3 Million Users Have Installed 28 Malicious Chrome or Edge Extensions, Says Avast

More than three million internet users are believed to have installed 15 Chrome, and 13 Edge extensions that contain malicious code, reports ZDNet, citing an announcement from cybersecurity company Avast: Avast researchers said they believe the primary objective of this campaign was to hijack user traffic for monetary gains. “For every redirection to a third party domain, the cybercriminals would receive…

Firefox 84 Claims Speed Boost from Apple Silicon, Vows to End Flash Support

The Verge reports: Firefox’s latest update brings native support for Macs that run on Apple’s Arm-based silicon, Mozilla announced on Tuesday. Mozilla claims that native Apple silicon support brings significant performance improvements: the browser apparently launches 2.5 times faster and web apps are twice as responsive than they were on the previous version of Firefox, which wasn’t native to Apple’s chips……

Google Will Officially Support Running Chrome OS On Old PCs

This week, Google acquired a company called Neverware that allows users to turn their old PCs and Macs into a Chromebook with its CloudReady software. Now, Google is planning to make CloudReady into an official Chrome OS release. Engadget reports: When that happens, Neverware says its existing users will be able to seamlessly upgrade to the updated software. Moreover, once that…

Here Comes the Google Chrome Change that Worries Ad-Blocker Creators

CNET reports: With the next version of Chrome, Google is moving ahead with a plan to improve privacy and security by reining in some abilities of extensions used to customize the browser. The move had angered some developers who expected earlier it would cripple ad blockers. Manifest v3, the programming interface behind Google’s security plans, will arrive with Chrome 88 in…

Google Will Change How Chrome Extensions Access Data in 2021

At Chrome Dev Summit 2020 today, Google announced it will change how extensions access data and how extension permissions work in 2021. On January 18, a day before the release of Chrome 88, Google will require that every extension publicly display its privacy practices and will limit what developers can do with the data they collect. From a report: The first…

Google Considers ‘Severe’ Penalties For Allegedly Deceptive Chrome Extension Maker

Engadget reports:
The Wall Street Journal has learned that Google is considering “severe penalties” against internet giant IAC (InterActive Corp) over allegedly deceptive practices in its Chrome extensions. The browser extras reportedly promise features that never materialize, point users toward additional ads, or even trick users into installing them. A Google audit reportedly found that some of IAC’s voting ads not only…

Chrome’s New ‘Cache Partitioning’ System Impacts Google Fonts Performance

A change made in the Google Chrome browser in October has impacted the performance of the Google Fonts service for millions of websites. From a report: The change is an update to Chrome’s internal cache system. A browser’s cache system works by serving as a temporary storage system for images, CSS, and JavaScript files used by websites. Files stored in the…

Microsoft’s ‘Project Latte’ Aims To Bring Android Apps To Windows 10

Windows Central reports: Microsoft is working on a software solution that would allow app developers to bring their Android apps to Windows 10 with little to no code changes by packaging them as an MSIX and allowing developers to submit them to the Microsoft Store. According to sources familiar with the matter, the project is codenamed ‘Latte’ and I’m told it…

‘Ubuntu Web Remix’ Distro Offers Firefox-Based Chrome OS Alternative

Rudra Saraswat is the creator of the Ubuntu Unity distro (which uses the Unity interface in place of Ubuntu’s GNOME shell). But this week they released Ubuntu Web Remix, “a privacy-focused, open source alternative to Google Chrome OS/Chromium OS” using Firefox instead of Google Chrome/Chromium. Liliputing reports: If the name didn’t give it away, this operating system is based on Ubuntu,…

Google’s Native Version of Chrome For Apple’s ARM Macs Is Out Now

According to Chrome product manager Mark Chang, Google’s version of Chrome that support ARM Macs is now available to download. The Verge reports: In theory, a native version of the notoriously resource-hungry browser might run more efficiently on Apple’s Arm-based computers. In our reviews of the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini equipped with the new M1 chip, though, we…