Tech News Weekly: Issue 149
AI everywhere, WinRAR vulnerability, billion Dollars for Chrome, and more in this episode.
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Article(s)
Update WinRAR asap
If you do use WinRAR, the compression software, then you may want to make sure that you run the latest version of it. That is WinRAR 7.13 at the time of writing.
The reason is simple: WinRAR 7.13 fixed a security issue, tracked as CVE-2025-8088, that is exploited in the wild currently according to security experts at ESET.
Attackers may craft archives with malicious content so that the contents are extracted to a location of their choosing. This would enable them to place malicious files in startup among other things.
So, if you do run WinRAR, make sure you have the latest version installed. If you are unsure, head over to Rarlab, the official site, to download the latest release. Or, if you prefer the command line, run winget upgrade rarlab.winrar to upgrade to the latest version immediately.
News
Operating Systems
Linux Mint 22.2 Beta is now available for public testing. It comes with a new hardware enablement kernel, Linux 6.14 kernel, a new Fingwit app for fingerprint configuration, and more. Link
Microsoft released the August 2025 security updates for Windows yesterday. It says that all client versions of Windows 10 or 11 that it supports are without any known issues. Link
Windows 365 Reserve is a new on-demand emergency cloud PC that is designed to minimize disruptions of work caused by cyberattacks or other issues. Link
Mobile
AI startup Perplexity made a $34 billion bid for Google Chrome, almost double the company’s current valuation. Link
Google Translate is getting a learning feature that is helping users practice a language. Can it rival the likes of Duolingo and co.? To early to tell, but you may access preset lessons or create your own. Wording suggests that Google may be charging for the feature in the future. Link
Microsoft is discontinuing its Lens PDF Scanner app for Android and iOS later this year. The company suggests that users switch to using the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, which it says offers similar features (and ads). Link
Mozilla plans to drop support for very-old Android versions. Firefox will require at least Android 8 to run going forward. Link
Browser
Some Firefox users claim that the browser’s new AI-based tab grouping feature is using too much processor and battery. Link
Google Chrome users who ran into a gray screen error after launching the browser may be happy to hear that there is a temporary fix for the issue. You need to run Google Chrome with the parameter --disable-gpu to get it to start up. Load chrome://flags/#use-angle then and set the value to Default. Restart Chrome without the startup parameter and the issue should be fixed. Link
Google released the weekly security update for its Chrome web browser. It addresses six security issues, three of which rated as high. No exploits in the wild mentioned. Link
Microsoft plans to support its Edge browser on Windows 10 until 2028. This is primarily for business customers who use the full three years of extended security updates (ESU) that Microsoft offers to them. Link
Privacy and Security
Dashlane announced the end of its free tier for its password manager. Users have until September 16, 2025 to either export their data or switch to a paid plan. Link
Intel released security advisories for company products, including video cards and processors. Recommended to upgrade if patches are provided. Link
Security researchers found a way to trick Windows Hello authentication. The attack allowed them to authenticate using Windows Hello by manipulating the database that is responsible for authentication information. They suggest two fixes: Either make sure that Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-In Security is enabled, or to switch from biometric authentication to using a PIN. Link
WhatsApp displays safety overviews before seeing new chats now. This, according to Meta, is designed to highlight the potential for scams and issues on WhatsApp. Link
Software and Services
Autodesk launched a freemium option for its Flow Studio application, promising creators access to professional grade AI-powered VFX and animation tools. It furthermore announced a price drop for the Lite plan, which went down from $20 to $10. Link
Handbrake 1.10.0 is now available. The cross-platform video transcoder ships with new “social 10MB presets” and several important fixes, including a crash fix. Link
PeaZip 10.6.0., the open source file compression tool, boosts the performance when browsing directories or archives that contain a very large number of items. Browsing a 25k-item archive was between two and thirty times faster according to the devs. Link
ShareX 18.0.0, the screen capturing and sharing app, moved to .NET 9.0 and SQLite in its latest update. Migration should happen on first start automatically.
Gaming and Entertainment
HBO Max is cracking down on password sharing according to reports. Expect more prompts in the future that ask you to pay for an extra member slot to continue watching. Link
The next Call of Duty and Battlefield 6 will require Secure Boot on Windows. If your PC does not support Secure Boot or if Secure Boot is deactivated, you won’t be able to play the games on Windows PCs. Link
AI
ChatGPT supports the following new connectors now:
Plus subscribers: Box, Canva, Dropbox, HubSpot, Notion, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams
Pro subscribers: GitHub and Microsoft Teams Link
Google claims that the AI overviews in Google Search are not stealing traffic from websites, but driving more users towards them. This contradicts third-party research, which suggests that users are less-likely to click on results when AI overviews are displayed. Link
Microsoft believes that computer users won’t be using a mouse or keyboard in the near future. Instead, Microsoft sees them interacting with the computers with their voice. Link
WhatsApp is rolling out the AI-powered Writing Help assistant feature on Android. It enables users to “enhance their messages” using AI and what Meta calls private processing. Link
Hardware
Google has shown off the Pixel Fold 10 officially on YouTube. The company is expected to announce the Pixel 10 series on August 20, 2025.
Other
AOL will discontinue its dial-up internet service later this year. Did not say how many of its customers are still using dial-up Internet, but can’t be many. Link
Google is testing a new search feature that allows you to pick news sites and blogs that you want to show up in the top stories section of Google Search. Called Preferred Sources, it enables users to pick their favorites. Link
Did I miss something of importance this week? Let me and everyone else know in the comments!