Latest news with #techtools
CNET
4 days ago
- CNET
My Summer Travel Is So Much Easier Thanks to Google Lens: How to Use It Like a Pro
I'm no stranger to finding useful tech hacks to make life easier, but I never expected to become a regular user of Google's new AI-powered visual search tool. Google Lens uses your phone's camera to highlight objects in the real world and gives you more information about them. I use it regularly in my every day life to quickly find information, like to identify seashells I find on beach walks or translate food labels in my local Asian grocery store. But I found there's one task that Google Lens is especially helpful for: traveling. I'm not alone in finding Google Lens helpful while on vacation; Google has shared different ways travelers can take advantage of Lens' Visual Search features. To learn more, I spoke with Dounia Berrada, senior director of engineering for Google Lens, about how the team is trying to make the camera a more intelligent search aid and travel companion. "Everyone is familiar with how you can ask questions with text and voice. With Google Lens, you can also ask questions with images," Berrada said. Google Lens has a few limitations, considering most of the features can't be used in offline mode. Still, it might be the smartest free tool already sitting on your phone. For more Google features, explore how I use Google Maps for stress-free travel and the six Google AI and Lens features I'm using to plan my vacations. 6 ways to use Google Lens during your travels Translate signs and menus on the spot CNET One of the biggest perks of Lens while traveling is its instant translation feature. I use this feature at least weekly when I visit Cuban restaurants here in Florida or visit my favorite Asian markets and need help reading the packaging. I simply hold up my phone, tap the Lens icon in the Google app and the screen's text transforms into English in real time. The text doesn't come up as a pop-up but appears directly over the original words of whatever I'm needing to translate. During travels, this feature can help translate street signs, public transport maps and menus. Verify vacation rentals before you book The other day, I was perusing Airbnbs in Costa Rica, as I've always wanted to visit. I saw a suspiciously underpriced rental, so I reverse image searched the listing photos using Lens. Turns out, the same pictures appeared on a real estate site for a property in another country. That was enough of a red flag for me to walk away and think about Costa Rica another time. Berrada told me Lens wasn't designed specifically to catch scammers but giving people more visual context before making decisions on lodging is very much part of the product's mission. For me, it's an easy way to do some quick background checking so I feel more confident in where I'm staying and I'll probably use it anytime something feels off. Ask questions about what you see Macy Meyer/CNET Ever found yourself staring at a painting in a museum, totally intrigued but with no idea what you're looking at? That was me just a few days ago when I was standing in front of a surreal piece at the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg. Even though I wrote an 80-page thesis on surrealism as an undergraduate, I'm still not an expert art history major. But I was wishing I had access to one when I was looking at the strange and disturbing Daddy Longlegs of the Evening Hope painting. Google Lens was helpful when I pointed my phone's camera at the painting and asked it to tell me more about the work of art. I got an AI Overview that broke down key details, like who made it (I knew this), when it was made and what materials were used (given to me by the plaque next to the painting), but more interesting, why it matters and a breakdown of what the imagery is likely representative of. Lens then offered links to websites to dive deeper if I wanted to. This feature helps you make sense of what you're seeing in real time. It also allows you to speak your question aloud while snapping a photo. It's kind of like turning to a friend and saying, "Wait, what is this?" and getting an answer right then and there. Deep dive with the About this image feature Macy Meyer/CNET When I was visiting my older sister in Tulsa, Oklahoma, recently, I snapped a photo of some bizarre clouds that looked almost like a thick, wavy blanket covering the entire sky as far as the eye could see. I've never seen anything like it before. I used the About this image feature in Google Lens to figure out what I was actually looking at. It showed me how the photo (and ones like it) were being used across the web -- from weather blogs to social media platforms to fact-checking sites -- and helped me learn that these are undulatus clouds, appearing as "cloud streets" because they look like parallel bands or rows. Whether you encounter an odd image online or in real life, this tool provides quick context and helps you understand what different sources are saying. Summarize and translate text from a photo Google When you're traveling, you never know what kind of text you'll run into that'll need translating -- menus, handwritten signs, museum placards, notes from an Airbnb host. With Google Lens, you can snap a picture of any text and instantly get a summary, ask questions about it or copy it to your clipboard. The feature can also annotate the image, such as highlighting dishes on a menu that meet your dietary preferences, so you're not stuck translating. I can imagine using it to quickly find vegetarian dishes on a local menu or to make sense of a scribbled transit schedule at a rural train stop. Berrada said she has personally used this feature to translate recipe cards in French that her mother gave to her, so she can share the English translation with her husband. Whether you're navigating a new city or just trying to decode a note left by your Airbnb host, it's a handy tool for making the unfamiliar feel a bit more manageable. Get souvenir details instantly when traveling Google Imagine you're wandering through a street market in Tokyo or browsing a boutique in Lisbon and spot something you'd love to bring home -- a unique canvas tote bag (my personal souvenir of choice), a pair of sunglasses or a handmade clothing item. With Google Lens, you can snap a quick photo and instantly pull up product details, including prices at other retailers, current deals, shopper reviews and shipping information if you're wanting to ship it back home. It's an easy way to figure out if you're getting a good price or if it's worth waiting to buy later. Even in a store, Lens can show you if similar items are in stock elsewhere nearby or online, whether the price is competitive and what other travelers or shoppers have said about it. It takes the guesswork out of impulse buys, especially when you're on the go. "This is my absolute favorite use case with Lens. I love it for shopping," Berrada said. Berrada explained that the tool taps into a massive shopping graph with more than 50 billion listings that are constantly updated and drawn from online sources and local stores. It then shows the exact product you're looking at, along with the best available prices, so you can compare options before making a purchase. If you're not set on buying that exact item, Lens also provides visually similar alternatives and products with comparable features, such as lightweight materials or enhanced durability. She also shared a personal example from a recent trip to Paris, where she used Lens to scan apparel she saw in a store. The feature helped her decide whether to buy the item locally or wait until returning home, factoring in currency differences and availability of local brands. For more, see our traveler's prep checklist and how to improve your odds of not having your flight canceled or delayed.
Fast Company
21-06-2025
- Fast Company
This is the best online file converter—and it's totally free
We were supposed to be finished with files by now. For years, tech companies (well, certain tech companies) tooted their horns about a future in which files didn't matter. You don't even need a file manager of any sort, they told us—and, in fact, we won't even let you see the file system on your devices at all. Just tap-a-tap-tap, don't worry, be happy. Right? Yeah—not so much. Here in the year o' 2025, files absolutely still matter. Whether you're saving a PDF or document, wrangling an audio or video file, or trying to get that weird image format your iPhone-totin' friend sent you into some reasonably standard state, files are an inevitable part of our digital lives. And dealing with 'em, suffice it to say, can be a real pain in the patootie—especially when it comes to the timeless act of converting something from one format to another. With the tool I've found for you today, though, that tired tech task won't be a groan-worthy chore anymore. Get ready for the quality-of-life upgrade you never knew you needed. File conversion, minus the headache Ordinarily, when I find myself facing a daunting file conversion task—be it moving an image file from one format to another, converting some awkward audio file into a more standard MP3 setup, or even freeing a document someone sent me from its silly DOCX shackles—I end up searching for a free online conversion tool. And the site I stumble onto is inevitably slow, overloaded with ads, and at least slightly questionable when it comes to security. Oh, and it also usually has some sort of arbitrary-seeming limit on the size or number of files I can process before it starts trying to charge me some exorbitant fee. No more. ➜ My fellow frustrated file wrangler, allow me to introduce you to a nifty new site called Vert. Vert is a completely free and open-source online file conversion tool. It processes most files locally in your browser, almost shockingly fast and efficiently—and without any limits or any ads. ⌚ It'll take you 20 seconds to start using: Just pull up the Vert site in any browser, on any device you're using. Click the big 'Drop or click to convert' box to select a file from your device—or drag and drop a file from the device into that area of the page, if you'd rather. Vert will then show you a confirmation screen where you can see your file, select your end format, and consider a few other simple options. ✅ And that's pretty much it: Just click or tap the 'Convert all' button, and within a split second—yes, really that fast!—you'll see the downward-arrow download button turn into a solid color. That's your indication that the file conversion is finished. And all that's left is to click or tap that button to download the final result. Told ya it was easy, right?! Vert runs entirely in your browser —no downloads or installations whatsoever. It's completely free to use, with optional donations to aid the development. And the app performs almost all of its processing locally on your own device, without any data ever being seen by anyone else. The one exception is a video file, which does get uploaded to a server. But Vert promises that video files always are deleted after exactly one hour. (And since the entire tool is open source, anyone with the right know-how can see exactly what it is—and isn't—doing to confirm.) The final deadline for Fast Company's Next Big Things in Tech Awards is Friday, June 20, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
