Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

A well-designed widget can really enhance an app, helping to make it even more useful; equally, a crappy widget (or a lack of widgets) can completely ruin an otherwise perfect app. Widgets are important, and Google is finally recognizing that fact.

The company is making it easier to find Android apps that include widgets. As well as introducing a new badge to highlight widget-wielding apps in Google Play, Google is also adding the option to search specifically for apps with widgets. But it doesn't end there.

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As promised recently, Microsoft has released PowerToys v0.89.0 complete with new features. While there are no brand-new modules this time around, exiting utilities have been given amazing new capabilities, not least of which is Advanced Paste.

While you might think of copying and pasting as being related to text and images, the PowerToys development team has applied it to media files. What does this mean? It means the arrival of easy-to-use media transcoding so you can covert audio and video files into different formats. This PowerToys release also has exciting hints of what is to come.

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Apple has just announced a series of new tools, features and improvements that it says will “help parents protect their kids in a way that is designed around privacy”.

One of the biggest changes is an overhaul of the age rating system that is used in the App Store, with the number of categories expanding to five. But this is far from being the only changes Apple is unleashing.

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There is much said about the negative impact of social media on mental health and general welfare, but a new study suggests that there are benefits too -- especially for minority and marginalized groups such as the LGBTQIA+ community.

In particular, Instagram has been found to be a boost to the wellbeing of queer young people. Surveys of Instagram users in the United States and Poland showed that access to supportive online communities brought about a range of psychological benefits.

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It's that time of the month when Microsoft releases preview versions of next month’s updates for Windows. For the eager -- and brave -- they provide a way to get early access to new features and options as well as fixes for problems.

Windows 11 users now have the KB5052093 update to download and install if they want to jump in ahead of Patch Tuesday, and this is a nice little update that not only patches a bunch of bugs, but adds a tasty selection of new bits and pieces. A highlight is the ability to use a single webcam in multiple apps.

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There is a high chance that there is information about you online -- there can be very few people for whom this is not true. While it is hard to avoid having an online presence, having personal information appearing in search results can be disturbing, even dangerous.

This is precisely why Google’s “Results about you” tool exists. Since 2022, it has been possible to request the removal of personal information from search results using this tool. Now a major redesign makes this process even easier, and lets you request the removal of outdated results too.

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Adobe has launched a brand-new iPhone edition of its flagship Photoshop software. Enticingly, the app is free of charge! The company is clear from the offset that “Photoshop on the phone is not intended to replace Photoshop on the desktop”, but there is a lot here, nonetheless.

The new app goes much further than the existing Photoshop Express app, enabling creatives to use layers, masks, and the advanced Spot Healing Brush. For now, it is only owners of iPhones who are getting the free Photoshop treatment, but Android users will gain access later in the year.

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The gradual move towards a subscription-based model for software payments has been continuing for a number of years now -- and the costs can soon add up. For anyone who is looking for ways to make things a bit less of a strain on their wallet, Microsoft has come up with a solution -- ad-supported versions of its Office apps.

If you are happy to endure advertising in the likes of Word and Excel, you can opt for a free Microsoft 365 subscription. Sadly, ads are not the only catch.

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Security firm Kaspersky has suffered a dramatic fall from grace in recent years because of its Russian ties. Around the world, concerns have sprung up that the security software actually poses a security risk.

In the middle of last year, the US government banned the software from being sold in the country -- or even updated for existing users. Following suit, Australia has also announced a ban, citing a "security risk to the Commonwealth". Fears of "foreign interference, espionage and sabotage" were also key factors.

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Snipping Tool is one of the most useful apps to be found in Windows 11, making light work of grabbing on-screen content. Primarily concerned with taking screenshots, it has developed over the years to include a handy OCR component for extracting text.

And now this feature is in line for an upgrade. Microsoft is improving the text extraction capabilities of Snipping Tool so that text can be grabbed without the need to take a screenshot first.

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Meta has made a surprise announcement about Facebook Live video. The company has updated its video storage policy, and this means that live streams will no longer be stored indefinitely.

This is a significant change from the social media giant. Meta says that it is aligning its storage policies with industry standards, and the impact will be noticed by many. Videos that were once stored forever will now be automatically deleted after just 30 days -- so you need to act now.

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When Microsoft announces the deprecation of a feature or service, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it was because few people use it. This may be the case in some instances, but with the deprecation of WSUS driver synchronization, the company is making it seem otherwise.

So many reminders have been issued about the loss of this particular service, it is hard to think that Microsoft isn't aware that the cull will affect a lot of people. And now yet another reminder has been published!

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The last round of security updates saw Microsoft release the KB5051987 update for Windows 11. As this patch addresses a number of security issues with the operating system, it is a mandatory update that will be automatically installed for most people.

As we’ve seen time and time again, the automatic installation of security updates is a good thing... until it isn’t. And with the KB5051987 update, there are numerous problems that raise the question of whether it is advisable to have Microsoft pushing out obligatory patches that can wreak havoc.

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Across pretty much every social platform there is a strange focus on responding positively to content through the use of a ‘like’ button. Instagram is no different in this regard, but this could be about to change.

Some users have noticed a new down arrow button next to comments which has been confirmed by Instagram's trial of a new feature. The button enables users to dislike a comment under a post, but it does not work quite as you may expect.

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WhatsApp has started the rollout of a feature it says that users have been asking for -- chat themes. Using a combination of wallpapers and colored chat bubbles, every conversation can be given its own look.

This is a change that is about more than aesthetics, though. In providing the option to make every chat look different, WhatsApp is making it much easier to identify chats and avoid the tricky issue of sending a message to the wrong person or group.

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