Software

The anniversary of the historic lunar landing has many talking about Apollo 11 again. There is no shortage of stories and anecdotes of the things that went right and those that could have gone wrong. But for the software engineers at Google, there was another figure working in the background to make the landing even possible. That was NASA's Margaret Hamilton who is also considered one of the pioneers of the field of software engineering.

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Almost all the major browsers these days have an incognito or private browsing mode. This offers users some peace of mind to go anywhere they like without fear of web sites tracking them to serve them ads. At least that's the theory but in practice, there might be other ways sites and even ISPs from knowing your activities. It turns out, there might even be ways for sites to know whether you're browsing Incognito or not and Google is putting an end to that in Chrome.

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Microsoft has announced that Skype will lose support for SMS Connect, the feature that enables users to view and send text messages from their computer instead of their phone. The feature is very convenient for those who use SMS messaging, but who are on their computer during work and don't want to separately handle their handset. Though the loss is disappointing, Microsoft says there is an alternative option.

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Microsoft was mighty proud of its shift to a "Windows as a Service" strategy almost four years ago. It definitely has reason to boast, considering its history of painfully slow updates that came via the rare Service Pack. Redmond, however, seems to have swung to the other extreme in its desire to portray a company that can quickly respond to problems and feedback. Now it has to slow down and take stock of its obviously broken update process to ensure that what's left of Windows 10 credibility won't go down the drain.

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Apple is known for running a tight ship on iOS but things aren't that clear-cut on macOS. While the company does scrutinize the apps that go through its App Store, it has less control over those that are sourced elsewhere and some do get through the restrictions it places on macOS. One of the most recent high-profile cases involves the popular Zoom video conferencing software. Now Apple itself is taking action by silently removing other software that makes use of the same flawed Zoom technologies on Mac.

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Microsoft has shifted its strategy away from forcing its operating systems on users, including mobile, to a more "services-oriented" tactic that offers apps and platforms for others to build on or use on its competitors' platforms. That seems to be the case even when it has competing products like smart assistants. In fact, in the next Windows 10 update later this year, it will be giving those assistants more control even when the PC is still on its lock screen.

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Waze is adding toll prices to its navigation guidance, flagging up just how much trips across North America and Israel will actually cost when paid routes are taken into consideration. The new feature is being added from today in the US, Canada, and Israel, and will be able to show an estimated cost of each potential trip in addition to how long a drive, and how far, they'll involve.

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Even before it had a chance to fully roll out, Windows 10 was already lambasted for how it nagged users to upgrade to Microsoft's latest but not so greatest. That may now be in the past but it seems that Redmond has found another way to notify users that the version of Windows 10 they're on will be reaching its end of life. What it doesn't make apparent is that it may automatically update such users to the latest version, whether they like to or not.

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After spending just a few minutes with Valve's new Interactive Recommender for Steam, I can already see the massive improvement. I've been using app stores and game stores since before they were digital, and I've never experienced such a smooth process. This is a positive, well-planned, thoughtful, non-intrusive way to use machine learning, and I'm glad it was a gaming company that had to be the first to make it happen.

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Microsoft may have thrown in the towel as far as its own mobile platform goes but it is making up for lost time by connecting Windows 10 more intimately with smartphones. That comes via the Your Phone app which is getting more features at every turn. The latest is the Phone Screen Mirroring function that Microsoft is now rolling out to more Surface devices in the latest Insider Preview for the next version of Windows 10.

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Zoom, a popular video conferencing software, was recently found to contain a serious security vulnerability that left millions of Mac users at risk. According to security researcher Jonathan Leitschuh who detailed the matter in a post on Medium, the security flaw could potentially be used by an attacker to access on a Mac's webcam without the user's permission.

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Earlier this year, Apple faced a major security crisis when its Group FaceTime was reported to have a bug that would let people spy on iOS users by simply calling them. Now its the turn of Mac users to experience the same but, fortunately, it isn't applicable to all Mac owners nor is it Apple's bug to fix. Unfortunately, the Zoom video conferencing app for Macs is so popular that this serious exploit all the more dangerous.

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