Software & Apps - Page 18

Windows 11 just got yet more adverts, you'll be unsurprised to find out, as Microsoft seems very keen to push as much promotional activity as it can get away with in the OS.

This time around, rather than sneaking ads into the core Windows 11 interface, at least they're tucked away in an app - the Weather app to be precise (which is a stock application installed with the operating system).

The bad news is that these adverts - which were introduced via a server-side update, Windows Latest reports - follow you around wherever you may scroll, like something out of a horror movie. Alright, a spy movie might be more fitting, though the idea of inescapable adverts trailing you everywhere certainly seems a rather horrific prospect to us.

Opera GX, the self-described 'browser for gamers' (it has a built-in VPN and other gamer-friendly features), is ramping up its AI support with new features. The browser's built-in AI assistant, Aria, was previously part of the experimental AI Feature Drops program for the Opera One browser and is now part of Opera GX. Let's go through Aria's capabilities.

The first is image generation, powered by Imagen2 by Google. If you've used an image generation tool before, this will be pretty straightforward, as Aria will turn text prompts into images with a 'regenerate' option to refine the output. Users will be able to generate up to 30 images per day.

Second is AI Voice Output, powered by Google's WaveNet model. This will give users an AI-powered screen reader while using Opera GX.

Windows 11 recently had an update paused because it was causing some PCs to get stuck in a reboot loop, but Microsoft has now resumed its rollout - only to run into another nasty glitch that breaks the taskbar.

This is not a good look, obviously enough, although in fairness to Microsoft, the update in question is an optional one, so you don't have to download it. And the way things are going with the June preview update (KB5039302), you'd probably be best giving it a wide berth for now.

As mentioned, the preview update is now rolling out again, after Microsoft has put a block on PCs that could be affected by the reboot debacle (those running nested virtualization, we're told).

Microsoft has been pushing Windows users to conform to the operating system in the way they intend or, as the setup states, in the way the company "recommends." To achieve this goal, Microsoft has made it increasingly more difficult for users to dodge its services, which the large majority depend on using the operating system with a Microsoft Account.

In a new report from a Neowin user, Microsoft has seemingly been caught quietly changing the setup for Windows 11 in new devices, particularly with OneDrive, the company's cloud storage service. According to the user Microsoft has now automatically enabled OneDrive folder backup without asking the user's permission, meaning folders such as Desktop Pictures, Documents, Music, and Videos will automatically sync to a user's OneDrive account.

Previously, users would receive a Windows notification asking if they would like to turn on automatic folder backup in OneDrive, which is actually quite a good feature when it's used correctly - and with consent. However, it appears from reports Microsoft has just turned on the feature without asking anyone or letting anyone know, which has resulted in many users reporting their desktops filling up with green checkmarks appearing next to files and shortcuts - verifying those files have been uploaded.

Microsoft has quietly updated the Windows 11 installation and initial setup process by automatically turning on OneDrive folder backup for those connected to the internet and signing in with a Microsoft account. This means folders like Pictures, Videos, Documents, Desktop, and more will automatically sync with the cloud on a fresh Windows 11 install without users being asked to opt-in.

For those with multiple PCs wanting a clean install, this could lead to a cluttered desktop with shortcuts to apps that aren't installed, which isn't ideal. OneDrive cloud sync can be a powerful tool when used currently, alleviating the need to backup files before formatting or installing Windows on a new PC - and it can be super handy if you run a desktop and laptop computer, ensuring key files are on both devices.

OneDrive comes with 5 GB of free personal storage, with Microsoft 365 subscribers getting up to 1 TB. The free 5 GB can be filled up quickly if you download or store large files in your main Documents folder, prompting you to free up space or pony up for a subscription to unlock more space.

Google is constantly developing its Chrome browser, of course, and an inbound tweak could be good news for eking out a bit more battery life on Windows 11 portables.

Windows Latest spotted a new 'audio offload' feature that's being worked on for Chrome, at least based on a recent commit which describes an "experiment for audio offloading on Windows."

So, this is by definition just in its experimental phase right now, but the idea is to take some of the strain off the CPU by redirecting the task of playing the audio in a web page to the PC's audio chip. And that lessened processor usage should help to save a bit of battery for extra longevity on the move with Windows 11 laptops.

Microsoft is moving to a world where a Windows user will be required to have a Microsoft account, and now the company has taken another step in that direction.

A new report from Tom's Hardware has pointed out that Microsoft has quietly removed the guide for transferring from a local account to a Microsoft account from its support page. Using the Internet Archive, we can see Microsoft previously had a set of instructions, albeit buried in a convoluted manner in its support pages, that informed users how to "Change from a local account to a Microsoft account".

These instructions were simply four steps and a notably helpful link that took users directly to the correct submenu. Prior to the removal of these instructions, Microsoft stated on the same support page it still "recommends" users create a Microsoft account. The prompt was similar to the alert users get when attempting to transition to a local account.

Windows 11's Phone Link app has been worked on quite extensively by Microsoft of late, so it's clear the company wants to tie Android smartphones (and iOS devices) more tightly into its desktop OS - and another useful feature just popped up in this regard.

Phone Link recently got the ability to swiftly pipe photos from your smartphone across to your Windows 11 desktop, and the new trick is the ability to copy text from those photos.

The 'Scan Text' option in the Phone Link app is OCR (Optical Character Recognition) capable of detecting characters in an image, and copying them out for you. Windows Latest spotted that this functionality has now rolled out to all Windows 11 (and Windows 10 users), where previously it was in testing.

Microsoft is pushing out a new feature that will enable desktop Windows users to continue using their smartphones after they sit down at their PC via an app.

The Windows Phone Link app is currently in Microsoft's Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.3790, and as shown in the above and below screenshots enables a user to access the most barebones features of a connected smartphone. At the moment only Android devices are supported, but there is work being done on enabling iPhone support.

As for what the Phone Link app offers, users are able to send/receive messages, make calls, access photos, check battery life, and more. Microsoft is promoting a new feature that will provide "continuity" between a smartphone and a Windows PC.

Windows 11's latest update has fixed a really annoying bug that has been bothering users of Chromium-based browsers for quite some time now.

The glitch in question means that when watching videos in browsers like Chrome or Edge (or any product built on Chromium), parts of the screen distort, a pretty nasty and jarring effect by all accounts.

However, with the June cumulative update which was recently released, this problem is now fixed. That's not a huge surprise, as the optional update for May - which was a preview of June's release - had this fix incorporated.

The Elon Musk takeover of Twitter was certainly tumultuous, and since the popular social media platform is now private, many of its inner workings have been removed from the public spotlight.

However, Bloomberg has obtained new documents that have revealed some details about what X, formerly Twitter, is experiencing behind the scenes and what it plans to do next in its quest to become "the everything app". According to the documents, which were submitted by X to state regulators to obtain money transmitter licenses, in the first full year Musk owned the company, X's revenue shrunk by nearly 40% compared to the same period a year prior.

More specifically, during that aforementioned time period, X's then-Twitter's revenue was $1.48 billion. During the first three months of 2023, X lost a staggering $456 million, which can be attributed to the mass abandonment of advertisers paying the platform. At the time of Musk's takeover, advertisers consisted of 90% of the company's revenue, and following Musk's acquisition and rollout of critical changes to what content can and cannot be posted, advertisers pulled out their ad expenditures.

There could be a slight fire at AMD right now as a hacker is claiming to have acquired a large variety of internal AMD data, which they are now attempting to sell on the dark web.

The purported AMD data has appeared on the dark web BreachForums by a user going by "IntelBroker," who is offering red team customer databases, upcoming product specifications and plans, internal financials, source code, firmware, ROMs, and information on employees, such as user IDs, names, phone numbers, and other sensitive information.

It should be noted that IntelBroker isn't a nobody in hacking circles, as the BreachedForums moderator has previously distributed information that has been claimed to be tied to large-scale hacks. For example, Europol revealed just last month it experienced a breach that resulted in files being stolen, and in April, Home Depot admitted the same. Additionally, the Pentagon said one of its partners experienced a breach. IntelBroker placed information on all three of those hacks onto the dark web for sale.

At this point, we're pretty much used to Microsoft trying to shove various products down the throats of Windows 11 (and 10) users using suggestions or nag panels - and here's another example, but with a fresh tactic involved.

Apparently, the idea is to take a standard nag banner - in this case, for switching to Microsoft Edge as the default browser in Windows 11 - and make it three-dimensional.

Presumably the idea is that employing some 3D graphics in the banner, spotted by Windows Latest, will be eye-catching enough to somehow help lure users into making the change to Edge.

Former NSA official and famed whistleblower Edward Snowden warned the public about OpenAI and its products after the company appointed a retired NSA director to its board.

On June 13, OpenAI announced that it was appointing retired US Army General Paul M. Nakasone to the company's board of directors, which OpenAI says reflects the company's commitment to safety and security. In its blog post, OpenAI states that Nakasone will join the Board's Safety and Security Committee and that his insights will influence recommendations made to the Board of Directors regarding safety and security decisions across OpenAI's products.

While OpenAI and US government officials on Capitol Hill regard this hiring as a win, not everyone is totally convinced, with former NSA officials and whistleblower Edward Snowden took to his personal X account to write, "They've gone full mask off: do not ever trust OpenAI or its products. There is only one reason for appointing an NSA Director to your board. This is a willful, calculated betrayal of the rights of every person on Earth. You have been warned."

Microsoft's controversial Windows 11 feature, which was expected to be released tomorrow for Copilot+ PCs, will not be available at launch, as the company caved to the public's concerns about privacy.

The Windows Recall feature, which indiscriminately takes screenshots of a user's desktop every few minutes, was widely criticized as providing a bad actor with an indexed folder of all a user's sensitive information (finances, passwords, sensitive content, etc.). Recall was meant to be released with Copilot+ PCs as a default option, but Microsoft announced on June 7 that it would instead be opt-in.

This June 7 announcement also included more encryption designed to make it more difficult for a hacker to access the Recall folder containing the screenshots. Notably, Microsoft quietly pulled the build of Windows 11 24H2 from its Release Preview channel, which contained the Recall feature being tested by Windows Insiders. However, Microsoft has announced that Windows 11 24H2 is back for users to download, but it doesn't include the Recall feature, and instead comes with fixes.

A new report from Reuters claims the Pentagon approved a vaccine disinformation campaign that ran for approximately one year, and the campaign involved the use of social media bots.

The investigative report states the US military launched a secret clamdistine anti-vax campaign to reduce the impact of China's emerging influence in the Phillipeans. The campaign involved at least 300 accounts on X, at the time Twitter, that US military officials said to the publication matched the description of accounts that were involved in the operation. Reuters writes the identified accounts all shared the hashtag #Chinaangvirus, which translates to China is the virus.

X was informed about the accounts by the publication, and the social media platform quickly responded by discovering their involvement in a coordinated bot campaign. Notably, the Pentagon or the US government is prohibited from targeting US citizens with propaganda, and according to the Reuters report, the investigation found no evidence to suggest that occurred.

The Paint app in Windows 11 is going to offer smart new powers for AI-powered image generation, and we've just learned more about the requirements to benefit from this.

The Cocreator feature originally debuted in Paint as a typical text-based prompt, as seen in many incarnations across various AI offerings, late on last year as you may recall.

However, the functionality is being pepped up with the ability to sketch in a side-by-side panel to further refine the AI's creation (with a slider to allow Cocreator a freer rein if required, departing more from the sketch into its own ideas).

Up until now X users could see what other content users have Liked on the platform, but that is all about to change according to a recent announcement from the company and it's owner Elon Musk.

In the past, public personalities and politicians have been caught with their pants down, Liking content that was considered by some to be inappropriate or, at the very least, unsavory. This outing of some X users resulted in the individuals in question being attacked online, and according to X, that is going to stop as the company has now launched the ability to hide user Likes. However, this new feature is locked behind the X Premium paywall.

When the feature was announced, X took to its official account to write, "Keep spicy likes private by hiding your likes tab," and provided an image of the new profile customization feature. The social media platform further explained that users will still be able to see posts they have liked, but others won't be able to. Additionally, Like count and other metrics for your own posts will still appear under notifications. Furthermore, the author of a post will be able to see who Liked their post.

Windows 11 recently experienced a troubling bug with the interface which pretty much broke the taskbar, albeit temporarily, but the good news is that it's now fixed with the rollout of today's cumulative update for June - the patch which just arrived.

Yes, today is Patch Tuesday for June in case you hadn't realized, and as ever, the cumulative update for Windows 11 was tested in an optional update at the end of the preceding month.

In this case, that May preview update came afflicted with a gremlin in the UI works whereby the taskbar would temporarily glitch out and fail to respond, or vanish entirely before reappearing - a pretty frustrating sounding bug.

Microsoft has reversed course on Windows 11's divisive Recall feature for Copilot+ PCs, making some major changes to help ensure the AI capability doesn't go badly when it launches.

If there's one key thing we've been calling for since Recall was revealed, it was for the feature to be off by default, and fortunately that's one of the sensible moves that Microsoft has implemented here.

Previously, during the setup process for a Copilot+ PC (in preview), the user was introduced to Recall, but not given a straightforward option to switch it off there and then. While there was an introduction to the feature, it was poorly implemented and designed, at least for novice Windows 11 users.