Wednesday Newsbytes: Dementia Risks Much Lower for Older Internet Users; Rest in Peace WordPad; The ‘Most Disturbing Site on the Internet’: Top 3 New Features in Windows 11 23H2… and more!
Every day we scan the tech world for interesting news in the world of technology and sometimes from outside the world of technology. Every Wednesday, we feature news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s ‘Wednesday Newsbytes’ informative and interesting!
A longitudinal study of a large group of older adults showed that regular internet users had approximately half the risk of dementia compared to their same-age peers who did not use the internet regularly. This difference remained even after controlling for education, ethnicity, sex, generation, and signs of cognitive decline at the start of the study. Participants using the internet between 6 minutes and 2 hours per day had the lowest risk of dementia. The study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Public discussions about internet use often revolve around problematic internet use, particularly among children and adolescents. Studies often link large amounts of time spent on the internet with various adverse conditions. However, the internet also forms the backbone of modern economy and entertainment. It provides lots of cognitively engaging contents that is relatively easy to access.
Studies have shown that online engagement can make individuals more resilient against physiological damage…
RIP, WordPad: Microsoft will remove this longtime word-processing app in a future Windows update
We probably should have known something was up when they didn’t give WordPad a dark mode.
Just before the long holiday weekend, Microsoft added WordPad to its list of “Deprecated Features” for Windows, signaling the upcoming demise of an application that has been built into the operating system since Windows 95.
“WordPad is no longer being updated and will be removed in a future release of Windows,” the company’s explanation reads, without specifying a timeline for removal…
Windows 11 now has pop ups straight-up telling users to get rid of Google
Described by The Verge’s Tom Warren as “malware-like popups,” Windows 11 now instructs users to switch to Bing. The browser wars–and the monopoly-exploiting shenanigans that got Microsoft in legal trouble the first time around–are back.
I have no idea why Microsoft thinks it’s ok to fire off these pop-ups to Windows 11 users in the first place. I wasn’t alone in thinking it was malware, with posts dating back three months showing Reddit users trying to figure out why they were seeing the pop-up. I’m sure Microsoft is legally covered by the myriad of license agreements that nobody reads, but in reality I never knowingly consented to Microsoft abusing its ability to analyze my PC usage to show me a Bing pop-up just because I use Chrome with Google search…
‘Most disturbing website on Internet’ can find every single picture that exists of you
There is no questioning that the world of technology is advancing into extraordinary heights, one that certainly involves artificial intelligence.
However, some of the results have actually been quite scary.
Basically, we all need to be a bit more like Jeff Goldblum’s character in Jurassic Park.
With that in mind, an image search site which uses AI has been slammed as ‘the most disturbing AI website on the internet’, and it’s a place called PimEyes.
The basic premise is that you give the site a photo of yourself and it searches the internet to identify any other pictures of you that are online, so you can in theory see all the places on the internet where there are images of you…
Windows 11 23H2: Top three new features
The highly anticipated Windows 11 23H2 update is around the corner, and Microsoft has released its best features to testers in the Beta Channel.
From a revolutionary AI assistant to a modernized File Explorer and an in-depth energy report, the update promises a myriad of improvements. Here’s a breakdown of the top three features that have captured our attention.
Windows Copilot: The AI Assistant Unified in PCTaking a step forward in the integration of artificial intelligence, Windows 11 is set to debut Windows Copilot, an AI assistant that unifies Bing Chat and additional plugins. Easily accessible via a sidebar on the taskbar, Copilot aims to redefine the way users interact with their PCs…
Read the rest at Bleeping Computer.
Microsoft finally caves and will let some users actually use their preferred browser in Windows 11
It’s time for the pettiness to stop
When you’re browsing on Windows 11 and click on a link in another part of your computer, say a different app or a news reader, regardless of your selected default browser your link will be opened in Microsoft Edge. That can be incredibly annoying when you’re trying to navigate your computer and have to keep manually copying and pasting links into your preferred browser, but that may be about to change.
This this is good news for people tired of Microsoft’s pushy habit of trying to force users to use Edge over other preferred web browsers like Google Chrome or Firefox.
If you set your default browser to anything aside from Microsoft Edge you should be able to discard Edge and move on…
Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday Newbytes. We hope these articles were informative, interesting, fun, and helpful. Darcy & TC
I wanted to again Thank you two for the continued care and service you have provided to so many of us over the years and for me at 86 years of age, still very Irish and most of my cognitive abilities still in place I am very grateful.
Take care and how I have appreciated you , Fondly, Reta Aronson
I appreciate all of your regular articles week after week after week. My main problem is that I have “short-term memory loss” & cannot retain all that I need to “act on” regarding any particular procedure for a particular reason. But that’s okay…I have all that I need/want for this “daily hobby” I’ve adopted; I’m glad that I bought my first computer over 20 yrs. ago when I was still “young enough” to learn & most of that from your lifetime subscription for only $10.00 at the time! So thankful I decided to purchase my membership w/Cloud Eight Information Avenue!
Thanks to you for everything you have done for me! I would never have been able to learn all that I have if it wasn’t for T.C & Darcy, that’s for sure.
Thank you ever so much; I’m still trying to keep up w/changes if need be but not always successful. That’s okay; keeps my brain in gear even if I don’t make it to the final steps for whatever it may be that I wish to accomplish.
Joann
I have a problem with my short-term memory also, due to medication. If I see a tip or instructions I think I might need, I copy and paste it into a word document and save it until I have time to act on the information or keep it in case I need it in the future.