Software & Apps - Page 40

Mainstream media publications are reporting that Elon Musk's personal preference for news outlets has resulted in some sources being throttled.

Firstly, for those that don't know what website throttling is, throttling is the process of slowing down the time it takes for a website to load or adding an intentional delay to the loading process. The Washington Post reported that tests it conducted in-house found that links from publications such as The New York Times, Reuters, Instagram, and BlueSky, another social media network, had a 5-second delay on all links posted, redirecting users from X to the linked landing page.

The publication notes that these slowed links seemed to have only affected t.co domains, which is a service that abbreviates links posted to social media platforms such as X. Another example of this would be Bitly. However, WAPO reported that this delay was only in place for a few hours and was almost immediately reversed once the outlet published its story. Once the delay was reversed, links on X went back to having hardly any loading times.

Following up on its announcement from July 3, X has finally put its popular feature TweetDeck behind a paywall while rolling out a Pro version of the social media platform.

The change was noticed by many users who posted screenshots to their personal X accounts, paying their respects to the popular feature, with many users noticing that TweetDeck's page now leads to a sales page for X Premium, a new pro version of X. The paywall is a major blow to journalists, power users, and social media managers, who will now have to pay X a monthly payment to access the feature.

For those that don't know about TweetDeck, the feature essentially changes the user interface of X to enable users to interact with the various aspects of X much more seamlessly. TweetDeck users are able to dance between replying to what was called tweets, inbox messages, tags, and custom news - all within one page. The tool was so beneficial to what was Twitter power users that Twitter acquired TweetDeck in 2011 for $40 million.

Google Photos has been updated with a revamped 'Memories' feature that employs a scrapbook-like view that's organized using AI (yes, artificial intelligence is creeping into everything, in case you hadn't noticed).

The overhauled Memories is part of a rejigged navigation bar, and it offers a new scrapbook take as mentioned, with photos (and videos) grouped together based on certain events, or specific days, or whatever criteria you want.

You can create views from scratch, or hide them, or fine-tune the contents by removing certain videos or photos as you prefer.

Microsoft announced that Cortana, Windows' digital voice assistant, was coming to its end of life back in May, and now the time has come to say goodbye.

Cortana has been "killed off" by Microsoft in its latest Windows 11 update in order to usher in Microsoft's replacement called Windows Copilot, which is an AI-powered personal assistant that takes advantage of generative language models like ChatGPT. However, it can be assumed that Windows Copilot will be specifically designed to answer questions about Windows rather than ChatGPT being designed to answer questions about everything.

If you are a big fan of Cortana and don't wish to have it removed from your computer, make sure not to update Windows 11, because if you do, your PC will no longer have access to the service. If you are sad about seeing Cortana going from Windows PCs, you will be glad to know that the robot isn't completely dead. Microsoft will still be running Cortana in "Outlook mobile will continue to be available," according to the End of Support for Cortana in Windows and Teams article on Microsoft Support.

Windows 11 has a 'system components' panel inside the Settings app hidden in a new test build that's just been released by Microsoft.

This is in build 25926 of Windows 11 which has just arrived in the Canary channel, and ever-present Twitter leakers PhantomOfEarth and XenoPanther both stumbled across this. It was uncovered via the usual process of digging around with ViVeTool (a Windows configuration utility).

The page lists all the system apps present in Windows 11, and according to the blurb in the UI, it facilitates managing and removing those system components.

YouTube has changed the way it works so the video service no longer shows recommended videos to those who have their watch history turned off.

Instead, users who have it switched off - or hardly have any watch history to speak of yet - will not get content recommendations on YouTube's home page.

Those folks will get a streamlined version of the home page instead, allowing them to focus on just searching for the content they want, rather than getting nudges from Google as to what they might like.

Google Chrome will get security fixes piped through more regularly in a move to help shore up the defenses of the browser.

Up until now, Google delivered security updates to Chrome every fortnight, but the cadence of that patching has now been upped to every week.

Those weekly security fixes take effect from version 116 of Google Chrome which has just been released, as Bleeping Computer spotted.

Windows 10's latest cumulative update released earlier this week and now rolling out to PCs comes with an important fix for gamers.

This is KB5029244 for Windows 10 version 22H2, and as ever with Microsoft's regular cumulative updates, it applies a load of smoothing over for a bunch of security issues.

As Windows Latest pointed out, the patch also fixes a Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR) error that was plaguing gamers, causing the system to bomb out and crash.

An updated Instagram app is now available and is rolling out over the coming weeks to make it much better to use on Samsung's latest foldable phones.

Using Instagram on a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold device hasn't been a fun time for a while now, with the interface failing to make full use of the larger display at hand. The lack of a tablet-sized Instagram app is also something that has long irked iPad owners, but a new update is now rolling out to improve matters. But unfortunately, it'll only work on Android. And even then, it'll only work on Samsung Galaxy Z Fold devices.

The new layout was first reported by 9to5Google and puts Stories at the top of the screen while the UI expands the feed to either side of the display for the first time. It also ensures that Reels stick to their fixed aspect ratio with black bars used to fill in the space around the videos.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has responded to the recent posts by Elon Musk claiming that the fight between the two billionaires will be streamed on X.

Not only did Zuckerberg respond to Musk's recent posts about where the fight is going to be live-streamed, but he also responded to Musk's post about how he's working out for the fight by taking weights to work with him. Zuckerberg took to his Threads accounts to share a screenshot of Musk's post about carrying weights to work, saying, "I'm ready today. I suggested Aug 26 when he first challenged, but he hasn't confirmed. Not holding my breath."

As for responding to where the fire is going to be live-streamed, Zuckerberg again shared a screenshot of Musk's post, but this time it took The opportunity to throw some shade at the competing social media platforms owner, saying, "Shouldn't we use a more reliable platform that can actually raise money for charity?" Zuckerberg reiterated in another thread that he is planning on continuing to compete "with people who trained no matter what happens here."

Microsoft has introduced a new ability for Bing AI in its Edge browser, giving the chatbot the power to rewrite text for the user.

Note that right now, this is still in early testing, as flagged up by leaker Leopeva64 on Twitter (as Windows Central spotted).

Indeed the functionality is in the Canary channel for Edge, and appears to be a controlled rollout, meaning that only a small subset of testers have actually got the feature right now.

Windows 11 currently has an odd quirk that allows you to sidestep installing much of the bloatware that comes hand-in-hand with the operating system by default.

Windows Latest discovered this trick, and this is a strange one whereby you have to select a particular option when first setting up Windows 11 in order to swerve the bloat.

The tech site notes that during first-time setup, when you're presented with the option for 'Time and currency format' you should select English (World) or (Europe).

Meta's new text-based social media platform, Threads, has been out for more than a month now, and now we are starting to hear about some features that are soon to be released.

The new social media platform skyrocketed to fame as millions of users rushed to try out the new X competitor. Upon arriving on the platform, many users noticed that it lacked some of the most staple features of X, which quickly led to rampant criticisms from thousands of users. These concerns were quelled by meta officials that promised Threads would be getting constant updates that would increase user enjoyment.

Now, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed that Threads will be getting a web version along with an advanced search feature. Currently, Threads is only available through its mobile app, and one of its most requested features was a web version for desktop users. The news of a web version was confirmed by Instagram head Adam Mosseri who said last week that the development team was working on a web version that enabled desktop users to reply to comments/threads.

Twitter is no more as the social media platform has been rebranded to X, and amid the changes, trolls have snatched up X's CEO's former handle.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who X owner Elon Musk appointed in May, announced that she had changed her username from @lindayaccs to @lindayaX. Faster than you can say, the letter X Yaccarino's former username was picked up by an online troll who changed their display picture to Yaccarino's current display picture and began posting jokes. The troll account is mostly the same as Yaccarino's, except it features the words "parody" in the username, a rule on X that must be followed, per the social media platforms guidelines.

So, what has the troll account been posting? Examples include, "Hello fellow Reptilians!" and "Let's revert back to Twitter! Who's with me?" As previously stated, X requires parody accounts to clearly list the words "fake" "fan," or "commentary" within the username/bio. However, there are some caveats to its rules, as Musk famously banned the account that was tracking the location of his private jet using public flight data.

In a bit of a blunder, Microsoft accidentally let some folks access a configuration tool that can be used to switch on hidden features in Windows 11, with the predictable result that the utility has ended up being spread all over the web.

The app in question is called StagingTool, and it offers a command line interface that can enable features lurking in the background of test builds of Windows 11. You know, the features Microsoft has put the groundwork code in place for, but hasn't yet sent live.

All you need to know is the feature ID code to enable a piece of functionality in this way, and those codes tend to get discovered and posted on forums or social media here, there and everywhere.

Microsoft has seemingly lowered the bar of the system requirements necessary for Windows 11 users to run Android apps.

Neowin spotted the move, and as you may be aware, Microsoft previously stipulated that those wanting to run Windows Subsystem for Android to get these mobile apps on the desktop needed to have a certain minimum processor.

Namely at least an AMD Ryzen 3000 CPU, or an 8th-generation Intel Core i3 chip, or better.

The rebranding of Twitter may have excited many users, but not all are stoked to see the iconic blue bird fly away and be replaced with a standalone X.

The Elon Musk-led effort to rebrand Twitter into the Tesla CEO's vision of creating an "everything app," has angered many users, and now we are starting to see those users taking review sections of the internet to voice their disdain. In particular, reviews and ratings are starting to pop up on the US App Store, with hundreds of users review bombing the app with one-star reviews and nasty comments.

Data acquired from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower indicates nearly 70% of all iOS reviews since July 24 of the newly renamed X app have been one-star reviews, compared to 50% in the previous two weeks. It's obvious that these review bombings are in retaliation to the recent rebranding, as many of the comments from the users demand that the "bird" is returned. Other comments include, "What is X?," "Good app gone bad," and "ugly".

The lawsuit between Elon Musk's X social media platform and the non-profit called Center for Countering Digital Hate has just heated up.

The lawsuit again on Monday when X filed against the non-profit over an article that it published that claimed X is failing to regulate hate speech on its platform, saying that 99% of hate speech posts from Twitter Blue users aren't removed. The CCDH alleges in its article that it tracked 100 hate-speech-centered tweets from Twitter Blue users and monitored them for four days. After those four days, only one was removed, leading to the "99%" figure.

Musk's legal team filed a lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate over the article, claiming the publication cherry-picked data to back up its claims and that the platform has reason to believe the organization and its operations are funded by X's competitors - essentially saying the Center for Countering Digital Hate is bought by X's competitors and is being used to publish smear campaigns that are driving away advertisers.

Google Chrome is the dominant power in the browser world, a fact of which we're all very aware - but you might be surprised to hear that Chrome recently lost a surprising chunk of its lead over the likes of Safari and Edge (its main two rivals) - albeit this month has seen a partial recovery.

This is going by recent stats on browser adoption from analytics firm Statcounter (so add a pinch of salt, naturally, as we can only read so much into info from a single source).

The market share stats for July 2023 show that Chrome has recovered just over 2% of its share, and is now up to 63.32% according to Statcounter.

Intel has issued a driver update for its wireless adapters that comes with a bunch of fixes that might be of help for those encountering Wi-Fi problems.

That includes niggles with stability and performance problems in Windows 11 (and also Windows 10), as well as connection dropouts in certain scenarios.

As Neowin spotted, Intel let us know that version 22.240.0 of its PROSet/Wireless Software fixes a problem whereby QoS with a P2P connection can cause the connection to flake out.