In 1942, Isaac Asimov formulated three laws of robotics. 58 years later, Jef Raskin responded with three laws of human-computer interface design. They haven’t been bettered yet. There are rules, and even laws, about designing computer user interfaces. Even after 35 years of Linux, which has brought Unix to the masses, the FOSS world has not yet really grasped this. In the meantime, the proprietary software world is busily forgetting everything it once knew. Sometimes these rules surface today, and the FOSS folks often get very cross when reminded that they’re user-interface scofflaws. Marcin Wichary’s recent blog post, They had no concept of a duty of care to their users, is an excellent recent example. (The Reg FOSS desk much admires Mr Wichary’s writing, to the extent that we bought his history of the keyboard, Shift Happens.) In his latest post, Wichary refers to CHERI Project boffin David Chisnall. Chisnall is a long-term Vim user – we all have our failings – and recently recounted trying NeoVim. He uses Vim’s persistent-undo feature, which records changes in a separate directory, so that you can repeatedly undo until you get back to changes you made weeks or months earlier. He’s customized where it’s kept, and when he tried the NeoVim fork, it overwrote his Vim undo file. In a later update to his post, he acknowledges that there was a warning, but he expected it to be safe. It was not safe. It overwrote records of more than a decade’s worth of changes. As he puts it: “Vim has kept this working across major version upgrades over a period of about 20 years. I don’t even think about it, it’s just part of Raskin’s First Law: A program may not harm a user’s data or, through inaction, allow a user’s data to come to harm. If vim or the computer crash, or if I close a file and come back to it six months later, my undo history is still there.” Wichary expands Chisnall’s citation of Raskin’s first law by giving all three, but just in case you’re not a follower of “Golden Age” science fiction, a little context. Asimov introduced his three laws in a short story called “Runaround”, in Astounding Science Fiction magazine* in May 1942. (The story was later collected in the anthology I, Robot – which is nothing like the terrible 2004 film.) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Asimov’s idea was that by setting these rules, he could end the terrible genre of killer-robot stories that was already tired and stale by 1942. Jef Raskin, the lead designer of Apple’s original Macintosh project, attempted to bring similar clarity to software UI. Raskin’s three laws are: A computer shall not harm your work or, through inaction, allow your work to come to harm. A computer shall not waste your time or require you to do more work than is strictly necessary. An interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and considerate of human frailties. He defined them in his 2000 book The Humane Interface, which you can still buy, or borrow from the Internet Archive. Sadly, Raskin died in 2005, but we have written about his work and his influence several times. He did set some of the direction of the original Macintosh. After Steve Jobs was booted off the Lisa, he took over the Macintosh – as described in The Canon Cat and the Mac that Steve Jobs killed. Raskin quit, and instead designed the remarkable Canon Cat, as we described a couple of years ago. We suspect Raskin was not a fan of Vi, the forerunner of Vim. We aren’t either, which is why we chose the year in the headline of this story: it’s the year Bill Joy wrote vi. Raskin criticized modal software, which requires extra mental effort from the user. So did another UI pioneer, the late great Larry Tesler, who invented the cut/copy/paste trio of commands. Tesler was known for his dictum “Don’t mode me in!” and even had a car license plate reading “NOMODES.” Dr Chisnall has some history of upsetting Unix fans – we’ve referred to one of his papers before: in 2018, he wrote C Is Not a Low-level Language: Your computer is not a fast PDP-11. Unix fans really didn’t like this. This vulture has been told to kill himself for daring to criticize C before now. (We wish we were joking, but no.) Although he has now updated his Mastodon post, the NeoVim fans are not happy. Indeed, one has lambasted this vulture on Bluesky for sharing Wichary’s post. It is interesting to note that NeoVim is the recommended editor in Omarchy, and until recently, the NeoVim developers cited a tweet from DHH on the project website. After an acromonious debate, the pull-quote was removed right around the time of Chisnall’s and Wichary’s posts. In the wide world of software design, we don’t expect the right-wing edge of that community to innovate much in ease of use. In a way, Unix and C embody a machismo infused school of software design: that of enjoying the process of mastering things which are hard to use. However, there are other types of software. We recently enjoyed reading about emulating an original Macintosh on a £0.60 chip. That’s $0.80 and of course the computer is a Raspberry Pi – but not even a Pi Zero: it’s a Pi Pico, a microcontroller. There is still some hope that the world can rediscover tiny, simple, user-centric software, built to be friendly first, and for rich functionality second. And, it almost goes without saying, hand-coded without bot assistance. Bootnote * Astounding magazine changed its name to Analog in 1960, and it’s still around. We recommend it. If you haven’t read Asimov’s original “Runaround”, that issue of Astounding is on the Internet Archive too. ®
After evolving from an Apple-made, client-side language and years of false starts, Swift could finally make it on the server. Google has taken note and has just rolled out Google Cloud API Client Libraries for Swift, evidently convinced Swift has a backend role thanks to its performance and ease of use. The GCP Swift libraries target Swift 6.2+ and take advantage of SwiftNIO's asynchronous event loops, HTTP/2 multiplexing, gRPC transport, and data race safety compiler flags. "For years, Swift was perceived mainly as a UI language tied to Apple client devices," said Karl Weinmeister, director of developer relations, and Carlos O'Ryan, software engineer, in a blog post. "With Swift 6 and strict concurrency checking, it has matured into a viable systems and cloud language, pairing Rust-like data-race safety with predictable, reference-counted performance." Weinmeister and O'Ryan argue that Swift manages to be both developer-friendly and suitable for low-level control over resources, which tends not to be the case for challenging systems languages like C++ or Rust. They voice appreciation for the language's lightweight runtime and Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), alongside its expressive syntax. And they approve of Swift's compile-time concurrency checking. "Data races are caught in your editor before a binary ever compiles or reaches production," they note. The Googlers argue that the Server Side Cloud Swift SDK is well-suited for servers, containers, and DevOps environments, pointing to its utility for building capable microservices using Swift web frameworks like Hummingbird or Vapor. "With google-cloud-swift, server-side Swift developers can write end-to-end cloud infrastructure with compile-time race safety, native async/await ergonomic APIs, and zero OS thread congestion," they declare. It's been quite a journey. Apple open-sourced the Swift programming language all the way back in 2015 and in the years that followed, developers started looking at Swift on the server. IBM in 2016 made Swift available on its Bluemix cloud and a few months later the Swift team announced a server API working group. The first server-side Swift conference was announced in late 2017. And Apple's work on the async SwiftNIO framework in 2018 advanced the case for backend Swift. Swift's popularity peaked in January 2020, according to the TIOBE index, when it ranked as the 9th most popular programming language. It currently ranks 18th. Stack Overflow's 2025 developer survey has Swift ranked 20th. Even so, server-side adoption of Swift has been slow. IBM reversed course in 2019, backing away from its Swift commitment. And Amazon hasn't really done much with its Smoke Framework for server-side Swift in the past few years. Still, the Swift community has kept at it. The Swift Server Workgroup launched in 2018 and, by 2024, the release of Swift 6 with data race safety checks made the language more interesting for backend applications. Swift may be more approachable than languages like Rust or C++, but it's unclear how much that will matter in the years to come as developers become more and more dependent on AI coding agents. Certainly, Swift code is readable, a benefit for those maintaining applications, but language ergonomics and approachability matter less when AI is reading and writing most of the code. ®
Microsoft plans to roll out Excel Canvas through October, adding Copilot-generated reports to its veteran spreadsheet. Excel Canvas "transforms workbook data into a polished report containing visualizations, metrics, and insights," said Microsoft. The reports automatically refresh as the underlying data changes. Users need access to Copilot in Excel and can tweak reports through natural language prompts. Presumably along the lines of "Why the heck did you use that as the x-axis?" Lately, Microsoft has been relentlessly fiddling with Excel. Last week it added an opt-in feature to allow multiple values in the same cell, potentially complicating life for third-party tools that expect one value per cell. Earlier Copilot additions have met resistance or been withdrawn. Earlier this year, there were howls of outrage from users when a Copilot Dynamic Action Button was unceremoniously dropped onto their workspaces. In response, Microsoft swiftly allowed users to send it to the toolbar. Microsoft also abandoned the COPILOT() function in August this year, barely 12 months after introducing it, saying it had "decided not to move forward with this feature." The function carried a warning that its output should be checked for accuracy, particularly when used for business decisions or reports. Hardly reassuring when the spreadsheet feeds the accounts. Automatically refreshing reports could save users some work, provided Copilot selects appropriate metrics and charts. Canvas also enters a crowded market: businesses already using dashboard tools will need a reason to add another. ®
The Metropolitan Police has stopped using digital forensics software from Oxygen Forensics while it investigates US allegations that the supposedly American outfit was secretly owned by Russians and developing its wares in Moscow. Scotland Yard confirmed it has paused use of the company's tools and launched a "full review," after US prosecutors last week accused Oxygen CEO Lee Reiber and Russian national Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov of concealing the company's ownership and where its software was actually being built. The Met signed a three-year deal with Oxygen in December 2023. Digital forensics teams use its software to extract and analyze data from phones and other devices seized during investigations. "We have paused our use of the tool while we carry out a full review," a Met spokesperson told The Times. "At this time, we believe any impact to ongoing investigations will be extremely limited. The Met does not share any data obtained from investigations with Oxygen Forensics Inc." The force said Oxygen's software runs on a closed IT system that isn't connected to the internet and was used in less than 0.2 percent of the more than 23,000 actions carried out by its digital forensics team over the past year. The pause comes after the US Department of Justice alleged that Oxygen, which is based in Alexandria, Virginia, presented itself to US government customers as an independent American company despite being owned and controlled by five Russian nationals through a Cyprus-based holding company. Prosecutors claim the same five Russians also owned Moscow-based MKO Systems, previously known as Oxygen Software, where developers actually wrote Oxygen's software. MKO, meanwhile, sold the technology in Russia under different product names to customers reportedly including the Federal Security Service, better known as the FSB, as well as the Russian Investigative Committee and Ministry of Internal Affairs. Oxygen's US customers weren't exactly small fry. US defense and homeland security agencies bought its software, including Homeland Security Investigations, the DHS Office of Inspector General, and the Secret Service's National Computer Forensics Institute. The DoJ isn't alleging that Oxygen's software contained malicious code or was used to gain unauthorized access to customer systems or data. Davydov, 52, was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport last month while preparing to fly to Turkey and appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday as the US seeks his extradition. District Judge Anthony Calloway declined to grant bail, according to The Times, citing Davydov's Russian citizenship and residence and the risk that he could flee. A clerk at Westminster Magistrates' Court told The Register that Davydov, was refused bail because it "hadn’t had enough time to gather important information." The fallout isn't limited to Scotland Yard. The National Police Chiefs' Council said other UK forces also use Oxygen products and have been encouraged to carry out their own assessments. "We are aware of the allegations made by US authorities regarding Oxygen Forensics," an NPCC spokesperson said. "These remain allegations at this stage and we note that US authorities have stated they are not alleging the software contained malicious code or that customer data was accessed without authorisation." "Forces that use Oxygen products have also been encouraged to undertake proportionate local assessments and activity to understand and contain any issues that are identified," the spokesperson added. The allegations are causing headaches elsewhere in Europe too. Romanian authorities have begun terminating their use of Oxygen products, while Latvia's State Police has suspended the software pending an assessment. The Register contacted The Met, NPCC and Oxygen Forensics for comment. ®
Welcome to another installment of On Call, The Register's Friday column that shares your tech support stories. This week we're taking a detour into tech sales, courtesy of a reader we'll Regomize as "Carson," whose employer sent him to China without first securing a visa. The adventure began when a colleague called with a fateful question: "Can you travel to China tomorrow to attend a sales meeting about our short messaging and notification products?" UK-based Carson was available, but doubted his employer could obtain the necessary visa in time. "I was told not to worry; the company would arrange it," he told On Call. So he agreed to go. "I was up bright and early the next morning when I felt a sharp pain," he wrote. "There was a wasp in the leg of my jeans which had stung me three times. That did not bode well." Nor did the prospect of spending the 12-hour flight to Hong Kong in economy. "Normally I would have been in business class for a flight of that length but there were no seats left at such short notice," he wrote. "It was not pleasant with a swollen and throbbing thigh." At the transfer desk in Hong Kong, Carson explained that he still lacked a visa for mainland China, but that his employer was trying to secure one. After making a flurry of calls, airline staff issued him a boarding pass and told him to hurry or he would miss the flight. And then his employer called with instructions not to board until told to do so. Carson became that passenger holding up the flight until his phone rang again and a colleague assured him that someone would meet him in Shanghai. "I was, indeed, met at Shanghai Airport, airside," Carson told On Call. "My colleague informed me that I was to be denied entry to China because I lacked a visa. A couple of large policemen took possession of my passport and escorted me through baggage claim and into a smoke-filled room." The local police told Carson he would have to pay a fine, but that they would not accept a credit card. "I had no Chinese money because it was illegal to import or export it. So I was marched to a bureau de change that exchanged every banknote I had on me – $250 – for Chinese banknotes." Carson's fine was the equivalent of $247. "I was told I would be placed in a hotel overnight, under guard, and deported in the morning," Carson wrote. His employer intervened and arranged a better hotel, sparing Carson a night sharing a room with Chinese police. Carson might reasonably have expected to sleep after that ordeal. Instead, colleagues piled into his hotel room to work on the sales presentation they still hoped to deliver. His police guards stayed to watch as the preparations stretched through the evening and finally ended at 3am. Carson finally caught three hours of shuteye before the police woke him, escorted him to breakfast, and then to the airport. "I had to buy a ticket back to Hong Kong and oddly, only first class was available. The police took me to the first-class lounge then to my comfortable seat. Only when sitting down with my seatbelt fastened did I get my passport back." While Carson was being expelled, his visa finally came through. He was therefore soon aboard another flight to Shanghai, where he arrived at night and met a waiting taxi driver... who delivered the news that the bid team was now 300 km away in another city. Carson got in the cab and arrived at midnight. "The meeting was with a team representing a state organization. It started at 9am and ended at about 10pm," he told On Call. "I gave a 15-minute presentation but most of the meeting was conducted in Mandarin" – a language Carson does not speak. "After helping to tidy the meeting room and grabbing a quick beer with a Hong Kong-based colleague, I went to bed at about midnight before getting up at 6am for my taxi to the airport." Carson eventually made it home and, in his email to On Call, rated the adventure: "Not my best trip." What's the worst business trip technology has inflicted on you? The first step of your journey to an appearance in On Call involves clicking here to email us your story! ®
It happens every time: Just before major OS releases, the tech web is flooded with how-to and tips articles. The MacVoices Live! panel looks at why and how you can benefit, including how that flood can offer guidance when new operating systems arrive. The discussion then turns to the Mac App Store allowing developers to […]
Apple released macOS 27 Golden Gate on September 14, 2026, but development hasn’t stopped. Just two days later on September 16, Apple issued the first developer beta of macOS 27.2, beginning testing of the operating system’s next major point update. Yes, that’s macOS 27.2, not macOS 27.1.
The macOS 27.2 beta gives developers and testers early access to Apple’s latest fixes, refinements and any features that weren’t ready for the initial Golden Gate release.
However, as with any beta software, it may introduce bugs, compatibility problems and poorer battery life so we recommend caution if you wish to install it.
Here’s everything you need to know about the latest macOS beta, including what’s new, when the next public beta is likely to arrive and whether you should install it.
What’s the latest macOS beta?
Apple offers two beta streams: a developer beta and a public beta. The public beta allows enthusiasts and early adopters to test upcoming changes before they are released to everyone. You need to join Apple’s Beta Software Program to access it.
The latest Mac beta is macOS 27.2 beta 1, which Apple released to registered developers on September 16, 2026. It arrived two days after the public release of macOS 27 Golden Gate.
The corresponding macOS 27.2 public beta is expected shortly. Public betas usually follow developer betas, although Apple does not guarantee a particular schedule.
macOS 27 Golden Gate beta version tracker
Apple released macOS 27.2 Golden Gate Developer Beta on September 16, 2026.
The macOS 27.2 Golden Gate Public Beta should be released sometime the same week; new versions are usually released a day or two after the new developer beta.
macOS 26 Tahoe beta: Apple may continue updating macOS 26 Tahoe with security and maintenance releases, but macOS 27 is now the current operating system and the focus of Apple’s beta program.
macOS 27 Beta timeline
Release
Date
Beta 1
June 8, 2026
Beta 2
June 22, 2026
Beta 3
July 6, 2026
Beta 3 v.2
July 13, 2026
Beta 4
July 20, 2026
Beta 5
August 10, 2026
Beta 6
August 17, 2026
Beta 7
August 24, 2026
Beta 8
August 31, 2026
Release Candidate 1
September 9, 2026
Public Beta 1
July 13, 2026
Public Beta 2
July 22, 2026
Public Beta 3
August 11, 2026
Public Beta 4
August 17, 2026
Public Beta 5
August 24, 2026
Public Beta 6
August 31, 2026
Final Release
September 14, 2026
macOS 27.2 developer beta 1
September 16, 2026
What’s new in the latest beta?
New features in macOS 27.
Foundry
Apple has not announced any major consumer-facing additions in macOS 27.2 beta 1. The following changes are expected though:
Bug fixes and performance improvements: Addressing issues in the first release of macOS 27.
Additional Siri AI languages: Apple has said the Siri AI will expand to French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish in October.
Automatic password changes: The promised feature that automatically changes compromised passwords has not yet been implemented, but it could arrive in macOS 27.2..
Notify Me in Safari: The Safari feature that monitors webpages may arrive in the beta of macOS 27.2.
We’ll update this section as changes are discovered.
Installing the macOS beta lets you test Apple’s next round of features, fixes and refinements before their public release. Most Mac users should remain on the standard version of macOS 27, particularly if they rely on their Mac for work.
Install if…
You need to test apps
You want early access to new features
You have a secondary Mac available
Wait if…
This is your primary work machine
You rely on niche or specialist software
Stability is critical to your workflow
Who are you
Should you install?
A developer testing apps
Consider the developer beta
An enthusiast with a spare Mac
Consider the public beta
General user with one Mac
Stay on macOS 27
What are the risks of installing beta software?
Installing pre-release software on a primary device carries several risks.
System instability: Performance problems, freezes, crashes, and other unexpected behavior are common during beta testing.
App failures: Third-party applications may crash, behave unpredictably, or stop working entirely.
Hardware strain: Early beta builds can increase battery drain and cause Macs to run hotter than usual.
Data loss: Software bugs may corrupt files, and downgrading to a stable version often requires a complete system reset.
Safety precautions and best practices
If you decide to install the beta, take the following precautions:
Use a secondary device: Avoid installing beta software on your primary Mac or on any machine used for critical work.
Create a full backup: Use Time Machine to create a complete backup before upgrading so you can restore your Mac if something goes wrong. Note that this needs to be a Time Machine backup from before the beta was installed and you will lose anything saved subsequently.
Check storage space: Make sure you have at least 15GB of free storage available before beginning the installation.
How to install the macOS beta
Foundry
The process for installing a macOS beta depends on whether you are seeking the Developer Beta or the Public Beta. Apple simplified this process a few years ago, removing the need for a paid developer account to access early builds.
You will need to register your account either as a public beta tester or as a developer in order to enable beta updates on your Mac.
To install the beta follow these steps:
Back up your Mac: Before installing any pre-release software, it is critical to prepare your Mac to avoid data loss. Beta software is inherently unstable and can cause crashes or app compatibility issues.
Register your account either as a public beta tester or as a developer in order to enable beta updates on your Mac: For the Public Beta: Visit the Apple Beta Software Program website, sign in with your Apple ID, and agree to the terms. For the Developer Beta: Register as an Apple Developer on Apple’s website, download the Apple Developer app from the App Store, sign in with your standard Apple ID, and complete the free registration process.
On the Mac where you wish to install the beta, open System Settings and navigate to General > Software Update.
Click the (i) info button next to Beta Updates.
Enable Beta Updates.
The beta will appear as an available upgrade. Select the macOS beta you want to install (e.g., macOS Public Beta or Developer Beta).
Click Upgrade Now to begin the download and installation.
As long as you are a registered developer or enrolled in the public beta program, when the relevant macOS Beta becomes available, it will also show up on your Mac.
Once you are running the beta, the updates will come through to your Mac automatically; you just need to go to Software Update in System Settings and click to install. See How to install macOS.
How to get a free Apple developer account
If you just want a free Apple Developer account so you can access the beta, you can get this via Xcode or the Apple Developer app in iOS. Here’s how to do it via the Apple Developer app on an iPhone:
If you wish to actually publish applications to the App Store or receive support, you’ll need to pay $99/£79 per year for a paid account. You can compare the free and paid accounts here.
FAQ
1.
Who can run the macOS beta?
Anyone can run the macOS beta, but to do so, you do need to register for either the developer beta, the public beta, or both.
Apple offers both developer and public beta programs for macOS, enabling all interested users to test pre-release versions of the operating system. While both betas provide early access to new features, they cater to different user profiles based on technical expertise and risk tolerance. Beta software tends to be buggy so the more stable public beta version may be preferable, but even that will not be bug-free.
In the past, the developer beta was only available to developers who had paid to join Apple’s Developer Program (which costs $99/£79). However, for a couple of years now, Apple has opened up the developer beta to registered developers with free developer accounts. We explain how to get a free developer account below.
Since 2023, the Developer Beta has been available to anyone who registers as a developer, even if they aren’t a paid-up member of Apple’s Developer Program. As a result, people with a basic free developer account can download the new macOS developer beta (we show you how to register below).
Whether you should download the developer beta if you aren’t a developer is another question. We don’t recommend you install the developer beta if you aren’t a developer. Instead, our recommendation is to use the public beta (the first version of which usually arrives in July).
There are a few differences between the public and developer betas. The public beta is not the same as the beta that is released through the developer program. The public beta typically launches after the developer beta has undergone initial testing and refinement
Developers get updates to their beta first, and possibly more frequently. But you should keep in mind that betas are by nature not stable, and because the public beta comes after the developer beta it could be a little safer to install.
The most significant difference is probably the motive of the testers: Developers usually have the aim of ensuring their apps work when the updated macOS is released to the general public, while public beta testers are essentially helping Apple detect bugs and offering feedback on the features. Because of this, developers may get to test new features not available in the public beta.
If you want to get the public beta the first thing you need to do, if you haven’t already, is join Apple’s beta programs read this for more information: How to become an Apple beta tester.
3.
Is the macOS beta stable?
By its nature, a beta has the potential to be unstable. Therefore, it’s not advised that you install it on a Mac that you rely on. If you have a second Mac that isn’t mission-critical, then install it there. We strongly recommend that you don’t risk all by putting the macOS beta on your primary Mac, especially not in the early days of the beta development.
If you don’t have a second Mac, there are a couple of ways you could run macOS beta on your Mac without running the risk of losing data or finding your Mac stops working:
Update your software: We recommend you have the latest full version of macOS installed, although Apple says that the macOS Developer Beta Access Utility requires macOS 10.8 or later.
Make space: We’d recommend at least 25-30GB of available space because the macOS betas tend to be very large. If you end up requiring more space, read: How to free up space on Mac. Note that we always recommend that you have at least 10% space free on your Mac at any time, so if you don’t have that, expect problems!
Should you come across an error or a bug, you should use the Feedback Assistant app to provide feedback to Apple. Launch the app and follow the appropriate steps, selecting the area about which you’re providing feedback and then any specific sub-area. Then describe your issue in a single sentence, before providing a more detailed description, including any specific steps that reproduce the issue. You’ll also be able to attach other files.
You’ll also have to give permission for the Feedback Assistant app to collect diagnostic information from your Mac.
It won’t always be obvious whether something is a bug or just not as easy to use as you might have hoped. Either way, if your feedback is that something appears to work in an illogical way, Apple will want to know that.
If you are having trouble with a third-party app, you can let Apple know by reporting it through the 3rd-party Application Compatibility category in the Feedback Assistant. However, we’d suggest that you also provide feedback to the app’s developer, who will no doubt be grateful.
6.
Will I be able to update from macOS beta to the final version?
Beta users can move to the finished release once its build is newer than – or equivalent to – the beta installed. Read: How to leave the macOS beta.
7.
Can I talk about the beta publicly?
According to Apple and the license agreement all beta testers must agree to, the beta is “Apple confidential information”. By accepting those terms, you agree not to discuss your use of the software with anyone who isn’t also in the Beta Software Program. That means you can’t “blog, post screenshots, tweet, or publicly post information about the public beta software.”
However, you can discuss any information that Apple has publicly disclosed; the company says that information is no longer considered confidential.
8.
How to downgrade from the macOS beta
You can always revert to an earlier version of macOS, though depending on how you back up, it’s not necessarily a painless process.
Start by making sure the data on your drive is backed up, then erase the drive and install the latest public version of macOS. When you first start up your Mac, you can use the Migration Assistant to import your data from the backup. Here’s a more detailed tutorial on downgrading from the macOS beta and we also have a tutorial on downgrading to an older version of the Mac OS.
9.
Is the beta free to download?
Yes, the macOS beta is free to download for both developers and the general public. Apple offers two distinct tracks for testing pre-release software: the Developer Beta and the Public Beta, both of which are now accessible without a paid subscription.
10.
Can I go back to the stable version?
Yes, you can go back to the stable version of macOS from a beta, but the complexity of the process depends on whether the final version of that software has been released yet.
If you are running macOS 27.2 beta and want to return to the current public release of macOS 27, simply turning off Beta Updates will stop future beta installations, but it will not immediately downgrade the Mac. To return before Apple releases an equivalent public build, you may need to erase the Mac and reinstall macOS, then restore data from a backup made before installing the beta.
11.
Should I install the beta on my main Mac?
Installing a macOS beta on your primary computer is generally not recommended due to the inherent risks of using unfinished software. While beta programs offer early access to new features, they are designed for testing and often contain significant bugs that can disrupt your daily workflow.
12.
Do I need an Apple Developer account to install the beta?
You do not need a paid Apple Developer account to install the macOS beta. While access to developer betas was previously restricted to those paying a $99/£79 annual fee, Apple changed this policy in 2023 to allow anyone with a free developer account to access these builds. Alternatively, you can join the Public Beta program, which is also free and accessible to anyone with a valid Apple ID.
13.
How often are new beta versions released?
New macOS beta versions are typically released every one to two weeks, with the frequency increasing as the final public release date approaches. The beta updates refine features and address bugs identified by testers.
14.
Is the macOS beta safe to install?
The beta is generally safe to test, but it may contain bugs that cause crashes, poor battery life, app compatibility issues, or data loss. Always back up your Mac before installing.
15.
Will my apps work with the macOS beta?
Many apps will work normally, but some third-party software may crash, perform poorly, or not launch at all until developers release updates.
Nextcloud has developed a desktop app for its Euro-Office-based productivity applications, filling a gap in the software suite that it pitches as a sovereign alternative to Microsoft Office.
Nextcloud, one of the backers of the Euro-Office initiative, integrated the software into its Nextcloud Office suite in June. Until now, it’s been accessible via a web browser or mobile app.
The new desktop client lets users edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations locally, and sync files online for collaborative editing. It will be available for Linux, macOS, and Windows in the coming weeks.
“For organizations and individuals who prefer a traditional desktop experience, this closes one of the last gaps between Euro-Office and Microsoft Office, without handing control of their data to a non-European vendor,” Nextcloud said in a press release.
Rather than a standalone application suite, Euro-Office is designed as an integration component that’s embedded into productivity applications, such as Nextcloud Hub. Euro-Office handles document editing, while other elements such as storage and permissions managed by the wider platform.
The open-source project, which is built on OnlyOffice’s codebase, is backed by Nextcloud as well as Eurostack, Ionos, Office.eu, Proton, XWiki, and others. More than 40 individuals have contributed code to Euro-Office, according to Nextcloud, with around 15% of contributions from outside of the organizations directly involved in project.
Euro-Office supports OOXML file formats for compatibility with Microsoft Office, as well as OpenDocument Format (ODF) files, including ODT, ODS and ODP. The Document Foundation, which is responsible for development of LibreOffice, another open-source productivity suite, has previously questioned the Euro-Office initiative’s preference for Microsoft file formats over ODF.
Organizations using Euro-Office include Germany’s Deutsche Telekom Security and Destek, a Turkish IT consultancy, according to Nextcloud. Other customers in countries such as France, Switzerland, and Philippines are currently evaluating the software.
But it’s still early days for Euro-Office. Open-source software initiatives often face a challenge in gaining traction among a broad enterprise audience, said Martha Bennett, VP and principal analyst at Forrester.
“Euro-Office hasn’t really proven itself at the kind of scale that large enterprises are looking for. That’s of course not unique to Euro-Office; all potential open-source alternatives face the same issue,” she said.
“Obviously, it’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation — without somebody taking the leap, it’s not possible to provide that proof.”
Nextcloud Hub Summer 26 updates
Among the other announcements with the Summer 26 updates are changes to management of teams within Nextcloud Hub. An updated Nextcloud Teams app, which is now available in the app menu, provides users with an overview of the teams they belong to. Each team features a folder with shared resources such as files and tasks, which Nextcloud notes is similar to Microsoft’s approach with Teams and SharePoint.
Nextcloud now also enables the creation of team-owned files, starting with Nextcloud Collectives and Deck, with additional apps in future. The aim is to ensure that all team members can access a file, even if the creator leaves the team workspace. For admins, there are new tools to view and manage team folders, including configuring storage quotas.
Among the other announcements are updates to Nextcloud Text — a lightweight text editor available across several apps — with version comparisons, footnotes, and references available throughout a document, and inline comments. Nextcloud Tables, a database app, now has relational columns that link data in cells across multiple tables, and the ability to import and export table structure — such as columns, views, and table-based apps — without changing data.
With Nextcloud’s AI Assistant, users can now upload an image and ask questions about it or translate text, while the chatbot will also recall information across conversations.
UI improvements include a revamped search experience that displays results from across Nextcloud Hub files, messages, and events, with filter options such as date range and people. App menu icons have been updated to make apps easier to recognize, and new animations throughout the interface make navigation and interactions “feel more fluid and easier to follow,” said Nextcloud.
AWS is betting that AI agents need a different interface as they move beyond answering prompts and start working autonomously in the background.
The company has open-sourced Pizza Bot, a self-hosted application that gives users an inbox for managing work delegated to AI agents, with separate threads for ongoing tasks and a queue for work that is completed or needs human input, rather than keeping the management of agents restricted inside a conventional chat window.
The rationale, according to AWS, is that background agents do not always need a user’s attention while they work, and an inbox model will let users hand off longer-running tasks, return to them later, and see which jobs are complete or require intervention.
Under the hood
That approach is reflected in how the inbox organizes work with the help of an “All” tab that contains the history of each task or conversation, including the agent’s messages and work performed, the “Unread” tab that flags completed work that users have yet to review, and an “Action” tab that surfaces tasks paused while waiting for user input or approval.
The inbox interface also has a panel named Activity that shows users how an agent handled a particular task along with the transcript, AWS wrote in a blog post introducing Pizza Bot.
AWS’ inbox-oriented rationale also extends to Pizza Bot’s architecture.
It uses LangChain’s Deep Agents as the harness and LangGraph as the stateful runtime, with a combination of the two allowing an agent to checkpoint its progress as it works, preserving its messages, tool activity and current state so a task can be paused and resumed rather than being tied to a live chat session, the hyperscaler wrote.
Pizza Bot’s server sits on top of that stack, connecting the agent runtime with the user interface, skills, MCP servers and the model provider, with developers able to choose from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini and Amazon Bedrock, as well as local models through Ollama, it added.
As for its out-of-the-box capabilities, the application comes with skills for working with files, browsing the web and delegating tasks to specialist agents. Developers can also add existing Agent Skills and MCP servers to give the agents access to other tools and services, the hyperscaler wrote.
Enterprise integration could remain a hurdle
However, analysts were not too convinced that Pizza Bot’s out-of-the-box skills and support for existing tools will make its implementation easier for enterprises.
While the out-of-the-box capabilities and added support for existing skills saves enterprise teams the time to build the application, it leaves out the integration work required to make it work, said Bhupendra Chopra, chief revenue officer at IT consulting firm Kanerika.
“Integration is where most of the money in an enterprise agent deployment goes. A sales or finance team gets value from an agent when it can read and update CRM, email and ERP, and each of those systems needs a connector someone has to build, secure and maintain,” Chopra pointed out.
Pizza Bot’s integration could be further complicated by the application’s lack of support or any SLA, according to Manoj Chandra Jha, principal analyst at Nord-IQ Research. That means the integration and operational burden ultimately falls on enterprises, who would be responsible for running, securing and maintaining the open source software themselves, Jha said.
Rise in enterprise productivity likely
But for enterprises willing to take on that integration work, the inbox-oriented approach could improve productivity.
“It’s a meaningful shift because it changes the economics of delegating work to agents. A chat interface requires a person’s attention throughout the task, while an inbox brings them in only when their judgment is needed, much like how executives delegate work to their teams,” Chopra said.
“Coding agents have already demonstrated this model, where an engineer assigns an issue and reviews the resulting pull request. Pizza Bot extends that approach to tasks such as meeting preparation and follow-ups,” Chopra added.
Further, the analyst pointed out that the inbox-oriented approach could give enterprise teams a clearer window into how scheduled tasks perform.
“For scheduled tasks, having the results delivered as threads gives users a way to track what happened in the background and spot failures that might otherwise go unnoticed,” Chopra said.
Out of sight, out of mind
There are risks with this approach, however: “The inbox model can make bad work less visible. When somebody is watching an agent in a chat window, they can see it going off the rails,” said Phil Fersht, CEO of HFS Research.
In contrast, when hundreds of tasks are running quietly in the background, users may not see an agent making mistakes until the task is complete or an exception requires their attention, potentially making problems harder to catch early, Fersht said.
That reduced visibility can also create approval fatigue, according to Chopra.
“An agent sending back dozens of threads with multiple approval requests can condition users to approve them without reading them closely,” Chopra said.
There is also a risk in the delay between an agent preparing an action and a user approving it: “Information that was current when the agent paused may no longer be valid hours later, potentially resulting in an outdated CRM update or a meeting invite for a slot that is no longer available,” he said. “An assumption that might be caught in a live chat can go unchallenged as the agent continues building on it and consuming model resources. Scheduled runs can also add costs without anyone watching them in real time.”
Those disadvantages can be countered by designing processes with fewer, better-timed approval points, and verifying that the underlying data is still current before allowing an action to execute, he said.
Adoption likely to start with technical teams
Such tradeoffs are likely to shape where Pizza Bot gains traction.
“Adoption will likely be bottom-up, with individual technologists and small platform teams drawn to Pizza Bot’s control and standards-based design,” Jha said. “Risk-averse industries, especially ones in the regulated sectors, and business users with limited technical expertise, however, are likely to approach the application more cautiously,” he added.
That could leave Pizza Bot occupying a more targeted role in the enterprise, as a way for technical teams to experiment with asynchronous agents and new ways of delegating work, rather than an immediate replacement for the governed interfaces and managed services enterprises typically use for business-critical processes, he said.
Fedora Linux 45 beta has arrived with Linux kernel 7.2, a release-candidate build of GNOME 51, and extensive changes beneath the desktop. The biggest surprise is that Linux's legacy in-kernel console – the text-mode interface normally hidden beneath the GUI – has been replaced with a software-controlled alternative. The replacement is kmscon, a userspace terminal emulator that has been in development for more than a decade. Its Freedesktop project page explains that it uses the kernel's Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) and Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) facilities to configure the display, while offering better internationalization support. Kmscon was announced way back in 2012, but after a few years' work, developer David Herrmann moved on to other things. Fortunately, another developer, Peifeng Yu – nicknamed Aetf – maintained a fork for a decade until the original team resumed work last year. Some of the benefits of kmscon may sound a little theoretical: it has better Unicode support, which will help people working with scripts and alphabets beyond plain old US English, and it has multiseat support, allowing multiple users to share one PC simultaneously with separate keyboards and displays. We suspect that this isn't so common in 2026, but it could be useful to someone somewhere. We first heard of the advantages of kmscon via a blog post about Veronica Explains' writer deck: she uses it to display more than 16 colors on the console, and it also adds the ability to zoom in and out on the fly in Linux text mode. That does sound useful to us, especially with modern HiDPI screens. GNOME 51 is not yet final, so the closest thing to release notes is a fairly uninformative change log. It doesn't look to be a very exciting release, but there are improvements to keyboard navigation and the Orca screen reader, automatic screen rotation on devices with orientation sensors, refinements in the Settings app, Files, Calculator, and the login screen, and more. KDE users get Plasma 6.7. The browser-based installer now offers initial installation flows for the immutable Atomic Desktops and supports partitioning with Red Hat's Stratis storage system, which we looked at back in 2022. Under the hood, the RPM package manager now enforces package signing, and the higher-level DNF5 packaging tool now avoids switching package vendors during upgrades – which should prevent one category of unpleasant surprise. Atomic Desktop ISO builds now use image-builder, while Fedora CoreOS gains zram memory compression and the systemd-oomd memory pressure handler, although, as we reported last year, the latter is not universally popular. Fedora 45's security tooling has been updated and tweaked in several areas, and as usual, all the various programming languages and runtimes have been updated. Fedora Asahi Remix 45 is also in beta and, as The Register covered earlier this month, it includes preliminary support for Apple's M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips, although performant 3D GPU acceleration is not yet available. That is good news for anyone running a headless system, but less useful to desktop and laptop users. For now, though, there is no Asahi Linux support for Apple's M4 and M5 systems. We briefly tried the Fedora Workstation beta under VMware, and it doesn't look very different from before – but we very much like the ability to resize console text with Ctrl and + or -. Even at larger sizes, text remains smooth and sharp. It may be a small change, but we suspect plenty of users will appreciate it. ®
Canon announced its 3D image generation 'Dual Pixel 3D' tech
It uses depth data from a single shot via Dual Pixel CMOS AF, through a free Windows-only app coming in October
The EOS R10 and most models up to the EOS R5 series are compatible
Canon introduced a new Dual Pixel CMOS-type sensor and autofocus system in the EOS R5 back in 2020, and a string of cameras have since inherited this tech, most recently the EOS R8 Mark II announced today. And it's these cameras that just got a free upgrade that can add another dimension to photos: Dual Pixel 3D.
The new software leverages "depth and phase-detection data captured in a single shot via Dual Pixel CMOS AF", says Canon, using "an exclusive algorithm to convert your photos into highly realistic 3D imagery", plus 3D models in OBJ or GLB formats, or as an MP4 video, "complete with rich photographic textures."
This depth-adding tech will come in the (free) Dual Pixel 3D Converter software, which will be available for Windows only (Windows 11 64-bit 24H2 or later), from October 3.
So what exactly can users expect from the software, and which cameras are compatible? Let's take a look.
An extra dimension
Billed as 'simple 3D image generation technology', Dual Pixel 3D enables users to create immersive three-dimensional images and models from a single RAW photo, without needing specialized equipment or viewing devices. Canon also says the technology works with JPEGs captured by the new EOS R8 Mark II.
These files contain depth information from slightly different views, captured by each pixel's two photodiodes, which are then converted into 3D shape data.
Users will be able to fine-tune the degree of depth in the new software, for a more pronounced 3D effect or a subtler appearance. The depth information in Dual Pixel CMOS-captured photos also simplifies background removal, should users want to output a subject onto a plain background as a 3D model, or as a stereographic photo.
Can has shared tips for how to take photos designed to be converted for 3D on its YouTube channel (see below).
Photographers working in product and still life photography stand to benefit from the creative possibilities in particular. We'll be sure to try out the new software when it's released on October 3, and share our experience of making 3D imagery with it.
Compatible Canon cameras and lenses
Here's every Canon mirrorless camera that features Dual Pixel CMOS AF and can, therefore, enjoy the new Dual Pixel 3D feature, provided images are captured with a compatible lens:
New camera-free smart glasses from Meta are rumored
The wearable could be unveiled as early as next week
A new glasses-detecting app is proving popular with users
It's fair to say that the various iterations of Meta's smart glasses had been quite well received by users — as you'll see from our own reviews — but over time, the general public has become less and less comfortable with the idea of being secretly spied on through the cameras embedded in these wearables.
That might explain Meta's plans to release some spectacles with cameras on board, as reported by The Information. According to the outlet's sources, the glasses have the codename Luna, and will be available in two styles called Clubmaster and Burbank.
With no camera, the focus will be on the audio capabilities of the glasses, which will let you have conversations with Meta's own AI chatbot. The report says we could get a grand unveiling at the Meta Connect event next week, on September 23 and 24.
While Meta's smart specs have always been fitted with LED lights that show when they're recording, modders were finding ways around this, enabling more covert video and photo capture. While those mods have since been disabled and prevented by software updates, it's still left people with a general sense of unease.
The backlash continues
The ZuckOff app on iOS (Image credit: ZuckOff)
As Meta apparently preps its next pair of smart glasses, Wired reports on the ZuckOff app that takes a swing at the Meta CEO in its name, and alerts users when they might be in the presence of someone wearing Meta glasses. The app uses Bluetooth to scan the surrounding area for these wearables.
With several thousand downloads on both Android and iOS, the app is clearly proving popular. It's free to download and use in its basic form, with a pro version available for $9.99 / £9.99 / AU$14.99 a year that scans continuously and gives you scan histories.
It's not your only option either: if you're on Android, Nearby Glasses is open source and free to use, and does a similar sort of job as ZuckOff without the provocative name. That app has now racked up more than 100,000 downloads.
There's definitely been a shift in perception when it comes to glasses that can record, warning light or no warning light — even though these specs have been around for years. There's even talk of bans and government regulation coming in at some point, which Meta might be trying to get ahead of with its next pair of glasses.
O WhatsApp está avaliando (na versão beta 26.37.10.15) a implementação do suporte ao acesso de até três contas simultâneas no mesmo dispositivo.
A opção de adicionar uma terceira conta é bem semelhante ao que já foi implementado pela Meta ao adicionar o suporte a uma segunda conta no mensageiro, exibindo a foto de perfil e o número de telefone para facilitar a identificação na hora de alternar entre os perfis.
Outro recurso que a Meta avalia implementar (na versão beta 26.37.10.16) é a possibilidade de sincronizar para todos os participantes da conversa determinadas informações, como o papel de parede (ou os temas oferecidos pelo próprio WhatsApp) importado a partir da biblioteca de fotos do aparelho, além da cor dos balões de conversa.
A definição dessa configuração para todos os participantes da conversa permite que todos os usuários visualizem as interações de um jeito semelhante, tanto para conversas individuais do WhatsApp quanto para conversas em grupo (os usuários são alertados caso qualquer alteração nesse sentido seja feita).
A sincronização desses elementos também conta com a criptografia de ponta a ponta oferecida em outros recursos do aplicativo.
No momento, ambos os recursos estão sendo testados pelo WhatsApp e estão indisponíveis inclusive para quem utiliza a versão beta do app via TestFlight.
A Amazon lançou no Brasil uma oferta de quatro meses grátis para novos usuários do Amazon Music Unlimited, seu serviço de streaming musical completo que oferece acesso a mais de 100 milhões de músicas em alta qualidade, offline e sem anúncios.
Com o Music Unlimited, você tem acesso a milhões de faixas em qualidade Ultra HD e em Áudio Espacial com Dolby Atmos, além de poder desfrutar de uma integração perfeita com dispositivos e plataformas da Amazon (como a Alexa, os alto-falantes Echo e o Fire TV).
Mas ele também se integra a dispositivos e plataformas de terceiros (inclusive com os da Apple), como tablets, computadores, smart TVs e alto-falantes inteligentes (para além dos da Amazon), com direito a sincronização entre dispositivos e opção para ouvir offline.
Com algoritmos avançados que aprendem o gosto musical do usuário para sugerir playlists, artistas, músicas e estações de rádio temáticas, o serviço conta ainda com um catálogo enorme de podcasts sem custo adicional — ideal para quem não quer usar dois apps!
O Unlimited também tem letras sincronizadas em tempo real, além de conteúdos e experiências especiais para assinantes (como acesso a lançamentos antecipados, conteúdos exclusivos de artistas parceiros e shows/eventos transmitidos ao vivo pela plataforma).
O Amazon Music Unlimited não requer uma assinatura Prime (embora assinantes tenham desconto) e pode ser contratado com opções de assinaturas Individual (R$25,90/mês), Familiar (até seis contas, por R$44,90/mês) e para um dispositivo Echo ou Fire TV (R$13,90/mês).
NOTA DE TRANSPARÊNCIA: Este é um artigo fruto de um acordo comercial com um anunciante, que não influenciou a nossa opinião. O MacMagazine recebe uma pequena comissão sobre vendas concluídas por meio de links deste post, mas você, como consumidor, não paga nada mais pelos produtos comprando pelos nossos links de afiliado.
Open source software underpins much of the modern digital world, from mobile phones and automobiles to cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Now, the rapid adoption of AI is creating new opportunities to improve that software while placing growing pressure on the people responsible for maintaining and securing it, according to a new TechBrief from the Association for Computing Machinery's Technology Policy Council (TPC).
AI is advancing rapidly. One of the major shifts in the field is that, instead of single chatbots performing individual tasks, teams of autonomous agents work together by communicating with each other, sharing tools and accessing shared knowledge libraries.
O Gemini Live permite que os usuários do aplicativo do Gemini para iPhones e iPads tenham uma conversa contínua e mais natural com a inteligência artificial — podendo inclusive interrompê-la quando precisar, bastando começar a falar enquanto ela responde em voz alta.
Porém, você pode simplesmente desativar esse comportamento, impedindo que o Gemini seja interrompido quando você fala algo em voz alta.
O Mac se tornou um importante aliado de quem usa a máquina para rodar modelos de inteligência artificial locais — não é à toa que os Macs mini estão sendo muito visados nesse período de boom no mercado.
Caso use o Gemini (um dos principais nomes de chatbots, ao lado do ChatGPT e do Claude), é possível habilitar um ajuste que mantém o computador ativo enquanto o app do Gemini estiver aberto, impedindo que ele entre em repouso.
Brace yourself: The way you get around the web on Android is about to get a whole lot better.
This week, the excellent Vivaldi Android browser is rolling out an update that adds in support for the entire collection of Chrome Web Store browser extensions. That means you can enhance and adjust your mobile web experience with all sorts of interesting — and potentially shape-shifting — new improvements.
Now, with complete Chrome extension support added into the mix on Android, the advantage is growing even greater.
I’ll be honest, though: When I first saw that Vivaldi was adding in Chrome extension support for Android, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Most of the extensions I use in my desktop browser just wouldn’t make sense on the mobile front and wouldn’t add much of meaningful value in that environment.
But then I put on my thinking cap. I did some deep digging and careful considering. And I found some Chrome extensions that actually work incredibly well in the Android arena and add a lot of interesting value into the mobile web adventure.
This is the first of a two-part collection. Today, we’ll look at five Chrome extensions that you can add into Vivaldi to save yourself steps and bring a welcome efficiency boost to your Android web work. Later this week, we’ll round out the list with another set of extensions that’ll improve the internet itself in some truly intriguing ways.
Ready to reinvent how you experience the web on your phone?
A quick primer on Android Chrome extension installation
Real quick, before we get into the good stuff: When you’re ready to try out an extension, you’ll need to have the latest version of the Vivaldi Android app on your device (obviously, right?) — then either tap the puzzle-shaped extensions icon in the toolbar at the top of the screen, if you see it, or tap the “V”-shaped main menu icon in the upper-right corner and select “Extensions” from there.
Either way you go, you’ll see an option to “Discover more extensions.” That’ll take you to the Chrome Web Store, where you can search or browse through all the available extensions and install anything with a couple quick taps.
I’ll also provide direct links to each extension I’m recommending below, so you can tap it to open it in Vivaldi on your phone and then install it directly from there.
Note, too, that that same Vivaldi Extensions menu is where you can access and manage any installed extensions moving forward. You’ll see every extension you’ve installed there, and you can deactivate or uninstall anything as well as opt to have its icon pinned into your browser toolbar for easy ongoing access.
Chrome Android extension #1: The cookie request crumbler
Our first Android Chrome extension worth considering is one that you won’t ever open or actively think about once you install it and set it up. It’s a tool that works silently in the background to automatically handle those irksome cookie preference prompts that pop up around the web — so they’ll always get answered in the way you prefer, but you’ll never actually have to see or deal with ’em (and have ’em blocking half your view, in a mobile web scenario!) again.
It’s called Consent-o-Matic, and the way it works is simple: You install it, open its options page once to tell it which cookies you do and don’t want to allow around the web — and that’s pretty much it. From there on out, it’ll just click on all those prompts that pop up for you, based on your preferences, and they won’t interfere with your work or irritate you anymore.
Consent-o-Matic remembers your cookie preferences and then applies them for you automatically all over the web.
JR Raphael, Foundry
One option to look at while you’re in that initial setup area is in the “Display” tab at the top of the screen. By default, Consent-O-Matic will show any pop-ups it’s handling in a small overlay in the corner of the screen — but you can eliminate that entirely and make the process completely out of sight and invisible, if you want.
You can make Consent-o-Matic completely invisible so you never so much as see another cookie prompt again.
JR Raphael, Foundry
Yes, please — and thank you.
Chrome Android extension #2: 404 no more
Next is another quietly useful addition, and that’s the official Chrome extension for the Wayback Machineat the Internet Archive.
With the Wayback Machine extension active in your Android web browser, anytime you land on a page that for whatever reason isn’t online anymore or just isn’t available at that particular moment, you’ll see an offer to go to the page’s most recent cached version.
You can also call the extension up on demand to search for older saved versions of any pages by either pinning its icon to your Vivaldi toolbar or long-pressing a link within any page you’re viewing to reveal its menu of options.
The Wayback Machine Chrome extension integrates seamlessly into Vivaldi’s long-press link menu.
JR Raphael, Foundry
Chrome Android extension #3: A background open shortcut
I don’t know about you, but when I’m wading my way around the web, I find myself opening links a lot — often with the intent to look at ’em later.
Typically, that requires long-pressing on the link and then finding the option to open it in a background tab. But with a handy extension called DoubleClicker, that same action can be easier than ever.
Install DoubleClicker into your Android Vivaldi browser, and that’s it: From that moment forward, you can simply double-tap your finger on any link within any page, and it’ll open instantly as a background tab — waiting and ready for when you want it and without any waiting, poking around, or other interruptions to your workflow.
This might just be my favorite addition of all.
Chrome Android extension #4: Hands-free scrolling
The next time you’re reading something on your phone, keep a little somethin’ called Auto Scroll Extension in mind.
As its name suggests, the extension lets you set any speed you like and then simply tap its icon (which works best if you pin it to your toolbar) to automatically scroll the page for you — so you can keep reading without having to do a thing.
Look, ma: No hands! Auto Scroll in action in Vivaldi on Android.
Yes, it’s redundant with having the standalone app installed and set as your system-wide password management service. But it often ends up being faster and easier to have a sign-in handled directly within the browser instead of having to rely on the system-level integration.
And having the browser-based option present doesn’t prevent you from using the other route, either. You’ve just got options, and you can pick whichever feels fastest and easiest to you at any given moment.
Try it out for yourself and see whatcha think. And stay tuned for the second set of worthwhile Android Chrome extensions soon!
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