The latest Windows 10 update, version 20H2, shows a new notification in the Action Center for helping make online speech recognition better. If you like, you can click on the button to navigate through to the online speech recognition part of the Settings app where you can choose to opt-in and “Start contributing to my […]
News
ConsumingTech is mainly a website focused on tutorials, but we also cover some news when worthwhile stories break. Here you will find news articles for computer software brands such as Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS; and web browser brands such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and more. Much of the news we cover is related to new features becoming available for your software.
Google Chrome Updated to 88.0.4324.182: Stable Channel Update for Desktop
The Stable channel has been updated to 88.0.4324.182 for Windows, Mac and Linux which will roll out over the coming days/weeks. A full list of changes in this build is available in the log. Interested in switching release channels? Find out how here. If you find a new issue, please let us know by filing […]
Voice Typing with Native Dictation Comes to Microsoft Edge Insiders
Microsoft Edge Insiders are now starting to find a new voice typing feature that comes with dictation for native languages integrated into the context menu for some areas when browsing websites, namely from the address bar as well as the comment section. For years now Microsoft has been confident voice searching would eventually gain traction […]
New Icons on Navigation Bar for ‘Your Phone’ App to Manage Phone Settings
Your Phone version 1.21012.195.0, which is out for Windows 10 PC, brings with it new icons to the navigation bar for controlling your smartphone’s settings. The new icons available from the navigation bar allow you to control the Do Not Disturb, Bluetooth, volume, and audio player settings. The same update also brings with it the […]
Windows 10 Build 21313 Expands News Languages and Markets to Every Country
Starting from Windows 10 Build 21313, Microsoft is expanding news and interests to be more widely available for different languages and markets. This means the news and interests available from the taskbar will be more broadly distributed to international languages. Up until now, the news and interests from the taskbar was only available in United […]
Microsoft Edge to Deliver Notifications Based on Its Own Perception of a Website – What Could Go Wrong?
Starting from Microsoft Edge build 88, you will now start to receive quiet notifications or full notifications based on a predetermined score that Microsoft has collected regarding a website’s likelihood of offering you a notification that it thinks you will want. Over the years, you will have noticed things called push notifications, which are small […]
Microsoft Makes it Simple to Set Age Restrictions in Edge with Kids Mode
Microsoft Edge has made it easy for kids to browse the internet by adding an all-new Kids Mode to the browser. In this new mode, you can allow your children to roam free knowing that the “safety guardrails” are in place, according to Microsoft. Kids Mode includes features like custom browser themes, kid-friendly content, browsing […]
Desktop Widgets Could Be Coming to Microsoft Edge
Microsoft is rumored to be testing desktop widgets for Microsoft Edge. You would be able to search from Bing or type a direct URL into the search box, as well as view information on the widgets without having clicked on them yet. The addition of desktop widgets that are purely related to the Edge browser […]
Windows Self-hosting Mechanism in 1999’s Codename Neptune
Microsoft has had many ideas over the years that reached their beta stages but never made it to official Windows builds. One of those projects was a self-hosting mechanism from a Windows build in 1999 which was codenamed Neptune according to Albacore. What makes this screenshot special is that it shows the Neptune upgrade service […]
New Action Center Coming to Windows 10X
We recently published a custom Action Center done by a Twitter user which was quite interesting, but now we have an image of the real Action Center that is meant to be included in Windows 10X, and as you’re about to see, it’s quite different to the standard Action Center that we have known for […]
Custom Quick Actions Flyout Brings Standalone Tiles to Your Desktop
The set of tiles you get by clicking on the icon that looks like a speech bubble in your taskbar are tiles that are located on the Quick Actions flyout. This flyout is there so you can get quicker access to the main features of Windows that you may need to use and that would […]
Offsets of Famous Bliss Wallpaper Scrapped from Windows 2007 Build 6022 Appear Online
What is still the most iconic wallpaper of all time for Microsoft Windows — Bliss from Windows XP — has seen many spinoffs over the years. What a lot of Windows enthusiasts may not know however is that Microsoft was set to release two offsets of the famous Bliss wallpaper in Windows 7 build 6022 […]
New Narrator Icon Coming to Windows 10
Windows developers have created a new icon for the Narrator app. The new narrator icon removes the blue background and instead uses color for the icon itself. A leak of the new narrator icon has appeared on Twitter by Aggiornamenti Lumia. One commenter pointed out that to him it looks like the Narrator is muted […]
Windows 10 Build 21313 Alters Default Blue Accent Color
Windows 10 build 21313 in the Developer channel has made a change to the default blue accent color. The blue accent is quite an important part of the Windows 10 color coding as it plays a big role in the default wallpaper and many people use blue as the default accent color around the OS […]
Regular and Extensive Modes Come to Windows File Recovery
The Windows File Recovery app has been updated to include two new features: Regular Mode and Extensive Mode. Similar to the built-in file recovery service that comes built-in to Windows 10 (Start > Settings > Update and Security > Recovery > Reset this PC), these two modes give you options for a timely file recovery […]
Microsoft PowerToys Gets Launcher and New Welcome Screen
Microsoft PowerToys is getting a much-needed upgrade to its user-interface. Included in the new PowerToys software is a new welcome screen that runs you through the main features PowerToys has to offer, as well as a new flyout via the system tray. Microsoft PowerToys has been around on Windows for many years (it dates all […]
Redesigned Action Center with New Background from Sun Valley Project Now on Insider Builds
A redesigned Action Center is rolling out to Windows Insiders. The new Action Center comes with a new header, a different background, a new collapse button, and glyphs in context menus. Microsoft usually releases one big feature update per year. This year that is codenamed the Sun Valley Project which is expected to be released in […]
Extensive Downloads Flyout with New Features Comes to Edge Insiders
Microsoft Edge Insiders are receiving a new Downloads flyout which aims to give you much more options for your downloaded files. Downloading files has always been one of the more difficult things to cover in a tutorial because each browser can download its files differently. For those using Chrome, downloading has for a long time […]
Clickable Search Bar Now in Microsoft Edge When Viewing PDF Files
Starting from Microsoft Edge Canary build 89.0.757.0, there is now a clickable search bar available in the toolbar at the top of the browser when you are viewing PDF files. This means that the default PDF viewer that comes with Edge now has another cool new feature. Microsoft Edge comes with a PDF viewer built […]
Microsoft Edge ‘History’ and ‘Open Tabs’ Sync Now Options from Settings
The Microsoft Edge web browser has now available on official Windows 10 builds the option to sync the browser history and open tabs from its Settings menu. The ability to sync history and open tabs have been features for Microsoft Edge Insiders for a while now but have just made their way onto official Windows […]
Canceled Windows Desktop OS ‘Polaris’ Leaks Online
If you follow Windows OS news and think you may have heard of Polaris OS but can’t quite remember what it might have been about, that’s because what once was planned to become a universal base of Windows OS has since been cancelled. Thanks to site Beta Archive, though, some of its screenshots have still […]
Adduplex Releases Its Windows 10 December 2020 Report
Adduplex, the promotion platform for Windows, has released its Windows 10 market share report for December 2020. The new charts show that Windows 10 version 20H2 is now being used by over 10% of the population. 40% are still using Windows 10 M20U and over 30% still using N19U. The October 2020 Windows 10 update […]
You Can No Longer Sign up to Twitter’s Periscope, Will Close Down March 2021
The popular Periscope application, which is owned by Twitter, is closing down as of March 2021. The app has already changed so that no new users are allowed to sign up. If you download Twitter’s Periscope app today, you will be greeted with a message that lets you know Periscope’s intentions to close down in […]
Google Photos Is Updating Its Storage Policy; Existing Photos Are Exempt
Google is updating its Google Photos storage policy to provide more stringent data allocations for people’s photos. Google hints that they’re getting so many photo uploads to Google Photos that they now want to become more data conscious on their end by making sure not to offer you too much free space. Google Photos originally […]
Google Photos App Updated to Include Cinematic Photos
Photos have always played an important part in people’s lives, but since the pandemic the power of the photo has been boosted even more as on many occasions it’s the only visual bonding experience people have been able to have with one another. That may or may not have something to do with the fact […]
Add to OneDrive Has Become ‘Generally Available’ by Microsoft
A new OneDrive feature called Add to OneDrive has now been made “generally available” by Microsoft, meaning it is now making its way around to everyone’s computers, though some of you may need to wait a little longer yet before it arrives. OneDrive has an enormously successful future coming as the average citizen begins to […]
Microsoft Edge Dev 88.0.705.9 Update Brings History Icon to Address Bar
The Microsoft Edge Dev 88.0.705.9 update brings some new features with it, including the chance to add a History icon to the address bar so you can get access to your history without having to access the Settings menu first. The Edge Dev 88.0.705.9 update also comes with the option for Edge to generate passwords […]
Sticky Notes With Windows Ink Insights and Handwriting Analysis Now Available via Microsoft Store
[UPDATE 8/7] We’re very pleased to announce that today, Sticky Notes 3.7 is now available to everyone on Windows 10 version 1803 and higher! At the beginning of the year, Microsoft released Sticky Notes 3.0, which brought with it many new features that made it overall a vastly superior app over its predecessor. We covered Sticky […]
New Windows 10 Fluent Design Microsoft Sway Icon
Apart from getting the features and navigation right, there isn’t much else you can do to a modern operating system other than making sure the graphics upon that navigation are as good as they can be. It is no surprise then that both Apple and Microsoft put a lot of effort into the appearance of […]
New Windows 10 Fluent Design Microsoft Photos Icon
Apart from getting the features and navigation right, there isn’t much else you can do to a modern operating system other than making sure the graphics upon that navigation are as good as they can be. It is no surprise then that both Apple and Microsoft put a lot of effort into the appearance of […]