OBS Studio 29.1 expands support for next-generation AV1 and HEVC codecs with YouTube streaming support

OBS

Open-source video broadcasting, recording and streaming tool OBS Studio 29.1 has been released for Windows, macOS and Linux.

The chief highlight is added support to allow users to livestream on YouTube using AV1/HEVC over Enhanced RTMP, resulting in lower bandwidth requirements and widening access to 4K60 streaming. The app also makes several improvements to the program’s preferences.

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TeamViewer Remote promises to improve the performance and security of your remote desktop connections

TeamViewer1

Accessing your home or work devices from a remote location just got a lot easier -- and more secure -- with the launch of TeamViewer Remote 15.41.7, out now for Windows, Mac and Linux.

The headline new feature is a major revamp of how TeamViewer connects one user to another’s device. In place of a password-based system, users make use of session links to connect directly, and adds a new option that allows users to connect and control remote devices through any web browser.

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Vivaldi 6 offers Workspaces for better tab organization, adds custom icons to Themes

Vivaldi1

Vivaldi Technologies has unveiled Vivaldi 6.0 for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android, a major new release of its customizable web browser.

Version 6.0 lands with two heavyweight new features: an additional layer of tab organization called Workspaces, and support for custom icons on the browser toolbar.

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Free tool finds sensitive data stored in Google Drive accounts

software scanning

As cloud and SaaS use grows a major challenge for IT, security and compliance teams is the lack of visibility into their organization's SaaS ecosystem.

Metomic is launching a new, free cybersecurity tool that scans Google Drive accounts to find sensitive data and information lurking in Google Docs and files. After entering a Gmail address and password, Google Drive Risk Report will scan the Google Drive connected to the address and, in a matter of seconds, generate a report.

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Firefox 112 delivers Intel GPU performance improvements on Windows builds

Firefox-on-laptop-screen

Mozilla has released Firefox 112.0 alongside Firefox ESR 102.10.0, the latest versions of its open-source, cross-platform browser.

Version 112 introduces performance improvements for those running Intel GPUs on Windows, plus makes it possible to restore the previous session using the Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + T shortcut.

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Blender 3.5 unveils new GPU-based compositor backend and improved hair styling tools

Blender

The Blender Foundation has unveiled Blender 3.5.0, the latest 3.x point release of its popular and powerful open-source, cross-platform 3D creation suite. The new release boasts several new features, including GPU-powered viewport compositor and vector displacement sculpting.

Blender 3.5’s main highlight, however, is that it builds massively on the curves-based hair system it introduced in version 3.3 with the addition of 'hair assets', 26 pre-built textures users can simply drag and drop on to existing models.

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Kodi 20.1 'Nexus' is finally here -- Download it NOW!

Kodi-20.1

Two months ago, the stable version of Kodi 20 'Nexus' arrived, bringing with it a wealth of new features to the hugely popular home theater software, including support for multiple instances of binary add-ons, AV1 Video support, and a massive rework of the subtitle system.

Today, the Kodi Foundation releases a new version, and Kodi 20.1 is well worth installing it as comes with an assortment of important bug fixes and some backports.

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61 percent of Americans rely on free antivirus programs

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A new report on the antivirus market from Security.org reveals that almost three-quarters of Americans still strongly believe computers need antivirus to protect their devices and 61 percent are relying on free options like Microsoft Defender.

The number relying on free solutions has held steady, down only one point since 2021. Interestingly, only eight percent of free antivirus users have experienced a breakthrough virus in the past year, compared to 10 percent of paid users.

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Geekbench 6 introduces new tests and data sets so benchmarks more accurately reflect 2023 usage patterns

Geekbench

Primate Labs has unveiled a major new version of its cross-platform free benchmarking tool with the release of Geekbench 6.0.0 for desktop and mobile. The release comes more than three years after the last major update came out in September 2019.

Geekbench 6 has been engineered around how Primate Labs envisages computers and mobiles are being used in 2023. Its tests now include several new workloads, including the effects of blurring backgrounds in video conferencing streams, removing unwanted objects automatically from photos, and the use of scripting languages to analyze, process and convert text.

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Transmission 4.0 promises more efficient performance, support for BitTorrent v2 and hybrid torrents

Open-source BitTorrent client Transmission 4.0 has landed after over a year in development. Sporting over one thousands commits, the new release focuses on no fewer than four areas: resource efficiency, better community, code modernization and new features.

In terms of more efficient use of resources, Transmission 4.0’s code has been streamlined to fix poorly performing code and memory usage, with developers claiming 50 percent fewer CPU cycles and 70 percent fewer memory allocations are now used based on stress test benchmarking. In addition, payloads are smaller and bandwidth usage reduced.

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LibreOffice 7.5 unveils new icons, plus improved PDF export and Bookmarks in Writer

LibreOffice

On schedule, The Document Foundation’s open-source, cross-platform office suite gains its first major point release of the year with LibreOffice 7.5. Version 7.5 unveils various design tweaks -- including a new application -- along with another long list of new and improved features right across the suite.

LibreOffice 7.5 opens with some design tweaks -- including "major improvements" to its dark mode support, which basically consist of over 40 bug fixes. There’s also new application and MIME-type icons, described as "more colorful and vibrant".

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PDFsam Basic 5.0 released, makes it easy to split, merge and extract pages from PDFs

PDFSAM

Sober Lemur SRL has just released a major new version of its free and open-source PDF toolkit with the launch of PDFsam Basic 5.0 for Windows, macOS and Linux.

The application, which allows users to quickly and easily extract pages from PDFs as well as offering split, merge and rotate tools, gains a major facelift with the version 5 release, along with a brand new tool and several additions to existing features.

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UTM 4.1 lets you install Windows 11 on any M1, M2 or Intel Mac -- for free!

UTM

Running Windows on Macs is nothing new, but with the loss of BootCamp support for the newer Silicon-based Macs (those running M1 and M2 chips), your only option for installing Windows is through virtualization software. You’ll find plenty of free and paid-for options available, so what makes UTM 4.1 stand out from a crowded field of virtualization tools?

When it comes to running Windows, UTM offers nothing you can’t find elsewhere in the form of Parallels Desktop, but there’s one crucial difference: UTM is open source and -- if you’re willing to update it manually -- completely free. If you want automatic updates, or you simply want to support the project, a one-time fee of $9.99 can be paid by purchasing UTM through the Mac App Store.

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Kodi 20.0 'Nexus' is available to download now -- here's what's new and improved

Kodi

The second and final Release Candidate for Kodi 20 'Nexus' was rolled out to testers a month ago and today the full, finished version arrives. This is the first release in a while that clears all known blockers, meaning it becomes available for all platforms.

Kodi 20.0 'Nexus' brings a wealth of changes, fixes and new features to the popular home theater software, including support for multiple instances of binary add-ons, AV1 Video support, and a massive rework of the subtitle system.

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OBS Studio 29 extends AV1 encoding support, adds new audio filters

OBS2

Open source video broadcasting, recording and streaming tool OBS Studio 29.0 has been released for Windows, macOS and Linux.

With this release, the Windows build now supports AV1 encoding on both AMD (Radeon RX 7000 upwards) and Intel  (Arc Graphics) chipsets in addition to prior support for NVIDIA. Support on Linux is expected to follow in a future release.

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