Quick Response (QR) codes were popular before the COVID-19 pandemic, but now they’re everywhere, from restaurant menus to billboards. These square codes are quick and easy to use, and anyone can scan them on their mobile device using its built-in camera, no special app or update necessary. If you’ve ever wondered how to make a QR code, know that it…
Password haters across the land—rejoice. Following the efforts of Apple and Microsoft, Google is now a step closer to being password-free after making passkeys available to all individual account users. Of course, having the option doesn’t matter if you’re not sure what to do with it. Google’s new feature allows you to sign into your account from your devices with…
The passwordless future is slowly becoming a reality. This week, Google announced that you can now log into your Google account with just a passkey. It’s a huge milestone in what promises to be the incredibly long, awkward move away from using passwords for security. In case you haven’t heard yet, passwords are terrible. People pick awful passwords to begin…
Apple and Google have jointly proposed a new industry specification aimed at preventing the misuse of Bluetooth location-tracking devices like AirTags. The new proposal outlines a number of best practices for makers of Bluetooth trackers and, if adopted, would enable anyone with an iOS or Android smartphone to get a notification if they were the target of unauthorized tracking. Since…
Android users are proud of our devices’ versatility, but many of us have been low-key jealous of Apple’s AirDrop, which allows iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers to seamlessly swap files within a certain physical distance. Google, naturally, came up with its own version of the feature—Nearby Share—but until recently it was only available on the company’s operating system. Thanks to…
Geoffrey Hinton, known to some as the “Godfather of AI,” pioneered the technology behind today’s most impactful and controversial artificial intelligence systems. He also just quit his position at Google to more freely criticize the industry he helped create. Via an interview with The New York Times published on Monday, Hinton confirmed he told his employer of his decision in…
Google has become so synonymous with search that the company’s name has found its way into the dictionary as a verb—and that means your Google search history can reveal a lot about your life. If someone manages to gain access to that treasure trove of information, they could learn about everything from the medical conditions you’ve been worried about to…
When it comes to computers, convenience and security are often at odds. A simple, easy-to-use system that you can’t lock yourself out of tends to be less secure than something a little less user-friendly. This is often the case with end-to-end encryption (E2EE), a system in which messages, backups, and anything else can only be decrypted by someone with the…
Intel and Google Cloud have just released a joint report detailing a months-long audit of a new security feature on Intel’s latest server chips: Trust Domain Extensions (TDX). The report is a result of a collaboration between security researchers from Google Cloud Security and Project Zero, and Intel engineers. It led to a number of pre-release security improvements for Intel’s…
Disk space is always at a premium, so you should take every opportunity to free up as much of it as you can. One of the best ways to do this is to back up a bunch of files to the cloud, then remove them from your computer entirely. Stashing your data in the cloud will allow you to access…