I’m on vacation this week in Edinburgh, Scotland. This issue is lighter on content than usually, next week’s however will have a new section that I’m certain you will all like.
Starting next week, I’ll add a section about important software updates. The section includes information about security updates and other updates of importance of popular apps for the most part.
News
Operating Systems
Microsoft introduced two new Enterprise products: Microsoft 365 Backup and Archive. Both add Microsoft-owned backup capabilities for Enterprise customers. The main difference between the two is Backup is designed for backups of data that is in active use and Archive for data that does not need to be accessed regularly, in other words, Cold Storage.
Mobile
Support for Android 4.4 “KitKat” is ending in August 2023 as Google won’t release Play Services updates anymore.
Browser
Brave Software released Brave Browser 1.56, and not 1.53, this week. The new version adds the new Off The Record mode to the browser, which won’t record the browsing activity for certain sites. Another interesting feature is the introduction of keyboard shortcut customizations.
Microsoft released Edge 115 and patched 14 unique security issues in the browser. The changelog lists no new features for Home users, but a new option for system administrators to manage policies in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Mozilla released an update just for Firefox ESR that pushed the version to 115.0.3. It addressed a single startup crash issue caused by Qihoo 360 Antivirus.
Privacy and Security
Proton, the company behind Proton Mail, Proton VPN and other Proton products, has released the source code of Proton Pass. The password manager has undergone a security audit by the German security firm Cure53. The researchers did not find major security issues in the code.
K-9 Mail, the upcoming Thunderbird for Android application, has passed a security audit with flying colors.
Software Releases and Updates
Microsoft is launching a new theme for Microsoft 365 and Office that will replace the classic theme. This new theme changes the font, color palette, style and line weight in all Office documents to “modernize documents and improve their accessibility”.
Gaming and Entertainment
Netflix’s stock market share price may have tanked after the company released its financial report for the second quarter of 2023. On the good side, Netflix managed to gain more than a million new subscribers in all of the four major regions it operates in.
Hardware
Other
Twitter, besides changing its name seemingly to X, has also announced that it plans to limit the direct messaging capabilities of non-paying users.
OpenAI has shut down its AI Detection tool, citing “poor accuracy” as the reason for the decision.
Article(s)
Need another reason why digital purchases are bad for customers? Ubisoft deleting inactive accounts may be it
Word broke a few days ago that gaming giant Ubisoft was deleting inactive accounts of some customers. While it is not uncommon for companies to remove inactive accounts, all major companies, including Microsoft, Facebook and Google, have paragraphs in their terms of services that give them the right to do so, it is problematic if purchases are linked to these accounts.
A screenshot of an account termination information email by Ubisoft made the rounds recently. Ubisoft informed the customer that the account would be deleted because of inactivity. Users who receive the email have 30 days to stop the deletion of the account.
Ubisoft did not make distinctions between accounts with and without purchases initially. This changed today only, likely after the company got its fair share of mostly negative news articles about this practice.
Ubisoft’s Closure of Inactive Ubisoft accounts support page now confirms that the company will never close accounts with active subscriptions or PC games that were purchased in the Ubisoft store.
Inactive Ubisoft accounts, with no PC purchases or active subscriptions tied to them, may be closed in order to comply with data protection laws after long periods of inactivity.
Accounts tied to an active Ubisoft subscription, or PC games that have been purchased from the Ubisoft store, are not eligible for deletion.
The rise of digital distribution has made buying books, games, movies and other media infinitely more convenient. With just a few clicks, you can purchase and download the latest releases to enjoy on your devices instantly. But there are risks involved in building your digital library that consumers should consider.
Unlike physical media that you truly own and control, digital goods are often tethered to the long-term viability of seller platforms and accounts. If a service closes down or you get locked out of your account, you can lose permanent access to all of those purchases. For example, when Microsoft announced the looming closure of its eBook store in 2019, customers would be unable to access their ebooks after the closure date. Microsoft did offer full refunds, but it still highlighted that even major companies could decided to shut down services.
This lack of real ownership stems from digital rights management (DRM) restrictions added to downloaded content by publishers and distributors. The files cannot be freely transferred and used because they are encrypted and tied specifically to your account for verification. If that account disappears, the files become useless. That is why I recommended using services Gog whenever possible, as they offer DRM-free digital purchases.
If a company goes bankrupt altogether, the situation is even more dire. Your account details and purchase history could get erased, leaving you with no recourse to show what you paid for.
Links
BITSUMMIT 2023: STEAM DECKS EVERYWHERE, NO VR, AND IMPRESSIVE INDIE GAMES
Google proposal to restrict websites to “trusted” client devices
The 1990s Amiga with Video Toaster has a VFX cool factor that endures today
Why Don’t We Get Our Drinking Water from the Ocean by Taking the Salt out of Seawater?
As you mentioned, the real issue of many digital purchases (but not all) is not that they're digital, but due to DRM. For music, this is the big exception to the media landscape where you really do own all the files, even without accounts, since DRM is no longer used since the ancient early days of iTunes. Speaking if which, I'm a big fan of bandcamp.
For books, you do have some choices. Kobo and B&N offers some DRM free books depending on publisher, but I know that Tor's books are DRM-free. For technical books, the scenario us much, much better. All the publishers except one I know offer direct sales with DRM free ebooks (pdf, epub) such as Packt, No Starch, Manning, Pearson, Springer/Apress, etc. O'Reilly used to do that but now only offer such through ebooks.com and the occasional Humble Bundle.