Apple Introduces AirTag

Apple Bytes: 

Apple expands the Find My ecosystem with AirTag, an iPhone accessory that provides a private and secure way to easily locate the items that matter most.

Apple on Tuesday, 4-20-21, introduced AirTag, a small and elegantly designed accessory that helps keep track of and find the items that matter most with Apple’s Find My app. Whether attached to a handbag, keys, backpack, or other items, AirTag taps into the vast, global Find My network and can help locate a lost item, all while keeping location data private and anonymous with end-to-end encryption. AirTag can be purchased in one and four packs for just $29 and $99, respectively, and will be available beginning Friday, April 30.

Each round AirTag is small and lightweight, features precision-etched polished stainless steel, and is IP67 water- and dust-resistant. A built-in speaker plays sounds to help locate AirTag, while a removable cover makes it easy for users to replace the battery. AirTag features the same magical setup experience as AirPods - just bring AirTag close to iPhone and it will connect. Users can assign AirTag to an item and name it with a default like “Keys” or “Jacket,” or provide a custom name of their choosing.

Read the entire news release with photos: apple.com/airtag

Chrome 90 Feature Creates Link To Highlighted Text On A Web Page

An upcoming feature in Chrome 90 will allow users to create a link to a section of a website that they’ve highlighted. First launched as a browser extension called Link to Text Fragment last year, Google has now added the feature within Chrome itself.

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The new feature is still rolling out to users. But the feature works just like the browser extension did, according to a blog post from Google product manager Kayce Hawkins. Visit a web page, highlight the text you want to create a link to, right click and select “copy link to highlight.”

A URL ending in a pound sign (#) is generated, which you can then share with others. When they open the link, they’ll be sent to the specific highlighted section instead of the beginning of the page.

Google said the “copy link to highlight” feature is already available on desktop and Android devices for some users. The feature is “coming soon” to iOS, the company added.

Credit: theverge.com

Remove The Most Annoying Ads In Windows 10

Microsoft likes to promote its own services in Windows 10. To remove these annoying tips, suggestions, and pop-ups, make these tweaks in the settings menu.

Windows 10 is highly thought of, but things haven’t always gone smoothly. From privacy concerns to buggy updates, Microsoft’s operating system has seen its fair share of controversy. It’s surprising, then, that the company continues to double down on its most annoying feature by keeping advertisements inside Windows 10.

Thankfully, most of these ads have simple toggles to turn them off within the settings menu. The steps below may not remove everything, but should tone things down to some extent. Microsoft has a history of bringing ads to new places and restoring "suggested" apps that have already been removed with Windows updates.

Note that, while there are plenty of third-party tools that claim to do all of the below (and more) in one click, they are not generally recommended. Windows 10 "privacy" tools may seem quick and convenient, but many of its options can depend on other settings. By using these one-size-fits-all tools, many of which dig into the Registry, you can make it difficult to troubleshoot why other settings don't act the way you want. You're better off doing it yourself, so you know what to go back and tweak later if something goes wonky.

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Remove Promoted Apps From the Start Menu

The Start menu has gone through a lot of changes in Windows 10, but if pre-installed games and other live tile clutter wasn't enough to annoy you, Microsoft has now started including "suggestions" to lure you over to its own apps. If you use Chrome, for example, your Start menu may badger you to switch to the new Edge.

You can turn these off by opening Settings > Personalization > Start and unticking the Show Suggestions Occasionally in Start option. If you have a problem with any of the live tiles that Windows has stuck on your Start screen, some of which are pre-installed junk or trials, you can right-click on the one that's bugging you, hover over the More option, and choose Turn Live Tile Off. That way, it will merely act as a shortcut to the app. Or, if you want to remove the app entirely, you can right-click on it to choose Uninstall.

Block Tips and Suggestions From the Lock Screen

The lock screen, sadly, is not much better. Microsoft has a knack for picking great photos to rotate through on Bing.com and the Windows 10 lock screen, but by default, they're cluttered up with text. Sometimes, these are "fun facts" about the location in the image, and other times they may be "tips" for using your device, like switching to Edge or trying to get you to use a Microsoft account (for those who just want a local account).

To remove these suggestions and just see a photo, head to Settings > Personalization > Lock Screen and toggle off Get Fun Facts, Tips, and More. If you don't see this setting, you'll have to change your lock screen wallpaper to a custom one instead of Windows Spotlight first. You can also prevent notifications from appearing on the lock screen from this page, and if the lock screen bugs you as a whole, you can bypass it quicker with fingerprint or face recognition.

Banish Ads From the Taskbar and Action Center

Occasionally, you may even see pop-ups appear in your taskbar, trying to convince you to switch to Edge or get involved with the Microsoft Rewards program. You can get rid of these by going to Settings > System > Notifications & Actions and unchecking Get Tips, Tricks, and Suggestions As You Use Windows.

You may also want to untick the Show Me the Windows Welcome Experience option here, which shows those annoying tours after you update Windows, as well as the Suggest Ways I Can Finish Setting Up My Device. Finally, remember that some of the "ads" you see pop up as notifications may not be from Microsoft, but from the manufacturer of your computer (e.g. Dell or HP). If you're being bombarded with ads from your laptop maker, head to Settings > System > Notifications & Actions and toggle off any manufacturer-installed apps that may be sending them. (You could also uninstall them entirely; just make sure they don't provide some useful features you want, like updating certain drivers.)

Get Ads Out of File Explorer

Apparently nothing is sacred, because even File Explorer has been infected by ads pushing Microsoft products. In its effort to get you subscribed to OneDrive and Office 365, the company now pushes these services as you try to browse your hard drive. You can get rid of these space-wasting suggestions by clicking View > Options in File Explorer, then clicking the View tab in the window that appears. Scroll down to Show Sync Provider Notifications and uncheck that box. That should prevent ads from showing up in File Explorer again.

Turn Off Targeted Advertising

Windows gives you an Advertising ID that it uses to track your interests and serve you more relevant ads within apps. While you're turning off all of Windows' built-in ads, you may want to turn this setting off as well. Head to Settings > Privacy > General and turn off Let Apps Use Your Advertising ID, if you want non-targeted ads.

Credit: pcmag.com

Executive Board Minutes

Computer Technology Club, Inc. – Executive Board Minutes
April 9, 2021

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

Facebook Problem

Tech News and Views

If you are a Facebook user, you should read the following item:

over-500-million-facebook-accounts-compromised

12 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do In Firefox

We’re coming up on the 20th anniversary of Mozilla’s Firefox web browser next year, and a lot of features have come and gone in that time. If you’re using Firefox as your daily driver, make sure you’re using it to its full potential by checking out some of these lesser-known tools, options, and features.

1. Use picture-in-picture multiple times

Watching a video in a smaller window while you multi-task can be a real boost to your productivity, but Firefox supports multiple picture-in-picture instances: Hover the mouse over a video on a site like YouTube, and you can click the Watch in Picture-in-Picture button to pop it out. Then, you can do it again, as long as each video is playing from a separate tab. Each PiP window can be moved and resized as needed

2. Search through your open tabs

If you’ve opened up dozens of tabs at the same time inside Firefox, then quickly finding what you need can be tricky, especially because each tab header shrinks in size as a new one gets added. You can search through the headings on your open tabs by typing a percentage symbol (%) then a space in front of your search terms in the address bar. If any matches appear, you can click on the Switch to Tab link to jump straight to one of them.

3. Block website notification requests

These days, many websites will ask if it’s OK to send you notifications immediately after you navigate to them, and you can manage your choices by choosing Options from the Firefox menu, then Privacy & Security and Settings next to Notifications. If you’d rather not have to deal with these permission prompts at all, tick the box marked Block new requests asking to allow notifications, which stops sites from asking you in the first place.

4. See how sites are tracking you

If you look to the far left of the address bar in Firefox, you’ll see a shield icon, and behind this is all the data about how Firefox is limiting the ways in which the current site (and its ads) can track you. Click on this shield to see the details, then choose any category for a full rundown. You can also select Protections Dashboard to see how many cookies and other trackers Firefox is blocking over time (it might be a lot more than you expect).

5. Go HTTPS only

An HTTPS connection to the web is more secure than standard HTTP for several reasons (see here for more), and Firefox can make sure this is always chosen, where it’s available. Choose Options on the main browser menu, then Privacy & Security, and check the button marked Enable HTTPS-Only Mode in all windows. If Firefox can’t make a secure, encrypted connection to a site that you want to visit, you’ll see a message on screen.

6. Get recommended stories from Pocket

Mozilla runs the read-it-later service Pocket as well as Firefox, and so you’d expect the two to be integrated. By default, you’ll see a Recommended by Pocket heading whenever you open up a new tab, featuring a rotating selection of stories curated by Pocket—click the three dots next to any story to dismiss it. You can manage this section (and the other parts of the new tab page) by clicking Options from the Firefox menu, then Home.

7. Take control of your toolbar

You might not give much thought to the toolbar in Firefox, but its layout and options can make a big difference in how quickly you get around the web. Firefox has always offered lots of ways to tweak the toolbar, and if you open up the main Firefox menu and choose Customize Toolbar you can pick which shortcuts appear on it and where they’re placed. Drag and drop icons around, and remember you’ve got an overflow menu on the right, too.

8. Add tags to your bookmarks

You can organize your Firefox bookmarks into folders, as usual, but you can also apply tags to them too. From the Firefox menu, pick Library, Bookmarks, and Manage Bookmarks, and if you select a bookmark you can add tags to it (tags can be added when you create new bookmarks as well). It’s up to you how you use bookmark tags, but they can help you group links around home life, office work, research topics, and more.

9. Change up the look of Firefox

You don’t have to settle for the (perfectly fine) default Firefox look if you don’t want to. Select Add-ons and Themes from the main browser menu, and you can dive into a world of alternative looks made by Mozilla and third parties. You’ll see some recommended suggestions right away, and you can also select Find more add-ons to see more themes on the web. It’s possible to create your own themes too, via Firefox Color.

10. Get extra protection from Firefox

Mozilla develops several extensions for Firefox that are optional extras for the browser, and one of the most useful is the Facebook Container. Its reason for existing is to make it harder for Facebook to track you across other websites that aren’t Facebook (through message boxes, social plug-ins, and so on). On a technical level, it makes sure that websites you visit can’t see your Facebook identity or save any Facebook-related cookies.

11. Use multiple accounts more easily

Another Mozilla-made extension worthy of your attention is Firefox Multi-Account Containers. It lets you work with multiple profiles much more easily in the browser, so you could have a home profile signed into your own Gmail and Facebook, and a work profile signed into your company’s Gmail and Facebook, for example. Install it and you can save yourself a substantial amount of time logging in and logging out of sites.

12. Group and move tabs

Making sure you’re staying on top of your tabs is important for any Firefox power user, and if you hold down Shift while clicking then you can select multiple tabs at once, which is perfect for moving, closing, muting, or pinning them all at once. Whether you select one tab or multiple tabs, note that you can right-click on the tab header(s) and pick Move Tabs to move them to the start or the end of the list (or create a new window). 

Credit: gizmodo.com