Looking up businesses on Google Maps in Germany? Echtstern reveals their true rating

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google introduced a change in its map application Google Maps recently. The update shows, whether businesses have been activate at getting low ratings removed from their Google Maps scores. The behavior seems to be widespread in Germany only, as Google introduced this new option only in Germany.

Whenever you open the profile page of a Google Maps business in Germany, Google reveals if the business had ratings removed from its listing. Google does not give you an exact count, but a range on the reviews tab. It is a useful indicator, as it tells you that the rating that Google Maps shows is likely not the true rating, if all customer ratings would be included.

Users who know are cautious when it comes to these businesses. While the information that Google displays is useful, it is bare bones. That is where the extension Echtstern comes into play.

It is an open source extension for Firefox and Chromium-based browsers. For Firefox, only an Android version appears to be available right now. For Chromium-based browsers, a desktop version is also provided.

The extension works automatically on Google Maps. Just look up a business and switch to the review tab. It displays the corrected score and information below the rating that Google displays.

If you prefer a web service, as it does not require installing an extension, then you could check out Review Proof. The service focuses on the different regions in Germany, but you can use a search to find out a specific restaurant or business.

In closing, both services are useful as they reveal which businesses have removed ratings from customers from Google Maps. However, it should be noted that there are legitimate reasons for removing ratings. While that is the case, a large number of removed ratings is more often than not a good indicator that the rating that Google shows on Maps does not reflect its true rating.

The Nvidia RTX Spark promises a new Windows PC era, but the price tag may stings

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

For forty years, you launched apps by clicking and typing—but Nvidia wants your next computer to simply do the work for you and behave more like R2-D2 and C3PO.

Kicking off Computex 2026 with a high-octane keynote at GTC Taipei, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang officially unveiled the RTX Spark, a novel 1-petaflop system-on-a-chip designed to completely reinvent the Windows PC for the era of personal AI agents.

Up until now, Nvidia delivered graphics cards to PC users but kept out of the ongoing CPU-battles between AMD and Intel. This changes with the new chip, which is a custom 20-core ARM CPU infused with Nvidia’s Blackwell GPU-architecture and a huge 128 GB of unified memory.

This, according to Nvidia, allows PCs to run massive local AI models and the most taxing tasks. Yet, while Nvidia claims that this will move PCs from basic tools to active teammates, a staggering price tag may limit the audience to the ultra-premium tier.

Under the Hood

The RTX Spark represents a complete architectural split from the traditional x86 platform that Intel and AMD have dominated for years.

By designing a SoC (System on a Chip), Nvidia is bringing ultra-tight hardware integration similar to Apple’s M-series of chips to high-performance Windows PCs, but with the added benefit of a strong graphic processing part.

Based on the technical data revealed during the keynote, here is what is known about the silicon powering the RTX Spark:

  • The Custom ARM CPU: The 20-core processor utilizes a custom architecture optimized specifically for Windows on ARM. It splits workloads efficiently between high-performance cores for demanding tasks and high-efficiency cores to keep background OS processes from draining resources.
  • Blackwell Graphics Pipeline: Rather than relying on a separate graphics card connected via PCIe, desktop-class Blackwell GPU cores are baked directly onto the same die. This eliminates the latency bottleneck between the processor and the graphics card, allowing for instantaneous asset loading and ray-tracing calculations.
  • Next-Gen Unified Memory: The headline-grabbing 128GB of unified memory operates on a massive bus width, allowing both the CPU and GPU to pull from the same pool of lightning-fast RAM.
  • The 1-Petaflop AI Engine: By fusing traditional Tensor cores with a dedicated, next-generation Neural Processing Unit (NPU), the chip delivers unprecedented local AI throughput. This isn’t just for blurring webcam backgrounds; it provides the raw muscle required to generate complex code, render real-time AI upscaling, and drive persistent local operating system agents simultaneously.

Innovation on this scale doesn’t come without structural trade-offs. While ARM architectures are fundamentally praised for their power efficiency, pushing a petaflop of local compute requires advanced cooling solutions.

While Nvidia has kept exact MSRPs under wraps until its hardware partners (such as ASUS, MSI, and Razer) open pre-orders closer to the fall launch, the pricing strategy is premium.

WinFuture notes that the price of the very first N1X-powered device, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7, starts at around $3000 and goes all the way up to $4600 for the premium version. Cheaper models are planned, but it looks as if these devices will push premium computing on Windows to a whole new level.

Meta is rolling out subscriptions for all of its products, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

If you make a lot of money as a company from advertisement already, your next question as a company should not only be how to expand that revenue, but to find outer ways to complement it.

That’s what Google, Microsoft and co. are doing already. Meta, parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, is now joining the party. New subscriptions are available for all products that, in some cases, replicate what X did with its premium subscriptions: it gives subscribers an advantage over those who are not.

First, here is the overview:

Consumer “Plus” Subscriptions

These plans are targeted at everyday users who want more personalization and control over their social media experience

  • WhatsApp Plus – $2.99 per month – chat organization and interface personalization
  • Instagram Plus – $3.99 per month – advanced story controls and profile customization
  • Facebook Plus – $3.99 per month — enhanced social tools and profile personalization

Key Advantages

  • WhatsApp Plus: Upgrades the messaging experience with custom app themes, personalized ringtones, the ability to pin additional chats, and access to exclusive premium stickers.
  • Instagram Plus: Transforms how users interact with Stories by allowing them to preview others’ stories anonymously, see who rewatched their own stories, and keep stories active beyond the standard 24-hour limit. It also includes “Super Heart” reactions, custom app icons, and profile pins.
  • Facebook Plus: Mirrors the social and personalization upgrades seen on Instagram, offering enhanced story features, super reactions, and expanded profile customization options.

Then there is Meta One, which are structured around heavy AI usage and brand growth. Plans start at $7.99 per month and go all the way up to $49.99 per month.

Especially the Essential and Advanced tiers are of interested to creators and businesses:

  • Meta One Essential: Replaces and expands upon the standard Meta Verified offering. It provides a blue Verified badge, proactive impersonation protection, priority customer support, and enhanced link sheets to consolidate an online presence
  • Meta One Advanced: Functions as a growth and management engine. It guarantees higher visibility in Facebook feeds and search results, adds prominent “Follow” buttons on Reels, and automates follow invitations. It also grants access to advanced audience insights, automated scheduling, and allows moderators to manage accounts without needing to share passwords.

These grant higher visibility, which gives subscribers an advantage over anyone who is not subscribed already. Whether that is worth the extra $50 per month needs to be tested, but it could force the hand of many creators on Instagram or Facebook who want to grow their audience.

One question that may come to mind is this: when is the tipping point reached? Subscriptions work, but only that many are sustainable. With more and more companies jumping on the bandwagon, it is only a matter of time before fatigue kicks in or money runs out. What is the plan then?

Using 7-Zip? Time to update, as your version may be vulnerable

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

7-Zip is a popular open source archiver that is a popular option on Windows. While Windows comes with its own basic archive creation and extracting options, it is significantly slower compared to third-party apps such as 7-Zip.

A vulnerability in earlier versions of 7-Zip was discovered in April 2026 that could allow attackers to cause the application to crash or run arbitrary code.

The affected version is 7-Zip 26.00 and earlier versions appear also affected by the vulnerability. The latest version is 7-Zip 26.01 and this version is safe to use.

If you run the archiving software on your devices, you may want to check the installed version and update if it is 26.00 or earlier.

You can check the installed version under Settings > Apps > Installed Apps. Type 7-Zip into the search box and wait for the app to appear. The version is shown in its title.

Updating is a flawless process. Just download the latest version from the official developer website and run it after the download finished. The installed version will be updated and any attacks targeting the vulnerability won’t have an affect on the app or the system anymore.

You can also check the version when you launch 7-Zip on the system. Select Help > About 7-zip in that case to display the installed version.

MultiDrive: Free Software to Clone, Back Up, Erase and Restore Drives on Windows

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Windows users have a wide assortment of backup apps and services at their disposal. Even Windows itself comes with options, but as usually, they lack when compared to professional tools.

MultiDrive is a new contender in the space. It is available as a portable or setup version, and you can use it to perform major disk operations, including backing up, cloning, erasing, or restoring. It is free, has no ads and no payments at the time of writing.

The software is easy to use. It displays the available tasks on the left side and in the main area information about all connected drives, the progress, and completed tasks.

Some configuration options are provided after selection. If you pick backup, you get to pick a format, file type and whether you want to split files or keep one massive file. One interesting option is the ability to pick the source drive range for the backup. You can keep it at “everything”, or pick a range on the drive. Other than that, there is an option to calculate a hash, which is great for verification purposes.

You may notice that you do not get as many options as in comparable backup tools. For example, there is no option to protect the backup with a password or to schedule backups from within the interface.

To get started, pick one of the available options:

  • Backup: This backs up the entire drive to a single file or multiple files.
  • Clone: Copy the contents of an entire drive to another, ideal for migrating to another hard drive.
  • Restore: This restores previously created backups.
  • Erase: Deletes data on a drive.

Other than that, you do get access to a command line interface tool and support for parallel operations. So, what can you actually use the software for? Here are some suggestions:

  • Move all data to a new drive or create a backup drive.
  • Erase all data on a drive or multiple drives before selling, recycling or giving it away.
  • Back up USB Flash Drives.

A WinPE image is available for restoring backups. You need to download it from the developer website and put it on a bootable USB drive.

The program works well for what it does, but it lacks some options and preferences that other apps, including my favorite pick Paragon Backup & Recovery Community Edition, support. Considering that there is a big team behind the app, I’d guess that a premium version is on its way that will have some of these missing options. The developers promise, however, that everything that is free will remain free, even if a premium version is introduced in the future.

Vivaldi 8.0 is out with new layout presets and theme improvements

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The developers over at Vivaldi Software have released Vivaldi 8.0, a new milestone release that introduces new layout presets for users who are just getting started and significant theme improvements.

Vivaldi is one of the most customizable desktop browsers out there, maybe the one that you can customize the most, at least when it comes to the options that it ships with. While that is great for users who love to tinker with the browser until it is perfect for them, it may overwhelm new users.

That is the main reason for six new layout presets that Vivaldi 8.0 ships with. From simple and classic to auto hide or vertical left, all it takes is a click to apply a layout. Naturally, you still get the option afterwards to customize the browser interface. Want to add or remove something? All options to customize the interface are there for the taking.

The new layout presets plus the custom layouts saved automatically.

Veteran users of Vivaldi can safely ignore the new option, but it could be useful to new users who would otherwise feel overwhelmed with the choice that Vivaldi throws at them.

Theming improvements

The second big change of Vivaldi 8.0 is the introduction of the new “Unified” look. This more or less moves from using different layers with separations to a continuous surface.

Vivaldi explains:

All toolbars now live on a single, continuous surface: a Unified frame that wraps the entire browser. Instead of stacked regions, everything is composed within the same visual plane. That shift makes the interface feel more cohesive and easier to read. Alignment becomes more precise, spacing more intentional, and interaction more direct, because elements no longer sit in isolated layers.

Along with the change comes a selection of themes that you can pick after installing the new browser version. This does not touch any theme that you may be using at the time, but if you want to give a new theme a try, you can with the click of the button.

You can check out the full blog post here.

Now it is your turn. Have you tried Vivaldi recently or do you prefer to use a different web browser for your daily browsing? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Microsoft plans to make Windows Search more relevant

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Windows Search is an integral part of the Windows operating system. Its main purpose is to help users find files and folders on the system.

Some time ago, Microsoft decided to introduce Internet search functionality to the search in Windows. Search suddenly returned local files and Internet resources. To make matters worse, Microsoft made it difficult to turn off the Internet part of search.

The Windows 11 Insider Experimental Preview Build 26300.8493 changes this, according to Microsoft:

We’ve started making changes to make Windows Search Box more relevant, starting with making it easier to find your files and apps:

Files and apps more reliably appear ahead of web suggestions when your content is a stronger match

What does it mean? Initial tests show that local results are prioritized in certain cases. When? When Windows Search computes that the local files are a stronger match.

This does not mean that Internet-based search is gone. Far from it. Microsoft adjusted the search parameters in favor of local files, but that is about it.

While that is certainly welcome for millions of users who do not know how to turn off Internet search results in Windows, as the focus shifts to local files again, critics might argue, that this is not enough, as there is still no option to turn off Internet search easily.

Firefox 151 ships with a new tab page and improved privacy protections

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Mozilla released a new major stable version of its open source Firefox web browser on May 19th, 2026. Firefox 151 includes several new features and changes, including a new Firefox Home page (new tab page), an option to clear all data in private sessions, and more.

Most Firefox users should receive the update automatically via the built-in updating functionality. Those who do not want to wait can launch the browser and go to Menu > Help > About Firefox to run a manual check for updates. The update to version 151.0 should be picked up at that point and installed automatically.

The very first thing you may — or may not — notice after the mandatory restart is the new home page of the browser. Mozilla says that this is just the first step in a wider redesign of the new tab page. For now, you can play around with new wallpapers by clicking on the pencil icon on the page to customize what you see.

On the privacy front, there are two main changes:

  • A new button in private sessions. Activate the fire-button in the taskbar to get an option to clear all data in the private session and start anew. Previously, you had to close the session and start a new one to do that. Mozilla reveals that this will delete the history, cookies, and all other site data when executed.
  • Protection against fingerprinting. The standard enhanced tracking protection feature of the open source browser now protects against fingerprinting attempts as well. This limits the data that scripts and sites may retrieve about the device and browser by up to 49 percent. Standard is the default mode. Previously, this was limited to the strict tracking protection setting.

Other than that, Linux users may now also back up Firefox profiles locally, just like Windows users. Best of all, these backed up profiles can be restored across platforms. The built-in browsing proxy, which Mozilla calls a VPN for marketing reasons, now supports choosing a location rather than connecting to one that Mozilla picks automatically.

While the selection is limited in comparison to many standalone VPN tools and the rollout is happening over time, it is a welcome addition that should improve the feature for some Firefox users.

Firefox 151, and the simultaneously released ESR-versions, fix several security issues on top of that. The aggregate rating is high and you can check out the list for the stable version here.

About that new SecureBoot folder in C:/Windows

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

If you’ve noticed a mysterious new SecureBoot folder sitting in your C:/Windows directory following the May 2026 Patch Tuesday, you are not alone.

The folder, which has a subfolder named ExampleRolloutScripts that contains several PowerShell scripts, is a harmless administrative helper introduced in the latest security updates for Windows 10 and Windows 11.

According to official Microsoft guidance, these scripts are designed primarily for enterprise IT administrators to monitor the status of the upcoming UEFI CA 2023 Secure Boot certificate updates and to safely automate their deployment across Active Directory environments.

While essential for corporate networks preparing for this critical security transition, average users can safely ignore this tiny 450 KB folder for now.

The transition to the new UEFI CA 2023 Secure Boot certificates mark a critical security change for the Windows ecosystem. It is made necessary by the impending expiration of current certificates that were issued a long time ago.

Secure Boot acts as the fundamental gatekeeper against bootkits and rootkits by ensuring that only trusted, digitally signed firmware and operating system loaders can execute during startup.

Microsoft is employing a highly controlled, phased rollout strategy—which is exactly why administrative validation tools and scripts are currently being deployed.

Why Microsoft is rolling out the folder to anyone is anyone’s guess. It seems that the folder is pushed to all devices running Windows 11, even unmanaged Windows 11 Home systems.

Windows 11 is removing an option to bypass Microsoft account and internet during setup

Innovation or Apology? Microsoft’s “New” Windows Personalization Options Merely Fix Past Mistakes

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

It only took half a decade for Microsoft to remember how to build a functional user interface. On May 15, 2026, the tech giant took to the Windows Insider Blog to announce Preview Build 26300, a supposedly major update designed to give users “more flexibility” over their Taskbar and Start menu.

However, beneath the marketing spin, these groundbreaking additions—like the ability to finally shrink the taskbar, move it to the side or top of the screen, and independently toggle off intrusive file recommendations—are nothing more than basic features Microsoft stripped out of Windows years ago.

Rather than pushing the operating system forward, this long-overdue update rolling out to the Experimental channel feels less like innovation and more like a reluctant apology to power users who have been fighting a restrictive, dumbed-down user interface since 2021.

This is what build 26300 brings back from the dead

Let’s look exactly at what Preview Build 26300 actually brings to the table. The headline “feature” of this update is the reinstatement of taskbar mobility. After years of being glued to the bottom of the screen, users can once again click and drag the taskbar to the left, right, or top edges of their monitors—a decades-old Windows function that was axed during the initial jump to Windows 11.

Accompanying this is the return of taskbar resizing, allowing users to finally shrink the increasingly bloated bar to save precious vertical screen real estate, or expand it for better touch visibility.

Meanwhile, the Start menu receives what is arguably the most highly requested fix: a dedicated, single-click toggle to permanently disable the “Recommended” section. Instead of being forced to look at a useless blank void or unwanted cloud documents, users can now reclaim that entire bottom half of the menu for their own pinned applications.

Pavan Davuluri, Microsoft’s head of Windows and Surface, championed these tweaks on X as a testament to the company “deeply listening to Insiders” and “empowering personalized workflows.”

But celebrating the restoration of basic functionality as a triumph of active listening is a massive stretch. While it is undoubtedly a relief to have these customization options back where they belong, packaging them as a bold new step forward highlights a recurring, frustrating cycle in Microsoft’s development ethos: breaking something that works perfectly fine, ignoring the immediate community outcry, and then expecting applause when they finally patch it back together five years later.