Category Archives: Blog

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Organizing May Become Easier With New Google App

Just in time for tax season, Google has released a new app called Stack for Android devices. Stack is functionally similar to a Microsoft app called Lens, which was originally released for use with Windows phones, but has since found a home on the Play Store.

The purpose of the app is to help get (and keep) users organized.

You can scan your bills and receipts with the app, which automatically crops and sharpens them. Stack also uses text scanning capabilities that very much play to Google’s core strengths to single out important details like due dates and total amounts due. It can even categorize and organize your paperwork into similar groups called, predictably enough, stacks.

As with Google’s search engine, the Stack app’s organizational capabilities are impressive, but they’re not perfect. So the app will undoubtedly make a mistake here and there. Even given this, however, it’s a fantastic and free way you can keep your important papers organized, which will make things much easier when it comes time to file those annual taxes.

Even better, it’s got a backup function that’s tied to Google’s cloud drive service, so if you have an account, you won’t ever have to worry about losing track of your receipts. If they somehow vanish from your phone, you’ll be able to pull copies of what you need from your cloud drive.

Best of all, the little app is surprisingly secure. You can augment that even further by enabling biometric sign-in on the phone, so that no one can access your documents unless they scan your fingerprint in.

It’s a good app, and well worth downloading and experimenting with. Kudos to Google for offering up something genuinely useful, especially at this time of year when tax preparation efforts are giving a great many people heartburn and headaches. Download your copy from the Play Store today.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Microsoft One Drive Gets Long Awaited 64 Bit Version

Apple users have long enjoyed a 64-bit version of Microsoft’s OneDrive, but Windows users have been left out in the cold, until now.

Recently, the Redmond Giant announced the release of a Windows-10, 64-bit version of the code. It’s not currently available to the general public, but you can get a preview of its functionality via Microsoft’s One Drive 64-bit syncing app.

Ankita Kirti, of Microsoft, had this to say about the coming change:

“The 64-bit version is the right choice if you plan to use large files, if you have a lot of files, and if you have a computer that’s running a 64-bit version of Windows.

Computers running 64-bit versions of Windows generally have more resources – such as processing power and memory – than their 32-bit predecessors. Also, 64-bit applications can access more memory than 32-bit applications (up to 18.4 million Petabytes).

We know this has been a long awaited and highly requested feature, and we’re thrilled to make it available for early access.”

If you’re like many users, you may not even know for sure what version of the software you’re using. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to check. Just click on the “Help and Settings” icon in the OneDrive app, then go to the “About” section. Under the heading “About Microsoft OneDrive” you’ll see a reference indicating whether you’re running the 32-bit, or the 64-bit version.

The only caveat to be aware of here is that Microsoft has advised users who are running ARM64 devices to stick with the 32-bit version. If you’re running an AMD64 device, you’re fine to switch to the 64-bit version when it becomes available.

This is a good addition and long overdue. We’re looking forward to the ability to move more files, more quickly. Kudos to Microsoft for finally giving us that capability.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Number Of Microsoft Edge Browser Users Are Surpassing Firefox

At long last, Microsoft has a web browser that the market seems to like. Their new Chromium-based Edge browser has enjoyed rampant growth over the past twelve months, seeing its market share increase by 1300 percent for the year. It should be noted that one year ago, Chromium-based Edge had a market share of just 0.57 percent, and their rampant growth has seen that increase to 8.03 percent.

Google’s Chrome browser, which currently holds a 67.14 percent market share is by no means in immediate danger of losing its position as the dominant browser on the web.

Even so, it would be a mistake to discount the new Edge browser’s progress. It’s essentially the same as Google’s Chrome browser in that it uses the same engine and can make use of all of Chrome’s extensions. Plus it’s got a few native features that make it unique. So it really is a good browsing option, and its recent flurry of growth has seen it surpass Mozilla’s Firefox browser, which currently holds a market share of just 7.95 percent.

To give you a more complete picture of the browser market breakdown, here are the top five contenders:

  • Google Chrome: 67.14 percent
  • Apple’s Safari: 10.11 percent
  • Chromium Edge: 8.03 percent
  • Mozilla’s Firefox: 7.95 percent
  • Edge Legacy: 0.44 percent

With a constellation of other, smaller browsers (Brave, Opera, and a handful of others) each claiming a tiny slice of the market.

When Microsoft first released their latest version of Edge, it was believed that Google’s Chrome browser would take the biggest hit, but the reality is that Google’s market share barely budged, but Firefox seems to be slowly dying.

Later this year, Microsoft will begin forcibly retiring Legacy Edge, which should see it vanish from the list entirely, and it’s likely that most of those users will stick with the new Edge browser. At this point, it’s impossible to say what the future holds for the market long term, except to say that Google’s browser should retain its title of King of the Hill for the foreseeable future.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Latest Windows Update May Improve Your Webcam And Display

It’s not often that people actually look forward to a Windows 10 update, but the upcoming 21H2 “Sun Valley” update may be the exception that proves the rule.

With legions of people still working from home courtesy of the ongoing pandemic, this update promises to make both your camera and your monitor work better, in addition to offering a number of other tweaks.

Once the new build is released, you’ll be able to navigate to Settings, Devices and Camera to take advantage of the new webcam configuration options available, which include the ability to adjust the camera’s contrast and/or brightness. Additionally, a future planned update will alert you any time a third-party app begins using your camera, making its operation more secure.

On the desktop side of things, the same update will feature display settings improvements, including the ability to turn off the “content-adaptive brightness control” which is a great idea, but can sometimes get in its own way.

If you’re interested in getting a sneak peek at everything else the upcoming Windows 10 update has to offer, consider joining the Windows Insiders program so you can get in on the fun now. If you don’t, you may have to wait until this fall to see the new features in action.

These are good features and it seems clear that Microsoft’s main goal with this update is to give users more personalization options and control, which is always fantastic as it invariably enhances the overall user experience. While it’s true that none of the newly planned features are paradigm shifting, taken together, they offer a nice enhancement that a large percentage of Windows 10 users will enjoy and easily be able to take advantage of. Kudos to Microsoft for seeming to take a page from Apple’s playbook and really zero in on user experience.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Gamers Targeted By Hackers Through Code And Cheat Downloads

Gamers tend to be surprisingly tech savvy, and as such, they’re a bit harder to trick with social engineering than many other groups.

Gamers do have a weakness, and it’s one that hackers around the world have recently begun to exploit in a systematic way.

Increasingly, security researchers are finding instances of poisoned cheat codes.

The basic idea is the gamer in question downloads a set of cheat codes for his or her current obsession. Lurking inside it is an embedded bit of malicious code, capable of deploying back doors to allow for further malware infection, as well as keystroke logging code. That enables the hackers controlling it to capture a wide range of passwords and other personal information from the compromised system.

Even worse, there’s a growing body of evidence that hackers are launching supply chain attacks against game development companies themselves. They’re specifically targeting Asian companies in a bid to infect vast numbers of systems, and based on initial estimates, it’s working. Security professionals who are tracking the trend now estimate that there could be hundreds of thousands of infected systems around the world, making this a quietly growing threat that has, until now, gone largely unnoticed.

If that wasn’t bad enough, and given that the hackers know that gamers tend to be tech savvy, they’re specifically designing the malware they’re using against them to actively evade detection, making them notoriously hard to pin down on an infected system.

All that to say if you are a gamer, and you enjoy making use of cheat codes to shortcut the time it would otherwise take to master the game, beware. Hackers all over the planet are now targeting you. It seems nothing and no one is safe these days.

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