| This is a daily column written by Lowell Heddings, the founder and owner of How-To Geek. If you prefer, you can read this column in a web browser instead.
Newly found TrueCrypt flaw allows full system compromise The Google researcher hasn’t disclosed details about the two bugs yet, saying that he usually waits seven days after a patch is released to open his bug reports. Since TrueCrypt is no longer actively maintained, the bugs won’t be fixed directly in the program’s code. However, they have been fixed in VeraCrypt, an open-source program based on the TrueCrypt code that aims to continue and improve the original project.
If you’re using TrueCrypt, it might be time to upgrade to using VeraCrypt instead. We talked about VeraCrypt in our alternatives to Truecrypt article, and the one important thing you should note is that you’ll have to decrypt your TrueCrypt volumes and then create new VeraCrypt volumes, because they aren’t strictly compatible. Google Pixel C hands-on: A well-built but clunky convertible Android tablet Overall, the Pixel felt clunky. The lack of a trackpad on hardware like this is really disappointing, but Android’s trackpad support is awful anyway. If this is the start of a new tablet push by Google, where it will update a ton of its apps with a dual pane tablet mode and enable split screen functionality in Android, we might change our tune. We’ve thought that with every new Nexus tablet though, and Google’s tablet support never seems to get any better. We’d rather have a Chrome OS laptop.
So now Google has joined the Surface-copying party along with Apple’s iPad Pro and a lot of other vendors. It’s clear that the new large tablet is going to look a lot like a Microsoft Surface from now on. Which makes a lot of sense. Phones have become so large that they are like small tablets — I usually write this column on my iPhone 6s Plus — and there is little need for a bigger screen on a touch device for anything but watching videos. Sure, it’s nicer to do things with a bigger screen, but you don’t really need one. When you are trying to really get something done however, whether it is composing a lengthy document, working on a spreadsheet, editing a movie, or doing your taxes, you are going to want a larger screen. And probably a keyboard for quicker input. And that’s where the Surface form factor comes in. You get a tablet for sitting on the couch and a laptop if you are sitting at your desk. In my experience the Surface is uncomfortable to use in your lap, and the iPad Pro will be even less likely to work well as a laptop. The new Pixel sounds like it will be lousy as a tablet. It’s probably best to stick with a laptop and a large phone for the time being and wait until they iron things out. We’ll be getting our hands on an iPad Pro to see whether it can really function as a desktop replacement or not. | 
