What's New

Noisli is a web service and a mobile application that you may use to generate background noise that helps you focus or relax. There are quite a few cases where background noise may assist you in whatever you are doing. White noise for instance helps blend out other, distracting noise, and rainfall may help you work better or relax.

Haven is a free application for Google's Android operating system that turns any Android device into a privacy-respecting home security system endorsed by Edward Snowden, the Guardian Project and Freedom of the Press Foundation.

The use of electronic gadgets in home security is growing, and while you may sleep better knowing that your property is monitored by security systems, there is always the underlying issue of privacy.

Google unveiled Android Go some time ago. Android Go is an optimized version of Android designed specifically for low-end devices and infrastructure.

As is the case with these "lite" versions, they are not availably everywhere. The main reason for limiting access is simple: Google, and other companies, want users to use the main applications.

However, lite applications have several advantages over full apps. They don't use that many system resources which is useful for operating the app and battery live, network consumption, and operating times.

Mozilla revealed a new version of Lockbox today, a password manager extension for desktop versions of the Firefox web browser that replaces the built-in password manager when installed.

Mozilla calls Lockbox an experiment to "test and improve password management and online security".

Now, for something completely different: here are some of my top game (and apps) picks of the Steam Winter Sale of 2017.

The start of the sale was on December 21, 2017, and it ends on January 4, 2018. As is the case with recent sales, games are discounted but there is no dynamic nature anymore.

Opera 50, the next stable version of the Opera web browser, comes with cryptocurrency mining protection to block mining scripts on sites automatically.

Crypto mining using JavaScript is a relatively new phenomenon. This cryptocurrency mining method received some bad press because it was abused by a number of sites.

Nvidia announced yesterday plans to end Nvidia graphics driver support for 32-bit operating systems on the official Nvidia Support website.

Current Nvidia graphic cards drivers install on 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows, Linux and FreeBSD.

This changes after the release of the upcoming 390.x version of the GeForce Game Ready Driver for all supported operating systems. Nvidia won't release drivers for 32-bit operating systems anymore regardless of GPU that is used.

Recent versions of Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system, for instance build 17063, come with a new process that is just called Registry.

If you have spotted the Registry process already on a machine running Windows 10, you probably asked yourself what it is all about, and whether it is a legitimate process or not.

Open the Windows Task Manager with the shortcut Ctrl-Shift-Esc, and scroll down the list of processes to locate it. It uses a bit of memory but little to no CPU, disk, network or GPU.

The creator of Mandrake Linux runs a campaign for the open, free mobile operating system eelo on the crowd funding site Kickstarter right now.

Designed to break the dominance of Apple's and Google's walled systems, eelo is based on LineageOS but takes it a step further than that.

Mozilla implemented a new feature in Firefox 57 that its lead developer calls tailing. Tailing delays the loading of scripts from a list of known tracking domains to improve the page load performance.

The core concept works similarly to lazy load. Instead of loading all scripts and elements of a web page directly, some content is paused to give more important content more resources to work with.

Microsoft plans to integrate the command line tools tar and curl in the next feature update of Windows 10, out in March 2018.

While we don't know the full name of the next feature update yet, it is clear that it will feature major improvements and additions unlike the rather bleak Fall Creators Update.

With Mozilla changing core features of Firefox and cutting ties with Thunderbird, it was not really clear what direction Thunderbird's development would take.

It was clear however that Mozilla's decision to drop legacy add-ons to embrace WebExtensions impacted Thunderbird.

Microsoft revealed recently that Windows 10 Professional will support Windows Defender Application Guard in the next feature update.

Windows Defender Application Guard is a security feature of Enterprise editions of Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system.

The feature uses Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization technology to add a virtual layer around browsing sessions in Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer.

Nvidia released the graphics driver 388.71 WHQL for Microsoft's Windows operating system today. The graphics driver comes with Game Ready support for the smash hit Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, support for CUDA 9.1, and several driver fixes.

The new driver is already available on Nvidia's official drivers download website, and to users who run the GeForce Experience software on their Windows machines.

Amazon announced recently that the company's Amazon Music Storage subscription plans are being retired.

The service allowed Amazon customers to upload music to the company's cloud infrastructure. Free users could upload up to 250 titles using the Amazon Music application for PC or Macintosh devices.

Paid subscribers could upload up to 250,000 songs to Amazon instead for $24.99 per yaer.