The Mozilla Foundation will soon no longer support users of Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and macOS 10.12, 10.13 and 10.14 with updates for the popular Firefox browser. For a short time, an ESR (Extended Support Release) or LTS (Long-term Support) version will be available for these users before support finally ends in 2024. Mozilla announced the information in its own support blog.

The last supported version for the affected operating systems will be Firefox version 115, which is planned for the beginning of July 2023. The developers explain that Microsoft already ended support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 in January and thus no more security updates will follow—even though there are known exploits. The Mozilla Foundation classifies the use of these operating systems as dangerous anyway.

The situation is similar for the three versions of macOS. The Mozilla Foundation wants to guarantee support for Firefox ESR 115 until September 2024, when Mozilla will automatically install the ESR version on the affected operating systems. Affected Windows users will not be able to switch to other well-known browsers: Microsoft Edge as well as Google Chrome ended support for Windows 7 and 8 long ago.

PCWorld

Microsoft has today announced that it's pulling support for the Cortana app on Windows 10 and Windows 11 later this year. The news comes just a week after Microsoft unveiled the Windows Copilot, a smarter AI assistant that's powered by ChatGPT technology and is capable of handling more complex queries.

Here's what Microsoft says in its support documentation about Cortana being retired:

"We are making some changes to Windows that will impact users of the Cortana app. Starting in late 2023, we will no longer support Cortana in Windows as a standalone app ... This change only impacts Cortana in Windows, and your productivity assistant, Cortana, will continue to be available in Outlook mobile, Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams display, and Microsoft Teams rooms.

We know that this change may affect some of the ways you work in Windows, so we want to help you transition smoothly to the new options. Instead of clicking the Cortana icon and launching the app to begin using voice, now you can use voice and satisfy your productivity needs through different tools."

Microsoft continues to list several of its recent AI products and services, including Bing Chat AI and the Windows Copilot, which is expected to launch this fall around the same time Cortana is retired, as suitable replacements for the Cortana app. The new Windows Copilot should be able to do most of what the Cortana app can do, plus more.

As Microsoft mentions, Cortana as a productivity assistant in Microsoft 365 apps isn't going away, and will continue to function like normal. It's just the Cortana assistant in Windows that's being retired.

Windows Central

Microsoft is hard at work on a new version of Teams. Microsoft Teams 2.0 launched in preview earlier this year on Windows, and it will soon be the default version of Teams on the platform. Additionally, the new Microsoft Teams will ship in preview to macOS, the web, and other platforms later this year.

The information comes courtesy of Petri's UnplugIT podcast. In the first episode of the show, Microsoft Product Lead for Teams 2.0 Anupam Pattnaik discussed the revamped service and the company's plans for the next version of Teams.

“Right now, the classic Teams is the default because we do not have all the features that we support in classic Teams in the new Teams,” said Pattnaik. “That’s the reason we have right now classic Teams as the default option, but sometime later this calendar year, we’ll make the new Teams the default option when we have feature parity, and when we feel confident that users can switch to the new Teams.”

"We plan to make the preview of the new Teams available to our Mac, VDI, and web users later this calendar year. We also do plan to roll it out to our other customer segments like EDU, and Government Cloud later this calendar year."

Before the new Teams becomes the default on Windows, Microsoft will need to bring it to feature parity with Teams "classic." For example, Breakout Rooms are not currently supported in the new Teams, but will be by the end of 2023, according to Pattnaik.

In addition to a revamped interface, the new Teams promises up to 3x faster installation, 2x faster launch times, and 1.7x quicker switching between chats and channels. Joining meetings should be up to 2x faster as well. Despite the performance increases, Teams 2.0 will use fewer system resources than its predecessor (up to 50% less memory and 70% less disk space).

Windows Central

YouTube is getting rid of Stories, a feature for temporary posts, beginning in June. Users won’t be able to post Stories starting June 26th, and existing posts will expire after seven days.

Stories were first introduced in 2017 under the name Reels and were available to users with over 10,000 subscribers. Similar to Instagram (which in turn lifted the concept from Snapchat), YouTube Stories disappeared after a set amount of time; creators could use Stories to post updates or behind-the-scenes content to promote their channel. But looking around today, it doesn’t seem to have caught on — access was limited, few creators seem to be regularly posting Stories, and the feature doesn’t get much promotion even from YouTube.

In the absence of Stories, YouTube wants creators to instead post content to other surfaces on the platform: Community Posts and Shorts. The company recently expanded access to Community Posts, a text-based updates feature, and added the ability to have posts expire after a certain period. Creators can also share polls, quizzes, images, and videos as Community Posts, which appear in a tab on channels.

YouTube has also been working to funnel the popularity of short form video into its TikTok competitor, Shorts, and trying to convince traditional long form video creators to start making shorter content as well. In February, YouTube began sharing ad revenue from Shorts with creators under a revamped monetization plan.

The Verge

Microsoft has confirmed that upcoming Windows 11 updates will provide built-in support for multiple archive formats such as 7-Zip and RAR files. This development implies users won't have to rely on additional tools or the standard Windows zip utility to compress files.

During the Build developer conference currently in progress, Microsoft shared its strategy to offer compatibility with a wide range of archive formats. These will include tar, 7-Zip, rar, gz, among others. This enhancement meets a persistent request from the Windows user base. While earlier iterations of the operating system had built-in support for zip archiving, this often proved inadequate when compared to alternative solutions. As a result, formats like 7-Zip and RAR necessitated the use of third-party tools such as WinRAR.

Microsoft stated that the support for these file compression formats will roll out in the upcoming week. However, it should be noted that it will feature as part of a preview version of Windows 11 and won't be included in the recent Moment 3 update.

Guru3D

WhatsApp has granted users one of its most awaited features - the ability to edit messages.

"For the moments when you make a mistake or simply change your mind, you can now edit your sent messages on WhatsApp," the Meta Platforms Inc-owned messaging app said in a blog post on Monday.

With the feature rolling out globally in the coming weeks, senders will be able to modify their messages within 15 minutes of hitting send.

The function can be accessed by long-pressing the message and choosing "edit" in the drop-down menu. The modified message will carry the label "edited", without showing edit history.

Competing apps such as Telegram and Signal already allow users to edit messages, while microblogging site Twitter rolled out the ability to edit tweets to select users last year.

Reuters