Weekly Tech Wrap-Up 5-6-2023, a week in which Google passkeys, Apple’s first rapid response updates, Firefox web browser, and Chrome security captivated our readers the most. Today, we look back at this week’s ten most engaging stories from the Tech Help Knowledgebase social media feeds. We order the story summaries below by user engagement — the stories our users interacted with the most. Stories are in descending order with the most engaging story first. Our human-curated social media feeds include links to technology news, how-to and help articles, and video tutorials for common issues.
Stories curated for our feeds are from our staff writers or culled from third-party sources that produce content related to the categories covered by our site. See the summaries and links below for this week’s top stories by user engagement. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to interact with our feeds.
Top 10 Most Engaging Stories This Week
1. How to use Google passkeys for stronger security on Android (Computerworld)
Google has begun rolling out support for passkeys across Google Accounts on all major platforms, adding a new sign-in option alongside passwords and two-step verification. Passkeys are a form of passwordless authentication that look set to become a key part of security.In the simplest possible terms, using a passkey means that anytime you see a traditional Google account password prompt, you will instead use a passkey to authenticate yourself.
2. Apple Releases Rapid Security Response Updates for iOS 16.4.1 and macOS 13.3.1 (Mac Rumors)
Apple released the first Rapid Security Response updates to iOS 16 and macOS 13 this week. Rapid Security Response updates enable faster security patches for critical vulnerabilities. With this feature, Apple can quickly develop and deploy security patches without the need for a full operating system update. This means that users can receive critical security updates in a timely manner, reducing the risk of exploitation from cyber attacks. The feature should improve the overall security of Apple devices and protect personal information.
3. macOS: The Best Hidden Features, Tips, and Tricks (ExtremeTech)
ExtremeTech discusses some lesser-known macOS features and tricks that can help you take advantage of all your desktop or laptop has to offer. Features include customizing your menu bar, turning on “Hot Corners”, quickly previewing files with Quick Look, supercharging your screenshots with ⌘+Shift+5, and splitting your screen between two windows. These options can help you turn macOS from something you work with to something that works for you.
4. Safari might have edged out Edge, but this browser is still the undisputed champ (Tech Radar)
According to a recent report by Statcounter, Apple’s Safari web browser overtook Microsoft Edge in April 2023 as the second most-used browser in the world. However, Google Chrome is still the most used browser online with a market share of 66.13% as of April 2023. Tech Radar argues that Mozilla Firefox deserves to be the reigning champ due to its robust features and great user interface.
5. Microsoft Broke Google Chrome Feature to Promote Edge Browser (Gizmodo)
Microsoft issued a Windows update that broke a Chrome feature, making it harder to change your default browser and annoying Chrome users with popups. The issue was particularly bad for users on the enterprise version of Windows, where every time an enterprise user opened Chrome, the Windows default settings page would pop up. Windows update KB5025221 caused the issue, and forced Google to disable the setting.
6. Google Chrome to retire the lock icon for HTTPS sites, introduce new icon for tuning (Liliputing)
Google Chrome has announced plans to retire the lock icon for HTTPS sites and replace it with a new “tune” icon that does not imply safety. The lock icon shows that a site’s HTTP connection is encrypted (HTTPS), but it can mislead users into thinking a website is safe and secure to use. The new “tune” icon will open up additional privacy-related controls to the visited site and will be rolled out with Chrome 117, set to launch in September 2023.
7. Even $500 Million a Year From Google Isn’t Enough to Save Firefox (Bloomberg)
Mozilla Firefox struggles to find its footing in the face of Google Chrome’s dominance. Despite receiving more than $450 million a year from Google to be the default search engine on the Firefox home page, Firefox’s market share has plummeted to less than 3%. Critics say the deal makes little commercial sense given Firefox’s dwindling user base and suggest that Mozilla has served its purpose and function.
8. Google Chrome 113 released with 15 security fixes (Tech Help Knowledgebase)
Google released Chrome 113 this week with 15 security fixes, support for WebGPU, new CSS features for web developers, improved AV1 performance, and more. We recommend our readers update Chrome as soon as possible.
9. Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky is a decentralized Twitter clone? (TechSpot)
Bluesky is a decentralized social media platform established in 2019 as a Twitter-funded project designed to establish a decentralized social media standard. Its original goal was to create and bring Twitter onto a new, decentralized platform. Unlike Twitter, Bluesky runs on a decentralized network designed to ensure that responsibility for content moderation, data storage, and platform control responsibilities fall on the community rather than a single governing body. The platform is currently running an invite-only closed beta and has been gaining steady momentum since its iOS launch in February and Android app launch earlier this month.
10. Two core Unix-like utilities, sudo and su, are getting rewrites in Rust (Ars Technica)
The Unix-like utilities “sudo” and “su” are being rewritten in the programming language Rust to improve their security and stability. Unix users use Sudo to execute commands with administrative privileges, while they use Su to switch between different user accounts. The decision to rewrite these utilities in Rust was made due to the language’s memory safety and concurrency features, which can help prevent common security vulnerabilities. The new implementations should be faster and more secure than their previous versions.
Thank you for visiting Tech Help Knowledgebase to read the Weekly Tech Wrap-Up 5-6-2023, a summary of this week’s ten most engaging stories. If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @techhelpkb and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep in the loop.
Henry Irvine, Contributing Technology Writer, translates more than a decade of internet technology experience in product and customer relationship management into practical help and how-to content. Look for him on Bay Area trails, music venues, or sausage shacks when he’s not writing. Don’t call him Hank if you see him. Seriously. Hank on Twitter
