In July, eBay announced two new upcoming features — Image Search and Find It On eBay — both of which are aimed at allowing shoppers to use pictures instead of words to search for items through the mobile app. The Image Search feature is now available for both Android and iOS, while the Find It On eBay feature has rolled out on just Android.
Through artificial intelligence and machine learning, you’ll now be able to find any item you’re searching for using only visuals and the search bar. This is especially handy if you spot a pair of shoes or a piece of furniture that you’re interested in, but are unable to search for it by name. The new features on eBay’s mobile app will apparently be able to guide you to similar items, if not the exact match.
If your phone is filled with photos of desired items you’ve seen in person or screenshots from scrolling through social media, they won’t just have to sit in your camera anymore. With the Image Search feature, you can either take a photo or pull up an existing screenshot from your album and enter it into the search bar right on the app. Your results will consist of the closest matches to the item, which you will then be able to purchase.
With the second feature, Find It On eBay, users can shop on any social platform, including Pinterest or Instagram. When you see an item you’re interested in, you’ll have the option to “Find it now” on your smartphone via the eBay icon. Once you “share” the image with eBay, you can crop the photo to highlight the exact item you’re looking for, and the mobile app will pull up search results.
The eBay mobile app uses two parts of artificial intelligence — known as computer vision and deep learning — to easily find the items you’re looking for. Once you upload the image, it goes through a deep learning model — known as a convolutional neural network — that processes the image and produces a representation of it to compare to live listings on eBay. The items are then ranked based on visual similarity, and surface as your options to choose from — which eBay hopes will lead to your purchase of the item through its site.
Update: Image Search and Find It On eBay have officially rolled out.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.