Posts Tagged: default

How to reset default apps on an Android phone or tablet

Nothing is forever. If you’re rethinking your decision and want to reset default apps, just follow our guide for stock Android and most Samsung phones.
Digital Trends

Google paid $26 billion in 2021 for default search engine status

Vice president Prabhakar Raghavan testified Friday that Google paid $ 26.3 billion in 2021 for the purpose of maintaining default search engine status and acquiring traffic, Bloomberg reports. It’s likely the lion’s share of that sum went to Apple, which it has showered with exorbitant sums for many years in order to remain the default search option on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Raghavan, who was testifying as part of the DOJ’s ongoing antitrust suit against the company, said Google’s search advertising made $ 146.4 billion in revenue in 2021, which puts the $ 26 billion it paid for default status in perspective. The executive clarified that default status was the most costly part of what it pays to acquire traffic.

Raghavan didn’t mention how much of the $ 26.3 billion went to Apple. But CNBC reports that an estimate from private wealth management firm Bernstein ballparked that Google could pay Apple up to $ 19 billion this year for the default privilege.

A slide shown in court revealed that, in 2014, Google brought in $ 47 billion in search revenue while paying $ 7.1 billion for default status. Raghavan testified that Google’s overall default search engine payments nearly quadrupled from 2014 to 2021, while its search advertising revenue (roughly) tripled.

Google objected to making the figures public, arguing it would hurt its ability to negotiate future contracts. Judge Amit Mehta, overseeing the case, disagreed.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-paid-26-billion-in-2021-for-default-search-engine-status-203129384.html?src=rss

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Microsoft is making it easier to set default apps in Windows 11

Since its release in 2021, one of the most consistent criticisms of Windows 11 has been Microsoft’s handling of app defaults. Compared to Windows 10, the newer OS makes it more complicated for users to move away from the company’s first-party offerings. For example, if you don’t want Edge to open every time you click on a webpage or PDF, you’re forced to launch Windows 11’s Settings menu and change the default app by file and link type. It’s an unnecessarily long process that makes customizing Windows 11 convoluted.

Microsoft is finally addressing some of those criticisms. In a blog post published Friday (via Bleeping Computer), the company said it was “reaffirming our long-standing approach to put people in control of their Windows PC experience.” Microsoft announced a feature it said would ensure Windows 11 users are in control of changes to their app defaults. Later this year, the company will introduce a new deep link uniform resource identifier (URI) that will allow developers to send users to the correct section of the Settings menu when they want to change how Windows 11 responds to specific links and file types.

Screenshot of the new toast notification that some apps will display when asking you to pin themselves to your taskbar, start menu or desktop.
Microsoft

Microsoft says it will also give users more control over what apps get pinned to their desktop, start menu and taskbar with a new public API that will display a prompt asking you to grant programs permission before they show up on those interface elements. Both features will first roll out to PCs enrolled in the Windows Insider Dev Channel in the coming months before arriving in the public release of Windows 11. Notably, Microsoft says it will “lead by example” and release updates for Edge that will see the browser add support for those features as they become available.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-is-making-it-easier-to-set-default-apps-in-windows-11-202940444.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Firefox now encrypts domain name requests by default in the US

After a brief delay, Mozilla has started to make DNS over HTTPS the default for Firefox users in the US. Notwithstanding any additional hiccups, the company says it hopes to finish the rollout sometime over the next couple of weeks. The protocol is s…
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Facebook stops scanning faces by default

Facebook is directly tackling complaints about its facial recognition practices for photo tagging. It's expanding access to its Face Recognition privacy setting (introduced in 2017) to all users, and will stop scanning faces by default. Those who d…
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One Google engineer is pushing for default end-to-end encryption in Allo

While Google’s new messaging app, Allo, does not enable end-to-end encryption by default, at least one engineer at Google seems to wish otherwise. Allo was launched at Google I/O, and only offers end-to-end encryption in incognito mode.

The post One Google engineer is pushing for default end-to-end encryption in Allo appeared first on Digital Trends.

Android Army–Digital Trends

Twitter’s algorithmic timeline is on by default, but you can change it back

Twitter has enabled its algorithmic timeline by default, but it can easily be turned off. All you have to do is head to settings and uncheck a box, after which your posts will be ranked chronologically once again.

The post Twitter’s algorithmic timeline is on by default, but you can change it back appeared first on Digital Trends.

Mobile–Digital Trends