Zyxel warns of vulnerabilities in a wide range of its products

September 4, 2024

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Networking hardware-maker Zyxel is warning of nearly a dozen vulnerabilities in a wide array of its products. If left unpatched, some of them could enable the complete takeover of the devices, which can be targeted as an initial point of entry into large networks. The most serious vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-7261, can be exploited to “allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute OS commands by sending a…

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Qualcomm’s new 8-core Snapdragon chip is aimed at cheaper Arm Windows PCs

September 4, 2024

Enlarge (credit: Qualcomm) Windows-on-Arm is finally just about good enough to serve as your main PC, thanks to a combination of long-awaited Snapdragon X-series silicon from Qualcomm, Arm-specific improvements in the Windows 11 24H2 update, and third-party software developers that are slowly but surely putting out Arm-native versions of their most popular apps. So far, those Snapdragon X chips have been confined mostly to $1,000-and-up premium PCs like the Surface…

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Oprah’s upcoming AI television special sparks outrage among tech critics

September 3, 2024

Enlarge / An ABC handout promotional image for “AI and the Future of Us: An Oprah Winfrey Special.” (credit: ABC) On Thursday, ABC announced an upcoming TV special titled, “AI and the Future of Us: An Oprah Winfrey Special.” The one-hour show, set to air on September 12, aims to explore AI’s impact on daily life and will feature interviews with figures in the tech industry, like OpenAI CEO Sam…

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Rust in Linux lead retires rather than deal with more “nontechnical nonsense”

September 3, 2024

Enlarge / Rust never sleeps. But Rust, the programming language, can be held at bay if enough kernel programmers aren’t interested in seeing it implemented. (credit: Getty Images) The Linux kernel is not a place to work if you’re not ready for some, shall we say, spirited argument. Still, one key developer in the project to expand Rust’s place inside the largely C-based kernel feels the “nontechnical nonsense” is too…

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City of Columbus sues man after he discloses severity of ransomware attack

August 30, 2024

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) A judge in Ohio has issued a temporary restraining order against a security researcher who presented evidence that a recent ransomware attack on the city of Columbus scooped up reams of sensitive personal information, contradicting claims made by city officials. The order, issued by a judge in Ohio’s Franklin County, came after the city of Columbus fell victim to a ransomware attack on July 18 that…

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AnandTech, mainstay of computer hardware reviews, closes after 27 years

August 30, 2024

Enlarge (credit: AnandTech) Few ’90s tech sites other than Ars Technica are still operating here in 2024, and today, there’s one fewer. AnandTech, a staple of CPU and GPU news and reviews since 1997, will stop publishing today, according to an announcement from Editor-in-Chief Ryan Smith. “For better or worse, we’ve reached the end of a long journey—one that started with a review of an AMD processor, and has ended…

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ChatGPT hits 200 million active weekly users, but how many will admit using it?

August 30, 2024

Enlarge (credit: Benj Edwards / Getty Images) On Thursday, OpenAI said that ChatGPT has attracted over 200 million weekly active users, according to a report from Axios, doubling the AI assistant’s user base since November 2023. The company also revealed that 92 percent of Fortune 500 companies are now using its products, highlighting the growing adoption of generative AI tools in the corporate world. The rapid growth in user numbers…

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Tumblr migrates more than 500 million blogs to WordPress

August 30, 2024

Enlarge / “You’ll never be bored again” is one of the more fitting slogans attached to Tumblr. (credit: Getty Images) Once-great social media and blogging platform Tumblr has gone through a number of big changes in recent years, and another one is right around the corner. Parent company Automattic says it is migrating all Tumblr blogs—more than half a billion in number—to the WordPress back end. In a blog post…

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Sunrise alarm clock didn’t make waking up easier—but made sleeping more peaceful

August 29, 2024

The Hatch Restore 2 with one of its lighting options on. [credit: Scharon Harding ] To say “I’m not a morning person” would be an understatement. Not only is it hard for me to be useful in the first hour (or so) of being awake, but it’s hard for me to wake up. I mean, really hard. I’ve tried various recommendations and tricks: I’ve set multiple alarms and had coffee…

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