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YouTube can stream 8K videos to your Meta Quest 3 – even though its displays aren’t 8K
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Following news that Meta’s Quest 3’s getting some big mixed reality upgrades including an AI that can recognize furniture and improved passthrough quality, there’s yet another improvement on the way this time for one of my favorite Quest apps: YouTube.

That’s because the VR version of the video-sharing platform now supports 8K video playback on Quest 3 – up from the previous max of 4K.

To turn it on make sure you’re running YouTube VR app version 1.54 or later, then boot up a video that supports 8K, tap on the gear icon, and where it says Quality you want to change the resolution to 4320p – or 4320p60 if you want 8K at 60fps instead of the usual 30fps. If 4320p isn’t an option in this list unfortunately the video you want to watch isn’t streaming in 8K.

There are a few extra caveats. First, you’ll want a strong internet connection, because even if the video supports 8K playback you’ll struggle to stream it over weak WiFi – unless you like waiting for it to buffer. Oh, and one other important detail; the Quest 3 doesn’t have 8K displays. But that's not as big a problem as it might seem.

Method in the 8K madness

The Quest 3 has two displays (one for each eye) that boast 2,064 x 2,208 pixels each; 8K resolution is 7,680 × 4,320 pixels. Even if we combine the two displays they still boast only just over 25% as many pixels as an 8K display.

So is 8K streaming pointless? Well, not entirely. 

A Meta Quest 3 owner watching a spatial video of their husky dog in a field

Spatial video is 3D, but not as immersive as 360 video (Image credit: Meta)

For flat YouTube videos, playing them in 8K probably is worthless on Quest hardware. The only advantage you might find is that you’ll be seeing a downscaled video – the opposite of upscaled, where a higher resolution source is played at a lower resolution – which can sometimes lead to a more detailed image than simply streaming a video at the lower resolution.

The real improvement can be found instead with immersive 360-degree videos. 

To explain things simply: when you see a flat video you see the whole resolution in that 16:9 frame. In 360 videos the resolution is spread across a much larger image, and you only see portions of that image based on where you’re looking. That’s why – if you’ve watched 360 videos in VR – 4K content can look more like HD, and HD content can look like blurry messes.

By bumping things up to 8K you’ll find that immersive 3D video should look a lot more crisp – as the sections you’re looking at are now effectively 4K. So while you're not seeing 8K, you're still getting a higher resolution.

This update may also be a good future-proofing update for the next Meta hardware. With rumors that a Meta Quest Pro 2 could up the display game for Quest hardware, there’s a chance that it'll get closer to having actual 8K displays, though we’ll have to wait and see.

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Windows 11 24H2 blanket bans some desktop customization apps in test builds – and a lot of folks aren’t happy
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Windows 11 users who have customized the interface of the operating system with a third-party app may run into trouble with the incoming 24H2 update later this year, if what’s happening in testing is anything to go by.

Tom’s Hardware spotted a Neowin report noting that in the recently deployed preview build 26100 of Windows 11, which is supposedly the RTM version of the 24H2 update, Microsoft has stealthily (and rather crudely) disabled some apps that modify the interface.

Specifically, StartAllBack and ExplorerPatcher are the two UI customization apps that are blocked from Windows 11 24H2, meaning you won’t be able to get the update until you remove that software.

So, why has this happened? As you might guess, the reason for effectively casting aside these third-party apps is bound up in the compatibility and possible stability and security issues that they cause, as Windows development MVP Rafael Rivera makes clear on X (formerly Twitter).

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Indeed, as Neowin points out, when you attempt to install ExplorerPatcher on build 26100, the OS tells you that it can’t be run because the app “causes security or performance issues on Windows.”

Windows 11 working on a laptop PC

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Analysis: A rush to RTM?

As one bright spark on X observes, tongue firmly planted in cheek, Microsoft Teams is also “an unreliable high crash rate bit of software” so why doesn’t Microsoft block that from installing? Well, Rivera does respond to that little bit of trolling, noting that whatever stability issues Teams may have, it doesn’t prevent OS boot or recovery options – suggesting there are some serious flaws with these customization apps and the 24H2 update.

If you recall, 24H2 has an all-new underlying platform called Germanium, so there are some big changes here – and we’re guessing that this shift under the hood is the reason for the apps being problematic. That’s pure guesswork, mind.

Whatever the reason behind the apparently thorny compatibility issues, there are problems with the way Microsoft has gone about this. Communication with the software developers would be expected – and normally happens in these kinds of cases, at least giving them some warning of what’s going on. Not this time, though.

Furthermore, the way the ban appears to have been implemented seems very crude – it’s a blanket ban on all EXE files containing the names of the offending apps (which means all versions are affected, and any related apps). The way this has been done smacks of either laziness or a rush to get this move through, which isn’t a good look for Microsoft.

It almost seems like Microsoft has jammed this in at a late stage because the 24H2 update RTM needed to be pushed out of the door sharpish. There was a problem found last-minute and a fix was hastily applied using a hatchet, not a scalpel (again, guesswork – but this is what it feels like).

That theory does make some sense, as the predicted date for the RTM (near-finalized) candidate of the 24H2 update was April, and this build needs to be ready for new Snapdragon X Elite AI PCs which are coming in June (in theory). These laptops require that Germanium build due to their ARM-based chips, so there’s a critical need to get this done.

In short, it’s all a bit messy and some feathers have definitely been ruffled here – although due to the mentioned shoddy implementation of the app ban, it’s actually very easy to circumvent it: simply rename the EXE of the client. We wouldn’t recommend doing that, mind – as if the hints about boot failure are on the money, your PC could end up with a serious spanner in the works.

Meanwhile, these customization apps still work with Windows 11 23H2, the current version, and we have to remember that these changes are still in testing. We don’t know if this ban is temporary, or whether it’ll actually be enforced when 24H2 arrives later this year (from September, most likely).

Microsoft and the relevant devs should be able to work together and find a better solution, indeed a full resolution, before then, and Rivera’s comments indicate this will be the case.

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Google Maps now looks more like Apple Maps – and a lot of people aren’t happy
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Google Maps has had a rejig of the colors used to denote different elements, and a significant portion of its regular users aren't happy about the change.

As you may have seen, this change in color palette was first spotted back in September, but now it’s widely rolling out to users of Google’s navigation app.

Google Maps now has gray roads like Apple, rather than white or yellow roads as before, and forests are a darker green. On the other hand, the shade of blue used for water is lighter.

However, the active route is a much darker blue, with alternate routes shown in lighter blue (these used to be gray).

See the pic above for a comparison of the old (left) and new (right) design, and the one below (in the tweet) for another look at the freshly revamped colors.

These may not sound like massive changes – and to be fair, they aren’t, they’re essentially tweaks. But they have rubbed a number of users up the wrong way. As Android Authority points out, there’s some quite spicy feedback on the new Google Maps on Reddit, X (formerly Twitter) and other online forums.

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Analysis: Lacking clarity?

Some of this is unfamiliarity, as no one likes change, and it takes time to acclimatize to a new look – but there are some consistent and well-observed pieces of feedback on the redeployment of colors for Google Maps.

One common thread is criticism of the new colors lacking clarity, and making it trickier to see what’s what at a glance (and when driving obviously you will just be glancing at the display).

As one Redditor put it: “I’m finding it a little hard to read as quickly as I used to. The toned down look is cute but not practical.”

Another problem highlighted by multiple users on Reddit is that the new alternate routes being blue – as well as the main route, albeit that’s a darker blue – is an issue. It can be difficult to tell those routes apart on a phone at a bit of a distance (and with other potential factors thrown into the mix like sun glare).

Overall, Google may want to have a rethink, particularly around the alternate routes. That said, not everyone is unhappy with the changes, but the majority seem to be at least according to a poll Android Authority is running.

This shows that 44% of respondents don’t like the new colors, compared to 28% who do (with the rest abstaining). So, that doesn’t look great for Google, though of course, it’s a limited sample of around 800 people (at the time of writing).

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Microsoft axes Video Editor in latest Windows 10 Photos app update, and users aren’t happy
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Coming in hot on the heels of a freshly updated Photos app in Windows 10, which has sparked discussion about its merit among users, Microsoft seems intent on stoking the fire. 

The new Photos app is missing some of the editing tools of its predecessor, has some new ones, and now no longer has a built-in Video Editor. Instead, the Editor will be replaced with a web-based app called Clipchamp.

According to Windows Latest, you may be able to open the old Video Editor, but if it’s been updated (probably through the most recent Windows 10 update), you’ll be met with a pop-up saying the following: 

“Microsoft Video Editor is no longer available in the Photos app. Your previous video projects can be accessed by downloading the Photos Legacy app in Settings. For new videos, unleash your creativity with Clipchamp.“

So, what can you do now?

You can still download the Photos Legacy app in the Microsoft Store, like the pop-up says, and restore the original Video Editor. Yet Windows Latest speculates that this might signal the beginning of the end for this generation of the Photos app and its editing capabilities. Eventually, we may not even have a Photos Legacy app at all (along with its Video Editor feature).  

The Photos Legacy app is similar to the Windows 11 version of the app, and it differs from the previous Windows 10 Photos app. Some of the changes that angered users are the removal of the Clarity slider and the Spot fix feature. This change was warned about shortly before it happened as Windows 10 users were notified ahead of the changes.

The move is presumably because Microsoft wants to usher users away from the Video Editor feature and over to the web-based Clipchamp, which was acquired by Microsoft back in 2021. Windows 11’s Photos and Windows 10’s Photos will still include video editing for now, as confirmed by an engineer at Microsoft to Windows Latest. 

Microsoft Store in Windows 10

(Image credit: Microsoft)

The new video editor in town: Clipchamp

So what’s Clipchamp? It’s a free video editor that allows users to make as many videos as they like in high definition (1080p). It’s a browser-based app that you can access at clipchamp.com and to access it, all you need is a Microsoft account and to log in on the website. You can find our review of Clipchamp here.

This app might remind you of a relic of the recent past – Windows Movie Maker. Movie Maker is also no more – officially decommissioned back in 2017 – and Microsoft is propping up Clipchamp as a replacement for it. 

Clipchamp is a more capable video-editing app, and allows any user to make a video that looks pretty professional. It also has a user-friendly interface and quick setup process. However, many still liked the old Video Editor, perhaps for its even more straightforward simplicity. 

Clipchamp

(Image credit: Sofia Wyciślik-Wilson)

What's the actual problem?

Not just known for its simple approach, Windows 10’s Video Editor could also encode much smaller-sized videos than those of Clipchamp. In Microsoft’s Feedback Hub, where users give feedback directly to Microsoft as outlined by Windows Latest, one user asked: “Why is the Clipchamp exported video 5 times the size of the photo “legacy” video editor?”

Yikes. 

The user details their complaint and outlines their comparison between Clipchamp and Photos Legacy’s Video Editor, and they aren’t happy. I understand why; there's a big difference, especially if you’re making a video for personal reasons instead of commercial purposes. File storage isn’t free, after all!

It makes you think – does Microsoft have plans to present a repackaged Video Editor elsewhere? Maybe it could enjoy a new lease on life as a paid download if it still maintains such popularity.

If you have similar thoughts or your own opinion you’d like to share, Microsoft does often repeat that they’d like to hear users’ thoughts on the matter. The uproar was so loud when it tried to do something similar with Paint that the beloved app was brought back as a optional download via the Microsoft Store, so maybe the tech giant will listen to users this time around too. 

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Are you backing up your photos? This survey says most of us aren’t
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Not enough of us are backing up our photos and videos – that’s the message from Mixbook following its survey on the photography habits of Americans. 

While there’s no shortage of photo cloud storage and cloud backup services, the popular online photo printing service revealed just 35% of surveyed respondents regularly backup the photos on their camera roll. 

The report also showed just how fleeting some photography is. Of those surveyed, 80% said they have pictures or videos on their phone that they haven't looked at since the day they took them. 

Gathering digital dust

We’re all taking more and more pictures and videos. High-resolution camera phones and a steady stream of photo editors and video editing apps have made it easier than ever before. Yet so much media is left gathering digital dust.  

Read more

> Google wants to help provide faster AI photo editing for all

> The best laptops for photo editing tested

> Security experts found a major bug in Google Cloud

Mixbook calls it “phlushing”, which is probably the ugliest word to be written this week. It’s the act of taking photos, then flushing them down the memory hole like they didn’t happen. Moments captured in time, and never seen again. It all sounds suspiciously like the time before everyone had a camera in their pocket. 

The data revealed users stored an average 3,139 pictures and videos on their phones. But 55% of respondents admitted not looking at their camera roll in the last year. And despite the best cloud storage providers storing years’-worth of media, users said they rarely went back to those taken more than twelve months ago. The same number confessed to feeling overwhelmed by how many photos and videos were stored on their device. Perhaps a problem easier ignored – at least until the likes of Apple iCloud and Google One come knocking for a storage space subscription. 

What actually happens to all those photos and videos? In 50% of cases, nothing at all. A further 30% share them with family and friends, while 17% post to social media. In a sign of the times, just 3% print them, online or with a photo printer. 

But the real concern is that 65% who are not regularly securely storing media – especially with so many ways to backup photos – whether they’re “phlushing” those images or not.  

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Microsoft’s browser rivals aren’t happy after it made switching defaults easier
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Microsoft's rivals have hit back against the company's recent change to its stance on picking a default browser. 

The company that got into so much trouble in the 1990s for trying to squeeze rivals made an interesting change with Windows 11: obscuring the option to change the default browser, limiting it to only technically capable users and the very motivated. 

Anyone using Windows 10 could easily change the default with a single click, something that a lot of people did. But that all changed for anyone updating to Microsoft's latest OS. 

All change

While Edge isn't a bad browser, making it the default and then hiding the settings to change that does kind of stink, a point made loudly by its rivals. 

Microsoft even took it a step further and began funnelling links from its services, including the Start Menu, into Edge as well. 

All of that changed in a recent update, however, when Microsoft reintroduced an easy one-click process for changing the default – but instead of being pleased, some of the biggest names in the browser market have now hit back.

Old grudges, widely held

Speaking to The Register, Microsoft's rivals were still not happy with the company and its attempts to make Edge into a dominant browser.

“It has always been our stance that Microsoft, and others like them, should make it easy for users to choose to use the products that suit them,” said Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner. “This should apply to all users, not just the ones who are technically competent enough to realize that they need to install an optional update, and know how to actually do so. It should be installed for all users.” 

“While they have made an attempt, the fact that it has been done the way it has leads to the assumption that it is only being done to avoid being prosecuted for anticompetitive behavior, not to actually solve the underlying problem.”

READ MORE

>Opera launches Pro tier for its built-in browser VPN

>Google introduces a step-by-step privacy guide for Chrome browser, but is it enough?

>Browser wars: Microsoft Edge just steamed past a major rival

Mozilla, which actually found a way around the changes, was similarly critical.

“People should have the ability to simply and easily set defaults and all operating systems should offer official developer support for default status,” the company said.

“In practice, we'd like to also see progress on reducing the number of steps required to set a new browser as default, and on opening and making APIs available for apps to set default that other Microsoft applications use.”

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Microsoft’s browser rivals aren’t happy after it made switching defaults easier
  • No Comments

Microsoft's rivals have hit back against the company's recent change to its stance on picking a default browser. 

The company that got into so much trouble in the 1990s for trying to squeeze rivals made an interesting change with Windows 11: obscuring the option to change the default browser, limiting it to only technically capable users and the very motivated. 

Anyone using Windows 10 could easily change the default with a single click, something that a lot of people did. But that all changed for anyone updating to Microsoft's latest OS. 

All change

While Edge isn't a bad browser, making it the default and then hiding the settings to change that does kind of stink, a point made loudly by its rivals. 

Microsoft even took it a step further and began funnelling links from its services, including the Start Menu, into Edge as well. 

All of that changed in a recent update, however, when Microsoft reintroduced an easy one-click process for changing the default – but instead of being pleased, some of the biggest names in the browser market have now hit back.

Old grudges, widely held

Speaking to The Register, Microsoft's rivals were still not happy with the company and its attempts to make Edge into a dominant browser.

“It has always been our stance that Microsoft, and others like them, should make it easy for users to choose to use the products that suit them,” said Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner. “This should apply to all users, not just the ones who are technically competent enough to realize that they need to install an optional update, and know how to actually do so. It should be installed for all users.” 

“While they have made an attempt, the fact that it has been done the way it has leads to the assumption that it is only being done to avoid being prosecuted for anticompetitive behavior, not to actually solve the underlying problem.”

READ MORE

>Opera launches Pro tier for its built-in browser VPN

>Google introduces a step-by-step privacy guide for Chrome browser, but is it enough?

>Browser wars: Microsoft Edge just steamed past a major rival

Mozilla, which actually found a way around the changes, was similarly critical.

“People should have the ability to simply and easily set defaults and all operating systems should offer official developer support for default status,” the company said.

“In practice, we'd like to also see progress on reducing the number of steps required to set a new browser as default, and on opening and making APIs available for apps to set default that other Microsoft applications use.”

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Twitter down: social media website and app aren’t working – again
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It feels like every other week that the internet breaks – you've guessed it (from the headline), Twitter is down.

The social media giant is unavailable to loads of users – trying to access the web page brings up the message “Something went wrong. Try reloading.”, and the app won't refresh with newer tweets.

Reports on downdetector.co.uk jumped up into the thousands within minutes of the outage – it's worth pointing out that, while the reports also rose on downdetector.com (in the US), they didn't rise by nearly as much.

It sounds like a limited issue, as lots of TechRadar team members haven't had an issue. Saying that the sheer number of Downdetector reports shows that something is up.

Not only is the main Twitter feed down, but other Twitter sites are down too, like its Help site.

We just wanted to post a funny joke, and now we've discovered that Twitter isn't working. We're investigating.

Judging by reports from Downdetector and TechRadar's US team, the outage is affecting far fewer people in the US than in the UK – it seems mainly a British problem. Well, we can add that to the list after Freddos costing more, Magnums getting smaller and the whole cost of living thing.

In the UK, DownDetector reports more than 4,000 reports in the last few minutes. That's a huge number given how many we normally see – even for the major outages that affect multiple websites, we usually see one or two thousand reports.

This outage has come less than six weeks after the last Twitter outage.

That was a smaller one, as the main Twitter feed would load, but Tweets wouldn't – so you could see them, but not click on them or interact with them. 

Now, you can't see anything – it's radio silence.

Usually when there's an internet outage, people turn to Twitter to look for answers. That's… a little harder now.

We looked at Facebook, but Twitter itself hasn't posted there for several months. Last time it did, it was a screenshot of a Tweet about cats. What is this, 2007?

Facebook is a bit more community-focused though, so it's harder to see what people in the wider world are saying.

Reddit to the rescue though:

is_twitter_down_for_anyone_else_in_uk from r/Twitter

There's no official comment, but there are people from around the world commenting to say that Reddit isn't working for them.

Unfortunately, because Reddit's support and news room sites are all hosted by the media giant itself, they're not working either.

We're seeing a growing number of reports of outages from the US, but TechRadar's team based there hasn't seen anything.

It's likely that a server in Europe is at fault, which is why it's so much more of an issue for our UK readers than our US ones.

But we're waiting to find out from Twitter to see what's going on.

Oppo Find X5 Pro

(Image credit: Future)

Reports are well over 4,000 at the moment.

For context, the baseline is 3. That's a big difference.

Oh wait – Twitter is back! (for me at least)

This suggests the end of the outage could be here – just in time for you to return to work after your lunch break. What bad luck.

DownDetector reports for Twitter problems are finally going down – it looks like the outage could really be over.

It's not a steep plummet of reports, which suggests some people are still finding problems with their desktop site or phone app, but this at least tells us that the initial problem is being solved.

We've been looking to see if Twitter itself has commented on the outage – so far we can't see anything from any of its official accounts.

Saying that, it's got about a billion of its own accounts for different regions, aspects of the site and more, so it's very possible that one of them has posted, and we just haven't found it yet.

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Developers really aren’t loving GitHub’s new algorithmic For You feed
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Change is always difficult – big and small – especially when it's forced upon you by a giant corporation. That's what some developers on GitHub are finding out, at least, after the company introduced a personalised For You feed. 

As spotted by The Register, the For You algorithm-based feed hasn't gone down particularly well. The top-voted post from the past few days, with 211 upvotes, simply states: “I don't want algorithmic feed” before listing some reasons. 

The sentiment is echoed elsewhere. All but the third most upvoted post criticised the new For You feed.

All change

“I don't think Github needs facebook/instagram like features,” wrote one user. “I personally don't care about what people like/fork, and i don't want people to know what i do either, i just need a better search and better tagging system so i can search for libraries/projects based on MY SEARCH and MY INTERESTS, not based on a biased one developed with AI. what's next? stories?”

“Please don't turn GitHub into Facebook,” writes another. “Please give me an option to completely disable the algorithmic feed and only have the relevant, chronological feed, only from users I follow and repos I participate in.”

It's not all bad, though. A post with 64 upvotes praises the For You feed, writing, “I Love the new idea of for you, good luck.” 

READ MORE

>GitHub wants to help developers spot security issues before they get too serious

>Microsoft wants to convince more game developers to use Azure

>Microsoft refreshes its own in-house Linux distro

Analysis: Give it some time?

Over time, people often become accustomed to change.

Back in 2006, Facebook introduced News Feed to its users, opening them up to increased sharing of their activities. Users revolted against the change, leading to a direct apology from Mark Zuckerberg. 

People came to accept it and the rest, as they say, is history. 

The same will likely be the case for GitHub: the resource is so useful that most developers have few other options and changes like this, even with large pushback from its user base, are probably here to stay. 

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

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Developers really aren’t loving GitHub’s new algorithmic For You feed
  • No Comments

Change is always difficult – big and small – especially when it's forced upon you by a giant corporation. That's what some developers on GitHub are finding out, at least, after the company introduced a personalised For You feed. 

As spotted by The Register, the For You algorithm-based feed hasn't gone down particularly well. The top-voted post from the past few days, with 211 upvotes, simply states: “I don't want algorithmic feed” before listing some reasons. 

The sentiment is echoed elsewhere. All but the third most upvoted post criticised the new For You feed.

All change

“I don't think Github needs facebook/instagram like features,” wrote one user. “I personally don't care about what people like/fork, and i don't want people to know what i do either, i just need a better search and better tagging system so i can search for libraries/projects based on MY SEARCH and MY INTERESTS, not based on a biased one developed with AI. what's next? stories?”

“Please don't turn GitHub into Facebook,” writes another. “Please give me an option to completely disable the algorithmic feed and only have the relevant, chronological feed, only from users I follow and repos I participate in.”

It's not all bad, though. A post with 64 upvotes praises the For You feed, writing, “I Love the new idea of for you, good luck.” 

READ MORE

>GitHub wants to help developers spot security issues before they get too serious

>Microsoft wants to convince more game developers to use Azure

>Microsoft refreshes its own in-house Linux distro

Analysis: Give it some time?

Over time, people often become accustomed to change.

Back in 2006, Facebook introduced News Feed to its users, opening them up to increased sharing of their activities. Users revolted against the change, leading to a direct apology from Mark Zuckerberg. 

People came to accept it and the rest, as they say, is history. 

The same will likely be the case for GitHub: the resource is so useful that most developers have few other options and changes like this, even with large pushback from its user base, are probably here to stay. 

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