Author: Awais

Chromebooks have a good reputation for being low-maintenance computers with solid security and privacy. By and large, this is true. It’s why we trust them for use by children and college students, or why some companies like to issue them to employees who only need a basic computer. However, there’s no such thing as perfect privacy and even Chromebooks have their pitfalls. Location access by apps and services Until quite recently, ChromeOS didn’t have a lot of granularity when it comes to controlling whether an app knows your location or not. Unlike Android, your options were pretty much to turn…

Google is rolling out an experimental feature that lets Search Console users configure the Search results Performance report using natural language instead of manual filter selection. The feature, called AI-powered configuration, translates plain-language requests into the appropriate filters and settings. You can describe the analysis you want to see, and the system handles the technical setup. What’s New The AI-powered configuration feature handles three types of report setup: 1. Filters You can narrow data by query, page, country, device, search appearance, or date range through natural language. A request like “Show me queries on phone searches that contain the word…

A federal judge has expanded on the remedies decided for the Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Google, ruling in favor of putting a one-year limit on the contracts that make Google’s search and AI services the default on devices, Bloomberg reports. Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling on Friday means Google will have to renegotiate these contacts every year, which would create a fairer playing field for its competitors. The new details come after Mehta ruled in September that Google would not have to sell off Chrome, as the DOJ proposed at the end of 2024.This all follows the ruling last…

I’ve spent years testing VPNs. I’ve stress-tested speeds, compared WireGuard implementations, checked server quality, streamed my way through half of Netflix, and run enough leak tests to last a lifetime. But none of that matters anymore. After reviewing dozens of services, I’ve realised that only one VPN feature truly matters — and most providers still don’t offer it. It’s not speed. It’s not server count. It’s not “military-grade encryption.” It’s a verifiable no-logs policy. And shockingly few VPNs can genuinely prove they have one. We’ve been trained to care about the wrong VPN features It’s hard to look past speed…

Every year, I go through the ritual of asking my husband what dessert he’d like for his birthday. Every year, we pretend he won’t answer the same way, just for fun. But year after year, he answers with a smile, “Orange cake.” Years ago, I came across a popular recipe on NYTimes Cooking by Claudia Roden for Orange and Almond Cake, pulled from her 1980s cookbook Everything Tastes Better Outdoors. I was intrigued by the idea of using whole oranges in the cake, and I was certainly surprised to find the cake contained no flour and no oil or butter—usually…

5 days of this Machine Learning “Advent Calendar”, we explored 5 models (or algorithms) that are all based on distances (local Euclidean distance, or global Mahalanobis distance). So it is time to change the approach, right? We will come back to the notion of distance later. For today, we will see something totally different: Decision Trees! Decision Tree Regressor in Excel – image by author Introduction with a Simple dataset Let’s use a simple dataset with only one continuous feature. As always, the idea is that you can visualize the results yourself. Then you have to think how to make the…

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is kind of tough — with a few terms I didn’t know. If you need help sorting them into groups, you’re in the right place. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who…

Amazon has officially put a date on its latest high-end e-readers. The refreshed Kindle Scribe (2025) and the flashy new Kindle Scribe Colorsoft will go on sale starting December 10. They actually showed these off back in September, but kept us guessing on the release date until now. Interestingly, Amazon isn’t doing preorders this time. If you want one, you just have to log on next week and buy it directly. This is the third generation of the “write-on” Kindle. The new standard Scribe gets a size bump to an 11-inch screen (up from 10.2), is thinner, and runs on…

Similarly, in 2019, luxury handbag designer Edie Parker fused lifestyle and cannabis brand with the launch of Flower by Edie Parker. “Our core mission is to normalize social cannabis consumption,” says Niki Sawyer, director of brand marketing for Edie Parker. “Unlike traditional fashion, where exclusivity can be key, we believe in a distribution model that mirrors the alcohol industry…being available in a variety of retail environments fosters a robust customer funnel by meeting consumers where they are.”Flower by Edie Parker has products in roughly 10% of dispensaries nationwide, a staggeringly high statistic for a single brand whose most recognizable products…

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is reporting that Johny Srouji, senior vice president of hardware technologies, told Tim Cook he is “seriously considering” leaving Apple for another company in the near future. It was reported in October that Srouji was “evaluating his future at the tech giant.” While nothing is confirmed, it seems the executive is leaning towards not having a future at Cupertino.If Srouji leaves, he would be just the latest in a string of high-profile shakeups in the company’s C-suite. COO Jeff Williams announced his retirement in July, which led to some shifting of roles. But things have only accelerated…