Chrome Overtakes Internet Explorer, Solving Windows God Mode Malware…
May 4, 2016
Shah Sheikh (1294 articles)
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Chrome Overtakes Internet Explorer, Solving Windows God Mode Malware…

Chrome is the most popular Web browser, Windows God Mode gets hit with malware, Apple thinks you’ll be upgrading soon, Google Keyboard gets a major update, and Apple Watch is improved immeasurably by Windows 95.

Google Chrome is now THE most popular Web browser in the world, with Net Market Share finally declaring it as such with its figures from April 2016. This brings to an end the longtime domination of Internet Explorer, with Microsoft’s much-maligned browser having been number one since 2002.

Net Market Share claims Chrome now boasts 41.66 percent of the market, up from 39 percent the previous month. Internet Explorer has a 41.3 percent share of the market in April, down from 43.4 percent the previous month. Firefox only controls 9.7 percent of the market now, way down from its peak.

StatCounter, a rival metrics company, actually crowned Chrome as the most popular Web browser as long ago as 2012, but it has taken a further four years for the numbers to align. Essentially, StatCounter and Net Market Share employ different methods to track data, leading to the difference of opinion. However, both now agree that Chrome is number one.

You may be sitting there thinking this is all meaningless because of Microsoft Edge, the Windows 10 Web browser designed to replace IE. However, those Internet Explorer numbers include Edge, so it’s no wonder Microsoft is trying toforce people to adopt Edge by making Cortana only play nicely with its own browser.

Malware Hits Windows God Mode

Malware authors are now using Windows God Mode to infect machines. God Mode has been a thing since Windows Vista, and allows users to create a special folder full of settings and control panels. This shortcuts the process of getting under the hood of Windows, and is a boon for power users.

Unfortunately, Windows God Mode can also be used for bad, with ne’er-do-wells hiding malware within one of these folders. As recently discovered by McAfee, this is the case with Dynamer, a piece of malware that hides within God Mode and can persist across reboots thanks to a dynamic executable name.

This makes it impossible to simply delete this particular variant, as the normal right-click menu options and standard command prompts have no effect. Thankfully, however, McAfee’s antimalware products are now capable of deleting the threat, and everyone else can use a “specially crafted command from the command prompt” as outlined in this blog post.

Apple Promises “Great Innovation”

Since the death of Steve Jobs in 2011, Apple has faced criticism over its supposed lack of innovation. The company which revolutionized various industries is now, its critics claim, just retreading old ground, delivering incremental upgrades to existing products or, in the case of the iPhone SE, literally repackaging its greatest hits.

The most recent financials suggest there’s some truth to this, as consumers have stopped handing over their hard-earned cash to the company. However, Apple CEO Tim Cook is adamant there is no problem, insisting “it was a pretty good quarter,” despite not being “up to the Street’s expectations”. He also thinks the good times are once again just around the corner, saying:

“We’ve got great innovation in the pipeline, new iPhones that will incentivize you and other people that have iPhones today to upgrade to new iPhones.”

Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 7 later this year, but Cook referenced multiple “iPhones,” suggesting there will be various models to choose from. As for the “great innovation,” Apple really needs to deliver something mind-blowing to rouse people from their comfort zone, because consumers are clearly getting picker about upgrading for the sake of it.

Google Keyboard Gets One-Handed Mode

Google has updated Google Keyboard, releasing Google Keyboard v5.0 on Google Play. The update brings various improvements and new features, the most interesting of which is the one-handed mode. This shrinks the keyboard and moves it to either the right- or left-hand side to allow for easier typing with one hand. This should prove useful to those with larger phablet-style phones.

Other improvements — as spotted by Android Police — include the ability to customize keys and add borders around each character, the ability to move the cursor more quickly, and the ability to delete entire words by sliding left on the delete key. This is the first update for Google Keyboard since June 2015, so it’s a good job it was worth the wait.

Install Windows 95 on an Apple Watch

And finally, the Apple Watch hasn’t exactly set the world alight as Tim Cook and company expected. Plenty of Apple fanboys and fangirls bought thisunnecessary fashion accessory, but the rest of the population simply doesn’t care. However, there may be hope for the Apple Watch yet.

All Apple needs to do to make the Apple Watch soar is… install Windows 95 on it, just like Nick Lee did in this video. Problem solved.

Sure, it’s so slow as to be almost unusable, and the tiny screen makes finding the cursor is almost impossible, but at least it turns the Apple Watch into something other than a device designed to save you from having to get another device out of your pocket. [H/T Medium]

Your Views on Today’s Tech News

Which Web browser are you currently using? Have you ever messed around with Windows God Mode? Do you believe Apple still has the capacity to innovate? Will you be using Google Keyboard’s new one-handed mode? Do you still wear your Apple Watch?

Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.

Tech News Digest is a daily column paring the technology news of the day down into bite-sized chunks that are easy to read and perfect for sharing.

Source | MakeUseOf