By Ana-Maria Stanciuc As the tech conference circuit grows more crowded, one SaaS event is making the opposite pitch: fewer people, fewer sales decks, and a lot less noise. SaaS on the Beach, a curated event for SaaS founders, will return to Barcelona between May 20 and 21 for its second edition, positioning itself as an alternative to the […] This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Alina Maria Stan In short: Altilium, a UK clean technology company, has secured £18.5 million in grant funding from the government’s DRIVE35 Scale-Up Fund to build ACT3, the country’s first commercial refinery for recovering critical minerals from end-of-life electric vehicle batteries. Located in Plymouth, Devon, the facility will process 24,000 EV batteries a year using Altilium’s proprietary EcoCathode™ process, […] This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

Google has made a big step forward by extending end-to-end encryption to Android and iOS devices for Gmail client-side encryption (CSE) users, says an expert.

“All in all, this is a welcome update, especially in light of recent concerns surrounding WhatsApp’s encryption methods,” said Gartner analyst Avivah Litan. “Google’s approach offers verifiable customer-managed keys and ensures the provider does not have access to encrypted content.”

This, she said, addresses allegations raised in the January 2026 lawsuit against Meta regarding their internal access to customer encrypted message data.

Meta has reportedly said the claims are false, and that WhatsApp messages remain protected by default. The suit’s allegations have not been proven in court.

Litan noted that Google’s encryption update is only for organizations subscribing to its Enterprise Plus with Assured Controls edition. Messages and attachments are encrypted directly on-device, with encryption keys managed externally by the customer.

“For CSOs in regulated industries, this development is significant, as it supports secure mobile communication, compliance with regulations such as HIPAA [the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act] and GDPR [the European General Data Protection Regulation], and reduces the risk of plaintext data exposure on mobile devices,” she said. “External recipients retain the ability to reply via a web portal.”

However, Litan added, the capability remains opt-in, requires premium licensing and administrative configuration, and disables several Gmail functions, including AI features and comprehensive search, on encrypted content. But, she pointed out, the limitations are consistent with those in Gmail web and desktop implementations.

It’s also a capability that Microsoft doesn’t provide. A Microsoft spokesperson said in an email that the company doesn’t currently offer end-to-end Outlook encryption on mobile, although messages can be digitally signed and encrypted. 

In its April 9 announcement, Google said Workspace users can compose and read end-to-end encrypted messages natively within the Gmail app on Android and iOS without the need to download extra apps or use mail portals. Users with a Gmail E2EE license can send an encrypted message to any recipient, regardless of their email address. If the recipient uses the Gmail app, the encrypted message will be delivered as a normal message thread to their inbox, but if not, they can seamlessly and securely read and reply in their own native browser. This, Google said, ensures that all users have a simple and secure interface, regardless of their email service or device.

Google Workspace admins will need to enable the Android and iOS clients in the CSE admin interface to give users access to the new capability. This can be done in the Admin Console.

End users also need to be taught the new process: To add client-side encryption to any message, they must click the lock icon and select ‘additional encryption’. Then they can compose a message and add attachments as they normally do.

Forrester Research Senior Analyst Andrew Cornwall noted the biggest benefit for enterprises is that Workspace admins or Google can disable the ability to take screenshots and screen recordings when users read an encrypted message in the Gmail app. That will prevent Android and iOS recipients from forwarding a message as an image, he said, noting that Google can also disable screenshots in Android Chrome for business users and presumably will do this when Android users with email programs other than Gmail open a message in a browser.

From a user’s perspective, he added, this encryption gives Gmail an advantage over third-party email programs like Outlook and Thunderbird, which won’t automatically decrypt messages that have been encrypted using Google’s encryption mechanism. Unlike some encryption methods, Gmail doesn’t require the exchange of a key in advance, so users will be more likely to use it.

However, he pointed out, Google’s client-side encryption doesn’t encrypt headers or message senders, so an attacker with access to the device can still get some potentially sensitive information even with encryption enabled.

“If you’re planning to use Gmail to commit financial crimes or plan a revolution,” he added, “you should know that Google controls the display and often the keyboard on devices they build. Even if emails are encrypted on device, your messages may still be available while being read or composed.”

And while end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is considered by experts to be an excellent protection against the hijacking of data in transit, it won’t protect data on compromised devices, stolen and hacked devices, or in unencrypted backups.

David Shipley, CEO of security awareness provider Beauceron Security, noted the extension of Gmail end to end encryption to mobile platforms will help organizations ensure compliance with privacy concerns. “On the downside,” he added, “this is going to be a powerful tool for criminals. If they spin up a Google Workspace tenant and send encrypted messages to end users who aren’t on Gmail, in those cases, users will get a link to a new portal to read the sent message which will not be intercepted by a lot of security tools like email filters.”

Source:: Computer World

By Omair Khaliq Sultan The Beats Studio Buds+ are down to $99.95, a $70 saving off their $169.95 list price, and that gets you true wireless noise canceling, spatial audio, and sweat resistance at a price that most competing earbuds with this feature set can’t touch. For anyone using an iPhone or an Android device, these cover the bases […]

Source:: Digital Trends

By Ana-Maria Stanciuc In short: France’s Interministerial Digital Directorate (DINUM) announced on 8 April 2026 that it is migrating its own workstations from Windows to Linux and has ordered every government ministry to formalise a plan to eliminate extra-European digital dependencies by autumn 2026. The directive covers operating systems, collaborative tools, cloud infrastructure, and artificial intelligence platforms. It follows […] This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Alina Maria Stan In short: A 20-year-old man was arrested in the early hours of Friday, 10 April 2026, after throwing a Molotov cocktail at the San Francisco home of OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, then travelling across the city to OpenAI’s offices on Third Street and threatening to burn the building down. No one was injured. The suspect’s […] This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Vikhyaat Vivek Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says the company’s long-awaited Leo satellite internet service is finally set to launch in mid-2026, with enterprise and government customers already signed on.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Vikhyaat Vivek Snap’s AR glasses ambitions might be starting to look a lot more real. In an official announcement, Snap has said it has expanded its partnership with Qualcomm through a multi-year strategic agreement that will bring Qualcomm’s Snapdragon silicon to future generations of Specs. The company describes this as the first flagship engagement for Specs Inc, […]

Source:: Digital Trends

By Vikhyaat Vivek Meta’s new Muse Spark AI encourages users to upload health data but still produces unreliable and potentially harmful advice.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Hisan Kidwai The OPPO F-series has always focused on the durability side of things, with some of the…
The post OPPO F33 Series to Launch With IP69K Rating and 7,000mAh Battery appeared first on Fossbytes.

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By Deepti Pathak vivo may soon launch its X series lineup in India with the vivo X300 FE. The…
The post Vivo X300 FE May Debut In India Soon With An Exclusive Green Variant appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

By Shimul Sood Let your words wander across languages.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Alina Maria Stan In short: Meta has committed an additional $21 billion to CoreWeave for dedicated AI cloud capacity running from 2027 through December 2032, bringing the total value of the two companies’ infrastructure relationship to approximately $35 billion. The new contract will deliver early deployments of Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform across multiple sites, and is designed specifically for […] This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Ana Maria Constantin In short: OpenAI has paused its Stargate UK data centre project, citing the high cost of industrial electricity in Britain and an unfavourable regulatory environment around AI copyright. The project, announced in September 2025 alongside Nvidia and Nscale, had planned to deploy 8,000 GPUs at sites in north-east England, scalable to 31,000 over time. OpenAI says […] This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Varun Mirchandani Florida’s Attorney General has launched an investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT, raising concerns over safety, misuse, and national security.

Source:: Digital Trends

Ahem: My fellow Android-appreciating organisms — I’ve got a confession.

After the better part of two decades of personally using Google’s Chrome browser on both Android and every desktop computer I own, I’ve made the leap into the arms of a shiny new web-weaving seductress. Her name is Vivaldi.

Yes, it feels like a mildly geeky version of virtual adultery (especially with an exotic-sounding name like that). But I’ve long been a proponent of embracing whatever apps and services best serve your individual needs at any given moment and avoiding being beholden to any one company — no matter who that company may be. And now, after all these years, it’s become clear that Chrome is no longer the best web-wading companion for me.

Now, don’t get me wrong: Chrome is completely fine. It’s got plenty of positives, and I’ve certainly got no major beefs with it. I think that’s why it’s been so easy to stick with all this time, for so many of us — ’cause it gets the job done, and it’s familiar. There’s something to be said for that.

But as a person who’s always curious about new technology, constantly striving to optimize my digital environments, and endlessly working to make ’em all as efficient as humanly possible, I came to realize that “fine” wasn’t as good as it’d get anymore. And, lemme tell ya: Particularly if you’re a productivity-minded browser power-goober like me, stickin’ with Chrome largely just because it’s what you use and know is causing you to miss out on some incredibly interesting and advantageous upgrades.

And you know what? You aren’t alone. In fact, the vast majority of monitor-staring mammals work exclusively within the confines of Chrome. (The browser commands somewhere around three-quarters of the worldwide desktop computer browser market as of early 2026, according to some recent estimates.)

Again: It’s easy to understand why. Heck, I was one of those numbers myself — up until just a matter of months ago. I’d tried pretty much every other browser out there at some point, and I just hadn’t found anything meaningfully different and better enough for my needs to make it worth the hassle of switching over and dealing with all that adjustment.

Until now. 

And my goodness, it wasn’t an easy change to make.

My Chrome to Vivaldi adapting adventure

I’ve got an entire separate article about what ultimately won me over with Vivaldi and which exact features I’m finding to be invaluable within it. I’d highly recommend giving it a read.

Here, I want to focus specifically on how I managed to overcome the hurdle of such a challenging change — and it isn’t about anything technical with the transition, either. In fact, Vivaldi makes it almost shockingly easy to move your data over from Chrome and import all your basic settings and history.

What I found, though, was two-fold:

On the Android front, moving into the Vivaldi app was actually quite painless. I started out by using it here and there, as a supplement to the standard Android Chrome browser, and quickly realized how much I enjoyed and appreciated its experience and the added niceties it gave me — including seemingly endless customization over every last element of the browser interface and a whole slew of on-demand privacy and web-clutter-cutting options. It wasn’t long before I changed my Android browser default and was using it full-time.

Vivaldi’s Android browser is powerful, pleasant to use, and incredibly customizable.JR Raphael, Foundry

On the desktop front, the change presented far more friction. In fact, I’ve been using the Vivaldi Android app for months now — since sometime in the fall of 2025 — and it wasn’t until early this year that I made the leap over to Vivaldi on my workday Windows computer, too.

What changed was that I finally put my finger on the problem.

If there’s one real hurdle with Vivaldi — and one thing that kept me, personally, from fully moving into its desktop version for so long — it’s that it really can be overwhelming to adapt and get accustomed to all the new interfaces and elements it gives you, especially within the feature-rich desktop domain and with an environment so central to everything we do these days.

As I noted in my in-depth Vivaldi exploration, with as much time as most of us spend in our browsers on computers at this point, the browser essentially is our desktop — and our virtual office, too. And leaving the comfort of familiarity behind for something so unknown and unfamiliar is a daunting prospect.

Vivaldi, in particular, is quite different from Chrome on a computer at first exposure. And it has a lot of new options, features, and possibilities to ponder.

The options and features within the Vivaldi desktop browser are both amazing and — especially at first — overwhelming.JR Raphael, Foundry

With that in mind, let me tell you what worked for me:

First, I took advantage of Vivaldi’s immense customization potential and scaled back some of the more jarring differences. For me, that meant eliminating the on-by-default left-of-screen vertical tab bar — which was just too different of an interface for me at first, especially amidst everything else I was adjusting to — and also changing the “Tab Cycling” setting to “Cycle in Tab Order” and the “New Tab Position” setting to “After Related Tabs,” which were two subtle-seeming returns to the standard Chrome behavior that really kept throwing me off in their different-by-default implementations.

Second, I forced myself to ignore most of the new Vivaldi features — all that good stuff I go over in that other article! — and focus on just one new feature or element at a time, for at least a few days each. There is a lot to take in with this program, and if you try to ingest all of it at once, it’s bound to overwhelm you and lead to a retreat. But if you explore one new piece of the puzzle at a time, really see how you feel about it and get in the habit of using it (or, alternatively, disabling it — if it just isn’t for you), it’s a much more manageable and enjoyable transition.

Third, after that initial targeted series of adjustments, I mostly ignored the mountain of Vivaldi settings for a while. There’s just too much there to reasonably process at the get-go. I’m still peeking in periodically and finding something new and realizing I can customize it in a way that suits my working style better (and then sometimes realizing that a similar option also exists that I hadn’t yet tapped into on Android). Doing it all at once before you even have a feel for the browser just isn’t reasonable.

Last but not least, remember — particularly for desktop purposes — that Vivaldi is based on the same Chromium foundation as Google’s Chrome browser. That means you can use the standard Chrome Web Store to find and install extensions as needed and bring over the same tools you’ve always had in your browser setup. That, too, helps a lot with making yourself comfortable and creating an optimal environment that works for your needs (though I always recommend eliminating any extensions you aren’t actively using, and a browser change is a perfect time to perform an audit and get rid of any dead weight).

If you follow this approach and take the time to wrap your head around everything Vivaldi offers, the transition doesn’t have to be difficult. And — who knows? — you might find yourself feeling the same sense of excitement I have over a guilt-free virtual dalliance where the only lasting impact is your own happiness and efficiency.

Check out my free Android Intelligence newsletter for even more thoughtful knowledge — including three new things to try each Friday and a trio of useful Android notification tools to get you going.

Source:: Computer World

With its powerful M5 chip, the latest iteration of the world’s most popular laptop keeps everything that made the MacBook Air compelling in the first place, while meaningfully boosting performance across the board. Beyond the faster processor, there’s also much quicker SSD storage and better memory bandwidth, all of which combine to make this a highly capable Mac.

In practical terms, the powerful M5 chip allows these Macs to better handle demanding data workloads than earlier models, making it an ideal machine for many creative and professional users. You also get 512GB of storage as standard (with as much as 4TB available as an option) and at least 16GB of RAM.

Big improvements to Apple’s most popular laptop

To some extent, of course, the MacBook Air has been left in the shadows by the all-new MacBook Neo. The latter costs much less, is quite capable of handling most tasks, and is a great fit for general purpose use, though the M5 Air can do all of that faster, because it is built to be a more efficient machine. Compared to the M4-powered model you can see these improvements:

With 10CPU cores and either 8 or 10 GPU cores, the M5 chip has a 15% faster CPU and 30% faster GPU.

It also has neural accelerators in each core, which makes the M5 MacBook Air very capable for AI-specific tasks or 3D rendering.

The memory bandwidth hits 153GBps. (The M4 model gave us 120GBps.)

SSD read/write speed are up to twice as fast as the M4, which you’ll feel when doing things with big files, such as when flinging video or imaging assets through apps or working/developing with on-device AI models.

The price has increased by $100 to start at $1,099, though you get twice the built-in storage to help soften the blow.

Benchmark performance

Let’s look at some of the benchmark scores I saw using Geekbench 6 with the Apple-loaned 15.3-in. MacBook Air I tested:

Single-core: 4,103.

Multi-core: 17,089.

For comparison, here are benchmarks for the previous generations:

M1 MacBook Air: 2,346 single-core; 8,356 multi-core.

M2 MacBook Air: 2,588 single-core; 9,691, multi-core. 

M3 MacBook Air: 3,065 single-core; 11,959 multi-core.

M4 MacBook Air: 3,833 single-core; 14,871 multi-core. 

M5 MacBook Air: 4,103 single-core; 17,098 multi-core.

MacBook Neo: 3,608 single-core; 9,346 multi-core.

Illustrating the extent to which the move to Apple Silicon has opened up new opportunities for Macs, the M5 MacBook Air delivers the kind of performance we once got from M3 Pro/Max MacBook Pros that shipped just over two years ago.

Apple

The bigger picture

To some extent, what’s coming next doesn’t mean much when planning what to get today, but the takeaway must be that MacBook Air has plenty of power under its hood for the future.  When you choose one, you aren’t just getting the processor — you’re also getting a range of other internal improvements designed to optimize the benefits it brings.

These improvements must certainly have been the North Star to engineers when they built this Mac, which also benefits from those new neural accelerators across all its cores. Even compared to the year-old M4 MacBook Air, these systems represent a big upgrade. 

Of course, when you grab a laptop, the big thing you need is battery life. While your results will vary, the promised 18 hours of use on battery will get you through your day, every day. So will the display, which in this case is a 15.3-in. Liquid Retina P3 display with support for 1 billion colors, True Tone, and 500 nits of brightness. 

When it comes to audio output and the built-in web conferencing cameras in these Macs, nothing much has changed fromlast year’s M4 models. The song remains the same when it comes to design: you get that beautiful aluminum chassis, new colors (Sky Blue, Midnight, Starlight, and Silver), with pretty much everything we already love about these Macs the same. Connectivity relies on an Apple N1 wireless chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. You also get two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports, MagSafe charging and the ability of driving up to two external displays in addition to that Liquid retina screen. That’s very useful for on-the-go pros who want to use a larger display most of the time but need the convenience of a portable now and then. 

Apple

What about MacBook Neo?

Some feel the arrival of the MacBook Neo will cannibalize MacBook Air sales. There’s some truth in that. And while the Neo can and will handle almost anything a regular user might want to throw at it, the M5 Air is much more capable by design. While the Neo has a 6-core CPU, the Air has up to 10; the Neo gets 5 GPU cores, the Air gets 10; Neo has a maximum 8GB memory, while the Air ships with at least 16GB — and the memory interconnect is much faster too. It means these systems are great for anyone who wants to accomplish more demanding tasks, but can’t quite justify purchasing a MacBook Pro. 

No doubt, most people will be happy with any one of these Macs most of the time. But when you need to hit a deadline or regularly tackle more demanding tasks, you’ll probably lean toward the Air, or something better. Most business users will do just that, even though more companies will be eyeing Macs thanks to the affordable Neo, which will be suitable for a whole collection of new use cases that couldn’t justify investment in Air.

Buying advice

In reviewing Apple’s latest trio of Macs, I must confess — like so many people — that I really have lost a little bit of my heart to the MacBook Neo. But I do need a bit more power for what I do. That work doesn’t involve data-wrangling, video compositing, AI model design or any high-end graphics work, so while I might want a MacBook Pro, I really only need a MacBook Air. And this iteration offers all the power and performance I’d expect from a Mac I expect to use it for the next few years.

It’s a solid improvement to the most popular consumer notebook on the planet, remains a viable upgrade for MacBook Neo users and continues to serve as an alluring gateway to inch us toward the MacBook Pro. 

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, and Mastodon.

Source:: Computer World

By Paulo Vargas Next-gen contact lenses could bring precise eye tracking to everyday devices using built-in cameras, removing expensive hardware and enabling more natural controls and broader medical monitoring.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Deepti Pathak If you’re someone who spends hours gaming, you already know how important a good mouse is….
The post HyperX Pulsefire Saga Review: This Gaming Mouse Changes Shape appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

By Ana-Maria Stanciuc Both companies were built by brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey, who previously co-founded Australian holiday rental site Stayz. Financial terms were not disclosed. Canva will preview what it calls the biggest transformation in its history at Canva Create on 16 April. Canva has acquired two companies simultaneously: Simtheory, an agentic AI collaboration platform, and Ortto, […] This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web