Nano Banana: Google’s new favorite Tool

Mastering the prompt is the key to unlocking the speed of modern creative tools

The true measure of a tool like Google's Gemini 2.5 Flash Image isn't just its advertised features, but a user's skill in communicating with it. A casual user can quickly type "make me an action figure" and get a fun, shareable result. However, the platform's full potential is realized when creators learn to design precise and detailed instructions. Some even use other AI assistants to help write these prompts, which leads to more consistent characters, reliable styles, and outputs ready for professional use.

Upon its release through Gemini and DeepMind, anticipation was already high. In personal use, the application has been put through its paces. It was promoted with a range of advanced capabilities: generating and editing images from text, maintaining the recognizability of subjects like people or pets across changes, blending designs and styles, multi-step editing, and even suggestions of converting 2D pictures into 3D models. The practical question is: which features are fully realized, which are still developing, and how are people applying them? The following is an assessment based on hands-on experience.

Common Applications

Very quickly, both amateurs and professionals started testing its limits. A highly popular trend involves creating stylized figurines or collectible portraits. Users provide a selfie or a picture of their pet and instruct the AI to render it as a realistic miniature, posed on a desk or displayed in a box. The outcomes are visually appealing for social media, even though they are fundamentally flat images with a convincing sense of depth, not actual 3D files.

This limitation has been a letdown for those hoping for fully rotatable digital models. That said, a simple test involving a relative successfully created a miniature of himself in racing attire using just a description and a photo.

Another frequent use is crafting adventure-themed or culturally styled portraits. Prompts such as "transform me into a classic film hero" or "render me as an action figure conquering an ancient ruin" produce engaging images that are perfect for sharing online. The social media appeal is clear, with this kind of content becoming widespread on platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts, attracting a large audience to the Gemini platform.

Restoring old photographs has emerged as a particularly effective use case. Individuals are bringing color to black-and-white family pictures, fixing damaged prints, and enhancing scanned images with flaws. The colorization is often praised for its natural look, and the tool does a good job of preserving original lighting and textures. A minor drawback is that it can sometimes over-process faces or subtly shift skin tones, reducing authenticity. For instance, a grayscale photo of a famous scientist was successfully recolorized during testing.

Businesses and marketing teams are using the tool for product mock-ups and advertising concepts. It's now typical to see online sellers placing a product into a lifestyle setting or quickly changing a model's outfit to visualize different campaigns. The function to blend two images—for example, a coffee cup with a scenic backdrop—saves significant time and resources. However, professionals note that crucial details like logos or text can sometimes become distorted when precision is essential.

Interior design enthusiasts are uploading room photos and requesting redecorations in various themes, from mid-century modern to bohemian. The AI manages ambient light and shadows more effectively than many earlier systems, making it useful for planning renovations or creating visual concepts. That said, rooms with a lot of clutter can sometimes overwhelm the model, leading to messy or illogical results.

For writers, comic artists, and brand developers, a major advantage is character consistency. They can produce numerous images of the same character in different scenarios without the identity shifting unpredictably, a common issue with earlier generation AI. While the tool can sometimes lose accuracy after numerous edits, its ability to maintain a character's core appearance is a significant benefit for serialized content.

A tested workflow improvement involved using a separate AI assistant to engineer a highly detailed prompt based on a desired concept. This refined prompt was then used to generate a final image, such as transforming a colleague's photo into a poster inspired by a famous film. The crucial learning was that the primary AI was never directly told about the film nor shown its poster; the detailed text description alone was sufficient to guide the output.

In contrast, when the AI was directly shown the film poster and asked to replicate its style for the same photo, the results were poor. This highlights that to achieve a specific outcome, the instructions must be comprehensive and clear.

Artists are employing the tool for creative composites, fusing unrelated elements like skies, objects, and textures to craft surreal art or alter a scene's atmosphere. When the AI correctly interprets lighting and perspective, the results can be striking. However, as with many AI systems, highly ambitious combinations can sometimes reveal inconsistencies in shadows or object scaling.

Community Feedback

The response from the creative community is generally favorable, though not without criticism. Many point to the improved identity consistency as a major step forward, finally allowing for a comic strip or ad campaign where a character looks the same in every frame. The speed and ability to understand nuanced requests are also frequently praised.

The tool's versatility is another strength, capable of handling restoration, styling, composites, and marketing tasks effectively. It also shows a particular aptitude for replicating specific artistic styles and visual signatures, an area where some competitors can struggle.

There are, however, points of frustration. The misunderstanding around "3D models" left some creators feeling misled when the output was a flat image with simulated depth rather than an exportable asset. Fine details can also falter, with elements like hands or complex patterns becoming distorted, especially after several editing steps. Professionals who require clean, unmarked assets have also expressed concerns about digital watermarks. Furthermore, while polished, every function it offers is available in other tools, many of which are free.

The limited free usage on its standalone website has been a point of contention for many. Offering only a few free generations feels restrictive compared to the unlimited free access provided by some rivals. This has naturally steered most users toward the Gemini platform, which appears to be Google's strategic intent, but it leaves the direct website with less traffic.

Competitive Context and Future

When measured against other image generators, this tool is less focused on purely artistic experimentation but excels at practical, identity-preserving edits. It operates faster and with more consistency across multiple edits than some integrated chat-based image tools, and it is more utilitarian than those known for a highly artistic, visionary style.

Its core strategic advantage is integration. By embedding it within the Gemini ecosystem and developer tools, Google has increased the overall appeal of its platform for developers, content creators, and companies.

The creator wishlist is straightforward: transparent communication about its capabilities, fewer usage restrictions, improved handling of fine details, and if the ambition is there, genuine 3D model export. Users also desire more control over aspects like lighting, lens choices, and style intensity, as well as support for higher resolutions suitable for professional work.

Final Assessment

This is a capable, user-friendly, and enjoyable tool that enhances its parent platform's position in the competitive AI landscape. It generally produces more contextually relevant images than some free alternatives and outperforms others in speed and editing consistency. However, it is not a groundbreaking innovation, and overstating its 3D capabilities can damage user trust. Based on comprehensive testing across various scenarios, it earns a solid 8/10 rating. It is certainly valuable for those already invested in the Google ecosystem or for users seeking reliable and coherent edits, but its capabilities are not so unique as to warrant abandoning other platforms entirely. The development direction is encouraging, as the parent platform is evolving into a more comprehensive creative suite, but this specific tool, while excellent, is one of many options available rather than a singular, unparalleled solution.

17 Tech Tips and Tricks

Have you ever gotten frustrated searching for a password you swore you wrote down somewhere? How about tediously trying to resize windows so you can view two of them on the same screen? In some cases, technology doesn’t feel like a helpful tool but more like an unavoidable hassle. We’ve listed 17 shortcuts and hacks that will help you use tech to your advantage and make your daily life a little easier.

1. When All Else Fails, Reboot

It’s a good rule of thumb to reboot your computer once per week. This flushes system memory, completes windows updates that may have started running, and can lead to better productivity and performance.

2. Use a Secure Password Manager

How much time do you lose trying to remember forgotten passwords? The average person spends 12 days of their life searching for their login credentials. 1Password and Keeper are secure online password managers you can use to manage and store this information. They integrate with your web browser so you can log into websites and other services seamlessly, saving you tons of time guessing or getting locked out of what you need. These tools can also generate secure passwords for you, making your accounts harder to hack.

3. Take a Screenshot

On a PC, right-click the “Start” button, choose “search,” and type “Snipping Tool.” Select “New” and click and drag the cursor over the desired area. Once finished, you can then share or save the snip. On a Mac, Press and hold “Shift+Command+4.” Drag the crosshair to select the area of the screen to capture.

4. Automate Laptop Screen Brightness For Your Tired Eyes

Blue light is known to interfere with our ability to sleep. Windows has an automatic light switcher that allows users to adjust automatically to warmer colors when lighting in the environment changes. To set this, right-click the “Start” button, search “Night Light,” and click on it. Select “Schedule night light” and set whatever hours you like.

5. Quickly Re-Open a Closed Tab in Your Web Browser

If you accidentally close an important tab in your browser, you can easily re-open it by pressing “control + shift + t” on a Windows PC.

6. Search From the Browser Bar

Why waste time opening a new tab and going to Google? Today’s browsers allow you to search directly from the browser bar at the top of the page. Simply input your query into the area where web addresses are typically displayed, and the browser will immediately populate a results page related to your search.

7. Use Quotation Marks

If you’re searching for something in Google but getting bogged down with irrelevant results, consider wrapping your query in quotes. Google will only show results that exactly match whatever you have written in quotes. This makes it much easier to find what you’re looking for and eliminates extraneous search results.

8. Use Google to Find Your Android

When you are signed into your Google account in your web browser on your PC, Google “find my phone.” If using Google Home, you can also say, “Hey Google, find my phone.” This will ring your Android phone. For Apple devices, you can use Find My iPhone on iCloud.com.

9. Set Up Email Filters in Microsoft Outlook

In the Microsoft Outlook ribbon, select “File,” click the “Manage Rules & Alerts” button, and then select “New Rule.” In this menu, you can assign tasks to emails under certain conditions, such as automatically filing emails based on criteria like the sender or specific words in the subject line.

10. Schedule Emails to be Sent Later in Microsoft Outlook 

In Outlook, when you open a new email, click “Options” at the top and click “Delay Delivery.” Under delivery options, you can choose the date/time next to “Do not deliver before.”

11. Set Microsoft Teams Quiet Hours in the Mobile App 

Open the Microsoft Teams app on your phone and click the navigation menu (photo icon) in the top left corner. Click “Notifications,” then click on the bell icon under “Block notifications,” identified as During quiet time. After you click “quiet hours,” you will have the option to turn it on and select your desired quiet hours. There is also a separate option to turn on quiet days, which mutes notifications for a full 24 hours.

12. Mute and Unmute Zoom Meetings With the Space Bar 

When you are called to speak, stop scrambling to click the microphone button. You can press and hold the spacebar to quickly mute and unmute your mic when on a Zoom call.

13. Automate Your Meeting Availability with Calendly

Calendly allows you to schedule meetings with people outside of your organization who may not use the same calendar software as you. Once you set your ideal meeting times and length in the app, you can share a specific Calendly URL. This way, people trying to schedule events with you can find what works best, eliminating the back-and-forth of multiple emails.

14. Keyboard Shortcuts 

• Windows Key + D – Helps you hide or show the desktop at once despite how many tabs and windows are opened on your desktop.
• Spacebar – Scrolls down the page.
• Shift + Spacebar – Scrolls up the page.
• Windows Key + Left/Right Arrow – Allows you to select and work on two windows side by side.
• Alt + Tab – Switches between multiple windows quickly.
• Windows Key + L – Locks your computer in a second. This comes in handy if you’re working on something confidential and someone comes over, and you need privacy quickly.

15. Use Youtube Keyboard Commands 

Keys 0 through 9 skip through the video. Press 5 for 50%, 7 for 70%, etc. The J, K, and L keys also have useful functions. Press J to rewind, K to pause, and L to fast forward. These keys only work in this manner when the video is paused.

16. Expand Your Vocabulary in Documents 

In Office 365, the built-in thesaurus is a handy feature. To avoid repetition when writing content, right-click any word and select “synonyms.” You’ll get a full selection of great alternatives.

17. Texting Hack

When you are at the end of a sentence, all you have to do is tap the space bar twice for a full stop. It will insert a period and automatically capitalize the following letter.

Houston, We Have a Misfire

I work at an auto shop. We had a tricky case: a car with a persistent engine issue that had resisted all the usual diagnostic steps. Finally, one of our most seasoned mechanics pinpointed the culprit.

He explained to the customer, "Here's the problem. Your fuel injectors aren't delivering a consistent, fine mist. That means the combustion process isn't clean, which is causing those misfires you feel and the drop in your gas mileage. Essentially, the chemistry is off—the fuel-to-air ratio is unbalanced, and it's throwing the entire system out of sync."

The customer, who hadn't been paying much attention, just nodded. "Uh-huh. So, how much is this going to cost me?"

The mechanic gave him the estimate. "For the parts and the labor, it will be about $800."

The customer was stunned. "$800?! For what? It's just spraying some gas into the engine! That's ridiculous!"

"It's not *just* spraying gas," the mechanic clarified patiently. "It's a precision calibration. A few milliliters too much or too little, and the engine simply won't run correctly."

"Absolutely not. I'm not paying that," the customer declared. "I want to speak to your manager."

The manager was briefed on the situation and came out to speak with the customer.

"Sir," the manager began, "the price reflects the highly technical nature of the work and the expertise required to perform it correctly."

The customer scoffed. "Why? It's not like it's rocket science!"

The manager didn't miss a beat. "Actually, sir, it's combustion chemistry. It's *exactly* like rocket science."

That left the customer with nothing to say. He quietly agreed to the repair, and our mechanic got back to the delicate task at hand.

Report Reveals China Stockpiled $38 Billion in Chip-Making Tech, Highlighting Gaps in Export Controls

 A new investigation from a U.S. congressional committee has uncovered a significant surge in China's purchases of advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment, raising questions about the effectiveness of international export restrictions.

According to the report, Chinese chipmakers bought a staggering $38 billion worth of tools from the world's top five equipment suppliers last year. This represents a 66% increase from 2022, the very year when many of the current export controls were first put in place.

The Core of the Issue: Inconsistent Rules

The bipartisan House Select Committee on China found that the core problem lies in inconsistent regulations between the United States and its key allies, Japan and the Netherlands. While U.S. companies are restricted from selling certain advanced tools to specific Chinese firms, non-American companies from allied nations have been able to continue some of these sales legally under their own countries' rules.

This has allowed China to continue acquiring sophisticated technology crucial for manufacturing advanced computing chips.

Key Findings and Industry Impact

The report highlighted that the $38 billion in sales to China accounted for nearly 39% of the total revenue for the five major toolmakers:

• Applied Materials (U.S.)

• Lam Research (U.S.)

• KLA (U.S.)

• ASML (Netherlands)

• Tokyo Electron (Japan)

These chips are vital for national security, powering everything from artificial intelligence to military modernization. The report argues that these sales have directly made China "increasingly competitive" in semiconductor manufacturing.

Calls for Tighter Controls and Future Outlook

In response to these findings, the committee is pushing for a more coordinated and broader approach among allies. Instead of narrowly targeting specific Chinese chipmakers, they recommend wider bans on the sale of chipmaking tools to China altogether. The report also suggests restricting the sale of components that China could use to build its own domestic chip-making equipment.

An industry executive from Tokyo Electron's U.S. unit noted that sales to China have begun to decline this year, partly due to newer regulations. He also expressed support for more coordination between the U.S. and Japanese governments, hinting that the desired outcome of curbing China's advanced chip capabilities has not yet been fully achieved.

The situation underscores the ongoing technological rivalry between the U.S. and China, where control over the global semiconductor supply chain has become a central battleground.

7 Essential Tips to Keep Your Phone Safe While Travelling

 

On this page

1. Add a phone passcode
2. Be Wi-Fi Wise
3. Privacy While Traveling
4. Update before Travel
5. Two is One. One is None.
6. Don't Take the Bait
7. Preserve More than Memories
8. Everyone Looks Cooler in Shades
9. And Now, Relax.
10. So, in summary:

Travel offers an escape from the daily routine, but also presents unique cybersecurity risks.  Safeguarding your phone against theft and online threats is crucial for a truly worry-free break. Here's our comprehensive strategy to help you keep your digital life secure while embracing new adventures. 

Add a phone passcode

It’s good advice for any time, home or away, but don't underestimate the power of a robust passcode. Avoid reusing passwords across accounts and consider the added security of two-factor authentication where available. Explore password manager apps that can help you generate and store unique, complex passwords for every service you use.

Be Wi-Fi Wise 

Think twice before connecting to open public Wi-Fi networks without protection. If you can, use a trusted Virtual Private Network (VPN) to encrypt your data. An even better alternative is an eSIM solution like BetterRoaming, which is a secure way to access affordable local data plans, minimizing your reliance on potentially insecure public networks. 

Privacy While Traveling

Be mindful of your digital footprint. Consider turning off location services within your camera app to prevent your photos from revealing your whereabouts. Minimize real-time social media updates, and instead upload photos and videos later from a secure connection. For even greater control, explore apps that allow you to scrub location metadata from photos before sharing them. It’s better to be selective about who you tell where you are, where you’re going, and how long you’ll be away from home.  

Update before Travel 

Updates for your phone's operating system and apps often contain vital security patches that address newly discovered vulnerabilities. Set your phone to automatically install updates whenever possible, especially before you travel. Also, getting essential updates while on your home network keeps down the demands on your roaming data. 

Two is One. One is None.

Everyone hopes that the trip goes perfectly, but plan for loss or theft. Proactively enable features such as "Find My Device" and remote wiping. These tools give you control to locate a lost phone or erase sensitive information if it falls into the wrong hands. Remember, unlike physical SIM cards, eSIMs cannot be easily removed, further enhancing your device's security. If you have a spare device at home, charge it and bring it with you as a backup. 

Don't Take the Bait

Cybercriminals often use phishing scams, sending emails or messages that appear legitimate but trick you into clicking dangerous links or sharing personal data. When in doubt, verify the sender's identity directly before interacting. Be on high alert for misspellings in email addresses that often indicate a fraudulent sender. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Look out for unusual or demanding language, requests for payment, or anything that pressures you to take immediate action. 

Preserve More than Memories 

Create regular backups of your phone's data, either to an external hard drive or to secure cloud storage whenever you are in range of a trusted Wi-Fi connection. This ensures you can recover precious photos, contacts, and documents even if your device is lost or damaged. Additionally, consider phone insurance which can help offset replacement costs if your device is stolen or irreparably damaged.

Everyone Looks Cooler in Shades 

Like sunglasses for your digital privacy, a directional screen protector prevents prying eyes from seeing sensitive information while you use your phone in public spaces. Be cautious about the applications you download, especially from third-party sources. Stick to official app stores and read user reviews to assess an application's trustworthiness. Lastly, invest in a portable charger so you're less likely to resort to charging your phone at potentially compromised public charging stations.

And Now, Relax.

Whether you've off to France for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Germany for Euro 2024, or any of the other 160+ destinations we cover, don't let cybersecurity worries dominate your trip. By adopting these proactive measures you can significantly reduce your risk of digital disruptions and focus on embracing the joy and exploration that travel brings.

Get enhanced safety and security on your next vacation with BetterRoaming eSIMs. Ditch the hassle of swapping physical SIM cards while reducing the risk of losing your main channel of communication. BetterRoaming eSIMs are embedded within your device, minimizing the potential for theft or damage so you can enjoy reliable connectivity abroad without compromising your digital well-being. To get your destination eSIM, visit BetterRoaming.com today.