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OpenAI has revealed that one of its data analytics providers has been breached. Mixpanel fell victim to a smishing campaign.

Smishing, aka SMS phishing, refers to an attack where deceptive text messages are sent to individuals tricking them into click on malicious links, or enter sensitive information.

OpenAI has confirmed that none of its systems were compromised by this attack. No chat, API requests, API usage data, passwords, credentials, API keys, payment details, or government IDs were compromised or exposed. That's important to disclose because this isn't a direct ChatGPT breach like some outlets have been reporting. That's misleading, this appears to be a limited data breach.

Well, at least it wasn't as bad as the Discord customer service data breach where thousands of government-ID photos were leaked.

Anyway, Mixpanel's own disclosure about the security incident can be found here. The analytics firm says it detected a smishing campaign on its network on November 8, 2025, and responded to it by taking steps to contain the leak, and removing unauthorized access to user data. The company has sent out emails to customers impacted by the breach.

Mixpanel didn't really reveal the impact of the incident, but OpenAI did. According to OpenAI, the leak included user profile information from https://platform.openai.com/ that was exported from Mixpanel. This domain in question is meant for developers, contains support documentation, tutorials, API related stuff, etc. It's not something a regular ChatGPT user may have accessed.

The following was accessed by the threat actors:

• Name that was provided to us on the API account
• Email address associated with the API account
• Approximate coarse location based on API user browser (city, state, country)
• Operating system and browser used to access the API account
• Referring websites
• Organization or User IDs associated with the API account

Okay, this raises some serious questions. That's more than just telemetry. Why would an analytics provider have access to so much user information? Why wasn't the data anonymized? OpenAI has to share some of the blame for allowing this.

Mixpanel had notified OpenAI about the incident, but only shared the affected dataset with the company on November 25, 2025. OpenAI for its part removed Mixpanel from its production services, reviewed the affected datasets, and is working with Mixpanel and others to investigate the scope of the incident. It is also notifying impacted users, organizations, etc.

OpenAI says it has terminated its use of Mixpanel. It is advising users to enable multi-factor authentication for their accounts, and to watch out for unexpected emails and messages that may claim to originate from OpenAI requesting passwords, API keys, verification codes, etc.

On a sidenote, ChatGPT and Copilot are exiting WhatsApp due to a change in Meta's policy.

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Is Linux an alternative for gamers? The end of Windows 10 support along with artificially introduced system requirements for Windows 11 have put millions of Windows 10 users -- Dell says 500 million -- between a rock and a hard place.

Keep on using Windows 10 and an, often, perfectly fine device? Bypass the system requirements to upgrade to Windows 11? Buy a new PC? Or, switch to Linux? These are the four main options that users have.

For gamers, one of the most important questions are whether their games will run on Linux and how good they will run. Valve has done a tremendous job in the past couple of years to improve gaming on Linux, but is it enough, even on systems that do not use SteamOS?

That is what Steve Burke of the YouTube channel Gamer Nexus set out to test. The operators of the channel wanted to find out if Linux is still the rather complicated system that is not well suited for gaming, or if gamers can make the switch and be very happy with that decision.

The main details:

• The games: Seven games were tested, including Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Resident Evil 4, Black Myth Wukong, and Resident Evil 4.
• The Linux system: Powered by Bazzite Linux on systems with Nvidia RTX 5070, 5080 and 5090 video cards, as well as Radeon RX 9070 and Radeon RX 9070 XT video cards.

Bazzite is a Fedora-based distribution that is branded as a distribution for gamers specifically.

The result: Gaming on Linux works better than ever and it should be fine for many gamers, especially those with AMD systems. It still requires some fiddling and has some issues. Some games do not work because anti-cheat components are not supported.  Nvidia performed better FPS-wise, but AMD systems seemed more stable.

Other findings:

• Spotty support for Ray Tracing titles. Some work, some don't, some crash.
• Nvidia has occasional stutters.
• Long initial shader caches, often 30+ minutes for games.

Linux gaming is getting to a point where it is equally good of a choice as Windows for many gamers. There are still some issues to be sorted out, but things improve all the time.

Here is the video

Now it is your turn: Which operating system is your favorite currently? Have you made the switch to Linux and play games also on the Linux PC? Or is something keeping you from making the switch? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

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ChatGPT and Copilot will be pulling out from WhatsApp. This move is to comply with some changes to Meta's policy.

In case you weren't aware, many AI services integrated their chatbots within WhatsApp to allow users to access their AI models right within the instant messaging app. This included the likes of Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Perplexity. Meta's own AI is deeply integrated into WhatsApp.

The Verge reports that a month ago, WhatsApp had announced some changes to its terms. You can read it here. This is the main change, "are strictly prohibited from accessing or using the WhatsApp Business Solution, whether directly or indirectly, for the purposes of providing, delivering, offering, selling, or otherwise making available such technologies when such technologies are the primary (rather than incidental or ancillary) functionality being made available for use, as determined by Meta in its sole discretion".

This is essentially Meta's way of gatekeeping its rivals off of its platform. In its defense, a company spokesperson had told TechCrunch, that "The purpose of the WhatsApp Business API is to help businesses provide customer support and send relevant updates". When this policy comes into effect in January 2026, Meta's AI will be the sole AI option available for users on WhatsApp. That's one way to force your users to use your AI.

OpenAI released a statement a couple of weeks ago, expressing its disappointment about Meta's policy, and being unable to serve users on WhatsApp. It is directing users to use the ChatGPT app on their preferred platform of choice, along with instructions on how to preserve their chat history with ChatGPT. Microsoft has released a similar statement to inform Copilot users about the change, and details on how to export their chat with Copilot.

Users can continue accessing ChatGPT and Copilot in WhatsApp until January 15, 2026. But the tools will no longer be available beyond the said date. Perplexity hasn't announced its exit from WhatsApp yet, but it's only a matter of time before it does.

On a side note, Perplexity unveiled its AI Shopping Assistant recently.

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Dell says its PC sales have slowed down due to the transition to Windows 11. Users are not

If you can recall, Microsoft had suggested that users trade or recycle their old PCs, and buy a new one that supports Windows 11. Are people doing that?

When asked about Windows End-of-Life upgrades, Jeff Clarke, COO, Dell Technologies said that "We have not completed the Windows 11 transition. In fact, if you were to look at it relative to the previous OS in the service, we are 10-12 points behind at that point with Windows 11 than we were the previous generation."

In case you forgot, Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. There are ways to extend security updates for free on Windows 10. Since it's only been a month since Windows 10 reached end-of-life, it's too early to expect users to buy new PCs to upgrade to Windows 11. But, the fact that a top executive at a PC manufacturing company said that the Windows 11 adoption rate is slow, is pretty important.

According to StatCounter, 41.74% of desktops were running on Windows 10 in October. Windows 11 had a market share of 55.18% in the same period. Now, when we compare this data to that from a year ago, Windows 10 had 60.95% of the market in October 2024, while Windows 11 held 35.58%. That difference is massive, and you might think that Windows 11 is rising in popularity. However, when you look at the recent numbers, the trend has slowed down considerably. Windows 10 dropped by just 2% in September 2025, while Windows 11 managed to see a 3% increase.

Why? Millions of PCs worldwide cannot be upgraded to Windows 11 due to strict hardware requirements. These are likely the numbers that contribute to the large chunk of Windows 10 users out there. They're stranded on Windows 10, a small percentage of those users may have drifted over to Linux or Mac, and some users may have opted not to upgrade to Windows 11 because of concerns about bloat, performance degradation, and privacy. Some people may have just stayed on Windows 10, because it works, why risk upgrading?

Clarke also said that "the PC refresh cycle remains durable, supported by an aging installed base and a significant portion of systems not yet upgraded to Windows 11. We still have ample opportunity to convert. If memory serves me right, the installed base is roughly $1.5 billion or 1.5 billion units. We have about 500 million of them capable of running Windows 11 that have not been upgraded. We have another 500 million that are four years old that cannot run Windows 11."

That is very interesting. Dell believes these are rich opportunities for it to rake some serious sales in. As The Register noted, Dell saw an 11% YoY increase in its revenue in Q3 FY 2026, it reported $27 billion in the quarter. The company said it is expecting $31.5 billion in revenue in Q4 and $111.7 billion in FY 2026.

Clarke noted that "AI PCs, small language models, more capable applications, improvements in operating systems and their capabilities, and the embedded AI there, the use of an NPU, the capability of an NPU in future PCs gives me the view that the PC market will continue to flourish going forward."  Dell reported a revenue of $10.1 billion from servers and networking kit last quarter, which increased 37% YoY. But he also said that the PC market would be roughly flat year-over-year. You can read a transcript of Dell's earnings call at Fortune.

But we also need to factor end-users, I'm not sure AI is going to drive PC sales, most AI services are cloud-powered, all you need to use them is a browser or a desktop app. Not a lot of people are going to get a PC specifically for AI purposes. There are Copilot+ PCs, but those may not seem like an attractive option to the average buyer, who may just need a reliable computer.

There's something else to consider. RAM prices have gone through the roof, which in turn will affect computer sales too. Dell says it is prepared to meet the demand, having learned valuable lessons in supply chain management during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you look at the overall market, it's pretty bad right now. Console prices have increased significantly this year. A lot of these have been influenced by tariff policies.

How about you? Did you buy a new computer, or upgrade your old system to move to Windows 11?

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Plex has been a fan-favorite solution for streaming media for years. It is relatively easy to set up, especially if a remote media server is added to the setup. Up until now, accessing a Plex media server remotely was free. This was a great option for users who were travelling and wanted to access their home server while abroad, or for sharing a server.

Plex announced today that the free ride will be over, at least for users of the service who want to access media remotely.

This changes: From next week onward, Plex requires either a Remote Watch Pass or a Plex Pass to stream remotely to the company's Roku app. Starting in 2026, the change will come to all Plex TV apps on all platforms and any third-party client that is using the Plex APIs for remote streaming.

Plex explains the two options in a post on the official forum:

1. Remote Watch Pass - Available for 20 Euros per year (about 23 Dollars), it is designed specifically for streaming media remotely using Plex.
2. Plex Pass - Customers may upgrade their account to a Plex Pass subscription, which is available for about 60 Euros per year (about 70 Dollars), but is discounted right now. It includes premium features, such as skip intro and credits, hardware transcoding and more.

In other words, Plex created a new subscription plan for users who -- very soon -- cannot use the application's remote streaming functionality anymore, because Plex turned it off for them.

Plex users who do not want to subscribe to the service just to retain access to a feature that they used for free before could check out alternatives to Plex.

Here is a short selection:

• Jellyfin: free and open source, supports Windows, macOS, Linux, and does not limit remote access.
• Kodi: another free and open source solution that also supports the desktop systems as well as Android, Fire TV and Raspberry Pie. However, getting remote media servers to work with the solution is complicated.

Have another alternative that you suggest others may replace Plex with? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

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Are you ready to let AI do your shopping? Well, that's what Perplexity thinks is the next step in e-commerce.

It has announced an AI-powered shopping assistant. What purpose does it serve? The company says that unlike search engines that may find exact matches for a user's query, AI assistants are tailored for personal use, and aid in discovery of products that better suit their requirements. It says shopping assistants have to understand the user's intent, remember their preferences, act as extensions of the user, and help save time that could have otherwise been spent on manual research.

To do all this, Perplexity's announcement says that the AI takes into account your usage history such as past searches, daily habits, creative habits, to learn your patterns. It knows and remembers what you have told it. When a user asks it a specific query, even a complex one like “What’s the best winter jacket if I live in San Francisco and take a ferry to work?” or "What's the best camera for a motion designer focused on photo and video?", it generates a response that fits the user's requirements based on its knowledge of your searches, preferences.

The Shop with Perplexity experience creates product cards with images, pricing, delivery details, and other information. It even displays curated reviews and recommendations, based on buyer reviews for the product, explaining why the item fits the user's particular needs. Here is a video demo of the feature.

You can ask follow-up questions about a product, to learn more about it, or fine tune your query. Perplexity's shopping assistant seems to be more of a personalized AI-powered search model, than a full-fledged agentic AI that acts on your behalf. Don't forget to read my previous coverage of Perplexity's Comet browser.

And it can also assist users place an order for the product, even handling the payment, if they permit the AI to. Speaking of which, PayPal has announced that it has partnered with Perplexity to launch Instant Buy, a feature that lets Perplexity users checkout with PayPal instantly while shopping. This video shows how the process works.

PayPal is offering a one-time cashback of 50% (up to $50) for shoppers who complete their first purchase using PayPal within Perplexity between 9:00 am ET on November 25, 2025, through 11:59 pm ET on December 1, 2025. You can find more details about it on PayPal's website.

Perplexity's AI shopping assistant is available for free for users in the U.S. It is currently supported on desktop and web, and is coming to iOS and Android in a few weeks.

Perplexity believes this is what e-commerce should have been, better for consumers and merchants. That's fancy stuff, but remember, convenience comes at a cost: your privacy.

What do you think?

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Google is testing a new feature called "Your custom feed" on YouTube. Will this finally fix the algorithm?

There's no denying that YouTube's algorithm is a mess, its recommendations can vary drastically, from relevant videos to utter garbage that you have no interest in. Accidentally clicked on a video? YouTube may think you like the content in it. Sometimes you may see the same video in your home feed multiple times.

The problem with the video streaming service is that, like many other platforms, it promotes trending content. Just because something goes viral doesn't mean everyone's going to like it. And nowadays, you have to contend with another problem, AI slop.

So, how do you fix the algorithm? Google's way to solve the issue is, YouTube's "Your custom feed" option. Okay, that's a terrible name, but let's focus on what it does. It allows users to customize the recommendations on their home feed. It's about time.

The "Your custom feed" feature is experimental, so it is not live for everyone. If you have access to it, you will see a new option that is labeled "Your custom Feed". Google says this option will appear next to the Home shortcut as a chip. Clicking on it will let you update your home feed recommendations, by entering a simple prompt. Wait, so this is another AI-powered feature? Well, I suppose it is better than nothing. Useful new features on the platform are becoming rarer, as opposed to all the efforts to push more ads.

I don't have access to the custom feed yet, so I can't tell how it works. Android Authority reports that when a user asks YouTube what they would like to see, the app will refresh the recommendation feed.

Prior to this announcement, the only control users had over the content that they saw on YouTube was to click on Don't Recommend Channel, or Not Interested. Those have hardly been helpful, except perhaps to slightly lessen the annoying videos that you might encounter. You could turn off the watch history to get rid of recommendations altogether.

YouTube recently added an option to help users limit the time they spend scrolling Shorts.

Have you tried "Your custom feed"? Share your opinion with us.

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OpenAI has announced that users can now access Voice Mode in ChatGPT without leaving the conversation. This enhancement is available as part of an app update.

Up until now, if you wanted to interact with the chatbot using your voice, you had to tap the waveform icon. And this would take you away from the chat to a separate interface, where ChatGPT was listening to your voice prompt. Then it would generate its response, and speak it aloud.

(image courtesy: ChatGPT/OpenAI)

The latest update changes this flow. Now, when you tap on the waveform button in ChatGPT's app, it no longer switches to a separate mode. It continues the interaction in the current chat, and you will see a live transcript of the bot's response appear on the screen. OpenAI says that this in-line voice mode is helpful because users can review earlier messages in the chat. The replies also include visual content such as images, web pages, maps, etc. as required.

Users can switch to text input mode anytime during the conversation. It's important to note that even if you type something, when Voice Mode is active, the AI will respond using Voice. To end the voice output, just tap the End button. I tested it briefly. The sentence inside the double quotes indicates where the user spoke to it, while the other one (without the quotes) was a text input in the same chat.

Check out OpenAI's post on X to see a video of the feature in action.

ChatGPT Voice Mode in chat is available for all users, in the latest version of the app on Android and iOS. It is unclear when the combined interface would be available on the web version or desktop apps or its Atlas web browser.

The new Voice Mode experience is enabled by default. If you don't like it, you can switch back to the previous style. To do this, go to the app's Settings > Voice Mode and toggle the option that says "Separate Mode"

Do you use Voice Mode in ChatGPT?

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Spotify will soon increase its prices in the U.S. The music streaming service had previously increased its Premium subscription's price in the U.S. in June 2024.

Spotify had announced a price increase for its Premium plan a few months ago, in several markets across South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region. The price differs from region-to-region, for example, it jumped from €10.99 to €11.99 in Europe.

As for why the prices are climbing, the Financial Times (via 9to5Mac) reports that Spotify and Apple are under pressure from major record labels to hike their subscription prices. Record labels are unhappy that prices have not increased with inflation, and are also "concerned" that Spotify's prices are lower than Netflix. That's a weird reason to increase the price, it almost sounds like a poor excuse. The report mentions that Spotify is planning to raise its prices in the U.S. during Q1, 2026.

For context, here are the monthly prices for major music streaming services. It might surprise you. Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, YouTube Music Premium, Pandora Premium, and Tidal all cost $10.99 each per month. Deezer Premium is the only streaming service that costs $11.99, with one exception, Spotify, of course.

Spotify's Premium plan currently costs $11.99 in the U.S. So, any increase in the price will immediately put Spotify as the most expensive music streaming service out there. And it could in turn affect the prices of the rest of the market.

Earlier this year, rumors alleged that Spotify wanted to introduce ads in its Premium plan, but the company denied this. The company finally launched the much awaited lossless music streaming in September 2025, but kept the price of the Premium plan unchanged.

Spotify acquired music discovery service WhoSampled last week, and will use its massive database to power its SongDNA feature.

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The secure-messaging service, Signal, has announced that Secure Backups are now available for iOS users. The feature had debuted for Android devices in September 2025.

You may be aware that Signal does not store your messages on a server like other chat apps do. All communication in Signal takes place between the sender and receiver, and is end-to-end encrypted. This also means that when a user loses access to their device, their entire message history is lost. In order to help users recover their message history, Signal added an optional feature called Secure Backups.

It allows users to save an archive of their conversations in Signal, in an encrypted form using a 64-character recovery key generated on a user's device, it is not sent to the server. This key is the only way to unlock access to the messages that are stored on the server, if you lose the key, the data cannot be recovered from the backup. This feature is opt-in, i.e. it is not enabled by default. If you don't enable this feature, Signal does not sync the message history to the cloud.

While the feature is free to use, there is one caveat. It only saves text messages and media content from the last 45 days. Signal also has a paid subscription plan, that costs $1.99 per month, that lets users back up their media history and message history beyond the 45-day limit.

Secure Backups were exclusively available on Android devices until now, the feature is now available to Signal users on iOS. To enable the feature, tap on your profile name in the top left corner of Signal's main screen. You should see an option called Backups, which has a Beta tag next to it, indicating it is still being developed. Tap on Backups, and then tap on Continue.

It will display an option that says View Recovery Key. The next screen displays the alphanumeric 64 character key, and you have an option to copy it to the clipboard and store it in a file or another app, for example, your password manager. Save it, and tap on Continue. You'll need to enter the key again, simply paste it to proceed. Next, you'll need to choose between the free plan and the paid subscription. Select the free option to finish setting up Secure Backups. It may take a while to complete if you have a lot of data to be backed up.

You can manually back up the data, view your recovery key, or delete the backup at anytime from the Backups page. This backup can be used to recover your data from the Settings > Restore or Transfer Account > Restore Signal Backup.

Here is a support page that has more details about the feature. Secure Backups are available on Signal version 7.86 or higher on iOS and version 7.56 or above on Android.

Signal was the first app to protest against Windows Recall's privacy concerns, when it added a Screen Security option which was enabled by default on Windows 11, to prevent screenshots of the app's contents and in turn protects the privacy of users.

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Microsoft is testing two new features in Windows 11's Notepad. The text editor is getting support for Tables and more AI features.

Notepad has gained a lot of features in the past few years, and while option like tabs, auto-save, spell check have been welcomed by users, some features have been viewed as bloat. In July 2025, the Redmond company added support for Markdown syntax formatting in the text editor app.

Now, it is bringing support for Tables. Microsoft says that a new option to add Tables is available on the formatting toolbar, it's the grid icon, users can click on it to view a grid and select the number of rows and columns. E.g. The screenshot below shows a 3 by 2 table. That's similar to how you insert Tables in Microsoft Word.

(Image courtesy: Microsoft)

But, you can also add tables using Markdown syntax. Users will be able to edit the table to add or remove rows and columns from the Table menu, or simply by right-clicking on the table.

Microsoft says it is improving the AI features in Notepad, i.e. Write, Rewrite and Summarize with streaming result responses. Prior to this update, the text editor waited to generate the full response and then displayed it to the user. The new streaming AI results will appear as the text is generated, so you can preview it or interact with it.

(Image courtesy: Microsoft)

The results are generated locally, but only for the Rewrite feature, and this is limited to Copilot+ PCs. You know what that means, Write and Summarize don't generate the content locally on Copilot+ PCs, and none of the three features work offline on non-Copilot+ computers. Speaking of which, users will need to sign in to their Microsoft account to use Write, Rewrite, and Summarize in Notepad. This likely has to do with rate limits, and the Copilot credits allocated to the account.

Tables and Streaming AI results are available in Notepad version?11.2510.6.0 for Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels.

What is Microsoft doing? I remember when Notepad used to be a plain text editor. WordPad died for this.

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Google is killing yet another app, this time Google Assistant is getting the axe. The app is set to be discontinued in March 2026.

Google Assistant was launched in 2016, as a voice-based virtual assistant that users could interact with using natural language and the Hey Google wake word. It was integrated in many of Google's apps and handled many tasks from setting timers, alarms, playing music, navigation in Maps, etc. But things have evolved rather quickly over the past few years, with AI taking over many things. Google even integrated Bard in Gemini in 2023.

It was inevitable really, Assistant was running on borrowed time. Google has been steadily removing features from Assistant since January 2024, including assessing the Assistant from the Google Search bar on Android.  In March this year, the Mountain View company had announced that it would be phasing out Google Assistant on mobile devices, in favor of Gemini. Driving Mode was removed from Assistant in April 2025.

But Google had not revealed the precise timeline for the app's end of support, it had merely said that it would be "upgrading" more users to Gemini, and discontinue Google Assistant in 2025. Android Authority reported (via The SP Android) about a support page on Google's website says that Google Assistant will be available for use until March 2026. That's when it will be sunset.

Google Assistant has been popular on Google Home devices, and reports indicate users haven't found Gemini to be a perfect replacement. Gemini also requires a lot more permissions, and access to user data to function. Perhaps Google is still working out the kinks in Gemini to make it more reliable.

On a side note, Google has denied that it is using user data for training its AI models. Over the past few days, some news outlets reported that Google had secretly enabled some settings in Gmail, opting users in automatically into Smart Features, which gave the email service access to all messages, attachments. In a statement sent to ZDNet, a Google spokesperson had said that the reports are misleading, and that Gmail Smart Features have existed for many years, and that Google does not use Gmail user data to train Gemini's AI model.

Do you use Google Assistant?

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As a user of the open source Firefox web browser, you may have noticed that some services and websites do not perform as good as on a Chromium-based browser. This is not always the fault of Mozilla or the Firefox web browser, as some sites may not test the performance or stability on Firefox, while others may introduce changes that knowingly reduce the performance.

Google-owned YouTube appears to fall in the latter category, which I have revealed time and time again here on this website.

If you do use Firefox and feel that the performance of YouTube is lacking, you may be interested in two upcoming changes that might change that for the better.

Good to known: While the changes are not yet finalized, good news is that you can make them in the latest stable version of the browser already.

The first change enables WebRender Layer Compositor. Put simply, this technology limits what needs updating on the screen when something moves or changes. The effect should be improved scrolling, less or no stuttering for animations or videos, better battery life, and improved performance on heavy sites that tax the device.

Here is how you enable the feature:

1. Load about:config in the Firefox address bar.
2. Confirm that you will be careful and understand the risks.
3. Search for WebRender Layer Compositor.
4. Toggle the feature to True.
5. Restart Firefox.

This enables the technology in Firefox. You could head over to YouTube right after the restart to start testing the change.

However, if your PC uses an AMD graphics processor, you might want to make a second change that could have an impact. This one improves CPU usage on AMD systems.

1. Go back to about:config.
2. Search for media.wmf.zero-copy-nv12-textures-force-enabled.
3. Toggle the feature to True.
4. Restart Firefox.

Last but not least, if your device does not support the AV1 codec, you could consider disabling it in Firefox. This forces YouTube to fall back to using VP9 instead, which may improve performance. If you still run into performance issues after making the two tweaks mentioned above, try the following:

• Set media.av1.enabled to False on about:config.
• Restart the Firefox web browser.

Test the change on YouTube to see if you notice an improvement.

Now You: Do you open YouTube regularly in a web browser? Did you notice performance issues, especially in Firefox? Did the changes mentioned above improve your experience? Feel free to leave a comment down below. (via Reddit)

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Apple is said to be focusing on improving the quality, and performance in iOS 27. It will also bring some new AI features.

The news comes from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who compares the plans to that of Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Apple had released Mac OS X 10.6 in 2009, even though it did ship with new features, the update largely focused on fixing the bugs, rewriting core features, enhancing the operating system, removing unnecessary system files and older code. This is what the Cupertino company is planning for the next iteration of iOS 27, macOS 27, and iPadOS 27.

As you may know, Apple made some major changes in iOS 26, iPadOS 26 and macOS Tahoe 26, with Liquid Glass, and of course, Apple Intelligence. But it didn't go as well as Apple had hoped. Users had reported several issues with the software, from battery drain, to overheating, bugs in the software, app crashes, lags, and more. I also experienced some of these problems, and some of the changes Apple made to apps like Safari felt like a downgrade in the user experience.

Apple introduced a toggle for Liquid Glass in iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS 26.01, to reduce the transparency effects because users didn't like it. It is working on improving this further in the latest beta versions i.e. iOS 26.2 and the rest. It seems like Apple wants to take some time off to address these problems to improve the core experience.

Another area where Apple has fumbled is AI, and this is also something the company wants to focus on. It is planning an upgrade for Siri, for which Apple has also partnered with Google to bring Gemini AI technology to its own models. This is reportedly set to arrive with iOS 26.4 early next year. As for iOS 27, Apple has plans to integrate AI in more apps, including an agent for its Health app as part of a Health+ subscription. Apple is also working on an AI-powered web search engine to take on ChatGPT, Perplexity. There's also a chatbot app, which has been dubbed Veritas, for internal use within the company. An AI named after the Latin word for truth is rather ironical.

An update that improves the performance is fine by me. Liquid Glass is a travesty.

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The Steam Machine was announced 2 weeks ago, but Valve hasn't revealed the price yet. The company's engineers wouldn't say it, but have hinted that it will be priced like a PC.

In case you missed it, last week a couple of engineers from Valve revealed that the Steam Machine is equal to, or more powerful than 70% of PCs according to Steam's Hardware Survey.

Skill Up interviewed Valve's engineers, Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais, you can watch the video on YouTube (from around the 1 hour 23 minute mark). The video is nearly 3 hours long, and touches on various topics, including one that many people are anxious to know. What will the Steam Machine cost?

When he was asked about this, Griffais reiterated that the Steam Machine is like a mid-level PC. He mentioned that it is similar to building a PC from parts, that offers similar performance to the device. For reference, the Steam Machine is powered by a 6-core AMD Zen 4 CPU, an AMD RDNA3 GPU, 8GB GDDR6 VRAM and 16GB DDR5 RAM.

It makes sense, though the news might disappoint some people, because as soon after Valve had announced the device, gamers on social media were buzzing, and expected the device to be priced aggressively. That would be great, but it doesn't make sense for Valve's strategy. Consoles like the PS5, Xbox or Switch are usually sold at a lower price point to attract buyers. The companies make up for the device's price tag by selling games and subscriptions, and these are sold exclusively through the console's store. But, Valve has Steam, so the same theory should apply here, right? Not necessarily.

Linus Tech Tips released a video a couple of weeks ago, where he mentioned Valve had told him the Steam Machine would cost as much as a PC does. Linus explained that the Steam Machine is basically a computer, you could buy it and use it like one. If Valve priced it very affordably, it could attract corporations who may order it in bulk. This scenario isn't ideal for Valve, as it wouldn't bring in revenue from game sales. He's right. Valve itself had mentioned that users can install whatever operating system they want on the Steam Machine.

Later, on a WAN show episode (around 38:28) Linus stated that Valve wasn't happy when he asked if the Steam Machine would cost $500. Based on that, I guess we could be looking at a $700 to $800 price tag for the Steam Machine. That's not too bad, mid-range gaming laptops cost more than that, and many of them don't have an 8GB graphics card.

What do you think the Steam Machine's price will be?

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File Explorer is the main file manager of the Windows operating system. Previously called Windows Explorer, Microsoft renamed the tool and has modified it significantly in the past decade. From adding a new recommended section and a dual-context menu, to advertisement and sprinkling light doses of AI functionality on top of the ever-growing application.

In the latest Insider build of Windows 11 that Microsoft released, the company admitted something that it usually does not: that a component in Windows lacked in the performance department.

Here in particular, Microsoft confessed that File Explorer launch performance was sub-par and that it is introducing preloading of File Explorer to address the issue.

Note that this has nothing to do with select folders opening slowly in File Explorer. There is a tweak that you may apply to speed that up, but it is independent from what Microsoft is trying to fix and introducing.

This should not be visible to users, according to Microsoft, but it is too early for a final verdict on the change. It is introduced in a beta build after all and that means that most of the testing happens on user devices after all.

Granted, depending on the PC system that is used, it may take a second or two before File Explorer opens, even if you use the handy shortcut Windows-E to launch it.

Good news is that users may turn off the preloading. This can be useful if you do not notice a difference to before or even a regression.

Here is how that is done:

1. Open File Explorer on the PC in question.
2. Select View > Folder Options.
3. Remove the checkmark from "enable window preloading for faster launch times".

This should take care of the preloading and return the status quo. Microsoft plans to enable the preloading by default, which means that you do need to become active to turn it off again.

Tests will show if the preloading has a positive net effect on the launch of File Explorer. Also, if the change will have negative consequences, for instance by prolonging the system start or increasing RAM usage.

It will take some time before the change lands in stable versions. Microsoft has not yet revealed when that is going to happen, it could be in the coming months or as part of the 2026 feature update for Windows.

Now You: Do you use File Explorer as a Windows user, or have you switched to a third-party file manager? How fast does File Explorer load on your system? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

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Spotify has announced that it has acquired WhoSampled. The music sample database will be used for the streaming service's SongDNA feature, but will continue to exist as a standalone platform.

WhoSampled debuted in 2008, the music discovery service samples over a million songs. It is largely a community-driven database, where users submit information about how songs are connected. This information is verified by moderators, and added to the database. WhoSampled allows users to discover the origins of their favorite music, and also to find if they have been covered or remixed.

Spotify has announced 2 AI-powered features called SongDNA and About the Song. SongDNA provides an interactive view listing the connections between songs, collaborators, samples, and covers. This feature is powered by WhoSampled, which is used for the data about samples and covers. It's rolling out to Spotify Premium users in the "Now Playing" view.

(Image courtesy: Spotify)

The other feature, "About the song", displays a summary about the track with information about the track that is playing, such as what inspired it, stories behind the songs, cultural impact.

Spotify is also expanding Song Credits to highlight all people who contributed to a song. This feature is rolling out to mobile devices, and will be available on desktop in the coming months.

Here's the announcement on WhoSampled's website. Don't read the comments there if you value your sanity. But more importantly, WhoSampled confirmed that it will stay on as a standalone brad and platform after the acquisition. It also announced some major improvements to the service. The database will see faster moderation for submissions, and the website will go completely ad-free in the coming weeks. WhoSampled's iOS app will switch to a free to download model like the Android app. In-app subscriptions will be made free for all users of the WhoSampled iOS and Android apps.

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We have known for some time that the Thunderbird team was looking into options to expand its service and also its revenue streams. Currently, most of the revenue comes from donations from users of the project. The main plan with Thunderbird Pro is to introduce new optional features and services that users may subscribe to.

The new Thunderbird Pro website reveals what users get when they subscribe to the service and how much it costs, at least in an initial early bird phase.

Subscribers get the following benefits with their subscription:

• 15 email addresses
• 3 custom domains.
• 30 gigabytes of mail storage.
• 300 gigabytes of send storage.
• Access to Pro-only features such as Thunderbird Send and Appointment.

In other words, subscribers get access to an email service that supports using custom domains and includes all Pro apps.

ThunderMail is currently in active testing. It comes with a Thunderbird Pro extension, which enables the email accounts in Thunderbird automatically.

The organization describes the three core features in the following way:

• Thundermail: Send/receive emails with a privacy protecting host and the latest mail standards like JMAP. Choose a Thundermail domain or bring your own. Look no further to power the open source email app you love.
• Apppointment: Instead of exchanging multiple messages to schedule a meeting, select your availability and let Appointment handle the rest. Powered by open standards and compatible with Google Calendar and CalDAV. You can now schedule like a pro.
• Send: Share large files with end-to-end encryption and fewer limits. Send provides a natural file attachment experience in Thunderbird Desktop and is compatible with any recipient’s inbox. Know your attachments will arrive safe and secure.

The price? Thunderbird Pro is available for 9 Dollars per month in the early bird phase, if paid annually. That is 108 Dollars per year.

The team claims that the money is used to finance the new services, development, and security features. Thunderbird Pro won't track users, use advertising networks, sell user data or display ads.

How does it compare to other services? Proton Unlimited is available for about 7 Dollars per month. It includes 500 gigabytes of storage, 15 email address and 3 custom domains, and access to the VPN as well. However, this is just a limited offer. The regular price is 13 Dollars per month.

For Mail Plus alone, it is 5 Dollars per month, but you get 10 emails, 1 custom domain and 15 gigabytes of storage for that.

Mailbox, another email provider, charges about 3 Dollars per month for 10 gigabytes of mail storage, 5 gigabyte of drive storage, and support for custom domains. The top-of-the-line plan costs about 8 Dollars. It increases storage to 25 gigabytes for mail and 50 gigabytes drive storage.

The early bird price is not necessarily the final price of the product. Thunderbird Pro is an optional service that users may subscribe to.

Now You: Do you pay for an email service currently or prefer the free options? Would you be interested in Thunderbird Pro? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

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Google has announced that Quick Share on Android now works with Apple's AirDrop. And Apple was not involved in building this.

For those unaware, Quick Share is a wireless file sharing protocol that is available on Android devices. It lets you send and receive files from your Android phone or tablet to other nearby Android devices and Windows PCs. Apple's AirDrop is pretty much the same, but is completely locked to its own ecosystem, i.e, AirDrop allowed you to transfer files between your iPhone, iPad and Mac, but it wouldn't let you send the files to Android devices. Both protocols use wireless standards like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct.

Well, that's what Google has accomplished now. The Mountain View company says that Quick Share compatibility with AirDrop is currently rolling out to Pixel 10 devices. It will be expanded to more Android devices in the future. The announcement page has a video that demos the feature in action. And here's a support page on Google's website that has instructions on how to send files to and fro between an Android and an iOS, iPad or macOS device.

Android Authority's Mishaal Rahman reports that users will need the Quick Share Extension app on their Android device to send files to AirDrop-compatible devices. Here's the Play Store listing for it, but it's not live yet. Once you have it on your device, you just need to select the content you want to share, tap on Share > Quick Share, and then select your nearby device. Wait for the other device to accept the request, and the file be sent over.

Google says that it built Quick Share’s interoperability with a focus on security, to protect user data. It also consulted a third-party security firm, NetSPI, to validate the security of the feature, and the assessment determined that the interoperability between Quick Share and AirDrop is secure. Google also sought help from Dan Boneh, a security expert and professor at Stanford University, to ensure that the feature is secure.

Our goal is to provide an easy and secure file sharing experience for our users, regardless of who they are communicating with. Like with RCS and unknown tracker alerts, we always welcome collaboration opportunities to address interoperability issues between iOS and Android.

In a statement provided to Android Authority, a Google spokesperson said, “We accomplished this through our own implementation. Our implementation was thoroughly vetted by our own privacy and security teams, and we also engaged a third party security firm to pentest the solution.”

So, Google reverse-engineered AirDrop to make it compatible with Android. That's pretty impressive. Perhaps this has something to do with the DMA's interoperability rules in the European Union? Well, if it results in cool things like RCS support between Android and iOS, Quick Share and AirDrop compatibility, it's a win for everyone.

On a side note, you can use apps like LocalSend or KDE Connect to transfer files between your devices, and these work across Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Linux.

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The 43rd annual Golden Joystick Awards took place in London yesterday. Here are all the winners from the event.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won 7 awards, to equal a record set by The Last of Us Part II in 2020. The hit-RPG made by Sandfall Interactive, won all 7 categories for which it had been nominated including the coveted Ultimate Game of the Year, Best Soundtrack, Best Storytelling, Best Visual Design, Studio of the Year, Best Lead Performer (Jennifer English) and Best Supporting Performer (Ben Starr).

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 beat the likes of Blue Prince, Donkey Kong Bananza, Ghost of Yotei, Hades 2, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Peak, Silent Hill f and Split Fiction to take the crown of Ultimate Game of the Year.

Sony's Ghost of Yotei won the Best Audio Design award and was also named Console Game of the Year. Blue Prince (Dogubomb / Raw Fury) was voted the Best Indie Game, while Team Cherry's Hollow Knight: Silksong snagged the Best Indie Game (Self-published) and was handed the PC Game of the Year award. Grand Theft Auto 6 won the Best Game Trailer award (the 2nd trailer was nominated), and the Most Wanted Game award.

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered won the Best Remake / Remaster award, despite complaints about its performance issues. Peak was voted the Best Multiplayer Game, and the Streamers' Choice.

The Lies of P: Overture DLC won the Best Game Expansion, R.E.P.O. was voted the Best Early Access Game. Schedule 1 was handed the Breakthrough Award, while the Best Game Adaptation award went to Arcane Season 2. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor won the Best Gaming Hardware category beating the Nintendo Switch 2.

Nintendo won 2 awards, Donkey Kong Bananza was voted the Critics' Choice game, while Pokémon Go won the Still Playing - Mobile category. Good old Minecraft won the Still Playing - PC & Console category.

You can read the full list of nominees at GamesRadar. Millions of gamers voted for their favorite games.

(Image courtesy: GamesRadar, Future)

It's worth noting that the Golden Joystick Awards are voted for by fans, so bias plays a big factor. Still, Clair Obscur deserves the praise. Let's see how it fares at The Game Awards 2025, the winners will be announced on December 11, 2025.

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