Snapchat knows you want to see what you’d look like in the metaverse

Snapchat released an Avatar lens AR filter today, which makes you look like a Sims character. Or, in more modern parlance, it makes you look like what you’d look like in the metaverse. To use the lens, open your camera in the Snapchat app to scan the QR code on Snapchat’s website, then look at […]

This AI-powered art app lets you paint pictures with words

The reality-bending powers of AI have been kept increasingly busy over the past decade. We’ve had computer vision-powered 3D dioramas; trend-setting style-transfer; viral photorealistic selfie-tuning, selfie-retouching, face-swaps and — ofc — deepfakes; and plenty of frivolous (and hilarious) fun with selfie filters (ohhai ‘Disneyfying’ cartoon lens!) in between. AI-powered visual remixing has shown, again and again, […]

TikTok rival Triller to go public via merger with SeaChange International

Short video app Triller is set to go public via a reverse merger with video-tech company SeaChange International, the two companies announced on Wednesday. The combined entity will be valued at approximately $5 billion. The boards of both companies have approved the proposed merger and the deal is expected to close in the first quarter […]

Serial fintech founder raises $20M for Ant Money to make micro-investing even more accessible

Serial fintech entrepreneur Walter Cruttenden founded Acorns with his son, Jeff, in 2012 with the goal of helping low- and middle-income households invest and save responsibly. The pair wanted to simplify investing for the millions that have trouble getting started or continuing to invest. Then in 2018, Walter went live with a new company — […]

Patreon CPO says the company will double in size in 2022

Creator monetization startups are cropping up left and right as the tech world embraces the fast-growing creator economy. But Patreon, founded in 2013, has been around since before words like “influencer” were in our vocabulary — back when “Tik Tok” was a Kesha song, rather than the social platform that everyone is trying to emulate. […]

A look at Android applications in Windows 11 from Microsoft

Microsoft released the first preview version to support Android apps in Windows 11. It’s available to testers on the Beta Channel version of Windows 11, which means you’ll need to subscribe to a Windows Insider to get access.

Android applications in Windows 11
A look at Android applications in Windows 11 from Microsoft

The experience of installing Android apps in Windows 11 is very simple

Microsoft has partnered with Amazon, so the Microsoft Store will list the apps but send them to Amazon’s Appstore to install or update them. This likewise introduces the Windows subsystem for Android behind the scenes, which is the essential innovation that powers Android apps running on Windows 11.

The Windows subsystem for Android drives the entire experience

You can stick Android apps to the Start menu or taskbar and utilize all the windowing and performing various tasks highlights in Windows 11 very much like a standard work area PC application. The apps work fine. I was able to run it alongside Word, Chrome, and other computer applications as if they were just regular Windows applications.

Apps show up in query items as though they were ordinary Windows apps

And the integration into the Start menu and taskbar makes it feel like any other app. It’s an amazingly seamless and integrated solution. However, the preview is not perfect. If you want to play three or four Android games, using the Snap Layouts feature in Windows 11 on your gaming PC, it might use the CPU at 100%, feel sluggish on everything, then seconds later it’s back to normal and usage is back. CPU to its usual speed.

Amazon App Store is the official store for Android apps on Windows 11

Microsoft’s Android app support relies on the Amazon Appstore at the moment, which contains only a fraction of the apps available on the Google Play Store.

The question is whether you really want or need Android apps. Personally, I only need a few apps and Android mobile games are the most interesting to me.

Bluestacks has been supporting Android apps on Windows for a very long time

The company has moved heavily to support mobile games on Windows. Microsoft is late to the party here, but its subsystem is clearly the result of years of work expanding Windows to include running Linux kernels and GUI applications. While Microsoft is busy running Android apps on Windows 11, Bluestacks is now working on getting Android apps into the browser and running them in the cloud.

Requirements to run Android applications on Windows 11

Microsoft imposes some requirements to run Android applications on Windows 11, which are:

  • – Your device must have SSD storage.
  • – Your gadget should have about 8 GB of RAM.
  • – Your device must be running on an 8th generation Intel processor or later, an AMD Ryzen 3000 processor, or a Qualcomm 8xx processor or later.
  • – To activate virtualization.
  • – Be a Windows Insider on the Beta Channel.
  • – The region in your device in the United States of America.
  • – You have an Amazon US account.

Meta files federal lawsuit to uncover individuals running a phishing scam on its platforms

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, announced today that it has filed a federal lawsuit in California court to take action to uncover individuals running a phishing scam. The company says the legal action aims to disrupt phishing attacks that are designed to trick people into sharing their login credentials on fake login pages for Facebook, […]