Technologies

Lightroom Just Got Better at Slurping in Your Phone Photos

Also coming: better presets for quick edits. The idea is to make Lightroom easier for new users to improve their photos.

One of the hassles of using Lightroom, Adobe’s software for editing and cataloging your photos, is getting them into the app’s catalog. On Tuesday, Adobe made that process a step easier, and more steps are coming.

Previously, to edit photos in Lightroom, you first had to import them from your phone’s camera roll. It’s not exactly hard, but it’s a barrier that stands in the way of trying out the software. Now the Lightroom app for Android and iOS has a «device» tab on the lower left that shows your familiar camera roll. Tap an image, and Lightroom will let you start editing it even as it’s imported into its catalog.

«This is the beginning of our journey to make the mobile app more friendly for folks that aren’t power users,» Maria Yap, Adobe’s vice president of digital imaging, said in an exclusive interview ahead of the launch.

Another change, still in the works, will elevate editing presets that you can apply to your photos, she said. Presets previously made it easier to apply styles to photos, like warm color tones or an artsy black-and-white look, but they’re getting more powerful with artificial intelligence technology Adobe has begun building into Photoshop, Lightroom and other apps.

Phones come with built-in tools like Apple Photos and Google Photos to manage your shots, but Lightroom is a top contender for those who want to venture further. It’s got powerful editing tools, including new AI-powered abilities to select faces, skies and other specific parts of an image. It’s free, though paying $10 per month unlocks premium features and gets you the ability to synchronize photos across multiple devices, including personal computers whose big screens and computing horsepower are good for photo editing.

Another feature arriving in Lightroom on Tuesday, edit replay, lets you create a quick video that animates the steps from original photo to finished version, letting you share how you edited a shot.

Adobe gears Lightroom toward anybody who wants to take even one step beyond the original photo, like cropping to frame the subject better. The company isn’t neglecting the enthusiasts, pros and power users, though Yap said.

«For us, it’s always been about people that genuinely have a passion and interest for photography,» Yap said. «We also understand that we’re bringing in a lot of more casual users, and so we want to make sure that they get the benefit of the product really quickly and easily.»

And phones are no longer a photography joke.

Companies like Apple, Samsung and Google now spotlight camera upgrades as the top new feature on the latest flagship phone. Better low-light performance, higher resolution sensors and ever-wider zoom range means smartphones are ever more capable.

«We really want to empower every photographer, whether you shoot on mobile to big cameras with long telephoto lenses,» Yap said. Even if you have serious equipment, your smartphone might be the only device you have at some moment. «So that becomes your best camera,» Yap said.

Technologies

AI Trusted Less Than Social Media and Airlines, With Grok Placing Last, Survey Says

More Americans are concerned about the loss of personal interaction from AI than they are about potential job loss.

Google Gemini is the most trusted AI platform among its competition, but many people still have concerns about the technology, according to an American Customer Satisfaction Index poll released Thursday.

In ACSI’s results, AI scored an overall customer satisfaction score of 73 on a scale of 0 to 100, which the authors noted was slightly below social media (74), airlines and mortgage lenders, but in line with energy utilities.

Of the five platforms mentioned in the survey, Google Gemini led with 76, followed by Microsoft Copilot (74), Claude and ChatGPT (both 73), and Grok and Perplexity (both 71). Meanwhile, TikTok (77) and YouTube (78) both scored better than the AI platforms.

Gemini is one of the most prolific AI services, with access via smart speakers, TVs, phones and computers, while most ChatGPT users access the AI tool via the ChatGPT website or mobile app, and Grok via social media platform X.

The ACSI poll found that 43% of respondents said reduced human-to-human interaction is their main concern, followed by job loss for future generations (37%) and their own job risk (31%), based on interviews with 2,711 US adults.

Baby Boomers were the most skeptical generation in the poll, with 35% saying they are very concerned about AI’s effects, compared to just 6% who view it extremely favorably.

Disconnect between AI adoption and perception

While platforms such as ChatGPT have up to 1 billion weekly users, there is still a disconnect between AI’s adoption and public perception of it, which is driven by concerns over privacy, the spread of misinformation and the loss of jobs.

«Consumers spent the last decade learning to distrust how social media platforms handle their data, and AI’s privacy scores suggest they’re carrying that skepticism forward,» said Forrest Morgeson, associate professor of marketing at Michigan State University and director of research emeritus at the ACSI.

21% reported an «extremely favorable» outlook toward AI, while an equal 21% said they are «very concerned about the consequences.»

These results were in line with another poll published by YouGov this week, which found that only 29% think the positive effects of AI outweigh the negative ones, while 36% think its net effects are negative.

It’s worth noting that more than half of the people interviewed (56%) had no recent experience with AI, but of the 44% who did, half of them use AI at least once a day, and the usage went up with people who earned over $100,000 a year.

Last month, an NBC poll suggested that AI was one of the least-liked things in America, but it was still more popular than the Democratic Party.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for April 18, #1042

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 18, No. 1,042.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle features a fun purple category that’ll require you to spot certain beverage names. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Wow!

Green group hint: Plug it in.

Blue group hint: Cinderella team.

Purple group hint: Drink up.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Look at with awe.

Green group: Basic electricity terms.

Blue group: Unexpected winner.

Purple group: Starting with soda brands.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is look at with awe. The four answers are goggle, marvel, stare and wonder.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is basic electricity terms. The four answers are AC, DC, power and voltage.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is unexpected winner. The four answers are dark horse, long shot, sleeper and underdog.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is starting with soda brands. The four answers are crushworthy, Fantagraphics, frescade and pepsinogen.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 18, #572

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 18, No. 572.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Hockey fans, today’s Connections: Sports Edition is for you. All four categories are hockey-related. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Fire it into the net!

Green group hint: Lord Stanley’s hardware.

Blue group hint: Where hockey teams play.

Purple group hint: Put the biscuit in the basket.