Google, in observance of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, plans to auto-enroll 150 million users in two-step verification and require two million YouTube creators to turn the security feature on by the end of 2021. Having a second form of authentication when you login to your accounts dramatically decreases the likelihood of an attacker gaining access to …

Facebook’s worldwide outage this week of its key services, including Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, was annoying for some — and a cause for celebration for others — but it represented a breakdown in a critical line of communication.  WhatsApp, with more than 2 billion users on its service, serves as a primary form of communication, especially for family and friends …

When you think of Sky, you think of a dish (or at the very least a box). Not any more: UK broadcaster has created Sky Glass, a line of 4K TVs with all the hardware and software rolled into the telly itself. Oh, and you can pay for it with a contract like you do with your mobile phone. The …

Microsoft today opened a new 20th anniversary Xbox controller for preorder, to celebrate the two decades since the original Xbox system was released. The controller costs $70. The controller’s design, with its neon green highlights, translucent plastic shell and original Xbox logo, evokes the original system launched in 2001 — the American computer company’s first foray into console gaming, against …

Motorola continues its steady stream of affordable phones by releasing the Moto G Pure. In 2021, aside from the Motorola Edge announced in August, all of the phones Motorola released in the US cost $500 or less. The new Pure is $160 and has the lowest price of any new Motorola device. And that’s before any discounts. So what’s the …

Snapchat on Thursday said it taking steps to stop illegal drug sales on its platform amid an increase in overdose deaths in the US linked to drugs laced with fentanyl. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and can be deadly even in small quantities. “We have heard devastating stories from families …

YouTube‘s annual Rewind videos — which evolved over nearly a decade into elaborate collabs with the biggest online stars and influencers recapping the trends of the year — are officially dead now. Last year, YouTube skipped Rewind, saying it was taking “a break” from the clips that were always widely anticipated, heavily watched and (often) viciously mocked. On Tuesday, the …

With PC makers moving more toward using taller 16:10- and 3:2-ratio displays instead of widescreen 16:9 panels, models like the HP Envy x360 15 might soon be a rarity. On the other hand, 15.6-inch two-in-ones are already fairly uncommon. Still, this Envy is strong competition against models like Lenovo Yoga 7i and Dell Inspiron 15 2-in-1 for its mix of component …

More than 93% of US web searches are done with Google, but Windows 11 is set to Microsoft’s Bing search engine by default. If you prefer the results you get from Google’s search engine, it’s easy enough to make Google search the default. We’ll show you how. Windows 11 doesn’t let you set a default search engine systemwide across all …

Samsung’s rebound from the tech slowdown and pandemic lockdown appears to be gaining steam. The Korean electronics giant said Thursday that it expects its operating profit for the third quarter to come in at 12.25 trillion won ($13.2 billion), an increase of nearly 28% compared with the year-ago period. Samsung also pegged its revenue for the three-month period ended Sept. …