Software & Apps - Page 8

It was only last week The Onion announced it was purchasing Alex Jones' InfoWars website from the media moguls bankruptcy auction, following the more than $1 billion in damages Jones was ordered to pay after being found guilty of spreading misinformation about the Sandy Hook shooting.

The Onion announced it purchased the Infowars website and said its goal of the acquisition was to "end InfoWars' relentless barrage of disinformation for the sake of selling supplements and replace it with The Onion's relentless barrage of humor for good". The Onion didn't reveal how much it paid for InfoWars, or if the deal included the website's social media accounts, which have now been brought into relevancy as X has filed a limited objection to the transfer of ownership of InfoWars' X accounts to The Onion.

X Corporation cites its own Terms of Service (TOS) agreement in its objection that was filed in a federal Bankruptcy Court on Monday. The objection states the following, "Because the X accounts are governed by the TOS, the TOS make clear that X accounts are X Corp.'s 'exclusive property." According to X's TOS, accounts cannot be transferred, gifted, sold, or assigned to other parties "without express written consent" from X.

Microsoft is currently working out several key problems with Windows 11 24H2, the company's latest version of Windows 11.

According to Redmond, the latest Windows 11 24H2 update contains several bugs that result in some issues presenting themselves within the operating system. Users have previously reported that if administrative privileges weren't granted, it would be difficult to change the time zone in the Date & Time view, which Microsoft confirmed was the case but only within the Settings app. This problem, along with others widely reported by users on Microsoft's community forums and Reddit, was confirmed by Microsoft in a Windows health release on Friday last week.

Some of the most prominent issues were related to USB connectivity issues, which Microsoft has responded to by blocking the Windows 11 24H2 update on computers with USB scanners that support the eSCL protocol, which is a driverless scanning protocol that works over Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and USB connections. Windows 24H2 users began reporting compatibility problems with a wide list of devices approximately a month ago, and the list covers devices such as multi-function printers, scanners, modems, and network-connected devices that utilize the eSCL protocol.

Microsoft deservedly received criticism over its unveiling of Windows Recall, the company's latest AI feature that enables users to "recall" what they were doing on the PC by asking via natural language or scrolling back through a provided timeline.

When Recall was first unveiled, it was met with heavy criticism from security experts as the new AI tool works by indiscriminately taking screenshots of a user's desktop and then storing those images locally within a folder. This means Recall would also capture user passwords and other sensitive information, and since all of that data is stored in a single folder, a hacker or bad actor gaining access to that folder would compromise all account information, potentially leading to fraud, theft, and other cybercrime.

Microsoft responded to these concerns by pulling Recall right before the rollout of its new Copilot+ PCs and then announcing additional security layers for users. After what was meant to be only weeks of delay, Microsoft re-released Recall this month, but this time to Windows Insiders who have Copilot+ PC hardware. Since the release, Windows Insiders have been reporting problems with the new feature, with the main problem being a delay in the time Recall takes snapshots of the desktop, which results in there being gaps in the feature's memory or timeline over the course of a session.

Three men have been killed after following directions by Google Maps off an unfinished bridge that was damaged by flooding a few months ago.

A new report from The EconomicTimes states three men from Uttar Pradesh, India, were killed when they drove off an unfinished bridge that was spanning the Ramganga River. The bridge was incomplete, as portions of it were damaged and swept away when the region endured flooding a few months ago.

The publication reports the three men were traveling in a taxi from Gurugram to Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, and because they were traveling at night and at the time were following the directions of Google Maps, they didn't notice the end of the bridge, resulting in them driving off and plummeting to their deaths.

Microsoft Office, which includes popular productivity apps like Word and Excel, has been accused of scraping user-created content to train its internal AI systems. The feature, called 'Microsoft Connected Experiences,' is enabled by default, and to opt-out, you need to navigate various settings and options.

Linux expert @nixcraft on X called 'Connected Experiences' "unethical" because the feature's name doesn't convey that it's all about AI training. Microsoft's knowledge base states that connected experiences are "designed to enable you to create, communicate, and collaborate more effectively" by analyzing your content. There's no mention of AI or data being used for Copilot features or to train Microsoft's AI models.

Various media publications have picked up on these allegations, and Microsoft has responded to them using the official @Microsoft365 account on social media, denying the claims.

Windows 11's Photos app got a pair of smart new features recently, but now one of them has been put on ice - following the first (AI-powered) capability going awry in the past.

The features - which arrived in preview for Windows Insiders towards the end of October - are Super Resolution (that's the AI effort) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

It's the latter one which has just been ditched from Photos, as we were informed by Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc on X (hat tip to Neowin).

Microsoft has confirmed that its latest Windows 11 24H2 update breaks some aspects of the operating system, such as USB audio, time and clock, and game playability.

Redmond confirmed the bugs within Windows 11 24H2 in a support document where it states some users who didn't have administrative privileges were experiencing difficulty changing the time zone in the Date & Time view. Microsoft writes that this issue is only limited to Date & time within the Windows Settings app, and that a workaround for afflicted users can be achieved through changing the timezone within the Control Panel.

That wasn't the only issue, as some users are reporting problems with the latest Windows 11 24H2 displaying the incorrect time after being awoken from Sleep. Additionally, reports state that some users are also seeing incorrect times after daylight savings have ticked over. Moreover, Windows 11 24H2 currently has a bug that causes audio devices to stop working entirely, and it's even more frequent with USB audio devices.

Google may be forced to sell off Google Chrome, the world's most popular internet browser that is home to 61% of all internet users.

The possibility of Google having to sever one of the arms of its core business comes from people familiar with the matter who recently spoke to Bloomberg, which reports top antitrust officials are planning on asking the court on Wednesday for Google to be forced to sell off Chrome, to bring fairness back to the browser market that has been heavily leaning in Google's favor for quite some time.

The changes to Google were proposed by the Department of Justice in a court filing last month and list other measures that would be a blow to Google's business, such as the requirement for data licensing, transparency for advertisers to see where the ads they are paying for appear, and guardrails for consumers to protect them against Google hoarding user data.

Only weeks after Apple unveiled its redesign of the Mac Mini line-up, Microsoft has unveiled a new mini PC that's even smaller than the Mac Mini and is scheduled to be released in April next year.

Microsoft has taken to its blog to announce the Windows 365 Link, which the company says is the "First Cloud PC devices for Windows 365". Microsoft states in the blog the upcoming device is strictly designed for cloud computing, and won't even have any local storage available to users. Moreover, Windows 365 Link measures just 4.72 by 4.72 inches and stands just 1.18 inches high, making it slightly smaller than Apple's Mac Mini.

As for connectivity, the Windows Links 365 will come with three USB-A ports, one USB-C port, an HDMI port, DisplayPort connections, an Ethernet port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Keeping to connectivity, Microsoft has added support for two 4K resolution monitors, along with Bluetooth 5.3, and Wi-Fi 6E. On the blog, Microsoft writes the device "takes seconds to boot" and "instantly wakes from sleep".

Microsoft has announces its closing the Beta Channel for the world's most popular operating system after making it available just five months ago.

The Redmond company committed to adding new features to Windows 10 last year despite its looming support severance slated for October 2025. With less than two years left of official support for Windows 10, Microsoft added the Insider Beta Channel, which would roll out new features to beta testers who opted into the program. Now, Microsoft has announced via a blog post that it's closing the Insider Beta Channel, indicating what seems to be the beginning of the end of new features for Windows 10.

Microsoft writes that it will still continue to release new builds in the Release Preview Channel, and that all users in the Insider Beta Channel will be moved over to the Release Preview Channel. For those wondering what's in the Beta Channel, admittedly not much, as most of the additions are simply features that direct users to adopt Microsoft services. For example, Microsoft added Windows 11's lock screen widgets, along with the new Copilot app, OneDrive, and Microsoft 365 advertisements within Settings and Start.