Category: News

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?

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.

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.

Expect more Firefox updates in the future, beginning with Firefox 151

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Mozilla releases a new stable version of its open source Firefox web browser every four weeks. This new version introduces new features, bug and security fixes. Up until now, smaller updates were released between two major releases.

These point updates do not include new features usually but fix security issues and/or non-security issues. The releases were not predictable up until now. While you could almost be certain that a point update would be released, it was never really certain when.

This changes with the release of Firefox 151. Mozilla is switching to the same point update release rhythm that Google uses for its Chrome web browser currently.

Put simply, Mozilla plans to release a point update every week going forward. This means three Firefox point releases at the very same day of the week in-between major releases. Three point updates will follow the release of Firefox 151 and any other major browser release that follows.

The organization confirmed the change on the official Wiki (via Sören Hentzschel):

Starting with Fx151, we now have 3 weekly dot releases for Desktop and Android
Release calendar updates will be live shortly

Other than that, there is no explanation from Mozilla regarding the change yet. Considering that Google announced recently to shorten Chrome release cycles to two weeks, it is likely an attempt to stay ahead of major developments and push out fixes faster to the user base.

With AI helping Mozilla find security issues in Firefox, it is probably one reason why the organization decided to push out more updates to get these fixes on user systems as soon as possible.

Here is what happened so far in 2026

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

This is going to be a rather personal look at the past couple of months and how things have evolved since then.

As you may know, Softonic, the Spanish company that acquired Ghacks years ago, sold it in a rather hasty deal. The writing was on the wall for some time, especially since the budget for the site was cut in half more or less. This meant less articles written and it fueled the spiral downwards.

We, the writers, were not in the loop. One day in December, we were told that the site had been sold. Our access was cut immediately and the entire team was fired passively. Later, I was asked if I wanted to write a good-bye article, but it was already too late for that in my opinion.

Anyway, this meant that I stopped writing for Ghacks after nearly 20 years of doing so more or less every day. It was tough for Ashwin as well, who lost his main source of income.

There is little chance that the Ghacks situation is going to change in the future.

For now, these are the places that you can find my articles or takes at:

  • Chipp.in, my personal blog: No ads, no tracking, tech news, some tutorials. I do not post as frequently as I’d like to.
  • Weekly Tech Insights: a newsletter published once a week. I recently started to integrate longer takes on certain tech news, also has tutorials and other nice stuff. Totally free.
  • Ask Woody Newsletter: I was approached by Will from the Ask Woody Newsletter some time ago and became a contributor. My plan is to submit articles to the newsletter regularly. Ashwin also started contributing.
  • Gamestar Tech: This is the online tech section of one of the biggest German gaming magazines. Contribute daily tech news in German.
  • Windows 11 Book: I have started working on the next revision of the book. Much has changed since 2024 and the book is in dire need of updating.

As far as personal sites are concerned, it is getting incredibly difficult to maintain them. AI tools are taking over, whether you like it or do not. More and more users will ask AI on search engine sites and elsewhere when they run into a problem or need an opinion or advice. This means less traffic to sites, which make less money as a consequence.

Many of my favorite tech news sites have vanished in the past couple of years. Google is changing its algorithm constantly and that usually means less visits. Yes, there are some holdouts, but even these face the problems.

You need to offer something that the competition or AI can’t bring to the table. And that is what I plan to do here. This site will never grow to Ghacks levels, as it is niche, not really indexed well in search engines. Means: only a handful of people will ever find it, unless an article gets suddenly pushed via a major Internet site.

My plan: grow slowly by word of mouth only, ignore search engines or AI, they are unpredictable. Build trust, never falter, never change. We will see how this goes.

This is the new Firefox design that is currently in testing

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

News leaked some time ago that Mozilla was working on a new design for its open source Firefox web browser. Now, with the most recent version of the cutting edge Nightly browser comes the first glimpse of that new design.

However, the new Firefox design is not enabled by default and it may take some time before that is going to be the case.

What is Project Nova?

Internally dubbed Project Nova, this redesign departs from Firefox’s current aesthetic in favor of a much softer, modern interface heavily characterized by rounded elements. The most striking changes include the address bar and tabs, which now sit within a segmented, “floating island” UI element.

Additionally, web page content no longer sits flush against the edges of the browser window; instead, it is elegantly framed within a rounded container. Combined with curved hover effects and refreshed icons, Nova gives Firefox a noticeably more fluid and approachable appearance.

Beyond its structural changes, the Nova redesign introduces a fresh splash of personality through customizable pastel gradients and vibrant color accents on the new tab page and menus. As the major successor to the “Proton” UI introduced in 2021, Nova also brings functional layout updates, including improved integration for vertical tabs, a built-in compact mode to decrease UI spacing, and a revamped settings page.

How to enable Nova in Firefox

Make sure that you have installed the latest version of Firefox Nightly. Nova will come to Beta and Stable Firefox eventually, but this may take some time. If you want to give Nova a try right now, you need the development version.

  1. Load about:config in the Firefox address bar.
  2. Search for browser.nova.enabled.
  3. Use the toggle at the end of the line to set the preference to True.
  4. Restart Firefox.

If all worked out, you should see first bits of the new design in action.

It is not the biggest of re-designs at the moment. In fact, depending on the theme and website, you may not even notice that much has changed to begin with.

You can now ask Gemini to create Microsoft Office documents directly

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google added a useful new feature to its Gemini AI recently: the ability to create Microsoft Office documents directly using prompts.

While Gemini could create tables and such already, you had to copy the information manually up until now into a Microsoft Office file, if Microsoft Office is your Office suite of choice.

This changes with the most recent update. Now, you can ask Gemini to create Microsoft Office documents directly and the process could not be simpler.

Just add “export the table to Excel format” or “export the text to Word format” to your prompt to do so. Gemini will then show an attachment at the top that is in the right format and contains the information that you requested.

For instance, I used the following prompt to get Gemini to compare the classic Steam Controller to the new gamepad that Valve plans to release in a few days:

Compare the old and new Steam Controller. Create a table. Export that table to Excel format

Gemini displayed the Excel spreadsheet at the top and below that it listed the information that I requested.

All you need to do is click on the attached file to display it right away. This opens options to print it or save it to the local system.

Interestingly enough, the information that Gemini presents to you directly may be different from the information that you requested to be put into the Office document. I guess you can use the instructions to make them identical though, which would be useful to make sure that the Office document has the right information.

Google Chrome update patches another 0-day vulnerability

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google released a security update for its Chrome web browser that fixes 21 distinct security issues, including a 0-day issue that is exploited in the wild.

You know the drill: If you run Chrome or have it installed, update asap to close the vulnerabilities and protect your systems from potential attacks.

My preferred way of updating the browser is to run winget upgrade google.chrome.exe from the command line. You can also start it, select Menu > Help > About Google Chrome.

The 21 vulnerabilities have a severity of high or medium. The 0-day vulnerability is CVE-2026-5281, which Google describes as a “Use after free in Dawn”.

  • Use after free describes memory corruption vulnerabilities that occurs when a program attempts to access sections of computer memory that have already been released back to the system.
  • Dawn is a WebGPU implementation.

The official description of the vulnerability is the following:

Use after free in Dawn in Google Chrome prior to 146.0.7680.178 allowed a remote attacker who had compromised the renderer process to execute arbitrary code via a crafted HTML page.

The new versions of the browser after installation of the update:

  • Chrome for Windows: 146.0.7680.177 or 146.0.7680.178
  • Chrome for Mac: 146.0.7680.177 or 146.0.7680.178
  • Chrome for Linux: 146.0.7680.177
  • Chrome for Android: 146.0.76380.177

Mozilla changes plans, extends Firefox support on Windows 7 and 8 once more

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

No one has seen that development coming. After announcing the end of support for its Firefox web browser for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 starting in February 2026, Mozilla seems to have had a change of heart.

Now, the organization says that it is extending support once again. The information has been published on its What Train Is It Now website, which lists the latest and upcoming Firefox releases.

There, Mozilla writes:

We have decided to extend support to ESR 115 only on Windows 7-8.1 and macOS 10.12-10.14 up to August 2026. We will re-evaluate this decision in July 2026 and announce any updates on ESR 115’s end-of-life then.

Support for Firefox on Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and the macOS versions 10.12, 10.13, and 10.14, is guaranteed until at least August 2026. At least? Yes, as Mozilla may extend support again. In either way, the organization will make an announcement in July 2026 regarding the web browser’s support on the older operating systems.

Firefox 115.x users on these operating systems should receive browser updates, only security fixes and critical bug fixes, as usually via the integrated updating system.

The extension gives users on these old systems access to one of the major browsers, as the other major browser makers, including Google and Microsoft, have stopped supporting the older operating systems for a long time already.

Security updates are guaranteed for another six months at the very least. Good move by Mozilla.

Mozilla is working on a Firefox redesign – a fan favorite feature could make an official return

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Mozilla is working on a redesign of its open source Firefox web browser according to leaked mockups of the project. Previous attempts to redesign the browser split the community. While some heralded the changes as a move to modernize the browser, others pointed out that these redesigns were removing or changing features.

Here is an overview of the main changes according to the leak:

  • Strongly Rounded Elements: The most characteristic feature of the Nova design is its prominent use of rounded corners. The tabs, address bar, sidebar launcher, website content area, and elements on the start page are all significantly more rounded. The top section (tab bar and navigation bar) now forms a single rounded unit.
  • Subtle Color Gradients: Unlike the previous design, which relied on solid, single-color surfaces, Mozilla is introducing subtle color gradients across parts of the interface.
  • New Color Accents: The mockups show a noticeable tendency toward violet tones. However, these colors appear to adapt to the chosen theme, as another screenshot demonstrates a mint-green start page with matching UI colors.
  • Improved Vertical Tabs Integration: The redesign prominently features built-in support for vertical tabs as an alternative to the traditional horizontal tab bar.
  • Return of “Compact Mode”: While Firefox currently hides its space-saving “compact mode” behind advanced settings, the Nova mockups explicitly show a visible toggle for it. This suggests Mozilla might officially support and promote a compact UI layout again.
  • Split-Screen Tabs: The dark theme mockups showcase a layout with two tabs open side-by-side, hinting at a native split-screen or tiling feature currently in development.

Mozilla is not reinventing the wheel with this new design. Most web browsers look very similar in this day and age. In fact, compared to the current version of Firefox, it is focusing heavily on colors and rounded elements as the main distinguishing visual changes.

The one thing that excites me the most is the (supposed) return of the compact mode. This mode, which is still supported unofficially by Firefox, is my favorite display mode, as it reduces the size of the UI to give websites more room. Its existence in the mockups suggests strongly that Mozilla might return it officially to Firefox, a change that I would welcome with open arms. It would be another feature that Mozilla is returning or adding to Firefox in the past two or so years.

The mockups show a work in progress. This means that it is not really clear if a redesigned Firefox will look exactly like that.

Now You: What is your take on the proposed redesign of the web browser?