Skip to main content

June 2018

Chrome for Android downloads popular pages automatically

Android users who run Google Chrome on their devices may have noticed that the browser started to download popular pages automatically recently.

Google Chrome displays news articles on the browser's new tab page when you open it. The type of articles displayed depends on whether you are signed in to Chrome or not. If you are not signed in, you get the regional top articles but if you are signed in, you get recommendations based on your browsing history.

Customize font sizes without scaling in Windows 10

Alternate Font Sizer is a free program for Microsoft Windows to customize the size of different fonts on the system without display scaling.

When Microsoft released the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, it removed font customization options from the Control Panel without bringing the functionality to the Settings application or elsewhere.

Cumulative updates KB4284822, KB4284830 and KB4284833 for Windows 10

Microsoft released a whole bunch of cumulative updates for the company's Windows 10 operating system yesterday. The updates KB4284822, KB4284830 and KB4284833 include non-security fixes and improvements for Windows 10 version 1709, 1703, and 1607.

The company has not released an update for Windows 10 version 1803, the current version of Windows 10, yet but it is likely that one will be released that includes some of the fixes.

Amiga Emulator WinUAE 4.0 release

WinUAE 4.0.0 is a new major version of the Commodore Amiga emulator for Windows. The new version introduces virtual monitor support, latency improvements, and a host of other new features and improvements.

Commodore launched the Amiga computer in 1985 and discontinued production in 1996. The Amiga was a successful home computer, arguably one of the most successful home computers of the 16-bit era.

It featured a mouse-based graphical user interface, multi-tasking, 16-bit graphics and was used in Home and professional environments alike.

Brave starts opt-in Ads trial that rewards users and publishers

Brave, the Chromium-based web browser by former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, just entered the next stage of the master plan to change how websites and publishers earn money on the Internet.

One of the key ideas behind Brave was to replace the current advertisement system of the Internet with a better one. Brave wanted to establish its own system that shares the advertisement revenue between publishers, users, and the company.

The Steam Summer Sale has started

The annual Steam Summer Sale has just started and gamers can once again buy virtual games, apps, and even real hardware for a discounted price.

While I'm personally not that excited anymore about new Steam sales, as Valve removed much of the excitement from them by doing away with Flash sales, user voting on special deals and such, it may still be of interest to Steam users who are looking to pick up discounted games and other things.

Disable Google News notifications on Android

If you operate an Android device regularly or from time to time you may have noticed that news headlines are displayed in the notifications area regularly.

While any news app may display news headlines there, the most likely candidate for that on Android is Google News as it comes included on most devices alongside many other Google applications.

I noticed these news notifications only recently and can't really say what triggered their display. Maybe the upgrade to Android 8.x on the Nokia 5 device but it could have been something else as well.