Since its release in 2021, one of the most consistent criticisms of Windows 11 has been Microsoft’s handling of app defaults. Compared to Windows 10, the newer OS makes it more complicated for users to move away from the company’s first-party offerings. For example, if you don’t want Edge to open every time you click on a webpage or PDF, you’re forced to launch Windows 11’s Settings menu and change the default app by file and link type. It’s an unnecessarily long process that makes customizing Windows 11 convoluted.

Microsoft is finally addressing some of those criticisms. In a blog post published Friday (via Bleeping Computer), the company said it was “reaffirming our long-standing approach to put people in control of their Windows PC experience.” Microsoft announced a feature it said would ensure Windows 11 users are in control of changes to their app defaults. Later this year, the company will introduce a new deep link uniform resource identifier (URI) that will allow developers to send users to the correct section of the Settings menu when they want to change how Windows 11 responds to specific links and file types.

Microsoft

Microsoft says it will also give users more control over what apps get pinned to their desktop, start menu and taskbar with a new public API that will display a prompt asking you to grant programs permission before they show up on those interface elements. Both features will first roll out to PCs enrolled in the Windows Insider Dev Channel in the coming months before arriving in the public release of Windows 11. Notably, Microsoft says it will “lead by example” and release updates for Edge that will see the browser add support for those features as they become available.

If you’ve owned your iPhone or iPad for a while, there’s a good chance there are apps, contacts and settings that you either don’t use anymore or aren’t serving you as well as they could. This guide will take you through how to reclaim your notifications and your device’s storage.

Delete your unused apps

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

You don’t need me to tell you to delete apps you don’t use to free up space on your iPhone, but you might not know that iOS has a dedicated tool to help you do this. You can access it by opening the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad, then tapping “General,” followed by “iPhone Storage” or “iPad Storage.” It may take a few moments for the interface to populate, but once it does, you’ll see a handy visual representation of how much of your device’s storage you’ve given over to apps, photos and other types of files. You will also see a list of every app installed on your device, as well as how much space it takes up and when you last used it – all helpful information you can use to decide what to delete.

Depending on the app, iOS will present you with at least two options when you tap on it. You can delete the app and all its related data or “offload” it. In the latter case, iOS will delete the app from your iPhone or iPad but leave your data untouched. As such, when you reinstall the app, you can pick up right where you left off. It will also remain in your App Library for easy access. From the iPhone Storage menu, you can also set your device to automatically offload unused apps when you’re running low on storage, which is useful for all, but especially those with older, low-storage devices.

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

If you use Apple Music and Messages frequently, tap on them since they offer a few additional options for managing their footprint. The interface for Apple Music includes a list of every download on your iPhone or iPad sorted by artist and album, offering a much better way of culling your library than from within the app itself.

Messages, meanwhile, has a few handy options for serial texters. At the bottom of the interface, you will see a breakdown of all the different attachments you may have received in messaging with your friends and family. Seeing how much storage those old photos, videos and GIFs take up may be eye opening; in fact, iOS will prompt you to review large attachments. That’s a good place to start since the interface does a good job of highlighting the biggest space hogs right at the top. You can also set iOS to automatically delete messages and attachments that are more than a year old. Unless space is at an absolute premium on your device, I would recommend against turning on this option, if only because it might delete a photo or video that has sentimental value to you.

Trim your contacts list

If you’ve had an iPhone for a while, there’s a good chance your contacts list could use an edit. Unless you plan to one day call everyone on that list, why not delete contacts you don’t speak to anymore? Your iPhone will give you a head start by identifying suspected duplicate contacts. Outside of that, there’s not much to this process other than going through each contact and ensuring the information you have is up to date.

Review your notification settings

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

Something everyone should do every so often is review their notification settings since alerts can be a drain on your device’s battery (not to mention frequently take your attention away from more important things, too). To get started, open your device’s Settings app and tap on “Notifications.” If you haven’t already, I would recommend taking advantage of iOS 15’s scheduled summary feature. Let’s be honest, most notifications don’t require your immediate attention, and you’re better off addressing them all at once instead piecemeal. The schedule feature will help you do that by allowing you to set a few times per day when your device displays some notifications all at once.

For most people, that should make their notifications more manageable, but if you want to take things a step further, you can adjust individual settings for each app. For some of the worst offenders (Instagram and Twitter come to mind), it’s worthwhile to jump into their in-app settings to limit or disable the notifications they send you.

Focus Modes

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

Another tool you can use to get a handle on your notification is Apple’s Focus feature, which allows you to configure custom do not disturb settings for different activities. By default, your device will come with a few preconfigured ones, and it’s worth reviewing the settings for each to optimize them for your needs.

To create a new custom Focus Mode, open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad and tap “Focus,” which is located in the same subcategory as notifications. You can also create a new Focus mode directly from your device’s Control Center by long pressing on the “Do Not Disturb” icon and tapping “New Focus.”

Once you create a new Focus, customizing it is straightforward. You can specify contacts you want iOS to either silence or allow notifications from. You can do the same for apps as well. After you customize those lists to your liking, tap the “Options” prompt below your contacts and apps lists to see a few additional settings. Specifically, there’s an option to allow silenced notifications to display on your lock screen that you might find helpful.

The last thing I want to draw your attention to are the options around customizing your Home Screen for different Focus modes. By limiting the apps I can easily access, I find I’m less likely to get distracted. For instance, I’ve set my Reading Focus to limit my Home Screen to apps like Libby, Pocket and Apple Music.

Nearly two decades before Facebook and others were talking about the metaverse, Second Life was letting millions of users partake in virtual worlds. Now, all this time later, developer Linden Labs has announced that it's developing a mobile version of the game, Ars Technica has reported. A beta version is expected to launch later this year. 

In a YouTube video posted to Second Life's community forum, the publisher detailed some details about the mobile app. It's being built using Unity, mainly so it'll be easy to build and distribute the game on both iOS and Android phones/tablets. It also shows some footage of characters and environments, and how Linden Labs will try to make it as much like the desktop game as possible. 

Facebook has struggled to get the metaverse off the ground, but over 73 million accounts have been created for Second Life to date, and the number of active users hit 900,000 during the pandemic — 17 years after the game launched. Typical virtual events include "live music performances, shopping fairs, fan fiction conventions, book and poetry readings, academic lectures, fashion shows, and art exhibitions," the company told Vice in 2020. 

Linden Labs had been working on a VR version of the game called Sansar, but ended up stopping development and selling off the rights in 2020. The company said it did so to become "cash-positive," while noting that VR headset adoption didn't come as fast as it hoped. To that end, a pivot to mobile makes sense, but it remains to be seen if people will still be interested in Second Life after all this time. 

Tinder announced this week that its users can now add relationship types and pronouns to their profiles. For example, you can specify whether you’re seeking monogamous or non-monogamous relationships (or are still figuring it out) and list your preferred gender pronouns. Both new features are borrowed from Hinge, owned by the same parent company, which added the same profile options last year.

Tinder’s new relationship-type options, spurred by growing interest in less traditional dating approaches, include monogamy, ethical non-monogamy, open relationship, polyamory and “open to exploring.” The company cites a study of 4,000 18-to-25-year-olds showing that 41 percent are open to or seeking non-monogamous connections. Among those, open relationships (36 percent) and hierarchical polyamory (26 percent) are the most popular choices. Perhaps just as critical, a survey indicated that 73 percent of young singles of any gender say they want someone who is clear about what they want. Most people don’t want to waste time with partners who have incompatible intentions.

Likewise, Tinder’s addition of pronouns can be tied to a poll revealing that 33 percent of young adults say their sexuality has become more fluid in the last three years, while 29 percent say their gender identity is more fluid. Additionally, it says the LGBTQIA+ community is the platform’s fastest-growing demographic. Thanks to these revelations, Tinder now lets you select up to four pronouns out of more than 15 options to show on your profile.

This follows the app’s addition of relationship goals, launched in December. That option lets users clarify whether they want short-term, long-term or an uncertain combination. The company says 40 percent of its users who specify their intent say they’re looking for a long-term relationship, while 13 percent claim they only want a short-term connection. If nothing else, it highlights how Tinder has expanded its brand from its early reputation as a “hookup app.”

The new features follow a dismal Q1 forecast for Tinder’s parent company Match Group after the app sparked the company’s first quarterly revenue decline. The options also align with Tinder’s recent marketing campaign, “It Starts with a Swipe,” which paints the app as a fluid experience that may just as easily lead to casual flings or more committed connections.

Microsoft is using artificial intelligence to help eliminate drudgery at the workplace. At its "Future of Work" event, the company has revealed an AI-powered Microsoft 365 Copilot that, as suggested by leaks, can create content in Office apps using text requests. You can ask PowerPoint to create a presentation based on a Word document, for example, and even get it to apply animations or styles across all your slides.

Other apps have similar functionality. Word can create a proposal based on spreadsheet data, or change a report's entire tone. Excel can break down data or predict the effect of a variable change. Outlook can summarize your emails or draft responses, while Teams can recap meetings or even weigh the pros and cons of a discussion topic. A new Business Chat tool brings in information from multiple apps to deal with project developments, customer incidents and planning strategies.

The new technology is believed to run on the same OpenAI GPT-4 model that powers the upgraded Bing search rolling out to everyone. The technology is more factual, higher performance and less likely to venture out of accepted boundaries than the GPT-3.5 predecessor that currently powers ChatGPT.

Microsoft is already testing 365 Copilot with 20 business customers. It plans to expand access in the "coming months," and will share details of IT administrator controls to help deploy the technology.

The additions come just days after Google said it would bring generative AI to Gmail and Workspace apps like Docs and Slides. The tools will let you draft and revise content, and even autogenerate images and videos for presentations. The feature will only be available to English-language US users by the end of March, but it should reach more languages and countries in the future.

The introduction underscores the race between Microsoft and Google to weave AI into their products. Microsoft is using AI to claim an edge in search, video chat and other common productivity tasks. Google, meanwhile, is treating AI as a defensive tool. Systems like Bard may help it protect its core search business against ChatGPT and other AI systems that Google reportedly sees as threats. However this race ends, it's safe to presume AI is becoming more of a mainstay in the working world.

Developing...

If you own a Mac, there’s a good chance you spent quite a bit of money to buy it. If for no other reason than that, you should take care of your computer. Not only will it serve you better over its life, but you could end up getting more for it on the used market if you ever decide to sell your Mac.

In this how-to, we’ll share some tips on how to take care of your Mac. It’s impossible to cover the topic of computer maintenance from every angle, so think of this guide as more of an introduction to some organizational features and apps you may not have known about.

How to clean your Mac’s screen and body

While there are a lot of products you can buy that are specially made to help you with cleaning your computer, I’ve found the simplest approach works best — and it’s the one Apple recommends. To start, all you’ll need is some water in a spray bottle and a clean microfiber cloth. You can use either regular or distilled water. The advantage of the latter is that it’s far less likely to leave any residue on your Mac, particularly on the display. You can buy distilled water at a grocery store or make it yourself with some simple cookware. Either way, it’s more affordable than dedicated cleaning solutions and more versatile. If you don’t already own any microfiber cloths, Amazon sells affordable 24-packs you can get for about $14.

Two other products I’ve found that can make the job easier are Whoosh screen cleaner and a Giottos Rocket Blower. I can’t say enough good things about the latter. It will save you from buying expensive and wasteful cans of compressed air.

As for the process of cleaning your Mac, the most important tip to remember is to start with a clean cloth (that’s part of the reason we recommend buying them in bulk). You’ll save yourself time and frustration this way. Begin by turning off your computer and unplugging it. If you went out and bought a Rocket Blower, use it now to remove any dust. If not, take a dry microfiber cloth and go over your computer. Take special care around the keys, particularly if you own a Mac with a butterfly keyboard.

Next, dampen one side of your cleaning cloth with either water or Whoosh. Never spray any liquid directly on your computer. You’ll have more control this way and you’ll avoid getting any moisture into your Mac’s internals. I always clean the display first since the last thing I want to do is create more work for myself by transferring dirt from some other part of my computer to the screen. The last step is to buff and polish your computer with the dry side of the cloth. Be gentle here as you don’t want to scratch the screen or any other part of That’s it. Your Mac should be looking clean again.

How to organize your hard drive

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

One of the hardest parts of cleaning your Mac’s hard drive is knowing where to start. After all, most of us have apps on our computers we don’t even remember installing in the first place. Thankfully, macOS comes with a tool to help you with that exact issue.

Navigate to the “Storage” section of the “About This Mac” menu and click the “Manage…” option. Here you’ll find a tool that sorts your files into broad categories and offers recommendations on how to free up space on your hard drive. You can use those in combination with the handy “Show in finder” button at the bottom of the interface to quickly navigate your hard drive. No need to search for files manually.

The section dedicated to applications is particularly helpful since you can see the last time you used a program, as well as if it’s no longer supported by the operating system or if it’s outdated thanks to a more recent release.

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

You don’t need me to tell you to uninstall programs you don’t use, but what you might not know is that there’s a better way to erase them than simply dragging them to the trash can. A free program called AppCleaner will help you track down any files and folders that would get left behind if you were just to delete an application.

After deleting any apps you don’t need, move to the documents section. The name is somewhat misleading here since you’ll find more than just text files and excel spreadsheets. Documents, in this case, turns out to be the tool’s catch-all term for a variety of files, including ones that take up a large amount of space and DMGs you may have forgotten to dismount. The other sections on the sidebar are self-explanatory. The only other thing I’ll mention is if you’ve been using an iPhone for a while, there’s a good chance you’ll have old iOS backups stored on your computer. You can safely delete those too.

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

By this point, your hard drive should be in pretty good shape. If you want to take some additional steps to clean it, there are dedicated apps that can help. I like one called CleanMyMac X. At $51 per year, it’s on the expensive side, but will save you the time and trouble of doing everything I mentioned above (and then some) on your own. It also doubles as a malware removal tool.

Tips and tricks for keeping a neat Desktop and Finder

Igor Bonifacic

Let’s start with the menu bar. It may not technically be part of the desktop, but a tidy one can go a long way toward making everything else look less cluttered. My recommendation here is to download a $16 app called Bartender. At first glance, it’s a simple program allowing you to hide unwanted menu bar items behind a three dots icon. However, the strength of Bartender is that you get a lot of customization options. For example, you can set a trigger that will automatically move the battery status icon out from hiding when your computer isn’t connected to a power outlet.

While we’re on the subject of the menu bar, take a second to open your Mac’s System Preferences menu and go to the “Users & Groups” section. Now click on the “Login Items” tab at the bottom of the interface and take a look at all the apps that launch when you boot up your system. You can speed up your system by paring this list down to only the programs you use frequently.

When it comes to the desktop itself, the best advice is less is more. Nothing will make your computer look like a cluttered mess more than a busy desktop. Folders and stacks can help, but, for most people, I suspect part of the problem is they use their desktop as a way to quickly and easily find files that are important to them.

If you’ve ever struggled to find a specific file or folder on your computer, try using your Mac’s tagging capabilities instead. Start by opening the Finder preferences menu (“command” + “,”) and click the “Tags” tab. You can use the default ones provided by macOS or make your own. Either way, drag the ones you think you’ll use most often to the favorites areas at the bottom of the preferences window. This will make it so that they’re easily accessible when you want to use them. To append a tag to a file or folder, click on it while holding the ctrl key and select the one you want from the dropdown menu. You can also tag a file while working on it within an app. Keep in mind you can apply multiple tags to a single file or folder. You can even apply them to applications.

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

What makes tags so useful in macOS is that they can appear in the sidebar of the Finder and are easily searchable either directly through the Finder or using Siri. As long as you have a system for organizing your files, even a simple one, you’ll find it easier to keep track of them. As one example, I like to apply an Engadget tag to any files related to my work. I’ll add an “Important” tag if it’s something that’s critical and I want to find quickly.

One tool that can help supercharge your Finder experience is Alfred. It’s effectively a more powerful version of Apple’s Spotlight feature. Among other things, you can use Alfred to find and launch apps quickly. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but once you get a hang of it, Alfred will change how you use your Mac for the better.

How to organize your windows and tabs

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

If you’ve used both macOS and Windows 10, you’ll know that Apple’s operating system doesn’t come with the best window management tools. You can click and hold on the full-screen icon to tile a window to either the left or right side of your screen, but that’s about it and the feature has always felt less precise than its Windows counterpart.

My suggestion is to download an app that replicates Windows 10’s snapping feature. You have several competing options that more or less offer the same functionality. My go-to is an $8 program called Magnet. If you want a free alternative, check out Rectangle. Another option is BetterSnapTool, which offers more functionality than Magnet but doesn’t have as clean of an interface. All three apps give you far more ways to configure your windows than what you get through the built-in tool in macOS. They also come with shortcut support, which means you can quickly set up your windows and get to work.

Back in February, TikTok revealed that it was testing a feature that will give you a way to reset the recommendations that pop up on your For You page. Now, the ByteDance-owned app is rolling out this "refresh" option to all users, so you can get rid of video recommendations that no longer feel relevant. If you enable it, the For You feed will look as if you've only just signed up for an account, and TikTok's algorithm will start surfacing content based on your newer interactions on the app. 

To give your feed a reset, head over to TikTok's Settings and Privacy menu, then scroll down until you find Content preferences. There, you'll find a new option that says "Refresh your For You feed." Take note that it's all what the new feature does — it won't change any of your settings or unfollow accounts you've previously followed. 

In addition to the new "refresh" feature, TikTok has also updated its efforts to reduce repetitive patterns of content that could be harmful. The app has been doing this for quite some time and has been applying limits to videos that don't exactly violate its policies but might have an effect on your viewing experience. Examples include videos that feature sadness or extreme dieting and exercise. Now, if its systems detect a repetition in those types of themes within a set of videos, it actively substitutes some of them with videos about a different topic. That way, it can further limit your exposure to content that could contain certain triggers.

These are but the latest updates TikTok has rolled out in a bid to improve its algorithm, which has been the subject of investigations and has been at the center of discussions on whether the app should be banned. TikTok's critics even call its user experience (as enabled by its algorithm) manipulative, designed to keep you glued to the app. 

It's no secret that the service has been under intense scrutiny over the past few years, so it also doesn't come as a surprise that TikTok has been making an effort to demystify its algorithm and give you more control over the content you see. They will certainly give TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew more positive talking points when he tries to make authorities see the app in a positive light on March 23rd. Chew will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee that day and is expected to discuss the app's privacy and data security, as well as its impact on kids and ties to China. 

Microsoft launched its ChatGPT-powered version of Bing last month in a limited beta, and it promptly brought a bunch of new viewers and some respect to the beleaguered search engine. Now, it appears that Microsoft has opened up the new Bing to nearly everyone who wants to use it, as Windows Central has noticed. While the signup page still says "join the waiting list," all you have to do is sign in to get instant access — a trick that worked for myself and a colleague. 

Microsoft has yet to confirm the change, but we may learn more at an event it's holding today called "Reinventing productivity with AI," as spotted by TechCrunch. The company is supposed to be introducing AI-powered tools for its Microsoft 365 suite and SalesForce rival Dynamic 365, but it may announce Bing changes as well.

Yesterday, Microsoft confirmed that the new Bing has been powered by the GPT-4 engine for the last five weeks, well before OpenAI unveiled it two days ago. OpenAI's latest language model (LLM) has taken the tech world by storm with its ability to handle both text and images. Some of its feats include passing simulated exams like the Bar and LSAT with a score "around the top 10 percent of test takers," and outperforming other LLMs in a variety of benchmark tests. 

Bing gives users a taste of GPT-4 without the need to pay for it or be a developer. The new search engine got off to be a bit of a shaky start, though, as up to 10 million users signed up to test it. Some were able to “jailbreak” the chatbot, making it spew false information and essentially gaslight users. That forced Microsoft to limit conversations, but it has subsequently removed some of those limits after strengthening the search engine's "guardrails."

Microsoft was an early backer of the company behind ChatGPT, Open AI, and strengthened that commitment in 2021 with $2 billion dollar investment. Early this year, it expanded the pact further with a "multibillion dollar" investment that includes new supercomputers to accelerate OpenAI's research. 

Microsoft has announced that Minecraft is coming to Chromebooks and is available to try right away via an Early Access version. The game will include "cross-device play with friends, access to Minecraft Marketplace, and the ability to play on Realms," according to developer Mojang.

It will require a decently equipped Chromebook with specific processors, 4GB of RAM and 1GB of storage, as detailed here. Those requirements may frustrate some potential users, considering that Chromebooks are widely used in schools and that Minecraft is played by a lot of kids.

"Early access means that in this first stage, only selected Chromebook devices that meet the minimum requirements will get the option to buy Minecraft, so you’ll have to check the Google Play Store to see if Minecraft is available for you," according to the blog post. "This isn’t because we want to single out some of our players as special (we love you all equally!) – it’s so we can test the game’s performance before we make it available to more players."

The "early access" part also means that users will have to put up with some bugs, even though they'll be paying for it. "We still expect that there may be some bugs, and that’s where we’ll need your help," the company wrote. "If you come across any goat-eating frogs, milkable squids, or disco dancing Ender dragons, then please let us know!"

Until now, it's only been possible to play Minecraft on Chromebooks using the Education Edition or a java version. The Chromebook + Android bundle us $20 USD, the Android-only version is $7, and an upgrade from Android the Chromebook is $13. Existing Minecraft worlds won't transfer to the Chromebook version, and you'll need a Microsoft account to play. 

There's no word on when the final version will arrive, or if the minimum requirements will change. In any case, if you don't see the Early Access version the Google Play store, it likely means your Chromebook isn't compatible. 

How many times have you experienced this scenario? You go shopping online for a new shirt, speaker or other item. You click on the same one a few times and then decide against it. Suddenly every website you visit has an ad featuring that item, imploring you to reconsider. In an effort to create greater privacy online, Mozilla is now rolling out Total Cookie Protection (TCP) as the default setting on the Firefox app for Android after initially making it available for Firefox users on Windows, Mac, and Linux. 

So, what does TCP do? TCP ensures that your cookies aren't being shared across sites. Typically, third-party cookies collect information about you from across the internet to build your virtual identity. Data brokers then sell your information to businesses that will provide you with targeted ads.

Instead, with TCP, the cookies you create while browsing only belong to the site you're on. This feature limits companies from learning any information you enter or behavior you exhibit anywhere else on the internet. So, a store may know you looked for a blue laptop case in their online shop, but they won't know you also searched for size 11 shoes in another one. 

As part of today's Android update, Mozilla says it's also promoting its Firefox Relay protection to become a dedicated part of the app. Relay, which initially launched as an addon and provides users with email and phone number masks for online signups, comes with a limited free tier but requires a subscription to get the most from the service.