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MacworldAt a GlanceExpert's RatingProsQuick, Advanced and Guided modes Vast array of photo-editing featuresDozens of filters and effectsGuided Edits help newcomersConsNew three-year licensing scheme More expensive than some of its rivalsSome of the AI tools are quite complexOur Verdict The 2025 Photoshop Elements update isnt an essential upgrade for existing users, but it is still one of the best photo-editing tools for amateur photographers and hobbyists out there. Price When ReviewedThis value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefinedBest Pricing TodayRetailerPrice69,95 View DealAdobe98,77 View DealPrice comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwideProductPricePrice comparison from BackmarketBest Prices Today: Adobe Photoshop ElementsRetailerPrice69,95 View DealAdobe98,77 View DealPrice comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwideProductPricePrice comparison from BackmarketPhotoshop Elements isnt the cheapest photo-editing program available for Mac users, but its long been one of the most popular thanks to its combination of powerful editing tools based, of course, on the professional, high-end version of Photoshop and a well designed interface that makes it easy for beginners to achieve impressive results.The new version for 2025 isnt a massive upgrade but inevitably it includes a number of new features that use AI to speed up the editing process. However, there are also some changes to Adobes pricing, which might not appeal to everyone.Photoshop Elements How Much Does It Cost?Most of Adobes Creative Cloud apps, such as Photoshop and Illustrator, are aimed at professional users and require a monthly or annual subscription. However, Photoshop Elements is aimed at hobbyists and casual users, so it has traditionally been available for a one-time fee of $99.99/86.99.That price hasnt changed with the 2025 edition, but instead of paying a one-time fee that lets you use the program for as long as you want, Adobe now says that this grants you a three-year term license instead. In effect, youre paying for a three-year subscription, which sounds a little disappointing at first. However, it does mean that you should get the 2026 and 2027 updates free of charge, which is still pretty good value for money when spread over three years. Theres also a free seven-day trial available, so that you can download the program and try out the new features before buying.Owners of previous versions can also upgrade to the 2025 edition for $79.99/70.99, and you can also buy Photoshop Elements together with the Premiere Elements (read our review) video-editor for $149.99/130.49 (which again is for a three-year license). Beware though, as the version that is currently on sale in the Mac App Store (at the time of writing) is still the 2024 edition from last year, so Adobes own website is the best place to buy at the moment. Theres a 30-day trial available so that you can experiment for a while before buyingBuying the desktop version of Photoshop Elements also gives you access to its companion mobile app for iOS and Android, and a web app that runs in a browser on any device. The mobile app allows you to upload photos and videos from your smartphone or tablet, and also provides you with 2GB of free online storage for your files. You can then quickly import these files into the desktop versions of Photoshop Elements when youre ready to get down to some serious editing work. The web app works in a similar fashion, and also includes some simple tools for quickly creating slideshows and collages without having to use the full version of Photoshop Elements. Just remember that both the mobile and web apps are still in their beta test phase, so make sure you keep backups of your photos and files just in case.Photoshop Elements Editing ModesA key element, so to speak, of Photoshop Elements is that it provides three different editing modes, which are suitable for users with different levels of experience. At the top of the programs main editing window there are three tabs Quick, Guided and Advanced which provide different sets of tools.If youre a beginner, or you just want to perform some quick edits to tidy up a photo, then you can click the Quick tab. This takes you into a simple workspace with a basic set of tools for common editing tasks, such as cropping an image, correcting red-eye, or adding text.Theres also a Quick Actions panel on the right of the window that provides a series of one-click tools that can instantly perform more complex tasks, including color correction, adjusting exposure, or even removing the entire background from a photo. Most of these are one-click tools that work automatically, but there are also simple slider controls that provide more precise control over lighting, color and other settings.More experienced users who really want to edit their photos in fine detail can select the Advanced tab instead, which opens up the programs entire array of advanced editing. As well as providing a vast library of filters and effects that can alter the appearance of the entire photo, Advanced mode also includes precise tools for editing and manipulating individual pixels within the image, and using layers to combine multiple effects and objects within a single image.Its a bit of a leap, though, to go from Quick mode to Advanced mode, so Photoshop Elements also includes a Guided mode, which includes a series of Guided Edits that provide step-by-step help so that less experienced users can learn how to use some of the programs more advanced tools. These include Guided Edits for adding text and other effects, creating panoramic photos, or using pan and zoom effects to make your photos look more dynamic.Photoshop Elements Whats New for 2025?There isnt a large number of new features in the 2025 edition of Photoshop Elements, but Adobe has inevitably used AI to provide some powerful new features that quickly perform some very complex tasks.Theres a new Remove tool that can remove people or objects from a photo. Thats something that Photoshop Elements and many of its photo-editing rivals have attempted in the past, but the new AI-powered Remove tool works really well, even with photos that include several people standing in front of complex, multi-coloured backgrounds.Screenshot Taking this approach further, theres a new Guided Edit called Combine Photos that allows you to select the foreground subject from one photo and the background from another photo and combine them to create a new image. This was a little more complicated to use, though, and I sometimes found myself selecting the background or foreground subject from the wrong photo, so a little more clarity in the instructions wouldnt go amiss.More straightforward are the new AI features in the Quick Action menu within Quick mode. These can provide motion effects, such as zooming the camera in or out, or panning from side to side, and then allow you to export the animated image as an MP4 video file. There are pulsing hearts to declare your love for someone on TikTok, as well as animated frames and particle effects to liven up your posts.So while this isnt a major upgrade there are key features, such as the new Remove tool, which make the program more powerful than ever before.Top Photoshop Elements featuresHere are a few of our favourite feature that have appeared in Photoshop Elements over the years. Sensei / AIAdobes 2022 version introduced new artificial intelligence techniques which Adobe refers to as Sensei which could automatically perform editing tasks that might normally require hours of work.The app has always had a selection of filter effects that could make photos look like paintings, using media such as oil paints or watercolors, but Sensei introduced a new set of Artistic effects that aim to mimic a variety of popular artistic styles, such as cubist and post-impressionist. These arent always entirely successful I suspect Vincent Van Gogh is spinning in his grave right now but theyre fun to experiment with. One nice touch here is that you can apply the artistic effect to the entire photo, or just to the subject or background, which is a nice way of emphasizing particular aspects of a photo. If your artistic ambitions are a little more modest you can apply some simple animated effects known as Overlays such as falling snowflakes or flickering flames, to your photos and then save your work as a short video clip that you can upload to social media.The use of Sensei artificial intelligence continued with Photoshop Elements 2023. As well as applying animated overlays to an entire photo, this feature allows you to create moving elements that animate just one specific section within a photo. You could select part of an image, such as a waterfall or the flowing mane of a horse, and animate your selection to make the image look more dynamic and eye-catching. The programs selection tools can help you to select either the background of an image, or elements in the foreground, and you can simply draw a line to indicate the direction of movement (so the waterfall flows down, rather than upwards). You can also adjust settings such as the speed of movement, and preview the animation effect before exporting the animated image file as an MP4 video clip or as an animated-GIF.Guided EditsOne of the things that sets Photoshop Elements apart from many of its rivals is its use of Guided Edits, which give you step-by-step help in using some of the apps most powerful tools. One really powerful Guided Edit that was introduced in 2021s update is the ability to alter the aspect ratio of a photo by extending the background of a photo. If youve got a photo with an attractive background, such as a beach or some leafy trees then you can clone part of the background and use it to extend the background further perhaps to turn a square photo into a wider landscape shot, or to extend a sunny blue sky upwards for an upright portrait shot that you can use on social media.And, of course, no social media account is complete without some cute pet pics, so Photoshop Elements includes a Guided Edit specifically for enhancing photos of animals. You can adjust the lighting and color in a photo, focusing either on your pet or the background, or add a subtle vignette effect. Theres also an option to remove blemishes, such as mud or dirt, and to remove glare from the pets eyes.The Guided Edits section of the program also gained new tools for adding overlays, new background images, or enhancing the appearance of the sky in your photos. And, with so many Guided Edits now available, we were pleased to see that this update added a new Search tool that helps you to quickly locate the Guided Edits you need by searching for keywords such as crop or sky.In the 2024 edition, a new Guided Edit called Add Text, made it easier to use the programs text tools and effects. You can quickly add horizontal or vertical text, apply text to a selection, or make text follow a path that you draw with a freehand pen. You can add drop shadows, graduated colours and other effects with a quick click of your mouse, and even change the angle of lighting that you apply to the text. And, for social media mavens, theres a new Photo Reels tool, which is similar to an old-fashioned slide-show that flicks through a series of photos, but is very much focused on social media and provides a series of templates for use on Instagram, Tiktok and other services. When you create a Photo Reel you see a simple timeline view that allows you to arrange photos in sequence, adjust the size and aspect ratio of each photo. You can also adjust the playback speed of the photo reel, and add text, graphics and filter effects.FoundryQuick Actions Quick Actions panel is available within the programs Quick editing mode. The Quick Actions panel gathers together a number of existing editing tools, but also gains new AI features, such as the ability to quickly select or change the background or sky in an image, or to smooth out fuzzy artefacts in compressed JPG files.For a selection of the best free photo editors for Mac see our Best free image editors round up. We also have a round-up of the best alternatives to Photoshop in our Best professional photo editors round-up. Also read: Best Mac for photo editing and Adobe Creative Cloud pricing: How to get the best deal.Should you buy Photoshop Elements?Photoshop Elements is one of the best photo-editing tools for amateur photographers and hobbyists. Its great strength is that it provides admirable ease of use for beginners, along with powerful and precise editing tools for more advanced users. Despite this, the 2025 update might not be an essential for existing users especially as it introduces a new pricing system.

MacworldWhile Black Friday doesnt officially arrive until Friday, November 29 (with Cyber Monday following on Monday, December 2), the shopping season has already begun and its a great time to pick up a deal on a new monitor for your Mac. If youre unsure of which to buy, check out our best monitors for Macs roundup to read more about our favorite picks.Well be updating this page all throughout the Black Friday weekend, but in the meantime, you should also check out our round-up of the best Apple deals that we keep updated all year round.Apple display deals for Black Friday 2024Apple only sells two monitorsthe Studio Display and Pro Display XDRand theyre not cheap. Deals on the Studio Display are relatively common, but its unlikely to find much savings on the very high-end Pro Display XDR. Neither monitor has been updated in years, with the Studio Display arriving most recently in 2022.Its possible that Apple includes the Studio Display in its annual Black Friday Shopping Event, which offers gift cards when buying certain products. However, the Studio Display was not included in last years sale.U.S.Amazon, Apple Studio Display (Tilt-Adjustable Stand): $1,499 ($100 off, MSRP $1,599)Amazon, Apple Studio Display (Tilt/Height-Adjustable Stand): $1,799 ($100 off, MSRP $1,899)Amazon, Apple Studio Display (Nano-Texture Glass, Tilt/Height-Adjustable Stand): $2,155 ($144 off, MSRP $2,299)U.K.KRCS, Apple Studio Display (Tilt-Adjustable Stand): 1,349 ($150 off, RRP $1,499)NewRefurbishedRetailerPrice$1499.99View Deal$1599View Deal$1599View DealPrice comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwideProductPriceApple 27-inch Monitor 5120 x 1440 LED (MK0U3LL/A)$1449View Deal$1949View DealPrice comparison from BackmarketBest Mac monitor deals for Black Friday 2024Since Apples monitors are so expensive, you can get far better value by getting a third-party display. U.S.Alogic, Clarity Pro Touchscreen 27 UHD 4K Monitor: $899 ($300 off, MSRP $1,200)Alogic, Clarity 27 UHD 4K Monitor: $640 ($140 off, RRP $800)Walmart, Samsung 34-inch ultrawide 165Hz gaming monitor:$230 ($320 off, MSRP $550)Amazon, Samsung 32-inch UHD HDR Smart Monitor M8: $400 ($300 off, MSRP $700)Amazon, ViewSonic 24-inch 1080p VX2452MH: $110 ($50 off, MSRP $160)Amazon, Dell 32-inch 4K monitor:$250 ($110 off, MSRP $360)Amazon, Samsung 32-Inch Odyssey OLED G8 4K UHD Monitor: $950 ($350 off, MSRP $1,300)Amazon, BenQ PD2725U Thunderbolt 3 Monitor: $700 ($100 off, MSRP $800)U.K.Alogic, Alogic Clarity Pro Touchscreen 27 UHD 4K Monitor: 749 (250 off, RRP 999)Alogic, Alogic Clarity 27 UHD 4K Monitor: 595 (105 off, RRP 700)Amazon, ASUS ProArt Display PA279CV: 369 (130 off, RRP 499)Amazon, Dell 24-inch UltraSharp: 240 (114 off, RRP 354)Amazon, HP 24 Inch FHD Monitor: 80 (30 off, RRP: 110)Amazon, Philips 241V8LA- 24 Inch FHD Monitor: 90 (10 off, RRP 100)Black Friday 2024: Best deals for Apple productsCheck out these roundups for the best Apple deals:Apple Black Friday 2024 saleBest Black Friday 2024 Apple dealsBest Black Friday 2024 Mac DealsBest Black Friday 2024 MacBook dealsBest Black Friday 2024 AirPods dealsBest Black Friday 2024 Apple Watch dealsBest Black Friday 2024 iPad dealsBest Black Friday 2024 iPhone dealsBest Black Friday 2024 Mac monitor dealsBest Black Friday 2024 SSD and external hard drive dealsBest Black Friday 2024 Apple accessory deals

OpenAI recently introducedSimpleQA, a new benchmark for evaluating the factual accuracy of large language models (LLMs) that underpin generative AI (genAI).Think of it as a kind of SAT for genAI chatbots consisting of 4,326 questionsacross diverse domains such as science, politics, pop culture, and art. Each question is designed to have one correct answer, which is verified by independent reviewers.The same question is asked 100 times, and the frequency of each answer is tracked. The idea is that a more confident model will consistently give the same answer.The questions were selected precisely because they have previously posed challenges for AI models, particularly those based onOpenAIs GPT-4. This selective approach means that the low accuracy scores reflect performance on particularly difficult questions rather than the overall capabilities of the models.This idea is also similar to the SATs, which emphasize not information that anybody and everybody knows but harder questions that high school students would have struggled with and had to work hard to master. This benchmark results show that OpenAIs models arent particularly accurate on the questions that work asked. In short, they hallucinate.OpenAIs o1-preview modelachieved a42.7%success rate. GPT-4ofollowed with a38.2%accuracy. And the smallerGPT-4o-miniscored only8.6%. Anthropic did worse than OpenAIs top model; the Claude-3.5-sonnetmodel managed to get just 28.9%of the answers correct.All these models got an F, grade-wise, providing far more incorrect answers than correct ones.And the answers are super easy for a human. Here are the kinds of questions that are asked by SimpleQA:What year did the Titanic sink?Who was the first President of the United States?What is the chemical symbol for gold?How many planets are in our solar system?What is the capital city of France?Which river is the longest in the world?Who painted the Mona Lisa?What is the title of the first Harry Potter book?What does CPU stand for?Who is known as the father of the computer?These are pretty simple questions for most people to answer, but they can present a problem for chatbots.One reason these tools struggled is that SimpleQA questions demand precise, single, indisputable answers. Even minor variations or hedging can result in a failing grade. Chatbots do better with open-ended overviews of even very complex topics but struggle to give a single, concise, precise answer.Also, the SimpleQA questions are short and self-contained and dont provide a lot of context. This is why providing as much context as possible in the prompts that you write improves the quality of responses.Compounding the problem, LLMs oftenoverestimate their own accuracy. SimpleQA queried chatbots on what they think is the accuracy of their answers; the models consistently reported inflated success rates. They feign confidence, but their internal certainty may be low.LLMs dont really thinkMeanwhile,newly published research from MIT, Harvard, and Cornell University show that while LLMs can perform impressive tasks, they lack a coherent understanding of the world.As one of their test examples, the researchers found that LLMs can generate accurate driving directions in complex environments like New York City. But when researchers introduced detours, the models performance dropped because they didnt have an internal representation of the environment (as people do). Closing just 1% of streets in New York City led to a drop in the AIs directional accuracy from nearly 100% to 67%.Researchers found that even when a model performs well in a controlled setting, it might not possess coherent knowledge structures necessary for random or diverse scenarios.The trouble with AI hallucinationsThe fundamental problem we all face is this: Industries and individuals are already relying on LLM-based chatbots and generative AI tools for real work in the real world. The public, and even professionals, believe this technology to be more reliable than it actually is.As one recent example, OpenAI offers an AI transcription tool called Whisper, which hospitals and doctors are already using for medical transcriptions. The Associated Press reported that a version of Whisper wasdownloaded more than 4.2 million timesfrom the open-source AI platform HuggingFace.More than 30,000 clinicians and 40 health systems, including the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, are using a tool called Nabla, which is based on Whisper but optimized for medical lingo. The company estimates that Nabla has been used for roughly seven million medical visits in the United States and France.As with all such AI tools, Whisper is prone to hallucinations.One engineer who looked for Whisper hallucinations in transcriptions found the in every document examined. Another found hallucinations in half of the 100 hours of Whisper transcriptions he analyzed.Professorsfrom the University of Virginia looked at thousands of short snippets from a research repository hosted at Carnegie Mellon University. They found that nearly 40% of the hallucinations were harmful or concerning.In one transcription, Whisper even invented a non-existent medication called hyperactivated antibiotics.Experts fear the use of Whisper-based transcription will result in misdiagnoses and other problems.What to do about AI hallucinationsWhen you get a diagnosis from your doctor, you might want to get a second opinion. Likewise, whenever you get a result fromChatGPT,Perplexity AI, or some other LLM-based chatbot, you should also get a second opinion.You can use one tool to check another. For example, if the subject of your query has original documentation say, a scientific research paper, a presentation, or a PDF of any kind you can upload those original documents into GooglesNotebookLM tool. Then, you can copy results from the other tool, paste them into NotebookLM, and ask if its factually accurate.You should also check original sources. Fact-check everything.Chatbots can be great for learning, for exploring topics, for summarizing documents and many other uses. But they are not reliable sources of factual information, in general.What you should never, ever do is copy results from AI chatbots and paste it into something else to represent your own voice and your own facts. The language is often a bit off. The emphasis of points can be strange. And its a misleading practice.Worst of all, the chatbot youre using could be hallucinating, lying or straight up making stuff up. Theyre simply not as smart as people think.