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Nvidia has been on a roll lately with its release of hotfix drivers, which are essentially emergency display driver updates meant to fix issues.. The company's GeForce RTX 5000 series graphics cards have been plagued with several issues, and these hotfixes as well as the regular GameReady driver updates, are being pushed out to clear up the software side problems. The first hotfix was released in early March with version 572.65 that resolved black screen bootups. This was followed by another, version 572.75, that addressed clocking issues. After that, version 576.15 helped fix Windows Sleep and Modern Standby-related temperature monitoring bugs. With the latest hotfix driver update, 576.66, Nvidia says that it has resolved a video playback bug in web browsers that can lead to red-green flashing and similar corruption of that nature. Aside from that, the driver also fixes multiple game crashes including EA Sports FC 25, and more. Nvidia notes that the new hotfix driver is based on its latest GameReady driver 576.52. As a refresher, that driver added support for Nvidia's new RTX 5060. The full changelog for the new hotfix driver 576.66 is given below: Dune: Awakening may crash during gameplay [5273568] EA Sports FC 25 may crash during gameplay [5251937] [RTX 50 series] Dragons Dogma 2 displays shadow flicker [5252205] [RTX 50 series] Video playback in a web browser may show brief red/green flash corruption [5241341] Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 may crash [5283401] If you are encountering problems like the ones described above on Windows 11 or 10, you should definitely try updating the driver to the hotfix version here. In order to download the update, head over to Nvidia's official website on this page where you can also view the driver's release notes. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

After decades of mystery, former Microsoft CEO reveals the story behind his viral "Developers!" chant at company events. Earlier this year, during Microsoft's 50th birthday celebration, we seemingly got a front-row seat to Copilot AI's evolution into a companion and real friend, fully equipped with memory and a virtual body as part of Microsoft's AI CEO, Mustafa Suleyman's, future plans for the AI-powered chatbot. But perhaps more interestingly, we also got a free nostalgic trip down memory lane, courtesy of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who took the stage at the special Copilot event for his Developers! Developers! Developers! chant. The viral chant can be traced back to a Microsoft developer conference in the early 2000s, which was often associated with Ballmer. Around the same time, the executive had just assumed his new role as Microsoft CEO, after Bill Gates stepped down from the helm. During an episode of the Acquired podcast, Ballmer recently revealed that there's much more to the chant than just hype. He indicated that he used the viral chant as a call to action for Microsoft (via Business Insider). At the time, the company had doubled down on developing Windows, Windows Server, and ActiveX. However, the tech giant wasn't as enthusiastic and proactive in getting third-party developers to build on top of these platforms. Ballmer saw this as a threat, facing fierce competition from the likes of Linux. Steve Ballmer also revealed that he was frustrated with Microsoft's culture in the early 2000s, predominantly viewing it as "just a platform company." As such, Ballmer's infamous chant was a call to action for Microsoft to take a proactive approach in encouraging developers to build on its platforms. "You have to be able to communicate that you really care about developers who are not your own," Ballmer added. "We just had to tell people, 'We want you, we want you, we want you.'" "I have my own kind of wild style," Ballmer concluded. Interestingly, fast forward into the future, Microsoft has seemingly gotten over the hump and is working closely with third-party developers across its platforms. Elsewhere, Ballmer revealed that he had a difficult time emotionally detaching from Microsoft; he almost sold all his stock to expedite the process. Ballmer also always had a sense of humor about the whole thing, including briefly redoing his chant at Microsoft's 50th Anniversary event, held in Redmond earlier in April, as captured on camera by our editor-in-chief, Daniel Rubino, and shared above. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Hobby project shrinks 1980s computer platform that pierced the Iron Curtain. In 1979, Atari released the Atari 400 and 800, groundbreaking home computers that included custom graphics and sound chips, four joystick ports, and the ability to run the most advanced home video games of their era. These machines, which retailed for $549 and $999, respectively, represented a leap in consumer-friendly personal computing, with their modular design and serial I/O bus that presaged USB. Now, 46 years later, a hobbyist has shrunk down the system hardware to a size that would have seemed like science fiction in the 1970s. Polish engineer Piotr "Osa" Ostapowicz recently unveiled "Atarino," which may be the world's smallest 8-bit Atari computer re-creation, according to retro computing site Atariteca. The entire system—processor, graphics chips, sound hardware, and memory controllers—fits on a module measuring just 2×1.5 centimeters (about 0.79×0.59 inches), which is roughly the size of a postage stamp. Ostapowicz's creation reimplements the classic Atari XL/XE architecture using modern FPGA (field-programmable gate array) technology. Unlike software emulators that simulate old hardware (and modern recreations that run them, like the Atari 400 Mini console) on a complete computer system of another architecture, Atarino reproduces the original Atari components faithfully at the logic level, allowing it to run vintage software while maintaining compatibility with original peripherals. The Atarino is only slightly larger than a Polish 1 Grosz coin. Credit: Piotr Ostapowicz "The current project is not strictly a clone of Atari but basically, well, I'm forming a machine that is compatible with the Atari 8-bit computer itself, but it was created on the basis of the framework that I created some time ago," Ostapowicz told Atari Online PL in a January 2024 YouTube interview. An assortment of some of the Atari 8-bit computer systems released in the 1970s and '80s. Credit: Atari The project, which began over a decade ago and was first publicly demonstrated in December 2023, includes a 6502C processor, ANTIC and GTIA graphics chips, POKEY sound chip, and memory controllers onto a single Lattice UP5K FPGA chip. Despite its tiny size, the system can run at clock speeds up to 31 MHz—far faster than the original hardware's 1.79 MHz. Smaller, faster, and positioned for future projects While Atarino maintains broad compatibility with classic Atari software, Ostapowicz says he has enhanced the original design in several ways. For example, the 6502 processor core follows the physical chip specifications but adds new instructions. The memory system uses independent channels rather than the original's "cycle stealing" approach (where the graphics chip temporarily halts the CPU to access memory), improving performance. The graphics capabilities of the Atarino also extend beyond the original's limitations. Ostapowicz implemented functional clones of the ANTIC and GTIA chips with extended resolution modes. And the system outputs video through both VGA at 60 Hz and HDMI. The Atarino seen attached to an early evaluation breakout board that features peripheral connectors. Credit: Piotr Ostapowicz The modular design allows hobbyists to integrate Atarino into custom keyboards, miniaturized cases, or development boards. Ostapowicz has created multiple keyboard variants, including one based on the 65XE layout and another using a UART interface with microcontroller-based scanning. The system also supports connections to modern peripherals through Wi-Fi or Ethernet modules. Development continues on the project, with Ostapowicz currently refining the POKEY sound chip emulation to match the original's asynchronous behavior. He's also working on simplifying development tools for users, with the environment already compatible with CC65 and Visual Studio Code. He plans to release complete kits with documentation, inviting the retrocomputing community to experiment with the hardware. The European Atari connection The Atari 8-bit platform holds particular significance in Poland and Europe in general, where these computers performed well on the home market throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. While most American consumers had moved on to newer systems, Polish users in particular embraced Atari's affordable computers during the country's economic transition away from communism, creating a vibrant community that persists today. This nostalgic connection has made Poland a global hub for Atari 8-bit development and preservation. A European family enjoying an Atari 600 XE computer from a 1980s German catalog. Credit: Atari In communist Poland, Western computers were primarily available through Pewex, a chain of hard-currency shops that accepted only US dollars. Despite COCOM embargoes on Western technology, Atari computers became generally available at these stores, partly thanks to efforts by Jack Tramiel, the Polish-born Atari owner who ensured his computers reached his homeland. This nostalgic connection has made Poland a global hub for Atari 8-bit development and preservation. For Atarino creator Ostapowicz, his Atari miniaturization project is more than a nostalgic exercise or a mere technical challenge; it stems from a desire to create a tiny platform that applies 8-bit computing to new applications. He also saw an opportunity to build something fun and useful for today's hobbyists and developers, bridging the past with future possibilities. "I just came to the conclusion that we can build something that is compatible with Atari, give it a miniature form, and then it will happen," he said in the Atari Online interview. "As I mentioned, if someone wants to make a portable console, he has an open road. If someone wants to make an IoT system out of it, here you go." Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

The Motion Picture Association sees automated, real-time, and dynamic site blocking mechanisms as a key tool to fight online piracy. In response to an inquiry from the European Commission, reviewing its recommendation to combat live-streaming piracy, the MPA further notes that VPN companies and CDN providers should be actively involved. In recent years, the European Commission has proposed and adopted various legislative changes to help combat online piracy. The Copyright Directive and the Digital Services Act both envisioned tighter copyright takedown rules for online service providers. Many rightsholder groups felt that the new rules were insufficient to target live streaming piracy, sports content in particular. They wanted more incentives for online service providers to act faster and more diligently, as suspensions are useless after a live broadcast ends. The EU Commission heard these calls and published a targeted recommendation ‘on combating online piracy of sports and other live events’, encouraging member states to introduce measures to facilitate prompt takedowns of live streams. At the same time, service providers and rightsholders were encouraged to collaborate, to tackle the challenge together. Over two years later, the European Commission recently launched a call for evidence, asking stakeholders to share their views on the recommendation. Based on its assessment, the Commission will evaluate whether further EU-level measures are needed to tackle the issue. MPA: Site Blocking is Key Last week, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) submitted its comments on the effectiveness of the 2023 recommendation. Representing prominent movie industry players including Netflix, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery, it has a significant stake in the matter. Overall, the MPA is positive about the EU legal framework, noting that it provides valuable tools such as site blocking injunctions. However, implementation of these measures across EU member states is inconsistent and in some countries, cumbersome or completely absent. Site blocking measures have been available under EU law for more than two decades, but not all EU countries implemented them correctly, MPA says, mentioning , Poland, and Bulgaria as examples. “Despite the Commission’s Recommendation, Europe is missing effective and appropriate implementation of these provisions across all Member States. has not correctly implemented Article 8(3) InfoSoc nor Article 11 IPRED, whereas Poland and Bulgaria have not implemented these provisions at all,” MPA writes. In , for example, copyright holders must take steps to identify the operator of piracy sites before they can request blocking measures. In some cases, this requires pursuing legal action against hosting companies. This is a barrier that makes site blocking unnecessarily complicated or costly, MPA says. That’s counterproductive in an environment where pirate sites and services are quick to adapt their strategies. “Swift action is needed to limit the dissemination and damage of copyright infringement,” MPA stresses. Automated Real-Time Blocking Automated solutions already exist in some countries. The MPA is particularly interested in site blocking schemes that allow rightsholders to automatically add new piracy domains in realtime. This is especially important for live broadcasts, including sports events, as these have a small blocking window. The MPA says that these broadcasts require dynamic siteblocking and fast-track legal procedures in order to be protected. “MPA is therefore supportive of automated effective siteblocking mechanisms that can be updated in realtime with appropriate safeguards to address emerging infringing streams. In Italy, Greece, Portugal and Brazil automated dynamic systems are available to rightsholders allowing effective real-time blocks.” Automated blocking measures also help to combat circumvention. Pirate site operators are generally quick to circumvent blocking measures with new domain names. Their users can typically find new pirate sites though search engines and social media. “When a pirate service is blocked, pirate infringing operators register and activate a new domain—often with a similar name—allowing users to regain access, therefore circumventing the initial blocking order,” MPA writes. CDNs, VPNs and other Intermediaries Collaboration between Internet providers and copyright holders is essential to implement effective blocking mechanisms, MPA says. However, other intermediaries should also be brought into the fold. MPA suggests a more active role for reverse proxy providers, content delivery networks (CDNs) hosting providers, VPNs and search engines. These were also highlighted in the EU Commission’s 2023 recommendation. The group notes that cooperation with CDNs (e.g. Cloudflare) is key to properly enforcing dynamic blocking. “Intermediaries such as CDNs also have the technical capability to implement targeted blocking at the infrastructure level, which can be a highly effective complement to traditional siteblocking, especially where operators rely on CDN services to deliver pirated content at scale.” “Their engagement tends to be necessary to make targeted and technically feasible siteblocking possible. Failing to involve these actors undermines the effectiveness of dynamic injunctions, as pirates increasingly rely on them to obscure their infrastructure and evade enforcement.” Identifying Pirates In addition to helping on the blocking side, MPA also sees a role for these intermediaries when it comes to identifying pirate site operators. To achieve this, rightsholders should be able to use “Right of Information” requests to swiftly identify potential targets. These information requests should be made available under EU law and, just as importantly, the EU should expand Know Your Business Customer (KYBC) requirements to online intermediaries. At the moment, KYBC rules only apply to online marketplaces. “To effectively allow the identification of the source and repeated misuse of their services, intermediaries need to ensure that they obtain accurate and complete customer information,” MPA writes, adding that KYBC requirements are an “ideal tool” with “minimal burdens” for the intermediaries involved. All in all, the MPA believes that Europe is largely on the right track with its anti-piracy efforts and policies, but with the suggested improvements, ideally formalized in legislation, the process can be further improved. Rightsholders United The MPA is not the only stakeholder making these types of demands. A wide variety of other rightsholder organizations, representing various sectors of the creative industries, echoed the call for more robust anti-piracy measures with legislative backing across the European Union. For example, MFE-MEDIAFOREUROPE, which controls major broadcasters like Mediaset, stressed that hosting providers, CDN providers, and payment services need to take more decisive action. Meanwhile, DAZN described the DSA as a missed opportunity to specifically target entities like VPN providers, dedicated server hosts, and CDN services that play a role in facilitating online piracy. Both DAZN and MFE joined the MPA in calling for KYBC obligations to be extended to more intermediaries. Ultimately, these submissions paint a picture of rightsholders acknowledging the EU’s efforts, while highlighting a clear need for further, stronger action at the EU level. The European Commission will typically take its time to evaluate this feedback, while also keeping an eye on those that are more critical of recent anti-piracy efforts. — A copy of the Motion Picture Association submission in response the EU Commission’s assessment of the May 2023 Commission Recommendation to combating online piracy of sports and other live events is available here (pdf). Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Early this year, Adobe released an all-new Photoshop app for iOS devices. Designed from the ground up for smartphones, the app allows users to easily add, remove, adjust, and combine content, as well as access free Adobe Stock assets to create new visuals. Today, Adobe announced a similar, brand-new Photoshop app for Android devices, currently in beta. It’s important to note that this Android version is not intended to replace the desktop version of Photoshop. Instead, it offers access to select powerful Photoshop features—including layering, masking, and the new Generative Fill—within an easy-to-use mobile interface. During the beta phase, the following features are available to all users: Following the beta phase, users will need a new Photoshop Mobile & Web plan to access the premium features. The premium features list includes the ability to remove objects by brushing over them with the Remove Tool, the ability to use Clone Stamp to hide unwanted objects by cloning areas of an image, the ability to fill portions of an image with content sampled from other parts of the image with Content-Aware Fill, the ability to export using additional file formats (PSD, TIF, JPG, PNG), and more. You can download the Adobe Photoshop app from the Google Play Store if your device is running Android 11 or later and has at least 6GB of RAM (8GB or more is recommended for optimal performance). Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

For centuries, scientists have wondered why Mars is red. The long-standing theory was that the planet’s rusty color came from hematite, an iron-rich mineral formed in dry conditions. But new research suggests something else might be responsible: ferrihydrite, an iron oxide-hydroxide mineral that forms in wet environments. A study published in Nature Communications by researchers from Brown University and the University of Bern suggests that ferrihydrite (Fe5O8H · nH2O) is the dominant iron-containing mineral in Martian dust. Their findings—based on orbital observations, rover data, and lab experiments—challenge previous ideas about Mars' surface composition. “The fundamental question of why Mars is red has been thought of for hundreds if not thousands of years,” said Adomas Valantinas, a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University. “From our analysis, we believe ferrihydrite is everywhere in the dust and also probably in the rock formations, as well.” Ferrihydrite is formed when iron reacts with oxygen and water. On Earth, it’s commonly found in volcanic rock and ash. Its presence on Mars suggests that the planet was once much wetter, with conditions that could have supported liquid water. This contrasts with hematite, which forms in drier environments. To test their theory, the researchers recreated Martian conditions in a lab. They ground minerals into tiny particles—about 1/100th the width of a human hair—matching the size of real Martian dust. They then studied how light reflected off these particles. The results showed that ferrihydrite remains stable in Mars’ current dry, cold climate, but its structure still holds signs that it formed when the planet had water. “What we know from this study is the evidence points to ferrihydrite forming, and for that to happen there must have been conditions where oxygen and water could react with iron,” Valantinas explained. “Those conditions were very different from today’s dry, cold environment.” To confirm ferrihydrite’s presence, the team studied data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and ESA’s Mars Express and Trace Gas Orbiter. They also used spectral readings from rovers like Curiosity, Pathfinder, and Opportunity. Combining all of these sources, they found that the mineral appears widespread on the Martian surface. This discovery challenges previous theories that Mars gradually oxidized in dry conditions. Instead, it suggests that ancient Mars went through a wetter phase before drying out. That shift from a water-rich past to the dry, dusty planet we see today is key to understanding Mars’ climate history—and possibly its ability to support life. “The study is a door-opening opportunity,” said Jack Mustard, senior author of the study. “It gives us a better chance to apply principles of mineral formation and conditions to tap back in time.” While the findings provide strong evidence for ferrihydrite’s role in Mars’ red dust, definitive proof will have to wait until Mars samples—currently being collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover—are brought back to Earth. Scientists hope these samples will confirm the theory and shed more light on the planet’s environmental history. Source: Brown University, University of Bren, Nature | Image via Depositphotos This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, this material is used for the purpose of news reporting. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Antarctica has gained ice in recent years, despite increasing average global temperatures and climate change, a new study finds. Using data from NASA satellites, researchers from Tongji University in Shanghai tracked changes in Antarctica's ice sheet over more than two decades. The overall trend is one of substantial ice loss on the continent, but from 2021 to 2023, Antarctica gained some of that lost ice back. However, this isn't a sign that global warming and climate change have miraculously reversed. Picture a long ski slope with a small jump at the end. That's what a line through the Antarctic ice sheet data looks like when plotted on a graph. While there have been some recent ice gains, they don't even begin to make up for almost 20 years of losses. Most of the gains have already been attributed to an anomaly that saw increased precipitation (snow and some rain) fall over Antarctica, which caused more ice to form. Antarctica's ice levels fluctuate from year to year, and the gains appear to have slowed since the study period ended at the beginning of 2024. The levels reported by NASA thus far in 2025 look similar to what they were back in 2020, just before the abrupt gain. The ice sheet covering Antarctica is the largest mass of ice on Earth. Bigger than the whole of the U.S., the sheet holds 90% of the world's fresh water, according to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, an environmental non-governmental organization. Antarctica is also surrounded by sea ice (frozen ocean water), which expands in the winter and retreats to the Antarctic coastline in the summer. This latest study, published March 19 in the journal Science China Earth Sciences, analyzed data from NASA's Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow-On satellites that have been monitoring this ice sheet since 2002. Studying changes to the sheet is important because any melt releases water into the ocean, which is a major driver of rising sea levels. The satellite data revealed that the sheet experienced a sustained period of ice loss between 2002 and 2020. The ice loss accelerated in the latter half of that period, increasing from an average loss of about 81 billion tons (74 billion metric tons) per year between 2002 and 2010, to a loss of about 157 billion tons (142 billion metric tons) between 2011 and 2020, according to the study. However, the trend then shifted. The ice sheet gained mass from 2021 to 2023 at an average rate of about 119 billion tons (108 metric tons) per year. Four glaciers in eastern Antarctica also flipped from accelerated ice loss to significant mass gain. The recent Antarctic ice sheet gain doesn't make up for the continent experiencing a sustained period of accelerated ice loss. (Image credit: ©Science China Press) "This isn't particularly strange," said Tom Slater, a research fellow in environmental science at Northumbria University in the U.K. who wasn't involved in the study. "In a warmer climate the atmosphere can hold more moisture — this raises the likelihood of extreme weather such as the heavy snowfall which caused the recent mass gain in East Antarctica," he told Live Science in an email. A 2023 study documented Antarctica's unprecedented mass gain between 2021 and 2022. That study, written by many of the same authors behind the new study, found that a high precipitation anomaly was responsible for the gain in ice. The latest study suggests that the trend continued until at least 2023. Slater noted that researchers expect the ice gains to be temporary. "Almost all of Antarctica's grounded ice losses come from glaciers elsewhere which are speeding up and flowing into the warming ocean," Slater said. "This is still happening — while the recent snowfall has temporarily offset these losses, they haven't stopped so it's not expected this is a long-term change in Antarctica's behaviour." A warming world Climate change doesn't mean that everywhere on Earth will get hotter at the same rate, so a single region will never tell the whole story of our warming world. Historically, temperatures over much of Antarctica have remained relatively stable, particularly compared to the Arctic, which has cooked four times faster than the rest of the globe. Antarctica's sea ice has also been much more stable relative to the Arctic, but that's been changing in recent years. In 2023, Antarctic sea ice hit record lows, which researchers concluded was extremely unlikely to happen without climate change. Meanwhile, global sea ice cover is consistently dropping to record lows or near-record lows, while global temperatures are consistently at record or near-record highs. In 2015, world leaders signed the Paris Agreement, an international treaty promising to limit global warming to preferably below 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) and well below 3.6 F (2 C). However, that first promise is on the line: April 2025 was the 21st out of the last 22 months to breach the 2.7 F limit, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service. Source I knew it: if ice cap decreases, it's cuz of global warming for sure. But if ice cap increases, it's still caused by global warming :-)

The new Outlook just gained several features, including multiple offline functions. Microsoft's controversial new Outlook app has a major update. If you're on the latest version of the app, you'll be able to access Copilot Pro or use AI credits through a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription. The app now supports email coaching with Copilot and several new features as well. The June 2025 update for the new Outlook adds support for replying and forwarding emails in a .pst file, moving emails between accounts, and searching for folders while offline. Microsoft also added the ability to add shared folders to Favorites within the new Outlook. If you're not a fan of Copilot in Outlook, you can disable the tool through Outlook's Copilot control page. All of the changes to Outlook are improvements, but I doubt they'll be enough to convert those who dislike the web-based app. Below is the full change log from Microsoft. What's new in new Outlook for Windows Sharing Copilot in Outlook When logged into Outlook with an account that has access to Copilot Pro or AI credits through a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription, Copilot features will be available for all connected email accounts. This includes Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, Live.com, MSN.com, and third-party providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, and iCloud, as long as they are logged into Outlook on the same device. Learn more by visiting Sharing Copilot in Outlook. Get email coaching with Copilot Have an important email to write and want to feel confident that it effectively conveys your intended message? With Copilot in Outlook, you can get helpful suggestions on how to adjust the tone, clarity, and reader sentiment before you hit send. Learn more by visiting Get email coaching with Copilot in Outlook. Reply and forward emails in a PST file With this update of support for .pst files (also known as Outlook Data File) in the new Outlook for Windows, users will be able to reply and forward emails in a .pst file. Future releases of new Outlook will expand the support for .pst file capabilities. Move emails between accounts Consumer users can now seamlessly move emails between their personal accounts, streamlining organization and productivity. For Enterprise users, this feature is off by default and is controlled by a policy managed by administrators. By enabling this policy, admins can grant their users the ability to move emails between accounts in a way that aligns with organizational needs and policies. Offline "Days of email to save" expanded to 30 days The default mail sync window in offline mode has been expanded from 7 days to 30 days. Offline search folders Search folders, which help users group emails based on certain criteria, are now available while offline. Undo send while offline The ability to cancel an email message after you've selected Send is now supported offline. Add shared folders to Favorites We're thrilled to announce that you can now add shared folders to your Favorites. This enhancement offers increased flexibility and convenience, allowing easy access to important shared content directly from your Favorites list. External tag in contact suggestions An External tag will be added to contact suggestions that appear in the dropdown when entering contacts in the email compose form. Disable Copilot in Outlook To disable Copilot, open the Settings window and visit the Copilot > Copilot control page. From there, you can switch the Turn on Copilot control off. Why I hate the new Outlook Microsoft made the Mail & Calendar app inoperable earlier this year. (Image credit: Windows Central) The cliché goes, "Actions speak louder than words." Microsoft's actions say the tech giant does not care about native apps on Windows 11. The built-in video editor that ships with Windows 11 is a web app, as is the new version of Outlook. I admit that some web apps are fine on Windows 11, but I still prefer a nice native app over a wrapped website. The new Outlook is now forced onto Windows 10 and ships with Windows 11 despite being worse in several ways compared to Mail & Calendar. The new Outlook is slower than Mail & Calendar, has issues with notifications, and takes up significantly more RAM than the app it replaces. I should clarify that Mail & Calendar was better than the new Outlook. Microsoft has since dropped support for Mail & Calendar and the app can no longer send or receive emails. Our Senior Editor Zac Bowden said it best when explaining why the new Outlook is not ready for prime time: "That’s probably because it’s not a Windows app, it’s a web app. For whatever reason, Microsoft thinks it’s okay for the default Windows mailing experience to be no better than a [glorified] website. When I compare this experience to the clean and lightweight one of Apple Mail on the Mac, or Samsung Mail on a Galaxy Tablet, it’s simply no contest. Those apps are easier to use, smoother to navigate, and faster too." Microsoft has shipped several updates since Bowden's editorial was published, but the core issues he raised remain. I don't hate the interface of the new Outlook as much as some do, but I miss the native performance of Mail & Calendar. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Microsoft has been trying to get more users onto New Outlook for Windows, and it is doing so not just by enforcing the newer app but also by making improvements along the way. In doing so, though, the company has caused the Classic Outlook app to bug out in the past. The classic app received a major Shared Calendar-related upgrade recently, with many " long-awaited improvements" as well as "small changes in form and function." As the name suggests, the Outlook Shared Calendar essentially allows multiple people to interact with and manage the calendar. With Shared Calendar improvements enabled, users will see the following changes: Instant sync and view of shared calendars Editing series end date does not reset the past Accepting meeting without having to send a response Last Modified By no longer shown in the meeting item Adding same calendar multiple times can't be done Duplicate calendars simultaneously selection Attachments addition not possible when responding to a meeting invitation Event drafts auto-save changes The "Download shared folders" setting is ignored Unfortunately, as with any major feature upgrade, there are bugs, and Microsoft has confirmed this is no different. The tech giant has shared official guidance for it so that users can work around the problems. According to the company, "Shared Calendar improvements are now enabled by default in the most recent versions of Outlook, in all update channels for Microsoft 365 Apps," and thus, the bugs are likely to affect many. Here are some of the bugs Microsoft is investigating, as well as their workarounds: Bug Workaround Meeting cancellation sent unexpectedly to some attendees in classic Outlook In a REST shared calendar, after adding or removing an attendee, or forwarding a meeting, a meeting cancellation may be sent unexpectedly to some attendees. Use the Outlook Web App or new Outlook when adding or removing an attendee or forwarding a meeting. Attendees do not get updates on attachment changes by Delegate When a delegate sends an update on a meeting that requires removing an attachment on an occurrence of a meeting series, the recipients may not get some or all of the attachment changes. In the delegate's Sync Issues folder, you'll see sync errors. Example: 17:23:26 Synchronizer Version 16.0.15313 17:23:26 Synchronizing Mailbox 'Delegate User' 17:23:26 Synchronizing local changes in folder 'Manager User' 17:23:27 Uploading to server 'https://outlook.office365.com/mapi/emsmdb/?xxxxxxxx-xx' 17:23:30 Error synchronizing folder 17:23:30 [0-320] There is no known workaround. It is recommended, whenever possible, to save attachments to SharePoint or to OneDrive and share with a link. After an attachment is deleted from an existing meeting, it may reappear after being deleted Please wait approximately one minute to give the sync time to complete. Additionally, it is advisable to save attachments to SharePoint or OneDrive whenever possible and share them using a link. A meeting created by a delegate with limited calendar access disappears and is unsent when a sensitivity label other than "Normal" is selected Three potential solutions to address this issue, each with their own implications for functionality: Manager can update delegate's permissions to allow viewing of private items. Delegate can change the sensitivity label of the meeting to "Normal". Delegate can disable Shared Calendar Improvements (not recommended). Aside from these, Microsoft has also fixed several other bugs, which you can find in the official support article here on the company's website. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Despite widespread criticism, Microsoft has remained focused on replacing the classic Outlook for Windows with the new web-based Outlook app for everyone. Every month, Microsoft releases updates to the new Outlook app based on user feedback. Today, Microsoft released the June 2025 update for Outlook for Windows with several improvements, including some of the most requested features by Outlook users. With this latest update, Microsoft has improved support for .pst (Outlook Data File) files. You can now reply to and forward emails in a stored .pst file. Microsoft is also working on further improving support for .pst files in the new Outlook for Windows. If you're using the new Outlook app with your personal Microsoft account that has access to Copilot Pro or AI credits through a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription, Copilot features will now be available even for other personal email accounts configured in the Outlook app. This Copilot sharing feature works with email addresses such as Outlook.com, Hotmail.com, Live.com, MSN.com, and third-party providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and iCloud. Microsoft has also added the ability to easily move emails between personal accounts. This feature is disabled by default for enterprise users, but admins can enable it if needed. With this update, Microsoft has increased the default mail sync window in offline mode from 7 days to 30 days. Additionally, you can now access search folders and cancel an email after selecting Send in offline mode. This new update also brings email coaching support through Copilot. Copilot can now suggest adjustments to tone, clarity, and reader sentiment before you hit Send. If you are annoyed with Copilot, you can now disable Copilot completely by going to the Copilot > Copilot control page in the Settings window. In this release, Microsoft has added the ability to add shared folders to your Favorites, making it easier to access content directly from the Favorites list. Finally, an "External" tag will be added to external contact suggestions that appear in the dropdown menu when entering contacts in the email compose form, helping you distinguish between your organization's and external contacts. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Early last month, we reported on a Linux (KDE)-backed initiative called "End of 10," which aimed to show folks how to save their unsupported Windows 10 PCs by installing Linux. Now, as we speed towards October 14, 2025, end-of-support date for Windows 10, KDE is still urging, or rather, inviting what it calls "Windows 10 exiles" to consider making the switch. KDE's message is pretty blunt: your Windows 10 computer is about to become "junk" and "officially obsolete" once Microsoft pulls the plug on support. The organization paints a grim picture of unpatched bugs leading to increased risks of being hacked, potentially compromising your data and identity. Beyond security, KDE suggests that new versions of applications will cease to run, and Microsoft will effectively block upgrades to newer Windows versions unless you purchase new hardware. KDE calls this "tech extortion" and points to the environmental impact of discarded PCs. The alternative presented is to "upgrade the smart way" by keeping existing hardware and installing Linux, specifically highlighting its Plasma desktop, which it claims can run well even on machines a decade old. To entice users, KDE details why Plasma could be a good fit. The environment aims for a familiar feel, with a launch menu and workspace akin to what Windows users are accustomed to, but also offers extensive customization to mimic Windows, macOS, or create something entirely unique. Being open source and developed by a nonprofit, Plasma is free. KDE also points to powerful features like multiple virtual desktops and the Dolphin file manager's built-in connectivity tools for servers and cloud services. Recognizing that switching operating systems is a significant step, KDE offers advice for the transition. It concedes Linux "does take some getting used to" and encourages new users to lean on the community for help. A key piece of advice is not to expect the exact same Windows programs but to look for Linux applications that perform similar functions, noting that essentials like Firefox and LibreOffice often come pre-installed. For additional software, KDE points to package managers like its Discover application, which acts as an app store. KDE also outlines what it believes users will not miss from Windows, such as viruses, ads injected into the operating system, spyware, forced updates, and mandatory account registrations. Interestingly, this "What will you miss" section, while focusing on shedding unwanted Windows behaviors, didn't mention the real things you'd also miss, like the full Adobe Creative Suite, specific Microsoft Office desktop applications, or popular titles like Call of Duty and Fortnite, which are often unsupported due to anti-cheat systems that don't work on Linux. If this all sounds good to you, the most straightforward way to get started is by downloading a Linux distribution (or "distro") that comes with KDE Plasma as its default desktop environment. A few good options include Kubuntu, Fedora KDE Spin, openSUSE, and KDE Neon. But as KDE notes, Plasma isn't your only option. Other desktop environments exist, like GNOME, Xfce, and Cinnamon. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Nvidia has released a new update for the Nvidia App on Windows. Version 11.0.4 is now available with a few changes, such as automatic theme switching with light mode support, Windows Narrator support, fixed bugs, and optimal settings for 12 new games. With today's update, Nvidia App now supports light mode. You can switch between modes in settings or let the app follow the system settings (Windows still does not support automatic theme switching). To change the mode, go to Settings > Features > Theme. In addition, Nvidia App now supports Windows Narrator. The system's native screen reader can now properly read aloud on-screen content to improve accessibility for those relying on assistive technologies. Next, the list of games that Nvidia App can tune for optimal performance has been extended with 12 new titles: Assassin's Creed: Shadows Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Deadlock ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced Half-Life 2 with RTX Indiana Jones And The Great Circle inZOI Monster Hunter Wilds Split Fiction The Last of Us Part II Remastered The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Finally, Nvidia App 11.0.4 fixes the following bugs: Fixed an issue where DLSS-FG defaults to 2x irrespective of in-game setting when DLSS override model is set to "Latest” and Frame generation is set to “Use the 3D application setting". Fixed an issue where the driver download could not be completed. Fixed an issue where the recording bitrate setting was not saved. Fixed an issue where HDR video colors were not encoded properly for HEVC and AV1 playback. Fixed a bug where the in-game overlay was not accessible on the GeForce RTX 5070. Fixed an issue where a PC reboot would reset microphone boost to an incorrect value. Fixed an issue where Highlights summary window could not be disabled. Various stability fixes. You can download the Nvidia App from the official website. Full release notes are available here. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

If you're running Elementary OS 8, there's a new round of updates available, bringing some neat enhancements, particularly to its signature Dock and the underlying window manager, Gala. If you are not familiar, Elementary OS positions itself as a polished alternative to Windows and macOS. It runs its own custom desktop environment called Pantheon, with Gala handling all the window management magic, like animations and how windows behave. In the new update, the Dock gets some notable new tricks, including the return of a couple of features that old-school Plank (the Dock's foundation) users might remember. For starters, the Dock now shows multiple indicator dots beneath an app icon if you have more than one window open for that application, which is useful for quickly seeing what is running. Plus, if you are dragging something and hover over an app icon in the Dock, it will cycle through that app's open windows, making it easier to drop your item into the right place. You can also now long-press an app icon to bring up its context menu, a nice touch for those who prefer that interaction. The elementary OS team also squashed some bugs related to hide modes and memory usage, keeping things running smoothly. Gala itself recently got a massive update, addressing around 20 reported issues and introducing a brand new Gesture Controller. This means users can now swipe up in the Multitasking View to close windows, a slick and intuitive gesture. App titles are now always shown in Multitasking View, a significant improvement for touchscreen users. Users also get notified when they take a screenshot with a keyboard shortcut, and this notification lets them jump straight to the image in Files. Some other welcome Gala improvements include saving window states on sleep and shutdown, and fixing an annoying bug where menus might only show once. For gamers, a fix for Lutris Flatpak installations causing Gala to crash with GE Proton setups will be a relief, and users of the Postman app will be happy to know that window captures for it are no longer partially rendered. Shifting back to Elementary OS 8, in System Settings, choosing light or dark mode properly snoozes your schedule instead of outright disabling it. The Reduce Motion setting has been expanded to cover a wider array of animations, which is a blessing for folks prone to motion sickness. Hotcorners got some fixes too, and there is a new option to keep them active even when an application is full screen. Other notable updates include added screen reader support for notifications and the shortcut overlay, fixes for Flatpak sandbox issues that affected apps like Steam, and the latest version of GNOME Web, which brought better performance and a redesigned bookmarks sidebar. You can download all these updates by opening System Settings, heading to System, and hitting "Update All." Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Epic Games' The State of Unreal 2025 keynote happened today, giving a look at its latest improvements to the Unreal Engine, and other developments and partnerships that the Fortnite maker is involved in. The show kicked things off with a bang, giving fans a live on-stage presentation of The Witcher 4 alongside developer CD Projekt RED. Seen below, the tech demo of the hugely anticipated RPG features the new trilogy's protagonist, Ciri, as she explores Kovir, the new mainland that CD Projekt is letting players explore. Following a monster trail, Ciri and her horse Kelpie go through mountains and forests before reaching the town of Valdrest. Surprisingly, the demo is said to be running on a base PlayStation 5, and it even manages to stay at 60 frames per second despite the stunning visuals. The studio said that the technologies it is using will benefit all platforms that it is targeting for the RPG. The Witcher 4 is coming to PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 consoles, though a release date has not been revealed yet. "We started our partnership with Epic Games to push open-world game technology forward. To show this early look at the work we’ve been doing using Unreal Engine running at 60 FPS on PlayStation 5, is a significant milestone — and a testament of the great cooperation between our teams," said joint CEO of CD Projekt RED Michał Nowakowski. "But we're far from finished. I look forward to seeing more advancements and inspiring technology from this partnership as development of The Witcher 4 on Unreal Engine 5 continues." The demo showcases tech like Unreal Animation Framework, Nanite Foliage rendering, MetaHuman technology with Mass AI crowd scaling, and more from Epic Games' latest engine developments. Unreal Engine 5.6 is said to include many of these improvements, letting any developer use the tools on their games for better visuals and optimizations. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Our first quick dive into the system-level settings and the new GameChat multiplayer. Eight years ago, just before the release of the Nintendo Switch, we provided an in-depth review of the hardware thanks to early production units provided by Nintendo. This year, Nintendo has opted not to provide such unrestricted early press access to the Switch 2 hardware, citing a "day-one update" to the system software and some launch games that would supposedly make pre-release evaluation more difficult. As such, we won't be able to provide our full thoughts on the Switch 2 until well after the system is in players' hands. While that's not an ideal situation for readers looking to make an early purchase decision, we'll do our best to give you our hands-on impressions as soon as possible after launch day. In lieu of review access, though, we were able to get some extended hands-on time with the final Switch 2 hardware at a daylong preview event held by Nintendo last week. This event provided our first look at the console's system-level menu and settings, as well as features like GameChat (which was hard to fully evaluate in an extremely controlled environment). While this access was far from sufficient for a full review, it did let us discover a few interesting features that we weren't aware of beforehand. Here are some of the new tidbits we stumbled across during our day with the Switch 2 hardware. GameChat can generate captions for live speech One of the most unexpected accessibility features of the Switch 2 is the system's ability to automatically generate on-screen captions for what friends are saying during a GameChat session. These captions appear in their own box that can be set to the side of the main gameplay. The captioning system seemed pretty fast and accurate in our test and could even update captions from multiple speakers at the same time. GameChat can automatically update captions for multiple speakers at once. Credit: Kyle Orland While this is obviously useful for hard-of-hearing players, we could also see the feature being a boon for managing crosstalk among rowdy GameChat parties or for quickly referring back to something someone said a few seconds ago. You can generate spoken speech from text messages In a reverse of the auto-captioning system discussed above, GameChat also has a feature buried deep in its menus that lets you type a message on the on-screen keyboard and have it spoken aloud to the other participants in a slightly robotic voice. This could come in handy when you're playing in an environment where you have to be quiet but still want to quickly convey detailed information to your fellow players. The camera has built-in head-tracking During GameChat sessions, you can make the connected camera show only your face instead of your entire body and/or the background behind it. This mode keeps your face centered in a small, circular frame even as you move around during gameplay, though there is a slight delay in the tracking if you move your head too quickly. While you can also activate a similar face display during local multiplayer sessions of Mario Kart World, the game doesn't seem to track your movements, meaning you can easily fall out of frame if you don't hold your body still. The system can detect the angle of the kickstand Wonderful! This was a cute little surprise I discovered in a Switch 2 Welcome Tour mini-game that asks you to set the kickstand as close as possible to a given angle. This mini-game works even if the Joy-Cons are not attached, suggesting that there is a sensor in the kickstand or tablet itself that measures the angle. It did take a few seconds of stillness for the game to fully confirm the system's resting angle, though, so don't expect to be tilting the kickstand rapidly to control action games or anything. You can use mouse mode to navigate system menus I stumbled on this feature when I was holding the Joy-Cons normally and one of my fingers accidentally passed over the mouse sensor, activating a mouse pointer on the system menu screen. When I put the controller down on its edge, I found that the pointer could scroll and click through those menus, often much more quickly than flicking a joystick. Mouse mode also lets you zoom in on specific areas of the screen with a quick double-click, which should be useful for both vision-impaired players and those playing on tiny and/or far-off screens. You can adjust the mouse mode sensitivity The system menu lets you adjust the mouse sensor's sensitivity between "low," "medium," and "high." While that's a lot less precise than the fully adjustable DPI settings you might be used to with a computer mouse, it's still a welcome option. In some quick testing, I found the high-sensitivity mode to be especially useful when using the mouse on a small surface, such as the top of my thigh. At this setting, the pointer could move from one end of the screen to the other with the slightest wrist adjustment. Low sensitivity mode, on the other hand, proved useful in more precise situations, such as in a Welcome Tour mini-game where I had to move a ball quickly and precisely through a large, electrified maze. You can play sounds to find lost controllers Find lost controllers easily with this menu option. Lose a Joy-Con somewhere in the depths of your couch? Not to worry—a new menu option on the Switch 2 lets you play a distinctive sound through that Joy-Con's improved HD Rumble 2 motor to help you find its precise location. While we confirmed that this feature also works with the new Pro Controller 2, we were unable to determine whether it can be used for original Switch controllers that are synced with a Switch 2. You can set a system-wide security PIN Your unique PIN code must be entered any time the system comes out of sleep mode, making the hardware functionally useless to anyone who doesn't have the PIN. This should be great for kids who want to keep siblings away and parents who are worried about their kids sneaking in extra Switch 2 time when they shouldn't be. You can limit the battery charging level A new system-level option will prevent the Switch 2 from charging as soon as it hits 90 percent of capacity, a move intended to increase the longevity of the internal battery. This is already a common feature on many smartphones and portable gaming devices, so it's nice to see Nintendo joining the bandwagon here. Thus far, though, it appears that the 90 percent battery capacity is the only cutoff point available, with no further options for customization. You can adjust the size of menu text MAXIMUM TEXT SIZE. Credit: Kyle Orland As you can see in the photo above, setting the system text size to "MAXIMUM" lets menu options be seen easily from roughly the moon. You can set the system text to bold and high-contrast for even more legibility, and there's also an option to make the system menu text smaller than the default, for whatever reason. You can swap the A and B buttons at the system level With this menu option activated, the B button is used to "confirm" and the A button is used to "cancel" in system menus. This should be welcome news for players more used to the button layout on Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam Deck controllers, which all have the "confirm" and "cancel" options in reversed positions from the Nintendo default. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

The former Microsoft CEO admits in a recent podcast how he struggled to emotionally detach from Microsoft after retiring. Sometimes we can lose ourselves in our professions, especially if we really like our job. It can become a labor of love, not just a source of monetary benefits. In a recent episode of the "Acquired" podcast, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer revealed that he had a difficult time emotionally detaching from the company he'd helped build from the ground up (via ). Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 as the company's first business manager. Fast forward to the early millennium, and he took over from Bill Gates and became the company's CEO through 2014. Spending most of his professional life at Microsoft, Ballmer admits in this podcast that he had a difficult time letting go of the company: "It was my baby. I was there so early, and I hired basically everybody." Even after Satya Nadella took over as Microsoft CEO, Ballmer remained proactive in the company's affairs as an ultra-engaged investor. reading everything and attending shareholder meetings. He indicated that he was "kind of a dick" for it. In the end, Ballmer indicated that it took him a little over a year to emotionally detach from Microsoft. He even considered selling his Microsoft stocks to expedite the detachment process. "It was nothing to do with money," he added. "My only thought process was emotional detachment." However, he says a former colleague managed to discourage him from making the move. Ballmer indicated that his loyalty to Microsoft trumps emotional attachment. Luckily, the executive managed to strike a balance, retaining his loyalty to Microsoft but emotionally detached from its highs and lows. Bill Gates suffered from imposter syndrome in the early Microsoft days Bill Gates holding a copy of Windows XP in Times Square. (Image credit: Getty Images) Running a multi-trillion-dollar company like Microsoft isn't an easy feat. As you may know, Bill Gates and Paul Allen started the software giant in 1975, and the company celebrated its 50th birthday earlier this year in April. Bill Gates admitted that he had a difficult reveling in Microsoft's immense success in the tech landscape despite its impressive market capitalization that propelled him into a billionaire. The philanthropic billionaire indicated that the new reality only started dawning on him in 1998. The executive officially left his day-to-day role as Microsoft CEO in 2008, though he remained the chairman of the company's board until 2014. While he has since shifted his focus to philanthropic efforts via The Gates Foundation and is on the precipice of giving away all his wealth, recent reports suggest that Gates is still intimately involved in Microsoft's affairs, with his word being treated as "the gospel." Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Hundreds of Redmond-based employees will be laid off by Microsoft. Microsoft will lay off 305 Washington-based employees, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filing this week. Employers must give notice before mass layoffs so affected workers can seek new jobs or prepare for the transition. While this round affects less than 1% of Microsoft's workforce, it comes just weeks after the company laid off 3% of its staff. That earlier wave impacted 1,985 Washington-based employees. Around 6,000 total workers were affected by the May layoffs. Microsoft had 228,000 employees as of last year, according to the company. “We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” said a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Seattle Times. Mass layoffs are relatively common at Microsoft and other large tech companies, though they are often met with criticism. Microsoft is one of the world's most valuable companies and is often the most valuable company on earth. The tech giant also beat expectations in FY25 Q3, reporting a net income of $25.8 billion. With a workforce measured in hundreds of thousands, Microsoft is a complex company that adjusts its employee count regularly. Global economic trends and the rise of AI tools have also affected staffing around the world. Microsoft did not point toward AI as the cause of the recent layoffs. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Google has released an emergency security update to fix the third Chrome zero-day vulnerability exploited in attacks since the start of the year. "Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2025-5419 exists in the wild," the company warned in a security advisory published on Monday. This high-severity vulnerability is caused by an out-of-bounds read and write weakness in Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine, reported one week ago by Clement Lecigne and Benoît Sevens of Google's Threat Analysis Group. Google says the issue was mitigated one day later by a configuration change the company pushed to the Stable channel across all Chrome platforms. On Monday, it also fixed the zero-day with the release of 137.0.7151.68/.69 for Windows/Mac and 137.0.7151.68 for Linux, versions that are rolling out to users in the Stable Desktop channel over the coming weeks. While Chrome will automatically update when new security patches are available, users can speed up the process by going to the Chrome menu > Help > About Google Chrome, letting the update finish, and clicking the 'Relaunch' button to install it immediately. While Google has already confirmed that CVE-2025-5419 is being exploited in the wild, the company will not share additional information regarding these attacks until more users have patched their browsers. "Access to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix," Google said. "We will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third party library that other projects similarly depend on, but haven't yet fixed." This is Google's third Chrome zero-day vulnerability since the start of the year, with two more patched in March and May. The first, a high-severity sandbox escape flaw (CVE-2025-2783) discovered by Kaspersky's Boris Larin and Igor Kuznetsov, was used to deploy malware in espionage attacks targeting Russian government organizations and media outlets. The company released another set of emergency security updates in May to patch a Chrome zero-day that could let attackers take over accounts following successful exploitation. Last year, Google patched 10 zero-days that were either demoed during the Pwn2Own hacking competition or exploited in attacks. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Mozilla has developed a new security feature for its add-on portal that helps block Firefox malicious extensions that drain cryptocurrency wallets. According to a recent blog post, Mozilla's new security system creates risk profiles for each submitted wallet extension and triggers automated risk alerts if a pre-defined threshold is exceeded. These alerts will prompt human reviewers to take a closer look and remove malicious extensions from the store before they're used to drain more victims' crypto wallets. "To help protect Firefox users, the Add-ons Operations team developed an early detection system designed to identify and stop crypto scam extensions before they find traction with unsuspecting users," Mozilla said. "The first layer of defense involves automated indicators that determine a risk profile for wallet extensions submitted to AMO. If a wallet extension reaches a certain risk threshold, human reviewers are alerted to take a deeper look. If found to be malicious, the scam extensions are blocked immediately." Crypto wallet drainers that steal cryptocurrency or other digital assets from a victim's wallets are now being delivered to potential victims' systems via malicious browser extensions designed to masquerade as legitimate add-ons from trusted crypto wallets. This attack vector ensures that threat actors can quickly empty their targets' crypto wallets after stealing their private keys and credentials, making the lost funds likely impossible to recover. While not all are directly tied to malicious extensions, cybercriminals stole $494 million worth of cryptocurrency last year in wallet-draining attacks from more than 300,000 wallet addresses. Andreas Wagner, the Add-ons Operations Manager who also leads addons.mozilla.org (AMO) content security and review efforts, says his team has discovered and removed hundreds of such extensions, including scam crypto wallets, over the last few years. "It's a constant cat and mouse game, as developers try to work around our detection methods," Wagner explained. "Check your crypto wallet's website to see if they have an official extension, and only use the one they link to," he added, advising Firefox users to use the official extensions provided by their crypto wallet services whenever possible. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Abuse allows Meta and Yandex to attach persistent identifiers to detailed browsing histories. Tracking code that Meta and Russia-based Yandex embed into millions of websites is de-anonymizing visitors by abusing legitimate Internet protocols, causing Chrome and other browsers to surreptitiously send unique identifiers to native apps installed on a device, researchers have discovered. Google says it's investigating the abuse, which allows Meta and Yandex to convert ephemeral web identifiers into persistent mobile app user identities. The covert tracking—implemented in the Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica trackers—allows Meta and Yandex to bypass core security and privacy protections provided by both the Android operating system and browsers that run on it. Android sandboxing, for instance, isolates processes to prevent them from interacting with the OS and any other app installed on the device, cutting off access to sensitive data or privileged system resources. Defenses such as state partitioning and storage partitioning, which are built into all major browsers, store site cookies and other data associated with a website in containers that are unique to every top-level website domain to ensure they're off-limits for every other site. A blatant violation “One of the fundamental security principles that exists in the web, as well as the mobile system, is called sandboxing,” Narseo Vallina-Rodriguez, one of the researchers behind the discovery, said in an interview. “You run everything in a sandbox, and there is no interaction within different elements running on it. What this attack vector allows is to break the sandbox that exists between the mobile context and the web context. The channel that exists allowed the Android system to communicate what happens in the browser with the identity running in the mobile app.” The bypass—which Yandex began in 2017 and Meta started last September—allows the companies to pass cookies or other identifiers from Firefox and Chromium-based browsers to native Android apps for Facebook, Instagram, and various Yandex apps. The companies can then tie that vast browsing history to the account holder logged into the app. This abuse has been observed only in Android, and evidence suggests that the Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica target only Android users. The researchers say it may be technically feasible to target iOS because browsers on that platform allow developers to programmatically establish localhost connections that apps can monitor on local ports. In contrast to iOS, however, Android imposes fewer controls on local host communications and background executions of mobile apps, the researchers said, while also implementing stricter controls in app store vetting processes to limit such abuses. This overly permissive design allows Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica to send web requests with web tracking identifiers to specific local ports that are continuously monitored by the Facebook, Instagram, and Yandex apps. These apps can then link pseudonymous web identities with actual user identities, even in private browsing modes, effectively de-anonymizing users’ browsing habits on sites containing these trackers. Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica are analytics scripts designed to help advertisers measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica are estimated to be installed on 5.8 million and 3 million sites, respectively. Meta and Yandex achieve the bypass by abusing basic functionality built into modern mobile browsers that allows browser-to-native app communications. The functionality lets browsers send web requests to local Android ports to establish various services, including media connections through the RTC protocol, file sharing, and developer debugging. A conceptual diagram representing the exchange of identifiers between the web trackers running on the browser context and native Facebook, Instagram, and Yandex apps for Android. While the technical underpinnings differ, both Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica are performing a “weird protocol misuse” to gain unvetted access that Android provides to localhost ports on the 127.0.0.1 IP address. Browsers access these ports without user notification. Facebook, Instagram, and Yandex native apps silently listen on those ports, copy identifiers in real time, and link them to the user logged into the app. A representative for Google said the behavior violates the terms of service for its Play marketplace and the privacy expectations of Android users. “The developers in this report are using capabilities present in many browsers across iOS and Android in unintended ways that blatantly violate our security and privacy principles,” the representative said, referring to the people who write the Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica JavaScript. “We've already implemented changes to mitigate these invasive techniques and have opened our own investigation and are directly in touch with the parties.” Meta didn't answer emailed questions for this article, but provided the following statement: "We are in discussions with Google to address a potential miscommunication regarding the application of their policies. Upon becoming aware of the concerns, we decided to pause the feature while we work with Google to resolve the issue." In an email, Yandex said it was discontinuing the practice and was also in touch with Google. "Yandex strictly complies with data protection standards and does not de-anonymize user data," the statement added. "The feature in question does not collect any sensitive information and is solely intended to improve personalization within our apps." How Meta and Yandex de-anonymize Android users Meta Pixel developers have abused various protocols to implement the covert listening since the practice began last September. They started by causing apps to send HTTP requests to port 12387. A month later, Meta Pixel stopped sending this data, even though Facebook and Instagram apps continued to monitor the port. In November, Meta Pixel switched to a new method that invoked WebSocket, a protocol for two-way communications, over port 12387. That same month, Meta Pixel also deployed a new method that used WebRTC, a real-time peer-to-peer communication protocol commonly used for making audio or video calls in the browser. This method used a complicated process known as SDP munging, a technique for JavaScript code to modify Session Description Protocol data before it’s sent. Still in use today, the SDP munging by Meta Pixel inserts key _fbp cookie content into fields meant for connection information. This causes the browser to send that data as part of a STUN request to the Android local host, where the Facebook or Instagram app can read it and link it to the user. In May, a beta version of Chrome introduced a mitigation that blocked the type of SDP munging that Meta Pixel used. Within days, Meta Pixel circumvented the mitigation by adding a new method that swapped the STUN requests with the TURN requests. In a post, the researchers provided a detailed description of the _fbp cookie from a website to the native app and, from there, to the Meta server: Detailed flow of the way the Meta Pixel leaks the _fbp cookie from Android browsers to it's Facebook and Instagram apps. The first known instance of Yandex Metrica linking websites visited in Android browsers to app identities was in May 2017, when the tracker started sending HTTP requests to local ports 29009 and 30102. In May 2018, Yandex Metrica also began sending the data through HTTPS to ports 29010 and 30103. Both methods remained in place as of publication time. An overview of Yandex identifier sharing A timeline of web history tracking by Meta and Yandex Some browsers for Android have blocked the abusive JavaScript in trackers. DuckDuckGo, for instance, was already blocking domains and IP addresses associated with the trackers, preventing the browser from sending any identifiers to Meta. The browser also blocked most of the domains associated with Yandex Metrica. After the researchers notified DuckDuckGo of the incomplete blacklist, developers added the missing addresses. The Brave browser, meanwhile, also blocked the sharing of identifiers due to its extensive blocklists and existing mitigation to block requests to the localhost without explicit user consent. Vivaldi, another Chromium-based browser, forwards the identifiers to local Android ports when the default privacy setting is in place. Changing the setting to block trackers appears to thwart browsing history leakage, the researchers said. Tracking blocker settings in Vivaldi for Android. There’s got to be a better way The various remedies DuckDuckGo, Brave, Vivaldi, and Chrome have put in place are working as intended, but the researchers caution they could become ineffective at any time. “Any browser doing blocklisting will likely enter into a constant arms race, and it's just a partial solution,” Vallina Rodriguez said of the current mitigations. “Creating effective blocklists is hard, and browser makers will need to constantly monitor the use of this type of capability to detect other hostnames potentially abusing localhost channels and then updating their blocklists accordingly.” He continued: Chrome and most other Chromium-based browsers executed the JavaScript as Meta and Yandex intended. Firefox did as well, although for reasons that aren't clear, the browser was not able to successfully perform the SDP munging specified in later versions of the code. After blocking the STUN variant of SDP munging in the early May beta release, a production version of Chrome released two weeks ago began blocking both the STUN and TURN variants. Other Chromium-based browsers are likely to implement it in the coming weeks. A representative for Firefox-maker Mozilla said the organization prioritizes user privacy and is taking the report seriously "We are actively investigating the reported behavior, and working to fully understand its technical details and implications," Mozilla said in an email. "Based on what we’ve seen so far, we consider these to be severe violations of our anti-tracking policies, and are assessing solutions to protect against these new tracking techniques." The researchers warn that the current fixes are so specific to the code in the Meta and Yandex trackers that it would be easy to bypass them with a simple update. “They know that if someone else comes in and tries a different port number, they may bypass this protection,” said Gunes Acar, the researcher behind the initial discovery, referring to the Chrome developer team at Google. “But our understanding is they want to send this message that they will not tolerate this form of abuse.” Fellow researcher Vallina-Rodriguez said the more comprehensive way to prevent the abuse is for Android to overhaul the way it handles access to local ports. “The fundamental issue is that the access to the local host sockets is completely uncontrolled on Android,” he explained. “There's no way for users to prevent this kind of communication on their devices. Because of the dynamic nature of JavaScript code and the difficulty to keep blocklists up to date, the right way of blocking this persistently is by limiting this type of access at the mobile platform and browser level, including stricter platform policies to limit abuse.” Got consent? The researchers who made this discovery are: Aniketh Girish, PhD student at IMDEA Networks Gunes Acar, assistant professor in Radboud University’s Digital Security Group & iHub Narseo Vallina-Rodriguez, associate professor at IMDEA Networks Nipuna Weerasekara, PhD student at IMDEA Networks Tim Vlummens, PhD student at COSIC, KU Leuven Acar said he first noticed Meta Pixel accessing local ports while visiting his own university's website. There's no indication that Meta or Yandex has disclosed the tracking to either websites hosting the trackers or end users who visit those sites. Developer forums show that many websites using Meta Pixel were caught off guard when the scripts began connecting to local ports. “Since 5th September, our internal JS error tracking has been flagging failed fetch requests to localhost:12387,” one developer wrote. “No changes have been made on our side, and the existing Facebook tracking pixel we use loads via Google Tag Manager.” “Is there some way I can disable this?” another developer encountering the unexplained local port access asked. It's unclear whether browser-to-native-app tracking violates any privacy laws in various countries. Both Meta and companies hosting its Meta Pixel, however, have faced a raft of lawsuits in recent years alleging that the data collected violates privacy statutes. A research paper from 2023 found that Meta pixel, then called the Facebook Pixel, "tracks a wide range of user activities on websites with alarming detail, especially on websites classified as sensitive categories under GDPR," the abbreviation for the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. So far, Google has provided no indication that it plans to redesign the way Android handles local port access. For now, the most comprehensive protection against Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica tracking is to refrain from installing the Facebook, Instagram, or Yandex apps on Android devices. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

The online video-sharing giant YouTube took to its community support forum to acknowledge a bug in its Android app that has been bothering users for some time. The said bug, which hides the app's bottom navigation bar, affects both free and premium users on the YouTube app for Android. In other words, affected users may not see the Subscriptions, Notifications, and Library navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen. "We're aware some of you are experiencing issues with the navigation bar for the YouTube App. This might also affect YouTube premium users," YouTube said. "Our teams are actively investigating this issue! We'll update this thread as soon as we have new information." The Google-owned platform is currently working to fix the issue and notes that the problem is affecting Android users living in the US. However, unverified user reports in the comments suggest that the issue has plagued other regions, including India, , Poland, Spain, Nigeria, Australia, and others. Among various brands, there are several mentions from users running devices with Xiaomi's HyperOS software. Some users attempted to uninstall and reinstall the YouTube app, clear the cache, and roll back updates, but were unable to achieve success. It has been months since Android users have reported problems with the app's navigation bar, where it may disappear randomly and return after the app is restarted. With the navigation bar gone on the YouTube Android app, some users reported being unable to upload videos or access the profile button. It's hard to say whether YouTube was working to make it auto-disappear, and things went south. For now, all users can do is wait for a fix from the company. Speaking of new changes, a recent YouTube update has killed support for several older iPhone models. Google confirmed that it will bring more ads to the cheaper YouTube Lite plan. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend