People complaining about Windows 11 hasn’t stopped it from hitting 1 billion users

Complaining about Windows 11 is a popular sport among tech enthusiasts on the Internet, whether you’re publicly switching to Linux, publishing guides about the dozens of things you need to do to make the OS less annoying, or getting upset because you were asked to sign in to an app after clicking a sign-in button. Despite the negativity surrounding the current version of Windows, it remains the most widely used…

January 29, 2026
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County pays $600,000 to pentesters it arrested for assessing courthouse security

Two security professionals who were arrested in 2019 after performing an authorized security assessment of a county courthouse in Iowa will receive $600,000 to settle a lawsuit they brought alleging wrongful arrest and defamation. The case was brought by Gary DeMercurio and Justin Wynn, two penetration testers who at the time were employed by Colorado-based security firm Coalfire Labs. The men had written authorization from the Iowa Judicial Branch to…

January 29, 2026
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Does Anthropic believe its AI is conscious, or is that just what it wants Claude to think?

Anthropic’s secret to building a better AI assistant might be treating Claude like it has a soul—whether or not anyone actually believes that’s true. But Anthropic isn’t saying exactly what it believes either way. Last week, Anthropic released what it calls Claude’s Constitution, a 30,000-word document outlining the company’s vision for how its AI assistant should behave in the world. Aimed directly at Claude and used during the model’s creation,…

January 29, 2026
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Site catering to online criminals has been seized by the FBI

RAMP—the predominantly Russian-language online bazaar that billed itself as the “only place ransomware allowed”—had its dark web and clear web sites seized by the FBI as the agency tries to combat the growing scourge threatening critical infrastructure and organizations around the world. Visits to both sites on Wednesday returned pages that said the FBI had taken control of the RAMP domains, which mirrored each other. RAMP has been among the…

January 28, 2026
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Seven things to know about how Apple’s Creator Studio subscriptions work

Apple’s new Creator Studio subscription bundle officially launches today, offering access to a wide range of updated professional apps for an all-or-nothing price of $13 a month or $130 a year. Teachers and students can get the same apps for $3 a month, or $30 a year. The bundle includes either access to or enhanced features for a total of 10 Apple apps, though the base versions of several of…

January 28, 2026
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Google begins rolling out Chrome’s “Auto Browse” AI agent today

Google began stuffing Gemini into its dominant Chrome browser several months ago, and today the AI is expanding its capabilities considerably. Google says the chatbot will be easier to access and connect to more Google services, but the biggest change is the addition of Google’s autonomous browsing agent, which it has dubbed Auto Browse. Similar to tools like OpenAI Atlas, Auto Browse can handle tedious tasks in Chrome so you…

January 28, 2026
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Report: China approves import of high-end Nvidia AI chips after weeks of uncertainty

On Wednesday, China approved imports of Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence chips for three of its largest technology companies, Reuters reported. ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent received approval to purchase more than 400,000 H200 chips in total, marking a shift in Beijing’s stance after weeks of holding up shipments despite US export clearance. The move follows Beijing’s temporary halt to H200 shipments earlier this month after Washington cleared exports on January 13….

January 28, 2026
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There’s a rash of scam spam coming from a real Microsoft address

There are reports that a legitimate Microsoft email address—which Microsoft explicitly says customers should add to their allow list—is delivering scam spam. The emails originate from no-reply-powerbi@microsoft.com, an address tied to Power BI. The Microsoft platform provides analytics and business intelligence from various sources that can be integrated into a single dashboard. Microsoft documentation says that the address is used to send subscription emails to mail-enabled security groups. To prevent…

January 27, 2026
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LG’s new subscription program charges up to £277 per month to rent a TV 

LG has launched a subscription program in the UK that allows people to make monthly payments in order to rent LG TVs, soundbars, monitors, and speakers. LG Flex customers can sign up for one-, two-, or three-year subscriptions to get lower monthly payments. “At the end of your subscription, you can apply for a free upgrade, keep paying monthly, or return your device,” the LG Flex website says. Subscribers will…

January 27, 2026
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Apple patches ancient iOS versions to keep iMessage, FaceTime, other services working

When Apple stops supporting older iPhones and iPads with the latest version of iOS or iPadOS, it usually isn’t the end of the line—Apple keeps releasing new security-only patches for those devices for another year or two, keeping them usable while their hardware is still reasonably capable. Once those updates dry up, it’s rare for Apple to revisit those older operating systems, but the company does sometimes make exceptions. That…

January 27, 2026
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