TechCapsules

GasPulse, a free iOS app, delivers weekly gas price averages from the Energy Information Administration, offering state‑by‑state charts, up to five years of historical data, and forecast outlooks. Users can compare regional trends, set price alerts for up to six areas, and view updates via home‑screen and lock‑screen widgets or Siri. The app runs on iOS 18+, is ad‑free, and requires no subscription. It provides a comprehensive, data‑driven view of fuel costs without locating the cheapest station. [...]

A new free Mac application called Tasks.txt, created by Ukrainian developer Yevhen Kharkivskyi, offers a minimalist alternative to feature‑heavy to‑do list apps. Built on the todo.txt format pioneered by Gina Trapani, the app stores tasks in plain‑text files and organizes them into three sections—Next, Backlog, and Done—allowing users to focus on daily priorities and archive completed items each night. Keyboard‑centric navigation lets users add, edit, and complete tasks without leaving the window, while mouse interaction remains intuitive. An [...]

Meta’s newly released Muse AI agent app has climbed to the top of the free iPhone charts in the U.S. App Store, surpassing OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Launched earlier this month, Muse has gained traction beyond its initial release, with recent installs driving it to number one. Meta extended Muse’s availability to Mac the day before, though the desktop version does not affect App Store rankings. The app’s agentic design mirrors SpaceXAI’s Grok Bot, offering a conversational interface with [...]

Microsoft has released a targeted update that resolves a long‑standing copy‑paste malfunction in Excel, which caused certain cells to lose formatting or data when transferred between worksheets. The fix, rolled out through the Office Insider program, is currently available only to a limited cohort of users participating in the early‑access channel, while the broader public will receive the patch in a later cumulative update. The issue, first reported in early 2023, affected power users and enterprises that [...]

Photopea, a free browser‑based image editor, offers a robust alternative to Adobe Photoshop for occasional users. The web app handles basic tasks such as cropping, resizing and touch‑ups, while also supporting advanced features including layers, masks, filters, smart objects, vector graphics and AI‑driven tools for background removal and object replacement. Crucially, Photopea can open and save native PSD files, allowing seamless collaboration with Photoshop users without requiring a paid license. Its interface mirrors Photoshop’s layout, with tools [...]

Microsoft Teams is adding a dual‑screen‑sharing capability that will let two participants broadcast their desktops or apps simultaneously during a meeting. The feature, slated for rollout to commercial and education tenants later this year, expands on the platform’s existing single‑share model and includes controls for presenters to toggle each feed on or off. Microsoft says the update will improve collaborative workflows such as code reviews, design critiques, and remote training by reducing the need to switch between [...]

WhatsApp has begun rolling out a new in‑chat search button for iPhone users after several weeks of beta testing. The button appears at the top of the screen when users scroll up in a conversation, channel, or group chat and disappears when they return to the bottom. It allows users to start a search directly within the chat without navigating to the chat info screen. The feature works the same as the existing search mode and is [...]

Google has released version 5.26.365.x of its Keep app for Android, redesigning the “Note collection” homescreen widget. The previous Material You‑era sidebar that offered shortcuts for text, list, audio, drawing and photo notes has been removed and replaced with a circular floating‑action button (FAB). Tapping the FAB opens a pop‑up menu, mirroring the interaction of the smaller “Quick capture” widget and adding a second tap for note creation. The new edge‑to‑edge layout displays more of each note, eliminating the [...]