Software & Apps - Page 5

All the latest software and app news covering new and upcoming releases from Microsoft Windows updates, to Apple apps, through to the way we use apps daily - Page 5.

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Microsoft's new 'native' Copilot app for Windows exposed as website

Jak Connor | Dec 11, 2024 12:02 AM CST

Microsoft recently took to its blog to announce that Copilot has become available for Windows Insiders and that the new software is "native" to Windows 11. However, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Microsoft's new 'native' Copilot app for Windows exposed as website

According to recent reports, Microsoft appears to have mistakenly labeled Copilot's new app as "native" to Windows 11, as the new Copilot loads copilot.microsoft.com. The difference between the new and old versions of Copilot is Microsoft's new AI companion no longer uses Microsoft Edge's Progressive Webb System (PWA) but still uses the rendering engine that powers Edge, WebView 2. Notably, WindowsCentral reports that the only part of Copilot that is "native" to Windows is the menu in the title bar and the About screen.

It's likely that Microsoft is referring to the new hotkey functionality as being "native" to Windows, as Windows Insiders are able to press Alt+Spacebar keys to bring up a new quick view interface for Copilot. However, this is still the Copilot website, just in a smaller window. Additionally, this new feature adds Copilot to Windows' System Tray. It should be noted that Copilot is still in preview, meaning many of these problems or lack of features will be added to or fixed before Copilot becomes available to the wider public.

Continue reading: Microsoft's new 'native' Copilot app for Windows exposed as website (full post)

Microsoft rolls out new AI feature that views everything you do on the internet

Jak Connor | Dec 6, 2024 10:07 AM CST

Microsoft has taken to its blog to announce the availability of Copilot Vision, a new Copilot Pro feature that is designed to provide a helpful AI companion for internet browsing.

Microsoft rolls out new AI feature that views everything you do on the internet

Microsoft has detailed the new feature in its blog post where it states Copilot Vision will require permission of the user and, if enabled, will be able to see what webpage a user is on, digest the information on the webpage, and provide helpful answers and information about what the user is searching. The new feature is currently only available in the US to a small group of Copilot Pro subscribers, which is a $20 per month subscription that unlocks Copilot across Office applications, priority access to Copilot during peak times, and now Copilot Vision.

The Windows maker explains that Copilot will be able to "understand the full context of what you're doing online," and when Copilot Vision is enabled, it "sees the page you're on, it reads along with you, and you can talk through the problem you're facing together. Browsing no longer needs to be a lonely experience with just you and all your tabs." For those worried about security, Microsoft has emphasized that Copilot VIsion is an entirely optional feature that needs to be manually switched on by a user for it to be enabled.

Continue reading: Microsoft rolls out new AI feature that views everything you do on the internet (full post)

Microsoft kills hope old PCs will run Windows 11 as death of world's most popular OS nears

Jak Connor | Dec 5, 2024 8:48 AM CST

Microsoft has just shattered any hope that older machines that don't meet the requirements for Windows 11 will get some leeway leading into the official ending of the world's most popular operating system.

Microsoft kills hope old PCs will run Windows 11 as death of world's most popular OS nears

Windows 11 was released three years ago, and when the new operating system became available, users were faced with a slew of hardware requirements in order to upgrade. One of the biggest hurdles for users to get around was the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) hardware requirement, which is a hardware-based security requirement that resides within a motherboard or CPU processor. Most modern PCs shipping today automatically ship with TPM 2.0, making them Windows 11 eligible, but that doesn't help millions of machines with older hardware that don't meet the specification.

Microsoft explains in a recent blog post that TPM 2.0 will be required for how it integrates into the security side of a system, with The Verge explaining features such as Windows 11 like Credential Guard and Windows Hello for Business, BitLocker disk encryption, and Secure Boot, are all being helped by TPM 2.0. Microsoft even goes as far as to write, TPM 2.0 will be "a non-negotiable standard for the future of Windows," which means Microsoft won't be going back on any of its hardware requirements for Windows 11.

Continue reading: Microsoft kills hope old PCs will run Windows 11 as death of world's most popular OS nears (full post)

Windows 11 loses customers amid the world's most popular OS gaining traction

Jak Connor | Dec 4, 2024 12:33 AM CST

Microsoft has been pushing Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11 as the cut-off date for Windows 10 support slowly approaches.

Windows 11 loses customers amid the world's most popular OS gaining traction

The Redmond-based company has been pushing Windows 10 customers via various in-operating-system advertisements to upgrade to Windows 11, as support for the world's most popular operating system will end on October 25, 2025. Following the severance date, Windows 10 machines will no longer receive security updates, resulting in affected machines becoming exponentially more susceptible to security breaches or hacking. Notably, Windows 10 is still by quite a margin the most-used operating system in the world, with it holding a 61.8% market share versus Windows 11's 34.9% market share.

What's interesting is Windows 11 went from 35.6% in October to 34.9% in November, meaning it lost millions of users. As for Windows 10, the older generation operating system managed to grow its market share by just under 1%. It should be noted that these figures aren't official from Microsoft, as Redmond doesn't make those kinds of statistics public. However, Statcounter calculates its results with data from more than five billion page views across 1.5 million global sites, making it quite a reliable indicator for market share.

Continue reading: Windows 11 loses customers amid the world's most popular OS gaining traction (full post)

Australia passes law to ban under 16-year-olds from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat

Jak Connor | Nov 29, 2024 5:03 AM CST

It was only earlier in the month the Australian House of Representatives voted to pass new legislation that bans social media for anyone that isn't over the age of 16.

Australia passes law to ban under 16-year-olds from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat

That new legislation has now been voted upon in the Australian Senate, where it was passed, meaning the details of the Bill "Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age)" will be brought into effect. According to the new legislation, social media platforms will now be obligated to implement age verification checks and strategies to prevent social media platforms from being used by underage people.

Services that will fall under these new policies enable users to post material, interact with two or more people, and interact with all other end users, which all of the popular social media platforms, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, and X, all fall under.How this new widespread regulation will be implemented is up to the companies behind the social media platform, not the Australian government.

Continue reading: Australia passes law to ban under 16-year-olds from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat (full post)

Microsoft rolls out Windows 11 update that prevents a brand of PC from shutting down

Jak Connor | Nov 28, 2024 1:04 AM CST

Windows 11 24H2 is Microsoft's latest update that's currently available in the company preview channel for those that wish to opt-in to the Windows Insider Programme.

Microsoft rolls out Windows 11 update that prevents a brand of PC from shutting down

However, Windows 11 24H2 has been riddled with problems, most of which have been identified and confirmed by Microsoft, with fixes meant to be on the way. One of the biggest problems with 24H2 is the seemingly widespread error that stops PCs and laptops made by Dell from shutting down or even entering sleep mode.

The problem was first discovered by Windows Latest and later confirmed by Dell in an official statement on the company's website. According to the reports, the problem can be traced back to the Dell Encryption app and the latest installation of Windows 11 24H2. Compatibility errors between these two resulted in affected Dell systems being unable to shutdown.

Continue reading: Microsoft rolls out Windows 11 update that prevents a brand of PC from shutting down (full post)

X officially says The Onion won't be getting Alex Jones' InfoWars accounts

Jak Connor | Nov 27, 2024 7:32 AM CST

It was only last week The Onion announced it was purchasing Alex Jones' InfoWars website from the media moguls bankruptcy auction, following the more than $1 billion in damages Jones was ordered to pay after being found guilty of spreading misinformation about the Sandy Hook shooting.

X officially says The Onion won't be getting Alex Jones' InfoWars accounts

The Onion announced it purchased the Infowars website and said its goal of the acquisition was to "end InfoWars' relentless barrage of disinformation for the sake of selling supplements and replace it with The Onion's relentless barrage of humor for good". The Onion didn't reveal how much it paid for InfoWars, or if the deal included the website's social media accounts, which have now been brought into relevancy as X has filed a limited objection to the transfer of ownership of InfoWars' X accounts to The Onion.

X Corporation cites its own Terms of Service (TOS) agreement in its objection that was filed in a federal Bankruptcy Court on Monday. The objection states the following, "Because the X accounts are governed by the TOS, the TOS make clear that X accounts are X Corp.'s 'exclusive property." According to X's TOS, accounts cannot be transferred, gifted, sold, or assigned to other parties "without express written consent" from X.

Continue reading: X officially says The Onion won't be getting Alex Jones' InfoWars accounts (full post)

Microsoft's latest Windows 11 update is causing more headaches for users

Jak Connor | Nov 27, 2024 1:01 AM CST

Microsoft is currently working out several key problems with Windows 11 24H2, the company's latest version of Windows 11.

Microsoft's latest Windows 11 update is causing more headaches for users

According to Redmond, the latest Windows 11 24H2 update contains several bugs that result in some issues presenting themselves within the operating system. Users have previously reported that if administrative privileges weren't granted, it would be difficult to change the time zone in the Date & Time view, which Microsoft confirmed was the case but only within the Settings app. This problem, along with others widely reported by users on Microsoft's community forums and Reddit, was confirmed by Microsoft in a Windows health release on Friday last week.

Some of the most prominent issues were related to USB connectivity issues, which Microsoft has responded to by blocking the Windows 11 24H2 update on computers with USB scanners that support the eSCL protocol, which is a driverless scanning protocol that works over Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and USB connections. Windows 24H2 users began reporting compatibility problems with a wide list of devices approximately a month ago, and the list covers devices such as multi-function printers, scanners, modems, and network-connected devices that utilize the eSCL protocol.

Continue reading: Microsoft's latest Windows 11 update is causing more headaches for users (full post)

Microsoft confirms fix for Windows Recall's biggest problem is 'try turning it on and off'

Jak Connor | Nov 27, 2024 12:02 AM CST

Microsoft deservedly received criticism over its unveiling of Windows Recall, the company's latest AI feature that enables users to "recall" what they were doing on the PC by asking via natural language or scrolling back through a provided timeline.

Microsoft confirms fix for Windows Recall's biggest problem is 'try turning it on and off'

When Recall was first unveiled, it was met with heavy criticism from security experts as the new AI tool works by indiscriminately taking screenshots of a user's desktop and then storing those images locally within a folder. This means Recall would also capture user passwords and other sensitive information, and since all of that data is stored in a single folder, a hacker or bad actor gaining access to that folder would compromise all account information, potentially leading to fraud, theft, and other cybercrime.

Microsoft responded to these concerns by pulling Recall right before the rollout of its new Copilot+ PCs and then announcing additional security layers for users. After what was meant to be only weeks of delay, Microsoft re-released Recall this month, but this time to Windows Insiders who have Copilot+ PC hardware. Since the release, Windows Insiders have been reporting problems with the new feature, with the main problem being a delay in the time Recall takes snapshots of the desktop, which results in there being gaps in the feature's memory or timeline over the course of a session.

Continue reading: Microsoft confirms fix for Windows Recall's biggest problem is 'try turning it on and off' (full post)

Google responds to the deaths of three men who followed Google Maps off a bridge

Jak Connor | Nov 26, 2024 2:40 AM CST

Three men have been killed after following directions by Google Maps off an unfinished bridge that was damaged by flooding a few months ago.

Google responds to the deaths of three men who followed Google Maps off a bridge

A new report from The EconomicTimes states three men from Uttar Pradesh, India, were killed when they drove off an unfinished bridge that was spanning the Ramganga River. The bridge was incomplete, as portions of it were damaged and swept away when the region endured flooding a few months ago.

The publication reports the three men were traveling in a taxi from Gurugram to Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, and because they were traveling at night and at the time were following the directions of Google Maps, they didn't notice the end of the bridge, resulting in them driving off and plummeting to their deaths.

Continue reading: Google responds to the deaths of three men who followed Google Maps off a bridge (full post)

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