Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

To little fanfare, Netflix has made changes that make it harder to cast content from a phone to another device, such as a TV.

The general rule of thumb that now applies is that if a device has its own remote control, it will not be possible to cast to it. With this covering pretty much every television in existence, this is something that will affect a lot of people.

Just last year, Google lodged an antitrust complaint against Microsoft in the EU. Now, a week into the probe by investigators, Google has had a change of heart and has withdrawn the complaint.

The 2024 complaint was filed by Google Cloud, with Microsoft accused of trying to lock users into its Azure product through licensing of Windows, Office and other software. Just last week, the European Commission launched a series of investigations, and this has been the catalyst for Google’s complaint withdrawal.

Like death and taxes, ads are an inevitability. This is something that applies to the world of technology, but particularly anything even remotely connected to the internet.

Proving the above, as well as the old adage that there is no such things as a free lunch, OpenAI is planning to bring advertising into ChatGPT. This is not something that the organization has officially announced, evidence that ads are coming has been uncovered.

If you have suddenly found it more difficult to log into Windows 11, you should know that you are not alone. Microsoft has just confirmed that a recent update had the unwanted side effect of hiding the password sign-in option from the lock screen.

This was not something that all users of Windows 11 will have been affected by as there are various factors to consider. Nonetheless, this is a worrying problem that has caused a good deal of confusion and is still yet to be resolved.

Browser tabs have been positioned in a horizontal strip in just about every browser since they first appeared, Chrome included. There have been various attempts to disrupt this – and to cater to different tastes and needs – by introducing vertical tabs, and Google is still working on this feature.

As is so often the case, the preview builds of Chrome give a very good sign of things to come, and this is where we have already seen vertical positioning of the tab strip. While this is still very much a work in progress, details have emerged about changes that have already been made.

With the end of mainstream support for Windows 10 having reached us over a month ago, Microsoft will have been hoping that users will feel forced into upgrading to Windows 11. Has this happened? Not really.

Dell has revealed that there are millions upon millions of PCs out there that are still running Windows 10 and simply cannot run Windows 11. The company also used its Q3 earnings call to share the news that PC sales are slowing – something it predicts will continue into 2026.

Like Spotify, YouTube offers an annual summary of listening habits for individual users, but for 2025 there is a slight change. This time around, perhaps inevitably, artificial intelligence has been used.

The insertion of AI into just about every product and service has become predictable, but there is always the interesting question of whether its use is necessary, and if it brings any benefits. So, what is the verdict with YouTube Music?

A hatred of having to use the Microsoft Store to update many Windows 11 apps is far from being a unique experience. Thankfully, it looks as though Microsoft is working to make some improvements in this area to help alleviate some of the annoyance.

The latest Insider builds of Windows 11 have been found to include an "app updates" page in the Settings app. This, assuming it becomes a mainstream feature, will make life a lot easier for Windows 11 users.

The question we ask every time there is a new PowerToys release is whether or not there are any new modules or options to play with. With the release of PowerToys v0.96.1 being a very minor update in terms of version number, there is a nice surprise in store.

Sadly, if you are hoping for a brand new module, you are going to have to wait a little longer. We know of several utilities that are in the pipeline, but they are not ready yet. What we do see in this small update, however, is a nice surprise for Windows 10 users – the return of the Image Resizer tool.

In a few short weeks, Microsoft is removing its Copilot chatbot from WhatsApp. The company says that while it has helped millions of people, the removal comes because of a change to Meta’s platform policies.

As of January 15, WhatsApp is purging all LLM chatbots from the platform, so Microsoft has little choice in the matter. The company stresses that Copilot itself is living on in plenty of other places, and has some helpful information for those who will be affected by the change.

It is something of a curiosity that in-car navigation experiences vary from much between iPhone and Android, even when using the same apps. A good example is Waze which, despite being owned by Google, has an extra feature for CarPlay users when compared to Android Auto.

But this is changing. Users of Waze in conjunction with Android Auto will soon be gaining a “second screen” option, just like their CarPlay friends. So what does this mean?

In the age of digital subscriptions in which we find ourselves, price increases have become par for the course. Spotify is no different to other companies in this regard, and the arrival of a new year seems to be as good a reason as any to hoik up monthly fees.

At the moment there is no official word from Spotify itself, but a price increase is certainly due, and a report by the Financial Times suggests that it is just around the corner.

Tor (The Onion Router) is switching its encryption algorithm to help boost security and privacy. The change is being introduced to protect users against certain types of attack, and sees the browser adopting a new “research-backed new design” called Counter Galois Onion.

The algorithm that is being updated is the one used to encrypt user data as it travel across a circuit via multiple relays. In making the switch, Tor concedes that its previous encryption design “looks funny”, hence the need to replace it.

Plex has, over the years, earned itself a dedicated legion of fans looking for free or cheap ways to stream music, movies and more. The software has simplified the process of setting up and working with a remote media server, and there is now a significant change on the way.

For some time, it has been possible to remotely access a Plex media server for free – great for anyone travelling who wants to stream contents from their home server. But this will soon be a paid-for feature, meaning that anyone looking to remotely access media will need to take out a Plex subscription.

Meta is giving all Facebook users the option of posting under a nickname in Facebook Groups. While the option to post anonymously already exists, the nickname option takes things a little further.

The use of a nickname still allows for a degree of anonymity, while simultaneously allowing for some expression of personality. Additionally, posting with a nickname makes it easier for other people to track things that have been posted by the same person.