Software & Apps News - Page 2

Microsoft is working to make some of its default apps run faster in Windows 11, specifically the clients using Windows App SDK.

That software development kit is used in the likes of the stock Photos app in Windows 11, or Phone Link, but apps leveraging the SDK can often exhibit sluggish behavior when loading, or in terms of general responsiveness, as Windows Latest notes.

However, the tech site has spotted a support document from earlier this month which tells us that Microsoft has brought in native Ahead-Of-Time (AOT) compilation for Windows App SDK.

When Microsoft announced its Windows Recall feature that was headed to the new Copilot+ PCs the feature was met with heavy criticism from users as it was essentially viewed as an invasion of privacy.

Here's how Recall works in a nutshell. Microsoft's latest AI feature in Windows 11 indiscriminately and continuously takes screenshots of a user's desktop to create a searchable index that has categorized all of the content the AI has seen on screen. Notably, the tool doesn't blur out any sensitive information a user may be looking at, such as banking information, private images, passwords, medical information, etc. Once users discovered this, the feature received extreme criticism as it raised concerns that Recall users would have their sensitive data stored on Microsoft servers.

Microsoft attempted to reassure users that all screenshots captured by Recall would be stored locally and wouldn't be sent to Microsoft servers. However, that prompted security concerns for users, as bad actors who gained access to a PC would simply need to navigate to the directory of this Recall feature and copy all of the screenshots to steal all of a user's personal information. How does this relate to Apple's new suite of AI features under Apple Intelligence?

Linus Tech Tips has caught itself in another controversy, but this time, it doesn't have to do with poor quality videos, but instead, its videos perhaps being a little "too" good.

LTT has decided to go after the owner of the platform it posts its videos on, Google, with a series that has seemingly ruffled some of the company's feathers as it informs viewers how they can move away from Google-related products/services. The first episode of the series was posted on May 23, 2024, and is titled "De-Google Your Life". It provides viewers with information on how to move away from Google Chrome and its related services.

The second part in the series was published on August 20, 2024, and was removed from YouTube for violating the platform's "community guidelines". Within this video the LTT team showcased how a user could transition away from using Google's password manager, Google Maps, and even interact with the platform without interfacing with YouTube directly, including by downloading videos.

Following his arrest in France on charges on twelve charges, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has had his past looked and it was discovered the billionaire tech founder has helped father more than 100 children, or at least according to him.

Durov was arrested in France last month on several criminal charges that alleged he was complicit in drug trafficking, distribution of child sexual abuse material, facilitation of fraud, illicit transactions, and more. All of these charges stem from an unknown percentage of the 950 million Telegram users that take advantage of the end-to-end encryption of the messaging platform.

The Telegram CEO has since responded to the charges in a recent Telegram post, saying he was "surprised" to discover he could be held personally responsible for the illegal activities of people using his platform. In a recent USA Today report, the publication pointed out Durov has publicly claimed he has fathered more than 100 children through anonymous sperm donations and that his doctor informed him his sperm was of "high quality".

Earlier last month, a US federal judge ruled that Google held a monopoly over the search industry and abused its power to maintain it.

The lawsuit that Google lost claimed the company acted illegally to keep its grip on the search industry, which involved paying other big tech giants such as Apple, Samsung and Mozilla billions of dollars per year to stay as the default search engine on their respective phones and browsers. US Federal Judge Amit P. Mehta found Google to be guilty of violating Section 2 of the Sherman Act, and has now given an update on the company's punishment.

According to reports from The New York Times, a federal judge will deliver the punishment for Google by August 2025, and in the meantime, Judge Amit P. Mehta has asked prosecutors from the Justice Department and states to submit proposals on how to remedy the problem. Prosecutors have until the end of the year to submit proposals for Google's remediation, and after that, Judge Mehta will hold a new trial to hear evidence on how to move forward.

Instagram users will soon be able to comment directly on Instagram Stories, rather than a comment being sent directly to the account that posted the Story via private-message.

The new feature will enable people to interact with Instagram Stories more publicly, as the comments on Stories will be displayed to other users, unlike the previous setup where comments were sent directly to the posters private messages. However, users will only be able to comment on a story if they follow the account posting and if that account follows them back.

Additionally, the comments on Stories will only last 24 hours and users will be able to choose to turn Stories comments on or off for each Story. It appears Instagram is leaning more towards providing new features for users to enjoy that promote user engagement. In other Instagram related news, Meta was recently associated with "Active Listening" software through a leaked pitch deck from one of its partners.

Most people have encountered the strange coincide of having a conversation about a topic and then picking up their phone, opening a social media app and seeing an advertisement for that very thing that was just being discussed.

Some people, including myself, have reported this coincidence happening multiple times, leading to the assumption tech giants have access to the microphone in a smartphone and listen to people's conversations to better hone targeted advertisements. Despite this anecdotal evidence, social media giants such as Meta's Facebook have denied using any listening software for advertising purposes, but a recent report by 404 Media revealed through leaked pitch decks the technology exists.

The 404 Media report cited a leaked pitch deck about "Active Listening" software that accessed a smartphone microphone to monitor conversations and gather data. That data was then combined with behavioral data for more precise targeted advertising per user. The leaked pitch deck came from Cox Media Group (CMG), which cites Amazon, Google, and Facebook as partners. Following the release of the report, Google has since dropped CMG from its Partner Program list.

Brazil recently ordered its telecommunications regulator to block access to X following a Supreme Court Justice's determination that X violated federal regulations on content moderation and failed to appoint a legal representative in the country.

The debacle between Elon Musk's social media platform and Brazil revolves around Brazilian courts demanding X remove content the court believes harms democratic institutions in Brazil, which could impact an upcoming election. The Supreme Court also ordered X to have a legal representative in the country per its federal laws, which the social media platform failed to do.

Moreover, the Supreme Court's orders involved freezing the financial assets of Starlink, a product created and produced by SpaceX, Elon Musk's privately owned space-fairing company. Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court Justice that signed off on the orders viewed Musk's social media platform X and Starlink as one in the same. Furthermore, the freezing of financial assets in Brazil was to reportedly ensure SpaceX paid its court-ordered fines.

New research from vpnMentor indicates VPN usage across Brazil has skyrocketed more than 1500% since the ban of Elon Musk's social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Following a legal dispute between X and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, Musk decided to halt all operations of the social media platform across Brazil. Furthermore, the Moraes instructed X to appoint a new legal representative by 7:97 PM Friday ET, which X didn't fulfill the request and informed the Supreme Court justice it won't be complying with the demands.

Following the deadline passing Moraes instructed Brazil's National Telecommunications Agency to block access to X. The instruction was passed on to more than 20,000 IPS across the country. In addition to the general population being severed from X there is also the R$50,000 ($8,900) fine for both individuals and companies using VPNs to circumvent the X ban and still access the Musk's social media platform. Despite the looming threat of an extremely expensive fine, VPN access across Brazil has surged by 1600%.

Windows 11 has slowly been gaining in market share for quite some time, with most of its new users directly coming from the current leading operating system based on total users, Windows 10.

Microsoft announced it was ending support for Windows 10 in October 2025, and since then, the Redmond company has been pushing Windows 10 users to make the leap to the latest version of Windows. Following the end-of-support, Windows 10 will no longer receive security updates and support from Microsoft.

Unfortunately for both Microsoft and Windows 10 users, adoption isn't happening at the speed that Redmond would like, with reports indicating Windows 11 adoption has been much slower than previous operating system generations.