Software & Apps - Page 25

It was only a few weeks ago that Microsoft continued with its plan to roll out a controversial Windows 11 update that implemented new advertisements into Windows 11, and now users have spotted yet another additional promotion now baked into Windows.

The new advertisement from a few weeks ago was implementing a "Recommended" section within Windows 11's Start menu. This new section first began testing within Microsoft's Insider program and according to Microsoft the recommendations within the section will be for apps sourced from a "small set of curated developers" that will meet Microsoft's quality standards. Notably, users are able to switch off recommendations within the Personalization section of Windows 11.

Now, Microsoft has rolled out a new advertisement within the "Settings" option for Windows, and this advertisement is for its Game Pass subscription service. The advertisement was discovered in the latest Dev channel version 26120.470 (KB5037864). The new Game Pass promotion ties in with the company's previous statements regarding Game Pass growth on PC still being present, while it stagnating on Xbox consoles.

Sonos released an updated version of its mobile app back on May 7th, and while most similar app updates would just pass without too much interest among the masses, this one has very much gone in another direction. The app has been almost universally derided, with some accusing it of breaking accessibility and others simply lambasting the decision to remove features. But whatever reason people don't like it, they can all generally agree that it isn't great.

Sonos, on the other hand. would argue differently. The company says that it's aware that people don't seem to like the new update and that it's working to address the functionality that it has removed as part of this latest change. But in a statement provided to The Verge, Sonos says that it stands by its decision to roll the app out.

The Verge reports that Sonos believes that the changes it has made will ultimately result in a better app further down the line.

Windows 11 has some interesting new features incoming based on the latest preview version of the operating system.

As well-known leaker on X (formerly Twitter) Albacore noticed, in the fresh preview build 26212 (deployed in the Canary channel), Microsoft has introduced what are called 'companions' for the Start menu.

These are widget-style concoctions that are attached to the Start menu in a floating panel that can be docked to the left or right-hand side, piping through info in real-time to the UI in a kind of 'Live Tiles' style. (Which of course was a piece of functionality Microsoft previously did away with - these were introduced with Windows 8, but Windows 11 dropped them).

WhatsApp, the Meta-owned instant messaging platform that works on just about everything with a display and an internet connection, has announced some changes to its iPhone and Android apps. The updates aren't new features as such, but more tweaks to the existing interfaces that people use daily. Changes include an upgraded color palette, an improved default chat background, and more.

WhatsApp made the changes known via a lengthy post to the Facebook blog in which Idit Yaniv, VP, Head of WhatsApp Design, detailed the changes that are being made. All of these changes are rolling out to users now, although they require a server-side flick of a switch. Make sure that you have the latest version of WhatsApp installed on your iPhone or Android phone and hang tight if you don't see them just yet.

Meta explained that there are a number of different changes that have been made including the use of a new color palette that will allow the company to make better decisions about the way the app uses color as a whole. As part of that, the post also announced that Android users can expect a new, darker dark model. WhatsApp says that people had requested that the dark mode be less bright, so it's now one shade darker.

Windows 11 users running an inactivated copy of the operating system may find that in the future, there's a further penalty exacted on them for failing to activate - and it involves Microsoft's Edge browser.

Windows Latest noticed that in a fresh test build of Edge, there are several flags that hint at the potentially incoming move. These are:

Just by looking at those flags you can guess the functionality being leveraged: a check for activation, then a trigger if Windows 11 isn't activated that means Edge Settings are locked.

The Senate officially banned TikTok in the United States, giving the popular app owner the choice of selling it to a US government-approved buyer or having it banned from app marketplaces.

The US government has deemed TikTok a national security risk due to its owner being China-based company ByteDance, which officials believe have ties to the Chinese government. More specifically, the US government believes TikTok is capable of scraping the personal data of 170 million Americans, and that data could then be shared with the Chinese government. Furthermore, the US government believe TikTok could be used to spread misinformation throughout the US.

The banning of the app gave its owner 270 days to sell TikTok, with an additional 90-day presidential extension. TikTok and ByteDance have since responded to the new legislature by filing a lawsuit that directly challenges the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which President Biden signed into law last month.

Windows 10 users wanting to upgrade to Windows 11 will soon be put on the latest version of Microsoft's newer operating system.

What, you might be thinking: Didn't this happen already? No, actually, because some of those upgrading from Windows 10 found themselves migrated to Windows 11 22H2, rather than the 23H2 flavor of the OS.

Windows Latest reports that they have observed on several Windows 10 PCs that Microsoft was offering the upgrade to Windows 11, but that it would install the 22H2 version.

Apple's Let Loose event was billed as the one where Apple would announce a new iPad Pro and a refreshed iPad Air and it definitely didn't disappoint on that front. But the company also took the time to announce a couple of new software updates for its creative apps, including the popular Final Cut Pro app for the iPad and Mac.

The new Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 is a big update and coincides with the release of the new iPad Pro, and Apple says that it transforms the tablet into a multicam production studio with Live Multicam, a feature giving users the ability to connect and preview up to four cameras at the same time.

Apple also announced new AI features coming to Final Cut Pro for Mac 10.78, giving users the ability to rapidly edit the look of videos and photos with a single click, among other things. There are new workflow-accelerating tools that are designed to bring new ways to manage color correction and more, too.

Apple's Let Loose iPad event might have been all about the new M4 iPad Pro and the iPad Air getting an M2 chip, but the company also took time out to show people what people can do with those new tablets. It announced updated versions of its creativity apps, including the popular Logic Pro music-making and podcasting app.

The update, which is available for both the iPad and Mac, brings with it a couple of notable upgrades including Session Players. Apple says that they offer new experiences for creators by giving them a personal, AI-driven backing band that responds directly to any feedback that is given. The app update also includes Stem Splitter, allowing artists to recover moments of inspiration for any audio file and then separate almost any mixed audio recording into four distinct parts; drums, bass, vocals, and other instruments. One the tracks have been separated musicians can then apply effects, ad new parts, and more. And it's all powered by AI on M-series Apple silicon devices.

There's a lot more going on in this update and you can read about it in the press release linked before. The update is available for free to existing owners and will be available for download from May 13.

The discrepancy between Windows 10 users and Windows 11 users is seemingly growing and not in the direction that Microsoft wants.

According to new data from Statcounter, a renowned web analytics service that has tracking code on more than 1.5 million websites, market share figures between Windows 11 users and Windows 10 users is trending - at least in the short term - toward more Windows 10 adoption, as global desktop share between February 2024 and April 2024 dropped from 28.16% to 25.65%. On the other hand, Windows 10's market share grew from 67.26% to 70.03%.

These numbers, while not being anywhere near as accurate as what Microsoft has internally, are a good indicator for market share, and if they are close to being accurate, it means Windows 10 users aren't being convinced to upgrade to Windows 11, something that Microsoft has been pushing for a few years now, and particularly so since the company announced Windows 10 support would end on October 14, 2025.

Microsoft has revealed its discovered a serious security vulnerability that impacts countless Android applications, leading the possibility of valuable user data being stolen.

Microsoft has dubbed the security vulnerability "Dirty Stream" and explains the flaw can be traced back to a critical system that is responsible for the secure data exchange between different applications on a device. This system is also responsible for conducting handshake authorizations through safeguards such as the isolation of sensitive data, hiding any permissions that are attached to specific Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs), and preventing any unauthorized access through validating file pathways.

Unfortunately, Microsoft has discovered a critical exploitation within the system, exposed by the incorrect use of "custom intents" which is a messaging system that Android apps use to communicate with different aspects of the app - essentially the messaging system used for all of the app components to talk to each other. The exploitation led to researchers discovering the sensitive areas of an app and a possible route for an attacker to seize total control of an app and harvest sensitive user data.

Windows 11 and Windows 10 users are again under fire from a Microsoft pop-up which is rather intrusive, flashing up on the desktop to advertise Bing AI for those using Google's Chrome browser.

Windows Latest notes it initially spotted the pop-up, which urges Chrome users to use ChatGPT-4 powered Bing - and to set Bing as their default search, and install its extension - back in March, but it's now appearing again.

Multiple readers have been getting in touch lately complaining that they've been hit by this dialog box, which stays present until you dismiss it - you have to answer either yes or no to the suggested Bing-related modifications to Chrome.

Windows 11 just made quite a leap in adoption levels with PC gamers, or at least those that use Steam.

Valve's popular gaming platform conducts a monthly hardware survey, as you're doubtless aware, and that includes the operating system gamers are running as well as hardware components.

For the month of April, the hardware survey shows that Windows 11 adoption rose to reach 45.15%, which represented an increase of 3.54% on the previous month.

In February, Microsoft announced it was killing support for its most popular operating system, Windows 10, but the company's efforts to transition users from Windows 10 to Windows 11, isn't working.

Windows 10 is by far Microsoft's most popular operating system at the moment with a market share of more than 70%, according to Statcounter. Despite the company announcing it was ending support for the operating system in October 2025 users still aren't making the switch over to Windows 11, as Statcounter reports that for the first time since late 2023 Windows 10 has climbed past 70% market share.

According to the firm;s April numbers, Windows 10 climbed nearly 1% in market share, with Windows 11's market share dipping to 25.68%, which indicates the new Windows 10 users came directly from Windows 11. Why is this happening? Extremetech reports Windows 10 users may be climbing due to refurbished PC's being dumped in retail channels, and due to many of these PCs having an SSD and being a lot cheaper, buyers may find them very attractive in an effort to save money and still acquire a decent rig.

In a world where too many people continue to use a single username and password combination across multiple devices, services, and accounts, it's good to see that the passkey revolution continues to gather pace. We've already seen various companies and services offer passkeys as a new way of biometric-secured authentication with Apple, WhatsApp, and PlayStation among others all on side. But now one of the really big names has also thrown its hat into the ring.

In a post on its security blog, Microsoft has confirmed that it is now rolling out passkey support for Microsoft accounts, making it easier, quicker, and more secure to sign into those accounts. Creating a passkey is easy with users given the option to switch from their previous username and password via the sign-in process.

When it comes to signing into a Microsoft account using a passkey, the new sign-in option will be offered with support for signing in using a fingerprint, a face recognition solution like Face ID, a PIN, or a security key. Microsoft says that, starting today, users can sign into Microsoft apps and websites including Microsoft 365 and Copilot using both desktop and mobile web browsers.

It's hardly unusual for a Windows update to introduce a bug, but most of the time, Microsoft provides a solution in a reasonable timeframe - not always, mind, and not ever in this more recent case.

Yes, this is a bit of an odd one, and it concerns the unlucky Windows 10 users who, when installing an update back in January 2024, encountered a Windows Recovery Environment error.

That installation failure error (stop code: 0x80070643) is related to the recovery partition not being large enough for the mentioned January security update (KB5034441).

If emojis and gifs aren't enough for you to convey what you want to say, soon you will be able to send audio emojis to really drive your point home.

Google has begun rolling out to the beta version of the Phone by Google app that adds six sound effects to that can be played during a phone call. The sounds correspond to an existing emoji and are very similar to a soundboard that is played during dead air on a radio show or podcast. The feature is expected to be rolled out to the public sometime soon, but how popular it will be remains a mystery, given how generic the sounds are.

Interested in getting the new audio emojis? Here's what you will need to do. Download the beta version of the Phone by Google app, sign-up here. Once that is complete, open the Play Store app, navigate to your profile photo at the top-right corner of the screen, and press Manage Apps & devices and Updates available. Download the latest update for the Phone by Google app. In the event this doesn't work on your device, wait a few minutes it should eventually appear.

Microsoft has confirmed with an update on its Windows health dashboard that a recent Windows security update has resulted in many VPN connections failing.

The company explains its April 2024 Windows security update and its April 2024 non-security preview update, which was pushed out to multiple versions of Windows, breaks VPN connections across client and server platforms. Microsoft writes it launched an investigation into the matter following user reports and that it will provide more information in "the coming days".

Versions of Windows affected by the connection severance are Windows 11, Windows 10, and Windows Server 2008 and later. Currently Microsoft hasn't revealed the root cause of this issue, and has advised affected users and businesses to contact its respective Help lines. Home users are instructed to use the Windows Get Help app, and enterprise customers are directed to the "Support for Business" portal.

It's a new month, and we have another set of Windows adoption stats to look at - figures that Microsoft won't enjoy perusing.

The latest from analyst outfit Statcounter is that Windows 11 is again going backwards with its market share among Windows versions - and Windows 10 is ticking up.

In April 2024, Statcounter observes (via Neowin) that Windows 11 dropped the best part of a percentage point to end up on 25.65%, while Windows 10 put on a percent (almost) to go over 70%.

Arc, a Chromium-based browser previously on the Mac (and iOS), is now available to download for Windows 11.

So, those Windows 11 users who've been searching for a streamlined web browser - one of the bits of ad blurb for Arc is that it's a "clean and calm" app - can now give this Chromium client a whirl, rather than Chrome or Edge. (There are other alternatives, of course - but those are the big two for Chromium).

As Neowin, which spotted this, points out, the Arc browser was in beta previously (since December 2023), but this represents its first public launch for Microsoft's OS.