Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Starting Monday 12 December, Twitter is relaunching Twitter Blue and giving users the opportunity to pay for the blue checkmark of verification.

Since Elon Musk took over at Twitter, the decision to open up verification to anyone willing to pay was one of the more controversial decisions. The scheme was paused last month, but now the paid-for blue tick is opening up once again. This time around, however, things are a little different, with iOS users getting a worse deal.

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Passwords are a problem. They are difficult to remember, often easily guessed or cracked, and generally just a pain. Google is looking to help by adding secure, password-free login to Chrome 108 thanks to newly added passkey support.

The security feature is available to users of Windows 11, macOS and Android, and it follows a short period of beta testing. Backed by the likes of the FIDO Alliance, Microsoft, Apple, and -- of course -- Google, passkeys are a step away from the password managers so many of us have become reliant on.

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One of the problems with signing up for just about any online service, particularly social platforms, is trying to bag yourself the username you want. On Twitter, this could be about to get a bit easier.

It is no secret that since Elon Musk took over the company, Twitter users have been leaving the site in droves, mainly to Mastodon. Add to this the number of accounts that were set up years ago and never used, accounts that have fallen inactive and there are a lot of Twitter handles that could be opened up to new owners -- and this is precisely what is on the cards.

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With 2023 just around the corner, thoughts may well be turning to New Year's resolutions -- and that certainly seems to be the case for Chrome. Just as many people use the arrival of a new year as a reason to go on a diet, so Google is making its web browser less greedy.

Chrome has earned itself something of a reputation for being incredibly resource-hungry, and Google is now ready to address what amounts to a serious problem for many people. What does this mean in practice? Google is reducing Chrome memory and power consumption thanks to Energy Saver and Memory Saver.

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Back in October, Microsoft -- possibly inadvertently -- revealed that Windows 11's Snipping Tool screen capture utility was getting a significant update with the addition of a screen recording option.

After the Surface event at which the news was seemingly leaked, there has been no news about the Windows 11 screen recorder. But now Microsoft has made the new capability available to a select group of users, signalling that a wider roll-out could be just around the corner.

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Google is, of course, best known for its search engine but in a significant update to Chrome, the company has introduced a powerful new way to search tabs, bookmarks and browsing history in the browser.

It has been possible to conduct each of these types of search for some time, but now Google has simplified things dramatically. The change means that Chrome's address bar can now be used for much more than just to search the web; all it takes is the addition of an @.

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PowerToys gets quite a lot of coverage here on BetaNews, and that's because it's one of the most useful and exciting pieces of software out there. We already know that there are plans for a great new quick launcher utility, and while we wait for development to finish, we have the newly released PowerToys v0.65 update to explore.

Although this update does not include any new utilities, it is still an important upgrade because of the number of tweaks and new features that have been added to individual modules. On top of this,  the entire codebase has been upgraded to work with .NET 7.

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Google's search engine may be the go-to tool for millions of daily users looking to track down information online, but there has long been room for improvement. As anyone who has conducted a search that returned a huge number of results will know, clicking through page after page of suggestions can be time consuming.

Now Google has come up with a solution. Having delivered continuous scrolling to mobile users last year, the company has now brought the time-saving feature to the desktop. While not quite endless / infinite scrolling, you can now whizz through more results without the need to manually move to the next page.

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It is several months since Apple launched its Self Service Repair program in the US, giving iPhone and MacBook owners the chance to fix their own devices. Now the company has expanded the same option to eight European countries.

The program works in exactly the same way for Apple users in the newly supported nations. It is possible to buy replacement parts direct from Apple, obtain repair manuals, and even rent the tools needed to get the job done.

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Some of the most exciting software developments associated with Microsoft are to be found in PowerToys. Here it is possible to see inspired developers innovating as they create new tools for Windows 11 and Windows 10.

There has been a large number of new utilities added over the course of the last year, and there's another exciting one on the way. What's promised is a "quickaccess systemtray launcher", and it will make it easier than ever to launch your most frequently used PowerToys modules.

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The uptake of Windows 11 has been rather slow, almost certainly slower than Microsoft would have hoped. With Windows 10 users sticking doggedly to their slightly aging operating system, the company is seeking way to promote and simplify Windows 11 upgrades -- and with the KB5020683 update, it has done just this.

KB5020683 is an out-of-band update that Microsoft released recently to little fanfare. It has one aim: improving the out-of-box experience (OOBE) so users have the option to upgrade to Windows 11 immediately.

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Dropbox has announced plans to acquire "key assets" from Boxcryptor in a move that will boost security for business users.

The acquisition will bring zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption to users signed up for business account. It is something that Dropbox undoubtedly hopes will help increase confidence in its cloud storage service.

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It is the time of the month when Microsoft release preview versions of Windows updates. True to form, the company has released the KB5020044 update for Windows 11 22H2.

As well as fixing various issues, this update also brings new features such as combining Windows Spotlight with Themes on the Personalization page, and helpful information for OneDrive users. It also fixes game performance issues which caused Microsoft to block upgrades to Windows 11 2022 Update for some users. And true to form, the update also breaks some things as well as fixing others; in this case, Task Manager.

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There have been numerous compatibility holds put in place that have prevented large swathes of people from upgrading to Windows 11 2022 Update. One of the more recent blocks affected gamers, with Microsoft standing in the way of upgrades because of impaired game performance under Windows 11 22H2.

But now Microsoft has lifted the safeguard holding, meaning that more gamers are able to upgrade to the latest version of Windows 11. Sadly it is not good news for everyone, as the block has only been partially lifted.

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The known issues with Windows 11 22H2 keep on coming thick and fast. Microsoft may want to move all Windows 10 users onto Windows 11, but the constant stream of problems is enough to put off just about anyone.

Now the company has confirmed yet another issue with the latest update to the operating system. Warning that "Connections may fail when using Remote Desktop Connection Brokers", Microsoft offers a workaround -- but not a fix -- for those affected.

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