What's New

There is a lot that you can do to improve the security of your Google account. It starts with a secure password but does not end there. You can enable 2-step verification for example to add another layer of protection to the account, or make sure that you receive phone alerts when suspicious activities are recognized by the system.

Mozilla Firefox has still a huge advantage over other popular browser choices such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Internet Explorer.

The majority of browsers restrict the user interface. Firefox by default ships with options to display a sidebar for example, something that Chrome does not support at all.

In addition to native options to display or hide toolbars or buttons, there are add-ons available for the web browser that modify the UI further.

SSL Enforcer is a new program that is currently available as a free beta version. If other programs of the same developer are anything to go by, it is likely that it won't be available for free after the beta period.

The program works similar to the popular browser extension HTTPS Everywhere but with the difference that it runs independent from any program on the system.

This means that it can enforce secure connections for all processes running on the system.

The Internet runs on advertisement. While there are some sites and services that do okay without it, and lets not forget the free sites out there that are run by users in their spare time, it is fair to say that ads keep a large part of the web rolling right now.

Mozilla, even though it is a non-profit, needs to earn money to pay its employees and maintain the company's infrastructure.

One could argue that the organization is spreading its wings out too far instead of concentrating on core products but fact is, Mozilla needs money to continue operations.

Microsoft optimized the boot process of its Windows 8 operating system in a way that it is booting faster than previous versions of Windows.

A side-effect of this is that it is difficult to get the operating system to load Safe Mode. The mode is useful to troubleshoot the operating system. You can use it for example to undo changes or uninstall software that you have recently installed on the system.

Several locations on the Internet, including the official Avast forum, Reddit and Firefox support site Mozilla Zine, are filling up with user reports that that latest version of Avast deletes Firefox add-ons automatically.

Software interface design changes, or entire redesigns, are often controversial updates.  It happens that visual updates are disliked that much that users move to alternatives instead. We have seen that with Firefox's Australis update in recent time when users moved to alternatives such as Pale Moon after the update.

A first beta version of CCleaner 5.0 has been released yesterday. CCleaner 5.0 is the upcoming version of the popular temporary files cleaner and system utility for the Windows operating system.

Classic Theme Restorer has been designed to bring back features and designs that Mozilla removed when it launched the Australis interface back with Firefox 29.

The extension has evolved over time and it does more than changing rounded to squared tabs. In fact, it always did more than that but its author has added new features on a constant basis that may make it interesting even if you like the Australis interface and the changes that came along with it.

Mozilla has released a first experimental version of the Firefox Internet Dashboard extension. First mentioned back in August 2014 it analyzes the browsing history to display information about it to the user.

After you have installed the extension and loaded its local page for the first time you are informed that it may take a couple of moments to generate the report.

Microsoft revealed information about a new Windows 10 feature called Continuum back in September 2014. One of the usage scenarios that Microsoft needs to handle are when a hybrid device is being used.

These devices, like Microsoft's own Surface or The Lenovo Yoga for instance, can be used as a tablet with touch but also with a keyboard that can be connected to the device easily.

I'm always surprised when companies introduce features to established applications or programs that will cause user uproar.

WhatsApp introduced a new feature recently that showed two blue checkmarks next to messages when a message was read by recipients.

What made this problematic was the fact that there was no option to turn it off or at least suppress it. As soon as you opened a chat a read receipt would appear on the sender's screen.

The only option to avoid the read receipt until now was to not open the conversation in the app.

Amazon Prime has evolved a lot in recent time. Designed in the beginning as a yearly-paid subscription service to cover all shipping and handling costs for Amazon purchases, it is now offering additional benefits such as TV streaming to customers.

The price of Prime has gone up as well. If you are in the US, you pay $99 per year for it (Amazon Student members pay $49). The price is different in Europe. Here in Germany you pay €49 for instance which is $61 when converted.

One of the main challenges of learning Japanese is to learn the Japanese alphabets. That's different from learning a modern Latin alphabet language such as English, German or French and the main reason for that is that you have to memorize a lot more than the 26 or so characters Latin alphabets are comprised of.

With Japanese, you have to memorize both the Hiragana and Katakana alphabet and on top of all that the Kanji as well.

Students of the Japanese start with Hiragana and Katakana usually. Good news is, there are not nearly as many as there are Kanji.

When the Firefox add-on Firebug first launched it was a godsend for web developers as it introduced a set of development related tools that improved many workflows considerable.

Browser developers began to introduce native development tools in their browsers.

Today, all major browsers ship with a set of development tools that are very similar in nature to what the Firebug add-on has to offer.

Firebug development continued on the other hand and the extension is still a very popular add-on for the Firefox web browser.

Microsoft pushed out a new Windows 10 Preview Build yesterday together with the security and regular updates for all its operating systems and products.

Windows 10 users can get it already provided that they have set the speed in which they get the preview builds to fast under Preview Builds in the Update and Recovery part of PC Settings.