Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Microsoft has announced changes to the way in which hyperlinks are added to Word documents. The company says that it wants to make working with hyperlinks as easy as working with text, and is therefore simplifying link creation across Word for Windows, macOS and the web.

While it could be argued that the previous method of converting a word or portion of text into a hyperlink was not exactly an arduous task, the change Microsoft has come up with makes it even faster and easier. So, how does it work?

Google has announced changes to the search functionality of YouTube, adding new filters and renaming some options for the sake of clarity.

One of the biggest changes is the new option to choose the type of content which should be included in results. For anyone who is more interested in seeking out long-form videos, this is extremely significant as it provides a way to avoid YouTube Shorts by opting to exclude them.

WhatsApp moving towards usernames has been much-requested, but progress remains slow – or perhaps slow and steady is a better way of thinking of it. While the timeline for the eventual rollout of usernames in the app remains unclear, there are new tests underway.

The latest version of the Android beta app sees WhatsApp testing switching from phone numbers to usernames. There are many reasons for the switch, not least of which is privacy.

Music is connective, and this is something that Spotify is trying to use to its advantage. Aware that people love to talk about their musical tastes, the company has come up with Listening Activity, a new way to share what you are listening to with the people you are connected to.

Spotify itself already lets you share your listening stream, and there are various apps that can plug into Spotify to share the data as well. The new Listening Activity, as well as the new Request to Jam, are the latest addition to Messages.

It should surprise no one that Google is filling up just about all of its apps and services with a dose of AI. Now the company says that it is “bringing Gmail into the Gemini era” with new AI-powered features.

The aim is to transform Gmail into “your personal, proactive inbox assistant”, and Google has a smattering of new features that it believes will kickstart this process. Borrowing an idea from Google Search, Gmail’s new AI Overviews is very much what you would expect, but it is also just the start of the story.

Google has announced a significant change to the way in which it releases the source code for its Android operating system. The company has, until now, released source code several times a year as part of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP).

Moving forward, Google says that it is going to be using a twice-a-year schedule for source code release – once in Q2 and then in Q4. With the latest code drop having come in November, we won’t see the next one until some time near summer. But what does all of this mean?

Last year Google started the rollout of the Material 3 Expressive redesign to Google Drive, bringing it in line, aesthetically, with other products and services. Then, for reasons best known to Google, the company then seemed to change its mind and pulled back some of the new look.

Now there has been another change of heart. Google Drive users are now seeing the reappearance of a visual tweak that had been yanked.

LEGO has been a best seller for decades, and part of the secret of its success is a willingness to evolve and embrace new technology. The latest innovation from the company is the LEGO SMART Play system which sees the humble LEGO brick reborn as LEGO SMART Bricks which are crammed with ground-breaking technology.

In short, the system allows for the creation of interactive builds, using chips, tags and sensors to trigger sounds, lights and more. Sets based on the system will be available in a couple of months, and things kick off with a Star Wars theme.

Google is making it much easier for Chrome users to access their bookmarks in the Android version of the app. Borrowing a feature from the desktop version of the browser, there is a new feature that can be used to toggle the display of the bookmarks bar.

It is a simple idea, but it is one that makes a lot of sense. There are, however, some caveats, so try not to get too excited just yet.

While Meta has used CES to make some announcements which will please people, the company has also used the event to deliver some bad news. The international rollout of Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses has been delayed.

This is not because of a problem with the device; Meta says that the smart glasses have proved to be so popular that it is simply not able to keep up with demand. What this means is that, for now, the company will stick with a US-first approach, and other countries will have to wait.

Amazon has decided to allow Alexa+ to break out of its cage. No longer confined to Amazon devices, the artificial intelligence-powered assistant is gradually rolling out to the web, ready to be used by anyone – eventually.

For now, the availability of Alexa+ on the web is limited to Early Access users, but even this marks a significant change in approach by Amazon.

Referred variously as a pirate site, a media archive and a shadow library, Anna’s Archive is notorious. The site was only recently in the headlines after it claimed to have “backed up” almost all of Spotify’s music catalog.

Like many sites of its ilk – think PirateBay – Anna’s Archive uses various domains to try to avoid being taken offline completely. However, the site's main domain, Annas-archive.org, has now been suspended.

A hacking group claiming to have breached the defenses of Resecurity and gained access to internal data was actually fooled by a honeypot stuffed with synthetic data, says the security firm at the center of the story.

Dating back a few weeks, the data breach was originally thought to have been the work of the notorious ShinyHunters group. It is now clear that this group was not involved, and that no real data was accessed.

Every social media platform needs to not only attract but then keep different types of audience. TikTok has already bet big on sport, and now it is doubling down on it with TikTok GamePlan.

Available globally, the resource provides fans of sport – including football and athletics – with detailed, up-to-the-minute analysis not of sport itself, but of the behavior of other fans, trending conversations and more.

The start of a new year is often seen as a reason for starting new routines, ditching bad habits, and improving health. And, of course, there are plenty of companies ready to jump on the “new year, new you” bandwagon to provide tools, ideas and apps; and Apple is no different.

The company has announced new programs for Apple Fitness+ which it says will help to transform the fitness of Apple Watch owners. In addition to new workout programs, there are also new playlists from featured artists to help with motivation.