Category: News

Need another reason why (most) subscriptions are bad for you?

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

In the past decade, many services and products have switched from a pay-once model to a subscription-based model. Sometimes, you get a choice, say between the pay-once version of Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365. Even then, companies usually tweak the deals to raise the attractiveness of the subscription-based product. Microsoft, for example, does not add new features to the pay-once version of Microsoft Office after release.

Many companies favor subscription-based services. They generate a steady-stream of income, bind the customer to the service, and make it easier to raise the price or change the deal favoring their side. Amazon did the latter when it introduced ads for all Prime Video subscribers and recently announced that more ads are coming.

Some companies raise the product of their services almost every year. Google, for example, just announced another round of price increases for Nest Aware.

Google Next devices are smart home products, think thermostats, smoke detectors, smart doorbells or speakers, designed to give home owners more control over their homes, even when they are not at home.

A subscription is required to take full advantage of Next devices. Nest Hub Max, for instance, offers basic motion detection only, if you have no subscription. If you want an upgrade to that, which also includes seen and face alerts, smoke and CO alarm and glass break sound detection, and more, you need a subscription.

Google informs subscribers currently that the price of a subscription is going up again this August. The two products, Nest Aware and Nest Aware Plus, will cost $10 and $20 per month respectively, up from $8 and $15, which customers pay right now.

The last price hike happened in September 2023, when Google raised the price from then $6 and $12 per month to the price that it charges currently.

So, the price went up from $6 to $10 and from $12 to $20 per month in about two years. Is it the last increase? Very unlikely.

With hardware products, it is more challenging to switch, as you invested into the hardware already. While you can cancel a Netflix or Microsoft 365 subscription at any time and without much issues, with Nest and other hardware products, you’d either end up with some dumb bricks or hardware that is less efficient or useful.

The only options that we have is to vote with our wallets. Either do not buy the product in first place or end the subscription, if it gets out of hand. Yes, that could mean ending up with products you bought that will be of little use to you in the future.

Now You: do you have subscriptions currently? If so, which and why? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

IT Crowd Turning it off and on again

Have you tried turning it off and on again? Microsoft posts fix for OneDrive Search issue

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

One of the most famous lines of the British comedy series IT Crowd, a show revolving around two IT support geeks and a manager who does not have a clue about “computers”, is “Have you tried turning it off and on again”.

When the crew gets a support call, it is this question that they ask first. Most of the time, it works and the situation is resolved.

If you used computers before, you know that turning the device off and on again can indeed fix issues that you experience. Not all of course. There is a logic behind that, as restarting a system does a number of beneficial “things” in the background that may help resolve issues. Among them terminating apps and thus freeing up memory and potentially CPU performance.

Microsoft’s IT Crowd moment

Last month, Microsoft confirmed that users could run into problems when searching files on OneDrive, the company’s cloud storage service. While the files were still there, OneDrive would return no files in search and show a blank results page instead.

Neowin reports that Microsoft fixed the issue in the meantime. OneDrive users are encouraged to update the client to the latest version to apply the fix.

Microsoft, in the meantime, posted a workaround for affected users. As you may have guessed already, it recommends refreshing the browser or turning the mobile device off and on again.

So, if you are experiencing this issue, have you tried fixing it by turning it off and on again?

PixelUnion: EU-based Google Photos alternative with 16 GB of free storage space

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google Photos and iCloud Photos are two cloud-based tools to view, organize, and share photos and videos on the web. They are the default applications for this type of service on Android and iOS, which gives them a dominating grip on the market.

While convenient to use, not all Internet users may want to allow Google, an advertising company, to store their photos and videos online. There are plenty of alternatives when it comes to photo hosting, and one of the newest is PixelUnion.

PixelUnion is based in the Netherlands. The service promises an ad-free and tracking-free experience that resembles the photo services of Google and Apple. Users who sign-up for the service get 16 GB of online storage with the free account. Paid accounts start at €29,50 per year for 150 GB and €99,50 per year for 1 TB of online storage. Custom plans of up to 20 TB are also available.

There is one caveat though, at least for users who want full control over their photos at all times. PixelUnion does not support end-to-end encryption. Most photo hosting services do not support this. Google Photos does not. But if that is one of your requirements, PixelUnion is not for you.

Main features of PixelUnion:

  • Stored in the European Union by EU companies.
  • Secure and private photo storage.
  • Show photos on map.
  • Full API access.
  • Uses the open source Immich app for mobile access.
  • Option to self-host.
  • Advanced features: facial recognition with privacy, AI object recognition, add users, advanced deduplication, no uploading limits, sharing of photos, detailed image searching.

Signing up for a free account is a simple process. You need to pick a name for your storage, which also is the subdomain (name.pixelunion.eu) for web access and management. You can upload photos via the web interface or via Immich.

You can share uploaded photos and videos as albums with others or keep them to yourself. PixelUnion uses facial recognition to detect people and claims that the machine learning stays in the user’s container. There does not seem to be an option to turn this feature off at this point though.

Closing Words

PixelUnion promises Google Photos-like functionality with better privacy. So, if your pain point is that your photos and videos do get stored on US-based servers, then it may be a valid option. The free plan is generous and the paid plans are user-friendly options to avoid self-hosting an instance.

However, PixelUnion is a new service that does not have a track record. Privacy-conscious users who require end-to-end encryption need to look elsewhere as well, as this is not offered by PixelUnion.

All in all, it could become a good alternative to Google Photos for users who prefer hosting in the European Union and a bit more privacy as well.

Firefox 140.0.1 fixes a crash and a usability issue

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Hot of the heels of the Firefox 140.0 Stable update, released earlier this week, is the first point update for the web browser. It addresses two non-security issues in the browser, one of them a crash at browser start.

The main issue fixed in the update is a startup crash that Mozilla says affected some users of the browser. It is caused by DLL injection. The bug report on Mozilla’s bug tracking website suggests that Mozilla reverted a change that it made in Firefox 140 to address the issue.

Mozilla lists Windows 10 specifically, which suggests that the bulk of users who experienced the crash use devices with Microsoft’s operating system.

The second fix resolves text contrast issues in the sidebar. They occurred if certain dark themes were used by the user. The text in the sidebar was barely readable in some instances. The update addresses the issue.

Firefox users who are affected by one or both of the issues may want to upgrade to the new version to resolve these issues. Just select Menu > Help > About Firefox to run a check for updates.

The browser should pick up the new version so that it gets downloaded and installed automatically. A restart is required to complete the upgrade process.

You find the original release notes for the Firefox 140.0.1 update here.

Use Split View in Chrome to view two websites side-by-side

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Split View is quite the handy option. Supported by many browsers, such as Vivaldi or Brave, for some time, it allows you to display two websites next to each other in a single tab in the browser.

Quite handy for comparison, playing a game or watching a YouTube video, while doing something else.

It took a while, but Google is now offering Split View functionality in the desktop version of its Chrome web browser as well.

As is the case with features these days, they are rolled out gradually. This means that while your neighbor may have access to a feature already, that you have to wait until the mighty overlords over at Google decide that it is your time.

However, you can enable this feature in the experimental options right away, if you want to.

Split View in Chrome

Here is how that is done:

  1. Load chrome://flags/#side-by-side in the Chrome address bar.
  2. Change the value of Split View to Enabled.
  3. Restart the browser.

You should see the new Split View option when you right-click on an open tab in the browser after the restart.

The selected tab and the next tab will be displayed next to each other. Google Chrome displays both titles in a single tab and you can switch between them easily. Doing so displays the address of the active website, which you can change to load a different site.

Google Chrome Split View example

You can also right-click on links to get an open in Split View option.

Note that Chrome does not retain the Split View when you restart the browser. It displays both websites in separate tabs in that case.

All in all, it is a handy feature, especially on smaller screens that do not have enough room for displaying two browser windows side-by-side.

Now You: does your favorite browser support Split View? If so, do you use that mode at all? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

WhatsApp: Ads in status, promoted channels, and channel subscriptions on their way

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Meta-owned WhatsApp announced new features for the messaging service’s updates tab designed to “help” WhatsApp users find more channels and businesses on the messaging platform.

All three features are added to the tab updates in WhatsApp. They are:

  • Channel subscriptions – WhatsApp users may support channels by subscribing to them for a monthly fee. May also receive exclusive updates as part of the subscription.
  • Promoted channels – Allows channel owners to increase the visibility of their channel through promotions. Pay Meta for that privilege.
  • Ads in Status: Businesses may promote content in their Status.

The primary purpose of these changes is to increase monetization on the platform and thus Meta’s revenue. Channel owners may pay Meta to increase the visibility of their channels. They may then get some recurring revenue going through subscriptions, of which Meta will likely also get its share. Ads in status are also likely not for free, which means that channel owners pay Meta for the privilege of displaying ads there.

Good news for WhatsApp users who do not use updates: if you do not access updates, you do not see the changes.

When you access updates right now, you see the subscribed channels and status updates. With the update, that is not going to change, but you may see other content under updates when you open it in the future.

Privacy remains top priority, says WhatsApp

WhatsApp says that privacy remains a top priority for the service. Means, messages, calls, and status are end-to-end encrypted, so that they remain accessible only to the user and the user’s contacts.

To show relevant ads, WhatsApp is using “limited info”, including the user’s country or city, language, followed channels, and interactions with advertisement on the platform. Furthermore, users who have added WhatsApp to Accounts Center will also have their ad preferences and info used from across their Meta accounts.

To be fair, this approach to advertising appears fairer than the tracker-based advertising that is the norm on today’s Internet, if true.

Now You: do you use WhatsApp at all? What about the Updates tab? Or do you prefer an alternative? Let me know in the comments below.

Where is AI getting its content from when many publishers stop publishing?

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Mainstream AI tools rely on large sets of data that they are trained on. This data, often websites, posts, comments and the like, has been created by humans (for the most part).

Reports suggest that part of the Web population is shifting towards using AI first for any of their tasks and there are good reasons (and some not so good ones) for that.

On the positive side, it is dead simple. You get an answer right away and do not have to wade through different websites in the hope that they offer the answer. Links are provided to verify the claims. And this works reasonably well for many requests.

The downside to this is that AI is still hallucinating. In plain terms, AI may return information that is inaccurate, plain wrong, or created out of thin air. That is bad, especially if the information could end up in disaster. My bet is that most users are unaware of this and take information at face value. It is also changing how the Web is used.

The consequences are severe for website publishers who rely on ads, at least those who do not have the pull to sell their data to AI companies. Traffic will drop. Google is pushing AI overviews, and this leads to less visits. Google says that this is not the case, that searchers click on links in AI overviews, but this appears exaggerated.

In the next couple of years, websites will receive less and less traffic from search. All search engines move to AI content and the reason is simple: this keeps users on their site. Means, they get to keep all the ad Dollar.

Google just introduced its AI into Chrome Canary. This too will keep users inside Chrome and Google’s vast network of services.

Granted, some sites will not be affected by this. If you offer a service that AI can’t replicate, you are likely golden. Think of downloads, streaming media, good journalism, user interactions, games and more.

The traditional newspaper or blog will have a hard time, unless it is very special. Other services, too. Think of all those flight and hotel booking sites. Agentic AI might do that directly in the browser or on a website, no need to go through dozens of sites yourself.

Yes, aggregators like Booking or Trip exist already, but AI can replicate that without issues.

Many will stop publishing or be pulled from the Internet entirely. Less traffic means less ad Dollar means less money for paying writers, hosting and administration. It is a downward spiral.

AI won’t know that certain “things” exist

But this also means less content that AI can vacuum up. If no one writes about a certain topic anymore, AI won’t know about it. It will be as if it does not exist at all.

So, when the last independent games review site shuts down, AI may not have any info about the latest games anymore. Yes, this is a bit exaggerated, as there may be reviews on Reddit or other community sites.

Still, less content means less nuanced information about a topic.

Closing Words

If you operate a website, unless you are a big corpo with AI deals already, then you might want to search for different monetization options. Reliance on ads may not cut it anymore in the future. Expect more sites to go subscription-based. Some might ask for donations. Fatigue will kick in and money can only be spend once on something.

Again, I may be a bit too pessimistic about the outlook, but the Web as we know it is changing dramatically.

Now You: what is your take on AI taking over the world and destroying the Internet as we know it? Let me know in the comment section below.

Firefox 139.0.4 fixes a freeze and security issues

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Mozilla released a new version of its open source Firefox web browser today. Firefox 139.0.4 is a point update that addresses security issues and bugs in the browser.

The update is already live. Most Firefox installations should receive it automatically, but you can speed up the installation by going to Menu > Help > About Firefox.

The security fixes

Firefox 139.0.4 fixes two security issues in the browser. Both have a severity rating of high, which is second only to critical. Mozilla does not mention any exploits in the wild, which is good.

One issue fixes memory corruption in canvas surfaces, the other an Integer overflow in OrderedHashTable. You can check them out here if you want to take a look by yourself.

The non-security fixes

Mozilla lists four non-security issues on the official release notes website.

The big fix in the release addresses freezes in Firefox. Mozilla notes that these could happen when switching between apps or when certain panels were opened within the browser.

The linked bug reports reveal additional details. One report started that Firefox froze when the uBlock Origin icon or other icons were opened. A second report claimed that Firefox would freeze and crash when Alt-Tab was used on Windows while a full-screen game was being played.

The second and third bug fix address various selection issues in the web browser. Mozilla notes that one fix addressed an issue that made the selection of drop-down menu items when using the in-page search difficult. Another addressed selection issues when triple-clicking text “in some situations”.

The final bug addresses a filename issue. Firefox used an incorrect filename when an image is set as the desktop wallpaper on Windows.

Closing Words

Firefox users may want to update to the new browser version immediately to fix the security issues and prevent hypothetical attacks against them. Those affected by the non-security bugs may also want to update asap.

Now You: when do you update your browsers? Immediately after a patch is released or do you wait and see first? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

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.

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.