November 23 Tech news roundup: Google may have to sell Chrome, Facebook ads get worse, Microsoft launches a PC for $349

Google may be forced to sell Chrome

Google may have no choice but to sell Chrome to a third party. The forced sale of the browser has been proposed by the U.S. Department of Justice as one of the remedies in the landmark antitrust lawsuit against the search giant. Testimonies from executives of other search engines had revealed that it was nearly impossible to compete with Google, because it was the default search engine on many mobile devices. Apple and Google have a partnership, and the deal is worth several billions to have the latter’s search engine as the default in the former’s Safari browser. A Federal judge had found Google guilty of building and maintaining an illegal monopoly in the search engine market. The DoJ is also working on banning exclusive agreements such as the one between Apple and Google.

And now, Google is facing the consequences of its illegal dominance. The potential sale of Chrome could also put its advertising under risk of losing millions of dollars in revenue. The company could have to build a new browser from scratch. As for who will buy Chrome, it remains a mystery. Chrome may not the only product that could be impacted by these measures. The DoJ also wants to split Android, and the Google Play Store away from Google.

Microsoft announces Windows 365 PC for $349

Microsoft has launched a PC at a very affordable price of $349. But, there is a catch. The Windows 365 Link PC is not like a traditional desktop computer, because it does not have an operating system installed on the hard drive. Instead, it is a cloud PC, which streams Windows via the internet.

The Windows 365 Link is a tiny PC which measures 12 x 12 cm, and is 3 cm tall. It supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 wireless connectivity. Microsoft says that the Intel processor in the PC can deliver high performance video playback and conferencing. The device has 8 GB of RAM, 64 GB of internal storage, a USB-C port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, three USB-A ports, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, and a DisplayPort. Though it may look like the Windows 365 Link PC will compete with the Apple Mac Mini, it is closer to a Chromebook. Meanwhile, Google seems to be killing Chrome OS, and is switching to Android.

Apple fixes 2 critical security threats in macOS

Mac users should update their machine as soon as possible. Apple has released an update that patches two critical security vulnerabilities in its operating system. The security issues were targeted by attackers in zero-day attacks, i.e. they were actively exploited in the wild, primarily used to attack Intel-based Macs.

Clément Lecigne and Benoît Sevens, two security experts from Google’s Threat Analysis Group discovered the vulnerabilities and reported them to Apple. The flaws are related to JavaScriptCore and WebKit, and could allow malicious content on web pages to initiate attacks. Apple fixed the security issues and released the patches in the macOS Sequoia 15.1.1 update, Safari 18.1.1 update for Ventura and Sonoma, and also in updates for visionOS 2.1.1, iOS 18.1.1, iOS 17.7.2, iPadOS 18.1.1, and iPadOS 17.7.2.

Microsoft 365 Companions to be added to Windows 11’s Taskbar

Microsoft 365 Companions was one of the new Windows 11 features that were announced at Microsoft Ignite 2024. The thing is, the Redmond company didn’t really clarify what the features do, aside from showing off a screenshot on stage.

Companions appear to be similar to the Phone Link app’s panel in the Start Menu, which lets users view important information such as recent messages and missed calls, without opening the app. Similarly, Microsoft 365 Companions will allow users to access data from Contacts, People, Files and Calendar quickly from the Windows 11 Taskbar.

Facebook ads are now more annoying

Meta has come under fire for introducing more annoying ads on Facebook. The social network displays two kinds of ads, ones which are personalized based on your data, and ones which are less-personalized. While the latter may be relatively good for privacy, it has a side effect. The less-personalized ads breaks your flow by displaying a pop-up ad while you are scrolling your feed. This annoyance seems to be exclusive to the Facebook mobile app, i.e. the web version does not appear to be affected by it.

These pop-up ads can be disabled by switching to personalized ads, which seems to be a rather controversial choice. Another option is to access Facebook via a mobile browser instead of using the official app. Advanced users can also use DNS services like AdGuard, Control D, or NextDNS.

Expert says Microsoft’s Bing Wallpaper app is like a malware

The Bing Wallpaper app was released this week on the Microsoft Store. An expert who has analyzed the app has been alarmed by the app’s behavior, which he described as malware.

When a user downloads Bing Wallpaper app on Windows 10 or 11, it also installs Bing Visual Search. On the first run, it offers an option to change the homepage of your browser to Microsoft Bing, and also sets it as the default search engine in Edge, Chrome and Firefox. In case you are using a third-party browser, it also prompts to set the default browser to Microsoft Edge. The app also loads a tab in your default third-party browser, to recommend the Microsoft Bing Search extension.

While those things can be considered annoying, there are some silent things that the app does. The code of the app has capabilities to peruse and decrypt cookies in Edge, Chrome and Firefox. It can also be used to access the geolocation web API. These are things that are typically used by malware to infect a PC or monitor users. Why does the Bing Wallpaper app need all these permissions?

Brave Search’s AI can now answer follow-up questions

Brave Search’s Answer with AI has gained a new feature. It now supports follow-up questions to queries that you had made. The browser maker has named this feature as chat mode for Answer with AI. The company seems to have designed the chat feature to offer a more conversational interaction, similar to the experience that ChatGPT, Copilot and Google Gemini offer. All you have to do is visit https://search.brave.com/ and run a search query, and then ask the AI a question about the same topic. The AI will respond with a relevant answer to your query.

Brave says that its Chat offers a different experience by eliminating the need to choose between search and chat, and that users can immediately ask a follow-up question from the search results. Brave Search’s chat mode is available for all users.