WhatsApp finally has an answer for annoying voice messages

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

I have to admit that I do use WhatsApp for communication with certain relatives and friends. Some of them have the habit of sending voice messages instead of text messages.

If you are like me, you dislike this a lot. I have to play the messages to listen to them, and may have to replay them, if something is not clear. To play a message, I need to either use headphones or play the message in a location where it does not bother anyone else.

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Voice Message Transcripts

WhatsApp has announced a new feature that puts an end to this. It is called voice message transcripts and will transcribe voice messages to text for you.

Here are the details:

  • Voice Message Transcripts are disabled by default.
  • Long-press on a message and select the transcribe option to start the process.
  • WhatsApp says the processing happens on the local device.

The feature is rolling out to all users of WhatsApp in the coming weeks. To enable it, go to Settings > Chats > Voice message transcripts. If you do not see the option at this point, check at a later point again.

You may also set the preferred language for the transcriptions. Note that this may require a download of a language pack to the device for the selected language.

Once enabled, long-press any voice message and select transcribe to get a text version of the message.

WhatsApp notes that there may be issues during the process. The app displays “Transcript unavailable” as an error message then.

This may have different causes, including:

  • The transcript language does not match the voice message language.
  • Some words are not recognized, likely because of background noise.
  • The language of the voice message is not supported.

Closing Words

The new option is useful, but it still requires manual action for each voice message. It would be great if WhatsApp would implement an auto-transcribe feature, as it would improve the process further.

Do you use WhatsApp? What is your take on the feature? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

About Windows 11’s new Administrator protection feature

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft has announced Administrator protection for Windows 11. The new security feature aims to improve security on Windows 11 devices by changing certain actions that require elevation are carried out and handled.

For users, it means that they need to authorize elevated actions using Windows Hello. Depending on how that is set up, it may require entering the device PIN, using biometric authentication, or other means available on the device.

The core changes happen in the background. When a user signs in to Windows, that user is assigned what Microsoft calls a deprivileged user token. When admin privileges are needed, for instance when installing software, Windows will request authorization from the user using Windows Hello.

When the user does so, Windows “uses a hidden, system-generated, profile-separated user account to create an isolated admin token”. This token is “issued to the requesting process and is destroyed once the process ends”.

In other words, the admin privileges do not persist on the system, but end with the execution of the task that requested them.

The following illustration visualizes the process.

Separation of the isolated admin token on Windows 11. source: Microsoft

Microsoft lists the following benefits of Administrator protection:

  • Improved security by requiring explicit authorization for “every administrative task”.
  • Users may manage admin rights by granting or restricting “access granularly to individual apps”.
  • Malware that is designed to acquire administrative privileges silently is blocked.

Managing Administrator protection

Group Policy setting

It appears that Administrator protection is disabled by default. Microsoft explains how administrators may enable the new protection.

It is located under Windows Security > Account protection. There, administrators may toggle Administrator protection to turn the feature on (or off). A restart of the device is required.

There is also a new policy under Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options.

  • Double-click on User Account Control: Configure type of Admin Approval Mode.
  • Change the Local Security Setting to “Admin Approval Mode with Administrator protection”. This enables the feature.

Closing Words

Administrator protection is an optional feature it appears. This means that it won’t be enabled on most home systems any time soon.

The feature improves security against certain types of malware, but it makes certain operations cumbersome. It remains to be seen how well the Windows 11 community will react to the feature.

Would you enable Administrator protection, if it would be available on your system? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Will Google be forced to sell its Chrome web browser?

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google could be forced to sell of the company’s Chrome web browser and be required to make changes to other company products and services, including Android and AI.

Bloomberg reports that Justice Department antitrust officials will ask a judge to force Alphabet Inc to make the changes. The same judge ruled in August that Google has monopolized the search market illegally.

Why Chrome? According to Bloomberg, Chrome is the entry point for many interactions with Google Search. It is the default search engine on Chrome and most users keep it that way. Chrome is also a powerful weapon for Google to understand what users are searching for and what they do on the Internet.

Lastly, Google is using Chrome to support or promote other products and services. AI will play a much bigger role in the future, and what better way than Chrome to get it in from of hundreds of million of Chrome users.

Google may also be forced to “uncouple its Android smartphone operating system from its other products”. This includes search and Google Play.

Bloomberg says that the government has options to remove Chrome from the deal if Google makes other changes that “create a more competitive market”.

The judge planned for a two-week hearing in April 2025 and a final verdict by August 2025. Google already said that it is going to appeal the verdict.

Closing Words

The forced sale of Chrome and some of the other changes would have a major impact on Google’s business. With Chrome sold, it might have to broker a deal with the company that acquired the browser to make Google Search the default search engine. Considering that it pays millions to Mozilla and billions to Apple for that, it would probably cost Google a lot to remain Chrome’s default search engine.

The final verdict is less than a year away, but that won’t be the end of it. Google will appeal, which means that it could years before anything comes out of it.

What is your take on this? Should Google be forced to sell Chrome or make changes to any of its other services or products?

Essential Black Friday Tips to survive the day

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Black Friday is almost here and a lot of pre-Black Friday events are already happening. It seems like that single day of discounted shopping has turned into a nightmarish weeks-long event that does not seem to end.

Businesses portrait Black Friday as the day to get the most for your money. Huge discounts or upgrades. You name it.

What they do not mention is that Black Friday is all about impulsive purchases. You browse, you see something that the site or store claims is discounted hugely, and you buy it. These may be items that you may not even need, or at least did not have on your mind when you began to shop.

Tip: you can check out my tips to survive Prime Day as well. All tips help at Black Friday and any other shopping event as well.

  • Maintain a list of items that you need. The more detailed the better. Use it to shop on Black Friday.
  • Compare the price of items. Not all items are at their cheapest on Black Friday. Use your mobile when shopping locally to compare prices.
  • Avoid browsing or websites that list deal after deal. This leads to impulsive purchases, which you want to avoid.
  • Avoid sites that use countdowns or other methods that put pressure on you.
  • Research items before you buy them. Read reviews or customer comments. You can do that before the big day for items on your list.
  • Don’t use just a single site for Black Friday shopping, unless it sells unique items or services.

How I handle Black Friday

In case you are wondering; I use a simple text document on my mobile phone to track the items that I need to purchase in the not-so-distant future.

I add any item to it, from household items over entertainment to apparel. It is not a huge list and there is no rush to buy these items.

Whenever a sale comes up, I check the price of each of the listed items to find bargains. If I find some, I hit the add to cart and buy buttons. If not, I keep them on the list and wait for the next sale or a situation where I need to buy them immediately.

It is simple, but it works.

Have something to add? Do you care about Black Friday or other shopping events?

5 Takeaways from NSA’s Best Practices for Mobile Devices

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Mobile devices are seemingly everywhere. Many people carry them around all day. This makes them a valuable target for attacks.

The NSA published a document earlier this year in which it highlights best practices for mobile devices. It is a simple document, that divides suggestions into the labels avoid, disable, do, and don’t.

Some suggestions appear very basic for experienced users. Like, making sure that the operating system and apps are up to date, not opening attachments or links from untrusted sources, or not having sensitive conversations on personal devices..

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A few of the suggestions may be new advice, even for experienced users. Or, it may be known but not practiced.

Here are five takeaways that I found interesting

  • You should reboot the device at least once a week.
  • Do not have sensitive conversations in the vicinity of the mobile device.
  • Use a protective case that “drowns the microphone” and block the camera when it is not used.
  • Disable Bluetooth, Location, and Wi-Fi when it is not used. Never connect to public Wi-Fi networks.
  • Use a protective case that “drowns the microphone”. Also block the camera when it is not in use.

Some of these make using mobile devices cumbersome and that is likely one of the main reasons why most mobile users are probably not restarting their device once a week or turning of Wi-Fi.

You can check out the full list of suggestions here.

What is your take on this? Do you restart your device regularly or follow some or all of the other suggestions? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Windows Keyboard Shortcuts that save me a lot of time, and two that do not

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Windows supports hundreds of different keyboard shortcuts. Some of them basic, like pressing the Windows-key to open the Start menu. Others more advanced, like pressing Ctrl-Shift-Esc to open the Task Manager.

Not all shortcuts are equally useful. While usefulness depends somewhat on how you use Windows, some shortcuts are certainly more useful than others.

The following shortcuts are the ones that I use most often. They save me a lot of time on my day to day work.

The timesavers

Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V

The shortcut pair copies and pastes your selections. This works in Explorer with files and folders, but also for text and anything else that you may select.

  • Ctrl-C — Copies the selection to the Clipboard.
  • Ctrl-V — Pastes the Clipboard entry into the active application.

Windows-I

The shortcut opens the Settings on Windows 10 or 11 machines directly.

Windows-X

The “secret” menu opens when you use the shortcut. It displays a number of links to admin tools such as the Device Manager, Network settings, and more.

Windows-[left or right]-arrow

The shortcut snaps the active window to the left or the right side of the screen. Useful to display two apps or windows side-by-side in a matter of seconds.

Ctrl-S

To quickly save content. Most programs that support save operations support this. You can use it in an image or text editor to quickly save content, and in many other apps as well.

Ctrl-P

To print a document, image, or other content quickly. The shortcut opens the print dialog right away.

The superfluous shortcuts

The next two shortcuts are not really that useful, as you can use quicker actions for the same effect.

Ctrl-Esc

The keyboard shortcut opens the Start menu on Windows. There is not really a need for this shortcut, as you can also press the Windows-key, which is faster.

Windows-S

This particular shortcut opens the search interface. It is not really needed either, as you can also search when you open the Start menu. So, pressing Windows and starting to type the search term should be sufficient for most users and most cases.

Now You: do you have shortcuts that you use regularly? Feel free to share them in the comment section below.

Microsoft is removing this category from the official Store

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

I do not know a single Windows user who is using the Microsoft Store regularly. Microsoft has not revealed how successful the store is, which likely means that it is not successful enough to boast about it.

The company has tried various changes in the past. A recent change, announced at the end of last year, is being removed again already.

Arcade, or Arcade Games, was an attempt to replicate functionality known from mobile stores. It allows customers to play games instantly without installing them first.

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The idea is not bad: give customers an option to try a game for free. This allows them to test the game to see if they like it. If they do, they install the game and can continue playing.

The idea suffered from a lackluster implementation:

  • The listing includes about 50 games only.
  • It lacked a stream of fresh, new games.
  • The games were very basic for the most part.

When you open the Arcade section in the Microsoft Store, you may notice an announcement at the top. It informs you that the section is being removed today from the Store.

It is easy to overlook, as the title “Play free games with no download” makes no mention of the closure of the section.

The games remain available, but you need to download them before you may start playing. This should not be much of a problem, as most of the games appear relatively small in size and functionality.

Closing Words

Arcade seemingly did not have the effect that Microsoft hoped it would have. The same can probably be said for the Microsoft Store, but it is nowadays also used to update apps installed by default on Windows devices.

Now You: have you tried the Microsoft Store in recent time? Maybe even downloaded a game or app? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Kagi Translate

Kagi Translate: text and website translations by Kagi

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Kagi has launched Kagi Translate, a free translation service that it says offers better quality than Google Translate or DeepL.

Kagi, which started out as a service to revolutionize online search, has expanded into different areas since then.

Kagi Translate is the startup’s latest service. It offers the following features:

  • Supports 244 different languages.
  • Translate text.
  • Translate full webpages.
  • Free, zero tracking.

Usage is straightforward. You may either load the main Kagi Translate website and start from there, or prepend https://translate.kagi.com/ before the URL of the webpage that you want to translate.

Free users, those who are not signed in with a Kagi account, will see a captcha. Kagi Search users will have translate functionality integrated into the search engine soon.

Kagi says that it is using a “combination of advanced language models and precise output selection” and that this “delivers translations that surpass existing solutions”.

It claims that its translations are better than those of Google Translate (average) and DeepL (high). It remains to be seen if independent tests and reviews come to the same conclusion.

DeepL, the service which I use the most currently, lacks webpage translations and supports fewer languages than Google Translate, Bing Translate, or Kagi Translate.

While I won’t switch to Kagi Translate any time soon, I will keep an eye on the service and try it from time to time to see how it stacks up against other machine-based translation services.

Still, it is always good to have alternatives, especially if they are free and do not collect user data to make money out of that.

Have you tried Kagi Translate? What is your initial impression of the translation service? Will you continue using it? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

The way you connect to public Wi-Fi networks is changing on Android

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google is about to roll out a change on Android that changes how captive portals are opened.

Tip: I never connect to open Wi-Fi networks because of security and privacy concerns. I do use the option to create instant hotspots on Android using my mobile device when possible, which is much safer. Clearly, this works only if you do have mobile coverage on Android.

Good to know: Captive Portals are webpages that are displayed by public wireless networks before Internet access is granted.

The change moves Captive Portal entry pages from being displayed using Android WebView to Android Custom Tabs.

The main benefit of the change is that saved passwords, autofill data and session data becomes available from the default system browser; this may benefit users who sign-in to specific portals regularly.

Some portals may ask users to sign-in to social media accounts or share personal data. This may be cumbersome without autofill support, and the update changes that.

So, if you trust a public Wi-Fi, you may now sign-in faster, if it asks for login data or personal information.

Note that the change is not enabled yet according to Android Authority.

How to remove “OneDrive” from the Windows 11 Explorer menu

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft introduced a new File Explorer context menu in Windows 11. This streamlined menu replaced the classic menu by default, but users can still open it from the new context menu or by holding down the Shift-key before they right-click.

Windows 11 has been around for a few years now, and some Windows 11 users may have noticed that the new context menu has grown in size since then. This is understandable to a degree. Third-party app developers learned how to add entries to the new menu so that links to their apps were shown directly to users.

Good to know:

Fixing OneDrive’s “Creating shareable link…” error loop that never ends

Microsoft did add a fair share of items to the context menu as well. You may notice a OneDrive folder, a Share with Skype option, an Edit with Notepad option for any file type and more there now.

Chance is, you may not need all of them. This guide explains how to remove the OneDrive entry.

Tip: you can remove the apps, if you do not use them, to get rid of the context menu items. If you do use them, you may follow the guide to remove them while leaving the apps untouched.

Remove OneDrive from Windows 11’s context menu

  1. Open the Start menu.
  2. Type regedit.exe and press the Enter-key
  3. Select Yes to continue.
  4. Paste HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked into the Path at the top and press the Enter-key.
  5. Right-click on Blocked.
  6. Select New > String value.
  7. Name it {1FA0E654-C9F2-4A1F-9800-B9A75D744B00}.
  8. Double-click on the value.
  9. Set its name to OneDrive.

The change takes effect on the next restart. You may also log off and then on again, or restart the explorer.exe process.

The OneDrive listing should no longer be visible in the context menu afterwards. Note that this does not impact any other OneDrive functionality on the device. Also note that this applies only to the user account under which the change was made.

Now You: how do you handle context menu entries that you do not need? Do you remove them to streamline the context menu or keep and ignore them? Feel free to leave a comment down below.