Google Chrome 98 has reached the stable branch. It is mostly a security update rather than major feature release. However, it is notable for adding support for COLRv1 Color Gradient vector fonts. The latter addresses font scaling issues and allows producing much smaller font files.
Edge 99.0.1150.2 brought a few new features to the Dev channel before leaving it
Microsoft Edge 99.0.1150.2, which is the last Edge 99 release in the Dev channel, includes a notable number of novelties, such as Password Monitor on iOS, and shopping tools on Android. Traditionally, it includes several bugfixes.
Microsoft Lists is available for testing for consumers and small business users
Microsoft has started testing a simplified version of the Microsoft Lists service. It is now available for consumers and small businesses. Currently, only 200,000 users can register for Microsoft Lists - MSA Preview. Earlier Microsoft Lists was only available to Microsoft 365 subscribers.
Edge is getting persistent banners with sports results
Next time you launch the Edge browser, you may find a somewhat unexpected banner with sports results at the bottom of every page. That is not malware or adware. That is Microsoft infecting Edge with yet another needless feature made to promote Bing and its services.
Microsoft may force Edge users to watch YouTube videos embedded in Bing
Microsoft Edge gets major feature updates every four weeks. These updates usually bring helpful features and quality improvements, but they often annoy users by resetting settings and changing search engines. Moreover, users recently accused Microsoft of messing with third-party browsers after a Windows update changed the default search engine in Chrome from Google to Bing.
PowerToys 0.55 brings three new tools and various fixes
Microsoft released another PowerToys update with three new tools and many improvements. Version 0.55 also contains various under-the-hood optimizations in preparations to make PowerToys ARM64-ready. Here is what is new in PowerToys 0.55.
Edge allows setting Bing Video of the day as the New Tab Page background
The New Tab Page in Microsoft Edge now allows you to set Bing's video of the day in a loop instead of a static background image. There is also a pause button to stop video playback at any time.
Chrome on Android will show a warning before closing all tabs
To make life easier for those who never close tabs in their browsers, Google introduced a "Close all tabs" button in Chrome on Android and iOS. It sits in a context menu you can invoke by pressing a button with three dots in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Mozilla is working on improved picture-in-picture mode in Firefox
Nowadays, every modern browser has a picture-in-picture mode. It allows the user to move a video from a web page into a small always-on-top window. Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and other browsers let you also manage playback using simple media buttons, such as play/pause. About a year ago, Mozilla started working on an improved version of picture-in-picture in Firefox. The needed infrastructure is now available in Firefox Nightly, the earliest version of Firefox, where Mozilla tests new features and capabilities.
Microsoft: Windows needs up to 8 hours online to get the latest updates
Microsoft tracks the state of Windows devices connected to the Internet. Despite receiving updates automatically, Microsoft's stats shows that there is a bunch of devices that are not on the actual Windows 10 release, or don't have the most recent patches installed.
