Latest news with #ArcBrowser
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Week in Review: Perplexity Labs wants to do your work
Welcome back to Week in Review! We've got a ton of stories for you this week, including a new AI-powered browser from Arc; not one but TWO hacks; Gemini email summaries; and much more. Have a great weekend! Look out, Google: AI-powered search engine Perplexity released Perplexity Labs, which gives Pro subscribers a tool that can craft reports, spreadsheets, dashboards, and more. Perplexity Labs can conduct research and analysis using tools like web search, code execution, and chart and image creation to craft reports and visualizations. All in around 10 minutes. We haven't had a chance to test it, and knowing the shortcomings of AI, I'm sure not everything will come out flawlessly. But it certainly sounds pretty awesome. Luckey's luck: The feud between Oculus founder Palmer Luckey and Mark Zuckerberg appears to be over: The pair announced a collaboration between Facebook and Luckey's company Anduril to build extended reality (XR) devices for the U.S. military. The product family they're building is called EagleEye, which will be an ecosystem of devices. Not awesome: We don't definitively know whether AI is beginning to take over roles previously done by humans. But a recent World Economic Forum survey found that 40% of employers plan to cut staff where AI can automate tasks. That can't be good. This is TechCrunch's Week in Review, where we recap the week's biggest news. Want this delivered as a newsletter to your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. Everyone's making a browser: The Browser Company said this week that it's considering selling or open sourcing its browser, Arc Browser, to focus on a new AI-powered browser called Dia. And it's not the only one! Opera also said it's building a new AI-focused browser, and Perplexity teased its browser, Comet, a few months ago. At last: iPad users, rejoice! You can now talk to all your international friends with the new iPad-specific version of WhatsApp. Meta says that users will be able to take advantage of iPadOS multitasking features, such as Stage Manager, Split View, and Slide Over. Oh, great: LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a data broker that uses personal information to help companies spot risks and fraud, reported a security breach affecting more than 364,000 people. A LexisNexis spokesperson told us that an unknown hacker accessed the company's GitHub account, and the stolen data includes names, dates of birth, phone numbers, postal and email addresses, Social Security numbers, and driver's license numbers. And another one: Hackers reportedly accessed the personal phone of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, obtaining contact information used to impersonate her and contact other high-ranking officials. It seems that AI was used to impersonate her voice. Can it cook my meals? Gmail users no longer have to tap an option to summarize an email with AI. The AI will now automatically summarize the content when needed, without requiring user interaction. That means you have to opt out if you don't want Gemini summarizing your stuff. Billion with a B: General Catalyst has invested $1 billion into Grammarly, the 16-year-old writing assistant startup. Grammarly will use the new funds for its sales and marketing efforts, freeing up existing capital to make strategic acquisitions. In the heights: Tinder is testing a new feature that will allow people to add a "height preference" in their search for love. This isn't a hard filter, Tinder says, as it won't actually block or exclude profiles but instead inform recommendations. 10 years in the making: Carma Technology, which was formed in 2007 by SOSV Ventures founder Sean O'Sullivan, filed a lawsuit earlier this year against Uber, alleging the company infringed on five of its patents. The lawsuit is fairly new, but the allegations go back almost a decade. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data
Android Authority
7 days ago
- Business
- Android Authority
I've been using Arc browser for a year and am not switching back to Chrome
Andy Walker / Android Authority Arc browser was all the rage a year ago, and it made me curious enough to give it a try. After an early test run, I gave it a few months before switching to it full-time. If you ask me today whether I regret the decision, the answer is a resounding no. In fact, it's been one of the most refreshing tech switches I've made since moving from Windows to Mac many years ago. At a time when every browser started to look and feel exactly like the other — with most running Chromium under the hood — Arc felt like a breath of fresh air. While it was the visual upgrades that drew me in, the various smart features have kept me hooked for more than a year. And at this point, I don't even want to consider going back to Google Chrome — or any other web browser, for that matter. Would you ever consider switching from Chrome to Arc (or another browser)? 0 votes Yes NaN % No NaN % I've already ditched Google-ville NaN % The tab gods have blessed Arc with ingenuity Andy Walker / Android Authority I hate to admit it, but I've always struggled with managing browser tabs. I know a lot of users are in the same boat, but that reassurance never helped, as my situation was embarrassingly out of control. I had tabs open for months with no clue why I needed them, mixed in with temporary tabs like login pages that just piled on the clutter. I had accepted my fate — until I fully switched to Arc. To be honest, Arc was a big shift from what I was used to with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. But maybe that massive leap was exactly what I needed to finally change my habits for good. And I'm happy to report that it did. The most consequential change for me was Arc's default setting to automatically close all unsaved tabs after a day (you can customize this; I've set mine to a week). It flipped the script: instead of tabs being saved by default and piling up endlessly, they now disappear unless I deliberately save them. This alone has drastically reduced clutter on my most-used desktop app. This simple ingenuity is what won me over. Karandeep Singh / Android Authority Arc complements this approach with something called Little Arc, which is a mini window that pops up to open websites you only need temporarily and don't want clogging up your tab bar (think login pages and such). It's a huge part of my workflow now, even though it stays out of sight. Thinking about this as I write, I wonder how I ever worked without it and why more browsers haven't copied the idea yet. Arc vs Chrome: One makes the other seem dull Andy Walker / Android Authority Sure, most mainstream browsers, including Chrome, are now on the AI hype train, typically adding a chatbot into the sidebar like some patchwork. That saves you one step of visiting an AI tool's website, but not much else. Arc, on the other hand, has been offering genuinely useful and smart features for longer, and they're much better integrated. For example, you can hover over inline links to get a quick summary of the page before deciding whether to open it. Plus, the Cmd/Ctrl + F shortcut doubles as an AI-powered search bar that lets you ask questions about the page in your natural language. After all, what are tabs if not digital laundry that is back again the second you finish folding the last pile? The two things I use most are both related to tab management — which, if you haven't already guessed, is a huge deal for me. After all, what are tabs if not digital laundry that is back again the second you finish folding the last pile? To start with, Arc automatically renames tab titles and downloaded files with readable, contextual names, instead of the usual mess of gibberish filenames. And when I'm working on a big story with dozens of tabs open for research with no clear order or structure, I use the Tidy Tabs feature. One click from the sidebar, and Arc neatly groups similar tabs with appropriate titles, without me lifting a finger. For what it's worth, even Google Chrome has started catching up here, recently adding a similar feature with Gemini. Oh, and Arc also includes mini apps with built-in integrations for popular services like Gmail and Google Calendar — two things I use all the time. If I've got a meeting coming up, a join button appears right in the sidebar minutes before, letting me jump straight in without having to dig around my emails or calendar entries for the link. Similarly, I can see recent emails in a small pop-up window without needing to open a full tab. As the fruit company likes to say — it just works! I wish it was all rosy with Arc Andy Walker / Android Authority As much as I love Arc and plan to stick with it for the foreseeable future, it's not without flaws. The biggest issue for me, by far, is battery life. Arc eats up my MacBook Air's battery faster than I'd like. Chrome is just as bad, if not worse, while Microsoft Edge has been noticeably more battery-efficient — despite also running on Chromium. Arc's maker is now focusing on a new browser, with no new features coming to Arc, making the future of Arc look bleak. Then there was that major vulnerability that could potentially expose the entire browser to bad actors. Arc thankfully patched it before it became a widespread issue, but it still left many questioning its reliability. Add to that the recent news that the company is now focusing on a new browser, with no new features coming to Arc, and the future of Arc starts looking bleak. That last bit stings the most. But I've grown fond of Arc enough to keep using it until it becomes truly unreliable for daily work. Until then, Chrome can cry on Gemini's shoulder.
Android Authority
27-05-2025
- Business
- Android Authority
Arc enters maintenance mode as The Browser Company shifts focus to new browser
Andy Walker / Android Authority TL;DR Active development on the Arc browser has stopped. The Browser Company is now shifting its focus to a new product called Dia. Arc isn't shutting down, but the team is no longer building new features for it. Last year, The Browser Company announced that it would shift its focus from its innovative Arc browser to a new product. However, as the team worked on this new project, they also planned to continue working on Arc. Now active development on Arc has ceased. In a blog post, CEO Josh Miller writes that his company has stopped active development on the Arc browser. The company isn't shutting Arc down, but they are no longer building new features for the browser. However, they will still do regular updates to fix bugs and vulnerabilities. According to Miller, Arc fell short of expectations because 'for most people, Arc was simply too different, with too many new things to learn, for too little reward.' He also believes that the browser 'lacked cohesion — in both its core features and core value.' As mentioned earlier, the company has pivoted to a new product. True to the company name, this new product is also a browser, and its name is Dia. What separates Dia from Arc is that this browser is centered around AI. Miller explains that his company sees Dia 'as an opportunity to fix what we got wrong with Arc.' Dia is currently being tested in alpha, but the company plans to open up access to Arc members at a later date. Miller also touches a little on Arc's future. Apparently, the company considered selling the software or going open source. Although going open source would likely make a lot of users happy, it would be a difficult decision for The Browser Company. The reason is that Arc is built on top of an internal SDK that Dia also relies on, so going open source with Arc would also mean going open source with Dia. While the company decided against these options for now, it hasn't ruled out these possibilities in the future. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
The Verge
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Verge
The Browser Company explains why it stopped developing Arc
The Browser Company has said repeatedly that it's not getting rid of the Arc browser as it moves onto its new AI-centric Dia browser. But what the company also not going to do is develop new features for it. A new blog post from CEO Josh Miller explains why, and what happens next. The Arc browser was a big rethink of what browsers should be like, and it has dedicated users, including yours truly. But a lot of the reasons for ceasing Arc's development that Miller gives in the blog — like that it's too complicated to go mainstream, that it was slow and unstable at times (true!), or that The Browser Company wants to recenter the experience on AI — he also gave back in October. Why not just roll Dia into Arc? One big thing Miller mentions is security. Arc has had at least one big security issue: a security researcher discovered a vulnerability last year that The Browser Company quickly patched, but which let attackers insert arbitrary code into a users' browser session just by knowing their user ID. According to Miller, The Browser Company has now grown its security engineering team from one person to five. This focus is particularly important, he writes, as AI agents — AI systems that carry out tasks autonomously — become more prevalent. As for what this all means for Arc and its users, Miller still insists that the browser won't go away. Arc will still get security and bug fixes, and will be tweaked as the Chromium code it's based on is updated. But he also says The Browser Company isn't going to open-source or sell Arc, because in addition to Chromium, it's built on a custom infrastructure that also underpins Dia. He says the company would like to open the browser up someday, but not until 'it no longer puts our team or shareholders at risk.'
TechCrunch
27-05-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
The Browser Company mulls selling or open-sourcing Arc Browser amid AI-focused pivot
The Browser Company on Tuesday said it is considering selling or open-sourcing its Arc Browser as it seeks to divert resources to developing a new, AI-powered browser called Dia. When the company announced Dia in December 2024, it admitted that Arc was a complex browser for a lot of users, and it wanted to build a product that appealed to the masses. Since then, The Browser Company has been issuing bug fixes and security updates to Arc, but has stopped developing the app and adding features to it. In a new blog post, the company's CEO, Josh Miller, said Arc browser ran into a 'novelty tax' problem. 'For most people, Arc was simply too different, with too many new things to learn, for too little reward […] On top of that, Arc lacked cohesion in both its core features and core values. It was experimental, that was part of its charm, but also its complexity,' Miller wrote. The Browser Company doesn't plan to shut down Arc completely, but it said it has considered selling it or open-sourcing it. However, Miller said the challenge in open-sourcing the browser is that it is built on top of the Arc Development Kit, an internal SDK, which is also the core component of its new browser Dia, and it wouldn't want to give away that IP. 'While we'd love to open-source Arc someday, we can't do that meaningfully without also open-sourcing ADK. And ADK is still core to our company's value. That doesn't mean it'll never happen,' Miller said. Notably, many Arc Browser users have been asking the company to turn it into an open-source project. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW The Browser Company's Dia browser is still in alpha testing. The company hasn't given a date for a wider release, but it said that it will make the browser available for testing to Arc members.
