How to Speed Up Microsoft Edge With 5 Secret Settings

Most Chrome users are familiar with Chrome browser’s flags that let you access experimental settings and—when set up correctly—help to improve your browsing experience.

However, you might not know that Microsoft Edge also includes a flags menu. It’s not openly advertised; Microsoft naturally doesn’t want people to change a setting that could crash their system.

But with a bit of guidance, you can become a master of Edge’s flags. Like with Chrome, if you alter the right settings, you’ll notice a significant boost in your surfing enjoyment.

Let’s take a closer look. Here are several hidden settings that will improve your Edge browser.

How to Access the Flags Menu in Edge

To access the flags menu in Microsoft Edge, fire up the browser, type about:flags into the address bar, and hit Enter.

When the menu first loads, you’ll only see two sections: Developer Settings and Standards Preview. To access the full list of flags, press Ctrl + Shift + D. You will need to restart the browser before any changes you make take effect.

Warning: The settings in the flag menu are experimental and primarily aimed at developers. As such, they might not work as advertised and are liable to disappear without warning. Proceed at your own risk.

1. WebRTC

WebRTC is an open-source project that allows websites to run real-time audio and video communication using peer-to-peer (P2P) communication. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is responsible for its standardization.

In broad terms, it allows voice calling, video chat, P2P file sharing, and other related activities without the need for plugins or third-party apps.

From a consumer standpoint, it has one flaw. By default, your IP address is visible to anyone who’s connected to you.

If you head to Developer Settings > Hide my local IP address over WebRTC connections, you can quickly remedy the flaw.

2. TCP Fast Open

TCP Fast Open is an extension of the TCP protocol. In simple terms, TCP is a web standard that lets apps on your machine establish and maintain a network connection. It ensures the bytes exchanged are reliable and error-free.

TCP Fast Open speeds up a TCP connection by using a cryptographic cookie to enable data exchange during TCP’s initial handshake. It cuts out the original delay.

As long as both the client and the web server support TCP Fast Open, you will see web pages load up to 10 percent faster. Some reports even claim the improvements could be as much as 40 percent.

To permanently enable TCP Fast Open, go to Diagnostics > Networking > Enable TCP Fast Open and select Always on from the drop-down menu.

3. Render Throttling

Render throttling is the first of two JavaScript flags we’ll look at. Along with CSS and HTML, JavaScript is one of the three main languages used in web design. It’s what allows web pages to be interactive.

Sounds great. But the catch is that active JavaScript can be a significant drain on your battery life. If you’re a tab junkie who often finds yourself away from a mains connection, the JavaScript could be responsible for a significant part of your battery loss.

One solution is to enable the render throttling tab. Go to Diagnostics > JavaScript and mark the checkbox next to Allow the render pipeline to be throttled to improve battery life.

4. Low-Power Tabs

The second JavaScript flag worth mentioning is the low-power mode for background tabs. It will improve the performance of your active tab.

The tweak is especially useful when dealing with poorly-behaved pages. Too many sites come with JavaScript-heavy ads and endless analytics scripts. This setting will limit the amount of CPU power allocated to those tabs, thus speeding up your browsing and improving your battery life.

To turn on the flag, navigate to Diagnostics > JavaScript > Allow background tabs to be put into low-power mode.

Be aware that the setting might have adverse effects on tabs which need to run extensive background processes. For example, you might find notifications are delayed, or syncing doesn’t occur as quickly as you expect it to.

5. Disable Microsoft Compatibility List

Millions of websites use old technologies. You’ll stumble across one every now and again. To see an example of what we mean, check out our list of websites from the 1990s that are still online today.

If the underlying technology is too old, modern web browsers will not be able to display the content. To combat the problem, Microsoft developed a “compatibility list.” If a site is on the list, Edge will adapt the code so it can display the page.

But the list raises questions. How up-to-date is it? Is Microsoft checking the sites for updates? And what happens if a page has been updated but is still on the list? You don’t want to use the compatibility list unnecessarily; some page elements might not display correctly if you do.

To disable the list, go to Developer Settings > Use Microsoft Compatibility List. Yes, you might still stumble across an odd page that won’t load, but if it’s that bad, you probably don’t want to waste your time with it anyway.

How to Reset the Flags in Edge

Have you gotten yourself into a jam? If one of the flags you’ve enabled has caused problems, but you’re not sure which one is at fault, the easiest solution is to reset all the flags back to their default state and start afresh.

Resetting the flags is easy. Enter the flags menu by entering about:flags in the address bar, and simply click on the Reset all flags to default button at the top of the window.

Turn Off the Flags Menu in Edge

Finally, let’s quickly look at how to disable the flags menu. It will prevent people from accidentally entering the menu and changing your configuration.

You’ll need to use the Registry Editor—be warned that changing the wrong registry settings can have grave consequences for your system’s stability. Double check that you’re altering the correct values before proceeding, and always back up the registry before making any changes.

Press Windows + R, type regedit, and press Enter. Next, navigate to this key:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft

Right-click on Microsoft and go to New > Key. Call it MicrosoftEdge. Now right-click on MicrosoftEdge and once again navigate to New > Key. Call it Main.

Highlight Main and right-click in the panel on the right-hand side of your screen. Go to New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it PreventAccessToAboutFlagsInMicrosoftEdge. Set the value to 1, and you’re all set.

To reverse the process, delete the newly-created PreventAccessToAboutFlagsInMicrosoftEdge value.

Try the browser now and see if you can spot a boost in performance. It may not be your main browser yet, but Microsoft Edge is a capable browser with its own set of benefits.

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FCC wants to stop spending on gear from companies that ‘pose a national security threat’

The U.S. maneuvers against China’s tech giants continue today with an official announcement from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai that the agency may soon ban purchasing anything from companies that “pose a national security threat.” Huawei, ZTE, and other major tech manufacturers aren’t named specifically, but it’s clear what is meant.

Pai lists the risk of backdoored routers, switches, and other telecoms equipment as the primary threat; Huawei and ZTE have been accused of doing this for years, though hard evidence has been scarce.

The proposal would prohibit any money from the FCC’s $8.5 billion Universal Service Fund, used for all kinds of projects and grants, to be spent on companies beholden to “hostile governments.” Pai mentioned the two Chinese giants in a previous letter describing the proposed plan.

Both companies in question have strenuously denied the charges; perhaps most publicly by Richard Yu, CEO of the company’s consumer business group, at CES this year.

But warnings from U.S. intelligence services have been ongoing since 2012, and Congress is considering banning Huawei equipment from use by government entities, saying the company “is effectively an arm of the Chinese government.”

Strong ties between these major companies and the Chinese government are hard to deny, of course, given China’s particularly hands-on methods in this sort of thing. Ironically, however, it seems that our spy agencies are so sure about this in great part because they themselves have pushed for and occasionally accomplished the same compromises of network infrastructure. If they’ve done it, they can be sure their Chinese rivals have.

The specifics of the rule are unknown, but even a relatively lax ban would likely be a big hit to Huawei and ZTE, which so far have failed to make a dent in the U.S. phone market but still manufacture all kinds of other telecommunications gear making up our infrastructure.

The draft of the new rule will be published tomorrow; the other Commissioners have it now and are no doubt reading and forming their own opinions on how to improve it. The vote is set for April 17.

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FCC wants to stop spending on gear from companies that ‘pose a national security threat’

The U.S. maneuvers against China’s tech giants continue today with an official announcement from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai that the agency may soon ban purchasing anything from companies that “pose a national security threat.” Huawei, ZTE, and other major tech manufacturers aren’t named specifically, but it’s clear what is meant.

Pai lists the risk of backdoored routers, switches, and other telecoms equipment as the primary threat; Huawei and ZTE have been accused of doing this for years, though hard evidence has been scarce.

The proposal would prohibit any money from the FCC’s $8.5 billion Universal Service Fund, used for all kinds of projects and grants, to be spent on companies beholden to “hostile governments.” Pai mentioned the two Chinese giants in a previous letter describing the proposed plan.

Both companies in question have strenuously denied the charges; perhaps most publicly by Richard Yu, CEO of the company’s consumer business group, at CES this year.

But warnings from U.S. intelligence services have been ongoing since 2012, and Congress is considering banning Huawei equipment from use by government entities, saying the company “is effectively an arm of the Chinese government.”

Strong ties between these major companies and the Chinese government are hard to deny, of course, given China’s particularly hands-on methods in this sort of thing. Ironically, however, it seems that our spy agencies are so sure about this in great part because they themselves have pushed for and occasionally accomplished the same compromises of network infrastructure. If they’ve done it, they can be sure their Chinese rivals have.

The specifics of the rule are unknown, but even a relatively lax ban would likely be a big hit to Huawei and ZTE, which so far have failed to make a dent in the U.S. phone market but still manufacture all kinds of other telecommunications gear making up our infrastructure.

The draft of the new rule will be published tomorrow; the other Commissioners have it now and are no doubt reading and forming their own opinions on how to improve it. The vote is set for April 17.

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How to Upgrade to Ubuntu 17.10 From a Previous Release

With the release of Ubuntu 17.10, came loads of big changes, like GNOME replacing Unity as the default desktop, window buttons going back to the right, the ability to move the dock, and no 32-bit desktop version. There’s also a new default display server and default display manager.

Ubuntu 17.04 was a non-LTS release, which means it only has a 9-month support cycle. As of January 13, 2018, Ubuntu 17.04 has reached end of life and will no longer receive software and security updates. It’s recommended that you upgrade to 17.10.

Ubuntu 16.04 is an LTS release and will still be supported through the beginning of 2021. But you might still want to upgrade to 17.10 if you’re ready for a new Ubuntu experience. Here’s how to upgrade to Ubuntu 17.10 from 16.04 or 17.04.

Step 1: Back Up Your Data

Before upgrading your Ubuntu system, you should back up all your important files and folders. Upgrades to Ubuntu usually go smoothly, but there’s always a chance they might not. You can also clone the whole system using the dd command, or another cloning tool, so your apps will also be backed up.

Step 2: Update Software Packages

After backing up your data, you must make sure the current version of Ubuntu and the software packages are all up to date.

Press Ctrl + Alt + T to open a Terminal window. Then, type the following command at the prompt and press Enter.

update-manager

The Software Updater opens and checks for updates, which may take a while.

You’re notified if there are updates to install. Click Install Now to install the updates.

If you’re using Ubuntu 17.04, the Software Updater will tell you that updates are no longer provided. Click Upgrade to upgrade to 17.10 now.Then, jump to the “Upgrade to Ubuntu 17.10” section below.)

The Authenticate dialog box displays. Enter your Password and click Authenticate.

The Software Updater shows the progress of the updates. When it’s finished, you’ll be asked to restart. If you’re not quite ready to restart, click Restart Later. Otherwise, click Restart Now to finish installing the updates.

Step 3: Set Up Notifications for New Ubuntu Versions

Once you’ve signed in to Ubuntu again, you must change a setting to receive notifications for non-LTS versions of Ubuntu. Ubuntu 17.10 is not an LTS version.

Click the Search your computer icon at the top of the Unity Launcher bar. Start typing “software & updates” in the search box. Then, click on the Software & Updates icon under Applications.

Click the Updates tab on the Software & Updates dialog box. Select For any new version from the Notify me of a new Ubuntu version dropdown list.

You’ll be asked to authenticate this action. Enter your Password and click Authenticate.

Then, click Close on the Software & Updates dialog box.

Step 4: Get the Upgrade Dialog Box

Because your current system is now up to date, the following Software Updater dialog box should display automatically, telling you that an upgrade to Ubuntu 17.10 is available. Click Upgrade.

If the Software Updater dialog box doesn’t display automatically, it might be minimized to the Unity Launcher bar. Click the Software Updater icon on the bar, if it’s there, to activate the dialog box.

If you don’t see the Software Updater dialog box at all, press Ctrl + Alt + T to open a Terminal window. Type the following line at the prompt and press Enter.

update-manager

You’ll see the Software Updater checking for updates. Then, it will notify you that Ubuntu 17.10 is available, as shown at the beginning of this section. Click Upgrade.

To continue the upgrade, enter your Password and click Authenticate.

Step 5: Make the Upgrade to Ubuntu 17.10

To begin the upgrade process, click Upgrade at the bottom of the Release Notes dialog box.

The Distribution Upgrade dialog box displays the progress of the upgrade.

When you upgrade to a new version of Ubuntu, some third-party sources are disabled. We’ll show you how to re-enable them in the “Re-Enable Third Party Sources” section below once the upgrade is finished. Click Close to continue the upgrade process.

Before Getting new packages, you’ll be asked if you want to start the upgrade. The following dialog box explains what will be removed, installed, and upgraded. It will also tell you how much space is required and about how long the upgrade will take.

Be sure to close all other applications and documents. Then, click Start Upgrade.

Once the upgrades are installed, the Cleaning up process starts. The updater performs a search for obsolete packages and you’re asked if you want to remove the obsolete packages that were found.

Click Remove if you don’t want them taking up space on your computer. This process may take a while.

Once the Cleaning up process is complete, you’ll be asked to restart the system. Click Restart Now.

On the login page for Ubuntu 17.10, you can click the gear icon to select which desktop environment you want to use. Unity is still available when you upgrade to Ubuntu 17.10 (instead of performing a fresh install), but it’s not the default. Ubuntu (on the Wayland display server) is the default desktop environment.

The following is Ubuntu 17.10 with the GNOME 3-based Ubuntu desktop environment.

Step 6: Check Your Ubuntu Version

To check your Ubuntu version, press Ctrl + Alt + T to open a Terminal window. Then, type the following command and press Enter.

lsb_release -a

You’ll see information about the current release.

Step 7: Re-Enable Third-Party Sources

Remember the dialog box you saw during the upgrade that told you third party sources were disabled? To re-enable them in Ubuntu 17.10, click the Show Applications button in the lower-left corner of the screen.

Start typing “software & updates” and click the Software & Updates icon when it appears.

Click the Other Software tab. You’ll see some disabled on upgrade to artful items in the list. Check those boxes to re-enable the sources.

All the other sources were also disabled. Check the boxes for any other sources you want to re-enable.

After checking the first source you want to re-enable, you’re asked to authenticate. Enter your Password and click Authenticate.

Click Close on the Software & Updates dialog box. The following dialog box displays saying you must reload the information about available software so it’s up to date. Click Reload.

The Updating Cache dialog box displays. Once that goes away, you’re up to date and ready to use Ubuntu 17.10.

And there you have it! You should now be up and running on the latest version of Ubuntu and everything should be working as expected. Enjoy all of the new features!

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Google launches a Chrome OS tablet for schools ahead of Apple’s iPad education event

Chrome OS has been a pretty ideal spot for Google to stake its various plays for the education market. The cheap, bare bone Chromebook laptops have been light on complexity and heavy on connectivity. The company hasn’t had much in the way of options when it comes to touch screen devices however.

Today, Google announced its first education tablet designed with chrome OS. The Acer Chromebook Tab 10 will be the first such Chrome OS tablet for school to land in kids’ hands. The device itself is a pretty standard 9.7 inch 2048×1536 tablet that will retail for $329, the same price as Apple’s entry-level iPad.

Being a Chrome OS device, these will integrate easily into the IT systems of schools with a Chrome education license and will give students a device they can easily pass around and jot notes on with stylus and touch controls. This could potentially fill a hole where Apple’s iPad was much better positioned.

The announcement is especially notable given Apple’s education event set for tomorrow. Some are expecting the event to highlight the iPad’s strength as a student computing platform while the company may announce new products and changes to its education-focused feature set.

The tablets will also enable students to jump into educational AR experiences given their handheld form factor and Google’s upcoming rollout of the Expeditions AR platform on the devices, which the company promises will allow students to visit the Great Barrier Reef, Colosseum of International Space Station.

The Acer Chromebook Tab 10 will go on sale to educators this spring.

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Google begins to roll out its mobile-first index

Google announced this morning its “mobile-first” index of the web is now starting to roll out, after a year and a half of testing and experimentation. Back in 2016, Google first detailed its plan to change the way its search index operates, explaining how its algorithms would eventually be shifted to use the mobile version of a website’s content to index its pages, as well as to understand its structured data and to show snippets from the site in the Google search results.

In December 2017, Google said it had begun to transition a small handful of sites to the mobile-first index, but declined to say which properties had been made the move.

Mobile-first indexing means Google will use the mobile version of a web page “for indexing and ranking, to better help our – primarily mobile – users find what they’re looking for,” the company writes in a blog post.

By “primarily mobile,” Google is referring to the fact that the majority of people who use Google search today now do so from mobile devices, and have done so since 2015.

Google also explains that it will have one index for search results, not a mobile-first index that’s separate from its main index. In other words, it will start to look to the mobile web pages to index the web, not the desktop version.

Mobile-friendliness has long been one of the many factors in determining how a site is ranked, but it’s not the only factor. For example, there are times when a non-mobile friendly page still has the best information and will appear higher, Google says.

However, Google has begun to prioritize mobile sites in several ways. For example, it began to boost the rank of mobile-friendly webpages on mobile search results back in 2015, and more recently said it was adding a signal that uses page speed to help determine a page’s mobile search ranking. Starting in July 2018, slow-loading content will be downranked.

While Google today claims the mobile-friendly index won’t directly impact how content is ranked, it does note that having a site’s mobile-friendly content indexed in this new fashion will likely help the site “perform better” in mobile search results.

Google isn’t shifting all sites over to the new mobile-first index today – just the first wave.

Specifically, Google selected those sites that are already following the best practices for mobile-first indexing, it says. And it will favor the mobile version of the webpage over its own fast-loading AMP pages.

Those sites who have been shifted will be notified via Search Console, says Google, and will begin see increased visits from the Smartphone Googlebot. After the shift, Google will show the mobile version of the site’s pages in its Search results and in the Google cached pages.

Google tells the webmasters of sites that are not yet mobile-optimized to not panic yet. “If you only have desktop content, you will continue to be represented in our index,” assures the Google announcement.

The company did not specify when the rollout of the mobile-first index would complete.

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Google begins to roll out its mobile-first index

Google announced this morning its “mobile-first” index of the web is now starting to roll out, after a year and a half of testing and experimentation. Back in 2016, Google first detailed its plan to change the way its search index operates, explaining how its algorithms would eventually be shifted to use the mobile version of a website’s content to index its pages, as well as to understand its structured data and to show snippets from the site in the Google search results.

In December 2017, Google said it had begun to transition a small handful of sites to the mobile-first index, but declined to say which properties had been made the move.

Mobile-first indexing means Google will use the mobile version of a web page “for indexing and ranking, to better help our – primarily mobile – users find what they’re looking for,” the company writes in a blog post.

By “primarily mobile,” Google is referring to the fact that the majority of people who use Google search today now do so from mobile devices, and have done so since 2015.

Google also explains that it will have one index for search results, not a mobile-first index that’s separate from its main index. In other words, it will start to look to the mobile web pages to index the web, not the desktop version.

Mobile-friendliness has long been one of the many factors in determining how a site is ranked, but it’s not the only factor. For example, there are times when a non-mobile friendly page still has the best information and will appear higher, Google says.

However, Google has begun to prioritize mobile sites in several ways. For example, it began to boost the rank of mobile-friendly webpages on mobile search results back in 2015, and more recently said it was adding a signal that uses page speed to help determine a page’s mobile search ranking. Starting in July 2018, slow-loading content will be downranked.

While Google today claims the mobile-friendly index won’t directly impact how content is ranked, it does note that having a site’s mobile-friendly content indexed in this new fashion will likely help the site “perform better” in mobile search results.

Google isn’t shifting all sites over to the new mobile-first index today – just the first wave.

Specifically, Google selected those sites that are already following the best practices for mobile-first indexing, it says. And it will favor the mobile version of the webpage over its own fast-loading AMP pages.

Those sites who have been shifted will be notified via Search Console, says Google, and will begin see increased visits from the Smartphone Googlebot. After the shift, Google will show the mobile version of the site’s pages in its Search results and in the Google cached pages.

Google tells the webmasters of sites that are not yet mobile-optimized to not panic yet. “If you only have desktop content, you will continue to be represented in our index,” assures the Google announcement.

The company did not specify when the rollout of the mobile-first index would complete.

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Twitter moves to ban crypto ads

Twitter is the latest social service to boot out cryptocurrency advertisers. The company told Reuters it will be launching a new policy this week to prohibit the advertising of token sales/initial coin offerings (ICOs), and crypto wallet services.

Ads for cryptocurrency exchanges will also be banned — with some limited exceptions.

Facebook announced a ban in January, while Google said earlier this month that it will ban them from June.

Twitter confirmed the policy change to us, providing the following statement: “We are committed to ensuring the safety of the Twitter community. As such, we have added a new policy for Twitter Ads relating to cryptocurrency. Under this new policy, the advertisement of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and token sales will be prohibited globally.”

“We will continue to iterate and improve upon this policy as the industry evolves,” it added — flagging its current restricted content policies around financial services.

A company spokesperson told us it expects to update its ads policies page within the next hour. At the time of writing the page was last updated on August 30th 2017.

Since then Twitter has faced criticism for hosting crypto ads on its platform at a time when concern over cryptocurrency-related scams and risks have been voiced by regulators around the world. As we wrote earlier this month, banning these sorts of adverts really is a no brainer at this stage — so it’s good to see it listening and rethinking its approach.

Twitter has been taking some action to tackle crypto scams. Earlier this month we reported it had been suspending some users for soliciting crypto — in an apparent effort to crack down on scammers’ ability to use the platform.

But, at the time, it was not keen to comment on its crypto ads policy — even though its existing ads policy prohibits unsafe and deceptive ads and/or ads that make misleading claims.

As we said then a platform level ban on crypto advertising is just common sense — at least until the market is properly regulated.

We understand Twitter’s new crypto ads policy will continue to be reviewed as the industry evolves.

And while ICOs/token sale ads will be banned globally there’s some wiggle room for exchanges and wallet services — with only those provided by a public company listed on certain major stock markets allowed to buy Twitter ads.

In certain market further restrictions may also apply — such as that exchanges must be regulated by an FSA to be allowed to purchase ads.

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The Top 10 Most Popular YouTube Channels: Should You Subscribe?

Thanks to YouTube, millions of videos are freely available for you to enjoy across dozens of genres. And for many people, creating content for YouTube is a full-time job.

Have you ever wondered who the most popular YouTube stars are? You know, the ones who make millions of dollars. In this article we count down the most-subscribed channels on YouTube, and help you decide whether you should subscribe to them too.

Note: These subscriber counts were correct at the time of writing but are obviously subject to change.

10. Whinderssonnunes

Subscribers: 27.795 million | Views: 2.259 billion | Genre: Comedy

One of only two channels in the top 10 that’s not associated with a network, this channel is owned by Whindersson Nunes Batista. He’s a Brazilian entertainer, and uploads a variety of content like song parodies, movie reviews, and vlogs.

The vlogs use a simple style, with Batista appearing shirtless in a simple room with little editing. The most popular video on the channel is “Qual é a Senha Do Wifi (What is the Wi-Fi Password?)”, a parody of Adele’s “Hello”.

Should you subscribe? As Batista is from Brazil, you won’t be able to enjoy his content unless you speak Portuguese. Thus, it’s probably not worth subscribing for most people since there are no subtitles available.

9. ElrubiusOMG

Subscribers: 28.053 million | Views: 6.360 billion | Genre: Gaming, Comedy

Owned by Spanish YouTuber Rubén Doblas Gundersen, elrubiusOMG is primarily a gaming channel. Gaming channels are amongst the most popular genres on YouTube, and Gunderson plays a variety of video games while offering commentary on them. You’ll also find vlogs and various comedy videos here.

Since elrubiusOMG speaks Spanish, you might think that you can’t enjoy it if you don’t know the language. However, fans have translated many of his videos and provided English captions. Look for the CC icon on his videos to know which ones have subtitles. Select English in the Subtitles category and you can enjoy his videos.

Should you subscribe? If you enjoy watching silly commentary on gameplay and don’t mind reading subtitles, give this one a look.

8. TaylorSwiftVEVO

Subscribers: 28.094 million | Views: 14.517 billion | Genre: Music

Vevo is a video hosting service owned by the biggest three record companies: Universal, Sony, and Warner. On YouTube, Vevo hosts official music videos with individual channels for different artists.

As Taylor Swift is one of the most popular musicians in the world, it’s no surprise her Vevo YouTube channel has so many subscribers. Swift may have been wrong about Spotify, but we’re sure she’s made millions of dollars from YouTube as well.

Should you subscribe? If you like Taylor Swift, this is a great place to check out her music videos. Those who don’t care for her music should pass this up.

7. Dude Perfect

Subscribers: 28.236 million | Views: 4.939 billion | Genre: Sports, Comedy

Dude Perfect is a sports and entertainment channel hosted by friends who were college roommates. Most of their videos fall into three categories: stunt/trick shots in various sports, battles between the guys, and comedic stereotypes of various events.

The group holds many Guinness World Records related to their exploits on the channel. Despite being around since 2009 and their popularity, they have relatively few uploads. This lends the channel an air of quality and shows they don’t try to pump out videos just for the sake of it.

Should you subscribe? Unless you hate sports and don’t find this group funny, you’ll find something to enjoy here. The tricks are cool, and the stereotypes ring true.

6. Ed Sheeran

Subscribers: 28.975 million | Views: 12.580 billion | Genre: Music

Ed Sheeran is a wildly popular musician, and his channel enjoys an according subscriber count. This isn’t a Vevo channel, but it contains similar content. You’ll mainly find music videos and official audio for Sheeran’s music, along with a few live performances and promotions.

Should you subscribe? Like most music, this one depends on how you feel about Ed Sheeran. If you enjoy his work, you should enjoy seeing more from him on YouTube—especially since Ed Sheeran doesn’t use Twitter any more.

5. Canal KondZilla

Subscribers: 29.687 million | Views: 14.522 billion | Genre: Music

KondZilla is the stage name of Konrad Cunha Dantas. He’s a music video producer and director from Brazil. That being the case, his channel uploads are all in Portuguese. Unfortunately, you won’t find any subtitles here.

This is one of the least varied channels on this list. Nearly every upload is a music video. KondZilla also uploads quite frequently, with at least two dozen videos released in the past month.

Should you subscribe? The audience for this one is pretty limited for English-speaking audiences. If you don’t speak Portuguese, there’s not much to see here unless you enjoy the music.

4. HolaSoyGerman

Subscribers: 33.482 million | Views: 3.438 billion | Genre: Comedy

Run by Chilean Germán Alejandro Garmendia Aranis, HolaSoyGerman is the most subscribed-to Spanish-speaking channel on YouTube. He also holds the honor of being the first YouTuber to earn two Diamond Play Buttons (an award given by YouTube when a channel earns 10 million subscribers). The channel focuses on comedy videos about everyday topics in a relatable way.

Unfortunately, HolaSoyGerman’s story has a sad end. Despite its popularity, the channel hasn’t seen any uploads since November 2016. This is due to him and his girlfriend being incessantly harassed by fans outside their home. He uploaded an hour-long video discussing this on his secondary channel, JuegaGerman (which is the 16th most subscribed-to YouTube channel).

Fortunately, if you enjoy his content, that channel is still active. Many of the videos there are gaming-related, but he also uploads various commentary videos similar to PewDiePie’s.

Should you subscribe? Since it seems HolaSoyGerman isn’t uploading anymore, there’s not much point in subscribing. However, most of that channel’s videos have subtitles, while JuegaGerman’s do not. Thus, if you don’t speak Spanish, you can happily browse HolaSoyGerman’s archives.

3. JustinBieberVEVO

Subscribers: 34.505 million | Views: 17.086 billion | Genre: Music

Justin Bieber has the honor of appearing on the top 10 most popular lists for Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. However, his video for “Baby” is still the most-disliked YouTube video ever.

The childhood pop star still has some of the most popular music videos in the world. On Bieber’s Vevo channel, you’ll find everything from old songs like “Never Say Never” to songs from his latest album like “Company”. The channel hasn’t seen any updates in over a year, so expect new videos when he announces a new album.

Should you subscribe? If you’re on the edge of your seat waiting for Bieber’s new album, subscribe here so you’re the first to know. Everyone else probably doesn’t need any more Bieber in their life.

2. T-Series

Subscribers: 39.191 million | Views: 33.739 billion | Genre: Music

T-Series is an Indian music company, mostly known for Bollywood soundtracks. Although it’s a long way behind #1 in terms of subscriber count, this channel holds the honor of having the most views on YouTube. Being from India, the channel’s videos are in Hindi, and don’t contain English subtitles.

Given the company’s industry, it’s no surprise that this channel primarily uploads music videos and official audio. You’ll also find some promos for upcoming shows. T-Series uploads a staggering amount of content, with over 40 videos released in the last week alone.

Should you subscribe? If you have an interest in India, its films, or its distinctive music, definitely give this a look. Most others won’t be too interested, though you can still enjoy some of the music even if you don’t speak Hindi.

1. PewDiePie

Subscribers: 61.533 million | Views: 17.363 billion | Genre: Comedy, Gaming

Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, is by far the world’s most popular YouTuber. His channel has had the most subscribers on YouTube since December 22, 2013. He built his popularity on Let’s Play-style gaming videos, but also uploads goofy meme reviews and vlogs.

PewDiePie has considerable influence in the games industry. Indie games he plays have become more popular thanks to his huge audience finding out about them. Though he garnered some controversy in 2017, there’s no question that PewDiePie has a certain charm that attracts millions to his videos.

Should you subscribe? If you enjoy various funny videos and/or gaming content, or just want to see what has made PewDiePie so popular, you should definitely subscribe.

What Are Your Top YouTube Channels?

We’ve taken a tour of the most popular YouTube channels. Of course, these are only a small slice of what the service has to offer. There are tons of smaller channels out there waiting to be discovered, and some contain crazy content you need to see to believe.

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FTC confirms probe into Facebook data misuse scandal

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has confirmed it’s investigating Facebook’s privacy practices in light of the data misuse scandal currently engulfing the company.

In a statement regarding reported concerns about Facebook’s privacy practices today, Tom Pahl, acting director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said:

The FTC is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers. Foremost among these tools is enforcement action against companies that fail to honor their privacy promises, including to comply with Privacy Shield, or that engage in unfair acts that cause substantial injury to consumers in violation of the FTC Act. Companies who have settled previous FTC actions must also comply with FTC order provisions imposing privacy and data security requirements. Accordingly, the FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook. Today, the FTC is confirming that it has an open non-public investigation into these practices.

On March 17, reports in the New York Times and the Observer of London suggested Trump-campaign linked UK-based political consultancy, Cambridge Analytica, had been able to buy data on 50 million Facebook users in 2015 to use for microtarging political advertising.

The data had been gathered via a third party survey app running on Facebook’s platform and using its API to pull data on the friends of the 270,000 respondents who answered the survey.

At the weekend Facebook took out full page newspaper ads in the US and UK apologizing for failing to protect users’ information.

Billions have been wiped off the company’s share price since the scandal broke.

The company’s share price also fell more than 5% today, on the news of the FTC announcement.

The consumer watchdog previously investigated Facebook over deceptive privacy claims, back in 2011.

And in 2012, as part of an FTC settlement, Facebook promised it would give users “clear and prominent notice” and get their consent before sharing their information beyond their privacy settings.

It also agree to two decades of biennial audits.

Facebook avoided a financial penalty at the time, though if the FTC goes on to decide the company violated that earlier initial agreement it could certainly be on the hook for fines — fines which the Washington Post has suggested could scale to trillions of dollars if the FTC’s $40,000 per privacy violation is multiplied by the 50M Facebook users whose data was passed to Cambridge Analytica.

Whatever any eventual financial penalty might be, the reputational damage Facebook is suffering as a result of this snowballing data handling scandal is bad enough, adding to calls for policymakers to regulate social media platforms.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment on the FTC’s announcement — at the time of writing the company had not responded.

See more of our coverage on the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal here:

Facebook responds to data misuse

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Facebook Is Recording More About You Than You Think: How to See Your Own Data

You’re concerned about Facebook, but are your worries warranted? What information is being recorded about you, and is it really all that unreasonable? Fortunately, there is a great way you can check: by downloading your Facebook data and analyzing it.

More Data Than You Could Imagine

Facebook has been recording data that its users voluntarily submit for years. It’s not all about photos and status updates; it’s the updates you read, the things you like, the ads you click, the pages you visit, and more.

It’s all the sort of thing that organizations like Cambridge Analytica have been using to manage political campaigns. But they’re not along in this; your data is used for so much more, such as running advertising campaigns, or Facebook’s own internal experiments.

In light of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s insincere apology, however, it might be worth looking at the data they have been collecting about you. Programmer Dylan McKay certainly did:

Downloaded my facebook data as a ZIP file

Somehow it has my entire call history with my partner's mum pic.twitter.com/CIRUguf4vD

— Dylan McKay (@dylanmckaynz) March 21, 2018

That’s not what you want to see, is it? But is it the same for you?

How to Download Your Facebook Data

Getting hold of your Facebook data isn’t difficult. The social network has the tools you need built in; you don’t need any third party browser plugins, for instance. (However, a browser plugin can be used to record Facebook activity for your own purposes.)

To download Facebook data, head to facebook.com/settings and select Download a copy. You’ll need to confirm the request by entering your password, and then wait until the email link is sent to you. (Two emails are sent: a confirmation and the link with the data.)

The resulting ZIP file could be quite large. Mine (for a Facebook account dating back to 2007) was 231MB, so if you’re on a slow connection it may take a while to download.

Browsing the Data Facebook Has on You

Once downloaded, it’s simple enough to unzip the data. You’ll find an index.htm file within the main folder.

Double click this to open the file in your web browser, and navigate the different data types via the menu.

I’m in the UK, so the range of data collected by Facebook is limited by the UK’s European Union membership. On one hand, it seems that the data collected by Facebook is affected by where you are in the world.

Returning to Dylan McKay, he is based in New Zealand. So could local laws there have enabled some considerable privacy overreach on his mobile device? Or was it all down to the time frame?

As McKay observes:

Interesting that the timestamps are all in-between November 2016 and July 2017 ?

— Dylan McKay (@dylanmckaynz) March 22, 2018

So, what took place of any significance between November 2016 and July 2017? The obvious answer would be the US Presidential Election. But what significance would this have to a New Zealander?

It’s quite hard to say for sure, but some of the details that are found in Dylan McKay’s Facebook download are quite concerning. A log of phone numbers and messaging conversations, for instance, from his mobile device.

I've had the facebook app installed on/off, and the messenger app installed constantly for years

data dump taken from facebook website. I uninstalled the app after I downloaded the data

— Dylan McKay (@dylanmckaynz) March 23, 2018

If I were to compare the image in this tweet with my own data…

a historical record of every single contact on my phone, including ones I no longer have pic.twitter.com/XfiRX6qgHl

— Dylan McKay (@dylanmckaynz) March 21, 2018

…I find that my own Facebook dump is far less expansive. McKay has taken steps to analyze his data in more detail, which we would encourage you to follow. As noted, your success here (or otherwise) will more than likely be determined by where you are in the world.

That’s a Lot of Data for a Personal Archive!

Even if you don’t have concerns over the collation of mobile phone conversations by Facebook, there is enough in these archives to worry you. After all, you’re not the only person who has access to this information, remember?

Sure, the analytics companies and advertisers may not be able to view your photos (so far, so good) but there is a great deal of additional information in the archive that may shock you.

This isn’t purely about third party access to Facebook, remember. It’s largely to do with just what Facebook knows about you. And this is where it gets scary.

Facebook knows more about you than you do.

The Importance of Reading App Permissions

As Dylan notes, this is all due to using the Facebook mobile app. Now, there is something quite important about installing mobile apps that we’ve been repeating over and over again.

In short: read the permission requests! It’s worth checking your smartphone app permissions today.

All mobile platforms force apps to outline exactly what permissions are being sought by an app. Our default reaction is to simply click Accept to complete the installation; what we should really be doing is reading. Full details are given, so why not spend a moment or two to read what permissions are required, and why. If no reason is given, and the request makes no sense, refuse!

Already given permission? Time to clean your Facebook up, and limit what data is shared with third parties.

As we don’t know the full details of Dylan’s scenario, it’s difficult to say whether unnecessary permissions were granted. But given what was in the data dump, it seems likely.

Digging Through Your History on Facebook

If you take the time to download your own data, you may find some surprises. It didn’t take me long to find my very first Facebook posts and photos, for example. But I also found some oddities, like comments left while drunk.

Personal messages between individuals and groups are also backed up, as are all videos and photos you upload. This is particularly intriguing; if you haven’t taken the time to strip EXIF data from your photos, or disabled metadata on your snaps, then this information is also available.

You’ll also find old conversations you had with people you’re no longer in touch with; perhaps even with those who have passed away. And yes, like Dylan, you might discover contact details for people you’ve forgotten about entirely. Listening to audio and video messages from the past, meanwhile, is quite creepy.

Then there’s the usual privacy based things: the Ads page lists all topics that you are interested in. Applications lists the apps you use with your Facebook credentials (within the site, rather than on your phone). Finally, Security provides session information (date, IP address, browser) which could easily be used to track your activity.

In short, this data is a treasure trove. You’re handing it over voluntarily; do you really want Facebook to know so much about you, or share what it knows with third parties?

We’re guessing the answer is “No.”

Is the End Nigh for Your Facebook Account?

All of this talk of political influence (which, it could be argued, is the point of elections anyway) and third parties accessing Facebook data might be enough to put you off using the social network altogether.

Speaking personally, I know of several people who are exploring their own exit strategies. After all, when you’ve been using a service for years, it can be hard to divorce yourself from it.

If you are planning to quit Facebook, downloading the archive of your data is a good way to start. While there may be some surprises in the archive, all of the photos and videos you’ve uploaded will be easily accessible. This alone is worth the effort.

Becoming concerned about Facebook privacy? Check our complete guide to Facebook privacy.

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