Category: News

Opera

Opera: 63% increase in new monthly users in Europe

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Opera Software announced that on April 10, 2025 that it saw an increase in monthly new users by 63% on iOS one month after the Digital Market Acts came into force in Europe.

Apple, much like Google on Android, is required to display a browser choice screen to users. The aim here is to level the playing field and limit Apple’s and Google’s ability to prioritize their own browsers over others.

Apple iOS users may still select Safari as the default browser. The browser choice screen allows them to pick another browser.

Opera Software claims furthermore that it is also seeing growth in regards to being selected as the default browser on iOS. This metric increased by 39% from March 3rd to April 4th, 2024.

The countries with the largest jump in monthly new users are:

  • France with 146%.
  • Germany with 57%.
  • Spain with 50%.
  • Poland with 45%.
  • Italy with 20%.

Opera Software does not reveal usage numbers. In 2023, Opera Software said that it had about 350 million users across all supported platforms. Back in 2020, Opera announced that it had reached 300 million users, 232 million on mobile alone.

If the numbers are correct, Opera is seeing significant growth on iOS in Europe.

Other browser makers are also seeing upticks in usage. Brave Software, for example, saw a huge jump in daily installs after the browser choice screen rolled out on iOS.

Mozilla too reported that it saw a jump in users in select European countries. The organization said that its German users increased by 50% and the users in France by 30% in the time.

Closing Words

Even if you do not use any of the browsers, it is good to see efforts to level the playing field. Apple having to allow other browsing engines on iOS is another milestone. While Apple seems to fight this in different ways, it is probably only a matter of time before pure Chromium and Firefox browsers are launching on iOS.

Which browser do you prefer on mobile?

Vivaldi Privacy Guard graphic

Vivaldi testing new Privacy Guard feature in browser

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Privacy Guard is a new feature of the Vivaldi web browser. It is free at the moment and only available in development builds of the browser.

Broken down to its core, it is protecting user privacy through a technology called Multi-Hop Relay. To better understand it, it is necessary to understand how regular connections work in the browser.

When the browser loads a domain, a direct connection to each resource of a webpage is loaded. This means that the server the site is hosted on as well as any third-party resource loaded communicates directly with the IP address of the user’s device.

Multi-Hop Relay changes this by putting servers in-between. In other words, instead of directly connecting to resources, the browser connects through other servers first. This is done to separate the identity of the user’s device from the requested resource.

Vivaldi’s Privacy Guard technology uses two servers for this. The first is operated by INVISV, the startup that developed the Multi-Hop technology. The second is operated by Fastly.

Vivaldi says that INVISV has been founded by Paul Schmitt, University of Hawaii, and Barath Raghavan, University of Southern California. The startup has advisers, including Bruce Schneier and Jon Callas.

The feature in Vivaldi

Privacy Guard in Vivaldi

You need a development version of Vivaldi to use the feature at this time. Another limitation is that Privacy Guard requires a Vivaldi account. Creating an account is free.

A click on the Privacy Guard toggle enables the feature. A public IP address is assigned to the browser. Vivaldi displays the location of the server as well, so that you know about the country you are connected to.

Privacy Guard Connected

The fastest server is selected by default, which means that you will connect to a server closest to your location usually. You can switch this to random instead, which may further improve privacy.

Websites may be added to the list of exceptions. Direct connections are used for any of these sites.

Initial tests were promising. All tested websites and services, including YouTube, Twitch, online game websites, blogs, and others worked as before. Some sites may display captchas, but this is also the case when other anonymization services are used.

Privacy Guard vs. Tor Browser vs. Multi-Hop VPNs

How does the privacy feature compare to similar technologies?

  • Privacy Guard — uses two hops. Hops are operated by different companies.
  • Tor Browser — uses three hops. Hops are (usually) operated by different companies and organizations.
  • Multi-Hop VPN — uses another hop. Operated by the VPN provider.

Closing Words

The technology is free to try at the moment and Vivaldi says that it uses the current implementation for testing and to find out if this is something that Vivaldi users are interested in. A release in Vivaldi Stable would require a subscription. Details have not been revealed at this point.

Some Vivaldi users will certainly find the option appealing. The main appeal it has over VPNs is that its servers are not operated by the same company. It is also easier to use, but it lacks advanced features that VPN services do offer.

Would you use Privacy Guard? How much would you pay for it?

VPN

VPN by Google One is shutting down

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google is informing customers currently that it is shutting down VPN by Google One “later this year”.

I reviewed VPN by Google One in March 2023 and concluded that it was “the most basic VPN that you can get”. Subscribers would get access to the VPN if they paid Google at least $1.99 per month.

While that sounded like a good deal on paper, the VPN itself was severely limiting and only available to customers in 22 countries. The real downside was that it lacked core functionality. You basically got the option to connect to the VPN, use its kill switch and configure bypass options for apps.

One of the main downsides was that you could not use it to connect to select servers, only to servers that Google picked. This meant that you could not use it to quickly connect to a server in another country to get an IP associated with that country.

Other features found in clients of popular VPN servers, such as NordVPN or SurfShark, were missing as well. No protocol selection, no advanced servers or security features, or to set a custom DNS server.

It still helped protected the connection, especially when connected to public wireless access points, but that was it.

Google informs subscribers and Pixel owners

All Pixel owners and Google One members are informed about the change. The news that VPN by Google One is shutting down at the end of the year may be overlooked easily.

Google writes:

Phasing out two benefits: With a focus on providing the most in-demand features and benefits, we’re discontinuing free shipping for select print orders from Google Photos (in Canada, the UK, US, and EU) starting on May 15 and VPN by Google One later this year. As a Pixel user, you’ll continue to enjoy being able to access VPN from Google through Pixel settings if you have Pixel 7 or newer models.

In other words, the VPN service is removed from Google One. Pixel owners may still connect to Google’s VPN.

The official Google One website does not list VPN by Google One anymore already.

Closing Words

Another one bites the dust. I know quite a few users who do not commit to Google products anymore, because there is a good chance that the company will tear them apart in the future.

While there are better VPN services out there, it is still disheartening to add it as another discontinued product to Google’s Graveyard of products.

Opera GX Cyberpunk 2077

Opera GX’s Cyberpunk 2077 Mod is mighty cool

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Opera GX’s browser is not the web browser that I use the most, but I check it our regularly just to see what Opera has been adding to it since the last time.

This time, Opera is introducing a full-fledged modification for the browser. Its new Cyberpunk 2077 Mod takes browser themes to the next level.

Apart from the usual — giving the browser UI a splash of fresh paint — it is delivering these features:

  • Dynamic Wallpaper that changes based on the time of day.
  • Custom Cyberpunk sounds and background music.
  • Custom themes supporting RGB sync.
  • Optional shader effect.

Not all of the options may be enabled by default. It depends on the current configuration. The optional shader effect is turned off by default, as it turns browsing into quite the experience.

If you played Cyberpunk 2077, you know about cyberpsychosis. It is a mental illness caused by an overload of cybernetic augmentations to the human body. The optional shader effect simulates a mild form of that in the browser.

Here is how it looks:

Opera GX Cybperunk 2077 Mod

Not something that you would want to experience regularly, but a fun effect nevertheless.

Opera published a video that highlights the new mod:

How to install the Cyberpunk 2077 Mod

You need the Opera GX browser, which you can download from Opera’s website. Installation is quick. You may want to block data collecting and the like while you are at it.

Once you have installed the browser, load the official Opera GX store here. Activate the “show me” button under Official Cyberpunk 2077 on the page and hit the install button to add it to the browser. This works in desktop and mobile versions of Opera GX.

The mod is enabled automatically. You get the fresh paint, dynamic wallpaper and sounds by default.

Note that you may configure all of these in the Settings under Sounds, Background music, and Shaders.

Closing Words

I enjoyed Cyberpunk 2077 and its only expansion. While gameplay was solid, what kept me entertained the most was the underlying setting. Heck, I even picked a cyberpunk term for the domain name of my website.

Bringing a game mod to the browser is interesting. It may not appeal to the masses, but fans may like it very much. Whether it will persuade them to switch browsers remains to be seen, but I’d say that most won’t switch because of this. They may however take notice of the browser and may even use it as a browser on their devices.

What about you? Would you pick a browser based on a theme or mod that you find interesting?

Google Vlogger: creating videos from a single input image

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Vlogger is the latest AI tool that may generate videos. While there are plenty of tools around, Vlogger seems special. It can take a single input image of a person and generates a video out of it.

Apart from generating the video, Vlogger may also create audio. This works well in conjunction with an existing video file. Say, you have a video of someone talking in English. Vlogger can take that video, translate the video into another language, and manipulate the video so that the person’s lip activity and face areas are consistent with the translated content.

This technology allows video producers to create a single video and make it available to a worldwide audience in all supported languages.

Vlogger is short for “Video Blogger”, and a VLOG is a “Video Blog”.

How Vlogger works

Vlogger

Google notes on GitHub that Vlogger does not require specific training, or face detection and cropping. This would make the tool ideal for use on YouTube, but also for other purposes.

On YouTube, Google could offer the tool to publishers. They could use the AI to create videos in different languages using a single source video. Vlogger is also capable of changing the expressions of a person in the video. It could therefore also be used for video editing specific parts of a video, e.g., to close or open the mouth or eyes of a person.

The ultimate goal of the team behind Vlogger is to “generate a photorealistic video of variable length depicting a target human talking, including head and gestures”.

This sounds relatively static, and it seems to be the case at this stage. Not all video bloggers use portrait mode videos. Numerous creators walk around with camera in hand, and switch between different views.

Whether Vlogger will also be able to use its generative capabilities for these types of videos remains to be seen. Eventually, it might even be capable of synchronizing an entire movie that you feed it.

Closing Words

You can check out sample videos on GitHub. There you also find additional technical information about the AI.

Sounds cool, or scary? The next couple of years will certainly see many breakthrough technologies in the AI field, but also misuse of the technology. (via Günter Born)

Firefox 124.0.2 fixes a video playback issue

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Mozilla will release another point update for Firefox 124 later today. Firefox 124.0.2 is a bug fix update that addresses four non-security issues in the browser. Apart from a crash on Linux AArch64, it is fixing a video playback issue that is causing video playback on sites such as Netflix to go blank or crash the browser.

The update is not available yet, but it will be released shortly to the public. You may check Menu > Help > About Firefox to display the current version. Firefox runs a check for updates. Once released, it will download and install the update automatically.

Firefox 124.0.2: the fixes

The main fix of the point update addresses a playback issue on video sites such as Netflix. The bug report offers a very specific example, and it is unclear how narrow the issue is based on it.

According to the report on Bugzilla, the issue was caused on Netflix when users activated the “Inuyasha” icon to play it. Firefox’s window would then flash and go blank. Mozilla reproduced the issue and found out that the issue was caused by a crash of the GPU process.

The new Firefox release fixes several other issues:

  • Users with large amounts of bookmarks could not restore backups of bookmarks. This has been addressed in this release. The bug report suggests that this was caused if the bookmarks were crossing the 32766 mark.
  • Fixed a crash that affected Linux AArch64 builds. Details about the patch can be found here.
  • Fixed the loading of some webpages on Ubuntu 24.04 systems caused by the “changes made to the default AppArmor configuration”.

Closing words

There is no need to rush the update if you have not experienced any of the issues in Firefox. Firefox 125, expected on April 16, 2024, will include these fixes.

Do you use Firefox or another browser as your main driver?

Invidious YouTube Playback error

YouTube: Google has found a way to break Invidious

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Update: A workaround is now available that fixes the issue.

If you use Invidious to access YouTube videos, you may have noticed that most (all?) instances are broken right now. Attempts to play YouTube videos are met with error messages.

Messages such as “the video returned by YouTube isn’t the requested one” are thrown by Invidious instances at the time.

A bug report on the official GitHub repository confirms the issue. Good news is that the team is aware of the issue. Bad, that there is no fix yet to address it.

YouTube search works on all instances, but videos won’t play anymore. You can try any of the listed Invidious instances or others, and you will likely get the same result.

The issue was reported three days ago on the GitHub project site.

Another popular YouTube frontend, Piped, appears affected as well. Attempts to play videos are met with the error code “failed with error code 1002”.

Google seems to have implemented changes to YouTube that break video playback functionality of the frontends. It is too early to say whether this can be fixed at all.

Google seems to be tightening access to YouTube in an effort to increase revenue and lock out alternatives. Privacy conscious users like these alternatives, as they include no ads or tracking.

It is quite possible that Google is going to lock down YouTube further in the future. It is probably only a matter of time. It is likely that existing alternatives and new alternatives will see huge user jumps when that happens.

Now You: do you watch videos on YouTube? Did you run into these issues?

You may soon limit Microsoft Edge’s RAM usage

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

In the past 20 or so years, browsers have grown significantly. From tools used solely to display webpages to general purpose tools. Yes, you can still open webpages in modern browsers, but that is not all.

Nowadays, browsers are used to watch media streams, play highly demanding games, or do your homework. It comes as no surprise that RAM usage of browser processes has gone up significantly as well.

Browsers can easily use 1 gigabyte of RAM or more these days. Much of it depends on use. If you open a single plain text website only, you will never cross the threshold. Open a stream on Twitch, play a game in another tab, and have dozens or hundreds of tabs open, and you reach that threshold easily.

Microsoft Edge Task Manager

Most Chromium-based browsers may display memory usage of individual tabs. This is a recent feature addition. There is also the option to press Shift-Esc to display the built-in Task Manager, which reveals memory usage of individual browser components.

Microsoft Edge, like other Chromium-based browsers, supports a sleeping tabs feature next to that. The main idea of it is to reduce memory use by putting inactive tabs into sleep mode. Microsoft says that the feature saves an average of 39.1 MB per tab.

Microsoft Edge: control memory usage

Microsoft Edge resource controls

Microsoft is working on another feature to tame the browser’s memory usage. The new resource controls option gives users control over the maximum amount of RAM that Edge may use.

It is disabled by default, which means that Edge may use as much RAM as available. Once activated, options are provided to limit RAM usage always or when playing PC games.

The new preference is found under Settings > System and performance > Resource controls.

Once enabled, you may use a slider to set a RAM limit in gigabyte. The lowest amount selectable is 1 gigabyte, the highest the available RAM of the system. You may increase or decrease the limit in 1 gigabyte steps.

When you enable the new feature, RAM usage is displayed in Browser Essentials under performance.

Browser Essentials RAM usage

You need to run the latest Microsoft Edge Canary release and start the browser with the parameter –enable-features=msEdgeResourceControlsRamLimiter to get access to it.

Here is what happens when Microsoft Edge reaches the designated RAM limit: it puts tabs to sleep in order to reduce Edge’s RAM use.

Closing Words

It is too early to say if the feature will ever make it into Edge stable. If it does, it will likely remain a niche feature. While it may help some users free up RAM for other activities on the PC, most may prefer to close Edge instead, if they do not use the browser actively at the time.

Usefulness depends on how you use your system and Edge. If you use Edge all the time, you may benefit from it. There are downsides, on the other hand. Edge puts tabs to sleep and you get no say in the matter. If you need access to those tabs, you need to wake them up again.

All in all, Edge’s new RAM usage feature is a niche feature. It might grow to something more in organizations and for some edge cases.

Now You: what is your take on limiting RAM usage in browsers? (via Leopeva)

PC game

DirectSR promises to push gaming on Windows 11

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The next feature update for Windows 11 will likely introduce support for a new technology that Microsoft calls DirectSR. This technology promises to make the life of game developers easier. While gamers do not benefit directly from it, they will benefit indirectly, as games will make use of the technology.

DirectSR, the SR stands for Super Resolution, is a new DirectX API designed to improve the implementation of upscaling in games. Microsoft collaborated with NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel to develop DirectSR.

Developers have to implement specific upscaling technologies currently to support them. If they want to support these for AMD and NVIDIA cards, they need to implement NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) and AMD FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution). These implementations take time to develop as the systems require different implementations.

This led to issues in the past, when games supported only one of the available upscaling technologies.

DirectSR promises to improve how upscaling is implemented. It offers a standardized interface for multiple upscaling technologies. Developers may use this option to implement upscaling technologies in their games across Windows and Xbox systems.

How DirectSR works

The core idea is simple: developers feed data that the API then routes to the upscalers. This works because upscalers tend to require the same set of data.

In other words: the API takes care of the processing of the data that the upscalers need to improve game performance and visuals. This means that developers need to provide the data just once to support all upscalers.

Microsoft promises that its new API covers upscaler updates as well. Company engineers update the API whenever necessary to support new features and changes.

Closing Words

Microsoft has not announced a release data for the new API yet. A likely target for inclusion on Windows is the release of the 2024 feature update for Windows 11. This will be released in the second half off 2024, like at the end of September or beginning of October 2024.

As is the case with new gaming technologies, it will take some time before games will make use of them. While some games may support the feature early, it may take years before a good number of games support it.

Much depends on Microsoft’s promise that the technology will make things easier for game developers.

Now You: do you play games at all?

Brave

Brave 1.64 browser update brings more AI and blocks VPN services from installing by default

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Brave Software released a new stable version of the company’s Brave browser today. Brave 1.64 continues the AI push in the browser, but it also privacy improvements as well as new features.

Existing installations of the browser should receive it automatically via the integrated updating functionality. Desktop users may speed up the installation of the new version by loading brave://settings/help in the address bar. An alternative to that is to click on Menu > Help > About Brave.

Brave displays the current version when the page opens. It runs a check for updates and will download and install new updates automatically at this point. Note that it is necessary to restart Brave once to complete the installation.

One big change of Brave 1.64 deserves special mention. Brave notes in the changelog that it is no longer installing VPN services automatically. This is only done when users purchase a VPN subscription or enable it.

Tip: check out six Brave features that you may like.

Brave 1.64

Brave 1.64 Browser update

Like Google and Microsoft, Brave Software is also integrating AI into its browser. Called Leo, it is different from Microsoft’s Copilot and Google’s Gemini. A core difference is that Leo gives you access to different large language models. Not all of them are free, but the core service is.

Brave 1.64 introduces a Leo AI Tools right-click context menu entry. Right-click on any text element on the webpage and you may select a diverse range of AI tools. The two main options are to ask the AI to provide context and for help with your creative efforts.

Leo AI Tools

For instance, you could select a few paragraphs of text and ask Leo to summarize or explain it. When you are writing, you could ask Leo to rewrite the entire text, improve it, or change its tone or length.

How well this works depends on the text itself but also on other variables, including the large language model. Selecting the last sentence and asking Brave Leo to extend it resulted in the following three paragraphs of text:

The effectiveness of this method relies heavily on two main factors: the text being analyzed and the specific large language model being utilized. The text itself plays a crucial role, as the more nuanced and well-crafted it is, the better the language model can understand and generate appropriate responses. This, in turn, improves the overall outcome of the process.

However, the text is not the only determinant of success. The large language model chosen for the task also significantly influences the results. Different models have varying strengths and weaknesses, making some more suitable than others for specific tasks. For instance, a language model trained on scientific literature may not perform as well when dealing with colloquial language.

In conclusion, the combination of a well-structured text and a carefully selected language model is essential for achieving optimal results. By focusing on these two aspects, users can expect a more accurate and contextually appropriate response from the language model.

Other changes

The full changelog is long and you may want to check it out on Brave’s website to go through all the changes. Here is a quick overview of changes that are noteworthy:

  • There is a new “Bring all tabs to this window” option in the right-click tab context menu. It moves all tabs of other windows into the active one.
  • There is a new “show scrollbar” option when vertical tabs are enabled. This adds the option to use it for scrolling.
  • Chromium’s storage partitioning is now compatible with Brave’s ephemeral storage implementation.
  • Implemented stream isolation for third-party subresources in Private Windows with Tor to bring it up to par with Tor Browser’s implementation.

Now You: anything that you find interesting? Anything that I missed? Let me know in the comments.