Software & Apps - Page 49

Not many of us are truly aware of how much data is being sent by our PCs over the internet to third parties, let alone what sort of private information is being harvested for advertising and geo-tracking. We all know it's happening; targeted search results based on stuff you might have said out loud is a testament to that. Browsing the internet, shopping trends, likes, and dislikes, the more you do, the more it's visible.

But what about a brand-new PC with a fresh installation of Windows 11? What sort of telemetry is being sent before the user sends their first email? Well, a new in-depth video by The PC Security Channel doesn't paint a flattering picture of the behind-the-scenes network traffic on Microsoft's latest OS.

Using Wireshark to check, and again this is a fresh install of Windows 11, we see an eye-opening amount of traffic. From Microsoft to Bing, Google, Steam, McAfee, and more - constant communication and geo-tracking without the user doing anything. Let alone giving permission outside of ticking boxes during the initial boot and setup phase. The most alarming examples involve sending data (DNS traffic) to market research firms and other companies we've never heard of with words like "trusted," "security," and "privacy" in their company profiles. One specific example, is ScorecardResearch.com, which "studies and reports on Internet trends and behavior."

Twitter has rolled out a new quality-of-life update for all users of its platform, making the overall experience on the platform much more enjoyable.

If you haven't updated your Twitter app, now would be a good time, but before you go ahead and do that, let me tell you why it's a good idea. Twitter has taken to its "Twitter Support" account to announce that the "For You" tab will no longer be the default tab whenever Twitter is opened. Before this update, Twitter would always default to the "For You" tab whenever the app was opened, despite a user closing the app in the "Following" tab.

Anyone that wished to just live in their following tab, so they aren't consuming any content that Twitter recommends them, was unable to do so. Now, Twitter has rolled out an update across iOS and Android devices that enables users to return to whichever timeline they had opened last. This update is especially helpful for people that don't want to consume Twitter's suggested content and strictly want to view content created by accounts they follow on the platform.

As far as video encoding goes, AV1 represents a big leap forward over H.264 - a video technology that is remarkably almost two decades old. With the release of the GeForce RTX 40 Series, NVIDIA beefed up the video capabilities of its new GPU range with the addition of dual AV1 encoders. Not only something that brings massive improvements to encoding times for content creators but improves quality for streaming.

When NVIDIA announced the GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 last year, it showcased the difference AV1 brings using Fortnite gameplay in a Twitch-like setting. As per the video above, it's a massive improvement, with NVENC AV1 delivering noticeably crisper and smoother video at 1080p60 than H.264 using the same bitrate. Bitrate is critical, as spotty video compression can be detrimental to live streams and broadcasts.

With AV1 added to the popular streaming app OBS Studio for recording, its addition to Discord this week is excellent news for gamers and the future of streaming. Discord is widely used as a social platform for specific games, groups, and friends, and being able to jump into a chat or share screens means it's a streaming platform too.

After January 31, 2023, you'll no longer be able to buy a digital license of Windows 10 from Microsoft's website. The news doesn't mark the end of support for the popular OS, which will continue from now until late 2025 - the news itself was quietly announced via a note at the bottom of Microsoft's official Windows 10 page.

Naturally, this marks an official push for Microsoft to get users and new builds onto Windows 11, the latest OS version. Windows 11 brings several features and updates to PC gaming, and as of the end of December 2022, 28.42% of Steam users are on Windows 11. This is a high adoption rate though the main OS of choice for Steam is still Windows 10, with 65.42% of users running the OS.

A new update to the popular messaging app WhatsApp lets users start a conversation with themselves. Handy for notetaking, reminders, and keeping up with scheduling, it's rolling out to all users as part of the latest update. You'll even be able to leave yourself voice memos.

It's a feature seen in other messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and Instagram, both owned and operated by Meta, and will no doubt be a handy tool for those that use similar functionality to send themselves reminders or notes.

The update also brings attention to some of the lesser-known WhatsApp tricks where on iOS and Android, you can easily pin your location into a chat. Also, being able to drop notes to yourself will add a new layer to the chat search functionality - to find specific info.

Microsoft is ending updates and security fixes for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 this week, ending official support for these operating systems.

Of the two, Windows 7 was easily the most popular OS among businesses and gamers. However, the latest Steam Hardware Survey showcases that only 2% of users were rocking these older versions of Windows in December 2022. 1.77% of Steam users still use Windows 7, and only 0.41% still use Windows 8.1.

Windows 7 stopped receiving critical updates and new features in January 2020, though security updates were still being provided to specific users who paid a fee - mainly businesses. That ends this week, so users will need to upgrade to a newer version of Windows or keep using the OS with compromised security. "We recommend purchasing a Windows 11-compatible computer," writes Microsoft in a blunt but succinct summary.

Starting in February, Elon Musk's new Twitter will radically change into a blog-style social media platform.

Elon Musk has confirmed that Twitter will soon expand to 4,000 characters in a new update planned to release in early February. This would allow users to create fully-fledged blog posts within the social media platform complete with text formatting options. Much like Twitter itself and its owner, the update is controversial among users who prefer the more concise delivery of the service.

Users argue that the update erodes the basic function of Twitter as a micro-blogging platform. Twitter's current 280-character limit forces people to concisely articulate their points in smaller bite-sized blasts. Thoughts, ideas, and information can be displayed in neat threads with proper segmentation and media wrapped in an easy-to-read UX.

Staff at Meta, the owners of Facebook and Instagram met virtually during November to discuss ideas on how to create the next Twitter, according to a report from the New York Times.

During the idea session executives pointed to a new text-based application that would be designed to directly compete with Twitter, in a move to capitalize off the absolute turmoil Elon Musk has created on the app since he took the reins in late October.

According to The Times, several employees thought about creating a separate new app, and/or expanding upon the new Instagram feature called "Instagram Notes", which allows users to text messages to "close friends" or followers. These messages are removed after a certain period of time, and the feature is currently only available to a select number of accounts. This brain storming session even spawned names for a competing app such as Realtime, Real Reels, and Instant.

Epic Games has debuted a new tool for developers that will allow them to turn any real-world object into a usable asset in their creation.

Epic Games has released its RealityScam app for iOS, enabling the public to capture high-fidelity 3D models of any real-world object by simply capturing that object with several 2D images via the mobile device's camera. A user downloads the RealityScan app, signs in with their Epic Games account, take at least 20 photos of the object they want to convert into a 3D model, and follow the real-time quality map within the app to complete the scan.

How does it work? Epic Games acquired Capturing Reality, a company that focuses on photogrammetry software, and worked on RealityCapture, an app that combines 2D images into one single seamless 3D asset. That captured piece of reality or real-world object can then be used in games or virtual environments. Essentially, the app allows developers to simply capture any real-world object and insert it into their game at extremely high quality, further enabling the design possibilities within video game or virtual creation.

GPU-Z v2.51.0 is now available, which has built-in support for NVIDIA's just-released GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card, recently launched GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards and more.

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 4090 and GeForce RTX 4080 graphics cards both feature native 16-pin "12VHPWR" power connectors, which GPU-Z is now capable of monitoring... letting users keep an eye on the power flowing through the 16-pin power connector. GPU-Z is already capable of providing sensor data from the regular 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors (as well as the PCIe interface) but now the 16-pin power connector can be monitored.

Not only does GPU-Z 2.51.0 support NVIDIA's second-fastest Ada Lovelace GPU in the GeForce RTX 4080, but also the new GeForce RTX 3060 Ti SKU with GDDR6X memory that was released in October 2022, just weeks ago now. GPU-Z also supports multiple workstation Ampere, Tesla, and Kepler GPU models.

Elon Musk shares his vision for Twitter 2.0 and has delivered an ultimatum to Twitter staff.

Earlier today, CNN got a hold of an internal email that Twitter's new CEO Elon Musk sent out to Twitter staff. The general message is clear: Workers are expected to "work long hours at high intensity" or they will be let go.

This email comes shortly after Elon Musk mass-fired a significant portion of Twitter's staff--half of which were apparently planned to be let go before Musk took the reins--and throughout a troubled balance of power for the social media network.

Twitter has officially suspended sign-ups of its controversial Twitter Blue subscription following a disastrous launch that has caused significant reputational damage to advertisers.

Following a $44 billion buyout of the social media giant, Elon Musk had a vision for Twitter: Everyone and anyone could be verified if they paid $8 a month via Twitter Blue for the privilege. This idea wasn't so easy to implement, especially with all the existing verified users. Twitter has gone back and forth between having two verified badges--one denoting an official institution, company, brand, or person, and another separate one saying the user is verified.

Chaos ensued when users signed up to Twitter Blue and used their new check marks to impersonate public figures like the President of the United States, or even former President George W. Bush, O.J. Simpson, and major billion-dollar advertisers like Nintendo, who happens to be one of the most litigious companies on the planet. Even Elon Musk's own company Tesla wasn't exempt from the parodies. Brands have had to outright apologize to their followers, including Eli Lilly and Company, who had to tell followers that no, they were not offering free insulin as an impersonator had promised. The damage has been done on a wide scale and advertisers are reportedly pulling out en masse.

Memtest86+ v6 has been released, with support for the new Intel 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" CPUs and AMD's new Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" CPUs... but more importantly: DDR5 memory support.

The latest version has support for Intel and AMD's latest families of CPUs so if you need to test your RAM -- most consumers and gamers don't really need to -- but, if you are a system builder then you've got some new memory testing goodness to use on your DDR5 memory.

Memtest86+ v6.00 final has been rewritten from scratch and is "back to active development" after the last non-beta version from all the way back in 2013. As VideoCardz notes: the standalone app boots with the PC without all of the overheads that your operating system (Windows for the most part) and is capable of discovering more errors than the built-in tools in some motherboards and their BIOS.

Do you want to fake GPS location on your iPhone? In fact, the iOS system has strict restrictions about changing location. So, it's not a simple task. However, you can use the traditional way to spoof location, and that is jailbreaking your device. Nevertheless, you can do so without jailbreak with the help of Tenorshare iAnyGo. Read this article to know to understand how to fake GPS location on iphone with iAnyGo.

Tenorshare iAnyGo is a great application for location spoofing. If you are an iOS system, the good news for you as you can spoof location without leaving your home using this tool. Apart from this, it supports customized routes for stimulating GPS movement. In simple words, this program deceives your device's GPS and makes it believe that you are in a different location. But what makes Tenorshare iAnyGo the best choice? It allows you to pretend your location is different without the need of jailbreaking your device. You can use the default setting to spoof your location on the map among three different locations.

Tenorshare iAnyGo is leading the pack of related programs owing to its outstanding features. Some of them are:

If you already thought there were quite a lot of advertisements on your Instagram feed, prepare yourself for many more, as Instagram's parent company is planning on rolling out more.

In response to Meta's revenue declining, per its quarterly financial report, Instagram's parent company is looking to bolster those numbers back up, and one way of doing that is more advertisements on its platforms. In a new update posted to Meta's website, the company outlines it will be implementing a range of new updates that will assist in the advertising of products across its platforms, and one of those updates is augmented reality ads that will appear in both the Feed and Stories on Instagram.

Meta writes that advertisers will be able to test Augmented Reality (AR) ads in an open beta where brands can encourage users to interact with an effect through their surroundings. An example of this would be a user testing what furniture looks like in their home via AR, or, according to Meta, "test driving a car".

A new report from the Financial Times has revealed that TikTok is preparing to roll out a new shopping feature to users in North America.

According to the report from the Financial Times, TikTok is gearing up to release a new feature called "TikTok Shop" across North America in partnership with US company TalkShopLive, which will be responsible for supporting livestreams hosted by influencers and brands. The report states that TikTok will release this new feature "over the next month" and that large brands will be part of its release.

The new feature comes after TikTok's sister app Douyin, which is extremely popular in China, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia, released a similar feature where it hosted nine million live ecommerce broadcasts per month, which resulted in more than ten billion products being sold in a year.

CapFrameX has pushed out its latest update that includes support for AMD's new Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" and Intel 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" CPUs, and oh-so-much more in the new CapFrameX 1.6.9 update.

The new CapFrameX 1.6.9 supports AMD's new Zen 4 and Intel's new Raptor Lake CPUs, as well,as Intel's upcoming Arc A-Series GPUs, and as usual it fixes the usual bugs and issues in previous versions of CapFrameX. The developer has also added new websocket URLs, where you can access the items of the sensor service -- useful for people who want to log specific sensors over longer periods of time, without needing to do a huge benchmark.

One of the URLs will show you all of the sensors at your fingertips, while the other will show you just the ones that you've got selected in the sensor tab.

GPU-Z has some new abilities with the latest 2.48.0 update seeing the developers tweaking GPU-Z so that it doesn't send traffic when NVIDIA engineering samples are being tested... but get this: NVIDIA reportedly requested that TechPowerUp add this to GPU-Z.

NVIDIA driving this into GPU-Z means we won't see Ada Lovelace GPUs being leaked, with upcoming GeForce RTX 4090, GeForce RTX 4080, and GeForce RTX 4070 graphics cards right around the corner. We won't see AIB partners submitting GPU-Z validations or BIOSes to TechPowerUp databases.

How does GPU-Z do that exactly? GPU-Z no longer resolves the "www.techpowerup.com" domain, but "www.gpu-z.com" which will make network blocking much easier than usual, but it's not really going to stop GPU leaks when it comes to NVIDIA's next-gen Ada Lovelace and GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards... leakers can take photos and upload them, they just won't be automatically submitted to the GPU-Z database.

Wondershare launched UniConverter 14 recently, with greatly improved conversion speeds, compressing speeds, and other features and functions that are super-powered in the UniConverter 14 update.

The new Wondershare UniConverter 14 ushers in up to a huge 50% improvement in video converter speeds, as well as up to 50% speed bumps in 4K + 8K HDR video full-process GPU acceleration. Video editors will be happy with those upgrades, especially given that those improvements are just the beginning.

Wondershare also makes it easy for someone without video editing skills to be able to do things that someone with a much larger skill set does: we're talking about converting and compressing video, editing, recording, saving, and merging videos, as well as burning videos to permanent media like DVD, and so much more.

If you are starting out on YouTube and need some new video editing software, Wondershare Filmora is a very user friendly, and easy-to-use video editor.

In a world dominated by expensive professional editing suites, Wondershare is here with Filmora with an intuitive interface, a huge library of resources to choose from: lots of video effects with FilmStock + FX plug-ins (OpenFX), Boris FX, NewBlue, and Titles inside of Filmora that allow for more professional YouTube videos.

Filmora video editor ushers in creating videos with ease, with some awesome built-in editing features that allow you to make a video with some rather easy steps. There are over 200 "Instant Mode" and preset templates, which let you create a video without all of the professional editing skills required with other software.