R.I.P. Internet Explorer: Use One of These Top Web Browsers Instead

The browser wars continue to rage, but one competitor is gone forever: Internet Explorer. Microsoft announced that the once-indisputable leader in browser market share, and the one that paved the way for interactive web applications, would go out of support on June 15, 2022. With new competitors in the fray and longtime entries spinning up new technologies, conveniences, protections, and features, your choice of browser software is just as important as it ever was.

For the last several years, the browser landscape has been dominated by Google. The same company that serves more web content than any other (according to comScore), also claims nearly 70 percent of the browser market with Chrome (based on NetMarketShare and StatCounter numbers). That’s for desktop use, but if you add in mobile, Chrome is still king, with a share of over 60 percent. So dominant is Chrome that most other browsers now use its underlying Chromium rendering code, with Firefox the only remaining top-to-bottom independent competitor.  Click here for more

Top 200 most common passwords of the year 2020...and worse

Here are the worst 200 passwords of 2020. The list details how many times a password has been exposed, used, and how much time it would take to crack it. We also compare the most common passwords of 2019 and 2020, highlighting how their positions have changed. The green arrows indicate a rise in the position while the red ones - a fall off. Check if your password is on the list and strengthen it if it is.  Click here for the article

Transfer Your Google Play Music Library Before Google Deletes It

Google is erasing all traces of Play Music. Though the platform stopped streaming in December, some user content remains available for export, but not for long.

As reported by 9to5Google, the company will delete all information associated with Play Music later this month. That includes content uploaded to the cloud locker, purchases, saved playlists, stations, albums, songs; as well as likes and dislikes.

News of a Play Music shutdown came almost exactly one year ago, as Google allegedly began transitioning users away from the nine-year-old service and towards YouTube Music. The move became official in May last year, with plans to shutter Play Music entirely by the end of 2020. The music store went dark in October, and all usage was discontinued two months later.

Users were initially given until Dec. 31 to transfer data to YouTube Music or download an offline copy. That deadline slipped into 2021, and there's now just 19 days left. "On Feb. 24, 2021, we will delete all of your Google Play Music data," according to a customer email. "This includes your music library with any uploads, purchases, and anything you've added from Google Play Music. After this date, there will be no way to recover it."

Those who've already transferred to YouTube Music may receive a different message, suggesting that "if you've made any changes, you still have the option to transfer again so your music library is up to date." Visit play.google.com/music to review your export options before it's too late.

Google Chrome Users Should Update to Chrome 88 Right Now

Google released the latest version of the its Chrome web browser yesterday (88.0.4324.150), and Chrome 88 is a very important update all users should grab immediately.

As ZDNet reports, Chrome 88 fixes a zero-day vulnerability known as CVE-2021-21148. It was reported by security researcher Mattias Buelens on Jan. 24, but Google discovered it was being exploited by hackers before the vulnerability could be patched out of the browser.

The exploit allowed Chrome users to be targeted by malicious code thanks to a memory corruption problem in Google's V8 JavaScript engine, which forms part of the Chrome browser. Although Google hasn't confirmed it, the exploit is thought to be what allowed security researchers to be targeted by North Korean hackers on social media last month.

Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center attributed the targeted campaign to ZINC, "a DPRK-affiliated and state-sponsored group."

If you haven't updated to Chrome 88, then your browser remains susceptible to the exploit. If you want evidence of how serious of a vulnerability it is, Google is restricting access to the bug details "until a majority of users are updated with a fix."

Here's how much more gaming you did due to COVID

It’s no surprise that the global pandemic has spurred a huge uptick in gaming, but we now have an idea of just how much more that might be.

According to figures released from Valve, the parent company of online gaming service Steam, subscribers spent some 31.3 billion hours playing PC games in 2020. That’s a 50.7-percent increase over the hours spent in 2019. Valve also gained 2.6 million new buyers for the year, a 21.4-percent increase over 2019. 

Steam is the largest online service for PC gaming, and like most, it requires you to log in in to play a game. So if you’re looking for a sign of just how much more time people spent mashing keyboards or game controllers, it’s likely an accurate representation.

Valve said growth was already on the uptick when 2020 kicked off, but it believes many have turned to gaming during lockdowns. “While Steam was already seeing significant growth in 2020 before COVID-19 lockdowns,” the company said in a blog post, “video game playtime surged when people started staying home, dramatically increasing the number of customers buying and playing games, and hopefully bringing some joy to counter-balance some of the craziness that was 2020.”

For perspective, note that some 90 million monthly active players were logged by Steam in 2018. In 2020, monthly active players spiked to 120 million—a 33-percent increase since 2018.

Valve didn’t publish figures for 2019’s peak concurrent players, but in 2018 it reported about 18.5 million. In 2020, the figure jumped 34 percent to 24.8 million. Daily active players tracked at 62.6 million for 2020, compared to 47 million in 2018.

VR is not dead

Is the pandemic good for VR? Despite media and analysts’ diagnoses that “VR is dead,” Steam’s figures show that’s far from the truth. Valve said 104 million Steam VR sessions were kicked off in 2020, including 1.7 million first-timers. Game sales of VR titles increased 32 percent from 2019 as well. Sessions definitely aren’t as long, though, averaging about 32 minutes.

Controllers gain in popularity

Steam can answer the eternal question about keyboard vs. controller for PC games, too. Steam stats show 46.6 million players have used a controller, an increase of  about 47 percent over 2019. Valve said 1.68 billion game sessions used a controller, which is up 67 percent from 2019.

25.2 million 1TB hard drives

And yes, a lot of data was downloaded from Steam too. In fact, Valve clocks the amount of data served up in 2020 at 25.2 exabytes, compared to 16 exabytes in 2019. How much is that? Well, pile up about 25.2 million 1TB hard drives, and you get the idea of just how much game data was delivered.

Valve said it saw about a 30- to 40-percent increase in downloads in March, when pandemic lockdowns started—but that was nothing compared to the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. The game set a record of 52Tbps downloads at its peak, which is double the previous peak record. During the preload period, Steam logged 26Tbps downloads.

Can I Save Money by Buying a ‘Dumb’ TV?

Thanksgiving has become synonymous with two things: overeating and buying cheap TVs. And like clockwork, all my friends ask me if it's possible to save more money by buying a TV without smart apps built in—after all, if you already have a Roku, why pay for extra features you don't need? Unfortunately, it isn't quite that simple.

Almost All TVs Are Smart Now

If you're buying a TV in 2020, it's probably going to have smart features. "Dumb" TVs aren't completely extinct, but they're pretty close—the few that exist tend to come in small sizes with low resolutions, designed more for watching news in the kitchen than watching movies in the living room. The picture quality on those is nowhere near what you'd get from even a midrange smart TV with features like 4K, HDR, and local dimming—you could get decent quality from a computer monitor, if you can find one big enough, but again, many high-quality TVs offer features that monitors don't have.

Just as in the world of phones, smart features are pretty much a given in today's TVs. But it's unlikely you're paying extra for smart features, even on low-end TVs. If anything, it's likely those TVs are subsidized by the smart features included, since they hook you into an ecosystem. If you buy one of Amazon's Fire-capable TVs, for example, Amazon is banking on you subscribing to Prime and buying more Alexa devices to make everything work together nicely.

Not only that, but smart TVs are data-collecting gold mines, which only encourages manufacturers to include those features on as many TVs as possible. Data collection lines pockets long after a gadget is bought and paid for.

Your Best Option: Keep Your TV Disconnected

If you're interested in a TV but aren't interested in its smart features—maybe you already stream using your game console, or you prefer to watch movies on Blu-ray—you don't need to hunt far and wide for a dumb TV. Just buy the smart model and keep it disconnected from the internet. Don't set up Wi-Fi when you turn it on, don't plug in an Ethernet cable. Just hook up your HDMI devices and go to town—you never have to see the smart features if you don't want to. (Apart from a rare visit to the settings menu, I never even see what smart apps my Samsung TV has available, because I stream through my Roku Ultra.)

This has another added benefit: If you keep your TV disconnected, it won't automatically update its firmware. Firmware updates can improve the experience, but I've heard (and experienced) more than enough horror stories of firmware updates reducing picture quality, introducing new bugs, and slowing down the overall experience. You're better off manually updating the firmware after you've given other people a chance to try it out, and keeping your TV disconnected allows you to do that.

That said, there are a few TVs out there with good smart platforms built in. Many of TCL's TVs come with Roku built in, which is like getting a $100 Roku box for free with the purchase of your TV. That's definitely a value add. Sony, Hisense, and other manufacturers often bundle Android TV, which is a decent platform as well. You don't have to use either, but if you're going to stream Netflix anyway, you might as well.

Streaming Comes With Privacy Trade-Offs

If you're concerned about privacy—remember that data collection I mentioned earlier?—keep in mind that streaming boxes aren't always better. Sure, some smart TVs tend to invade privacy a bit more with their Automatic Content Recognition features (which, thankfully, you can turn off), but if you still plan on streaming your shows, don't think that gets you off the grid. Many dedicated streaming boxes collect their own data as well—as can individual apps. That's just the sad reality of today's internet-connected world. Unless you restrict yourself to DVDs and over-the-air broadcasts, someone's probably phoning home a little.

None of this is to say you should avoid streaming altogether. Most of us are willing to put up with a little data collection to get our Netflix fix. Nor does it mean smart TVs are particularly great—I'd rather stream from a Roku or watch higher-quality Blu-ray discs most of the time. But if you're dead set on avoiding smart TVs for whatever reason, your crusade may be a bit misplaced. Just keep it disconnected and enjoy movie night—you probably didn't pay extra for those features anyway.