Tech News Weekly: Issue 51
News
Operating Systems
A new feature update for Windows 11 is just around the corner. While it is still unclear when it will be released, most believe later this month or the next, we know already about the major changes that come with it. The main feature is Windows Copilot, which, unless improved, lacks Windows control and management options. You can check out my guide on disabling Windows Copilot for instructions to turn it off.
There is also the new Windows Backup app, which, unlike its name suggests, is not a full-fledged backup tool. It focuses on backing up some data to OneDrive.
All in all, Windows 11 version 23H2 is making a few changes here and there, but not a major update that shakes things around. Still recommended to wait at least 2 months before considering upgrading to it.
Microsoft released a preview of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2.0 with a host of new features and improvements. Notable is a new memory reclaim option, the automatic shrinking of the virtual hard disk as WSL is used, and support for mirrored mode networking.
Mobile
Google Pixel watch owners whose devices break are out of luck when it comes to repairs. Google has no official repair program for the watches and there is also no option to purchase parts. In other words, as Ars Technica puts it, broken Pixel Watches are nothing but e-waste.
Browser
Mozilla Firefox 119 will no longer display https:// in the browser’s address bar for sites that use the protocol. It will, however, display http:// again, something that it is not doing currently. Next to http will be a “not secure” indicator to inform users about the insecurity, as the crossed lock icon will also be removed from the browser.
Opera has created a special version of its Opera web browser that is Chess-themed. More precisely, it is the “chess.com” version of Opera One, which integrates the online chess playing service directly in the browser. Anyone can point their browser to chess.com to start playing against human opponents or computers.
Vivaldi has shared an open letter in regards to Microsoft’s EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) and especially Microsoft Edge. In short, Vivaldi mentions the following four anti-competitive actions of Microsoft:
Displaying prompts and banners to users to keep Edge, or switch to Edge, using Windows and its web properties.
Making it difficulty to switch default browsers on Windows
Ignoring default browser settings on Windows in some instances by forcing links to open in Edge.
Using its AI push to promote Edge.
Microsoft released Edge 117 this week. The new version addresses security issues, removes some features and introduces new ones. Five “More Tools” tools are no longer available, and there is a new Favorites Recovery feature, which allows users to recover favorites for up to 14 days.
Speaking of Edge, Microsoft is testing yet another AI feature in the browser. AI Writing is designed to help users with their writing. One of the main features is rewrite, which allows users to rewrite any selected text using different tones and formats. A very similar tool is baked into Edge already, courtesy of Bing Chat and its Compose feature.
Privacy and Security
Facebook users can’t stop Meta from using their data for AI training, but some users have at least some options regarding third-party data sources and their use in AI training. Note that Facebook reviews the requests and may request more data or refuse to comply. It is probably not worth the trouble, as you never know about the outcome beforehand.
Load the Generative AI Data Subject Rights page on the Facebook website.
Select “I want to object or restrict the processing of my personal information from third parties used for generative AI”.
Fill out the form that is displayed. Facebook asks for the country of residence, first and last name, and email address associated with the platform / account.
Activate the Send button.
You can also ask Facebook to delete information or retrieve the information that Facebook has that is used for generative AI.
Noyb filed a complaint in France against three companies claiming that the mobile apps of the three companies, Fnac, SeLoger and MyFitnessPal, collect personal user data before obtaining consent.
Microsoft researchers have leaked 38 terabyte of data “due to overly-permissive SAS token”. Customer data was not leaked according to Microsoft and there has been no risk to customers “as a result” according to Microsoft.
One year after the hack of LastPass, things don’t really seem to have taken a turn for the better. Wladimir Palant revisited the service and looked at improvements made and issues that still exist. It is a good read for users of the service, maybe an eye-opener for some.
One of the, in my opinion, best for privacy VPN providers, Mullvad, has completed the migration to a disk-less VPN infrastructure. This improves privacy, as servers do not hold any data permanently anymore.
Software Releases and Updates
Adobe customers who plan to use the company’s AI offerings will have to pay with what Adobe calls generative credits. Subscriptions do come with a preset amount of credits each month, 1000 credits per month for instance for customers subscribed to Creative Cloud All Apps. Free users get 25 credits per month according to Adobe, and credits do not roll over to the next month.
Microsoft is working on an offline mode for OneDrive, which may sound strange at first, considering that files may already be offline on the system, if OneDrive is used. This particular implementation brings offline support to the browser, which may help users who edit and manage files in the browser and not locally.
The open source email client Thunderbird could soon get support for a revived version of Firefox Send to improve the sending of large files via email.
Microsoft Paint is getting support for transparency and layers, next to support for removing backgrounds. It appears that Microsoft has finally decided to give the app some development love.
Gaming and Entertainment
If you are old enough to have played Command & Conquer, Red Alert or Dune 2000 back in the days and want to relive these memories, or play them for the first time, then you are hard pressed using the originals.
OpenRA is an open source project that brings these classic games into the modern age. Apart from making sure that the games run well on modern architecture, it is also one goal of the project to improve gameplay and even add new features. From options to switch between left-click and right-click control schemes to improved interfaces with hotkeys support and support for game replays, it is improving usability significantly.
Project Gutenberg published 5000 audiobooks that were created using text-to-speech technology. Created by Project Gutenberg, Microsoft and MIT, the audiobooks are available for free on various services, including Spotify, Apple and Google Podcasts, and the Internet Archive.
Speaking of the Internet Archive, you can now run more than 250,000 emulated games and apps on the website. Just head over to The Emulation Station startpage and check out offerings such as the Console Living Room or Internet Arcade.
Hardware
Google announced that Chromebooks get 10 years of support now in an attempt to counter criticism that perfectly fine Chromebooks were running out of support. It is a step in the right direction for users, as they can continue to use devices for longer. While it is possible to continue running unsupported Chromebooks, doing so raises the risk of security issues.
Other
Google launched a new version of Bard to the public that can be used together with other Google Apps, including Gmail, Google Drive and YouTube. Called Bard Extensions, the feature enables Bard users to use data and information of their account. Bard could, for instance, pull travel schedules from Gmail, “look-up real-time flight and hotel information, see Google Maps directions to the airport” and do other things, all from a single user command.
Google states that the personal information is not “seen by human reviewers”, used “to show ads” or “train the Bard model”.
Another new feature is the new “Google it” button added to Bard responses in English. These help users double-check answers by running Google Searches.
Article(s)
A look at 12ft, a service to climb over paywalls
More and more sites on the Internet enable paywalls or switch to a system that gives visitors the choice between viewing content for free, but with advertising, or to subscribe to the service to read the content, usually without advertising.
While it is understandable that organizations and individual writers need to earn a living from their work, it is also clear that paywalls go against the original ideas of the Internet.
12ft is a web service that is designed to help Internet users access paywalled content. It is up to each of you to decide whether to use such a service or not; there are arguments for and against this, but this is not the scope of this article.
The service is free to use and users have two options to use it to bypass paywalls. Option one requires pasting the URL of the paywalled article into the resource field on the 12ft website and hitting the “remove paywall” button.
The second option may even be easier, as it works by pasting the URL behind the sites https://12ft.io/ address in the address bar.
In my tests, 12ft worked on some sites and not on others. On some, like the New York Times website, it was even disabled. The developers of 12ft explain that their service simply tries to pull the content from Google’s cache.
Clearly, it is not working for all sites, but there is not a single anti-paywall solution out there that works on all sites.
Since it is easy to use, it may be worth a try to see if the service can help you read an article on a specific site. Some sites are immune entirely.
If you prefer an extension, you may check out Bypass Paywalls Chrome Clean for Chromium-based browsers.
What you can do if a program window has gone missing in Windows
It can happen that program windows do not display in the visible area of the screen. This may happen sometimes on launch, but also if you accidentally moved the entire window out of the screen.
Experienced windows users may know how to get the windows back on the screen, but many regular users may not. It can be a frustrating experience, as closing and restarting the application may not resolve the issue experienced.
Windows has a few shortcuts and options to deal with the issue. Usually, there is no need to edit configurations or to download helper apps.
One of the shortcuts that you may try is Alt-Space. Just select the program window in the windows taskbar first before you activate the shortcut. It displays several window-related options on the screen, including move. A Shift-right-click on the program icon on the taskbar should also display the menu with the move action.
Once you have selected the move action, you may use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the window in the direction. You need to know where the window is in relation to the screen to use this method.
If it is on the left side, you’d use Alt-Space to bring up the menu, select move and then hammer on the right arrow key on the keyboard to move it to the right side, which is where the screen is.
Note that you may hold down the arrow key to move the window for as long as it is held down.
Even better, once you have hit one of the arrow keys once, you may also use the mouse to move the window arrow.
Another option that may work in some cases is to use the Windows-Arrow keys shortcuts. The shortcut Windows-UpArrow maximizes the active window on the screen, the shortcuts Windows-LeftArrow or Windows-RightArrow place it to the left side or the right side of the screen.
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