Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

There are always lots of financial scams running online, and pig butchering is currently one of the most commonly used techniques for parting victims from their money.

But INTERPOL doesn’t like the term, saying it is shaming and puts people off reporting crime. The international crime-fighting agency believes that a shift to the rather fluffier sounding “romance baiting” is important.

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Intel’s recently released Arrow Lake processors were notable for the wrong reasons. Performance was found to be more than a little disappointing, particularly for gamers. A fix was promised, and one has been delivered.

The fix takes the form of a not only an update to Windows, but also a BIOS update. But it does not end there. Intel says that it will be releasing a further update in January which will introduce additional performance optimizations.

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Webcam users rejoice: the end of the “Another App Is Using the Camera Already” error message could be nigh.

People have been asking for the ability to use a single webcam in two or more apps at the same time for what feels likes forever. Built ostensibly as an accessibility feature, Microsoft is finally bringing what it is calling “Multi-app camera” to Windows 11.

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There have been rumors circulating for some time that creating an email service to compete against Gmail was on Elon Musk’s to-do list. While concrete details about what it might look like and when it might appear have been elusive, Musk has started to give something of an idea of his vision.

The billionaire has said on multiple occasions, including in the last few days, that X Mail is on the cards, but now he has given a clearer indication of what it might involve. The question is -- are people ready for it?

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There are so many classic scenes from shows and movies and, just like music fans like to share amazing drum solos, guitar riffs and lyrics with friends, there is something joyous about connecting over a shared video clip.

YouTube has long made it possible to share snippets of a videos, and earlier this year, Netflix introduced a feature called Moments to iOS. This provides a way to share a meaningful, impactful, funny or beautiful scene from a Netflix show or movie, and now the same feature is available globally on Android.

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One of the changes in Windows 11 that continues to generate lots of complaining is the removal of a vertical taskbar option. Microsoft decided that it wanted everyone to have their taskbar anchored to the bottom of the screen, and that was the end of that.

But not anymore. Now there is a way to vertically align your taskbar in Windows 11, giving you the chance to make better use of a widescreen/ultra-widescreen monitor’s available space. It doesn’t matter whether your preference is for the left or the right -- both are possible.

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Introduced a couple of years ago, the Suggested Actions feature of Windows 11 was designed to make life easier, simplifying dealing with information encountered on websites, in documents and so on. Now the feature is being ditched.

Microsoft introduced Suggested Actions as a productivity-enhancer that worked across all aspects of Windows. While the company has said nothing about why it is killing off what is ostensibly a useful tool, the answer can probably be summed up in two letters: AI.

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There are still various obstacles in the way of updating to Windows 11 24H2, but Microsoft has just removed one of them. Until now, systems with a USB scanner that used the eSCL scan protocol were blocked from installing the update, but this block has now been lifted.

This is not all that is to be found in the update, of course. There is a somewhat controversial switch to a shortened date format in the taskbar as well as a batch of important security fixes.

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Mozilla has removed support for Do Not Track from Firefox, with the company stating that it was a setting that was largely ignored by websites anyway.

More than this, Mozilla believes that Do Not Track sometimes served to reduce privacy, rather than increasing it. The suggestion for affected users is to start using options within Global Privacy Control (GPC) which are legally enforced in some countries, and far more widely respected by websites regardless of legislative requirements.

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We’ve reached that point of the year. Spotify Wrapped has happened, and now it’s time for endless ‘year in review’ and ‘best of 2024’ outpourings. Not wanting to miss out, Google has revealed the top trending searches of 2024.

The very nature of listing the top trends is that they are popular, and therefore predictable. As such, the appearance of searches relating to the US election was to be expected, as was people looking up the meaning of “demure”. So what else does Google have to share with us?

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For all of the focus on AI, for many people, the future lives in quantum computing. Google is among those who agree, and the company has just unveiled its latest advancements in the field -- its quantum chip, Willow. Like quantum physics and quantum mechanics, the numbers and concepts involved in quantum computing are extraordinarily difficult to imagine.

Revealing its advancements, Google says that its quantum chip took less than five minutes to perform tasks that would take even the fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years. Providing some sense of perspective, Google points out that this is “a number that vastly exceeds the age of the Universe”. So what is it that makes Willow so special -- and so fast?

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The number of roadblocks standing in the way of updating to the latest version of Windows 11 seems never-ending. The latest issue affects people using certain versions of Google Workspace Sync.

Following the appearance of error messages and problems between Outlook and Google Workspace Sync, Microsoft has taken the decision to block the availability of the Windows 11 2024 Update. There is good news, however. The fix is easy to implement, so updating to Windows 11 24H2 is far from being an impossibility.

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There are many barriers to running Windows 11, and even if you are using the operating system, you may find that you’re not able to run the very latest version. A variety of problems means that Microsoft has put update blocks in place for systems that meet certain criteria, but is gradually easing up on some of them.

Gamers are among those who have found themselves unable to update to Windows 11 24H2, especially fans of Ubisoft titles. With some of the issues having been resolved, Microsoft has now partially lifted the block on updating.

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Finding the right platform through which to make meaningful and valuable connections can be difficult, and this is certainly true for LGBTQIA+ professionals and business owners. LinkedIn may be the go-to platform for establishing business connections, but it is very broad and almost too big.

Stepping in to fill a significant gap in the market is Famm Connect, which is billed as “the first mobile app for LGBTQ+ professionals” and the “queer LinkedIn”. The aim is to create a safe environment to establish connections and relationships.

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The battery indicator in the Taskbar of Windows 11 is – as it has been for many years in previous versions of Windows – entirely functional. But there has always been potential for it to be more.

Now Microsoft is taking action to help the humble battery indicator to reach its potential and ascend beyond merely being good enough. New features means that it will tell you more than just how much charge you have left.

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