What's New

Google's been busy yesterday showcasing new features and products on the company's I/O Conference.

Next to the two messaging applications Allo and Duo, and first information about Android N, the next version of Android, was an interesting new concept called Android Instant Apps.

Google announced the upcoming release of two new mobile-only messaging applications called Allo and Duo today on the company's IO Conference.

Other sites have covered both services already, so here is just the minimum you need to understand what the two messaging apps offer.

Google Duo is a video chat app that is tied to your device's phone number. It is available for iOS and Android, and is dead easy to use thanks to its streamlined interface that does not offer many options.

Microsoft XPS Document Writer is a printer that is installed on all recent versions of the Microsoft operating system by default.

The printer enables you to create XPS documents that use the .xps file extension. The XPS format was created by Microsoft a long time ago as an alternative to Adobe's popular PDF format but never managed to establish itself as an alternative.

Microsoft published a Windows Store update yesterday for Windows 10 that brings along with it a design refresh and the much requested option to remove applications from the library.

My Library is a collection of all apps and games that you have installed from Windows Store on devices you own.

The main idea behind the feature is to provide users with easy options to install apps or games anew on the same device, or to install them on other devices without having to find them again in store.

OW Shredder is a free portable program for Windows that allows you to erase files or entire drives securely, and to remove traces from unused disk space.

There is certainly no shortage when it comes to programs that erase files securely. Not only are there dedicated programs for the job, FileWing Shredder or Eraser for instance, but many system cleaners are also providing the functionality nowadays.

Microsoft announced three upcoming changes to update procedures of previous versions of the company's Windows operating system today.

The company created what it calls rollup packages for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 which are designed to bring the operating system to the newest patched version without having to install all updates released for it one by one.

Mozilla plans to release a couple of changes to the Firefox web browser's bookmarking system in upcoming stable channel releases.

Bookmarks have not received much love in the past couple of years and while they are still an integral part of all web browsers, they work pretty much like they did a decade ago.

Some companies try to change layout and presentation of bookmarks but for the most part, they are still just links saved locally that point to web resources.

Microsoft released a new version of the OneDrive application designed specifically for Windows 10 devices and there specifically for devices with touch capabilities.

While Windows 10 ships with an integrated OneDrive sync client already, the new OneDrive application complements that application according to Microsoft.

Google Spaces was announced yesterday by Google as a way for groups to quickly share text, videos, images or links.

Designed to make group sharing easier, Google Spaces lets you create groups based and send out invitations to other users using links, email or and other sharing options that depend largely on the platform you are using Spaces on.

Microsoft has been very pushy in regards to getting devices that run the previous operating systems Windows 7 or Windows 8.x to upgrade to Windows 10.

The company has been experimenting with various prompts and installation notices so far which seem to get less user friendly with every iteration and the end of the free upgrade offer.

We have already seen prompts that ask you whether you want to upgrade right now or later with no option seemingly to say no to the offer.

Easy Image Blocker is a browser add-on for Firefox that enables you to control if and how images get loaded when you open websites in the browser.

The Firefox web browser ships with solid controls when it comes to the loading of images.

While Mozilla did remove the option to toggle the loading of images in the preferences some time ago, global options to change the loading behavior of images in Firefox are still provided by the browser.

Microsoft announced recently that all new devices that ship with Windows 10 once the operating system's Anniversary Update comes out need to support the Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM) and have it enabled by default.

While this won't affect existing devices or devices that you build yourself, the majority of devices that OEMs produce, including all client PCs and Windows mobile devices, need to ship with TPM 2.0 enabled.

Google announced last week that it plans to change the default state of the integrated Flash plugin of the Google Chrome browser to click-to-play.

The company plans to set Flash to click-to-play in the fourth quarter of 2016 in the Chrome browser, and to use a whitelist for high profile Flash sites for one year to improve the user experience on these sites.

Windows Spy Blocker is a regularly updated collection of firewall, hosts file and Proxifier rules that block Windows 10 phone home functionality.

While Microsoft collected telemetry data in previous versions of the Windows operating system as well, data collection was intensified with the release of Windows 10.

Third Eye is a free application for Google Android devices that has been designed to take snapshots of people who try to unlock the device but fail to do so.

It is a good idea to protect your mobile devices with a pin or other form of protection, not only because it is useful when it falls into the wrong hands but also to protect your privacy when someone you know tries to access it without your permission.