gHacks Technology News

The first beta of Linux Mint Debian Edition 7 has been released. LMDE 7 has the codename Gigi.

(Image courtesy: Linux Mint)

It is based on Debian 13 Trixie. A few days ago, I wrote about LMDE 7 dropping support for 32-bit computers, it is 64-bit only, because i386 is no longer fully supported upstream by Debian 13. I had also mentioned that a beta version of the distro would be released soon. Well, it's here now.

These are the system requirements for Linux Mint Debian Edition 7.

• 2GB RAM (4GB recommended)
• 20GB of disk space (100GB recommended)
• 1024×768 resolution

Those are identical to the requirements of the regular version of Linux Mint. As for what's new in LMDE 7, well, it ships with the improvements that were introduced in Linux Mint 22.2. You can read my previous coverage to learn about the new features in it. It includes a redesigned Sticky Notes app with rounded corners, support for fingerprint authentication for login, sudo commands, etc. The theme is also slightly bluer. You may also want to check out Debian 13's release notes.

LMDE 7 supports OEM installs to allow computer manufacturers to ship their systems with the distro. The developers are adapting libadwaita-1.5 changes to libadwaita-1.7. Since it is a Long Term Support release (LTS), you can expect it to be supported for a few years. Debian 13 LTS will be supported until June 30, 2030.

Interested in trying LMDE 7 beta? Head to the official announcement page to download the ISO. That said, there are some known issues with the release, you can read about those and the workarounds on the release notes page.

It is unclear when the final version will be released, but given that the first beta is out, and the fact that Linux Mint 22.3 will be released in December 2025, the final version of LMDE 7 may not be far away.

Note: I have not tried LMDE 7. But Linux Mint 22.2 is my primary OS, so feel free to ask questions about it.

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Artificial intelligence is becoming a central feature of many browsers. Some browsers, like Dia or Perplexity's Comet web browser are created from the ground up with AI in mind. Established browsers like Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome are also getting AI features.

Google just announced a major step for its Chrome web browser that is enabling more AI capabilities in Chrome. Google says that this is "fundamentally changing the nature of browsing". The browser evolves from being a tool for rendering websites to "one that understands it, helps you be more productive, and keeps you safer online" according to Google.

Gemini in Chrome sits at the heart of the change. Google's Gemini AI is baked into the Chrome browser. The AI's integration unlocks new capabilities, such as the ability to "answer questions about articles" or finding "references within YouTube videos". Helper features, like better finding of pages visited in the past are also coming to Chrome according to Google.

One key advancement is multi-tab understanding. Gemini understands connections between tabs and may include the information in its tasks and when it is giving answers. The AI in Chrome integrates with core Google services, including Google Docs and Calendar as well.

Google is also working on introducing advanced agentic capabilities into Chrome. With these enabled, Chrome can "perform multi-step tasks" for users, "like ordering groceries".

Chrome's address bar is also getting new AI capabilities. From AI-based suggestions to AI mode, which basically enables users to type AI prompts directly into the browser's address bar to interact with the AI directly.

Google says that security is also improving thanks to the integration of AI. It mentions Chrome autofill, the proactive blocking of new types of scams, and helping users deal with security issues as examples.

Rolling out in the US

The new AI features of Google Chrome are rolling out to Google Chrome users in the United States that have set the language to English. Google promises that features will land in other countries and regions eventually, but does not mention any specifics.

Closing Words

Like Microsoft, Google is turning its web browser into an AI-driven tool to push its AI services. It remains to be seen how the bulk of users reacts to the infusion of AI into Chrome. While some features sound useful, like the ability to quickly communicate with Gemini or finding references in YouTube videos, others, like the ability to get Gemini to order groceries for you, sound less useful or even useless.

Now You: Are there any AI features that you would like to see in your web browser? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

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Apple released macOS Tahoe 26 a couple of days ago. We take a closer look at that's new in it.

macOS 26 shares a lot of features with iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, so I'm not going to repeat the common features, I'll just focus on the Mac-specific features. Please refer to my previous article to learn about what's new in iOS 26. Also, here's my coverage of the macOS Tahoe announcement.

Liquid Glass is everywhere, whether you like it or hate it. Just like iOS 26 you can change the color of your icons on macOS 26. Head to the System Settings > Appearance, and select between Default, Dark, Clear or Automatic. Clear has its own light and dark versions, and applies the Liquid Glass effect for app icons.

Reducing the transparency may help with the glass effect.

While on the same screen, you may want to set the default folder colors in macOS Tahoe. Click on the drop-down menu next to it (says Automatic), and choose a color of your choice. Notice that the color applies globally, including the Settings app itself. You are not limited to the colors listed in the menu, select "Choose color", and it gives two more options, to use a color picker or the theme colors. Want to change the color of a specific folder? You can do so from Finder, right-click on a folder, and select customize folder. This allows you to customize the folder's color and icon. Changing a folder's color also tags it.

You may have noticed that macOS Tahoe changes the mouse pointer, it's smoother. The hand pointer, which appears when you hover over links, no longer has the "Mickey Mouse" glove, it's a modern version that's smooth, and kind of boring.

The menu bar at the top of the screen is transparent, if you don't like that look, you can go to the Settings > Menu bar, and toggle the background to make it a solid color. Let's take a look at Control Center, yes it's transparent too. It now has sliders to adjust the brightness, and the volume level. You can customize the Control Center by clicking on Edit Controls. It allows you to rearrange the controls, and also to add/remove the ones you like or dislike.

macOS Tahoe brings a couple of iPhone apps to Mac, these are the Journal and Phone apps. There's also the Games app, which is also available for iOS and iPadOS. Live Translation, Genmoji, Image Playground and other AI features are available for Mac too. Not much to say here, so let's keep going. macOS 26 brings support for Metal 4 with more advanced graphics and rendering technologies, like MetalFX Frame Interpolation and Denoising.

App windows are rounder in macOS 26. macOS 26 removes the launchpad in favor of a small window-based launcher of sorts. It's called Apps, because it lists all your apps, and has various categories to organize them in. The reason why this change was made is because of the new Spotlight enhancements.

Spotlight is different, it now displays results for files, folders, apps, messages, calendar events, etc. Press the hotkeys displayed next to a result to perform the action. You can also assign quick keys to open apps or run some system actions easily. See that magnifying glass on the menu bar? Click on it to open Spotlight. You can now access your clipboard history from Spotlight, this is optional, and requires your permission to be enabled.

Apple Safari's Advanced Fingerprinting Protection is now available in regular browsing mode. This anti-fingerprinting feature was previously limited to Private Browsing, to obscure browser and device data that can be used to create a unique fingerprint to identify/track users. Picture-in-Picture mode in Safari lets you move the video from the Page Menu, and you can control the playback directly from PiP.

macOS Tahoe 26 is available for the following Macs.

• MacBook Air with Apple Silicon (2020 and later)
• MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon (2020 and later)
• MacBook Pro (16?inch, 2019)
• MacBook Pro (13?inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• iMac (2020 and later)
• Mac mini (2020 and later)
• Mac Studio (2022 and later)
• Mac Pro (2019 and later)

If you haven't received the update on your Mac, go to Settings app > General > Software Update to check for it manually.

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Vivaldi has been updated to version 7.6. The update brings a fully customizable tab bar.

Right-click on any button on the Tab bar and select Customize Toolbar to open the Toolbar Editor. You can add or remove any button from your Tab bar.

Drag and drop the buttons where you like them to be, rearrange them on the browser's tab bar. Click on Done to save your settings. If you ever messed it up, or want to revert to the default settings, just click on "Reset Tab Bar to default".

The update adds a new icon in the top right corner of the title bar, this is the Tab button. Click on the Tab button to view a list of your open tabs, and also lets you access your recently closed tabs. You can use the search bar to find tabs quickly. It reminds me of Firefox View, but the fact that this is a pop-up panel, not a tab, makes this the better implementation of the two.

Note: Oh, I almost missed this, the Tab button removes the trash icon and cloud icon from the tab bar (seen below). To get them back, use the Toolbar editor, and add the Closed Tabs and Synced Tabs buttons back to the tab bar.

It's not all about the Tab Bar, Vivaldi 7.6 also ships with a handful of quality of life improvements. Vivaldi's context menu has been reorganized. The address bar now supports search keywords that let you jump to tabs, bookmarks, history quickly. To find a specific tab, type @tabs followed by the name. Example: @tabs ghacks

Similarly, you can type @bookmarks and @history. Tab search in particular is very helpful, as it filters the result as you type. And yes, it works across tab groups.

The browser's built-in ad blocker now offer popup rules, to automatically close advertisement tabs or windows that a website may try to open. It will allow legitimate site behavior to function. These rules work alongside the built-in popup blocker.

Vivaldi says that tabs that are sleeping take less time to wake up. You can now use trackpad gestures to navigate back and forth in web pages, it also works with touch screen input. This feature is currently available on Windows.

For a full change log, refer to the announcement on Vivaldi's blog. It's nice to see Vivaldi is not shoving AI features hastily just because, if only other browser makers resisted the hype. You know which browser I'm talking about.

How do you customize Vivaldi? Share your tips with us.

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Microsoft is testing some new features in Paint, Snipping Tool and Notepad for Windows Insiders. Here are the changes coming to the apps.

Paint now lets you save your art work as a project, so you can come back and pick up where you left off. You will need to select the Save as project from the File menu to preserve your work.

Paint is also getting an opacity slider to adjust the transparency level for pencil and brush strokes. Select one of the tools, and you will be able to access the opacity slider on the left edge of the screen.

The new enhancements are available in Paint version 11.2508.361.0 or later.

Snipping Tool is getting a Quick Markup tool, to help users annotate their screenshots, before even capturing it. To use it, you need to select the Quick Markup button from Snipping Tool's toolbar, or use the hotkey Ctrl + E.

Mark the area of the screen that you would like to capture, for example, draw a box around a part of the screen.

Once you have made your selection, you can directly start annotating (highlight, arrows, etc.) and edit the image in the selection area before finalizing the screenshot.

The Quick Markup tool is available in Snipping tool version 11.2508.24.0 or later. For once, these changes are good, especially since they don't use AI features, except for the changes to Notepad.

Notepad can now summarize content, write (generate text from prompts), and rewrite text using local AI models. These features are free and can be used without signing in to your account, but you will need a Copilot+ PC. Users who have a subscription gain access to other cloud models, and can switch to local models based on their needs.

Copilot in Notepad is currently only available in English in Notepad version 11.2508.28.0 or above.

(Images via Microsoft Blog)

Microsoft's announcement says that these features are available for Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels on Windows 11.

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One of the most annoying features that Google rolled out in recent time on YouTube is auto-dubbing and auto-translations of content. A video that is uploaded in English by its producer may be translated automatically by YouTube so that its title and its audio are provided in a different language.

Google says that this is extending the reach of the video, which means more clicks and eyes on ads. Critics argue that they want to view the original video, not an AI generated version that offers subpar quality more often than not. Especially multi-lingua users are annoyed by the feature, as YouTube does not provide options to block the feature for languages. Extensions like YouTube Anti-Translate deal with that.

Google announced an addition to the feature today on its Made on YouTube event. Called auto-dubbing with lip sync, it aims to make auto translated videos more believable by matching the translation to the lip movement of the speaker.

Currently, YouTube's auto-translate and auto-dub feature does not take this into account. Means, the movement of the lips of a speaker do not match the spoken works and sounds that come out of the mouth.

The feature is rolling out in the coming months. It supports 20 different languages, including English, German, French, and Spanish initially, with more languages coming in the future.

Google writes: "We're making auto dubbing more realistic than ever. With upcoming lip sync technology, translated videos will now visually match the speaker's lips with the newly dubbed language, making your content more accessible and engaging for global audiences. We support dubbing across 20 different languages, and we’ll begin testing this new lip sync feature in the coming months."

A short video demonstrates the new functionality on YouTube:

Closing Words

Automatically dubbed videos will look more realistically once the feature becomes available. It seems that creators may need to enable the feature for now for their videos. Google could use it automatically in the future to make its auto-translated videos more attractive and less disliked.

Now You: What is your take on auto-translated and auto-dubbed videos? Good move to expand the reach of videos, or annoying?

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Apple has released a security update for many older iPhone and iPad models. This update includes a critical security fix, for a zero-day threat.

This security update completely went under my radar because I was focusing on iOS 26 and didn't check Apple's security releases page. Speaking of which iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26 all ship with a bunch of new security fixes.

Anyway, let's get back to the update for older devices, the vulnerability in question is tracked under CVE-2025-43300. What's interesting about this is that it is the same as the one I wrote about last month. Apple patched a zero-day threat in iOS, iPadOS and macOS on August 20, with the release of iOS 18.6.2, iPadOS 18.6.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.6.1, macOS Sonoma 14.7.8 and macOS Ventura 13.7.8.

Bleeping Computer spotted some security advisories on Apple's website that highlighted the release of iOS 15.8.5, iPadOS 15.8.5, iOS 16.7.12 and iPadOS 16.7.12 to patch the vulnerability. Here's a brief description of the issue, processing a malicious image file may result in memory corruption. For instance, a photo with spyware code could lead to a targeted attack. Apple says it patched an out-of-bounds write issue with improved bounds checking. The release notes mentions that "Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals." As I said, that is a sophisticated mercenary spyware attack targeting individuals like journalists, activists, etc.

The iOS 16.7.12 update is available for the Phone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X, while the iOS 15.8.5 update is available for iPhone 6s (all models), iPhone 7 (all models), iPhone SE (1st generation), and iPod touch (7th generation). iPadOS 16.7.12 is available for the iPad 5th generation, iPad Pro 9.7-inch, and iPad Pro 12.9-inch 1st generation, while iPadOS 15.8.5 is available for the iPad Air 2, iPad Mini (4th generation).

It's good to see Apple patching security issues on devices that are nearly ten years old, the iPhone 7 was launched in 2016. Earlier this month, WhatsApp fixed a zero-click vulnerability in iOS and macOS that was used in similar attacks.

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Spotify has announced some quality of life improvements for free users. You can now search for songs and play them.

Believe it or not, this basic feature was a behind a paywall. You may know Spotify lets users access it for free, but they have to listen to ads. Plain and simple. Don't like ads? Pay for Spotify Premium, which does home some cool benefits. You get access to ad-free music, downloads, lyrics, and recently lossless streaming, Mix, etc.

So, anyway, let me provide some context on how Spotify free's search worked prior to this change. When you searched for a specific track or an artist, and clicked on the result, it wouldn't play the actual track. Instead, it would play something else from the artist randomly, it would shuffle the music. This was basically Spotify's way of getting people to subscribe to Premium. It's bizarre, but here is something else that might surprise you. YouTube Music is the only other streaming service that lets you listen to music for free. Apple Music doesn't, and as far as I know, all the others have some sort of restrictions or the other.

Now, when you search for a track on Spotify, you can play it for free. This experience is being called "Search & Play". When you click on play on any Spotify track, it's "Pick & Play". Users can also share tracks with their friends, and this is, you guessed it, "Share & Play". The names are rather silly, but these are welcome improvements.

Messages and personalized playlists daylist (not kidding, that's what it's called) are available for free users. Share & Play might actually be a direct result of Messages being introduced, so users can share playlists, tracks via DMs easily.

But, there are some restrictions. TechCrunch reports that Spotify told the blog that free users on mobile have an allocated "on-demand time", this is a daily limit. When you exhaust it, Spotify will offer a limited number of skips per hour. What are skips? Users can listen to any song they like, and if they don't it, you can skip the song and continue listening. According to The Verge, Spotify offers six-skips per hour for free. Here's the announcement on Spotify's blog.

Spotify Premium costs $11.99 per month, and has no such restrictions. Free users make up for the majority of Spotify's user base. 433 million out of 696 million monthly active users access the music streaming service for free. That's a lot of users, which translates to a lot of ads and revenue.

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Fedora Linux 43 beta has been announced. The distro does not support X11 session, it is Wayland-only.

This is because GNOME decided to end support for Xorg. Back in 2023, when GNOME 45 was released, developers began planning the removal of X11.

Since GNOME was dropping the old compositor, Fedora decided it was about time for it to do the same. In April 2025, Fedora said that it was planning to end support for X11 packages, and this decision was finalized in May. However, in a twist a few weeks ago, it was revealed that GNOME 49 release candidate re-enabled X11 support due to some technical issues related to the GNOME Desktop Manager (GDM).

But, this is a temporary change, GNOME does plan to disable X11 in a future version, and it could happen as soon as v50. Despite the reversal, Fedora 43 won't support Xorg, the distro's developers are sticking to the original plan. All GNOME X11 session users will be migrated to the Wayland session.

Fedora 43 will ship with Python 3.14, Linux Kernel 6.17, KDE 6.4, and RPM 6.0. It will come with Mesa 25.1.4 graphics drivers. Beta builds of Fedora 43 Workstation, KDE Plasma Desktop, Server, IoT, and Cloud are available for download on the distro's website. For a full list of technical changes in Fedora 43, please refer to the official wiki.

Phoronix reports that the final version of Fedora 43 could be released in late October or early November. X11 is barely maintained, if at all, and it lacks many features that modern hardware supports like multiple monitors with variable refresh rate, fractional scaling, HDR. Wayland on the other hand is superior in almost all aspects, and support for it has been improving for both AMD and NVIDIA GPUs steadily.

Hopefully, Mint will get proper Wayland support soon. As a reminder, Linux Mint 22.2 was released at the start of September. KDE Linux's first alpha was also released recently.  The first beta of Linux Mint Debian Edition 7 is expected to drop this month.

Do you use X11 or Wayland?

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Google announced the release of a the new Google app for Microsoft's Windows operating system. The new experimental search app streamlines web searches and file searches.

Windows users who install the new app on their device may use the keyboard shortcut Alt-Space to bring up the search interface. The search finds content on the Internet as well as local files, installed programs, and Google Drive files according to Google's announcement.

Another key feature of the app is the integration of Google Lens. It can be used to interact with any text or visual element that is displayed on the screen. Google says that users may use the feature to translate images or text, get "help with homework problems" and more.

Google baked AI into the Windows app as well. AI Mode enables "deeper AI-powered responses" and supports asking follow-up questions. The mode may provide users with additional helpful links, according to the announcement.

The new app has been launched as part of Google's Search Labs experience and it is limited to users from the United States currently who have set their language to English.  Users who match the requirements can opt-in on the official Google Search Labs website.

Closing Words

The experiment brings a universal Google Search app to Windows that combines web searches with file searches and AI functions. Users heavily invested into Google's ecosystem may find it useful, as it gives them quick access to searches and AI from their Windows desktop.

Privacy-aware users may object to giving Google access to local files, but this option can be turned off in the app permissions. Still, the app itself will run on the Windows PC to provide its functionality

The main question is whether Google will maintain the app for years and promote it out of the experimental category, or whether it will be one of those Google projects that are short-lived because they do not meet the company's expectations and projections.

Now You: Would you use the Google app for Windows for searches, Google Lens and AI functionality?

 

 

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Mozilla has released Firefox 143.0. The update lets users pin web apps to the taskbar, but only on Windows.

About a month, I reported that progressive web apps (PWAs) are available via Firefox's Labs. Now, the feature is available for everyone on Windows. This allows you to pin your favorite sites to the taskbar, and launch them quickly without having to open Firefox first, and typing the URL. It's worth noting that the Firefox version that is distributed via the Microsoft Store, does not support pinning web apps. Why isn't this available for Mac or Linux remains a mystery.

You can now pin tabs in Firefox by dragging them to the start of the tab strip. I'm not sure why this is a feature, you can just right-click on a tab to pin it. The drag-and-pin works, I tested it. When you drag a tab, a pin icon appears near the left edge of the tab bar. I suppose this is easier than dragging a tab all the way to the first tab.

Microsoft Copilot is now available in Firefox's sidebar for all users, I already wrote an article about this feature being tested in Firefox Nightly. It's optional, use it or disable it. It's your choice.

Firefox will now display a preview of your camera, when a site asks for camera access. The preview is available inside the permission dialog, and Mozilla says this is  helpful when switching between multiple cameras.

(Image via Mozilla)

Downloading a file while in Private Browsing mode will trigger a pop-up offering the user with a choice to save a file or delete it automatically. You can configure this behavior from the Settings > General > Files and Applications section. Toggle the option that says "Delete files downloaded in private browsing when all private windows are closed".  The option is disabled by default.

Firefox's address bar will now show you important dates and events such as (e.g. “Mother’s Day”). This feature is available for users in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Italy.

Note: I could not test it, but I found a flag in about:config called browser.urlbar.suggest.importantDates. It is set to true by default. Setting it to false should disable the feature. There is another flag: browser.urlbar.importantDates.featureGate which is set to False.

Mozilla's release notes for Firefox 143.0 says that the release ships with some security fixes, but it's unclear what they are, the link for the security advisory just gives me a 404 error. Firefox's Fingerprinting Protection has been enhanced, it now reports constant values for more attributes of user's computers. More details are available here. Windows UI Automation is rolling out to Firefox users, this feature improves support for accessibility tools such as Windows Voice Access, Text Cursor Indicator and Narrator. Firefox now supports xHE-AAC audio playback on Windows 11 22H2+, macOS, and Android 9+.

Firefox 143.0 for Android now supports DNS over HTTPS. It also has a new feature called "Smarter downloads" which is described as follows, "allows you to manage files easily with real-time tracking and quick controls". Firefox 143.0 now has the Shake to Summarize feature that displays a summary of the web page you are on, when you shake your iPhone. It requires iOS 26 or above. The iOS browser's UI has been redesigned.

Download Firefox 143.0 from the official website. Firefox ESR 115.28.0 and Firefox ESR 140.3.0 are also available for download.

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iOS 26 is now available for iPhones. Let's take a quick look at what's new in it.

Apple had announced the new iteration of iOS in June, before releasing it in beta. Now, it's available for everyone.

The main highlight of iOS 26 is Liquid Glass, a transparent design for apps, icons, menus, widgets, navigation, etc. It is everywhere from the Home Screen to the Lock screen, the notifications, Control Center, and in the interface of apps. Some people like it, some people don't.

To set up your Home Screen for Liquid Glass, long press anywhere on the home page, and select edit in the top-left corner. Tap on customize, and you will be able to select the icon colors, including Light/Dark/Clear themes.

Select Clear, it also has its own Light or Dark options which you can choose. One thing that surprised me is the home bar (the white bar) at the bottom of the screen, it's gone. Liquid Glass also brings a new magnifier loupe that appears when you try to move the cursor. The tab bar (address bar) in apps like Safari, Apple Music, Podcasts, News, etc., shrinks automatically as you scroll, for a more immersive experience. You may notice that many app icons have been redesigned.

Moving to the Lock Screen, iOS 26 introduces a 3D effect for your photos. You'll need to toggle the Spatial scene option when setting up the wallpaper. This feature is available on iPhone 12 and later.

Apple has revamped the Camera app in iOS 26, it has a streamlined design. It displays 2 options at the bottom, Video and Photo. Swipe your finger on these options, to the left or right, to access more options. Users can now customize the controls displayed by the Camera app. If the lens is dirty,  the camera app will prompt you asking to clean it for the best possible photo.

The Photos app also has a new design featuring tabs for Library and Collections. Messages now supports typing indicators in groups, polls, backgrounds, etc. iOS 26's Phone app has a simplified design with three tabs for calls, Contacts and Keypad. The Calls tab acts as a unified layout for Favorites, Recents. Missed and Voicemails. You can switch to the old layout from the menu in the top right corner of the screen. The Phone app supports call screening, which will ask unknown callers to say why they are calling you, and you can choose to pick up the call.

Apple has shipped some new features for Apple Intelligence in iOS 26. Visual Intelligence can be accessed in any app by pressing the same buttons you use to take a screenshot on your iPhone. It allows you to search for things on your screen using Google or other services. Or you can ask ChatGPT about what's currently on your iPhone screen such as an object, or to quickly identify plants, animals, etc.

iOS 26's Live Translations can automatically translate incoming texts in all chats. All you need to do is type your message in your preferred language, and it will be sent to your contact in original and translated versions. It also works real-time in FaceTime calls, translated captions appear on your screen as the person speaks. Live Translation is also supported in Phone calls too, the words are translated and spoken out loud in real time. If you have AirPods when speaking with someone in a different language, you can use them to hear the translated version of what they are saying.

Note: Live Translations supports English (UK, US), French (France), German, Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish (Spain), and requires Apple Intelligence to be enabled on a compatible iPhone, iPad or Mac.

Some tips for iOS 26:

Don't like the Liquid Glass design? You can reduce the transparency effect. To do so, go to the Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Reduce Transparency.

It is very noticeable in some apps. You may have to restart apps to apply the setting.

Apple Safari in iOS 26 removes the tab switcher button, and it now requires two taps to access your list of tabs. There's a simpler way to switch tabs. Just swipe up from the address bar.

If you want a tab switcher button, go to Settings > Apps > Safari, and keep scrolling until you see the Tabs section. It is set to use the "Compact" layout as default. Select bottom to get the tab switcher button back.

A search bar is now available at the bottom in many Apple apps including Messages, Mail, Notes, etc. You can now set a snooze duration for alarms, the options let you choose between 1 and 15 minutes.

My iPhone 13 was very warm to the touch when I was testing iOS 26, a couple of hours after installing the update. A support page on Apple's website says that "you might notice a temporary impact on battery life and thermal performance.", and that this is normal after installing an update.

Refer to the official support page for more details about what's new in iOS 26.

If you haven't gotten the notification for the update, go to Settings > General > Software Update to check for it manually. iOS 26 is compatible with iPhone 11 and later. Here is a full list of devices that are eligible to receive the OS update.

• iPhone 17
• iPhone 17 Pro
• iPhone 17 Pro Max
• iPhone Air
• iPhone 16e
• iPhone 16
• iPhone 16 Plus
• iPhone 16 Pro
• iPhone 16 Pro Max
• iPhone 15
• iPhone 15 Plus
• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Pro Max
• iPhone 14
• iPhone 14 Plus
• iPhone 14 Pro
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
• iPhone 13
• iPhone 13 mini
• iPhone 13 Pro
• iPhone 13 Pro Max
• iPhone 12
• iPhone 12 mini
• iPhone 12 Pro
• iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Pro
• iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone SE (2nd generation and later)

Apple announced the iPhone 17 series last week, the devices will start shipping on September 19th.

Have you tried iOS 26?

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Microsoft is testing a new option in the Windows 11 system tray. It will allow you to quickly run a network speed test.

The feature was spotted by reliable Windows Insider, Phantomofearth, who says that Microsoft is testing it in the Windows Insider Program. According to screenshots that the leaker posted on X, the option is available via the Windows 11's network and internet icon, or in this case, the Wi-Fi icon. Right-clicking on the button will display a pop-up menu with a new option.

It's simply called "Perform Speed Test", and has a speedometer icon. A second screenshot shared by the leaker shows a "Test internet speed" button in the bottom right corner of the network/Wi-Fi selection panel in the quick settings page.

Tom's Hardware says both of these options are functionally similar. As for the test itself, clicking on either of the 2 options opens Bing in your web browser to run the speed test. Of course, it does. This is essentially a web shortcut to run the speed test, not a built-in app. You could do the same yourself, just open Bing and type speed test, and you should see a speed test widget that you can use to check how fast your internet connection's performance is.

I typically use https://fast.com/ (Netflix's speed test) because it is easy to remember, it's just four letters and Ctrl + Enter. And it initiates a speed test directly without needing any further input. I'm assuming Microsoft wants to offer a similar, faster experience with its shortcut. I suppose it might be useful for people who don't know how to check their internet's speed.

Windows 11's speed test shortcut is currently available for testers running the Canary, Dev and Beta channels of the Windows Insider Program. It might be more useful to have an actual app that does the speed test without opening the browser.

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Microsoft's Copilot AI push continued in the past couple of months. Just last month, it started to roll out Copilot in Excel and told users that they should not be using the AI for any serious tasks just yet.

The next step in Microsoft's plans for world domination is the rollout of the Copilot app for many Windows users. Microsoft confirmed plans to start the rollout this Fall, which means in the coming months.

According to Microsoft, the application will install itself in the background autoamatically, if another Microsoft 365 app is installed on the system. In other words, if you have installed a Microsoft 365 version of Word, Excel, or any of the other Office apps on a Windows machine, you will get the Copilot app installed automatically.

However, if you are from the European Economic Area, then you won't have the application installed automatically according to Microsoft.

Microsoft writes: "Windows devices with the Microsoft 365 desktop client apps will automatically install the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. This app installation takes place in the background and would not disrupt the user. This app installation will start in Fall 2025."

The company published instructions to prevent the automatic installation of the Copilot app on Windows PCs that meet the requirements.

Here they are:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center with an admin account.
2. Go to Customization > Device Configuration > Modern App Settings.
3. Select Microsoft 365 Copilot app, then clear the Enable automatic installation of Microsoft 365 Copilot app check box.

REgular users may disable Copilot via the Group Policy Editor or the Registry

Note: the following options disable Copilot on the Windows system. It needs to be seen whether these will also prevent the installation of the app.

Windows 11 home users who run the Pro edition of the operating system may also block the installation via the Group Policy Editor:

• Open the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc). 
• Navigate to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Copilot. 
• Enable the "Turn off Windows Copilot" policy

All Windows users may add the following option to the Registry

• Open the Registry Editor and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot. 
• Create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it TurnOffWindowsCopilot. 
• Set its value data to 1

In any event, you may uninstall the Copilot application if it was installed automatically on your system via the Apps section of the Settings app.

Now you: what is your take on the auto-installation? Good move by Microsoft or yet another overreach?

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Linux Mint Debian Edition 7 will not support 32-bit computers. That's not surprising.

Last week, I reported that Mozilla is ending support for Firefox on 32-bit Linux in 2026. In that article, I briefly explained how 32-bit distros are becoming rarer these days.

So why is Linux Mint Debian Edition ditching 32-bit? Well, it's very simple. LMDE is based on Debian. And Debian 13 dropped support for i386, aka 32-bit. It is now amd64, which is the 64-bit architecture. Naturally, since it is based on Debian's source code, LMDE has no choice but to follow suit, hence becoming a 64-bit distro.  You can still run 32-bit apps, but the distribution will not have 32-bit build ISOs. Debian 12 Bookworm Long Term Support (LTS) end on June 30, 2028. So it is likely that LMDE 6 will be supported until then. So, there is no need to panic just yet.

LMDE 7, which is codenamed Gigi, will be based on Debian 13 Trixie. The official announcement says that the upcoming iteration will include the improvements that were introduced in Linux Mint 22.2. Also, LMDE 7 will support OEM installations, which will allow manufacturers to pre-install the distro on their computers. The first beta of LMDE 7 will be released in September.

In case you missed it, Linux Mint 22.2 was released earlier this month. Linux Mint 22 was released in July 2024, followed by 22.1 in January 2025, and 22.2 in September this year. However, the next release is very close. Linux Mint 22.3 is targeting a December 2025 release. It will focus a new version of Cinnamon, and bring a new menu.

This is what it looks like right now (except for the custom menu icon that I use).

Here's a preview of the new menu. So the layout's changing, the buttons at the bottom are being moved to the right panel. I don't know why but it reminds me of macOS' System Settings.

The names of the icons in the sidebar are expanded, while the right panel has descriptions for each app. That might be useful for people who are moving to LMDE 7, because a certain OS is reaching end of life support soon.

Mint 22.3 will also have a status applet, and Wayland-compatible handling for keyboard layouts and input methods. While on the topic of Linux, you should check out KDE Linux. It's very much real, albeit in an early phase.

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Usually, we post Windows Security Updates once they are out. This time it's a little delayed, but here it is nonetheless.

Microsoft Windows Security Updates: September 2025

Executive Summary

Microsoft has released 86 security updates for Microsoft products (9 critical and 72 important), and 5 patches for non-Microsoft issues (like Chromium).

For those of you who want all the details of the patches from the released updates, head to this page: Windows Security Updates September 2025.

Windows clients with known issues

• Windows 10: None
• Windows 11: Windows 11, version 24H2 (PowerShell Direct (PSDirect) connections failing in hotpatched devices)
• Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2025.

Windows Security Updates

Windows 10 version 22H2

• Support Page: KB5065429
• Security fixes and improvements
• This update fixes an issue that caused non-admin users to run into UAC prompts when MSI installers/repairs perform certain actions. It affected Office Professional Plus 2010 and multiple applications from Autodesk including AutoCAD. An issue related to WinSock was fixed.
• Refer to this optional update page for more changes in this update.

Windows 11 version 22H2 / 23H2

• Support Page: KB5065431
• Security fixes and improvements
• This update fixes an issue that caused non-admin users to run into UAC prompts when MSI installers/repairs perform certain actions. It affected Office Professional Plus 2010 and multiple applications from Autodesk including AutoCAD. An issue related to WinSock was fixed.
• Optional update page with more changes included in this update.

Windows 11 version 24H2

• Support page: KB5065426
• Security fixes and improvements
• An input issue that caused certain apps to stop responding was resolved. A bug that caused Internet Information Services (IIS) modules to disappear from IIS Manager was addressed in this update. A Network Device Interface (NDI) issue that affected audio in apps was fixed.
• Refer to the optional update page for additional information.

Known Issue: Installing the KB5063878 can cause audio stutter when Display Capture is on in OBS Studio.

List of important security vulnerabilities that were patched Security advisories and updates

ADV 253991 - Guidance for secure Entra ID application authorization validation

Microsoft Office Updates

You find Office update information here. How to download and install the September 2025 security updates

Here is how you install the update immediately on a system:

1. Open the Start menu, type Windows Update, and select the result.
2. Activate the "check for updates" button. This runs a manual check for updates.
3. Activate the "download & install all" button, if the update is not downloaded automatically.

Direct update downloads

Want to download the updates from the Microsoft Update Catalog? These links will help you.

Windows 10 version 22H2

KB5065429 2025-09 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 22H2

Windows 11 version 23H2

KB5065431 2025-09 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 22H2

Windows 11 version 23H2

KB5065431 2025-09 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 23H2

Windows 11 version 24H2

KB5065426 2025-09 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 24H2

Additional resources

• August 2025 Security Updates release notes
• List of software updates for Microsoft products
• List of the latest Windows Updates and Services Packs
• Security Updates Guide
• Microsoft Update Catalog site
• Our in-depth Windows update guide
• How to install optional updates on Windows 10
• Windows 11 24H2 Update History
• Windows 11 23H2 Update History
• Windows 10 Update History

As a reminder, Windows 10 reaches its end of life in exactly 30 days: October 14, 2025. You can follow this guide to extend security updates for a year.

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Microsoft continues its push towards making its Windows 11 operating system a driver for subscription-based sales. The company launched a new SCOOBE screen (Second Chance Out of Box Experience) in the latest Windows 11 development builds that is nagging users when their Microsoft 365 subscription expired.

A fullscreen page may be displayed when the Microsoft 365 subscription needs attention writes Microsoft in the release notes of the update. The screen may be displayed when the payment did not go through, according to Microsoft. That is just one example, and others may include nudging users into renewing a subscription if they have paused payments or even cancelled the subscription.

Microsoft writes: "In just a few clicks, you can review and update your payment method and keep your subscription benefits uninterrupted."

The new screen is part of another "experience" that Microsoft baked into its Windows 11 operating system. Users may be aware of the Out of box experience already, which Windows 11 displays on the first start after installation or turning on a PC with Windows 11 for the first time.

This second experience also launches after the operating system is started. It may show different information or calls to action to the user. All have in common that they show up after starting the system in fullscreen and before the actual desktop is displayed. In other words, users have to react to the message before they may even get to the desktop and start using their system.

The new Microsoft 365 subscription screen shows usage information. It lists the amount of data that the user has stored in the cloud and the number of users a family account was shared with. The screen displays highlights next to that, including the number of devices the subscription can be used on and which premium apps may be accessed. Clearly, the message is useful to some, especially if cloud data exceeds the free quota, but it can also be seen as a subtle reminder that others may be impacted, if the subscription is not renewed.

Closing Words

While information like this can be useful to users, for instance when a payment failed without the user realizing it, it has all the traits of a feature that is going to annoy some users also, especially if Micrsoft uses it as a way to lure users who cancelled their subscription back in.

Microsoft does not say how often the screen is displayed to users. Just once? Or regularly, until the subscription is renewed? Only time will tell, but judging from past experiences, it is likely that users will see the nag screens multiple times a year.

Now You: what is your take on this? Good move by Microsoft and a friendly reminder, or an attempt to make the life of ex-subscribers miserable?

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Google is adding a Purchases tab to Gmail's sidebar. This might be useful if you do a lot of online shopping.

Gmail already supports order tracking since 2022. When you place an order and get a mail about it, Gmail would display a banner with some information about it at the top of your inbox. This isn't changing, it will display summary cards for packages that will arrive within 24 hours.

The new Purchases tab is designed to help you keep track of all your purchases, and delivery updates, in one place. It's not just a list that filters emails that contain order information. Gmail's Purchases View displays multiple summary cards for upcoming deliveries, if you have multiple active orders, each of those displays a thumbnail of the item, and has buttons that you can click on. Purchases are listed below the "arriving soon" cards.

If these work like the existing shortcuts, clicking the buttons should open the corresponding page on the shopping website, without opening the mail.  E.g. If you tap/click on track order in an email from Amazon, it would open the tracking page on Amazon's site/app.

This purchase tracking feature actually reminded me of an old article that Martin wrote about how Google is tracking your purchases, and that's bad for privacy. Now it's a feature. You should be able to turn off the Purchases tab from Gmail's Settings > Inbox type > Customize. That's what Google's support page for Inbox categories seems to suggest, I can't verify that until I can test the feature.

Google's announcement says that the Purchases tab is rolling out to all Google personal account users on mobile and web. I don't have it yet, but you can refer to the above image, courtesy of Google's blog.

Gmail is also getting a more relevant Promotions tab. As seen in the image below, you will be able to sort the mails in the tab by “most relevant” promotional emails. It is based on the mails that you click on, i.e. the ones that remain unread or sent straight to the bin, aren't considered important.

Google says Gmail will add helpful nudges, to alert users about upcoming deals and offers that are expiring, so they don't miss them. How do you turn this off? Well, you can disable the Promotions tab.

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A couple of months ago, we reported that Microsoft may dodge a fine in an antitrust case in the European Union. Well, the Redmond company has indeed avoided the fine.

In 2020, Slack had filed a complaint that claimed Microsoft's bundling of Teams in its Office productivity suite was anti-competitive. It said Microsoft was forcibly installing Teams on Windows, prevented it from being uninstalled. The complaint also mentioned that Microsoft did not reveal the true cost to its customers. The EU opened a formal antitrust investigation against Microsoft in 2023, based on the complaint. Soon after that, Microsoft announced that it would unbundle Teams from Office in Europe. It even unbundled Teams from its productivity software suite globally in 2024. Microsoft launched Teams as a separate app.

But things didn't go its way. In June last year, the European Commission charged Microsoft for violating antitrust laws for bundling Teams illegally. In a bid to avoid a hefty fine, Microsoft told the European Commission that it would make some changes, such as offering interoperability with other software in its Office apps.

The European Commission has accepted Microsoft's proposal, which includes some important commitments that the company has to follow for 7 years. You can read the official statement here.

Microsoft has to offer consumers in the EU, versions of its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites without Teams. It has to price them at a lower price than suites that include Teams. Microsoft is not allowed to offer a better discount for Office 365 with Teams or other tiers with Teams.

The Commission says that Microsoft has to allow recurrent purchases to switch to suites without Teams, and these suites have to be deployed in datacenters worldwide. As for interoperability, it has to allow third parties access to functions in Microsoft products and services. Third-parties should be allowed to embed Office web apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint in their own products. Likewise, their own products should be allowed to be integrated in Microsoft's core productivity apps. Customers in the EU should be allowed to export their Teams messaging data, and import them into a competing app. The commitments related to interoperability and data portability will remain in force for ten years.

Well, this is a win for consumers, and for services like Slack, Zoom, etc. who can now compete with Teams fairly.

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Mozilla has announced a new feature for Firefox on iOS. The browser will summarize web pages when you shake your iPhone, yes it uses AI for this.

The feature, which was reported by Engadget, works on web pages that have fewer than 5,000 words. When you visit a web page, just shake your phone and Firefox will generate a summary about the content on the page. You can also tap on the thunderbolt icon in the address bar, or tap on the three-dot menu and select Summarize page. That's three ways to access the feature.

According to the announcement, this summarization takes place locally on your device using Apple Intelligence on iOS 26 and above. That means it uses a local language model on iPhone 15 Pro or later, specifically the Mistral Small 3.1 model. However, if you have an earlier iOS version, or an older iPhone, Firefox's summarization feature will send the text on the page securely to Mozilla's cloud-based AI, and fetches a summary from the servers. Oh, goody! That's just what we asked for!

Naturally, this has drawn criticism from the Firefox community. That is understandable. Local language models are fine, cloud-based have some privacy risks. A lot of other browsers have some form of web page summarization. Not everyone is a fan of AI. Think about this. You are on a web page that contains your sensitive data (medical, financial, personal, etc.) or your family or children's data, and it gets sent to the cloud for summarization. Are you really okay with that?

Potential privacy issues aside, there is also a chance that the summarization gesture could be triggered when you don't want it to. For example, let's say you use the double-tap gesture, where you tap twice on the back of your iPhone to take a screenshot. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't register the taps accurately. What if this makes Firefox trigger a summary instead of iOS' screenshot functionality? Something similar could happen if you're talking and gesturing with the phone in your hand. There is a way to disable the shake to summarize gesture, and leave the other ways on. (refer to the settings section below).

Anyway, you can check out a video demo of Firefox's shake to summarize on Mozilla's blog. AI summarization in Firefox is rolling out to English language users in the U.S. Mozilla says the feature will roll out to others soon. I don't have access to it. I wanted to test it, just to see if it was enabled by default, and to tell readers how to disable it. Thankfully, there is a support page on Mozilla's website that describes the process.

To disable AI summarization in Firefox, go to the Settings > (General Section) Page Summaries and toggle it to off. You can also disable the shake gesture.

I won't pretend to be unconcerned about cloud-based AI features slowly creeping into a privacy-friendly browser that I've been using for 17 years. What else am I going to do, switch to Vivaldi because it doesn't have AI features? Oh, wait. I'm just kidding. No need to hit the panic button yet.

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