The coronavirus has a way of accelerating events already in motion, from the rise of remote work to the collapse of theatrical release windows. With that in mind, Zoom's rapid evolution from video chat hero to privacy and security villain was inevitable.

Zoom already had reputation for prioritizing convenience over security. Last summer, researchers found that Zoom's Mac version was quietly running a local web server on users' machines even after they had uninstalled the software, leading to a vulnerability that let any website seriptitiously access users' cameras and microphones. Now that Zoom is leading a boom in videoconferencing, security researchers and journalists have uncovered all kinds of other issues:

• A practice known as "Zoombombing," in which malicious users invade videoconferences to harass the participants, was made possible by weak default privacy and security settings.
• Zoom was caught sending analytics data to Facebook without disclosure. (It's no longer doing so.)
• Until last week, Zoom's privacy policy gave it the right to collect data about users' content and share it with advertisers.
• A feature, discontinued earlier this month, allowed conference hosts to see when participants were focusing on other apps instead of the video call itself.
• In response to scrutiny, Zoom had to clarify that its claims of securing video calls with end-to-end encryption are not exactly what people thought.

That's not even the full list of recent transgressions. (Glenn Fleishman, writing for TidBits, has an even deeper dive.)

To be fair, Zoom has been owning up to its mistakes. An apologetic blog post last week by CEO Eric Yuan credited journalists and security researchers for calling out problems, walked through some recent fixes (most notably, new default settings that make Zoombombing harder to pull off), and promised to freeze new features for the next 90 days while Zoom shores up its security and privacy.

Part of Zoom's underlying problem, however, is that it's just such a complicated piece of software in the first place. It's so easy to get lost in Zoom's labyrinthine settings menu, and not so easy to understand concepts like the Personal Meeting ID (a random numeric code permanently assigned to each user for on-the-spot meetings) and how it differs from other Meeting IDs (which have their own random numeric codes). Yuan was quick to note that Zoom is business software first and foremost, and that rings true in the way it can be so obtuse.

I'm not naïve enough to think people will stop using Zoom because of a few privacy and security blunders. Such issues, after all, haven't hindered Facebook, which if anything is enjoying a pandemic popularity surge. But I would like to humbly suggest an alternative.

For the past few days, I've been playing around with another video conferencing service called Jitsi Meet, and it's refreshingly simple compared to Zoom and other options.

Jitsi works in any web browser without any extra software (though Android and iOS apps are also available), and you don't need any kind of account to use it. Best of all, setting up a meeting is dead-simple: Just create a name for the meeting room, optionally set a password, and share the link with others. You can even create a meeting by typing any string of letters and numbers after entering meet.jit.si/ in your address bar.

Jitsi Meet is free to use, and it can smoothly support up to 35 people in a video call with no time limits. (The service is built on a set of open-source projects, and is backed by a company that offers extra services for businesses.) It's also just nicely laid out, with easy access to basic functions like chatting and hand-raising, and more complex functions such as recording and background blur hidden behind a single menu button. It even has a neat tie-in to YouTube that lets you livestream a videoconference to non-participants.

I'll admit that this system, were it enjoying Zoom-like scale and scrutiny, would have its issues. At minimum, it would probably have to make users set meeting passwords by default. But the meeting structure is also just a lot easier to understand, which might help users avoid security blunders in the first place.

As with any social app, getting others to use Jitsi Meet instead of whatever's popular will be an uphill battle. But when they see how lightweight and hassle-free it is compared to Zoom, maybe it won't take all that much convincing.
 

Last fall, Microsoft revived a long-dormant program called PowerToys that serves as a catch-all for experimental Windows features. While the initial release only included a couple of utilities—one for organizing windows on the desktop, another for referencing keyboard shortcuts—the latest update adds even more useful tools.

My favorite new feature, called "Windows Walker," lets you quickly jump to any open window with a text search. Just hit Ctrl + Win to bring up the search bar, then type the program name (partial names should work) and hit Enter. If you have a lot of programs open, it's a lot faster than repeatedly hitting Alt-Tab or hunting through the taskbar.

The update also includes new tools for resizing images and renaming files in bulk. Just right-click on a group of files in File Explorer, then select either "Resize Pictures" or "PowerRename." These come in handy when you need to share a bunch of photos without them hogging too much space, or if you want to change all those "IMG" and "DSC" file names from your phone or digital camera into something more natural.

To start using these utilities, grab the installer from the PowerToys download page or just click here for the direct download link. Once installed, you'll find the PowerToys menu under the hidden icon list at the right side of the Windows taskbar.
 

Zoom envy everywhere: Major tech companies would very much like you remember that Zoom isn't the only one in the video chat business. Last week, Microsoft's Skype released a new videoconferencing tool called Skype Meet Now that generates a shareable meeting link. Participants don't have to sign in or download any software, though Windows will try to open Skype anyway if you have it installed. The web version is bare-bones, though, with no recording, hand-raising, or even password protection, and Microsoft seems more focused on its Teams software lately anyway.

Meanwhile, Facebook has launched standalone Windows and Mac apps for Facebook Messenger. They're functionally similar to the web version, except with desktop notifications when someone tries to call you. But do you trust Facebook to have any kind of software running persistently in the background on your computer? I certainly do not.

Apple buys a weather app: Last week, the wildly popular weather app Dark Sky announced that it has been acquired by Apple. Dark Sky's big hook is its use of machine learning algorithms to predict precipitation on a hyperlocal level, so it can alert users when it's about to rain or snow at their precise location. One could imagine Apple offering such a feature in its own weather app, or as a response to "Hey Siri, will it rain today?" queries.

While the iOS app is sticking around for now, Apple immediately pulled the Android version from the Google Play Store and will only support current Android users through July 1. More importantly, Apple is winding down the Dark Sky API, which allowed other apps to access Dark Sky's weather data on the cheap. This has major ramifications for indie weather apps such as Carrot and Appy Weather, which are some of the more joyful pieces of software you'll find. Although Apple will let existing apps use Dark Sky's data until the end of 2021, several app makers told me that the alternatives are much pricier, so we could see a lot of cool and experimental weather apps shut down as a result.

New Spotify tricks: Spotify has extended Siri support to the Apple Watch, so you can play music from your wrist by saying "Listen to [artist/album/playlist] on Spotify." You'll still need to have an iPhone within range, because Spotify doesn't yet support offline playback or direct Wi-Fi/cellular streaming on the Apple Watch, but at least you can control the app hands-free while your phone is tucked away. (If phone-free playback is a must have, you might consider switching to an Apple Music or Pandora subscription, as both of those services have standalone Apple Watch support.)

Spotify has also released a kid-friendly version of its app in the United States, with age-appropriate songs and human-curated playlists. The only catch is that it's only available with a $15 per month Premium Family subscription, which allows up to six users to have their own accounts, but maybe that's worth not having your precious Discovery Weekly playlists sullied by the Frozen 2 soundtrack.

A lifeline for indie bookstores: A new digital storefront called Bookshop is trying to give independent bookstores a way to compete with Amazon online. As InsideHook reports, members of the American Booksellers Association can sign up to sell books through the site, and Bookshop handles the entire fulfilment process while giving back 30% of the cover price. Bookshop also runs an affiliate program similar to Amazon's, so anyone who links to a book on the site gets a cut of any resulting sales. Indie bookstores split 10% of the revenue that comes from those affiliate links. You can find local stores to patronize using Bookshop's store locator.

The experience does seem to emphasize paper books over digital ones. Not all books on the site are available in digital formats, and the ones you can purchase in e-book form require an app called My Must Reads, which isn't particularly well-liked by users and doesn't support Kindle readers. But if you're still into reading on dead trees—or, perhaps, even if you're not—this looks like a good way to support stores that are existentially-threatened right now.
 

Best Buy is currently taking $50 off the Apple Watch Series 5 in various colors, sizes, and configurations. Get the 40mm version for as little as $350, or the 44mm version starting at $379. This is the only Apple Watch model with an always-on display, so you don't have to flick your wrist upwards to check the time.

Other notable deals this morning:

• JBL Live 100 wired earbuds are selling for $8 through the JBL or Harman websites. They've got an aluminum casing, an anti-tangle fabric cord, and a built-in mic button for voice assistant control, and they usually sell for upwards of $30.
• Google's Nest Wifi mesh router three pack is on sale for $315, which is $85 off the list price. The system provides up to 6,600 square feet of home Wi-Fi coverage to eliminate dead zones.
• The Microsoft Store has a great deal on Kingston's HyperX Alloy compact mechanical keyboard, which has Cherry MX Red switches built into a steel frame. Get it for $50 instead of the usual $70. (And read this back issue of Advisorator for more on mechanical keys.)

I apologize for the messy imagery of both my office and my in-progress apocalypse beard at the top of this email—consequences both of Jitsi having no good press screenshots available.

Feel free to give me a hard time about it in this week's live chat room (which, as always, is conducted via text). Drop into this chat room at 2 p.m. Eastern on Friday, or click here to get an email reminder beforehand. As always, I'm happy to provide tech advice over email as well. Just reply to this message to get in touch.

Until next week,
Jared