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OpenTable’s restaurant pages still feature a lot of reviews left by anonymous diners at the moment, but that will not be the case starting next month. The online restaurant reservation service is changing its policy around reviews so that they’re not as anonymous — and it’s even applying the new rule retroactively. As BleepingComputer reports, it told users in an email that starting on May 22, it “will begin displaying diner first names and profile photos on all diner reviews.” Further, “this update will also apply to past reviews.”

“We’ve heard from you, our diners, that trust and transparency are important when looking at reviews,” the company also said in its letter, insinuating that it’s changing the way reviews work based on user feedback. As BleepingComputer says, it’ll be easy to match a bad review with customer reservation records based on the user’s first name and when the post was made. 

While that’s not nearly as bad as Glassdoor publishing people’s names alongside their employer reviews without consent, it could still be very uncomfortable for people who wanted to talk about bad experiences without the fear of not being welcomed back into a particular establishment. Sure, the new rule could ensure that bad reviews have merit, that a customer legitimately dined at that restaurant and any complaint they mention truly is worth looking into. But we wouldn’t be surprised if people feel put off and even betrayed by the decision to apply this upcoming policy to old posts. 

Those who have no intention to go back to restaurants they didn’t particularly like could change their first names if they wish, though future reservations will be made under that name. Users can also change their profile pictures if they want and even delete their reviews altogether before May 22. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/your-anonymous-opentable-reviews-will-soon-display-your-first-name-120006774.html?src=rss 

OpenAI has brought the new GPT-4 Turbo to paid ChatGPT users. The company announced the news on X (formerly Twitter), sharing that its large language model has improved math, logical reasoning, coding and writing skills. In reference to the latter, a response to its initial post states that “when writing with ChatGPT, responses will be more direct, less verbose, and use more conversational language.” Notably, in December, Microsoft integrated GPT-4 Turbo with its CoPilot AI chatbot and image generator DALL-E 3.

When OpenAI announced GPT-4 Turbo in November, it highlighted major upgrades to the system powering ChatGPT. At the time, OpenAI claimed that GPT-4 Turbo could receive six times as many pages of text — 300, compared to the previous 50. Given the breadth of information provided, this expansion could mean more complex prompts and responses. The large language model can also create captions or descriptions of image prompts and handle text-to-speech requests.

GPT-4 Turbo has even advanced since its initial announcement. OpenAI had initially increased its world knowledge to April 2023, a good jump from GPT-4’s September 2021 cutoff. Now, GPT-4 Turbo has information all the way up to December 2023.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/paid-chatgpt-users-can-now-access-gpt-4-turbo-123031501.html?src=rss 

Humane’s hyped up AI Pin is finally here and, unfortunately, it stinks. This week, Cherlynn and Devindra are joined by Michael Fisher (AKA MrMobile) and Wired Reviews Editor Julian Chokkattu to chat about the AI Pin and the many ways it fails. It’s often inaccurate, it takes crummy photos, and it gets way too hot. Not so great for something you’re supposed to wear all day! Is there any hope for AI-dependent gadgets? Also, Washington Post columnist Christopher Velazco joins to discuss Apple’s approval of used iPhone components for repairs.

Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!

Topics

Too much heat, too few features: Humane’s AI pin doesn’t live up to the hype – 1:09

Other News: Apple will allow devices to be repaired with secondhand parts soon – 44:08

Google’s Next 24 event announces AI video generation tool, ARM-based CPU for data centers, and Google Photos tools for all subscribers – 53:10

Working on – 1:00:59

Pop culture picks – 1:05:40

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Credits 

Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Guests: Michael Fisher (MrMobile) and Julian Chokkattu
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-podcast-humane-ai-pin-review-110052283.html?src=rss 

Movie-industry shindig CinemaCon was the venue at which Paramount Pictures announced it has started work on a new Star Trek movie. Slashfilm reports Untitled Star Trek Origin Story will be a prequel to Star Trek (2009), J.J. Abrams’ glossy prequel to Star Trek (1966). It’ll be directed by Toby Haynes, most famous around these parts for helming episodes of Andor and Black Mirror’s USS Callister. The screenplay has been written by Seth Grahame-Smith, who wrote The Lego Batman Movie and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

So that we’re clear, Untitled Star Trek Origin Story will serve as a prequel to the 2009 origin story and a sequel to 2001’s origin story, Enterprise. It will likely be set before Discovery, which was conceived as a prequel to Star Trek (1966) and Strange New Worlds, which is a prequel to Star Trek (1966). And, look, if you’ll allow me to get a little personal for a moment, I am deeply overjoyed at the news. Given the dearth of origin stories, prequels and nostalgia-parades in the Star Trek universe, an Untitled Star Trek Origin Story is a welcome, necessary and life-giving addition to the franchise.

Let’s be honest, it’s high time we got something insular and backward-looking after so many years of non-stop groundbreaking, original adventures shorn from the burdens of continuity.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/paramount-announces-yet-another-star-trek-prequel-101030423.html?src=rss 

If you’re — apparently, one of the few people — using the VPN service that comes with Google One, we’ve got bad news for you. In an email you’re going to receive from Google if you haven’t gotten it yet, it revealed that it’s phasing out the perk sometime later this year. The company rolled out Google One’s VPN feature back in 2020, but you could only access it then if you’re paying for a plan with at least 2TB of storage, which costs at least $10 a month. Last year, the company expanded its availability across all One plans, including the basic $2-per-month option, making it more affordable than before.

At the moment, you can access One’s VPN service if you’re in one of the 22 countries where it’s active, whether you’re on iOS or Android. You can also use it to mask your internet usage on a Mac or Windows computer. Google didn’t say when the VPN service will stop working completely, but it told 9to5Google that it’s discontinuing the feature because “people simply weren’t using it.” Instead of trying to drum up interest, it’s redirecting its resources to support other and more in-demand One features. However, you’ll still be able to use the free VPN that comes with Pixel devices even after One’s shuts down through the Settings app on Pixel 7 devices and newer models. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-one-is-shutting-down-its-vpn-feature-later-this-year-063507780.html?src=rss 

X will no longer allow users to hide their blue checks, regardless of whether they paid for premium or not. On Thursday, the app began notifying users that “the hide your checkmark feature of X Premium is going away soon.”

The change comes shortly after X unexpectedly began adding blue checks to the accounts of “influential” users with at least 2,500 followers who pay for a premium subscription. While Elon Musk suggested that change was meant to be a perk, some of his critics — including formerly verified users — were less than pleased with the blue badge appearing on their accounts, lest others suspect them of actually paying for a subscription.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-wont-let-users-hide-their-blue-checks-anymore-222938703.html?src=rss