Author: Martin Brinkmann

When I was young, I studied German, History and English at Essen University in Germany. I worked in computer support for several years at the time to help other computer users when they ran into issues. Writing started out as a passion project, as I wanted to help more users and not just the ones that I handled in support. This lead to the founding of Ghacks Technology News in 2005. First, as a side-project, but shortly thereafter as a full-time project as the site's popularity exploded. I sold Ghacks to Softonic some years ago, but stayed on as Editor. You can still read my articles on the site. I do publish on Betanews as well. In recent years, I started to write and publish technology books, including my latest book "Windows 11 From Beginner to Advanced", which is available on Amazon. I'm also a freelance writer for the German publisher Gamestar. Chipp.in is my newest project. I want to use it to talk about my book projects, sell my books directly, and write about technology, as this is what interests me.

Thunderbird Pro and Thundermail details emerge

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The team behind the open source email client Thunderbird has revealed information about Thunderbird Pro and Thundermail.

Thunderbird Pro is an upcoming subscription-based service that adds features to Thunderbird. It won’t take anything away from current Thunderbird, but adds new features, namely Appointment management, Send and Assist.

Also, Thundermail is a web-based email service that will work similarly to how Google handles Gmail, but more privacy-friendly.

You can check out the hour-long YouTube video to see extensive demos of the integrated features.

Here is what I think about the development. As long as the devs do not cut features from the free version of Thunderbird just to push the Pro version, I’m fine with it. In fact, it is a good idea to diversify revenue to ensure continued development of the free and commercial versions of Thunderbird and the included services.

While I do not have much use for the Pro features, I can see them being useful to some users. In fact, some users might even switch to Thunderbird just because of these or the new web-based email service.

A missing puzzle piece is the iOS version of Thunderbird, which will be released in the future. This extends the service’s reach significantly, as it will support all major desktop and mobile operating systems for the first time since its launch decades ago.

Now You: what is your take on that? Would you subscribe to Thunderbird Pro or Thundermail? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

New AI Tool creates dossiers of users based on YouTube comments

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Many sites support comments. You can leave a comment under videos, articles, or in forums to add your take on something, add something that you think is missing, or, most likely, to correct the original author.

Using public comments or posts is not a new invention. In fact, it goes all the way back to the beginning days of the Internet.

Now, with the rise of new AI tools and capabilities, come tools that take this to a new level.

A report by 404 Media (paywalled) offers insights into YouTube-Tools, a new paid service that uses AI to create reports about any commenter on YouTube. The service is available for $20 per month according to the report.

Subscribers may then point the tool to the comment of any YouTuber on the site to order a detailed report about that user. The AI tool analyses the comment and other posts on the site to reveal information about the geographic location, political leanings or spoken languages.

The developer of the tool notes that it has access to a database containing information about 1.4 billion YouTube users and over 20 billion comments. While the total number of comments on YouTube is not public knowledge, YouTube has almost double the number of users according to 404 Media.

Regardless, advancements in AI pave the way for a new breed of tools that will be used for tracking and the invasion of privacy.

Internet users should be careful when they leave comments, messages or posts that are publicly accessible, especially when that comment might reveal something about them that they would not want to be linked back to them.

Google fixes a 0-day exploit in its Chrome browser that is exploited in the wild

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google released a new security update for its Chrome web browser that fixes three security issues, including one that is exploited in the wild.

The security issue affects the desktop versions of Google Chrome and the Android version. Desktop users may select Menu > Help > About Google Chrome to install the security update immediately. Google says that it may take days or even weeks before updates may be installed automatically on systems running Google Chrome.

Google reveals basic information about two of the three vulnerabilities. The vulnerability that is exploited in the wild is CVE-2025-5419. It is an out of bounds read and write vulnerability in Chrome’s JavaScript engine that is rated high.

Google reveals that it mitigated the issue on May 28th already. It released a configuration change on the day that it “pushed out to Stable across all Chrome platforms”. Many systems running Chrome should have received the update on that day or the following days already.

Google confirmed that the security issue is exploited in the wild, but did not reveal additional information at the time. The scope of the attack and the attack vector are unknown because of this. Google limits access to security information, including information about patched security issues, to avoid giving malware groups and developers additional hints about the issue.

Chrome users may display the current version of the web browser by loading chrome://settings/help on desktop systems. Google displays on the page if Chrome is up to date.

Chrome 137 Security update

The following versions should be displayed after installation of the update.

  • Chrome for Windows or Mac: 137.0.7151.68 or 137.0.7151.69
  • Chrome for Linux: 137.0.7151.68
  • Chrome for Android: 137.0.7151.72

Android users can’t speed up the installation of the update.

Now You: do you use Chrome or have the browser installed? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

YouTube Premium Duo

YouTube Premium Duo: YouTube for two launches in select regions

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

After announcing that YouTube Premium Lite will soon get worse with the addition of advertisement in YouTube Shorts, Google has launched another new YouTube plan.

Called YouTube Premium Duo, it is a plan for two users. Unlike the Lite plan, which includes some ads and limitations, Premium Duo offers the same functionality as the single Premium plan and YouTube Premium Family.

Price-wise, it fits right between the two as well. Subscribers in France, for example, pay 12.99 Euro per month for a single user subscription, 23.99 Euro per month for a up-to-5-users family subscription, and now 19.99 Euro per month for a two user subscription. So, seven Euro more than a single user subscription and four Euro less than a family subscription. That is about 17.50 US-Dollar converted.

YouTube Premium Duo has the same limitation as Premium Family regarding invites. Up to one household member can be invited to use YouTube Premium next to the subscriber. Google notes in the terms that all users need to have the same address and need to join a family group.

According to this post on Reddit, YouTube Premium Duo launched in just four countries and regions: Hong Kong, France, India, and Taiwan.

Here is the price of the Duo subscription in the other regions:

  • Hong Kong: 128 Honk Kong Dollar (about 16.30 US-Dollar)
  • India: 219 Indian Rupee (about 2.60 US-Dollar)
  • Taiwan: 299 Taiwan Dollar (about 10 US-Dollar)

So, for who is the new Duo plan? Couples that watch YouTube individually on different devices? Apartments shared by two? Single parents with a child old enough to watch YouTube with an account?

Now You: what is your take on all the YouTube Premium plans? Are you subscribed to one already? Let me know in the comment section below.

More ads for YouTube Premium Lite subscribers incoming

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

YouTube users who have enough of the seemingly ever-increasing bombardment with ads on the site have two official options to deal with it. Subscribe to YouTube Premium, which costs more than a Netflix subscription per month, or pick YouTube Premium Lite, if available.

YouTube Premium Lite is less expensive, at about $8 per month. For that, subscribers get less ads on YouTube. Up until now, that meant no ads in most videos. The notable exceptions were music videos and while searching for or browsing videos on the site.

Google is sending out emails to YouTube Premium Lite subscribers currently that informs them about a notable change coming to their subscription.

From June 30th, 2025 onward, subscribers will also see ads when they watch YouTube Shorts on the platform. Shorts are shorter videos that resemble videos on TikToks, Instagram and other mobile platforms.

Most videos on YouTube remain ad-free, however, according to Google’s email.

Closing Words

More ads for YouTube Premium Lite subscribers makes the plan even less attractive than it is right now. While it may not change much for many subscribers, as Shorts are a love or hate kind of type of videos, it still reduces the attractiveness of the subscription.

Subscribers may cancel at any time. Some might go back to watching YouTube with content blockers instead. It is free, and it improves privacy and security.

Google and other providers continue to test their limits. Years ago, when you paid a service for an ad-free experience, that usually meant entirely ad-free. Now, more and more services continue to charge you for a subscription and still show you ads. YouTube Premium Lite, Netflix, Disney+ and many more have introduced plans that do just that.

Now You: what is your take on all of this? Do you have a YouTube Premium subscription or another subscription that still shows ads to you when you access content?

Captain Commando

Play classic Capcom games like Street Fighter II, Magic Sword, or Ghosts’n Goblins for free

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Even if you did not grow up during the Nintendo SNES and Sega Genesis / Mega Drive era, you have likely heard about classic games like Street Fighter that revolutionized video games at the time.

Some game series get new releases regularly still, others have remained classics. Many of them are playable as virtual games on consoles and even on Steam, or, if you prefer to sail the seven seas, via emulation.

Capcom, one of the great game developers of the time, created a new arcade website to celebrate its 40th birthday. There you can play a few classic Capcom games for free, directly in the browser.

Games are available in Japanese or English, and some even support multiplayer. Here is an overview of the games that you can play there currently:

  • Street Fighter II The world Warrior (Japanese and English)
  • Street Fighter 2010 (Japanese and English)
  • Magic Sword (Japanese and English)
  • Rockman 2 (Japanese and English,)
  • Captain Commando (Japanese and English)
  • Ghosts’n Goblins (Japanese and English)

Each game comes with a short description, its manual, and even a photo of the original module for the game console it was released on. The games support joypads that you connect to your PC or device, which is useful, as keyboard controls are rather fiddly.

More games, but only with a trick

The selection of games includes a few classics, but it is rather weak, considering that Capcom has created many more games.

If you open a snapshot of the Capcom Town website on the Internet Archive, you are greeted with more games. Highlights include Final Fight 1 and 2, Breath of Fire I and II, Super Ghouls’N Ghosts, or Mega Man X.

Many of the games are all-time classics, some of them hard to find, if you want to buy them for the original consoles or virtual systems.

Now you: what is your take on this? Do you play classic or modern games from time to time? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

YouTube Shorts

Brave: it takes a few clicks to get rid of YouTube Shorts once and for all

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The rise of TikTok has saw established sites and apps like YouTube or Instagram scrambling. On YouTube, one response was the introduction and promotion of Shorts, a short video format that resembles TikTok’s own.

YouTube Shorts seem to split the user base. Some like it, others dislike it with a passion. If you fall into the second group, you may like the idea of removing Shorts from YouTube altogether.

If you use Brave Browser, that is handled with just a few clicks. Note that you can also do that in other browsers, which I explain later as well briefly.

Brave Browser's Anti-Shorts video to block YouTube Shorts

So, if you do use Brave Browser, do the following to get rid of YouTube Shorts:

  1. Load brave://settings/shields/filters in the browser’s address bar.
  2. Click on “show full list” underneath the Filter lists section near the top.
  3. Check “YouTube Anti-Shorts”.

Tip: you can also add more, e.g., YouTube Mobile Distractions or YouTube Mobile Recommendations, or any of the other filter lists displayed on the page.

When you reload YouTube now or open the site, you will notice that Shorts are gone. No more Shorts content when you search for videos on YouTube. Shorts is gone from the sidebar, and when you browse recommendations and suggestions, it is also gone.

Now, if you use a different content blocker, like uBlock Origin, then you may add the instructions that Brave uses to it as well. You find Brave’s list here on GitHub. All you need to do is add the instructions as custom filters in uBlock Origin. Any other ad-blocker that supports this filter syntax will work as well.

Now You: What is your take on Shorts on YouTube? Great entertainment and value, or so mundane that you’d rather watch grass grow? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Mozilla finally makes it easier to add Search Engines to Firefox

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Firefox users have a few options to add new search engines to the browser. The entire process is not as straightforward as it could be though, especially when you compare it to how search engines are added to Chromium-based browsers such as Google Chrome.

The two main options are to add the new search engine from the address bar or search bar of the browser, or by installing it. The settings, for instance, are a place that that you can’t add new search engines from.

With Firefox 140 comes a change that adds two new option to the process.

The first allows you you to right-click on any search field to add that search engine to Firefox. Some users may find this new option more natural, especially when compared to the current status quo regarding search engines in the open source browser.

Firefox's new "add search engine" option

So, simply right-click the search field and select “add search engine” . This opens a prompt that gives you the option to change the name of the search engine and assign a keyword to it. Activate the “add engine” button to add it to Firefox.

The search engine is available now in Firefox. You still need to go to the Settings to make it the default, but you can select it right away when running searches in the browser.

Search Engines in Settings

Firefox Add a new search engine in Settings

The second option is available right in Settings. Open the Settings in Firefox and switch to the Search group to get started.

There you find the new Add option to add a new search engine to Firefox. You do need the search URL for this one and use the %s placeholder for your search terms. The two other options let you pick a custom name for the search engine and add an optional keyword.

There you have it, two new options to add search engines to Firefox. This improves the feature significantly.

Now You: how do you add new search engines to your browser of choice? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

How to sort files in Windows using two parameters, e.g. type and size

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

It is easy to sort files in Windows’ File Explorer. Just activate one of the displayed column headers, e.g., type or size, and Windows will sort all files using the selected value.

Select size and files will be displayed from largest to smallest. Click again, and the sort order is reversed.

Did you know that you can add a second sort parameter to this without breaking the first sort order? This can be useful, for instance by sorting all files by type and by size.

This keeps files grouped by typed, e.g., PDF documents, images, videos, while still sorting each individual group by size.

To do so, simply sort files like you always do. Click on a column header to sort by type. Hold down the Shift-key then and click on another header, e.g., size.

You will notice that files get sorted again without breaking the first sort order.

This can be quite useful, for instance when you want to check the largest files of multiple file types.

Now You: have another tip that is a time-saver on Windows or other devices that you use? Feel free to leave a comment down below to share it with everyone.

The Browser Company drops Arc Browser in favor of Dia, its new browser

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

When the Browser Company announced its Arc Browser, it got favorable reviews on a lot of sites. Yes, there were critics as well, but if you read the likes of Lifehacker or The Verge, you’d believe that it would soon overtake every other browser out there.

I have to admit that I did not like Arc Browser from the very start. I said so much last year when I reviewed it. My main concern back then was not the minimalistic approach, but the lack of features, e.g. extensions, and the clear intention of turning a profit with Arc by introducing subscription options.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with earning a living from your hard work, but a paid browser is a hard sell in a world where all major browsers are free.

Today, The Browser Company sent out a letter to Arc members letting them know that it made the decision to discontinue the Arc Browser to focus fully on Dia.

Here are the key points made in the long letter:

  • Arc was “too different” with “too many new things to learn” for “too little reward”.
  • The browser felt like a very specialized tool while the company was aiming to become a mass-market consumer product.
  • Arc was complex, and many of its core features, those highlighted by reviewers, were not really used by the majority of users.

Dia came into existence as a result of AI taking the world by storm in 2023. With Dia, The Browser Company hopes that it is getting it right this time. Speed and simplicity are the cornerstones of the new browser, and the main reason why the changes could not be integrated into Arc Browser, according to the company.

Dia focuses on artificial intelligence. I wrote about it last month when a quick tour video of Dia was released by The Browser Company. Core features highlighted in the video included the option to have conversations with the AI about any web content open in the browser and use AI search functionality next to that.

Dia is not out yet. When you visit the company website, you still get an option to download Arc Browser for Windows or Mac. While there is a link for Dia as well, it leads to a basic webpage with no download options. You can leave your email address to stay in the loop, but that is about it.

Is Dia going to be the big thing that The Browser Company hopes it is going to be? I have my doubts. AI will certainly play a bigger role in web browsing and the Internet in the years to come, but all major browser makers are integrating AI into their browsers.

Now You: what is your take on this development? Will you try Dia when it becomes available?