It feels as though Google Chrome has been around forever, but it’s actually still just a teenager: The browser launched back in 2008, originally just for Windows—though it’s now made its way to macOS, Linux, and mobile devices too of course. It’s a powerhouse of a browser that is more widely used than any other.

In the 18 years since its release, Chrome has changed a lot: A host of features have been added and taken away down the years, and it’s very possible that you don’t know everything that Chrome can do, even if you use it every day. Here are my favorite hacks for Chrome, covering everything from casting tabs to playing audio and video.

Change the look and feel of Google Chrome

If you’ve always stuck with the ‘out of the box’ Chrome aesthetic, you might not be aware that it’s relatively simple to change up the theme of the browser—which covers the colors of menus and tabs, as well as what you see on the new tab page. To see the available options, open up a new tab, then click the Customize Chrome button (lower right).

You can apply any of the color themes just by clicking on them, or set up your own colors by clicking the color picker (the little pipette icon). For a more significant visual overhaul, click Change theme: You’ll then see a range of options created and curated by Google. Click Chrome Web Store to see more official and third-party themes you can install.

Claw back some RAM from Chrome

Activate Memory Saver for smoother performance.
Credit: Lifehacker

It’s fair to say Chrome doesn’t have the best reputation for efficient RAM usage, but you can get some of it back. In any tab, click the three dots (top right), then choose Settings > Performance, and activate the Memory Saver option. As Google explains, this will put tabs you’ve not used in a while in an inactive state, and recover some RAM from them.

Put your tabs up on a big screen

It’s not a Chrome feature that gets much attention, but you can cast tabs wireless to a big screen via Google TV or Chromecast devices. It’s useful for everything from music streaming to slide presentations, though the latency is usually too high for video playback (and bear in mind that YouTube, for example, has its own casting button for this).

With a tab open in Chrome, click the three dots in the top right corner, then choose Cast, save and share > Cast. You’ll then be asked to choose the device to cast to (which must be on the same wifi network of course). Via the Sources button, you can choose to cast just the tab you’re in, or your entire Windows or macOS desktop, including Google Chrome.

Switch up your search engine

Chrome can use whatever search engine you tell it to.
Credit: Lifehacker

Just because you use Google Chrome doesn’t mean you have to use Google Search—maybe you want to switch to a privacy-first alternative, like DuckDuckGo. To set up search engines in Chrome and change the default one, click the three dots in the top right corner of any tab, then choose Settings, and open the Search engine page.

Use the Add button to add new search engines, the pencil icons on the right to edit their details, and the three dots on the right to set which one is used by default (when you type some search terms into the Chrome address bar). Each search engine can also have a shortcut: Type the shortcut into the address bar to run a search using that specific site.

Group your tabs together

Tab grouping can make it much easier to manage the myriad tabs you’ve got open in every single session—these groups can be moved and closed and saved all together, so you could set up different groups for different research projects, for example, or for different tasks in the browser (maybe one for work-related browsing and another for shopping).

The easiest way to get started with tab groups in Chrome is to right click on a tab header and pick Add tab to new group from the pop-up menu. Give your tab a name and color, and if you then right-click on other tab headers, you’ll be able to add them to the group (or create a new one). Right-click on the headers of grouped tabs to access further options.

Switch between user profiles

Add a new profile to separate your browsing activities.
Credit: Lifehacker

User profiles are a hugely powerful Chrome capability that more people should know about: It lets you split your browsing into work and personal categories, for example, (and separate Google accounts, if needed). It means that logins, browsing history, and all the other data that gets stored in Chrome don’t all get lumped together in one place.

So, you could use your work profile for the day, and then switch to your personal profile at night—making it easier to access your Netflix login and Amazon shopping history, for example. To get started with profiles, click your current profile avatar (in the top right corner, next to the three dots), then choose Add Chrome profile from the menu.

Edit webpages with Tampermonkey

If you’re prepared to invest some time and effort into your Chrome hacking, give the Tampermonkey extension a look (it’s actually available for several browsers, not just Chrome). The tool lets you inject your own custom code to modify the websites you’re looking at, so you can alter the appearance or even the functionality of pages.

You could remove distractions from a page, for example, add your own keyboard shortcuts for navigation, or insert new buttons for sharing links on social media. We don’t have the space for a full tutorial here, but if you head to the Tampermonkey website you’ll find a wealth of help to get you started, plus some links to user script repositories on the web.

Install web apps in Windows or macOS

Spotify’s web app as a desktop app.
Credit: Lifehacker

There are plenty of powerful web apps you can get at through Chrome—Slack, Gmail, Spotify—and Google’s browser lets you set these up as if they were desktop apps in Windows or macOS. You can get a shortcut straight to the app on the Windows taskbar or macOS dock, and when you launch it, it appears in its own distinct desktop window.

With the web app open in Chrome, click the three dots (top right), then choose Cast, save and share > Install page as app. You’ll then be asked to give your new app a name, and click Install to confirm. The app launches right away, and you can then organize it into your Windows or macOS system as you want (by pinning it to the taskbar, for example).

Run a check for safety and privacy

Chrome comes with a built-in Safety Check that runs an audit on passwords, security updates, third-party extensions, and more. You can find the Safety Check screen by clicking the three dots to the top right of any tab, then choosing Settings > Privacy and security: As well as running the check, you can follow the recommended actions.

Use Chrome to preview files and preview media

Chrome can quickly open files like PDFs.
Credit: Lifehacker

Google Chrome can handle more than webpages: It’s also able to open up PDF documents, and image, video, and audio files saved in common formats (like MP3 or MOV). Just drag a file into an empty tab to open it, or associate the file type with Chrome in Windows or macOS (which means it’ll automatically open in the browser when you double-click on it).

Chrome isn’t the most advanced PDF editor or video player you’re ever going to see, but it’s a quick and easy way of opening up local files without having to launch an entirely separate program each time. You could use this alongside the Split View feature, for example, to watch a video stored on your system while making notes in Google Docs.

Following its recent AI makeover of Gmail, Google is bringing more Gemini-powered tools to Chrome. Starting today, a host of new features are rolling out for the browser, with more to come over the next few months. 

The first of the new features is a sidebar. Available to all Gemini in Chrome users, the interface allows you to chat with Gemini and keep a conversation going across multiple tabs. Google suggests the sidebar is useful for multitaskers. “Our testers have been using it for all sorts of things: comparing options across too-many-tabs, summarizing product reviews across different sites, and helping find time for events in even the most chaotic of calendars,” the company writes. 

Google

The sidebar is also where you access the second new feature Google is adding to Chrome. Following its successful rollout within the Gemini app, Nano Banana, Google’s in-house image generator, is available directly inside of the browser. With the addition, you won’t need to open a new tab when you want Gemini to make you an AI image. You also won’t need to download and upload a file when you want Gemini to edit an existing image for you. Instead, you can complete both of those tasks from any of your open tabs, thanks to the new sidebar.    

Looking forward, Google plans to bring Personal Intelligence, which debuted inside of the Gemini app at the start of January, to Chrome in the coming months. Once the feature arrives, it will allow the browser to remember past conversations you’ve had with Gemini. In turn, Google says this will lead to a more personalized Chrome. “Personal Intelligence in Chrome transforms the browsing experience from a general purpose tool into a trusted partner that understands you and provides relevant, proactive, and context-aware assistance,” the company said.

In the meantime, Gemini in Chrome already supports Google’s Connected Apps feature, which allows the assistant to pull information from the company’s other services, including Gmail and Calendar. During a press briefing, a Google employee demoed this feature by asking Gemini to pull up the dates of when their children would be on March break. Without telling the assistant where to look, Gemini sourced the correct time frame from the employee’s email inbox.    

Google

Last but not least, Google is previewing a new auto browse feature inside of Chrome. In the demo the company showed, an employee asked Gemini to find and buy them the same winter jacket they bought a few seasons ago. The assistant first drafted a plan outlining how best to tackle the request. It reasoned the best place to start was with a search of the employee’s email inbox to determine the correct model and size of jacket. It then went shopping.

While Gemini was working on this task, the employee was free to continue browsing in Chrome. At several points in the process, the assistant would stop before continuing to obtain the employee’s permission to move forward. For instance, it paused when it needed login credentials, and again when it needed a credit card number to complete the purchase. 

Judging from the demo, it will probably take you less time to do your online shopping and other browser tasks on your own. Google suggests the feature will appeal to those who are creatures of habit. Say you often order the same produce from a grocery delivery service every week, Gemini can automate the ordering. Plus, the feature is in preview, so early testers probably won’t be too put off by Gemini’s slow pace. In any case, Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the US can try auto browse starting today.    

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-brings-its-nano-banana-image-generator-to-chrome-180000104.html?src=rss

When deciding which video game to buy, “Is it fun?” is no longer the only consideration. Given the state of the industry, “Do I want to support this company?” is arguably more important. Take, for example, Ubisoft, where things seem to unravel more each day. After the floundering publisher floated even more layoffs this week, workers at its Paris headquarters said, “Enough is enough.” They’re now calling for a three-day strike.

Unions representing Ubisoft employees plan to strike from February 10 to 12. “With management being stubbornly entrenched in its authoritarian ways, we are calling Ubisoft employees across France to join this strike, along with the five unions present within the company,” The Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo (Video Game Worker’s Union) wrote in a statement.

The strike follows a series of heavy-handed cost-cutting moves at Ubisoft. It recently shut down its Halifax studio just 16 days after employees unionized. Last week, it closed its Stockholm studio and announced additional restructuring efforts worldwide. It also canceled six games and delayed seven others.

Then, earlier this week, the Assassin’s Creed publisher proposed cutting 200 jobs at its Paris headquarters. Under French labor law, the company would organize the cuts through the nation’s Rupture Conventionnelle Collective (RCC) process. It would require a mutual agreement between the company and the labor union.

ROBYN BECK via Getty Images

Adding even more fuel to the fire, Ubisoft will now require workers to return to the office five days each week. (The company had previously agreed to two work-from-home days per week.) Although Ubisoft framed the mandate as being about efficiency and collaboration, it’s easy to view this as a cudgel to further reduce its headcount. One Ubisoft developer, who hinted as much while voicing his opposition to the mandate on LinkedIn, said he was suspended without pay for three days as a punitive measure.

The workers’ union saw all of this and decided it was time to act. “We’re calling for a HALT to management’s obsession with penny-pinching and worsening our working conditions,” the Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo wrote. “It’s time for a real accountability from company executives, starting from the top! Without the workers, and generous public funding, Ubisoft would never have been able to grow this much. WE are Ubisoft, and WE are shutting it down February 10th to 12th!”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ubisoft-173241918.html?src=rss

Windscribe isn’t a VPN for everybody, and it’s not trying to be. Despite its high-achieving free plan, it didn’t quite make my list of the best VPNs, largely due to alienating interface choices and swingy download speeds. Its iconoclastic approach to everything from design to pricing to its online knowledge base will likely win some customers for life and turn others off.

For those in the latter camp, I’ve written up this guide for cancelling Windscribe. Follow the instructions below to stop Windscribe from auto-renewing, cancel third-party subscriptions, delete your account altogether and get a refund.

The most important thing to know before we start is that Windscribe’s money-back guarantee only lasts seven days — if you paid for a subscription, you have to cancel before then to get a refund. It’s a tighter period than most VPNs, so be ready to decide fast.

How to stop your Windscribe Pro subscription renewing

To cancel Windscribe Pro, simply stop your payment method from automatically renewing for the next subscription period. Once you’ve done this, you can continue using Windscribe Pro until the end of the current period, then you’ll be downgraded to the free version. Here are the steps to follow.

1. In your browser, navigate to windscribe.com. Click the words My Account at the top of the home page.

2. Scroll down to the billing section. On the subscription line, click the button marked Cancel Subscription.

3. You’ll be taken to a new page. Enter your password in the Your Password field. Below, enter a reason for cancellation (this can be “none” or possibly “suck it,” which Windscribe should approve of).

4. Click the Cancel Subscriptions button at the bottom of the page to end automatic renewal on your account.

Sam Chapman for Engadget

If your account also included a static IP subscription, there’s no way to cancel that through the usual dashboard. You’ll have to submit a support request by asking the Garry chatbot, which can be accessed by clicking the icon at the bottom-right corner of any page on windscribe.com.

When you subscribe to an app through a third party like the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, that same third party also handles cancellations and refunds. Windscribe itself won’t be able to do anything for you here.

If you subscribed through Google Play on an Android phone, you can cancel by opening the Google Play Store app and tapping your profile icon at the top-right (a circle with the first letter of your username inside). Tap Payments & Subscriptions in the menu that appears, then subscriptions on the next page. Find your Windscribe subscription, tap it and click Cancel Subscription to end payments.

If you went through the App Store on an Apple device, open the Settings app, then tap on your name at the top of the screen. Tap Subscriptions and scroll down to your Windscribe subscription. Tap it, then tap Cancel Subscription.

How to delete your Windscribe account

If you’re certain you want to stop using Windscribe and never start up again, you can scrub your presence from its servers by deleting your account. To do this, go to windscribe.com and click the My Account button in the header bar. Scroll all the way to the bottom and click on the obnoxiously titled Give Up On Privacy button. This will show you the following image.

Sam Chapman for Engadget

You’ll have to fight through several attempts at comedy to finish deleting your account. Click Yes or No when asked if you ever question your life choices. Enter your password, write whatever you want as a cancellation reason and check both of the boxes below the text field. The Delete Account button should finally be clickable; do it. Once you’ve pulled the trigger, you won’t be able to use the same email address to sign up for another account.

How to get a refund from Windscribe

As I warned above, you can only get a refund from Windscribe for seven days after paying for a subscription. You also cannot get your money back if you’ve used more than 10GB of data since the start of the payment period. Finally, you can only get refunded on the first payment of each subscription — renewals are not eligible.

If you’re within those limits, you can request your money back by starting a conversation with the Garry chatbot. Click the chatbot icon at the bottom-right of the Windscribe website to start a chat. Be warned that you might have to stand firm through several attempts to fix your complaints before you can actually initiate the refund process.

Best Windscribe alternatives

Windscribe is a VPN with a lot of good points. That said, by the time you’ve waded through a swamp of dick jokes to complete the process, I wouldn’t blame you for feeling validated in your decision to get rid of it.

There are plenty of good VPNs that can replace Windscribe. My favorite is Proton VPN, which also has a free plan, though without the ability to select your own server. ExpressVPN is simple and powerful, if a little overpriced, while Surfshark is the fastest VPN overall. If you liked Windscribe for its non-VPN features, NordVPN has the best range of extra perks.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/how-to-cancel-windscribe-and-get-your-money-back-173000785.html?src=rss

Meta has started blocking its users from sharing links to ICE List, a website that has compiled the names of what it claims are Department of Homeland Security employees, a project the creators say is designed to hold those employees accountable.

Dominick Skinner, the creator of ICE List, tells WIRED that links to the website have been shared without issue on Meta’s platforms for more than six months.

“I think it’s no surprise that a company run by a man who sat behind Trump at his inauguration, and donated to the destruction of the White House, has taken a stance that helps ICE agents retain anonymity,” says Skinner.

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mspohr shares a report: When Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web in 1989, his vision was clear: it would used by everyone, filled with everything and, crucially, it would be free. Today, the British computer scientist’s creation is regularly used by 5.5 billion people — and bears little resemblance to the democratic force for humanity he intended.

Since Berners-Lee’s disappointment a decade ago, he’s thrown everything at a project that completely shifts the way data is held on the web, known as the Solid (social linked data) protocol. It’s activism that is rooted in people power — not unlike the first years of the web.

This version of the internet would turbocharge personal sovereignty and give control back to users. Berners-Lee has long seen AI — which exists only because of the web and its data — as having the potential to transform society far beyond the boundaries of self-interested companies. But now is the time, he says, to put guardrails in place so that AI remains a force for good — and he’s afraid the chance may pass humankind by. Berners-Lee traces the web’s corruption to the commercialization of the domain name system in the 1990s, when the .com space was “pounced on by charlatans.” The 2016 US elections, he said, revealed to him just how toxic his creation could become. A corner of the web, he says, has been “optimised for nastiness” — extractive, surveillance-heavy, and designed to maximize engagement at the cost of user wellbeing.

His answer is Solid, a protocol that gives users control through personal data “pods” functioning as secure backpacks of information. The Flanders government in Belgium already uses Solid pods for its citizens. On AI, his optimism remains dim. “The horse is bolting,” he says, calling for a “Cern for AI” where scientists could collaboratively develop superintelligence under contained, non-commercial oversight.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

On Wednesday, China approved imports of Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence chips for three of its largest technology companies, Reuters reported. ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent received approval to purchase more than 400,000 H200 chips in total, marking a shift in Beijing’s stance after weeks of holding up shipments despite US export clearance.

The move follows Beijing’s temporary halt to H200 shipments earlier this month after Washington cleared exports on January 13. Chinese customs authorities had told agents that the H200 chips were not permitted to enter China, Reuters reported earlier this month, even as Chinese technology companies placed orders for more than two million of the chips.

The H200, Nvidia’s second most powerful AI chip after the B200, delivers roughly six times the performance of the company’s H20 chip, which was previously the most capable chip Nvidia could sell to China. While Chinese companies such as Huawei now have products that rival the H20’s performance, they still lag far behind the H200.

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Gaming peripheral company Razer has announced the beta release of Synapse Web, a browser-based version of its desktop software. The web app is intended for quick adjustments when away from home, such as LANs or tournaments, where downloading the full desktop version may not be possible or practical.

At launch, Synapse Web will only support the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro keyboards, though Razer says more devices will be added down the line. Using any Chromium-based browser, users can make quick changes to key settings, apply Chroma RGB quick effects and manage on-board profiles. These profiles can then be viewed, edited and saved directly to the keyboard’s device memory, so the configuration stays consistent when moving between PCs.

The company says the new web-based tool is meant to “complement” Synapse 4, the most recent desktop version, but its appeal may be in providing an alternative altogether. Even a cursory search online will turn up years of complaints that Synapse is riddled with bugs, so fans of the brand may be happy to use a pared-down web app if it means more reliability. Razer says you’ll still need the full app for advanced customization and “deeper device integration” like multi-device RGB syncing or game-specific profiles.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/razer-made-a-web-app-version-of-synapse-170715465.html?src=rss

The explosive measles outbreak in South Carolina has now reached 789 cases, breaking Texas’s outbreak record last year of 762 cases, which at the time was the largest outbreak in the US since measles was declared eliminated from the US in 2000. The country is at grave risk of losing its elimination status in the coming months due to continuous spread.

With Texas’ outbreak last year—which spanned January to August and spread to additional states—the US saw the largest measles case total since 1991, with 2,255 confirmed cases. Now, with South Carolina’s unbridled outbreak, 2026 is already looking like it will be another record year.

Though South Carolina’s outbreak began in October, the spread of the disease has dramatically accelerated this month, with cases jumping from 218 on December 28 to 789 on January 27.

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The latest lineup of MSI’s Prestige laptops is now available to buy. The company unveiled its next-generation business laptop at CES earlier this month, all of them powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors.

Available in configurations that include up to the Intel Core Ultra 9, the updated Prestige series are equipped with chunky 91Wh batteries and, depending on the model, offer over 30 hours of 1080p video playback. In more real-world terms, if you’re on a work trip and know you won’t always have a power supply to hand, you can trust one of these to get you through a day of heavy multi-tasking.

The new Prestige models are encased in full aluminum and are slimmer than their predecessors. They feature vapor chamber cooling and dual-fan architecture to ensure they stay cool and quiet while you work. If you pick up one of the convertible 2-in-1 Flip models, you can work with a stylus too.

There’s a 2.8K OLED display option for the Prestige 16 and 16 Flip, with support for VRR and DisplayHDR True Black 1000. The Flip 14 keeps the OLED, but the resolution drops to FHD+ and you lose the VRR.

The full lineup is now available in the US, with prices starting at $1,299. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/msis-refreshed-prestige-series-laptops-are-now-available-to-buy-165234479.html?src=rss

An analysis of film and music release patterns has found that summer and late fall are the optimal windows for movie premieres, while the music industry has no clear “best” month — only a worst one, December, which the report’s author dubbed “Dump-cember.”

For films, the calendar splits into distinct strategic zones. Summer months and holidays see elevated box office because audiences have more free time, and studios chase mega-billion-dollar hits during these windows. October and November see a surge of prestige releases as studios cluster their Oscar hopefuls to keep them fresh in voters’ minds when awards season begins in January.

The Silence of the Lambs, which swept the Academy Awards’ Big Four categories in 1992, remains the only Best Picture winner in seven decades to have been released in January — the industry’s infamous “Dump-uary.” The music industry operates differently. Most months are interchangeable for album releases, but December is uniquely bad. Artists avoid it because they would compete against Christmas classics from Bing Crosby and Andy Williams, both dead for decades. Albums released in December also receive weaker critical reception as measured by Pitchfork scores, and labels quietly slot their least promising projects into this low-attention window.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

AMD has released three distinct generations of its 3D V-Cache technology, which initially appeared in the Ryzen 7 5800X3D in 2022. The kernel of the idea has remained the same throughout AMD’s efforts: take an existing desktop processor design and graft 64MB of additional L3 cache onto it.

This approach disproportionately helps apps that benefit from more cache, particularly games, and the size of the boost that 3D V-Cache gives to game performance has always been enough to offset any downsides these chips have come with. And in the four years since the 5800X3D was released, AMD has steadily chipped away at those disadvantages, adding more CPU cores, improving power consumption and temperatures, and re-adding the typical Ryzen range of overclocking controls.

AMD’s new Ryzen 7 9850X3D, which launches for $499 starting tomorrow, is the very definition of a mild upgrade. It’s the year-old Ryzen 7 9800X3D but with an extra 400 MHz of turbo boost speed. That’s it. That’s the chip.

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The GoPro Hero12 Black might not be the newest model in the lineup, but it still checks all the right boxes for action camera buyers—and at $215.99 on Woot, it’s down to its lowest price yet. That’s a steep cut from Amazon’s current $369 listing, and you’re still getting a full one-year manufacturer warranty. Shipping is free for Prime members, and the deal is live for three more days (or until it sells out). PCMag gave it an “outstanding” rating in its review, highlighting how stable and clean the footage looks. Lifehacker’s Stephen Johnson also called it one of his favorite products, largely because it works without much effort.

In use, the Hero12 Black sticks closely to what GoPro has always done well. It’s compact, tough, and easy to mount almost anywhere. Video tops out at 5.3K at 60 frames per second, which gives you noticeably more detail than 4K and extra room to crop without wrecking the quality. The stabilization, thanks to GoPro’s HyperSmooth stabilization, is strong enough that handheld clips often look like they were shot on a gimbal. And there are front and rear screens for easy framing—helpful whether you’re vlogging or filming the view ahead. The 8:7 shooting mode of the Hero12 Black is especially useful if you’re creating content for multiple platforms. You can shoot once and crop for vertical reels or horizontal YouTube clips without needing separate takes.

It is also waterproof to 33 feet without a case, which covers swimming, snorkeling, rain, and most casual water use. That said, GoPro removed the built-in GPS on this model. That means no automatic speed or route overlays out of the box. The upside is slightly better battery life, though it still won’t last a full day of continuous recording. Carrying a spare battery will be the smarter move if you’re filming long sessions. Storage is via microSD, and you get Bluetooth, wifi, and USB-C for easy transfers. This isn’t the right camera for someone looking for automatic tracking or cinematic depth of field, but if your priorities are portability, versatility, and durability, it still holds up well. It’s a great tool for creators, travelers, and anyone who wants to capture fast-moving moments without worrying about breaking the gear.