Enlarge (credit: Microsoft) Microsoft will begin rolling this year’s annual Windows 11 update out to consumers starting today, the company announced at a Windows- and Copilot-centric event today. The Windows 11 2024 Update, also known as Windows 11 24H2, will roll out in phases, starting with Windows 11 PCs running versions 22H2 or 23H2 that have opted in to getting new feature updates faster. New features in 24H2 include an…

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Public records systems that courts and governments rely on to manage voter registrations and legal filings have been riddled with vulnerabilities that made it possible for attackers to falsify registration databases and add, delete, or modify official documents. Over the past year, software developer turned security researcher Jason Parker has found and reported dozens of critical vulnerabilities in no fewer than 19 commercial platforms used by…

Enlarge / A Downdetector map showing where Verizon outages are reported. (credit: Downdetector) Wireless customers of Verizon and AT&T have found that they cannot make calls, send or receive text messages, or download any mobile data. As of this article’s publication, it appears the problem has yet to be resolved. Users took to social media throughout the morning to complain that their phones were showing “SOS” mode, which allows emergency…

Enlarge / The Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California. (credit: Anadolu Agency | Getty) A few weeks back, it was reported that Apple was exploring investing in OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT, the GPT model, and other popular generative AI products. Now, a new report from The Wall Street Journal claims that Apple has abandoned those plans. The article simply says Apple “fell out of the talks to join…

Enlarge / A still from Wolfs, an Apple-produced film starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt. (credit: Apple) For the past few years, Apple has been making big-budget movies meant to compete with the best traditional Hollywood studios have to offer, and it has been releasing them in theaters to drive ticket sales and awards buzz. Much of that is about to change, according to a report from Bloomberg. The article…

Enlarge / There’s been a lot of AI news this week, and covering it sometimes feels like running through a hall full of danging CRTs, just like this Getty Images illustration. (credit: Grandfailure via Getty Images) It’s been a wildly busy week in AI news thanks to OpenAI, including a controversial blog post from CEO Sam Altman, the wide rollout of Advanced Voice Mode, 5GW data center rumors, major staff…

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Officials in Ireland have fined Meta $101 million for storing hundreds of millions of user passwords in plaintext and making them broadly available to company employees. Meta disclosed the lapse in early 2019. The company said that apps for connecting to various Meta-owned social networks had logged user passwords in plaintext and stored them in a database that had been searched by roughly 2,000 company engineers,…

Enlarge (credit: Getty) The printer industry is in a rut. With the digitization of, well, nearly everything, people just don’t print like they used to. More modern ways of storing and sharing information, changes in communication preferences at home and in offices, and environmental concerns have stonewalled the printing industry and challenged stakeholders like HP. I’d argue that it’s not just technological, economic, and societal changes that have diminished printer…