Honey Integration Removed From Microsoft Edge

Microsoft appears to be moving to its own coupon tool on Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft recently rolled out tools for Microsoft Edge and Bing to help people save money on the web. One of the new features is Coupons, which automatically scans the web for coupon codes.

This might sound familiar, as the popular extension Honey offers similar functionality and was built into Microsoft Edge on mobile devices. However, it seems that Microsoft is moving away from Honey, replacing it with its own offering on Microsoft Edge beta for Android. Honey has also been replaced on Microsoft Edge on iOS.

The new Coupons feature is already available on Edge on Windows and iOS, and it appears that Microsoft is testing it on Android now.

In a blog post highlighting money-saving features from Microsoft, a footnote reads, "Coupons are currently available in U.S. markets and now available on desktop and iOS. Coming soon to Android."

You will able to use the new Coupons feature on your Android devices running the beta version of Microsoft Edge. Your Android devices running the non-beta version of Microsoft Edge will still see the option to use Honey.

When browsing the web on Microsoft Edge beta Android, you now see a blue tag that prompts you to check out the Coupons feature. These prompts help you save money and are a handy visual indicator to check for codes and deals.

Microsoft is investing time and effort into shopping features for its browser. Between price comparison tools, coupon scanners, and Collections that can be used as wish lists, there are quite a few ways to save money through Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft made sure to roll the features out before Black Friday, which should help save some money over the holidays.

Credit: windowscentral.com

Do You Need A New Router?

Tech News and Views

Many computer users are unaware of what computer hardware does and when it needs replacement. Here is an article from Consumer Reports that tell why you may need a new router.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-time-buy-wifi-6-110007607.html

Free Yahoo Mail Accounts Will Lose Automatic Forwarding Ability

Getting the feature back requires paying for a premium account.

In a move that's sure to frustrate a lot of Yahoo Mail users, owner Verizon has decided to remove the ability to automatically forward emails. The decision affects anyone who uses a free Yahoo Mail account.

As ZDNet reports, the removal of the feature happens on January 1, 2021. As the Yahoo Mail FAQ explains, "If your free Yahoo Mail account is set up to automatically forward emails to a third party inbox such as Gmail, those emails will stop being delivered to the third party address on January 1, 2021. You’ll still be able to view your emails in your Yahoo mailbox through your web browser at mail.yahoo.com or via the Yahoo Mail apps. Yahoo Mail Pro subscribers will not be affected by this change."

As to why Verizon decided to implement this change, apparently it's to help keep free accounts secure. The FAQ doesn't really explain how automatic email forwarding hurts security and simply says, "We regularly evaluate our products and services against current security standards and have decided to remove this feature to help ensure free Yahoo Mail accounts remain secure. The change will help us focus on building the best new features and experiences for our Yahoo Mail users."

It will come as no surprise that you can get automatic email forwarding back by choosing to pay for a Yahoo Mail Pro account. It costs $3.49 per month or $34.99 per year. Alternatively, there's a $12 per year "Access + Forwarding" option available. Signing up for the more expensive Pro account also gets you the added benefits of no ads, faster performance, priority customer support, and no email purging regardless of how long your account is inactive.

Credit: pcmag.com

Tesla's Push For Service To Catch Up With Sales

Tesla has told staff that it is preparing a massive push to expand service capacity as it attempts to catch up to its rapid growth in sales.

Over the last few years, Tesla has been growing at a ferocious pace with deliveries and production capacity seeing important increases. Now the Tesla customer fleet has reached over 1 million cars.

Unlike most other automakers who rely on third-party franchise dealers to provide service to customers, Tesla owns its entire global service infrastructure, which it is trying to ramp up alongside sales and production.

In recent years, it hasn’t been able to keep up with Tesla’s growth. Over the last 12 months, Tesla’s deliveries grew almost 50% year-over-year, adding over a half million vehicles to its fleet. But over the same period of time, Tesla’s service centers grew by only 12% and its mobile service fleet by 8%.

Last year, Tesla made several statements about expanding service after CEO Elon Musk admitted a “foolish oversight” of Tesla’s service coverage and plans to open many more service centers around the world. Things moved slowly, but they started to ramp up last quarter with Tesla adding 20 new service centers in just a few months.

A source familiar with the matter has said that Tesla communicated to its staff that it plans to significantly ramp up service over the next year with at least one new service center opening per week in 2021. It means that Tesla plans to add over 52 new service centers in 2021. Tesla currently operates 466 service centers around the world.

Tesla president of automotive, Jerome Guillen, has also recently stated that he is on the lookout for real estate that the company can quickly turn into Tesla service centers. The new service centers are going to be located where Tesla is seeing strong demand for its vehicles and where they see service-center capacity already lacking.

New service centers also create more demand for Tesla. Musk has previously said that Tesla has found expanding service centers, and the Supercharger network are Tesla’s two best ways to bring in more customers.

This is good news. Service delays are a recurring complaint from Tesla owners in some markets where Tesla never seems to catch up to growing sales. On top of expansion in markets lacking a service center altogether, there are many markets in the same situation that need a new location to help lower the demand on existing locations.

Let’s hope that Tesla delivers on this goal of a new center every week next year. Tesla owners are going to need it if Tesla delivers what is expected to be ~800,000 new cars next year. That will push Tesla’s fleet to more than 2 million vehicles, meaning that the fleet will have doubled in less than two years.

Credit: electrek.co

macOS Big Sur Is Here

Apple Bytes: 

macOS Big Sur, the latest version of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, is now available to Mac users as a free software update. Big Sur introduces a beautiful redesign and is packed with new enhancements for key apps including Safari, Messages, and Maps, as well as new privacy features.

Big Sur delivers a spacious new design that makes navigation easier, while putting more controls at users’ fingertips. From the curvature of window corners to the palette of colors and materials, the thoughtful design will benefit everyone from first-time Mac owners to the most demanding pros. Dock icons retain their Mac personality while also appearing more consistent across the Apple ecosystem for a more cohesive look and feel. And a new design for apps makes it easier for users to stay focused on their content and interact with apps. Buttons and controls appear when needed and recede when they are not - reducing visual complexity and bringing the most relevant content to the forefront.

The biggest update to Safari since its original launch in 2003 makes the world’s fastest browser even faster while maintaining industry-leading battery life. Safari’s JavaScript engine helps it outperform other browsers on Mac and PC, and loads frequently visited sites an average of 50 percent faster than Chrome. And on new Macs with M1, Safari is now up to 1.5x speedier at running JavaScript and nearly 2x more responsive. Streaming on popular platforms is more vivid and clear with the addition of both YouTube and Netflix in 4K HDR. Redesigned tabs make navigating Safari faster and more efficient by showing more tabs onscreen, revealing page previews when hovering over tabs and displaying favicons by default for easy identification.

Messages on the Mac offers new tools to help users manage their favorite group conversations and fun, engaging ways to express themselves. Users can pin conversations to the top of their Messages list for fast access, and search has been completely redesigned to help users quickly find links, photos, and matching terms. Messages for Mac also works seamlessly across iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, so conversations stay in sync.

Maps has been entirely redesigned and brings exciting new features for exploring the world on the Mac. Users can discover places to visit and things to do with Guides from brands they trust, as well as create custom guides of favorite restaurants, parks, and vacation ideas to share with friends and family. Look Around provides an immersive 360-degree view of a destination, and new detailed indoor maps help with navigating major airports and shopping centers. And for the first time, cycling and electric vehicle trips can be routed on a Mac and sent directly to iPhone to have when on the go.

Privacy is at the core of the Mac experience, and Big Sur expands on its industry-leading privacy to bring new levels of transparency and give users more control over their data. Coming later this year, the Mac App Store will include a new section on each product page showing a developer-reported summary of the privacy practices of an app. Inspired by the convenience and readability of food nutrition labels, the information offered includes the types of data the apps might collect - such as contact information, or location - and whether they are shared with third parties for tracking.

macOS Big Sur is available as a free software update. For more information, including compatible Mac models, visit apple.com/macos/big-sur.

Read the entire news release > HERE

Executive Board Minutes

Computer Technology Club, Inc. – Executive Board Minutes
November 13, 2020

The Board meeting was cancelled by COVID-19 venue closures.

GM's Super Cruise System Tops Tesla's Autopilot

General Motors’ Cadillac Super Cruise active driver assistance technology beat out Tesla’s Autopilot in a Consumer Reports study announced 10-28-20.

Super Cruise stomped the competition with a rating of 69 out of 100, compared to 57 for Autopilot on Tesla’s Model Y, 52 for Ford's Co-pilot 360 system and 48 for Audi’s Pre-sense. Thirteen others trailed behind.

As for Tesla’s Autopilot, which can control the car’s steering and speed to assist the driver, “most mainstream automakers now offer similar systems on their cars, and it’s quite likely that the next new vehicle you buy will be equipped with one,” Consumer Reports wrote.

Active driving assistance doesn’t represent self-driving, “but rather it’s intended to support the driver. A well-designed system can help relieve driver fatigue and stress, such as on long highway road trips or in stop-and-go traffic,” the publication said.

As for Cadillac’s Super Cruise, it “remained our top-rated system because, when turned on, it uses direct driver monitoring to warn drivers that appear to have stopped paying attention to the road,” Consumer Reports said. “Monitoring whether the driver is paying attention is a big part of the reason that Super Cruise is still tops in our ranking.”

Meanwhile, “of the other systems we tested, we saw minor improvements in lane-keeping performance for the Tesla and Volvo.”

Credit: thestreet.com

How To Disable Thumbnails On Windows 10

If you have no use for files thumbnails or got them disabled by mistake, use these steps to disable or enable the feature on Windows 10.

On Windows 10, File Explorer has the ability to display various sizes of thumbnail images for files, folders, documents, pictures, and videos to give you a quick preview of the content without having to open them.

Although it's a useful feature that adds a visual queue to find files faster without even looking at their names, it can take some system resources to render and cache all the previews, especially in locations with many images.

If your device is taking a long time to load the previews, you're troubleshooting a problem, or you're not interested in using this feature, Windows 10 includes at least three ways to disable thumbnails to show file icons by using File Explorer, Settings, or Group Policy.

On Windows 10, the easiest way to disable or enable thumbnail previews for files is to use the File Explorer settings.

To disable thumbnails, use these steps:

• Click the View tab.
• Click the Options button.
• Under the "Advanced settings" section, check the Always show icons, never thumbnails option.
• Click the Apply button.
• Click the OK button.

View the entire how-to guide complete with screenshots > HERE.

Credit: windowscentral.com

5G Isn't Really Ready

From more durable displays to improved cameras and a new, more refined style, Apple’s latest iPhones sure seem impressive at first blush. But it’s the inclusion of 5G cellular technology, which promises far faster upload and download speeds than current 4G LTE connections, that makes these iPhones stand out.

5G is the first new cellular specification to hit the iPhone since the iPhone 5 got 4G in 2013. The big carriers say 5G will lead to life-altering advancements ranging from truly immersive virtual reality to self-driving cars interfacing with road signs and even traffic lights. But for all of the promise 5G offers, the networks and apps just aren’t there yet.

That’s because 5G is still in its early stages. And that could leave new iPhone users let down when they take their slick new phones out of the box.

The Big Three U.S. carriers, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have been talking up 5G for years as the next big thing, promising huge advancements in the mobile landscape on par with how 4G opened up whole new sectors of the economy, including food order apps and ride hailing services.

But, and this is a big but, 5G has little to show users outside of, well, faster download and upload speeds and reduced latency and bandwidth. When used in the right scenario, that will unlock new ways of using our smartphones.

Remember, we wouldn’t have apps like Spotify or GrubHub or Instagram without 4G LTE. 3G networks were simply too slow to handle the immense demands the software required.

And like 4G LTE, 5G will provide users with far better overall performance including seriously impressive upload and download speeds and greater bandwidth. That means you’ll be able to download movies and music faster with no delay even in an incredibly crowded area.

Current iPhones get download speeds as high as 175 megabits per second over 4G LTE. The iPhone 12 though, will get 4 gigabits per second in ideal situations, and 1 gigabit per second in normal use.

But our current apps are optimized for 4G LTE. They’re not built around the capabilities offered by 5G. Which means you’re not going to see many apps that take advantage of those increased speeds and reduced latency. Sure, you’ll be able to stream movies, but you can do that over 4G LTE and WiFi. And yeah, you’ll be able to download albums off of Spotify, but you can already do that in less than a minute or two with ease.

In other words, when you get your shiny new iPhone, or any 5G phone really, don’t expect your world to change overnight. The apps that actually require such speeds haven’t been created just yet. When will they finally hit the market? It’s not entirely clear.

The iPhone 12 will certainly be the catalyst that gets developers to start working on 5G apps if they haven’t been already. That’s because developers know Apple users are more willing to spend money on apps, and so with the iPhone finally getting 5G, they now have a greater incentive to create such apps that take advantage of Apple’s latest and greatest offering.

In the next year or two we’ll start to see apps that truly need 5G to function properly.

Once it is fully operational, 5G will largely benefit grander technological movements more than the latest apps, though. Think networks of self-driving cars or real-time remote surgeries. 5G will certainly help make consuming and creating content faster and easier, but its promises are far greater than that.

Leaving apps aside, it’s important to recognize that 5G technology still isn’t as ubiquitous as current 4G LTE networks. T-Mobile boasts it has the largest nationwide 5G network, and according to its coverage map, it certainly looks like it does. But there are still plenty of areas across the country that its 5G network doesn’t reach.

AT&T’s map has even larger gaps in 5G coverage, leaving out entire swaths of states. And Verizon, which turned on its national 5G network to coincide with the iPhone 12 announcement, covers even less than that. Despite those gaps, you’d think from all of the carriers’ commercials that 5G covers everything the light touches.

There’s no doubt that each of the carriers will continue to build out their 5G networks until they blanket the country as much as their 4G LTE networks do. But at the moment, there’s no guarantee that your brand-new 5G iPhone will have a readily available 5G connection.

None of that necessarily means you should avoid getting a 5G iPhone. By all means, if you’re thinking of upgrading, go for it. The phone itself promises myriad improvements outside of its new cellular connection.

What’s more, getting a 5G phone now means that when we begin to see apps that take advantage of those high speeds and 5G networks expand to more regions, you’ll be ahead of the game.

Just don’t expect to get all of those benefits carriers have promised the minute you take your phone out of the box. Because, 5G isn't really ready.

Credit: finance.yahoo.com

Also: Tests indicated that the iPhone 12 battery dies two hours sooner when connected to a 5G network. And, 5G requires the cell towers to be closer together because the shorter wavelength signal doesn't travel as far. So, if you are in an area with a weak 4G LTE signal and have to stand outside to use your cellphone now, you probably won't even get a 5G signal without more towers being erected.