The new iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro both look pretty green. Not only are they available in an attractive mint shade and a emerald hue respectively, Apple has also made an effort to point out their environmental credentials. But how 'green' are they really?

One of the first things Apple noted during its September 10 launch event was the phones' cases. These are available in various materials, including luxury titanium and ceramic, but the standard offering is 100% recycled aluminum.

That's a good start – using recycled materials also means less mining is necessary, and aluminum can be recycled an infinite number of times, so it can be processed and re-used once the phone reaches the end of its life. By contrast, plastic can be recycled around seven times, and paper around four before the fibers are too short to be structurally sound.

The chassis is only one part of the phone, though; there are also all the materials inside a phone to consider, including rare-earth metals, which are in huge demand and only available for mining in a few places worldwide. 

Apple uses 100% recycled rare-earth metals in its Taptic engine, but this represents just a quarter of all the rare-earth metals in the entire phone. Still, it's refreshing that Apple admits this, and hopefully that percentage will increase in years to come.

And what about those metals at the end of the phone's life? The Royal Society of Chemistry estimates that there could be up to 40 million devices stockpiled in homes in the UK alone, containing rare-earth metals that could be put to better use.

However, if there are no facilities within a reasonable distance for recycling your old phone, the best tactic may actually be to hold onto it until such a service becomes available. Throwing it in the general garbage means that not only are its components trapped and unusable, they will remain so forever. If you stockpile your old handsets, at least there's a chance that they will be recyclable at some point in the future.

Re-use, recycle

During the iPhone 11 launch, Apple was also keen to promote its trade-in scheme, which allows owners of existing iPhones to trade them in for a discount on a new model. The older phones will then be either 'given a new lease of life' through refurbishment, or recycled.

For devices that can't be restored, Apple has created a machine called Daisy specifically for disassembling old iPhones for recycling. The robot is capable of disassembling 2000 phones per hour and extracting materials that can be recycled, including cobalt, which is then re-used in new phone batteries.

By providing an incentive for users to recycle their old devices, Apple is helping to keep phones out of landfill, and reduce the need to mine more materials

So how does Apple compare to other phone makers? To be honest, it's hard to say – there are so many different components involved in different quantities, and companies pick and choose which parts of their processes are reported, so it's all but impossible to make a direct comparison.

Samsung, for example, doesn't offer so much information about recycling, but does report that it's running a scheme where old phones are re-purposed into internet of things devices (seemingly for school children). Its sustainability report is less transparent than Apple's though, and covers the company's entire output rather than individual devices.

Keep it going

Thankfully, Apple has a good history of supporting its older products, continuing to offer software updates many years after their initial release, so you won't need to upgrade too often.

You'll have to be careful with it, though. Apple offers extensive repair services through its AppleCare insurance, but if your phone isn't easily fixed then the company will simply ship you a brand new device, even before you've returned the wrecked one. Great for you, but not so fantastic as far as waste electronics go.

iPhones are tough to repair yourself. If you're looking for something that's easy to fix at home, the Fairphone 3 is well worth a look. Its modular design and complete lack of any glued components means you can disassemble it and replace and faulty parts with only minimal experience of electronics.

Fairphone also goes to great lengths to ensure the materials in its phones are sustainably and ethically sourced, tracking the supply chain as far as possible. Like Apple, it also has a recycling program that offers a cash incentive for turning in not just old Fairphones, but any phone from any manufacturer.

The bottom line

Apple certainly seems to be doing well on the environmental front, but investing in a new iPhone 11 probably isn't the greenest choice – and neither is the Fairphone 3. Take a look at your current handset. Sure, it might not have three cameras or Dolby Atmos sound, but has it actually reached the end of its useful life?

As is often the case, the most environmentally friendly option is also the most boring: forego the shiny new devices presented on September 10 (no matter how green), and keep using your existing phone for as long as possible.

• Hands-on: iPhone 11 review

VR can be a pain – setting up sensors or emitters, connecting cables and configuring the hardware can take so long, it might not seem worthwhile for a quick gaming session. It’s all too easy for that expensive VR headset to be left gathering dust – even if you’ve invested in a powerful gaming PC to support it.

The release of Oculus Go in 2018 went some way towards changing that, offering a VR experience that was fully self-contained, with no wires or need for additional hardware. Just strap on the headset and get started.

It was impressive stuff, and far more affordable than other VR headsets available at the time, but was much more limited than more powerful, tethered headsets. Most significantly, its movement system was ‘orientation only’, meaning you could turn your head to look around the environment, but couldn’t move through it.

That all changed with the release of Oculus Quest in May this year. The Quest is still fully wireless, but unlike the Go, it offers six degrees of freedom – all without the need for any external hardware dotted around your room.

How is that possible? TechRadar spoke to Anna Kozminski, AR/VR software manager at Facebook Zurich in Switzerland, to learn how Oculus cut the cord on virtual reality.

Inside-out tracking

First, a quick explanation: six degrees of freedom means your body can move in three dimensions along the X, Y and Z axes. Moving up and down along the Y axis is called ‘heaving’, moving forward and back along the X axis is called ‘surging’, and moving left and right along the Z axis is called ‘swaying’. You can also turn to face a different axis. A movement between X and Y is called ‘pitch’, a movement between X and Z is called ‘yaw’, and a movement between Z and Y is called ‘roll’.

"To make it feel fully natural, we needed to track the user’s movements extremely precisely in real time"

If you want to create a truly immersive VR experience, that’s essential. “With a VR experience, ultimately you want it to feel as fluid as real life – you don’t want to be distracted because the display is lagging or jittering,” explains Kozminski.

“To make it feel fully natural, we needed to track the user’s movements extremely precisely in real time, so as you move your head and hands, those movements are perfectly represented in the virtual world.”

Oculus Quest is the first consumer device with full six-degrees of freedom tracking, made possible by the Oculus Insight system. This uses a technology called simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM), which uses input from various sensors to fix an object’s location within a constantly updated virtual map. It uses these objects as reference points (much like you’d use landmarks to orient yourself) and anchors them to points in the virtual world.

These points are observed repeatedly to compensate for drift (where tiny measurement discrepancies add up over time, making the map less accurate). The virtual area encompasses your whole field of view, so the system needs to respond as quickly as you can move and any tracking errors or lag are very noticeable.

“This tracking from six degrees of movement has been done before, but with a lot of external sensors in the room, and that presented a big barrier to entry,” said Kozminski. “You can’t share the device, you can’t bring it over to a friend’s house. [Our goal was to] his that level of immersion, but make it more practical so more people can use it.”

Making VR portable

To achieve that, Oculus had to move the software stack that does all the computation onto the headset itself. That presented a serious challenge; how do you put that kind of complex system onto something that’s lightweight, wearable, and powered by a rechargeable battery?

“There were a lot of challenges developing the architecture to use the least amount of power and leave a lot of space on the device for gaming content,” she said. “Oculus Insight is a gaming platform, but if there’s no content to enjoy, it’s moot. [We had to] break the trend that it can only run on powerful PCs, and enable developers to create cool games and experiences.”

"We had to collect thousands and thousands of data sets, coming up with all the different parameters of lighting and décor"

Of course, a room in your house could be totally different from one in your friend’s, so the system had to be capable of handling a huge range of conditions. “The algorithm is very sensitive to what kind of environment it’s used in,” said Kozminski. “The lighting conditions, the size of the space, the amount of texture on the walls and surfaces – but we can’t predict how people are going to set up their living room. Maybe they want to have dim lighting [for example].

“We had to collect thousands and thousands of data sets, coming up with all the different parameters of lighting and décor, then replay on Facebook’s servers and simulate the real use of the headset so we could compute metrics. It was a years-long effort.”

The work was worthwhile, though, and the hardware developers have been hugely impressed by what creatives have managed to achieve with it. We asked Kozminski about her favorites so far.

“I think there are two,” she said. “One is external uses in general, and one is an internal project. When it comes to external uses, I’m a big fan of 360-degree videos, in addition to gaming. When producers take 360-degree cameras into an environment like a rainforest or refugee camp and tell a message in video content, that’s really compelling. You have to be in someone else’s shoes to experience it. The video content is really compelling VR because it feels like you’re really there, and it gives you that first-person perspective, which is powerful in building empathy.

"VR can be a lonely experience if you use it on your own, and our aim is to create meaningful connections"

“We did a demo at OC5 last year – a proof of concept for future applications of Oculus, with six users in a Western-style shootout game in an arena. We were co-locating multiple players. Today you can do multiplayer experiences, but there’s nothing to indicate is that player is actually right next to you. In that demo, we shared the same map across all the devices in that co-located piece.

“VR can be a lonely experience if you use it on your own, and our aim is to create meaningful connections. That demo was a show of where we could go in the future to area-shared experiences – whether it’s playing or just hanging out.”

Breaking down divides

Kozminski and her colleagues at Facebook aren’t resting on their laurels. “Now that we’ve shipped the Quest, our team is busy writing new features that we’re shipping almost every month,” she said.

It’s not all about gaming, though – Oculus is a Facebook project, so it’s no surprise that the ultimate goal is connecting people. And to do that, the barrier to entry will need to be lowered even further

“I’ve got family who live in Canada,” Kosminski explains, “and with these VR experiences we’ve got multiplayer games, but in the future we want to be able to bring two people who are very far apart into the same experience and make them feel like they are in the same place. I want to get to a point where I can put on a headset and hang out with my brother in Canada like we’re in the same space – whether that’s in VR or AR.

“The Oculus Insight technology is what we will use to power AR glasses in the future. We’ve talked about investing in AR, and ultimately when we get to a lighter form factor – something that is more comfortable to wear – more people will use it and we can get more people into this community to have experiences digitally. Getting to AR glasses and dissolving these geographic divides.”

• Check out our full guide to the best VR headsets

Chrome 77, which was released yesterday, has left some people unable to log into their Netgear routers' admin pages.

When they enter their login credentials, affected users are redirected to Netgear's password recovery page, or shown a 401 authorization error. Several users have reported the same problem on Netgear's own support forums and Reddit.

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• See our guide to the best wireless routers

As ZDNet reports, although most home users won't need to log into their routers' admin pages very often, and won't have even realized they're affected, it's a serious problem for anyone who uses network-attached storage (NAS) equipment, and have been left unable to upload, download and share data.

How to get around it

Both Netgear and Google are aware of the problem, and working on a fix, but if you need to manage your NAS device in the meantime, Netgear recommends using an alternative browser like Firefox or Edge if they need to log in.

Netgear is also advising users to ensure they install all firmware updates released over the next few days. It's also worth restarting Chrome regularly so any automatic updates are installed.

• Chrome now lets you copy text on one device, and paste it on another

A new feature coming to Google Chrome will allow you to copy chunks of text on one device, and paste it on another.

As XDA Developers reports, the new shared clipboard is available to try now in Chrome Canary – an early release of the browser intended for developers. To give it a try, start by installing Canary on both your desktop and smartphone and logging in using your Google account.

• Check out our guide to the best browsers
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Once that's done, open the browser on your desktop and navigate to chrome://flags/. Use the search box to look for 'clipboard' and use the checkboxes to activate the following flags:

• Enable receiver device to handle shared clipboard feature
• Enable shared clipboard feature signals to be handled
• Sync Clipboard Service

The first two of these flags appeared in Canary back in August, but they haven't actually done anything until now. When they're activated, relaunch the browser.

Send away

The shared clipboard tool works in a similar way to the shared tabs function that arrived with Chrome 77 earlier this week.

Highlight a section of text on your desktop, right-click it and select the new option 'Send text to...' followed by your device name. A message will appear on your phone informing you that the text has been received.

At the moment it seems that you can only send text, not images or other content, but hopefully that will change with a future release. For the time being though, it's still a very handy function and a welcome addition to Chrome.

• Google Chrome finally lets you share tabs with other devices

A future Google Chrome update could let websites prevent your phone's screen from powering down automatically.

Chrome already prevents power-saving options kicking in if you're streaming video from a site like YouTube or Netflix, but according to a report by BleepingComputer, it's possible that other sites could soon be offered the same ability.

• Check out our guide to the best browsers
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This could be done using the WakeLock API, a developer function, which lets sites request that the device suspend power-saving features like shutting down the display after when there's no input from the user.

Induced insomnia

There are lots of possible uses for WakeLock. For example, it could be used to stop recipe sites from timing out while you're busy mixing ingredients (forcing you to reactivate the display with flour-covered hands), keep long PDF documents on the screen while you read them, and make sure the display doesn't power down while you're watching a presentation.

As BleepingComputer notes, the API could also prevent sites from using messy hacks to prevent screens powering off (such as embedding a small, looping video element to keep it awake).

There is, however, some potential for misuse, particularly from cryptominers. It looks like there's currently no way to inform users that WakeLock is in use, but hopefully that will change if and when the feature is implemented.

• The best Android apps to download in 2019

Google Chrome 77 is now rolling out for Android, with a new feature that lets you send tabs to different devices. This handy tool (which started rolling out to a small test base in July, but it now available to everyone) eliminates the need to mess about with bookmarks, or email URLs to yourself.

To give it a try, tap the menu button in Chrome, select 'Share' and select the option 'Send this page'. This will enable you to send the current page to any device you're currently signed into using your Google account.

The receiving device will display an alert that includes the name of the sharing device, the name of the page, and the URL.

• Check out our guide to the best browsers
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It's a welcome addition, but Google is rather late to the game. Firefox gained an almost identical Send Tabs feature in February this year, which you can see demonstrated in the video below:

Simpler downloads

This isn't the only new feature arriving in Chrome 77 for Android – once you receive the update you'll also notice a new, simplified Downloads screen. Google has done away with the drop-down menu in the top left corner, which was used for selecting different file types (including images, video, documents and pages).

Instead, there's a row of buttons along the top of the screen for choosing different file types. It's a small change, but saves you a couple of unnecessary taps and makes the filters more obvious.

There are also various changes aimed at developers, plus some performance enhancements under the hood. You can find a full list of all the updates in Google's change log.

• Firefox in 2020: what's next for the feisty underdog?

Via The Verge

Google has finally begun rolling out a dark mode for its Gmail app, over a week after the release of Android 10 with its system-wide dark mode.

The company had intended to convert all its first-party apps ahead of the release, but a couple weren't quite ready when the new OS was released on September 3 – namely Gmail and the Google Play Store, which remained stubbornly white.

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Now, as XDA Developers reports, the latest Gmail release (2019.08.18.267044774) has a fully-functioning dark mode that turns the app's background a pleasing dark gray color (though some might find the stark white text a little hard on the eyes).

You've got mail

We got a small glimpse of Gmail's dark mode two weeks ago, when the app received an update that made the splash screen and home screen widget black if you were using dark mode on Android Pie.

However, the dark mode being rolled out now is only available for Android 10 – it won't appear if you're using Pie, even after your Gmail app is updated.

The Play Store is now the only significant holdout, and may be taking longer to convert due to the complexity of its icon-heavy interface. We imagine it might take quite some time to get it looking presentable.

• The best free email app 2019

Adobe has knocked up to 20% off the price of Adobe single-app subscriptions in a three-day flash sale. Until September 11, you can make huge savings on one-year subscriptions to any one of Adobe's industry-standard creative apps, including Photoshop, Lightroom, InDesign, After Effects and many more.

As well as a year's license for your chosen software, your single-app subscription includes 100GB cloud storage, enabling you to start work on one device and easily continue on another.

You also get your own Adobe Portfolio website to showcase your work, plus access to Adobe's collection of fonts – thousands of typefaces, all cleared for commercial use and accessible at your fingertips. If that's not enough, Adobe has thrown in Adobe Spark too, giving you an effortless way to create graphics for social media and web pages.

• Check out our roundup of the best free photo editors

Many Chromebook owners had an unpleasant surprise when their laptops wrongly
reported that they had received their final security update, and that it was time to  upgrade to a newer device.

As 9to5Google reports, the message was the result of a bug in the Canary and Developer builds of ChromeOS, and was swiftly fixed, but not before sending a few pulses racing at the prospect of an premature hardware upgrade (in some cases years early).

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The Canary and Developer builds of ChromeOS give developers and early adopters the opportunity to receive rapid updates and experiment with new features before they appear in the Stable build that's released to all users. The drawback of these early releases is that they're less stable and often contain bugs – though the results aren't usually so dramatic.

The final countdown

Google has now released an update for the Canary channel that will prevent the warning appearing prematurely. This update should roll out over the next couple of days. Anyone using the Developer build may have to wait about a week, as this channel receives updates less frequently.

If you're not using either preview build, then sadly any warning messages may mean that your Chromebook really is coming to the end of its life. If you're not sure, Google has published a list of every Chromebook ever released, complete with expected end of life dates, so you can check when yours will get its final update.

• The best laptops money can buy in 2019

Vivaldi has released a new browser for Android, packed with features that it hopes will lure users away from Chrome.

Vivaldi made a name for itself with its super-customizable desktop browser, which lets you change pretty much every button, menu and bar to suit the way you use the web. It also boasts tab stacking – an incredibly helpful feature that allows you to collect related tabs together in a group so it's easier to find the one you want.

• Check out our full guide to the best browsers of 2019
• We've also rounded up this year's best Android phones
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The new mobile browser is also designed with flexibility in mind, with features like the ability to switch search engines on the fly by typing a nickname into the search bar before your query. For example, you could type 'w' to search Wikipedia, or 'd' for DuckDuckGo.

Vivaldi has ported across its Speed Dial function, which provides quick access to your favorite sites and collections of bookmarks whenever you open a new tab, and the bookmark manager allows you to add searchable descriptions and nicknames to sites so you aren't left scrolling through an interminable list of saved URLs.

You can also switch between tabs with a swipe, and quickly duplicate tabs without the need to copy and paste URLs. There's a built-in notes tool too, for jotting down memos and lists without opening another app, plus the ability to take screenshots of entire webpages (not just what's currently visible on the screen).

Sync without a trace

If you already use the desktop version of Vivaldi (or fancy giving it a try on multiple Android devices), you can sync your browsing data between installations with a few taps. This includes bookmarks, Speed Dial settings, form autofill data, and saved passwords. Everything is transmitted using secure end-to-end encryption. 

There are also all the usual features you'd expect from a modern mobile browser, including private browsing and reader mode – and if Vivaldi's take on the desktop is anything to go by, there will be lots more on the horizon.

• Find out how to enable dark mode for Google Chrome

Google Photos may soon get a new feature that will allow you to order photo prints directly through the mobile app for same-day pickup.

It's been possible to order prints through Google Photos for some time (it's been able to design and order photo books for you since 2017), but an investigation by 9to5Google revealed that there's likely to be a much faster service on the way very soon.

• Check out our guide to the best free photo editors
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• Do even more with the best free apps for Android

A teardown of Google Photos 4.24 for Android revealed references to standard 4x6in photo prints for "same day pickup from CVS or Walmart".

No other companies are mentioned, so it seems safe to say that the service will be restricted to users in the US at first, but that may not be the case for long. Although its photo book service began in the US, Google soon extended it to Canada, Germany, the UK and France.

Canvassing opinion

The app also contains several mentions of canvas prints, which will be available for Google Photos users who want to mount their snaps on their walls. These will be available in three sizes: 8x8in, 11x14in and 16x20in, with a choice of either black of white wrap (to avoid the picture being stretched around the edge of the frame).

Google doesn't mention which company will be providing the canvas prints, but neither CVS nor Walmart offer them for same-day pickup so it seems likely to be the same supplier that handles its photo books.

These options aren't available in the app yet, and there's no guarantee that they will be, but teardowns like this often reveal features that are well into development. If and when they arrive, they'll be a handy way to get your favorite snaps off your phone and into a format where you can enjoy them every day.

• Android 10: everything you need to know

Signify, the company behind Philips Hue, has unveiled a range of trendy Edison-style smart lightbulbs at IFA 2019 in Berlin. Each bulb contains a twisted 'filament' of LEDs, and emits a warm glow harking back to antique bulbs of yesteryear.

These bulbs are intended to give a strictly old-school feel, so you won't be able to adjust the color or temperature of the light. You can, however, control them through the Philips Hue app, Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Homekit, or any of the Hue system's various switches and sensors.

The funky bulbs will be available in three sizes – A19, ST19 and G25 – and will be available in the US from October starting at $25 (about £20, AU$35). Hopefully other territories will be able to light up their homes with some old-school cool soon too.

More bright ideas

There are also some new accessories in the mix: a plug and a button. The Philips Hue Smart Plug that lets you add any 'dumb' lamp to your smart lighting setup. Just plug in your gadgets and you're done. You aren't limited to lights, either – you could also plug in a fan or any other device. It will sell for a rather steep $40 (about £30, AU$60).

The new Philips Hue Smart Button is a tiny wireless switch that can be fitted wherever you like using a built-in magnet. It's simply a quick, easy way to control your Hue lights, which it connects to using either Bluetooth or Zigbee. Tap the Smart Button once to turn them off, twice to change to a preset 'scene', or press and hold to dim.

The Smart Button will be able to perform different tasks at different times of the day – so a double-press could make your lights warmer and dimmer in the evening, but brighter and colder in the morning, for example. It will cost $20 (about £15, AU$30).

Finally, there's an updated version of the Philips Hue Go – a wireless, bowl-shaped lamp that's intended for parties and outdoor fun. The second-generation Hue Go is a major improvement on the third as it can now be controlled via your phone using Bluetooth, rather than relying on a Philips Hue Bridge. That means you're no longer restricted to using it within a stone's throw of your house.

The new Hue Go also offers greatly improved battery life (up to 18 hours), is much brighter than its predecessor (up to 520 lumens) and can be dimmed to a mere 1.2 lumens when the party's over and it's time to wind down.

• IFA 2019 is Europe's biggest tech show. The TechRadar team is in Berlin to bring you all the breaking news and hands-on first impressions of new TVs, watches and other tech as they're announced.

Via MacRumors

Facebook is rolling out facial recognition to all of its 360 million users, making it easier than ever for your friends and family to tag you in embarrassing photos.

Facial recognition first arrived on Facebook in 2017 under the name 'Tag Suggestions', but was only available to a small sample of users. It's now accessible worldwide under the more logical name 'Face Recognition'.

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Face Recognition will be turned off by default, and if you weren't part of the Tag Suggestions trial group, you'll see a notification in your News Feed asking if you want to activate it. 

New users signing up for Facebook will also receive a News Feed notification letting them know about Face Recognition.

If you were part of the Tag Suggestions group, however, you won't get the News Feed alert. To check your facial recognition settings, take a look in your privacy options and see whether the new Face Recognition switch is toggled on.

About face

Facebook's decision to make facial recognition global is a bold one, due to the bad press the technology has received in recent weeks.

San Francisco banned police forces from using facial recognition in May, and a London housing developer was prompted to switch off facial recognition at a site in King's Cross after public backlash. There's also increasing concern about the use of facial recognition at airports, which critics worry will normalize the technology and socialize people to accept it.

Facebook has published a blog post that aims to allay any fears about its own use of facial recognition. "We’ve continued to engage with privacy experts, academics, regulators and people on Facebook about how we use face recognition and the options you have to control it," the company said.

"We’ve made the steps to update your settings clearer and you can opt to leave your setting off right in the notice, as opposed to having to go to a separate screen. If you do nothing, face recognition will remain off for you."

Whether you're happy with facial recognition or not, this is a good time to take a look through the rest of your privacy settings on Facebook and make sure they're all up to date – particularly if you haven't checked them since last year, when the company embarked on a major overhaul to make them more transparent.

• Check out our guide to the best free privacy software of 2019

Google Calendar now has an updated Work Hours feature, which should make it easier for you to manage your work-life balance by avoiding commitments outside your regular office hours.

Working Hours has been around for a while, letting you define when you're going to be available for meetings and other engagements. If someone attempts to schedule an appointment that goes outside those times, Google Calendar will issue a warning that you might decline.

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It's a handy feature that helps avoid the awkwardness of telling someone you'd rather head home and crash on the sofa at the end of the day, but until now it's been necessary to activate it through the app's settings.

Now, as 9to5Google reports, Work Hours is enabled by default – even if you haven't told the app exactly when you clock in and out of the office each day.

A balancing act

When the update reaches you, Google Calendar will estimate roughly when your work day begins and ends based on previous appointments and present these times in a pop-up window. If they're not quite right, you can edit them before proceeding.

The updated Working Hours tool is rolling out for G Suite users now, and will be arriving for free Google Calendar users soon.

• The best calendar app 2019: top apps for scheduling meetings

Mozilla has released Firefox 69, with new security features to help protect your privacy online, and stop advertisers stalking you around the web.

Firefox's Advanced Tracking Protection, which first appeared in October as an optional setting, is now enabled for all desktop and Android users by default. It works by blocking third-party tracking cookies, which monitor your activity as you move between sites.

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Over time, this data can be used to build up a unique profile, which can then be sold or shared (often without your knowledge or consent).

According to Mozilla, over 20% of users have already chosen to activate Advanced Tracking Protection, but the feature will now be activated for everyone unless they decide to opt out. You'll know it's working when you see a small blue shield icon in the address bar.

Miner inconvenience

Advanced Tracking Protection isn't the only new security technology activated by default in Firefox 69 – cryptocurrency miners are now blocked as standard as well.

Miners usurp your device's resources without your permission when you visit an infected site, and use them to mine cryptocurrency for their creators without your permission. Mozilla introduced a tool to block them in May, and has now made it part of the browser's default settings.

Mozilla also released anti-fingerprinting technology in May, which prevents advertisers using your device's unique hardware settings to follow you around the web. It hasn't chosen to enable this as standard yet, but you can switch it on by changing the browser's Privacy and Security settings to 'Strict'.

• I’m sick of Chrome eating all my RAM – it's time for me to ditch it for Firefox… or even Edge