Meta has been struggling with the European market for its two major apps, Facebook and Instagram, due to the region’s strict privacy regulations. In fact, the tech giant had been hit with a record $1.3 billion fine for how it mishandled European user data back in May 2023 and since then Meta has been trying to avoid directly tussling with regulators.

But in a new and exclusive report from The Wall Street Journal (via TechCrunch), Meta has seemingly gone through with a solution to its regulation woes first brought up back in September – offer an ad-free subscription to European users, which would let them opt out of having their data harvested. 

According to the plan, Meta would charge €10 (about $17) a month for desktop Facebook and Instagram users and €6 (about $14) for each additional linked account. That price would go up to €13 a month for mobile device users due to Meta factoring in commissions charged by Apple and Google app stores. And what about those who can’t or won’t pay up? Then most likely they’ll be ‘opting in’ for ads and for having their social media usage tracked by the tech giant. 

TechRadar reached out to Meta for comment in order to both clarify the reported deal as well as confirm that users would have to pay up for free users. We received the following statement from spokesperson Matt Pollard: “Meta believes in the value of free services that are supported by personalized ads. However, we continue to explore options to ensure we comply with evolving regulatory requirements. We have nothing further to share at this time.”

The statement, though neither confirming nor denying the WSJ report, did point to the Court of Justice of the EU’s recent judgment that users shouldn’t be denied the use of a service if they don’t consent to data processing. But “users are to be offered, if necessary for an appropriate fee, an equivalent alternative not accompanied by such data processing operations.” This does hint at Meta at least being interested in charging for opt-outs.

More evidence pointing in that direction comes from a previous Meta blog post about intending to move to consent for tracking ads in the EU. However, that was followed by this statement: “Once this change is in place, advertisers will still be able to run personalized advertising campaigns to reach potential customers and grow their businesses.”

Which of course begs the question — could the US see this sort of ad-free subscriptions in the future? On one hand, it's unlikely since this is only a possibility in the EU in the first place due to its much stricter privacy regulations. But if the US government ever decided to tighten its own reigns on how data is collected and used by social media giants (and not just TikTok), then Meta might have to bring this concept across the pond.

So where does Meta stand in all this? Officially, we only have word from WSJ that Meta is trying to move forward with this subscription plan, but nothing confirming or denying from the tech giant itself. But going by past and present evidence, it’s definitely possible. The only thing we can really do is wait for any official confirmation from Meta.

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ChromeOS has been getting plenty of upgrades to its video editing since 2022, and now it's getting even more from Google Photos. 

According to a new Google support page post, Google Photos will be empowering the best Chromebooks everywhere with even more new features. Jumping off from Chromebook’s Gallery app integration in 2022, Google Photos has added more support for Gallery and Files by allowing you to “seamlessly” use photos and images saved on the Chromebook and edit them in Google Photos. 

Another major edit comes in the form of revamped movie creation tools on the Photos app, which lets you create a movie from scratch using a suggested theme. After you choose a theme from the Photos app, as well as the people or pets you want to be included in the movie, the video editor uses video clips and photos you have stored that match that theme and strings them together into a custom movie. If you want a more hands-on approach instead, Google Photos has a search feature that lets you find and arrange all that media yourself.

Google has a full how-to on creating movies, as well as editing photos and videos, through the app on ChromeOS. But it’s a simple process that involves the following:

• Install the Google Photos app 
• Open up the media you want to be edited and select Edit. 
• From there you choose whichever editing tool you want to use. 

If you want to create a movie:

• Select Creations on the Google Photos app
• Choose either the suggested movie option or New movie

Chromebooks are getting more recognition

ChromeOS, once the oft-ignored child of Google that's been the platform for the best cheap laptop option for school kids and nothing more, has been growing in both popularity among users and in support by its own creator. 

Last year, we saw the debut of the HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook, considered by our standards to be the best Chromebook and one that can stand toe to toe with plenty of the best Ultrabooks out there.

More features like the aforementioned updates to Google Photos and the addition of more Apple support via one of the best video editors, Apple’s LumaFusion app, have become commonplace in the last several years. We even have gaming Chromebooks like the Acer Chromebook 516 GE that are specifically designed to handle high-end gaming via the cloud.

And, unlike even the best Windows laptop, ChromeOS simply doesn’t see the kinds of viruses and malware plaguing other operating systems, meaning you don’t need to worry about constantly protecting and scanning your machine for threats (or cleaning it out if something nasty does worm its way in).

It’ll be interesting to see how much more support Chromebooks get in the future, but it’s an exciting time for Chromebook fans.

Deepfake photos are fast approaching the point where many can’t tell the difference between them and real images. It’s a lesson AI image generator Midjourney learned the hard way when some used its platform to create several recent images, including several fakes of former US President Donald Trump being arrested. After the images went viral, many thought they were real, sparking conversations and controversy based on completely fabricated information.

According to The Washington Post and reported on by The Verge, these deepfakes became so widespread, they prompted Midjourney to halt free trials on March 28. However, when TechRadar reached out to Midjourney CEO and founder David Holz for clarification, he insisted that there was a different reason for the halt: “Users signing up for multiple free trial accounts was bringing down the service for paid users so that's why we temporarily halted free trials.”

This correlates with a previous statement Holz made to The Verge concerning the free trials, that it was due to “extraordinary demand and trial abuse.” Previously, Midjourney’s free trial allowed for 25 free images a month before users had to pay at least a $10 per month subscription fee. 

When asked about the creation of these controversial deepfakes created through Midjourney, Holz told TechRadar “I think we're still trying to figure out what the right moderation policies are. We are taking feedback from experts and the community and trying to be really thoughtful. We already have some new systems coming which should ship soon.”

Now, though, it looks like Midjourney will be keeping free trials disabled, at least for the immediate future. “We tried turning trials back on again with new safeties for abuse but they didn’t seem to be sufficient so we are turning it back off again to maintain the service for everyone else,” Holz told us.

He added that free trials will be coming back eventually, but the company is still considering how to go about it. “We're still trying to figure out how to bring free trials back, we tried to require an active email but that wasn't enough so we're back to the drawing board.”

What is Midjourney?

Midjourney is just one of several AI image generators, with others including Dall-E, Jasper Art, Starry AI, Stable Diffusion, and plenty of others. These sites exist to create new and entirely fabricated images that are trained on existing online images and data. The images can be photorealistic, fanciful images of animals, surreal images, pixel art, and more. What originally set Midjourney apart from other generators was the more painting-like quality of its images compared to others. At least until version 5 was released on March 15.

Initially, Midjourney-created images were easily spotted thanks to common signs like wonky hands (too many fingers). But once version 5 of its software launched, images became vastly superior in quality, which meant that people could create images with more realistic hands, as well as better lighting and fabric. Essentially you can make tons of deepfakes of celebrities and other public figures thanks to the combination of better technology and the sheer number of real-life images available for training Midjourney.

Deepfakes, or photos created using AI technology for the purpose of spreading misinformation with fake images, have become a growing problem. Beyond the Donald Trump arrest deepfakes, others created with Midjourney featured Pope Francis wearing a puffy, white down coat, French President Emmanuel Macron walking through the ongoing protests in Paris, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk holding hands with U.S. representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

This isn’t the first time that AI-generated creations have been at the center of controversy, as tech leaders and AI experts recently released an open letter calling for the halt of training AI chatbots like ChatGPT. 

The future of AI-generated image sites like Midjourney is uncertain. While the technology holds great potential to aid humans, it can and has already been used in more destructive ways. Only time will tell whether safeguards, from lawmakers to the companies themselves, can manage safety and public good, while still allowing AI to flourish and grow.

Just last year we received the MacBook Air refresh, which not only came equipped with Apple’s updated M2 silicon as well as other changes like the screen size increasing from 13.3 inches to 13.6 inches, new color choices, a bigger webcam, and more screen real estate. Yet we’re already hearing rumors of a brand new Air for this year, which is interesting to say the least.

This would be the MacBook Air (2023), which is reported to have an M3 Apple chip and come in two flavors: a 13-inch and a 15-inch model. And if certain rumors are to be trusted, we could even see an announcement for an upcoming refresh as soon as next month’s Apple Spring event. There's also speculation that we could see an OLED MacBook Air in the not-too-distant future - more on that future down.

Of course, this is all conjecture based on rumors, so make sure to take all this with a healthy grain of salt until Apple makes an official announcement. But if this turns out to be true, the reveal could serve to make a huge splash among the Apple faithful, and for good reason too.

MacBook Air (2023): Cut to the chase

• What is it? Apple's refresh of the MacBook Air line
• When will it be available? Rumored in the second half of 2023, possibly even at Apple’s Spring event.
• What will it cost? Most likely the same price as the current MacBook Air (M2, 2022), which would start at $1,199 USD (around £1,015 / AU$1,815)

MacBook Air (2023): Release date

According to a recent rumor from DigiTimes, the MacBook Air (2023) could be coming out in the second half of 2023. The site reports that “the supply chain is more focused on the more affordable MacBook Air, which is expected to be updated in the second half of 2023…” Analyst Ross Young purported that it could even be as soon as April, possibly even at Apple’s Spring event.

And Mark Gurman, who writes for Bloomberg, claims that it’ll be two MacBook Airs coming later this year. The first being a 13-inch and the second a 15-inch. Other than that, we have no concrete release date for the refresh just yet. However, if this rumor holds water, the release window corresponds to when new Apple laptops tend to release.  

MacBook Air (2023): Price

While there haven’t been any rumors surrounding a price point for the MacBook Air (2023), we can assume that the 13-inch version of the refresh will start around the same price as the current 13-inch 2022 model. That would be roughly $1,199 USD (around £1,015 / AU$1,815), though Apple might raise the price by $100 as they’ve done before due to the silicon being updated again. 

Meanwhile, the 15-inch version would most likely go for a bit more. We could be looking at a few hundred dollars more, but this is conjecture since Apple hasn’t done that with its MacBook Air line yet.

MacBook Air (2023): Specs

In terms of specs, one of the main rumors from DigiTimes asserts that the 13.6 and 15.5-inch models might be outfitted with a 3nm chip (which means it’ll be an M3, coming down from the 5nm process used with the M2 SoC). This was a rumor that started last year with the M2 Pro and Max, and it turned out to be false. Still, we could see some updated silicon from Apple for 2023 instead.

Analyst Ross Young also asserted that a 15-inch MacBook Air would be coming as well. Having a MacBook Air with a 15-inch screen could prove to be polarizing among the fanbase, however. On one hand, that model could be enticing for those who want the extra screen real estate but at a much more affordable price. And if this one has an M3 chip, it’ll boast some serious power. 

On the other, this could serve to alienate buyers since the release of a 2023 model coming just a year after the 2022 refresh would be a slap in the face for those who just purchased the older version. And a 15-inch screen would sit in a weird position market-wise, as the Air series – one of the best thin and light laptops – could end up being bulky and a little heavier.

On the topic of displays, recent news has suggested that Apple is working in an unlikely team-up with Samsung to develop an OLED MacBook Air, which would serve as a test flight for bringing OLED screens to future MacBook Pro models too. That version is currently expected to launch in 2024, though, so it's unclear whether we'll see OLED panels showing up in this year's spate of new Apple hardware.