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In this newsletter:
- Google Gemini edits files in chat, autofills forms from Gmail, and offers free textbooks
- ChatGPT adds iCloud Mail and Calendar integration, doubles Pro usage limits
- Canva launches Brush AI to edit and restyle entire designs with prompts
Plus, you’ll find new AI tools and this week’s top AI news headlines!
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✨ Google Gemini Now Edits Your Files in Chat, Fills Forms From Your Gmail, and Gives Students Free Textbooks
Google rolled out three Gemini updates this week. You can edit documents without leaving the chat, Chrome can pull details from your inbox into forms, and Gemini Notebook now comes with free textbooks.
Edit files in the Gemini chat
- Generate, preview, and edit documents, PDFs, presentations, spreadsheets, and code without leaving the chat
- Expand a file to full screen to type your own edits
- Highlight any text to ask a question or have Gemini refine it
- PDF editing works on the web and mobile, while Docs, Sheets, slide decks, Markdown, TXT, and code files work on the web only
- Available to all users in every language where the Gemini app is offered
Chrome autofill that reads your Gmail
- Suggests details from Gmail as you fill out online forms, like order numbers, tracking information, and flight bookings
- Works through Gemini with Personal Intelligence
- Encrypts sensitive data, and you choose whether it’s on and what it can access in Chrome settings
- Starts rolling out in the US on desktop, Android, and iOS for Gemini in Chrome users who have Personal Intelligence turned on
Free textbooks in Gemini Notebook
- Adds hundreds of textbooks from providers in the US and India, including OpenStax, Open Textbook Library, and S Chand Publishing, at no charge
- Grounds every answer in the textbook you add, with inline citations and links back to the original source
- Turns textbook content into study guides, practice quizzes, flashcards, and more
- Find them by selecting “Add sources” in a notebook, then “Textbooks”
Why it matters:
Whether you’re polishing a report, filling in a flight confirmation number, or studying for an exam, each of these updates takes away a small, annoying step that used to eat into your time. Together, they mean less hunting through inboxes and apps and more time spent on the thing you sat down to do.
👀 Read more about the latest Gemini updates!
📬 ChatGPT Now Connects to Your iCloud Inbox and Calendar, and Pro Plans Get Double the Usage
OpenAI made two moves for ChatGPT this week. Apple’s iCloud Mail and Calendar can now connect to it, and higher-tier subscribers get a bigger Work and Codex allowance.
ChatGPT connects to iCloud Mail and Calendar
- Finds and reads your emails, catches you up on your inbox, and drafts and sends messages
- Checks your schedule and creates or updates calendar events from plain requests
- Looks up saved contacts, in read-only mode
- Works with iCloud, Me, and Mac email addresses only, not Gmail or Outlook accounts added to Apple’s Mail app
- Needs a separate connection for Mail and for Calendar, and Calendar uses your primary Apple Account email
- Requires an Apple app-specific password instead of your regular one
- Connects through Settings, then Plugins
- Available on all plans, on the web, desktop app, and iOS
More Work and Codex usage
- Pro 100 and Pro 500 plans now include twice their previous Work and Codex allowance
- Business Premium plans get the doubling too
- Pro 200 subscribers on the lower allowance move up to double it, matching the higher limit, and anyone already on the higher one keeps it
- Cancels the Pro 200 reduction announced in OpenAI’s September 29 email
- Takes effect immediately, though OpenAI hasn’t shared exact numbers for each tier
- Keeps extended limits for Dots for now, with Dots usage staying separate from your default usage
Why it matters:
For Apple users, ChatGPT now reaches the inbox and calendar they open every day. For heavy Work and Codex users, OpenAI scrapped a planned cut after hearing subscriber feedback and gave them more room to keep their tasks running.
👀 Read more about the latest ChatGPT updates!
🎨 Canva Launches Brush, Its First AI Model for Editing and Restyling Entire Designs With a Prompt
Canva has launched Brush, a new AI model from its in-house research lab that powers design edits in Canva AI. It arrives one week after Canva Craft, the company’s first image generation model.
What’s new:
- Looks at your design, understands how it’s put together, and makes the changes you ask for, from a single line of copy to every slide in a deck
- Edits up to 69% faster and at 46% lower cost per task than Canva’s previous design agent
- Is built to know what to change and what to leave exactly as it is
- Checks its own work as it goes, adjusting design elements and inspecting the page before taking its next step
- Keeps everything fully editable, including text, images, colors, and layouts
- Matched or beat the quality of Canva’s previous setup on most editing tasks in internal tests, with the strongest results in restyling designs and adapting them to new formats
- Started from a leading open model and was trained on real design tasks, with Canva’s professional designers defining what good looks like
- Restyles an image, like changing the color scheme, the weather, or the whole vibe
- Updates every page of a multi-page design from one prompt, like changing all the headers at once
- Turns a design into a new format, such as a presentation slide into an Instagram graphic
- Is available today for Canva Pro users in Canva AI, with wider availability coming soon
- Works by selecting Brush from the dropdown in Canva AI after opening or attaching a design
- Will soon support Brand Kit, references to attachments, and better handling of image-heavy layouts
Why it matters:
Much of the work in design happens after the first draft, in the small changes that can eat up an afternoon. By making those edits faster and cheaper to run, Canva says it can bring more powerful AI to more people around the world.
👀 Read more about Canva Brush!
My Latest LinkedIn & X/Twitter Posts:
- Top 7 free AI courses from Google (view post)
- 8 ChatGPT prompts for strategic thinking & decision-making (view post)
- 12 AI skills to future-proof your career (view post)
- Learn how to use AI to build powerful apps instantly (view post)
- 15 steps to learn generative AI skills from beginner to advanced (view post)
- Learn to build AI agents with just one ChatGPT prompt (view post)
- 15-step roadmap to learn AI from beginner to expert (view post)
New AI Tools to Boost Your Productivity:
- BlueVeta: Turns product photos into complete marketing campaigns.
- Aidelly: Creates, schedules, and manages social media content.
- ZenMode: Finds LinkedIn prospects and automates outreach.
- ContextBolt: Provides live SEO data inside AI assistants.
- Frameliq: Turns scripts into storyboards and finished videos.
- Lunair: Creates branded explainer and promotional videos.
- imgs-ai: Generates and edits AI images and videos.
- Tucket: Organizes copied content and searches screenshots.
- ScreenKite: Records and edits product demos using AI.
- Kodo: Creates editable presentations, posters, and social posts.
- Content365: Creates a year's worth of branded social posts.
- Fablo: Turns ideas into complete videos through chat.
- SocialSpider AI: Creates, schedules, and publishes social content.
- ReplyMan: Finds leads and drafts personalized replies.
- Quegent: Builds and runs automated workflows across apps.
- Whysp AI: Drafts replies across messaging platforms.
- AI Ranked: Monitors website visibility for AI search crawlers.
- Empacer: Creates business content from voice instructions.
- Dedica: Checks websites for AI agent compatibility.
This Week's Top AI News Headlines:
- Anthropic Upgrades Claude Mobile With Apple CarPlay Voice Support, Multi-Account Switching, and 24 Additional Languages, Bringing the Total to 33 (View Article)
- Meta Launches Style Sketch, an AI Fashion App that Creates Outfits From Your Existing Wardrobe, Offers Virtual Try-Ons, and Plans Looks for Trips (View Article)
- Amazon Adds 100+ AI Shopping Features to Alexa, Letting Users Manage Shopping Lists, Modify Subscriptions, Update Delivery Instructions, and Resolve Payment Issues (View Article)
- Google's Gemini Live Could Soon Work Offline on Android, Allowing Users to Have AI Voice Conversations Without an Internet Connection (View Article)
- Cursor Warns that Around 5,000 Developers May Have Installed a Malicious Claude Code Extension, Raising Security Concerns About AI Coding Tools (View Article)
- Sam Altman Says OpenAI Has Invested Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in AI-Powered Mathematics Research, With More Scientific Discoveries Expected (View Article)
- Mistral Releases Open Weights for its Trillion-Parameter Large 4 AI Model, Allowing Organizations to Run Advanced Coding and Cybersecurity Tasks on their Own Infrastructure (View Article)
- The New York Times Tests AI-Powered Recipe Editing in its Cooking App, Letting Users Modify Recipes With AI-Generated Suggestions (View Article)
- AI Startup Serval Raises $150 Million at a $3 Billion Valuation to Automate Employee IT and HR Requests, Including Password Resets, App Access, and Expense Management (View Article)
- Alphabet Loses Nearly $500 Billion in Market Value as Google's AI Spending and Disappointing Earnings Raise Investor Concerns (View Article)
- Anthropic Acquires a One-Person Biotech Startup that Used Claude to Run a Drug Development Program, Expanding AI's Role in Pharmaceutical Research (View Article)
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Have a wonderful week!
Andrew Bolis
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