Microsoft could soon release a version of its Chromium-based Edge browser specifically for Linux users, and its engineers are carrying out research to find out what it would involve.

As Windows Central reports, the Edge development team recently sent out a survey for web developers to find out their requirements and expectations of a Linux web browser.

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The brief survey asks which Linux distro is most important for web development, and if the developer uses multiple distros, why that is. It also asks what developers use browsers on Linux for (just work, or personal browsing as well), how they prefer to install browsers, and whether their development and testing work means they have any special requirements.

Feeling tempted?

While more choice is always welcome, it's interesting that Microsoft would choose to target Linux users – people who have specifically decided to shun Windows, despite the convenience it offers.

However, the new Chromium-based Edge has been generally well received, offering the best features of Chrome but without the performance issues associated with Google's infamously RAM-guzzling browser.

As Windows Central notes, Edge is already available natively for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS, so with Linux on board too, Microsoft will have every major desktop and mobile operating system covered.

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Microsoft has banned 38 new file extensions from Outlook online, bringing the total number of forbidden file types to 104.

The company hasn't said exactly when the change will roll out, but it's expected to come into force very soon. When it does, you will no longer be able to download files with the blacklisted extensions unless your system admin has made a specific exception.

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As ZDNet reports, the newly blocked file types are often used to send malicious content, but are rarely used legitimately, so Microsoft doesn't expect the update to cause much trouble for Outlook users.

Safety first

The new blacklist includes Java, PowerShell and Python files, plus digital certificates and files that could be used to exploit security vulnerabilities in third-party software. Many of those vulnerabilities have now been patched, but Microsoft has decided to block them anyway for the benefit of anyone running outdated software. For more details, check out Microsoft's full list of all banned file types.

If you do happen to use any of these file extensions, Microsoft has also put together a guide explaining how to whitelist any that you need.

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Google has removed several shady apps that charge users huge amounts if they fail to cancel a free trial in time, and simply uninstall the app or allow it to lapse.

Security experts at Sophos discovered apps including basic QR code readers, compasses and calculators that didn't contain any malicious code, but took advantage of app trial periods to fleece users.

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According to Google's terms and conditions, you should cancel any premium app before uninstalling it to avoid being billed in future. Most developers are quite lenient and take the fact that you've removed the app from your phone as meaning you want to cancel, but not all are so generous.

That's usually not a huge problem, as the typical premium Android app only costs a pocketful of change, but those identified by Sophos billed users up to $240 (about £200, AU$360) if they failed to tap 'Cancel' in time.

To add insult to injury, most of the apps in question were extremely basic, making it all the more likely that users would uninstall them quickly, or forget about them entirely.

Avoid being scammed

Sophos provided Google with a list of 15 apps engaging in the shady practice, 14 of which were subsequently removed from the Play Store, but the security researchers have since found even more – some of which have been downloaded millions of times.

To avoid falling victim to such a 'fleeceware' scam, be wary of any app that asks you to provide payment information before beginning a free trial, and check for fine print stating exactly how much the subscription costs per year. It's also wise to check recent reviews before installing new apps, as people who have been tricked often leave warnings for others.

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Via ZDNet

Google is turning 21 (they grow up so fast!) and to celebrate, it's knocked 21% off almost everything in its European stores. There appear to be a few exceptions, but in the UK it looks like everything except Google Stadia pre-orders is included.

To claim your discount, just pop your chosen items in the basket (the Google Pixel 3, Pixelbook, Nest Hub Max and Google Home are all included), then enter the code B-GOOGLE21 at the checkout.

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Despite Google being an American company, this deal seems to be available exclusively in Europe. The exact terms and conditions vary a little between countries too – as 9to5Google notes, the Google Pixel 3a seems to be exempt from the deal in France, but is included in the UK. The promotional code is different in each country, too.

A gift for you

This deal ends at midnight 27 September, and some of the more popular items in the UK store might sell out early, so move quickly if you've had your eye on something. Some of these products might not be discounted so heavily even on Black Friday.

Also bear in mind that it won't work in conjunction with any other codes, so you can't stack deals and save even more. It's generous, but not that generous.

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Swiss scientists have developed a stretchy, flexible battery that could power a new breed of phones that can be folded, bent and even rolled.

The prototype flexible thin film battery was created by Professor Markus Niederberger and his team at Switzerland's ETH Zürich technical university. It uses a new type of electrolyte (the material through which lithium ions move when the battery is charged and discharged), discovered by doctoral student Xi Chen.

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The electrolyte takes the form of a gel containing water with a high concentration of lithium salt, which is far less flammable and toxic than liquid electrolytes in today's commercial batteries.

This gel is sandwiched between two stretchable current collectors, lined with a thin layer of silver flakes that lie over one another like roof tiles, enabling them to maintain conductivity even when the battery is bent.

Into the fold

Foldable phones are an exciting concept, and earlier this year manufacturers seemed to be falling over themselves to release the first bendable production handsets, but the two major models (the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X) have been beset with problems and delays.

Phones aren't the only possible application for the bendy battery, though; Niederberger also sees potential uses in flexible tablets, watches, and even fashion. "For instance, you could sew our battery right into the clothing,” he said.

Smart garments are certainly interesting (Google recently rebooted its Project Jacquard concept with a smart Yves Saint Laurent backpack), but Niederberger is keen to point out that the bendy battery needs more development before it'll be ready to stitch into your clothes. For the time being then, fully foldable devices are still on standby.

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Via Tom's Guide

Boston Dynamics' nimble quadruped robot Spot is now available to lease as part of an early adopter program, and it's already strutting its stuff in a handful of forward-thinking workplaces.

Boston Dynamics hasn't revealed exactly how much it will cost to buy your very own robo-dog when it goes on sale, but according to TechCrunch, the price will be comparable to that of a car. 

For that, you'll get a seriously powerful bot that's small enough to work in spaces designed for people, but able to cope with rough terrain, steps and obstacles that would send wheeled robots sprawling.

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It has 360-degree vision thanks to its stereo camera system, helping it avoid crashing into people and objects, and can right itself automatically if it takes a spill.

Spot can carry loads up to 14kg across these perilous paths (far more than an aerial drone), and back in April, Boston Dynamics demonstrated its pulling power by harnessing up a pack of 10 Spots to tow a truck across the company's parking lot. 

That stunt wasn't just good PR; it also showed Spot's potential for pulling vehicles out of treacherous locations where it wouldn't be possible to use a conventional tow truck.

That's not all it can do, though – Spot isn't a single-use bot, but a whole platform, with a software development kit for programming it however its owners see fit. Its hardware, meanwhile, can be customized with additional sensors, power packs, and an arm attachment for opening doors and carrying objects. Check out the video below to see more of its capabilities.

Small steps and giant leaps

Spot is already hard at work, but it's still playtime for Boston Dynamics' bipedal robot Atlas. The robot has already been filmed performing parkour-style jumps, and now its creators have released a new video of it performing a gymnastics floor routine.

Although it can't complete the sequence of jumps and rolls perfectly every time, Boston Dynamics says Atlas is now able to finish without fumbling 80% of the time. Perhaps it will soon be ready to enter the workforce too.

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Via Tom's Guide

Mozilla has released Firefox Preview 2.0 – the first major update to its fully reworked Android browser – and the company says it's up to two times faster than previous versions of Firefox.

Firefox Preview made its debut in June, and differs from the existing Firefox browser for Android in several ways. Not only is it a more streamlined affair, designed to be used with one hand, it also offers more privacy options and is based on Mozilla's own browser engine, GeckoView, rather than Blink, which is owned and developed by Google.

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The latest release adds a raft of new features, including a browser widget for your phone's home screen, and the ability to add website shortcuts to your home screen for quicker access to your favorite sites.

You can send tabs between devices (an option that appeared in the desktop browser in February), and sign into your Firefox account with a single tap if you're already signed in on another device.

You're in control

There are new privacy features too, including the ability to launch private browsing from your home screen, which could be a real time-saver, and the ability to delete all of your browsing data or just a specific page - for buying surprise gifts for your significant other, of course.

Finally, and perhaps most usefully, Firefox Preview will now show you a notification whenever video or audio begins playing on a page, complete with media controls so that you can pause or play it. This could be a huge help for controlling sites with autoplaying video.

As its name implies, Firefox Preview is still in development, but Mozilla plans to release it as a final, polished version later this year.

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Via MSPoweruser

Alexa is getting two new voice commands that will give you more control over your privacy. At its device launch event in Seattle, Washington, Amazon announced that it's adding two new voice commands to its virtual assistant: "Alexa, tell me what you just heard," and "Alexa, why did you do that?"

This could be eye-opening for anyone who wonders exactly how sensitive their Amazon Echo device is, or what prompted it to perform an unexpected task like playing a piece of music. Amazon says the 'what' command will be available immediately, with the 'why' option arriving later this year.

Privacy has been a big talking point for Amazon in 2019. Earlier in the year it added voice commands that let you delete the last thing you said, or everything you've said during the whole day, and you'll soon be able to have all your data deleted automatically if you opt in.

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Putting you in control

Amazon promises that users will also be able to choose their individual privacy settings "with fine granularity".

This focus on privacy comes as no surprise; Amazon (along with Google and Apple) is one of the tech giants that's come under fire in recent months for their use – or misuse – of customers' recorded voice commands.

All three companies employed human transcribers to listen to recorded snippets and transcribe them to improve the accuracy of their software, but it was felt that users weren't made sufficiently aware that other people may be listening to what they say in the their own homes.

The ability to find out exactly how much your smart speaker can hear, and decide how that information is used, is a welcome addition, and the extra transparency should go some way towards restoring users' confidence in Alexa.

• Stay up to date with the latest news from Seattle with our Amazon 2019 launch liveblog

A faulty Google Chrome update was responsible for an error that caused data corruption on Mac Pros at several major TV and movie studios, including the whole editing team on Modern Family.

As Variety reports, after downloading the Chrome update, teams found that their Mac Pros would no longer reboot. Google has now confirmed that its browser was at fault.

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“We recently discovered that a Chrome update may have shipped with a bug that damages the file system on macOS machines,” wrote a Google support employee in a forum post. "We’ve paused the release while we finalize a new update that addresses the problem.”

Keystone corruption

All affected machines seem to have been running Avid Media Composer – an industry standard video editing suite. However, this was a red herring, and the problem actually involved Google Keystone, which helps keep Google software up to date.

Google Keystone version 1.2.13.75 of contained a bug that damages the file system on macOS devices with System Integrity Protection (SIP) disabled.

SIP is a feature intended to stop malicious software modifying important system files. The problem also affected older Macs running OS X 10.10 Yosemite or earlier, which don't support SIP.

Most users won't have reason to disable SIP, but if your device has been affected, Google has published instructions explaining how to fix the problem.

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Microsoft has released an emergency update for Internet Explorer following the discovery of a serious security vulnerability that could allow a third party to execute arbitrary code on a victim's computer through a specially crafted website.

If the user is logged into an account with admin rights, the attacker could even take control of the system remotely.

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The vulnerability applies to versions of Internet Explorer from 9 to 11. Anyone affected should download and install the appropriate security update from a list published by Microsoft.

Usually Microsoft fixes bugs in its monthly software update, but this vulnerability is so serious, the company has released an emergency patch to resolve it.

Still using IE?

Internet Explorer is still available for anyone who wants to use older websites that depend on legacy Microsoft technologies like ActiveX. Microsoft plans to support the aging browser with security updates throughout the life of Windows 10, but it won't receive any new functions.

If you still use Internet Explorer (or know someone who does), it's worth considering upgrading to a modern browser like Edge, Chrome or Firefox that will receive frequent feature updates.

Microsoft itself has urged businesses to drop Internet Explorer now that web developers are unlikely to be testing their products using it, which could lead to security and stability issues.

"You see, Internet Explorer is a compatibility solution," Microsoft senior cybersecurity architect Chris Jackson wrote in a blog post in March.

"We’re not supporting new web standards for it and, while many sites work fine, developers by and large just aren’t testing for Internet Explorer these days. They’re testing on modern browsers.

"So, if we continued our previous approach, you would end up in a scenario where, by optimizing for the things you have, you end up not being able to use new apps as they come out. As new apps are coming out with greater frequency, what we want to help you do is avoid having to miss out on a progressively larger portion of the web!”

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Via BBC

Mozilla won't make Domain-over-DNS (DoH) encryption the default option for Firefox users in the UK, despite planning to roll it out throughout the US very soon.

When you type a URL into your browser's address bar, the browser sends a request to a DNS server, which matches it to an IP address. Usually this request is sent in plain text, but with DoH, it's encrypted. This prevents the request being hijacked and stops you being sent to a different site from the one you wanted.

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This has obvious security benefits, stopping you being sent to a spoofed version of the site where your data could be harvested for example, but it also breaks centralized filters used by UK ISPs to prevent access to specific illegal websites – particularly those related to child abuse.

According to The Guardian, Mozilla is keen to allay any fears, and has told the UK government that it doesn't intend to make DoH the default there.

In a letter to UK culture secretary Nicky Morgan, Mozilla's vice-president of global policy, trust and security Alan Davidson wrote that the company "has no plans to turn on our DoH feature by default in the United Kingdom and will not do so without further engagement with public and private stakeholders".

Circumventing filters

However, Davidson was also keen to point out the potential benefits of DoH for users in the UK. “Because current DNS requests are unencrypted, the road that connects your citizens to their online destination is still open and used by bad actors looking to violate user privacy, attack communications, and spy on browsing activity," he wrote.

It's not an argument that will convince the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which provides ISPs with a list of illegal websites to be filtered.

"The implementation of DNS over HTTPS could render the service obsolete, allowing already identified criminal material to be freely accessed by those with a sexual interest in children and risking millions of internet users across the globe seeing such content," an IWF spokesperson told The Register.

Mozilla will be putting safeguards in place, though. When DoH becomes the default for Firefox users in the US, it will be turned off if the browser detects any parental controls enabled in the operating system.

Mozilla is also creating a 'canary domain', which ISPs can add to their list of blocked URLs. If Firefox detects that the canary domain is blocked, meaning that optional parental controls are enabled, it can switch off DoH.

• Take a look at our guide to the best free parental control software

Facebook has bought a startup specializing in neural interface technology, suggesting it might be interested in building the technology into a future Oculus virtual reality headset.

As Bloomberg reports, Facebook bought New York company CTRL-Labs for a figure between $500,000 and $1 million. The four-year-old company will be integrated into Facebook Reality Labs – the augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) unit formerly known as Oculus Research. 

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CTRL-Labs has developed a wristband that allows users to control an on-screen avatar. The band doesn't 'read minds' – instead, it detects neuron activity in your arm, and works even if you only think about moving it.

“Your hands could be in your pocket, behind you,” explained the company's CEO Thomas Reardon at a conference in December. “It’s the intention [to move], not the movement.”

VR without controllers

Interacting in VR is a tricky prospect. Trigger-style controllers (like those used by existing Oculus headsets) work well for games, but aren't always a good fit for other virtual experiences. The ability to move an avatar with only a thought could be a much better match for social interaction.

When TechRadar spoke to Anna Kozminski (AR/VR software manager at Facebook Zurich in Switzerland) earlier this month about the company's work on immersive VR, she emphasized the importance of making the experience as natural as possible. "With a VR experience, ultimately you want it to feel as fluid as real life," she said. 

Her vision for the future of VR is one where you can speak to friends and relatives in other countries as though there's no difference in geography at all. Truly hands-free interaction could be a big step towards making that possible.

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Via Engadget

Yahoo has released a new version of its mobile app, and even if you're wedded to Gmail or Outlook, it's well worth a look.

Unlike Google or Microsoft's email apps, the new Yahoo Mail is effectively a mobile email client that you can use with any email provider. Just download it for iOS or Android, connect your accounts, and you're ready to go.

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There's no need to switch to Yahoo's email service, but there's an impressive 1TB free storage available if you do (compared to 15GB with Gmail or Outlook).

Never lose another attachment

If you've ever lost a file in your inbox and had hunt down the email it was attached to, you'll appreciate the ability to see all received files in a single place. They're arranged by date, and you can filter them by type if you know exactly what you're looking for.

If you subscribe to several deals newsletters, you can also choose to filter your messages so they all appear in one place. You don't have to spend time making folders, rules or labels – it all happens automatically. If you're using iOS, you can also choose to see deal emails from nearby retailers.

Apple users can also see time-sensitive updates at the top of their inbox, including package dispatch notifications or deals that will expire soon.

There's a shortage of powerful free email clients for mobile devices, so the new Yahoo Mail is a welcome addition to Google Play and the App Store. It'll be interesting to see if any other email providers follow suit with similar features.

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Adobe is offering huge discount on Adobe Creative Cloud, slashing 39% off an annual subscription for a limited time.

With this deal, you'll pay just £30.34 per month for Adobe's entire suite of creative software, down from the regular price of £49.94. That's a saving of over £200 over the course of a year.

For that, you'll get unlimited access to Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, InDesign and many others. You'll also receive 10GB cloud storage, plus access to Adobe Fonts, Adobe Portfolio and Adobe Spark with premium features.

Adobe rarely cuts more than 20% off its regular prices, so if you've been thinking about signing up for Creative Cloud then this is the perfect time. The deal ends on September 30, so don't hang around.

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Google Assistant will soon store fewer of your queries and instructions, and give you more control over how your audio snippets are used.

Several tech companies, including Google, Amazon and Apple, have come under fire in recent weeks for using human workers to transcribe snippets of audio recordings from smart speakers and virtual assistants. Their motivations seemed reasonable – they wanted to make sure their software was correctly transcribing spoken commands – but users weren't aware that other people were listening in. 

There were also concerns that the smart assistant could occasionally record incidental background audio, including potentially sensitive information. Such data was deleted without being transcribed, but it was still a worry for users.

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As 9to5Google reports, the company put its transcription program on ice following user complaints, and is now reinstating it in a more controlled form.

Google Assistant will now store less audio in general, and is making its policy on human listeners much more transparent. The service has always included an option called Video and Voice Activity, where users can choose whether or not their voices can be used to improve quality of the transcriptions.

Now, Google is adding an extra snippet of text explaining that audio samples may be reviewed by humans, and users will need to explicitly opt in to allow this – if they don't re-confirm their settings, their voices will go unheard by Google's transcribers.

Now listen here...

If you're worried about Google Assistant recording conversations happening in the background you can now adjust its hotword sensitivity, making it easier or harder for Google Home speakers to pick up the words 'Hey Google'.

These are all welcome steps forward, and we'll be interested to see if Amazon, Apple and others will follow in Google's footsteps by effectively jamming their fingers in their ears.

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