What's New
Screenshots from the Firefox Developer Tools console
Mozilla plans to launch a new screenshot taking feature in Firefox 63 that enables users to capture screenshots using the Developer Tools console.
Another screenshot tool and feature? Firefox has quite a few of those already and if you don't follow development closely, it may be unclear why Mozilla will add another to the web browser.
Firefox users can use the native screenshot tool of the browser to take screenshots, and save them online or offline. The tool supports basic image editing options even.
Goodbye Snipping Tool Hello Screen Sketch
Windows 10 users who run a beta version of the upcoming next feature update of Windows 10, Windows 10 version 1809, get a deprecation notification when they open the Snipping Tool on the system.
Linux Mint 19 "Tara" final is out
The Linux Mint team has released Linux Mint 19 final, codename Tara, in the desktop environment flavors Cinnamon, Mate, and Xfce.
Watch videos on YouTube without changing pages
InstantView is a new browser extension for the Google Chrome web browser and compatible browsers that plays YouTube videos without changing pages on YouTube.
When you click on a video on YouTube you are taken to the page the video was published on to play it.
While that is wanted sometimes, you sometimes may not want to leave the page you are own. Maybe you ran a search on YouTube and want to browse the search results after playing the video, or you don't want to lose the recommendations that YouTube displays on the homepage, or browse your YouTube subscriptions.
Brave browser gets private tab with Tor option
The makers of the Brave web browser announced a new feature today that introduces an option to open private browsing tabs with Tor for that added bit of privacy.
You cannot really say that Brave is just like any other browser out there. While it is based on Chromium code and supports pretty much all the web standards that Google Chrome supports because of it, it is different in several key areas.
Extension Police for Chrome vets installed extensions
Extension Police is a relatively new Chrome extension that vets all installed browser extensions and gives you actionable advice for each.
Chrome extensions are limited in what they can do and Chrome's extension system limits the scope to the browser. Extensions can request additional permissions -- beyond the default scope -- which is required for some functionality.
Load Chrome websites automatically in Incognito Mode
Incognito Mode is Google Chrome's private browsing mode. When you load websites in Incognito Mode, session data that is stored locally is not stored. In other words, Chrome does not save data to the browsing history, cache, or cookie storage among others.
Incognite Mode offers several advantages besides that: extensions are not enabled by default in the mode which blocks potential data leaks and sites handle Incognito Mode independently from the rest of the browser.
Here is what is new in Opera 54
Opera Software released a new version of the Opera web browser yesterday that brings the version to 54 on the browser's stable channel.
The two features of Opera 54 that Opera highlights on the official desktop team blog are news on the Speed Dial page and improvements to the visibility of update and recovery options.
WinRAR 5.60 released with new look and features
WinRAR 5.60 is a new version of the popular cross-platform compression tool that has been released to the public earlier today. WinRAR 5.60 is the first big release since WinRAR version 5.50 was released back in 2017. It is available as a 32-bit and 64-bit version for Windows and other supported operating systems.
WhatsApp: hide media from individual chats in the Gallery
The latest best version of WhatsApp messenger for Android has a new feature that gives users more control over the visibility of media on their devices.
The new version adds an option to the chat application to hide media from specific chats in the gallery of the device.
How to disable media autoplay in Microsoft Edge
Microsoft plans to ship major new features in the next version of Windows 10; one of the new features gives users control over media autoplay on the Internet.
If you have access to a recent Windows Insider build, you may have noticed already that Microsoft Edge comes with a lot of improvements.
One of the new options is a new control to configure autoplay rules for media. The default setting is to allow autoplay but you can modify it to block autoplay.
CCleaner 5.44 comes with advertising popups
If you run the free version of the popular temporary file cleaner and system tool CCleaner for Windows, you may have noticed that it has started to display advertising popups on the system.
I noticed the behavior after installing CCleaner 5.44 on a Windows 10 Pro system; it is possible, however, that older versions of CCleaner display the advertisement as well.
The advertisement appears as a popup message in the lower right corner of the screen. It highlights a Summer Sale and a discount for CCleaner Professional.
Google Maps rolls out with improved Explore functionality
When you open the Google Maps application on your Android or Apple device right now, you may be greeted with a "New! Swipe up to see what's nearby" notification that highlights the improved Explore functionality that Google implemented recently.
Google did introduce the feature last month actually but the worldwide rollout of them did not start until today.
Firefox 61: Fix Secure Connection Failed
If you have upgraded to yesterday's new Firefox 61 version you may have received a secure connection failed error when trying to connect to this very site and others.
The error message reads:
Restore files that were encrypted by Thanatos malware
Thanatos is a ransomware variant that has been distributed using malware campaigns over the past few months.
Attack vectors include distribution through chat rooms on the Discord chat platform but also through other channels. Users need to execute specifically prepared files on Windows PCs to initiate the ransomware infection process.
Different versions of the malware were distributed with Thanatos 1.1 being the most recent version of the ransomware and the likelihood that newer versions will become available.