Opera has released the latest version of its desktop browsing, bringing improvements to the tracker feature it introduced in a previous iteration, as well as a revamped bookmarks sidebar and more. The biggest change involves far more control over the browser's tracker-blocking feature, enabling users to view which trackers are being blocked and more.
There are a few things that can ruin an otherwise ideal web browsing experience. Malicious and misbehaving ads are the ones blamed most of the time but pages that load too slowly also waste your time and patience. Often, people will immediately presume it's either the connection or their device that's causing the slow experience but websites might also be unoptimized for today's browsers and use cases. That's why Google is planning on labeling sites that regularly load slowly so that you know that it's them and not you that's the problem.
One of the often-cited consequences of modifying an Android experience too much is that updates take longer to test. That's true not just for the Android experience on the phone itself but even for features that connect with external devices. That's what testers of the Android 10 Beta for Samsung's latest Galaxy flagships have discovered to their dismay. Worry not because Samsung has now made available a special version of the Samsung DeX app for PCs and Macs to address exactly that.
Today the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 was tipped to be getting an imminent confirmation of an update to One UI 2.0 Beta. This would mean an eventual full update to Android 10, the latest version of Android made by Google, with Samsung's own latest software to bring the device up near the performance level of its newer cohorts. The Samsung-made software One UI 2.0 Beta for Samsung Galaxy S10 was released earlier this year, and the Galaxy Note 10 received access to this program quite recently.
Adobe Creative Cloud applications will soon support live-streaming, according to the company, enabling users to share their creations with fans in real-time. The announcement was made during the company's' MAX 2019 conference, during which Adobe also introduced its Photoshop and Illustrator for iPad products. In addition to making it easier for users to connect with fans, the built-in functionality could also open the door to educational opportunities.
Scams have been in existence from the earliest days of human civilization but technology and the Internet have given less conscientious agents a broader and longer reach than ever before. Such scams cove a wide variety of techniques and consequences, ranging from the annoying to the destructive. A new breed of scams is now starting to go around affecting Firefox users that, while not entirely destructive, may appear so legitimate that it will scare users into some harmful reaction.
With the new PixelBook Go, Google is positioning Chromebooks as the ultimate productivity computer, especially on the go. It may not always feel that way considering the missing features and software on Chrome OS. Fortunately, just like the browser on which it is based, Chrome OS is constantly and regularly evolving and the latest update brings new features that promise to take users' productivity to the next level.
Given how many times it made news the past year or so, you might be surprised to find out that the new Microsoft Edge web browser still hasn't had a release marked as "stable" yet. Sure, the name itself has been around much longer but the current Edge still uses Microsoft's home-made web engine. The new Edge based on the same Chromium core that powers Google Chrome is still slated to launch early next year and that's because Microsoft is still prepping it to better fit business and enterprise use.
Earlier this year, Mozilla revealed that it will be tackling the issue of annoying notification permission prompts that appear on many websites as soon as they load. In an update on the matter published on Monday, Mozilla detailed the results of its experiment on how best to deal with these notifications and explained how it will change its browser's way of handling them starting with a future version of the software.
This year's second and final major Windows 10 update may be about polish and fixes but it seems that Microsoft is gathering quite a number of exciting new features to dump on users next year. As always, Windows Insiders are users' first line of defense against potential file-eating or showstopping bugs. For their troubles, they also get first dibs on new features that have yet to be enjoyed by the rest of us, like the return of PowerToys' a Bluetooth-less Your Phone screen function, and expressive Japanese emoticons (kaomojis).
Given how it profits from ads, it's almost ironic that Google is pushing technologies and features in Chrome seem to block ads. The truth is that Google is only after misbehaving and malicious ads so that users will eventually develop a level of trust for good ads. When it comes to misbehaving ads, none can be more debilitating to a computer than a "heavy" ad that consumes CPU cycles and battery life. That's why Chrome's next move is to offer a heavy-handed option to prevent these heavy ads from loading in the first place.
Macromedia Flash, now owned and killed by Adobe, was once the Web's darling. It enabled rich and interactive content that gave way to fancy web pages, games, and, of course, videos. Those came at the cost of file sizes, bandwidth, and security and has now turned into a liability rather than an asset. Almost all major web browsers have bid Flash farewell and soon Google Search will also be ignoring Flash content in indexing web pages.