Software & Apps News - Page 4

WhatsApp, the hugely popular instant messaging platform that is available across all platforms including the web, is testing a new feature that will allow people to send and receive files with others within close proximity. The feature, which sounds similar to Apple's AirDrop feature, is currently being tested by beta testers of the WhatsApp app on Android.

AirDrop is a feature that allows iPhone, iPad, and Mac owners to easily share files between devices just by bringing them close together. But the feature in testing appears to be part of the work that WhatsApp is doing to make it easier for people to do something similar across platforms for the first time.

The new feature was first reported by WABetaInfo and is currently available to beta testers who have access to the Android version of WhatsApp's beta app. The report claims that users will need to shake their device to initiate a share request, while end-to-end encryption is used when sending the files between devices. It's also worth noting that phone numbers are reportedly not transferred which could make this a great way to send files to people who aren't in your contacts should the need arise to do so.

Windows 11 has an incoming new feature that allows Android phone owners to edit recently snapped photos from their handset on their desktop PC.

This is a fresh introduction with Windows 11 preview build 23619 (in the Dev channel) although it's only rolling out to a limited number of testers at the moment, so if you aren't seeing it, hold tight.

The idea is that when you take a photo, or a screenshot, on your Android phone, you'll get an instant notification of this on your Windows 11 PC (assuming you've granted the OS access to your Android device, that is, in your settings for mobile devices).

An enterprising Linux developer has managed to cook up some tweaks for Linux that give a 6% boost to file system performance.

As explained on X (formerly Twitter), Jens Axboe made just a couple of changes to a caching algorithm that led to a notable increase in speed for I/O operations.

Apparently Axboe had been meaning to make this code change for years, but only just got around to doing so.

Ever wondered how Windows 12 might look? Of course, we don't know for sure that's what it'll be called, but whatever Microsoft names its next-gen OS, we've just been treated to a concept video of how it might turn out.

Watched it yet? It's the clip just above this paragraph - credit to The Register for spotting it - so give the video a whirl, and come back when you're done. Otherwise you won't know what we're banging on about in the following paragraphs (more so than normal).

The concept design (note: it has nothing to do with Microsoft) presented by 'AR 4789' is very smart and we like the more streamlined feel to the desktop and core elements of the interface. It's much like the modern design of Windows 11, but a bit neater, bolder, and cleaner (though still very obsessed with those rounded corners).

Whatever your preferred search engine, sometimes you run a query and don't get a great set of returns - so off to another engine you pop to spin the wheel of search again - but Microsoft Edge is taking a new approach when this scenario occurs.

As highlighted on X (formerly Twitter) by Mikhail Parakhin, who is head of Advertising and Web Services at Microsoft, now when you search in Edge with Bing, you get Google results presented simultaneously in the browser's side panel.

Or vice versa, if you Google, you get Bing results, and the idea is you can glance across and easily see alternatives to what your primary search engine has dug up on any given search query.

We've only just heard a rumor that Microsoft was going to introduce Copilot Pro, a subscription version of the AI, and it's officially happened.

Copilot Pro will cost $20 per month and is aimed at individual users who want the best AI experience, or as Microsoft puts it:

"Whether you need advanced help with writing, coding, designing, researching or learning, Copilot Pro brings greater performance, productivity and creativity."

What do you get for your money? As mentioned in the leak yesterday, one of the major selling points is access to the latest AI models, and with this initial incarnation of Copilot Pro, users will get the benefit of GPT-4 Turbo (for faster and more accurate responses to queries).

YouTube has been at war with ad blocker extensions since they came into popularity, and now the company behind the largest video platform in the world has moved to implement what is easily the most annoying change yet. Slowed video load times.

This isn't the first time YouTube has targeted popular ad-blocking software such as AdBlock Plus, uBlock Origin, or Ghostery, as it was back in November last year when the company annoyed millions of users around the world by disabling video-watching for select accounts. A recent video posted to Reddit indicates the company is now throttling video load times for accounts using ad-blocking software.

These suspicions were backed up by a report by 9to5Google, which stated there is "an artificial timeout written within YouTube's code to act as a laggy internet connection," and while this code has been within YouTube's software for quite some time, it appears it's being used to a much wider effect.

Microsoft could be planning a Copilot Pro subscription service if a fresh leak is anything to go by.

Currently, the Copilot AI is free, but that might change if some hidden code that Android Authority unearthed (via TechRadar) turns out to indicate the direction Microsoft is going to head in.

The code is for a 'Copilot Pro' in Edge which is paywalled and requires a subscription. The text provided says the paid version has the following benefits:

"Get the latest AI models, priority access for quick answers, and high-quality image creation with Copilot Pro."

Microsoft has acknowledged a problem with the latest Windows 10 update and the company has said it's working on a fix.

As we reported last week, the issue lies with the KB5034441 security update - which is piped to Windows 10 PCs alongside the cumulative update for January 2024 - which fixes a flaw that potentially allows an attacker to bypass BitLocker encryption.

The long and short of it is that the odd error caused by KB5034441 - which consists of an unhelpful stop code - is apparently due to the recovery partition (WinRE) in Windows 10 not being large enough.

Microsoft might be experimenting with presenting Copilot straight away, as soon as Windows 11 boots - a controversial idea in testing, naturally - but another more useful change has been spotted in the latest preview build of the OS (23615).

This was flagged up on X (formerly Twitter) by well-known Microsoft leaker PhantomOfEarth, and it consists of the ability to drag and drop files onto the Copilot icon on the taskbar.

You can see how it works in the above tweet, but it's exactly as you'd expect - pick up a file, drag it over to the icon, and then the Copilot side panel opens, whereupon you can drop the file in and have the AI interact with it.