doesn't have any admin control. This latest upgrade to Google Drive will be useful for its customers all over the world. Moreover, Google has introduced a new 'Spam' folder to the sidebar, working the same as the spam folder.

Conclusion:

Now, all Google Workspace users can lock files in their Google Drive. In this way, this new feature prevents company employees from editing as well as making any comments on documents. In addition, they can't add unwanted suggestions to locked documents.

 

Google Cloud Next '23

Google Cloud will welcome a lot of people to San Francisco for the first in-person event. The CEO of Google Cloud is feeling excited to bring several customers & partners together to showcase the outstanding innovations. It has been a long time since they have been working across a complete infrastructure portfolio, Data & AI, Workspace Collaboration, and cybersecurity solutions.

 Google Cloud

Google Cloud has achieved a few milestones, like reaching a $32B annual revenue run rate in Q2 2023 event. They have also shared a few awesome stories about how they work with leading organizations such as Deutsche Borse, Culture Amp, eDreams ODIGEO, IHOP, IPG Mediabrands, HSBC, John Lewis Partnership, Macquarie Bank, Priceline, The Knot Worldwide, Shopify, the Singapore Government, U.S. Steel, & Wendy's. At Google Cloud Next '23, they announced new relationships with The Estée Lauder Companies, FOX Sports, GE Appliances, General Motors, HCA Healthcare, etc. CEO Thomas Kurian thanks every customer as they keep trusting in Google Cloud.

At Google Cloud Next ’23, they said that they are now glad to announce new ways which are beneficial for each business, government, and user benefit from generative AI & famous cloud technologies:

 

• AI-optimized Infrastructure:

  This most advanced infrastructure helps companies to train as well as serve models. The infrastructure is offered in the cloud regions to run in the data centers with Google Distributed Cloud.

 Vertex AI:

• Developer tools can be used for creating models & AI-powered applications along with major advancements in Vertex AI, to generate custom models and produce custom Search and Conversation apps using enterprise data.

 Duet AI:

• This AI collaborator is integrated deeply into Google Workspace & Google Cloud. It can provide users a project manager, a writing helper, a spreadsheet expert, a note taker for meetings, as well as a creative visual designer. This one can collaborate from different perspectives. For instance, it can be an expert coder, a database pro, a software reliability engineer, an expert data analyst, and a cybersecurity adviser.

 New infrastructure and tools to help customers:

Gen AI has become too revolutionary for the broad applications and advanced capabilities that require a sophisticated infrastructure. It has been 25 years since Google Cloud continues to invest in its data centers & networks. Currently, they have a huge network expanding almost 38 cloud regions. The aim of Google Cloud is to operate totally on carbon-free energy 24/7 by 2030.

 The AI-optimized infrastructure is an excellent choice that helps to train and serve gen AI models. In this case, it needs to be mentioned that more than 70% of gen AI unicorns are Google Cloud customers such as Cohere, AI21, Jasper, MosaicML, Replit, Runway, Anthropic, & Typeface. At Google Cloud Next '23 event, they announced crucial infrastructure advancements to assist customers, like:

 

• Cloud TPU v5e: It is the most versatile and affordable AI accelerator. As a customer, it is possible to use a single Cloud TPU platform with the intention of running large-scale AI training & inference. This one is optimised for efficiency and can scale to tens of thousands of chips. Regarding training performance for each dollar, this one can offer up to two times more improvement than a Cloud TPU v4.

 A3 VMs with NVIDIA H100 GPU:

• It is powered by NVIDIA's H100 GPU and is expected to be available in the next month. This one is made with high-performance networking for enabling the popular gen AI and LLM innovations. Thus, organizations can achieve training performance three times better than the prior generation A2.

 

• Cross-Cloud Network: This one is a global networking platform where people can connect applications & secure them across clouds. The platform can provide ML-powered security for offering zero-level trust. This network is designed in a way that allows customers to access Google services from any cloud. Besides, it helps to decrease the level of network latency by up to 35%.

 

• Google Distributed Cloud: The purpose of its design is to meet the organization's demands. By enhancing the GDC portfolio, Google Cloud is trying to bring artificial intelligence to the edge.

 Vertex AI platform gets even better:

Vertex AI, which is the most comprehensive AI platform, is their best infrastructure, allowing people to create, deploy and scale ML-based models. People can access over a hundred foundation models like third-party open-source versions. They are optimized for various tasks like text, chat, images, speech, software code, etc. Sec-PaLM 2 and other industry-specific models are offered for cybersecurity. Thus, it becomes possible to empower Tenable & other global security providers and life science companies such as HCA Healthcare, and Meditech.

 With the help of the Vertex AI Search & Conversation, organizations are able to generate Search & Chat apps within minutes with a little bit of coding, enterprise-grade management & security built in. Also, it is possible to get friendly tools from the Vertex AI Generative AI Studio to customize models with enterprise-grade controls. Developers can create sophisticated applications depending on semantic understanding of text or images and RLHF, using developer tools such as Text Embeddings API.

 

• Digital Watermarking on Vertex AI: It is powered by Google DeepMind SynthID, which can provide state-of-the-art technology to embed watermarks into images of pixels. As a result, it helps to make it invisible to the human eye and hard to tamper with. This watermarking can give you a scalable approach to recognising AI-generated images responsibly. Google Cloud is the first cloud provider to deliver the technology for AI-generated pictures.

 

• Colab Enterprise: It is a managed service combining enterprise-level security & compliance abilities and Google's Colab notebooks. Using this, service data scientists can accelerate AI workflows while having access to Vertex AI platform capabilities.

 The Vertex AI is designed to provide the users full control of  their data, code, and IP. If you customize and train a model with Vertex AI, the data will not be exposed to the foundation model. The model's snapshot enables you to train & encapsulate this together in a private configuration.

Duet AI in Google Cloud

 Hence, Duet AI in Google Cloud announcements come with some advancements for:

 

• Software development: It can offer expert assistance across the whole software development lifecycle. As a result, developers can be more productive by following the approach to minimize context switching. Customers can also modernize applications with the help of code refactoring. In addition, the Duet AI in Apigee allows developers to produce APIs and integrations.

 

• Application & infrastructure operations: With Duet AI, operators are able to chat in natural language across several services in the Google Cloud Console.

 

• Data Analytics: In BigQuery, Duet AI can help contextually write SQL queries & Python code. Besides, it can build full functions & code blocks, suggest code completions automatically, etc. Depending on the metadata & scheme, it produces recommendations. The capabilities let data teams focus more on the results.

 

• Accelerating & modernizing databases: Duet AI in AlloyDB, Cloud Spanner and Cloud SQL is useful for producing code with the intention of structuring, modifying, or querying data. Google Cloud has brought the Duet AI's power to DMS for automating the conversion of database code.

 

Conclusion:

 Currently, humans are in the digital transformation era, which is getting charged or fueled by gen AI.

Technology helps to improve the way businesses operate as well as the way humans interact with each other. In this event, it is said that Google Cloud is grateful for the opportunity to be on this journey with their customer.

 

iPhone 15

Apple released iPhone 14, iPhone 14 & 14 Pro models in September 2022. But we heard about iPhone 15 rumors before these latest iPhones were available for purchase. Apple plans to release four iPhone 15 models including two 6.1-inch iPhones & two 6.7-inch iPhones. One of the 6.1-inch iPhones will be the standard iPhone 15, while the iPhone 15 "Plus" will be a 6.7-inch model. The other 6.1 & 6.7-inch iPhones will be high-end models and more expensive.

 As with the iPhone 14/14 Pro lineup, iPhone 15 Pro models will get the best features that will make the additional cost worth it. We are only a few weeks away from the annual fall event, where the next iPhone, unofficially called the iPhone 15 series, will be unveiled.

Will the iPhone 15 have a USB-C port, or will the iPhone 15 series have slimmer bezels? Until Apple throws the next iPhone event, we will not get to know the answer to these questions and the event is expected to be conducted in September. These are the biggest rumours that will give you an idea about what you should expect from the iPhone 15 series.

 iPhone 15 Design:

 Hello USB-C, no need for Lightning:

For many years, the feature has been circulating around the rumour mill. But this year, the switch from a Lightning Port to a USB-C port may finally happen. It is usually driven by pressure from the European Union that has been pushing for a common charging standard for several years. In the previous year, the bloc passed legislation requiring the company to equip its iPhones with USB-C ports by 2024, whether it wants to sell these in the EU. If you see this happening, the question is if the company will switch all models of iPhone to USB-C or only those sold in the EU. In this regard, you need to know that the company modifies its models regionally as it has done with the iPhone 14. The US version has an electronic SIM, whereas other variants retain the SIM slot. Avi Greengart, analyst at Techsponential, said that behind moving all iPhones to USB-C, there are good reasons.

 Mark Gurman, who is a reporter for Bloomberg, said that iPhone 15 Pro & iPhone 15 Pro Max models receive USB-C ports this year. It is expected that the complete transition may happen next year with the iPhone 16.

 USB-C Data Transfer Speeds:

iPhone 15 Pro models, which come with USB-C ports, are compatible with higher-speed data transfers. Besides, you can experience the benefits of USB 2.0 speeds in the standard iPhone 15 models. Along with this, it features the same as Lightning, which can give Pro models an edge.

 Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the Pro models are compatible with at least USB 3.2 or Thunderbolt 3. The upgrade will allow the models to transfer video as well as other file types at quicker speeds. The transfer speed of USB 2.0 is limited to 480Mb/s, whereas USB 3.2 is compatible with speeds up to 20Gb/s. If the company provides Thunderbolt 3 support for the iPhone 15 Pro models, users can get data transfer speeds up to 40Gb/s.

 Dynamic Island expands to all models:

The company is expected to sell four iPhone models continuously with the iPhone 15 lineup. Rumours direct to a similar design across the board except the shape-shifting cutout ( known as Dynamic Island) of iPhone 14 Pro. 

 We get the rumour from the display analyst Ross Young. He said already in a tweet that he didn't expect the iPhone 15 models to come with a higher refresh rate just like Apple's Pro iPhones. The reason is that the supply chain is unable to support this.

 Skinnier bezels:

Gurman said that the company might use a new manufacturing technology, "low-injection pressure over-moulding, " to create the Pro iPhones. The same process is used for a few Apple Watch models. It helps the company to reduce the bezel size by fractions of a millimeter. As a result, it will make an ever-so-slight increment in screen real estate.

 Color Options:

You can get iPhone 15 models in dark pink & light blue color options. The company often provides the standard iPhone models in several bright colors, and the same will happen in 2023 also.

 iPhone 15 colors will be bright pink & blue shades along with the standard black, white, & PRODUCT(RED).

 Case Fit:

A set of 3D-printed iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Pro models give insight into how prior-generation iPhone 14 cases fit. Older cases can't be used with the new iPhones.

If any changes are done in the dimensions of the iPhone 15 lineup, it will not allow the cases to get fitted. However, iPhone 15 Plus can fit inside an iPhone 14 Plus case. If the Pro models include a larger rear camera, it will not allow iPhone 14 Pro cases to work properly.

 Frosted Glass:

According to an unconfirmed rumour from Weibo, the iPhone 15 models might come with a frosted glass back. The company has limited this design to the Pro models. Generally, standard models are available in a glossy black, whereas you can see the use of frosted glass in the more expensive models.

 iPhone 15— Upgraded ultra wideband:

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that this iPhone version will run on an upgraded Ultra Wideband processor to integrate with the new HR headset named Vision Pro. The upgraded ultra-wideband processor is known as the U1 chip. UWB is actually a short-range wireless communication standard that is used to monitor any object's location. While it helps to pinpoint the Apple AirTag, it allows you to unlock the car when you walk up to it with the mobile. According to Kuo on Twitter, this is Apple's broader strategy for creating a more competitive ecosystem for Vision Pro.

 iPhone 15— Wireless charging upgrade:

 ChargerLab, a power specialist website with great track records, said that the iPhone 15 models will be compatible with 15-watt wireless charging using the Qi2 open standard. If it is true, the iPhone model will bring a new world of wireless charging devices and will replenish the models at its full speed. Previously, the company limited open wireless charging standards to 7.5W and left the entire 15W charge speed for Apple MagSafe licensed accessories.

 iPhone 15 camera:

 Periscope-style telephoto lens arrives:

According to the forecast of Apple observer Ming-Chi Kuo, we can expect iPhone 15 Pro Max to be available with a periscope-style telephoto lens. This analyst with TF International Securities says that the telephoto lens features higher optical zoom levels. Besides, Kuo says that the iPhone 15 Pro Max might have a 6x optical zoom. Hence, you need to know that the iPhone 14 Pro Max model's optical zoom is limited to 3x, lagging behind competitors like Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra's 10x optical zoom. Unknownz21, the famous leak source and Twitter user, bolstered the rumour and said that the Pro Max model is expected to feature the special lens. The company's plan to adopt these zoom lenses is one of the rumours, but the feature is limited to the larger-sized iPhone 15 Pro Max.

While standard zoom lenses will be available in the iPhone 15 Pro, the iPhone 15 models will have Wide & Ultra Wide lenses. According to Ming-Chi Kuo, the iPhone 15 pro max will come with a periscope-style telephoto lens which has higher optical zoom capabilities and let you zoom 5x or even 10x optically. The zoom feature of the latest Pro models is exponentially enhanced with a periscope lens because the current Pro models' limitation is 3x zoom.

 An angled mirror is used with the periscope lens to reflect light toward the image sensor in the camera. The directional shift comes with a "folded" telephoto lens system which can be used to improve optical zoom capabilities without the blurriness that can come with digital zoom. According to the belief of Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the company can implement 6× optical zoom technology when the lens is adopted.

 iPhone 15 Ultra camera— Variable zoom:

Tipster Revengus said that a telephoto camera would be available in the iPhone 15 Ultra, which includes a variable zoom lens. Continuous or variable optical zoom cameras are usually unavailable on smartphones for different purposes. The reasons are that size & design of phone cameras restrict the type of lenses which can be used. 

 iPhone 15 Power— Increased RAM for pro models:

 Taiwanese research firm TrendForce stated that iPhone 15 lineup's Pro models are upgraded to 8GB from 6GB in order to complement the anticipated A17 Bionic chipset. TrendForce says that base models will receive 6GB RAM. Analyst Jeff Pu of Haitong International Securities backed up the rumour by giving a research report.

 Qualcomm Modem Chips:

5G modem chips of Qualcomm will be used by the company for the 2023 iPhone 15 lineup because 5G iPhones were introduced. The company might use its in-house modem chips this year. This technology will not be ready until 2024 at the earliest.

The same Qualcomm modem chip, the X70, is used in iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models. This chip can deliver enhanced AI for different purposes like faster processing speeds, a better coverage range, improved signal, lower latency, etc.

SIM Card Tray:

The company removed the SIM card tray after the launch of iPhone 14 models in the devices which are sold in the US. After launching the iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Pro models, Apple can remove the SIM tray in additional countries.

According to the rumours, it may be eliminated in France in the future. If it happens, it may be removed in iPhones which are sold in Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the UK.

Wi-Fi 6E and UWB:

Although the leaked information says that the company may upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E, this feature could be limited to the iPhone 15 Pro models. The iPhone 15 Pro & iPhone 15 Pro Max models will come with Wi-Fi 6E. But Wi-Fi 6 will be used by the standard iPhone 15 models.

 Wi-Fi 6E can offer more bandwidth than Wi-Fi 6. It is able to offer faster connectivity speeds, lower latency, & increased capacity. In the 6GHz band, Wi-Fi 6E can offer 1.2GHz more spectrum. The iPhone 15 models are expected to be equipped with a next-generation Ultra Wideband chip integrating with the Vision Pro headset. The processor which the chip will use can be upgraded to 7nm. This change helps to improve performance and reduce energy consumption.

 A-Series Chips:

We expect that iPhone 15 Pro models will be the first to come with an A-series chip designed on Apple supplier TSMC's next-generation 3-nanometer node. 3nm chip technology helps to boost the processing performance by 10-15%. At the same time, this will help to reduce power consumption by up to 35%. If you want faster chips, these will be available only to the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. The iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus might feature a 4-nanometer A16 chip used first in the iPhone's 14 Pro & 14 Pro Max.

 Other features:

 No Touch ID:

Rumours are saying that the company might offer Touch ID again to its flagship iPhones through an under-display solution. However, these models are expected to continue using Face ID, not Touch ID.

 Although the company is now working on an under-display Face ID feature, we can't get this ready until at least 2025. Instead, the model will use Dynamic Island, and the company might expand the feature to all iPhone models, not only the Pro models.

 Repairability:

It is possible to repair both iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models. The company included a chassis redesign allowing them to open to swap the back glass with the iPhone 14 & iPhone 14 Plus. However, the change might persist in the iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus models. According to the rumours, the company is going to use a new chassis design for iPhone 15 Pro & Pro Max. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that these iPhone models can be opened from the front & back sides. As a result, the repair fees will be less for damaged back glass.

 The cost for now to repair the back glass of an iPhone 14 is $169, whereas, for a 14 Pro, you need to invest $499 because of the requirement of pulling out the display to get to the back glass.

 Pricing:

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman thinks that Apple can increase the price of iPhone 15 Pro & Pro Max. According to analyst Jeff Pub, the price of the iPhone 15 Pro may start at $1,099. According to the prediction of Jeff Pu, the starting price of the iPhone 15 Pro Max can be $1,199. According to the suggestion of another analyst, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is up to $200 costlier than the iPhone 14 Pro Max. We don't expect any increment in the pricing for the standard iPhone 15 models, whereas the starting price of the entry level iPhone 15 model will be $799.

 iPhone 15 Release Date:

The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models can be unveiled at a September event. It might be held on either Tuesday, September 12 or Wednesday, September 13. Based on the timing, pre-orders will be taken on Friday, September 15.

 Manufacturing and Availability:

As soon as the devices go up for pre-orders, the standard iPhone 15 models will be available. Depending on the rumours, it is heard that supplies of the iPhone 15 Pro & iPhone 15 Pro Max can be constrained. Display manufacturing was facing problems. However, there is at least one source which informs that these issues have been overcome. Samsung has begun mass-producing OLED displays that can be used in the four iPhone 15 models. Display panels are planned to be produced for the devices by LG Display & BOE. While LG creates iPhone 15 Pro displays, BOE can manufacture iPhone 15 & iPhone 15 Plus displays.

 Conclusion:

Here, we have given the information based on the biggest rumours that will give you an idea about what to expect from the iPhone 15 series. If you have further queries, you can ask us via comments.

 Frequently Asked Questions

 Is iPhone 15 coming?

 Apple Launch Event is confirmed to be conducted in September 2023. Then, the iPhone 15 models will be launched.

 What is special about iPhone 15?

iPhone 15 is Apple's upcoming mobile which is expected to come with a 6.06-inch display.

 What is the max storage of the iPhone 15?

2TB is the max storage for both iPhone 15 Pro & iPhone 15 Pro Max models.