John Lister

Microsoft has abandoned plans to recommended websites in the Windows 11 Start menu. It hasn't said exactly why but suggests user feedback played a role. An idea to suggest searching on Microsoft Edge when copying text has also been ditched. It was ... the latest attempt to promote the browser to Windows users. The two ideas were both rolled out last November to users of the Dev channel in the Windows Insider test program. That's the first time potential new features are available to anyone outside of Microsoft. People who choose to use the Dev channel are particularly eager to see new ideas, ... (view more)

TikTok has been banned from all US federal government devices over security fears. The ban even extends to phones issued to members of the House of Representatives. The government ban was introduced in the "omnibus" spending bill recently passed by ... Congress. It gives federal employees two months to delete the app, along with any others issued by developers ByteDance, from government-issued handsets. Although the bill did not cover politicians, the House of Representatives chief administrative Catherine Szpindor has written to the house's members and staff to say the rules will now apply to ... (view more)

Google's Chrome browser will soon be unsafe to use on Windows 7, 8 or 8.1. Google is about to finally ditch support for the systems, meaning no more updates. Version 109 of Chrome, scheduled for a full public release on January 10th, 2022, will be ... the last available for those editions. Starting with version 110, expected in February, new versions will only be available for Windows 10 and later. (Source: google.com ) Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 users can still run Chrome 109 (or earlier versions) but the browser will become increasingly outdated with no new features or performance fixes. More ... (view more)

Phone manufacturers may be forced to make batteries easily removable. The proposed European rule could have worldwide consequences. Were the rules to become law, they would affect 27 countries that are members of the European Parliament. For global ... manufacturers, most notably Apple, that could mean such a significant change to their handset design that they find it simpler to replicate it in all markets. Politicians from the European Parliament and the technology ministers from each country have agreed to the changes in principle. They'll now have to go through the lawmaking process before ... (view more)

Apple looks set to allow iPhone and iPad users to get apps from sources other than the official App Store. It's a major change of policy, almost certainly sparked by forthcoming changes to European law. Analysts predict Apple will find ways to ... minimize the effect of the change. However, stock prices in many companies that make apps have risen on the assumption they'll make more revenue because Apple won't take a cut of app purchases. Unlike rival Android, Apple has always kept tight control on the apps users can install, making the App Store the only option without "jailbreaking" the device, ... (view more)

A computer that uses light - rather than electrons - for processing could be faster, smaller and use less power. Researchers say they've found a way to make an optical computer without the major limitations of previous models. Ultimately, everything ... a computer does is broken down into a series of calculations. In traditional computer processors, these work through a series of physical "logic gates" that either do or don't pass through an electrical signal. This creates a positive or negative electrical charge, which represents either a 0 or 1 in a single bit of data. Several researchers have ... (view more)

A program to rate the environmental impact of cell phones now covers 35 countries. But there's no sign yet of Eco Rating coming to North America. The program has run since May 2021 and involved eight mobile carrier companies. They then ask handset ... manufacturers to answer questions about their devices. So far, more than 20 manufacturers have done so, with a total of more than 300 devices rated. The rating aims to cover the environmental impact of every stage of a phone's life, starting with the raw materials and the manufacturing process. It also takes into account the distance and method of ... (view more)

Changes to a major rival of Bitcoin have reduced energy use by 99 percent. The drop in computer processing for Ethereum has been likened to the amount of electricity used by a "mid-size country." The change has come after the Ethereum blockchain ... switched from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, a sentence that makes little sense to most normal people. To break it down, a blockchain is a digital list of transactions. The key is that it doesn't exist as a single copy but rather multiple copies across all the computers of all users. In theory at least, this means it can't be edited or falsified ... (view more)

Google has ditched a feature that could automatically navigate websites and complete forms. The biggest problems with "Duplex on the Web" were that hardly anyone knew about it or needed it. The feature launched in 2019 and was all about automating ... common sequences of actions on a website. The idea was to remove the need for the user to repeatedly click "next" buttons and confirm choices. Among the examples Google gave were ordering food on a restaurant site, buying tickets on a movie theatre website, and checking out of an online store. Google Assistant Control The feature worked with the ... (view more)

Windows 8.1 will no longer receive security updates from next month. It is said to effect millions of users. Microsoft has reminded users that January 10th, 2020 is the "end of support" date for the system. That means it will continue to work, but ... users will no longer get any updates or fixes, whether for security or performance bugs. The deadline also means an end to technical support from Microsoft of any kind. (Source: microsoft.com ) The system has already past the mainstream support deadline in 2018. That's when Microsoft stopped adding any new features. No Pay-To-Secure Option Unlike ... (view more)