Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss Wells Fargo banning TikTok, CES Asia being cancelled indefinitely, and more.

Glenn in Pittsgrove, New Jersey listens to the Podcasts asked Kam: “I was wondering if you guys wouldn’t mind asking Kam what he thinks about the Brave browser. I’ve heard quite a bit of good – and bad – about it. So, I’d like to know his opinion.”

Kam answered: Hi Glenn, first … thanks for asking ME that question!

The Brave Browser is a little bit like Google’s Chrome Browser that we all use around here at “Into Tomorrow” …. but it is strange because it does some weird things that you may not like. Guys … what do YOU think?

Dave and Chris added a little more info:

The browser itself runs on Chromium just like Chrome and like the new version of Microsoft’s Edge browser. It also incorporates ad blocking out of the box and it includes a feature to support content creators and websites by making donations straight from the browser.

At first glance all of that looks positive and nothing looks particularly troubling, but it turns out that Brave is shady even by tech company standards.

The block ads out of the box, but sell and inject their own ads, which they pitch as more benign or less intrusive, but that’s according to them alone.

They also inject affiliate links so that certain things users do online earn them a commission in the background.

The shadiest thing they’ve done is their “opt out” content creator support program in which they were caught taking donations for content creators without the creators ever signing up for the program or collecting any of the money. In time they corrected themselves by making the program opt-out instead of opt-in, meaning that if a creator found out they were included in the program and hadn’t been collecting any cash they could opt out of it.

They ended up having to let donations to creators expire after 30-days, rather than sit around indefinitely, but even that is pretty shady when a regular program would just ask content creators to opt in if they’re interested and only display a donation button if they have.

Overall, there seems to be no real reason to use this browser over others that run on the same engine and haven’t been caught doing questionable things.

Just get Chrome or Edge, or if you don’t care about the Chromium engine … maybe Firefox.

Steve asked: “Is there an App available to clean up an old iPad 3? Memory is almost full runs slow. Any suggestions”

Steve, no you won’t find an app that can clean up your iPad – and that’s by design.

Apps don’t have that level of access to your device. They can’t read or alter outside of their immediate folder as a way to keep your data safe. That’s why viruses aren’t a big concern with mobile devices. You’ve heard us use the term “sandboxing.” That’s what that is. Essentially, letting each app play only in its own sandbox.

You can go into your settings and see a summary of how your storage space is used there, but you won’t find any big surprises,