Creative-software house Adobe is urging users to uninstall Adobe Flash, before the software reaches End-Of-Life (EOL) in December 2020.

System administrators can find details on the end of Flash support here.

Flash is being retired for cybersecurity reasons: the same technology which can easily load web-based games or other client-side content is especially vulnerable to exploitation by hackers to run malicious scripts on a user’s device.

Adobe state in an update on their website that all security updates, and the availability of all version downloads, will cease from this date.

Flash-based content will also cease working – leading technical experts to suggest Adobe have recently programmed a ‘time-bomb’ into the code of Flash Player to render it useless after the supported date. This should help prevent users seeking out third-party versions, and represents one of the strictest policies towards end-of-life enacted by a major software developer.

Fewer and fewer websites still operate this way (possibly as low as 2.6%) since the original announcement of the technology being retired in July 2017. This follows major browser developers, including Google, Microsoft, Apple & Mozilla urging developers to transition to HTML5 and Javascript alternatives that are more integrated into the browser itself.

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New Surface range devices, including Surface Laptop and Surface Studio, will be available to UK customers very soon according to a recent announcement from Microsoft.

The company’s pledge to make the premium devices available in 17 new countries comes with the announcement of the new Surface Laptop, completing the range of high-end touchscreen with both detachable and non-detachable options.

Lower end models of the new fixed screen ‘Laptop’ version appear to be underpowered with only 4GB RAM, although higher-end models (which will set you back over £2,000) boast an impressive 16GB RAM and 512GB Solid State Drive.

It’s currently unclear whether Microsoft’s enticing North American trade-in scheme, whereby customers can effectively part-exchange qualifying devices (including Apple MacBooks or iPads) for significant discounts towards the cost of a new Surface device, will also be made available in other regions.

Users will be restricted to Windows 10 S as their operating system, which defaults to certain Microsoft products – such as apps downloaded from Windows Store, Edge browser and Bing search.

In addition, the flagship ‘Surface Studio’ and it’s futuristic accessories will also be coming to UK markets, and is likely to quickly become a crowd-pleaser amongst designers and others in the creative industries.

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