Information Technology

Kerry Wan/ZDNETGoogle is catching up with Apple and giving its mobile phone users an important safety feature.Earlier this year, a satellite messaging feature started appearing on Pixel phones. The ability to turn the feature on was there, but it didn’t do anything when toggled.Also: Your iPhone is getting this life-saving messaging feature with iOS 18 (and it’s not AI)SOS messaging, which lets users send a text message without an internet or cell signal, is a big safety addition that has existed on the iOS platform since the iPhone 14 but hasn’t been available on Android.We now know two things: In a first for Android, the emergency messaging feature will be live on the Pixel 9 series, and Skylo will power it. More

Proton Technology specialist Proton has made a couple of announcements to make its services more appealing.  First off, the free Proton VPN browser extension encrypts your internet traffic with a single click. Users don’t have to bother installing the full app, so it’s easy to use. The extension provides internet access in countries where VPN […] More

Orhan Turan/Getty Images Worrying computer news always comes out of the hacker convention Defcon — and this year was no different. A pair of security researchers, Enrique Nissim and Krzysztof Okupski from security specialist IOActive, announced they’d found a nasty CPU vulnerability, which they named SinkClose.  The flaw endangers essentially all — yes, all — AMD processors made […] More

Screenshot by Matene Toure/ZDNETIn the realm of messaging apps and services, it’s pretty easy to get lost in a sea of the same. Just about every service claims to be the most secure, the most user-friendly, and the most private. But are they… really?The team behind a new messaging app/service reached out to me to introduce their product called Session. According to the Session site, “Session is an end-to-end encrypted messenger that minimizes sensitive metadata, designed and built for people who want absolute privacy and freedom from any form of surveillance.”Also: Disposing of an old Windows laptop? Here’s the safest way to erase your personal data (for free!)Of course, I was skeptical, but when I installed the app and set it up, I realized I was dealing with something different. With Session, there’s no phone number, account name, or footprint to be had. Session uses an onion routing network to ensure you leave no trace, so it’s simply impossible for anyone to create a profile based on metadata or account information. All accounts are completely anonymous, and zero data is collected, which means there’s absolutely nothing to leak.The first thing that struck me when I set up Session was that no username was associated with my account. Instead, there’s an Account ID (a long string of random numbers) that I can share with those I choose to communicate with. When you start a chat with someone, you use their Account ID, not a username or real name. Of all the chat apps/services I’ve looked into, Session is one of the most impressive for privacy and security.  More

Erlon Silva – TRI Digital/Getty Imges When you replace your old but still functional Windows PC with a shiny new model, you have several options for that gently used device. You can give it away to a friend or family member. You can donate it to a charitable organization like Goodwill (which partners with Dell […] More

Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images Five years ago, after a particularly embarrassing run of flawed Windows updates, Microsoft vowed to do better. Part of its cleanup program included the introduction of a “release health dashboard” that documents the status of known issues with every update. Also: You can upgrade your old PC to Windows 11 […] More

Intel Intel released information Friday about a patch for the microcode bug affecting 13th- and 14th-generation Intel Core processors, and the chipmaker’s news is a mix of good, bad, and ugly. Also: If Intel can’t come up with a Qualcomm-killer soon, it’s game over for x86 PCs The good news According to Intel, the patch is […] More

Intel Intel released information Friday about a patch for the microcode bug affecting 13th- and 14th-generation Intel Core processors, and the chipmaker’s news is a mix of good, bad, and ugly. Also: If Intel can’t come up with a Qualcomm-killer soon, it’s game over for x86 PCs The good news According to Intel, the patch is […] More