Wednesday Newsbytes: What’s Wrong with DuckDuckGo?; Is Edge Really That Bad?; Don’t Fall for the Geek Squad Scam; Next Windows 11 Update Removes Apps & Features… 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!
The Google alternative is experiencing issues.
There is absolutely no room for argument when it comes to Google’s dominance as a search platform. It is easily the most convenient, user-friendly resource out there, but many people have been flocking to alternatives like DuckDuckGo for years.
That’s largely due to some of the shadier practices going on over at Google, which many people (reasonably) believe is unabashedly stealing our information and selling it to the highest bidder. There are certainly plenty of issues going on over at Google, and each fresh hurdle that arises makes those alternatives look a little bit better. Particularly as they work to improve their search results and streamline their own processes, its getting harder and harder to beat the allure of DuckDuckGo and other alternatives.
Unfortunately, with a larger numbers of users come a larger number of problems, something DuckDuckGo is experiencing first hand. A Microsoft crash took the Google alternative down with it, leaving people who lean on the browser for their daily searches out to dry…
Is Microsoft Edge really that bad?
The default Windows browser’s poor reputation is evident, but does it deserve all the criticism?
Internally known as Project Spartan, Microsoft officially launched the default Windows 10 browser on July 29, 2015. Microsoft later ditched their in-house EdgeHTML rendering engine in favor of Chromium to improve the compatibility and extension support. Even with Microsoft’s aggressive push with Edge on Windows, feature add-ons, Chromium rendering engine, and a tight Microsoft 365 integration, Edge continues to trail Chrome by a huge margin.
That begs the question: is Microsoft Edge really that bad of an experience as a laptop browser? Why did it fail to hit a double-digit market share? In fact, according to the latest report, Microsoft Edge has managed to grab only 5%-6% share in the browser space, way behind the likes of Chrome and Safari. Let’s assess Microsoft Edge based on several factors, weigh its pros and cons, and conclude if it’s worth a second chance.
Microsoft Edge user experience – The first impression is the last
When you first launch Microsoft Edge on the desktop, it bombards you with too many unnecessary elements. It straightaway shows an option to choose your interests to personalize a news feed that no one needs or asks for. When you go past that, a busy home page welcomes you with Microsoft News, Bing wallpaper, a sidebar with Microsoft apps, services, tools, Copilot, weather, and more.
It is confusing and an outright bad user experience…
Don’t fall for this email scam that almost cost an elderly woman $25K
What to do if you fall victim to a scam
Unfortunately, phishing scams seem to be the new normal.
Most recently, an elderly woman in the tri-state area almost got scammed for $25,000.
According to Patch.com, what began as an average phishing scam turned even more sinister when the scammer turned up at this elderly victim’s house to retrieve money physically.
Geek Squad scammer caught in elaborate phishing scheme
While this Geek Squad scam isn’t new, this scammer took it to new lows and got caught in the process. In this particular scam, scammers send their victims phishing emails pretending to send them a large invoice for their Geek Squad subscription. The email recipients usually panic at the large charge and call the customer service telephone number listed in the scam email and invoice.
The scammer then pretends to be the customer service representative helping to cancel or refund the charge. They’ll usually use that moment as an opportunity to confirm bank account information with the victim to steal their money later. Even if you simply click on their links or download the invoice from the email, there is a potential risk that viruses or malware…
Warning: Windows 11’s major 2024 update removes these features
Windows users need to be careful with the next major feature update. Microsoft is removing these applications and features.
Microsoft has now released a preview version of Windows 11 24H2, this year’s major annual Windows update. But watch out: When Microsoft installs the autumn update on your Windows 11 computer, a number of older applications and features will be removed forever. Cortana, Tips, and Wordpad are perhaps the most well-known victims of this cleanup.
Microsoft said about Cortana:
“Cortana in Windows as a standalone app is deprecated. This change only affects Cortana in Windows. Your productivity assistant Cortana is still available in Outlook Mobile, Teams Mobile, Microsoft Teams Display and Microsoft Teams Rooms.”
And about the Tips app:
“The Tips app is deprecated and will be removed in a future version of Windows. Content in the app will continue to be updated with information about new Windows features until the app is removed.”
And about Wordpad:
“Wordpad will no longer be updated and will be removed in a future version of Windows. We recommend Microsoft Word for rich text documents such as .doc and .rtf and Windows Editor for text-only documents such as .txt. Wordpad will be removed from all editions of Windows starting with Windows 11 version 24H2 and Windows Server 2025.”
However, the full list of applications and features being removed in the upcoming update…
Windows 12: What to expect, new features we want to see
Windows 12 could arrive in 2025, so what can we expect?
Windows 12 is likely to be the next major update to Windows 11 — with an even bigger push of Copilot to boot.
Microsoft announced a bunch of Copilot+ PCs with Windows 11 in May 2024, which brings AI to the forefront of the company’s operating system. ‘Recall’ is an AI-powered feature that tracks everything you do on your PC, which can find any file or app you may have misplaced. Think of it like Apple’s Time Machine feature on the Mac, but supercharged.
There’s also Windows 11 24H2, the next major update that’s getting ready to launch. This features better HDR support for supported displays, Wi-Fi 7 support, the ability to create zip archives in File Explorer such as 7-zip and TAR archives, as well as many more improvements.
But where does that leave Windows 12? Granted, Microsoft’s yearly conference, Build, has come and gone for another year, with no mention of the number 12. With the company relentlessly trying to push AI into almost every facet of Windows, as shown by its latest updates to Copilot, it seems like Windows 12 may debut in 2025 instead.
Regardless of this potential change of date, there’s still plenty to look forward to in this next major update to one of the most popular operating systems in the world. With that in mind, here’s everything we’ve found so far about the next major update to Windows, alongside five features that we’d also like to see arrive in Windows 12…
Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday Newbytes. We hope these articles were informative, interesting, fun, and helpful. Darcy & TC
