Technology

Google’s Gemini assistant is a fantastic and frustrating glimpse of the AI future

Published

2 years ago

February 9, 2024

Google’s Gemini assistant is a fantastic and frustrating glimpse of the AI future

I don’t know how to say this, but sometimes the emotional labor of opening another app on my phone and typing in some text is just too much.

I need to gather details about an Airbnb reservation from two different confirmation emails and send them to my friends. Or I want to figure out when to leave this coffee shop to get home by a certain time via bus. These aren’t hard things to do, but they require enough tapping around different apps or tabbing between screens that I start to think, you know what? I don’t really need to send that email yet. I’ll just wing it and hope for the best with the bus schedule.

These are the jobs I would like AI to take from me. AI, including Google’s new Gemini assistant, isn’t quite up to it yet. But Gemini feels like a preview of what that AI future could look like — provided you’re well entrenched in Google services.

Gemini: the chatbot formerly known as Bard.

Gemini can replace the standard Assistant.

Gemini is Google’s AI chatbot, formerly known as Bard. It’s an app you download from the Google Play Store, but it really it’s a piece of the Google app that’s probably already on your phone if it runs Android. Once it’s up and running, you can replace the standard Google Assistant with Gemini and invoke it in all the same ways you would the old Assistant. But instead of just setting timers and telling you the weather, it can do all the stuff Bard did — answer complex questions, make suggestions, and read your email, if you let it.

That last part is important. Gemini isn’t nearly as good of a conversationalist as ChatGPT, but its ability to hook into Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Docs is what makes it really interesting.

I asked it to summarize the details of that Airbnb reservation, and it did — grabbing info from two different emails and putting it together in a neat little bullet point list. Then I asked it to draft an email to my friends with all of the details. Most of the time when I ask AI to write an email or text, the results are too embarrassing to actually send to anyone. To my great surprise, this one was fine.

It really doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the first time I’ve been really impressed with AI as a tool to help me get things done. Maybe I lack imagination, but I get bored with ChatGPT pretty quickly; there’s only so many times I can brainstorm business plans for a retro arcade or ideas for vacations. What I actually want is help with the pile of digital crap I’m constantly wading through just to live my life.

When Gemini comes up with something for me, like a recipe or a packing list, I have somewhere to put it

Gemini isn’t that thing yet, unfortunately. I think it’s more useful than the regular Assistant by a mile, and there’s a lot I like about it now. There’s the little G icon at the bottom of every answer it gives you, which allows you to search Google and fact-check Gemini’s work. Since AI has a tendency to make stuff up occasionally, that’s kind of important.

I also appreciate that when Gemini comes up with something for me, like a recipe or a packing list, I have somewhere to put it. Gemini can export answers directly to Google Docs or Gmail. When I get the same kinds of things from ChatGPT, they just feel like they’re floating around in space until I copy and paste them somewhere. They’re saved to your history, but you know what I mean.

Gemini isn’t great at picking up on context, though. I told it I was planning to ride my bike to the next neighborhood over and asked it to suggest some things to do once I got there. It spit out a whole wall of text with suggestions that included, I kid you not, scuba diving, seeing live theater, and gambling at the casino. Technically, you can do all of those things in Burien, Washington, but not on a whim in the middle of the day. They’re also not places I would just casually roll up to on my bike.

Gemini includes a feature that cross-checks its answers with Google results.

Gemini doesn’t seem to understand the difference between planning a vacation and taking a casual bike ride.

In situations like this, Gemini feels like a little “let me Google Maps that for you” machine. ChatGPT’s voice chat, on the other hand, suggested I visit a couple of parks or a coffee shop. It also asked me if I had anything else in mind for my visit, and when I said I might want to buy a book, it suggested a specific bookstore. So thoughtful! However, later on, Gemini’s Google Maps integration proved to be more useful: I asked for a bus route home, and Gemini gave me the right route, while ChatGPT would have had me waiting for a bus that only arrives every 30 minutes.

Talking to Gemini feels like talking to a page of Google Search results. If you say, “Hey Google” and ask it a question, it’ll speak the response to you. Otherwise, you’re just reading text. And it’s often a lot of text; this assistant could use an editor. I’m also surprised that Gemini can’t access my calendar, but there’s currently no extension for it like there is for Gmail and Docs. If I want to add something to my calendar, I have to switch back to the regular Assistant. At that point, I’ll just make a damn calendar event myself.

Talking to Gemini feels like talking to a page of Google Search results

A decade ago, smart assistants like Siri and Alexa were pitched as the next big way of interacting with our devices, but across the industry we’ve seen their progress stall out. Right now, Gemini is an entirely optional assistant. But it’s also easy to see how it might eventually replace Google Assistant as the default, especially since Google has been scaling back Assistant features in recent history. Maybe we just reached the limits of what non-AI voice assistants can do reliably.

For me, swapping Gemini for the usual Google Assistant feels like a low-stakes bet. I trained myself long ago not to use voice assistants because they never seem to be able to do the thing I want them to. Gemini can still set my timers and tell me if it’s going to rain, so why not bet on something a little smarter to help me with my day to day? Hopefully it learns a few lessons from ChatGPT along the way. In the meantime, I have to get to my scuba diving lesson.

Technology

I’ve been waiting years for Animal Crossing’s best new features

Published

9 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

I’ve been waiting years for Animal Crossing’s best new features

I never felt done with my Animal Crossing: New Horizons island. Despite playing every day for two years, and racking up 1,700 hours of playtime, I somehow never finished decorating. I had plenty of ideas for my island, sure, but actually implementing them was another story: The decorating and terraforming systems that helped make New Horizons a huge success are also slow, manual, and cumbersome, and my patience for decorating and redecorating had finally worn thin.

Fast-forward a few years, and a very much unexpected update is coming to finally fix some of those pain points. Update 3.0 is launching on January 15th, 2026, alongside the Switch 2 Edition of New Horizons. And while the paid Switch 2 upgrade has some nice-to-haves (like Joy-Con 2 mouse controls for indoor decorating), it’s the free update that brings all the key new features.

I recently attended a virtual preview for the New Horizons upgrade and update, and there are two caveats: I have not yet played either the Switch 2 version or the new free content myself, and it’s hard to gauge the quality of the Switch 2 version’s visual and performance improvements over a Zoom call. (I still have some unanswered questions about the biggest performance issues on the original Switch, like the choppy frame rate on more densely decorated islands.) But seeing the 3.0 additions in action, it was easy to imagine myself finishing my island — or at least an island.

As shown in the October announcement trailer, update 3.0 makes much-needed quality-of-life fixes. You’ll finally be able to craft multiple items at once, and crafting will pull materials from your overall storage instead of your pockets, meaning you won’t have to do a bunch of inventory management just to craft some decor. Then there’s Resetti’s Reset Service, which can help you clean up entire sections of your island instantly so you don’t have to pick everything up individually in order to redecorate. Some players also noticed a very subtle but potentially impactful change to movement while terraforming that should hopefully make it a smoother process. And then, as if to show off those decorating improvements, Nintendo also added Slumber Islands.

Not to be confused with dreams, New Horizons’ online island-sharing feature, Slumber Islands are extra sandboxes for you to decorate and play with, where you can set the time of day and the weather and magically conjure up any item you have in your in-game catalog to decorate with, similar to the Happy Home Paradise DLC. You can build bridges and inclines instantly by talking to Lloid, rather than going through Tom Nook and waiting (or time traveling) a day. And while it seems like terraforming works the same on Slumber Islands, the apparent addition of strafing while terraforming — instead of having to constantly reorient yourself manually — should help at least a little bit. (It’s the first thing I’m going to test on January 15th, that’s for sure.)

For me, the worst part of decorating in New Horizons was having an idea, ordering all the furniture I’d need for it over the course of days, testing out the design, realizing it did not look the way I envisioned, and facing the tedious process of breaking it all down and starting over again brick by brick — or, at the very least, having to push and pull objects around for a while to see if I could make it work. The design process I saw on Nintendo’s Slumber Island during the preview, meanwhile, seemed quicker and smoother. Trying out an idea or aesthetic in that environment doesn’t sound like such a tall order.

Without any hands-on time, I can’t say if it will actually be noticeably easier to design and decorate with the 3.0 update. But I’m excited by the idea that I can go to my Slumber Island scratch pad and try out my designs before committing to them (and the cost in bells to get it all done) on my main island. And maybe, if I really like how it feels to decorate, I’ll make an entire Halloween-themed Slumber Island — the kind of island I’ve wanted to make for years but never did on my main island, where the seasons continue to change and actively ruin the vibe.

Technology

Password manager fined after major data breach

Published

9 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Password manager fined after major data breach

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Any data breach affecting 1.6 million people is serious. It draws even more attention when it involves a company trusted to guard passwords. That is exactly what happened to LastPass.

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office has fined LastPass about $1.6 million for security failures tied to its 2022 breach. Regulators say those failures allowed a hacker to access a backup database and put users at risk.

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CHECK IF YOUR PASSWORDS WERE STOLEN IN HUGE LEAK

Why the LastPass breach still matters

LastPass is one of the most widely used password managers in the world. It serves more than 20 million individual users and around 100,000 businesses. That popularity also makes it an attractive target for cybercriminals.

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office fined LastPass for security failures tied to its 2022 breach. (LaylaBird/Getty Images)

In 2022, LastPass confirmed that an unauthorized party accessed parts of its customer information through a third-party cloud storage service. While the incident initially raised alarms, the long-term impact has taken time to fully surface.

The ICO now says the breach affected about 1.6 million UK users alone. That scope played a major role in the size of the fine.

What regulators say went wrong

According to the ICO, LastPass failed to put strong enough technical and security controls in place. Those gaps made it possible for attackers to reach a backup database that should have been better protected.

The regulator added that LastPass promises to help people improve security, but failed to meet that expectation. As a result, users were left exposed even if their passwords were not directly cracked.

Were passwords exposed or decrypted?

There is still no evidence that attackers decrypted customer passwords. That point matters.

Despite the breach, security experts continue to recommend password managers for most people. Storing unique, strong passwords in an encrypted vault is still far safer than reusing weak passwords across accounts.

As one expert noted, modern breaches often succeed after identity access rather than password cracking alone. Once attackers get a foothold, the damage can spread quickly.

Although attackers accessed a backup database, there is no evidence that customer passwords were decrypted. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

Why the LastPass fine is a wake-up call for cybersecurity

The ICO called the LastPass fine a turning point. It reinforces the idea that security is about governance, staff training and supplier risk as much as software.

Users have a right to expect that companies handling sensitive data take every reasonable step to protect it.

Breaches may be inevitable, but weak safeguards are not.

LastPass on the UK data breach

We reached out to LastPass for comment on the UK fine, and a spokesperson provided CyberGuy with the following statement:

“We have been cooperating with the UK ICO since we first reported this incident to them back in 2022. While we are disappointed with the outcome, we are pleased to see that the ICO’s decision has recognized many of the efforts we have already taken to further strengthen our platform and enhance our data security measures. Our focus remains on delivering the best possible service to the 100,000 businesses and millions of individual consumers who continue to rely on LastPass.”

MASSIVE DATA BREACH EXPOSES 184 MILLION PASSWORDS AND LOGINS

How to protect yourself after a password manager breach

Breaches like this are a reminder that security requires layers. No single tool can protect everything on its own.

1) Use a strong password manager correctly

Keep using a reputable password manager. Set a long, unique master password and enable two-factor authentication. Avoid reusing your master password anywhere else.

Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches. Our No. 1 password manager pick includes a built-in breach scanner that checks whether your email address or passwords have appeared in known leaks. If you discover a match, immediately change any reused passwords and secure those accounts with new, unique credentials.

Check out the best expert-reviewed password managers of 2025 at Cyberguy.com.

2) Rotate sensitive passwords

Change passwords for financial accounts, email accounts and work logins. Focus on services that could cause real damage if compromised.

3) Lock down your email

Your email account is the key to password resets. Use a strong password, two-factor authentication and recovery options you control.

4) Reduce your exposed personal data

Data brokers collect and sell personal information that criminals use for targeting. A data removal service can help reduce what is publicly available about you. While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice. They aren’t cheap, and neither is your privacy. These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites. It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to erase your personal data from the internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing data from breaches with information they might find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you.

Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.

Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.

The fine sends a warning to the entire cybersecurity industry. Companies that handle sensitive data must protect it with strong safeguards and oversight. (REUTERS/Andrew Kelly)

5) Watch for phishing attempts and use strong antivirus software

After major breaches, scammers follow. Be cautious of emails claiming urgent account problems or asking for verification details. The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have strong antivirus software installed on all your devices. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe.

Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices at Cyberguy.com.

6) Keep devices updated

Install updates for your operating system, browser and security tools. Many attacks rely on known vulnerabilities that updates already fix.

Kurt’s key takeaways

The fine against LastPass is about more than one company. It highlights how much trust we place in tools that manage our digital lives. Password managers remain a smart security choice. Still, this case shows why you should stay alert even when using trusted brands. Strong settings, regular reviews and layered protection matter more than ever. In the end, security works best when companies and we share the responsibility. Tools help, but habits and awareness finish the job.

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Do you believe companies are doing enough to protect user data, or should regulators step in more often? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

Silksong is getting a free expansion next year

Published

21 hours ago

December 15, 2025

Press Room

Silksong is getting a free expansion next year

It’s still hard to believe that Hollow Knight: Silksong actually came out this year, but now, we all have a new thing to wait for: the game is getting a free expansion in 2026, titled Sea of Sorrow. Team Cherry calls it the game’s “first big expansion.”

“New areas, bosses, tools, and more!” Team Cherry says in a blog post. “Hornet’s adventures continue in our nautically themed expansion, coming free for all players next year. We’ll keep further details a secret for now, but expect additional info shortly before Hollow Knight: Silksong – Sea of Sorrow releases.”

More than 7 million people bought Silksong, according to Team Cherry, and “millions more” played on Xbox Game Pass.

The original Hollow Knight is getting updated, too. Team Cherry is working on a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of the game that “incorporates all the updates and enhancements that Silksong received on the platform: High frame-rate modes, higher resolutions, and many additional graphical effects.” Players who own the Switch version of the game will get the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition as a free update when it’s available in 2026.

Ahead of that launch, Team Cherry says it will be “updating all versions of the original game for current platforms, adding features and fixing bugs.” Those changes include “full 16:10 and 21:9 aspect ratio support for those of you with Steam Decks or ultrawide monitors,” and PC players can try the new updates in public beta.