Ali Mau reveals lifelong secret in memoir ‘No Words for This’
The former TVNZ presenter and journalist tells Samantha Hayes about the chilling phone call that changed her life
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© 2025 Stuff.co.nz 4:05pm Signal controversy: Why the secure messaging app is all over the news
You probably use text message, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or even Instagram to chat with others. And while those messaging apps work fine, some still seek out alternatives that lean hard into a promise of security and privacy—like Signal.
Signal is an end-to-end encrypted app (E2EE), which means it encrypts every message before it leaves your device, and that message can only be read after it arrives on a recipient’s device and gets decrypted. As it travels in between, even if it were to be intercepted, it couldn’t be read thanks to the encryption.
The thing is, other apps like Messenger and WhatsApp also employ end-to-end encryption. So, what’s so special about Signal? And how did it become part of a small firestorm in US politics this week? Well, the app isn’t the problem. The issue is its use.
As an E2EE app, Signal’s bona fides surpass Messenger and WhatsApp. For starters, Signal Messenger LLC—the company that develops Signal—created the encryption protocol used by all three messaging apps. (And to no one’s surprise, it’s called the Signal protocol.) Signal is also open source, which means the community can freely check its source code for any odd behavior or deceptive practices.
No one but the sender and recipient(s) should be able to see messages in a secure messaging app. It’s scrambled all the way through, whether on your device (“at rest”) or while zipping through internet pipelines (“in transit”). Through use of both permanent and temporary encryption keys, your privacy should hold until decryption happens, even if those keys are compromised. In contrast, regular SMS (text) messages and email aren’t encrypted at all—those messages can easily be read during any point of their journey between you and other people.
The problem is, even with E2EE in place, encryption alone can’t guarantee that information in messages won’t leak.
Signal isn’t the only end-to-end encrypted messaging app available, but its protocol serves as the backbone of other popular EE2E messaging alternatives like WhatsApp.Leonidas Santana / Shutterstock.com
Your device is only as secure as you are. If you use a weak PIN, or don’t lock your phone at all, then your messages can be read by others. Same if you download unvetted apps or sideload them—they could contain malware that’ll snoop on your decrypted messages. Yet another potential vulnerability are services and integrations, like third-party keyboards, that can be taken over or exploited by hackers.
Even if you keep careful guard over your phone, any recipient of a message could take screenshots and later share them. The Atlantic article that kicked off the Signal news frenzy has just such an example of this. (“The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.“)
For these reasons, sensitive government conversations aren’t supposed to occur on third-party messaging apps. Top-secret communication is expected to be conducted under heavy restrictions—not just on secured devices, but often also at secured locations. People who have high security clearances might only be able to use approved devices while on site, and might even have to be within specific areas of a facility. Personal devices also may not be allowed to enter certain areas. In this way, risk is reduced that a phone (or a PC) could become compromised.
So, that’s the main concern with Signal—it can’t be secured and controlled the same way as government systems.
Another sticky spot is that government regulations require a record of communication. Signal—and other secure messaging apps—have the ability to automatically delete messages after a certain time has passed; if that setting is used, any lost conversations related to government proceedings would be in violation of the law.
A screenshot from The Atlantic‘s article about being included in a Signal group discussing the US’s plans for action against Yemen. As you can see, it was possible to take screenshots of this encrypted chat.The Atlantic
Overall, encrypted messaging apps are the ideal way to chat with others, even for us everyday folk. When you share personal information through text conversations—your bank, your destinations, your medical issues, and more—you want it all to be private… and protected from spying. News broke last December that Chinese hackers infiltrated US telecoms, meaning they could have seen many of the unencrypted text messages that users sent during that time. The gravity of the situation even prompted the FBI to advise a switch to encrypted messaging apps.
Signal is just one option among several popular E2EE apps, and of the lot, it actually has the fewest privacy concerns. WhatsApp and Messenger are owned by Meta, while Telegram has been the target of multiple criticisms for weaker security. (Plus, Telegram is a known source for illicit activity, including the sale of stolen data by hackers.)
If you’re curious about E2EE apps, you can read more about Signal and how its encryption works, which also touches on alternatives like WhatsApp. Ultimately, if you don’t switch to an encrypted messaging app, you should at least think carefully about what you’re sharing—and how that info could be shared against your will.
© 2025 PC World Sat 9:15am  
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I don’t need Windows anymore. One final tool freed me from Microsoft
I’ve been using Windows for as long as I can remember. It was on the very first PC I recall using, literally on my father’s knee. But I don’t need it anymore. That’s a weird thing to say as a writer for a site named PCWorld. But it’s been a long time coming, a slow mix of broad tech trends, feeling betrayed by multiple brands, and a little bit of intention on my part.
To be clear, I still use Windows. It’s what I’m using right now to type this, on a beefy gaming desktop I assembled myself, with triple monitors and all sorts of googaws attached. But I don’t need all that anymore, and for the first time in my adult life, I can see myself transitioning to an entirely different operating system.
That’s a big deal for me, and I suspect I’m far from alone. Microsoft might want to make a note of it.
Why I don’t need Windows
So here’s what I mean when I say that I don’t need Windows anymore: Every tool, program, and piece of information I rely upon is now essentially separate from whatever machine I’m using at the moment.
I’m writing the words you’re reading right now in Google Docs. When I’m done, I’ll edit them in WordPress. Throughout my work day I’m talking with my coworkers and bosses on Slack, I’m chatting with my friends via text, WhatsApp, and some other platforms. I’m managing my own to-do list in Google Keep, updating my work tasks in a tool called Monday, and checking personal and professional email in Gmail and Outlook, respectively. I’m keeping an eye on news and social trends in BlueSky and The Old Reader for RSS.
I still use local files, of course. But they’re all backed up weekly via Backblaze and accessible wherever I go, with whatever hardware I have to hand. Most of the time I don’t even need that. Aside from installed game files, the odd business/tax document, and a huge library of photos, both my own and my family’s, I barely even think about the storage on my PC.
Michael Crider/Foundry
Here’s a screenshot of my main Windows taskbar: Vivaldi, Gmail, Outlook, the PCWorld logo for WordPress, a certain green “P” I’ll address shortly, Slack, Explorer, Monday, Google Keep, Google Docs, YouTube.
If you haven’t spotted the common thread here: every single one of these experiences is either a web tool or has a web interface. I use my favorite browser, Vivaldi, to access almost all of them, usually in a progressive web app (PWA) or merely a shortcut wrapper without a full browser interface. It’s one of my most essential features of modern browsers, allowing me to separate these tools more easily and focus on them when I need to.
Every one of them is accessible on the web, and on other platforms. I can use all of them on a tablet or even my phone, and most of the time not lose any functionality. In fact even though I work from home, I access a lot of that on my phone during the day, on the same platforms. At this point Windows is basically just a means for accessing the web in a comfortable way, on expensive hardware I’m familiar with. I think a lot of users feel the same way, especially younger folks who grew up post-iPhone.
Further reading: The best Chromebooks we’ve tested
Photoshop was the last holdout
The very last domino to fall in this chain was image editing. I’ve been using Photoshop for over 20 years. Since I learned it in a high school media class, it’s been incredibly difficult to break myself of the reliance on it for creating article header images or editing review photos. Not that I didn’t want to — I’ve had a chip on my shoulder for Adobe for almost as long, especially after it transitioned its extremely expensive Creative Suite software to an even more expensive Creative Cloud subscription setup. It reeked of “you’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy.”
I liked owning Photoshop, and I was not and am not happy that the option was taken away. Until a few weeks ago I was still keeping an ancient copy of Creative Suite 6 from 2012 (the last time it was offered as a real purchase) alive and kicking. I’ve tried alternatives many times, including the tastelessly-titled GIMP, Affinity Photo, and Pixlr X. All are pretty good tools, but to my shame, I kept crawling back to the familiarity of Photoshop.
Foundry
My memory, both conventional and muscle, made it difficult to use any of these programs, even though each one of them covers the vast majority of Photoshop’s core functions. I’ve spent years of my life using Photoshop, a few of them using it for up to eight hours a day in a print shop. It’s a hard experience for me to quantify if you’re not married to a piece of software like that — imagine it as the feeling you get from wearing someone else’s prescription glasses. It’s that kind of functional discomfort.
I’m fairly certain Adobe banks on this, and that’s why you can access Photoshop and other programs at a huge discount if you’re a student or otherwise working at a school. To paraphrase Aristotle, “Give me a high-schooler until they are 17, and I will show you the foundations of a life-long subscription customer.”
But after a long-overdue Windows reinstallation, I decided to forego the hassle of getting my trusty, rusty copy of CS6 operational. Instead I tried out Photopea, an online raster image editor with a shameless and wonderful clone of the Photoshop interface.
Attack of the Clones
I’ve tried Photopea a few times before, with this exact aim in mind. And I couldn’t quite get it to stick. To be honest I can’t recall if it was a lack of performance in the tool, or simply that it wasn’t as capable as CS6 even over a decade later. But whichever part of the equation has changed — the performance in a modern browser on a powerful desktop, the server-side performance, or the image editing options being improved — it just clicked.
Now I’m using Photopea (pronounced “photo-pee” if you’re wondering, but the creators don’t really care) in place of Photoshop for all my work purposes. I don’t even have the latter installed, though I still have my copy just in case. I’m paying $5 a month for the ad-free version of Photopea, which still rankles my “just let me buy it” heart a bit. But the fact that it’s completely free with ads, not to mention far, far cheaper than an Adobe subscription even if you banish them, is a balm to my skinflint soul.
Photopea’s interface apes Photoshop closely enough that I can use it without problems. And yes, I used it to edit this story’s header image, and even this screenshot. Photopea
And after all, Photopea is a web tool hosted on a server — it at least has a basic justification for charging a subscription. Nothing stops Adobe from selling a stand-alone, non-subscription version of Photoshop. Except greed.
Photopea is a clone of Photoshop, not a perfect replacement. There are things it can’t do, notably load up custom fonts without a lot of extra steps, that would make it unsuitable if I were still doing graphics full time. And to be perfectly honest, I’m not quite as good at it as I used to be with Photoshop. Some of the effects I’d throw together with ease just don’t look as good. That could be equal parts my own unfamiliarity with the deeper tools and the web-based program’s lack of Photoshop’s most powerful, deeply buried options. Maybe I’ll get back to my old expertise in time.
But I’m not a graphic designer anymore. I’m a keyboard jockey who needs a lot of cropping for PR images, a bit of background work, clone-stamp and color adjustments for original photos, that sort of thing. And I can do all that, without sacrificing speed or most capability, and without local software. I can do it on any machine, from a laptop or a tablet or even my phone in a pinch (with a mouse and keyboard), and I can log in on all of those to get access to it ad-free.
Samsung
Oh, and even if you prefer to pay Adobe’s exorbitant prices, you might still not need a local installation of the program. Photoshop has an online version now, very similar to Photopea, included with the subscription.
Everything I need to do my job, and most of whatever else I want, is completely divorced from Windows. Or if not divorced, then at least amicably separated. I realize that a lot of people got to this place before I did, people younger than me, older than me, both more tech-savvy and less. But it still feels like a personal milestone.
Gaming still lives on Windows…for now
I’m still using Windows 11, warts and all, even while I moan about ever-encroaching advertising in allegedly premium software, not to mention the hard upsell for “AI” tools I don’t want. These are where Microsoft is hoping to get that real (read: recurring) money out of me, and where I refuse to let it go. But Windows is still my personal and professional home, even as I increasingly “live” on my phone, just like everyone else.
Gaming is a big part of this. I own a Switch and a PS5 and a nice tablet and a few other wingdings for games — over a recent vacation I even played through Skies of Arcadia to the end on an Android emulator. But PC gaming is where I really sink my teeth into the medium, and that’s unlikely to change. Not just because I like building desktop PCs (again, check the name of the site up top!), but because Steam is my primary means of acquiring and playing games.
Lenovo/Valve
And even that is not a sacred cow I’m unwilling to eat. Valve is making Steam its own OS, spreading into hardware from partners like Lenovo and Asus, and I think it has a legitimate shot at dethroning Windows as the home of PC gaming. To say nothing of trends that let you access your games anywhere, including Nvidia’s cloud-powered GeForce Now (which plays my Steam games!) and Microsoft’s own Xbox Game Pass streaming. I’ve used both of them on the go, enjoyably if far less smoothly than on my fancy-pants desktop at home, and been keenly aware of their platform-agnostic nature.
I played the PC version of Fortnite, complete with mouse and keyboard, by using my Samsung phone’s DeX desktop mode, a USB-C monitor, and GeForce Now. Hey, at least one tiny sliver of the future doesn’t suck.
A new world of options
This newfound freedom is liberating, if only in a consumer sense. For the first time I can seriously consider a Mac or a Chromebook laptop, safe in the knowledge that everything I need will be accessible with barely even an adjustment to my routine. An iPad Pro, while not my first choice, would probably be doable. I could even see myself trying out Linux on the desktop, though I confess I’d probably keep it dual-booting at first. And maybe using SteamOS or a derivative like Bazzite, just to satiate my degenerate gaming needs.
I don’t need Windows anymore. There’s a pretty good chance you don’t, either, or at least that it’s easier than ever to work around it. I think you should keep it in mind…especially if you’re a Microsoft executive who wants me to buy a new laptop.
Further reading: Windows survival skills: 8 things every PC user should know how to do
© 2025 PC World Sun 5:35am 
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