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Welcome to our overview of the latest version of the Mozilla Firefox browser – today is the release date of Firefox 57 or as its official name is, Firefox Quantum, and in the next couple of paragraphs, we will take a look at the most important changes that have been added to one of the most popular and widely used browsers.

The Interface

Once you open Firefox 57, you’d instantly notice that its whole look has been changed and made to appear more stylish and with a more modern feel. A lot of critics of Firefox have been pointing out in the past that the browser had a somewhat outdated look. Hopefully, the new changes will put an end to this. Here are some of the most notable examples of what’s been changed regarding the appearance of Firefox:

• The tabs – similarly to most modern browsers, Mozilla Firefox with its Quantum release will now have square-looking tabs rather than the rounded ones that it used to have.
• Snapshot tool – a built-in screenshot tool has been added to Firefox through which you can take snapshots of your whole browser window or choose separate segments and crop them into a image file. The tool also has the ability to recognize images on your browser screen and suggest to automatically make a snapshot of them. Here, we must note that many other browsers (Opera, Vivaldi, Slimjet, Maxthon, etc.) have had a similar feature for quite some time now.
• Combined search/URL box – Firefox was one of the few remaining browsers that still had separate boxes for site addresses and for its searches. With the introduction of Firefox 57 this has been changed as the two boxes are now combined into one similarly to how they are on Edge, Chrome, Opera and on many other modern browsers. Many users and researchers actually dislike this due to privacy concerns. Supposedly, when the two boxes are combined, search engines will be able to gather telemetry data from anything that gets typed in the URL/search bar. Otherwise, others might find this to be more convenient as it can potentially speed up browsing and leave more space for other buttons on the toolbar.

The Engine

A major modification that Firefox 57 introduces is an improved version of its old Gecko Engine. The new modified engine is called Quantum which is what gives the name of this version of the browsers – Firefox Quantum.

According to Mozilla developers, with this new and improved engine, the browser would run significantly faster. It is said that its performance will now be twice as fast compared to what it used to be an year ago. Beta testers have already confirmed that Firefox Quantum indeed runs smoother and faster than it used to making it one of the best-performing browsers at this moment.

Additionally, the RAM consumption has been decreased so that Firefox would now be more memory-friendly. Mozilla claim that the RAM that is now used by their browser is 30% less than what the memory usage normally is on Google Chrome.

WebExtensions Standard

Extensions in Firefox used to be handled using differently than they are now. The old XUL (XML User Interface Language) API has been replaced with the WebExtensions Standard that Chromium-based browsers and Microsoft Edge use. Due to this, browser add-ons for Chrome or Opera will now be compatible with Firefox. However, on the flip side, a number of dedicated Firefox extensions will need to be re-made in order to be compatible with the WebExtensions Standard, otherwise customers won’t be able to use them.

Tracking Protection

A major focus with Firefox 57/Firefox Quantum is improvements made to the browser’s privacy levels. One of the most important changes in that regard is the introduction of a full Tracking Protection settings.

A little backstory here, the Tracking Protection for Firefox has been around for quite some time now, it was introduced back in 2014. The feature blocked most trackers that would try to gather telemetry data from the user’s browser. However, there were no settings for it and it was enabled by default only for Incognito Mode browsing. It was technically possible to enable it for regular browsing as well but there was no section for doing that from within the browser’s settings. In order to do that, one would need to go through a number of steps that few people knew about.

Now, with Firefox 57, everybody would be able to easily choose if they want to have their regular browsing protected against trackers as well from the settings of the program. It has also been said that the next update, 58, would further boost the security of Firefox keeping the emphasis on making this one of the more privacy-oriented browsers out there. If you want to read more about the full Tracking Protection, you can go to this link where we have given it a more in-depth analysis.

To sum up

For fans of the browser, Firefox 57 should come as a nice improvement with several nice additions. However, there’s surely going to be certain amounts of criticism, especially with regards to the combined search/URL bar and potentially with regards to the adoption of the WebExtensions standard. For anyone who wants to experience the new version, Firefox 57 download should occur automatically without any need to search for the browser’s newest update manually. If you want to see the official introduction to Quantum, you can visit this official page from Mozilla.

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Currently, the protocol used used to manage the computer networks that form the Internet, the TCP/IP, is a very stable one and it allows for the unwavering functioning of the Internet. Seemingly, there is no danger for the existence the greatest invention of the new world. And yes, in terms of the protocol used to manage it, things are fine for now. However, there is another aspect that seems to have been heavily disregarded throughout the years.

What is the medium used to connect the devices and networks that form the Internet?

So, what do you think is the answer to that question? Many of you might think of satellites, right? It seems the only logical option that would allow for quick and efficient transfer of data all over the world. Well, it turns out that only a small percentage of the data transferred over the Internet gets managed via satellite connection. In reality, only a small portion of the whole online traffic goes through satellites – around one percent. The rest of the traffic is managed served by fiber cables Even when it comes to serving traffic overseas, there are thousands of kilometers of fiber-optic cables lying on the seafloor and transferring digital data between the continents. The main reason why this is the widely-preferred method is that it is much more efficient and much cheaper. That is not to say it is cheap to set up cables at the bottom of the sea that spread from one continent to another but it is certainly even more expensive to send more and more satellites in orbit.

One other important aspect is the capabilities of the two separate methods. While the capacity of the submarine cables is measured in terabytes per second, satellites can only support data transfer that doesn’t exceed a thousand megabytes/second.

So what’s the issue with cables?

Apparently, it is a much better option to have the Internet traffic managed through cables rather than satellites, so where’s the problem with that. Well, although the submarine cables are placed really deep, where the seafloor is, there are still many physical dangers that can come to them.

First and foremost, a lot of those cables have been there for quite some time. They are now old and likely, the natural processes around them have more or less weakened their integrity. After all, there are all sorts of stuff that can happen which could damage them – sea creatures can cause damage to the cables as well as various kinds of debris and even volcanic and/or tectonic activity and such is much more likely to occur deep down, at the sea floor, rather than on land.

Nature isn’t the only threat

Natural processes are only one of the major dangers that threaten the submarine cables that manage most of the Internet traffic. One other possible danger comes from us, the humanity that has worked to set them up in the first place. Of course, a country wouldn’t go and try to intentionally damage or destroy the submarine cables that it has established but another country might indeed do that. Also, it wouldn’t really take much. The locations of all those thousands of seafloor cables isn’t exactly unknown, just have a look at this website if you aren’t convinced. Despite the significant depth of the seafloor where those cables lie, it should still be relatively easy for a someone with enough money to locate and damage them. It doesn’t even need to be a country that seeks to gain something out of such an nefarious action. There are hundreds of organizations with shady agendas and dishonest goals that can easily find a way to disrupt the Internet as we know it and as we already mentioned, any major malfunction in that field can have severe and unforeseen consequences that would affect not only single countries bot potentially whole continents as well.

Not only destruction, but also espionage

Although such a scenario is generally less threatening as the methods for gaining higher levels of privacy online have been greatly improved upon throughout the last decade, it is still possible for certain government organizations from different countries to tap into those submarine cables and gain secret intelligence through them. The potential damage that can come from this might not be as dreadful since most Internet communications are currently encrypted, yet it is still a real possibility that should not be disregarded.

The future?

Unfortunately, currently the focus of the world isn’t really shifted towards the problems that might come from the medium used to spread the Internet. So far, cables have worked fine and maybe this is the reason why few are actually concerned with their future. However, if measures do not get taken soon, a lot of what was said throughout this article might become reality and then it would be much more difficult to handle the problems which might occur.

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But first…

What is a Ransomware?

If you are already aware of what this malware category is all about, you can skip to the next paragraph and where I elaborate upon its trends and development throughout 2017.

Nearing the end of 2017, more and more users seem to be getting acquainted (in one way or another) with the Ransomware virus category. Some are lucky enough to simply read an article like this one and safely acquire the information that they might need regarding this form of malware while others, not so fortunate individuals, get a more hands-on experience with Ransomware by actually landing one such noxious program on their computers. If you do not belong to the latter group, consider yourself lucky as this is truly one of the nastiest possible forms of malicious software that you can get your system attacked by, especially if you keep important and valuable data on your hard-drives.

So, what is a Ransomware? The most general description of a program which belongs to this category would be that a Ransomware is any malicious piece of software that seeks to extort money from its victim by demanding a certain ransom payment. In most cases, the virus blocks a certain component/s of the user’s system and keeps it locked until the payment is made. There are couple of separate Ransomware types:

Lockscreen Ransomware – noxious programs that of this type are normally regarded as less advanced in comparison to the other forms of Ransomware. A lockscreen virus normally seeks to display a big banner on the targeted device’s screen hiding everything such as the desktop, programs, folders, etc. behind it thus making the user unable to use their device. The ransom demand is stated within the lockscreen banner along with instructions regarding the payment method. In the past, this type of Ransomware was highly-effective but now there are a lot of guides out there that can easily allow anyone to manually disable such a malware piece. Still, though, lockscreen viruses are still highly popular and widely spread, especially among Android users.

Encryption-based Ransomware – for some time now, this has been the bane of the Internet. Encryption-based Ransomware programs also known as cryptoviruses are truly some of the most devastating and difficult to deal with forms of malware. The general way of functioning of those viruses is as follows: once the malware makes it into the victim’s PC system, it scans the HDD for certain file formats. Once all data that belongs to those file formats is accounted for, the malware goes on to use an advanced encryption process to render the targeted files inaccessible to the user. Once the process has been completed, the malware would generate a pop-up or a notepad message on the computer within which pop-up/message the ransom demand is stated. Additionally, the note also provides the user with details on how to execute the requested payment. The preferred ransom currency is typically BitCoin or some other cryptocurrency which would ensure that the attacker stays anonymous.

Master Boot Record (MRB) encrypting Ransomware – though this isn’t really a separate subcategory of Ransomware, it is worth saying a couple more words about it. MRB-encrypting Ransomware are viruses that not only mess with the files on the infected machine but also modify its Master Boot Record so that it doesn’t allow the computer to boot into Windows. If infected by this sort of malware, the user will not be able to use their PC whatsoever until the malicious program gets taken care of.

Leakware – this is a less common example of Ransomware viruses but for the sake of completeness, I will mention a few words regarding this subcategory. Instead of locking-up the device or encrypting files that are on it, Leakware versions threaten to publish sensitive user-related data online. Obviously, such attacks would only be effective if the victim actually has any sensitive information stored on their device to begin with which is likely why Leakware attacks are not as common.

Ransomware throughout 2017

As I already mentioned in the beginning of this article, 2017 has been an year during which the overall Ransomware threat drastically increased in scale. I won’t be going through each and every single virus released under this category as there are just way too many of them. Therefore, I will limit myself to only the most notable examples of Ransomware outbreaks.

WannaCry

WannaCry (also known as WannaCrypt) virus marked one of the biggest Ransomware outbreaks ever and likely the largest one this year. In a very short amount of time (read couple of days) it managed to distribute itself and infect hundreds of thousands of machines all over the world. Aside from regular users who got infected, other victims of this virus were banks, schools, hospitals, infrastructure systems, airlines, etc. According to some researchers, the scale of this Ransomware outbreak was unprecedented with over 200 000 machines infected throughout 150 countries, the most affected of which were Russia, Ukraine, Taiwan and India. One of the main reasons why this virus was so effective was the way it got distributed – the hackers exploited a vulnerability in Microsoft’s Server Message Block (SMB) protocol which allowed the malware to be distributed without requiring the user to actually make a mistake and somehow download the malware.

NotPetya

The NotPetya outbreak was the second large-scale Ransomware attack this year. This virus works similarly to the infamous Petya Ransomware – it encrypts the Master Boot Record of the PC thus preventing the user from booting into Windows. In just a few days, hundreds of thousands of PC’s got infected over 100 countries. Again, instead of relying on the end user making a mistake and loading the virus on the PC, the hackers behind Petya, too, exploited the SMB protocol vulnerability to deliver the malware.

BadRabbit

This is a more recent example of Ransomware that, despite not becoming as widely spread as the previous two examples, still managed to cause serious damage during the time it was “alive”. Similarly to Petya and NotPetya, this malware program, apart from encrypting the user’s personal files, also modifies the MRB, locking the victim out of their computer. Initially, it was reported that this virus was got distributed through fake flash update pop-ups displayed on a number of hacked websites but it was later revealed that it had a secondary method of distribution. The malware was able to spread to other machines connected to the same network as the “patient zero” computer which allowed it to quickly infect a huge number of systems. Again, the BadRabbit Ransowmare had the most effect in countries from Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey).

Tendencies and future predictions

Distribution

Despite security experts’ best efforts, a large portion of modern Ransomware versions are still left without a working solution that would allow the victim to recover from the attack without paying the ransom. In fact, the difficulty that most hackers face isn’t making their viruses so advanced that no one would be able to deal with them but making sure that they get distribute to enough systems.

During the past two years, phishing and spam e-mails were enough to distribute a Ransomware but with the increasing popularity of this particular form of malware, more and more users started to become more aware and vigilant, which decreased the effectiveness of those distribution techniques. Therefore, the cyber criminals seem to have started seeking new alternatives which bypass the need for tricking the user into loading the malware on their PC. The WannaCry and NotPetya outbreaks are clear examples of one way this could happen and the scale and effectiveness of their attacks only shows that this is likely the future for a lot of the newer Ransomware versions. Although Microsoft has taken measures to eliminate the SMB protocol vulnerability that those two viruses exploit, there’s nothing to say that the online criminals won’t come up with some other similar method for spreading their malicious software to more and more victims.

Targets

As before, regular users are currently the largest group of Ransomware victims worldwide. However, throughout 2017, the number of businesses and companies targeted by this malware category has increased drastically. Hackers who use Ransomware are starting to turn their sights towards higher-value targets and it seems to be working out pretty well for them. One of the main reasons for that is the insufficient security level that a lot of companies operate under which allows for swift and devastating Ransomware attacks.

Ransom demands

Likely as a direct consequence of the previous Ransomware tendency, the average demanded ransom sum has gone up quite substantially. Only during 2016, an over 250% percent increase in the average ransom demand (compared to 2015) was reported by Symantec.

In 2017, only a small percentage of businesses have actually paid the hackers (below 5% according to a survey by Barkley). Out of those who have paid, 1 out of 5 were never given the decryption codes necessary for the unlocking of the encrypted data. This further comes to show just how unreliable making the ransom payment could be. As many experts have said times and times again, it is highly inadvisable to agree to the blackmailers’ terms and send them the money unless there’s no other potential alternative and only if the decryption of the data is highly important.

The future of Ransomware

The tendencies from 2017 with regards to the Ransomware threat are likely to transfer into 2018 as well. The money demands would likely go up with more businesses getting targeted and the distribution methods of Ransomware will probably get more diverse due to the slowly but steadily improving of the users’ technical knowledge and understanding of how to avoid exposing their devices at malware risks. Still, though, nothing is for certain. Probably the most likely prediction that one can make is that Ransomware will be around for quite some time and won’t go away easily.

[ratings]
 

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Enter Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is a term used to refer to all forms of protection of computer systems from illegal interference, digital theft, damage to the hardware or software components or any other kind of disruption of the functions that the computer is supposed to execute. As we already mentioned and as you surely know for yourself, or connection to technology is currently very strong and we are heavily reliant on our gadgets and devices on a global scale. The smarter and more advanced those devices become, the more useful they get but also, the need for their protection increases drastically as well. This leads us to the problem we are going to be focusing in this article – the importance of sufficient cybersecurity and its obvious lack in almost every aspect and area of technology.

The current state of cybersecurity

With the advancement and the Integration of the Internet, it has become much easier for virtual criminals to hack into one’s device and carry out all sorts of malicious tasks in order to reach a certain goal. Most of the time such a goal would be, as you might have guessed, quick financial profit with minimum risk of getting caught for the cybercrime. Ten years ago, hackers would mostly target computers and laptops but now, with the increasing number of smart-technologies such as smartphones, tablets, phablets or even home-related smart-tech, the opportunity for technological havoc has increased drastically. The current state of things is basically this: the speed at which technology’s advancements and integration happens is much greater than the speed of improving the protection procedures and cybersecurity of the said technology. This leads to a very serious issue which, unfortunately, few are willing to address and pay attention.

Each year, the number and the seriousness of hacker attacks increases if some time ago most victims were regular users, today, more and more virtual criminals are turning their eyes towards big targets such as large businesses, worldwide companies and even governments. According to a diagram from hackmageddon, in 2016 28% of the cyber-attack targets were industries and 21% were individual users. The implications of this tendency are rather dreadful and, as we said, too few are willing to put in the effort, time, and resources into ensuring that their computer/IoT network won’t get easily hacked.

Still, a positive tendency is present as well – though slowly, people are starting to realize the importance of having good virtual protection. Investments into cybersecurity have been increasing throughout the past few years but the bad news is that there are still too many businesses out there that have insufficient (if any) cyber protection leaving millions upon millions of devices open to direct malware attacks. The only ones who truly seem to have taken it upon themselves to fortify their virtual security are some big companies who would lose a lot if a hacker was able to infiltrate their networks (not that there’s a shortage of examples of this happening).

User knowledge

The thing about successful cyber attacks is that even if the whole network or individual system has been thoroughly secured, there is still one factor that hackers can always attempt to exploit which most usually ensures the success of the attack. This factor is none other than the individual user. It is much more difficult, skill-requiring and time-consuming for a hacker to create come up with a malware that can automatically infect a system leaving out the middleman. On the other hand, if the user makes a mistake, even the simplest or least advanced form of malware can cause some serious damage in the wrong hands. Unfortunately, many regular users and company employees tend to lack the knowledge or vigilance so as to avoid potential cyber attacks. This is also why malware infection methods such as malvertising and phishing are so commonly used by hackers – many would easily fall for those without even thinking about whether or not this pop-ups that offered a free iPhone or that sketchy banner who said you need a software update looked suspicious or questionable.

With that said, there is still an improvement – users, though slowly, are getting better educated on the Internet dangers out there and are starting to recognize the potential hazards before actually interacting with them. In fact, this has lead to some hackers trying to come up with new methods for malware distribution where the user interaction would be left out of the equation. Two prominent and recent examples are the WannaCry and NotPetya Ransowmare outbreaks which used a Microsoft vulnerability to automatically infect targeted machines instead of waiting for the user to make a mistake.

The future?

No one can say for sure what the future holds in terms of cybersecurity. Sadly, however, there are a lot of bleak possibilities and the fact that currently the overall levels of cybersecurity are almost entirely insufficient on a global scale doesn’t make things any better. There are numerous examples of what might happen if a skilled enough team of hackers manages to infiltrate an important computer or IoT network. For example, if a cyber terrorist manages to hack into the controls of an airline, they could easily misdirect the flying aircraft causing mass air collisions. Another possibility is if hackers infiltrate the systems of hospitals causing equipment malfunction leading to multiple casualties (in fact, there are already instances of Ransomware attacks on hospitals). Some more bizarre cases of malware attacks are also possible – one could hack and cause malfunction to devices such as home robots or even pacemakers! Furthermore, the more advanced the tech we use becomes and the more software we put into it, the more opportunities the hackers would have to exploit it. Therefore, high-level cybersecurity is an absolute must when looking towards our future or else, there could be a lot of grim and unforeseen consequences.

 
[ratings]

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Last year, Uber announced that they are looking into offering their customers with as much options for transportation as possible and utilizing the open air space seemed like an obvious next step. This has given birth to the Uber Elevate project. On the project’s site, Uber have posted a lengthy whitepaper which thoroughly describes the specifics of urban air transportation. Here is a link where you can download the whitepaper if you wish to obtain more detailed information regarding Uber Elevate.

The real difficulty with Uber air

Apparently, we already have the necessary advancements in technology that would soon allow us to have flying cars according to many researchers. This is good new for Uber Elevate and their aspiration to have VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft flying around the cities of the world and allowing people to access a much faster and much more effective means of transport from one place to another.

However, there is a major setback and it isn’t what one would think it to be. Uber has a history of regulatory issues all over the world regarding its services offered by the Uber application. Different countries have different laws and it isn’t always possible to meet all requirements at once. That said, taking things up in the air is bound to cause even more regulatory difficulties. Birmingham professor David Dunn has pointed out that it would be a challenge to come regulate transportation aircraft flying around the open spaces above cities. For instance, how would such means of transportation would be licensed, insured or what would the police services look like for aircraft transport. There are a lot more similar questions to be answered before Uber Elevate could take off into the skies.

One thing to mention here is that Uber air wouldn’t be responsible for the actual manufacturing of the aircraft but rather for the software that would be used to manage them similarly to how the Uber app is currently used by customers to call for a taxi. This is also why the deal with NASA was struck.

Enter Uber Elevate!

Uber Elevate is certainly a bold project and now with its next step involving NASA, the future where we have flying cars seems to be closer than ever before. The possibilities that such a means of transport would open are endless. It has been reported that there are plans to begin Uber Elevate tests as early as 2020 in the cities of Dubai and Dallas. 

Talking about futuristic sci-fi technology such as the Uber air project, recently we also learned that Waymo, a company that develops self-driving cars, has already started to invite regular people to take test rides in their fully-automated minivans. If you want to learn more about this, here is an article where we have covered that topic.

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So far, there has already been an instance of regular people getting inside Waymo’s minivans for a ride – a group of reporters was invited to Castle, a testing facility in California where the Google self-driving cars have been “trained” and tested so that the journalists had the opportunity to experience first hand the feeling of going for a ride within a automobile that had no human driver whatsoever. Here is a promotional YouTube video from regarding self-driving car Waymo project.

Security measures

Although the developers behind the automated vehicles a.k.a. “Google cars” are confident in their creation, there will still be safety-drivers next to the regular people who will be some of the first to ever experience this new height of technology. Additionally, the driving will be done within a segregated area near Phoenix that is about 100 square miles big. However, there are plans for expanding the testing area to a wider radius which would allow the cars to collect more information that would later be used for improvements.

Level 4 autonomy

The industry of self-driving vehicles is rapidly growing and evolving towards the so-called Level 4 autonomy. What Level 4 autonomy basically means is vehicles that are capable of driving themselves through most conditions and roads (that would allow for normal driving anyway) without the assistance of a human operator whatsoever. Currently, Waymo seems to be on the right way towards this ultimate goal with its latest advancement in the field of self-driving automated vehicles. Only the future will show whether they would be the first to mass-produce and distribute this sort of technology. At this moment, most other companies that aim towards developing self-driving automobiles are rather cautious with their tests and plan on leaving a safety-driver behind the steering wheel up until at least 2020. However, Waymo apparently has other plans and so far they also seem to have the technology to back them up.

When the self-driving cars get introduced to the masses

The potential for using automated vehicles is endless. For example, anyone would be able to access such a vehicle just like we use taxis today. Also, people who are unable to drive would still have the opportunity to travel from one place to another with their own car without the need for somebody else to drive the vehicle. This can also be useful for people who are having a night out and aren’t in the condition to drive a vehicle at the given moment. The possibilities are endless and the future in this area seems to be just around the corner. Whether automated cars would truly become a part of our everyday life as soon as it seems just like in some futuristic sci-fi movie is yet to be determined.

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Currently, there are a couple of Android smartphones that have Alexa integrated within them so that the user can make voice command to their smartphone that Alexa would recognize and execute. The models that we are referring to are HTC U11 and Huawei Mate 9. However, the Amazon Alexa application can be downloaded and used on any modern Android device. Down below, we will go over the main functions of the application and we will show a tutorial on how you can set it up and use it to order commands to the Alexa assistant.

Getting started

Of course, before you do anything else, you’d need to download the actual app from the Google Play Store. Here is a link that you can use to do that.

Once you download the app and open it, the first thing that you’d need to do is fill-in your Amazon account’s username and password. If you don’t have an account yet, go ahead and make one. You will need to allow the application the required access permissions before you can use it so give your agreement so that you can open the app.

The next thing that you might want to do is take a look at the options available to you and get to know the application’s interface. Tap on the main menu (three lines, top-left) and you will see several options: Music, Video and Books; Lists; All Skills; Smart Home; Settings. Here is an overview of the main options available on Alexa and what you can do through them.

Music, Video and Books

This where you can choose which music/video/e-book services to sign into or out of. However, one thing to note is that music services do not work for HTC U11 and Huawei Mate 9 so keep that in mind.

Lists

In Lists you can see your shopping and to-do-lists with the entries that you have added through voice command (for HTC U11 and Huawei Mate 9) or manually with any other Android smartphone. There you can add, change or remove any of the list entries.

All Skills

The All Skills section handles the third-party apps connected to Alexa. There are hundreds if not thousands of different applications that you can connect in order to add more functionality to the AI assistant. There is an All Skills button at the top-right corner – tap on it in order to see what third-party applications you have installed.

Smart Home

Through Smart Home, you can manage the smart devices that are in your home – anything from your TV and security cameras to the vacuum cleaner and the lightbulbs (provided that they employ the smart technology). If you want to set up new devices and connect them to Alexa, tap on the Discover button. You can also organize the different devices into separate groups for easier control.

Settings

Settings allows you to alter other general Alexa options such as time zones, location, measurement system, etc.

Conclusion

This is most of what the Android application for Amazon Alexa would offer you as functionality. However, if you are using either one of the two smartphone models that we mentioned above, there are some extra features that you’d get through the app. As we already mentioned, the most notable one are the voice commands.

That being said, the functionality of the application is still limited when compared to the Alexa Echo speaker. For instance, the app cannot set reminders or be used for alarms. Also, as was noted earlier, the music services are limited for the two smartphone models that support Alexa voice-recognition. Still, though, it is a useful tool that would make integrating Alexa in your life even more effective.

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Firefox Tracking Protection

As we already mentioned, many sites and online services try to obtain information related to your browsing habits and what you do online. This data is normally used for advertising purposes as this sort of information is highly valued by advertising distributors as it allows them to create targeted ads. Still though, having a browser that can protect you from unwanted collection of such information is always a good thing and Firefox is one of the browsers capable of doing it. The Privacy Protection feature blocks most trackers that try to keep tabs on your online activity which improves your overall privacy when on the Internet. While this feature isn’t flawless and doesn’t stop all forms of privacy intrusion, it is still good to have it in your arsenal.

Firefox 57

The Tracking Protection feature for Mozilla Firefox isn’t anything new – it has been around for about three years as it was added to the program back in 2014. However, up until Firefox 57 – the upcoming update for the browser, the feature was only enabled by default for the Incognito Mode browsing. Although it was still technically possible to enable it for regular browsing, most users didn’t know about that option as the feature didn’t have a corresponding UI (User Interface) setting. With the release of the next version of the browser, Firefox 57, this is going to change as there will be three separate options for the Tracking Protection feature within the browser’s settings. The first one is labeled Always which will keep the Tracking Protection enabled for the whole browser, the second one is Only in private windows (Incognito Mode) and the third one is Never, meaning that the feature would be disabled if the user chooses that.

How to enable it

Before Firefox 57, the user would need to execute several different tasks before they could enable the Tracking Protection for regular browsing and most customers didn’t know how to do it as it was certainly not intuitive and there wasn’t an actual button to do it from the settings menu. However, not all this will be made much easier when 57 gets released, all you’d have to do to enable the option is go to about:preferences#privacy (type it in the URL bar) and select the Always button to have the protection enabled at all times.

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Regardless whether you are a hardcore gamer or just a casual user who likes to play video games every once in awhile, you have surely heard about the popular game called Watchdogs. In case you haven’t, the game revolves around a revenge-seeking hacker named Aiden Pearce who uses his advanced hacking skills to avenge the death of his niece. The game is rather unique as it incorporates some interesting mechanics allowing the player to hack different technology around the city of Chicago and use it to advance with the game. For instance, you can hijack cars, remotely control streetlights or hack into security systems to achieve your goal. Overall, it is an action-oriented game but it also requires some thinking and planning if you are to have success at completing it.

Overall, the game had good reception and most players and critics gave it positive reviews. However, there have also been certain complaints regarding glitches within the game as well as certain graphics-related issues. Nonetheless, if you are into third-person, action-adventure games but also want to experience something different, then this game might be the right for you and there’s no better moment to give it a try than now.

Watchdogs Free Licence

The game’s developers, Ubisoft, announced that they would make a giveaway of Watchdogs licenses. Normally, the game costs 29.99 USD. However, from 7th to 13th November, Watchdogs will be available for free for anyone who wants to download it and play it. The only thing that is required in order to get Watchdogs free is to use Ubisoft Uplay. In order to get the game for free, you’d need to go to this page on Ubisoft’s site and register – you will get a free license for the game that you’d later be able to use while playing it through Uplay. After you have completed the registration, the game will get added to your Uplay library. With all that said, if you feel like trying it out, we advise you to hurry up and get the game while the Watchdogs free giveaway still lasts as it will be over in a week.

Requirements

For those of you who are wondering whether their PC could run Watchdogs, here are the system requirements for the game:

Minimum system requirements

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66Ghz or AMD Phenom II X4 940 @ 3.0Ghz
• Virtual Memory: 6 GB
• Operating System: Windows Vista (SP2), Windows 7 (SP1) or Windows 8 (64 bit only)
• Graphics Card: DirectX 11 graphics card with 1 GB Video RAM – Nvidia Geforce GTX 460 or AMD Radeon HD 5770 / Intel Iris Pro HD 5200
• Sound Card: Yes
• Free HDD Space: 25 GB

Recommended system requirements

• Processor: Core i7 3770 @ 3.5Ghz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0Ghz
• Virtual Memory: 8 GB
• Operating System: Windows Vista (SP2), Windows 7 (SP1) or Windows 8 (64 bit only)
• Graphics Card: DirectX 11 graphics card with 2 GB Video RAM – Nvidia Geforce GTX 560 ti or AMD Radeon HD 7850
• Sound Card: Yes
• Free HDD Space: 25 GB

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