A senior Google executive has heavily criticized Microsoft for the way the company is handling its ongoing antitrust case, claiming the latter seemingly hopes to brush any dispute under the carpet with a new settlement between it and the three companies that initially raised the challenge.
As recently reported, Microsoft is close to reaching a settlement with France’s OVHcloud, Italy's Aruba SpA, and the Danish Cloud Community, all of which have declined to comment on the matter so far, which will see the antitrust case suspended.
Google, which trails behind Microsoft in terms of cloud market share, has slammed Microsoft’s efforts, in turn, urging the European Commission to more carefully consider the case.
Google VP, Amit Zavery, told Reuters that the imminent deals do little to solve the root cause, and that the concerns around the company’s licensing terms remain unanswered.
Microsoft's President and VP Brad Smith had responded to the criticsm last year, noting, “As a major technology provider, we recognize our responsibility to support a healthy competitive environment and the role that trusted local providers play in meeting customers’ technology needs.”
Smith also promised to amend the unfair licensing terms, which came into play in October 2022, however in reality the changes have done very little to facilitate healthy competition. Microsoft was accused of making it difficult, and often expensive, to switch cloud service providers.
Market leader Amazon is yet to make a public comment about the ongoing case, however Google’s end of radio silence may spur the ecommerce and cloud giant on to share its thoughts.
Google’s Zavery said: “When we talk to a lot of our customers, they find a lot of these bundling practices, as well as the way they create pricing and licensing restrictions, make it difficult for them to choose other providers,” referring to Microsoft’s use of Microsoft 365, Windows, and Azure, which it ties together in a close ecosystem.
The European Commission did not immediately respond to TechRadar Pro’s request for further comment.
Microsoft has patched a high-severity vulnerability in its Bing search engine, which allowed potential threat actors to not only alter search results, but also access people’s Office 365 data.
Cybersecurity researchers from Wiz discovered the flaw in January 2023, identifying it as a misconfiguration in the Azure Active Directory (AAD) identity and access management service in Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.
Asides from changing search engine results, the flaw could allow access to other people’s Office 365 data, such as Outlook emails, calendars, Teams messages, OneDrive files, and more.
Some applications on Azure can use multi-tenant permission, and thus be accessible by any Azure user. That means developers need to set up a way to validate users and keep tabs on who gets to access what. According to The Verge, this is where many get it wrong, as misconfigurations in this respect are “a common occurrence.” Wiz says 25% of all multi-tenant apps it scanned did not have good validation.
This is exactly what happened to Bing Trivia, and that allowed the researchers to log in with their own Azure accounts. Once logged in, they were granted access to a content management system (CMS) which let them alter live search results from Bing. The researchers said that they didn’t do anything spectacular here - anyone who knew how to reach the Bing Trivia page could have done the same.
Besides altering search engine results, the researchers also discovered they were given access to other people’s Office 365 data, such as Outlook emails, calendars, Teams messages, OneDrive files, and more. The researchers tested it out on a mock email inbox and confirmed the vulnerability. But the vulnerability’s reach doesn’t end here - there are more than 1,000 apps and websites on Microsoft cloud that had similar abusable misconfigurations, such as Mag News, PoliCheck, Cosmos, and more.
“A potential attacker could have influenced Bing search results and compromised Microsoft 365 emails and data of millions of people,” Ami Luttwak, Wiz’s chief technology officer, told The Wall Street Journal. “It could have been a nation-state trying to influence public opinion or a financially motivated hacker.”
Microsoft was tipped off on January 31, and by March 20, addressed the vulnerability entirely. The researchers did not find any evidence of prior abuse.
Via: The Verge
Don’t look now, but Microsoft is exploring the idea of pushing adverts with its Bing AI chatbot.
The ChatGPT-powered AI hasn’t been around for long, but has already achieved a measure of success driving more traffic to the Bing search engine, which is one of Microsoft’s main aims with the chatbot, naturally.
However, another target Microsoft is now sighting up is the addition of advertising to monetize the chatbot in a more concrete way, as evidenced by a freshly written post on the Bing blog site.
The content makes for worrying reading – though it’s a predictable avenue for Microsoft to assess, and we should note that this is very much early days still. The blog post talks about “exploring” the use of ads and that it’s mulling over “some early ideas,” so we shouldn’t get too carried away at this point.
The ideas Microsoft is toying with include making it so that if the user hovers over a link, it’ll pop up a panel containing further links to a publisher’s content. And also placing a “rich caption of Microsoft Start licensed content” next to a chat answer, meaning driving traffic to these Microsoft Start partners (and sharing ad revenue with that partner).
Microsoft further states: “We’re also exploring placing ads in the chat experience to share the ad revenue with partners whose content contributed to the chat response.”
Oh dear, oh dear. And another oh dear for good measure. Microsoft seems to be losing sight of the purpose of its ChatGPT-fueled AI here. It’s supposed to be a useful tool, a smart addition to Bing to let people search in a new way, and do a whole lot more to help them besides, with a bunch of other tricks up its sleeve (from knocking up artwork or poetry, to providing swift aid to gamers, kind of).
So, Bing AI is all about helping folks, right? Well, nobody believes Microsoft is doing this out of the goodness of its own heart. Of course there’s an agenda, and that’s to push Bing search to compete better with the highly dominant Google. Fair enough: Bing needs some kind of secret weapon, you can’t argue with that, and finally, it looks like the AI chatbot might be the answer.
Google is even worried, having rushed its rival AI, Bard, onto the stage, fumbling its lines in the process (and not getting nearly the same amount of attention as Bing AI, which is already well underway with updates being applied regularly by Microsoft).
But a measure of early success appears to have left Microsoft with dollar signs flashing before its eyes, perhaps blinding it to Bing’s original purpose. So now, we have Microsoft thinking about getting greedy (there’s evidence of this with the company’s attitude elsewhere regarding the AI, too). Bing traffic isn’t enough in the way of monetization, perhaps, so why not do adverts, too?
We’ll tell you why not – because people are tired of you trying to jam adverts into everything, Microsoft. Like your online services, or the Windows 11 interface, over and over, with the latest example coming earlier this week in the form of (veiled) ads for the Start menu. And now the Bing chatbot?
We’re not surprised, really, but we are getting fed up with the condition Microsoft seems to suffer from, the main symptom of which is a sickening and relentless compulsion to cram in adverts with its products and services. Let’s call it ‘ad nauseum’, and let’s further hope a cure can be found.
Via Neowin
Netflix has officially confirmed that The Night Agent season 2 is in the works.
In the least surprising news of the week, the world's best streaming service has renewed its latest smash-hit show for another season. The announcement was made in a Netflix press release, before being revealed publicly on the company's various social media channels.
The Night Agent's renewal comes one week after the spy thriller series debuted on the platform, and one day after Netflix revealed how it had taken the streaming world by storm. As we reported yesterday (March 29), The Night Agent has become Netflix's new TV show darling, with the Shawn Ryan-created series posting an impressive 168.7 million hours viewed in its first six days on Netflix.
Those viewing figures catapulted it to the number one spot on Netflix's Top 10 TV chart, and saw the series debut in the Top 10 most popular shows in 93 countries. A second season announcement, then, was a case of when, not if.
Like its predecessor, The Night Agent season 2 will consist of 10 episodes. And, given that Netflix will want to capitalize on its popularity as soon as possible, the streamer has announced the show's next installment will land on its service sometime in 2024.
Mission Accepted: The Night Agent Season 2. Coming 2024 💥 pic.twitter.com/2ukNSbcuHlMarch 29, 2023
For the uninitiated, The Night Agent, which is based on Matthew Quirk's novel of the same name, stars Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland, a low-level FBI agent who works in the basement of the White House. Sutherland is tasked with manning a phone that never rings – until, one night, it surprisingly does. Cue Sutherland becoming embroiled in a vast conspiracy as he races to stop a traitor whose stolen intel threatens the peace and security of the entire US.
Speaking after the show's second season was greenlit, Ryan said: "The last week has been a whirlwind as we've finally been able to share The Night Agent with the world. To see the tremendous reaction to the show has been a great joy, and is a credit to our cast, our writers, our directors, our crew, and our partners at Sony Pictures Television and Netflix. We couldn't be any prouder or more excited to get cracking on season 2 to share the further adventures of Night Action with our newfound fans."
So, why has The Night Agent been renewed for a second season? After all, 2023's most popular Netflix series – Ginny and Georgia, whose second season posted a massive 180.4 million hours streamed in its first week – is yet to receive the green light for a third installment. It all boils down to another simple metric: how much The Night Agent cost to make.
Netflix hasn't confirmed how much money it pumped into The Night Agent season 1. However, it's likely that the series' production costs were on the low side, relatively speaking. Equally, its marketing costs will have been modest compared to heavy hitters like Shadow and Bone season 2 or You season 4 – two other fan-favorite shows that haven't come close to matching The Night Agent's impressive opening week viewership.
Add in the fact that The Night Agent's cast isn't made of up A-list actors, and Netflix will have been able to keep costs down even more. Hong Chau, who recently starred in 2023 Oscar Best Picture nominee The Whale and hit Peacock show Poker Face, is arguably the most recognizable name among its cast. No one else, Basso included, has featured in a major Hollywood movie or instantly identifiable TV show.
Netflix's decision to greenlight The Night Agent season 2, then, is a no-brainer. It's the second most-watched Netflix show of 2023, is financially viable, and taps into Netflix's audience demand for compelling, absorbing, and shocking action espionage thrillers. Netflix would have been silly not to renew it for another mission, then. Expect The Night Agent to make its way onto our best Netflix shows list very soon.
For more Netflix-based coverage, read our Shadow and Bone season 2 review. Additionally, read up on why Netflix and its streaming rivals could be restricted in the UK if any of them break new government laws that are set to come into effect soon. Finally, check out these seven spy thriller shows while we wait for The Night Agent season 2 to arrive.
Popular Xbox Game Pass shooter Metal: Hellsinger has just received its first new DLC, titled Dream of the Beast, which adds two songs as well as a new weapon and outfits. You can pick it up for $3.99 / £3.29 (approximately AU$5.99).
The downloadable content includes new tracks featuring the talent of Lorna Shore's Will Ramos and Lacuna Coil's Cristina Scabbia which have been added to the Xbox Game Pass FPS. What's also been included in a free update for all players on Xbox Series X, PS5, and PC is the ability to choose from any song in the playlist before a level, allowing new music to give each stage a fresh new feel.
On the gameplay side of things, there's an entirely new weapon to try out, too. Aptly titled The Red Right Hand, this new machine gun adds a new level of strategy to the Painkiller-like arena levels of Metal Hellsinger with a burst-fire separating itself from the shotguns and revolvers of the base game.
Smaller gameplay tweaks have also been included with new outfits for the main protagonist that add modifiers including quick reloads and giving you more ammunition. There's a costume that's a direct homage to Lee Van Cleef's role in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, rightfully named "Angel Eyes" and I'm absolutely living for it. Twinning it with The Hounds (the game's take on Colt revolvers) makes me want to return to the Guitar Hero meets Doom world in and of itself.
As someone who absolutely adored Metal: Hellsinger at its release in late 2022, this DLC is definitely a step in the right direction. I loved the base game which features the vocal talents of heavy metal greats such as Trivium's Matt Heafy, Soilwork's Bjorn Strid, and Dark Tranquillity's Mikael Stanne paired with Two Feathers' industrial metal. Playing through a game scored with those all-so-familiar screams and growls turned what would otherwise be a pleasant, but forgettable shooter into something special.
In Metal: Hellsinger you need to time your shots to the beat of the music in order to rack up multipliers and other bonuses as you go. Being out of time isn't going to get you very far, since the title can be challenging, especially on higher difficulties. As a metal musician myself, I don't need much convincing to jump back into one of the best FPS games I've played in a very long time. It all clicks together so well.
It certainly doesn't hurt that the incredibly talented Will Ramos has been added to the game's soundtrack. I've loved everything he's done with Lorna Shore and it's amazing to see him getting the recognition he deserves; a true beast when playing live, too, which should translate to one of the best songs on this already-stacked lineup.
Windows 11 has just received an optional update which applies some useful fixes... but also something a bit more controversial for the Start menu.
As spotted by Bleeping Computer, that’d be what Microsoft describes as “notifications for Microsoft accounts” appearing in the Start menu, a feature that some suspect has a hidden agenda.
What do we mean by that? Well, in the support document introducing patch KB5023778 for Windows 11 22H2 PCs, which is still in preview but will be fully rolled out next month, Microsoft gives an example of a notification: a pop-up panel warning the user that they need to back up their files.
Sensible advice, and of course, it's a good idea to back up your main folders (documents, pictures, and so on) to the cloud every now and then as suggested (and locally too, maybe using an external drive for instance).
You can guarantee, though, that starting a backup from this prompt will try to get you to use OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage service. Because as we know, these Start menu prompts are notifications related to Microsoft accounts and connected services like OneDrive.
Past leaks from Albacore (a well-known leaker on Twitter) have also shown Microsoft prodding users (in test builds) to hit up OneDrive in this manner, or to create a Microsoft account (or to complete their Microsoft profile).
Regarding this new feature, Microsoft tells us: “This is only available to a small audience right now. It will deploy more broadly in the coming months. Some devices might notice different visual treatments as we gather feedback.”
The freshly unleashed optional update also provides a bunch of bug fixes, including one for a glitch that affects printers (connected via a USB port) and makes them appear to be multimedia devices.
So, this Start menu feature is progressing, clearly. We saw it in the Release Preview channel for Windows Insiders (testers) just a week ago, and now, it’s hitting actual Windows 11 PCs going forward.
Admittedly, it’s still an optional (test) update right now, but it’ll almost certainly be part of April’s cumulative update for Windows 11 deployed in a couple of weeks. Unless Microsoft has a last-minute change of heart and pulls the plug at the precipice of deployment (and at this point, that’s very unlikely).
Of course, it’s only rolling out to a small subset of Windows 11 users initially. Although that in itself is telling – Microsoft is evidently concerned about the response and is still testing the waters in a limited fashion, as it were, with a broader rollout not coming for ‘months’ to boot. The software giant is being careful about this one, and doubtless for good reason.
Maybe we won’t even see these kind of ads – or reminders, as Microsoft couches them – all that often in the Start menu. They could just be very occasional things. We don’t know, and we also don’t know exactly where Microsoft is going to be drawing the line between suggestions or recommendations, and pushing its own services as a form of help to the user which effectively crosses over into the realm of advertising.
Time will tell, but it’s clear enough that suggestions are set to be a big thing in the future for Windows 11 (or indeed Windows 12). Recently we’ve seen further hints of personalized recommendations in the Start menu, including recommended websites to visit (yes, that concept is seemingly back on the table), which again would seem to be ripe territory for what could effectively be advertising.
Every so often, a new Netflix series comes out of nowhere and blows the competition away to stunning effect. Think Stranger Things, Wednesday, and Squid Game, and you'll get the idea.
Three months into 2023 and Netflix has another unexpected TV-based success to add to that roster. Step forward The Night Agent, a politically-charged action thriller that stormed to the top of the Netflix TV charts less than a week after it debuted on the world's best streaming service.
Based on Matthew Quirk's book of the same name, The Night Agent stars Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland, an FBI agent who becomes embroiled in a vast conspiracy at the heart of the US government. Cue a race against time to stop the mole leaking intel and potentially causing US society from collapsing in on itself.
As plot synopses go, it's a simple one. Clearly, though, audiences have lapped up what's on offer in The Night Agent, with millions of viewers becoming absorbed in its cat and mouse-style narrative, shocking revelations, and suspense-filled teases that have left many on tenterhooks.
In fact, The Night Agent has proven so popular that it's only the second Netflix show to debut this year with a whopping 100 million-plus hours streamed. The Night Agent only premiered on March 23 but, six days post-release, it's accrued 168.7 million hours viewed (per Netflix's Top 10 website).
Ginny and Georgia season 2 is the only English-language TV show to rack up more hours viewed in its first week this year – the comedy drama series amassing 180.4 million hours streamed during its opening week. On the non-English language front, revenge thriller The Glory (125.3 million hours streamed in its first week) is the only series to come close to matching The Night Agent's impressive tally.
Considering that The Night Agent has outperformed fan-favorite series like You (season 4 part 2 accumulated 92 million hours viewed in its first week) and Outer Banks (season 3 earned 154.9 million hours streamed during opening week), its success shouldn't be dismissed so easily. Expect The Night Agent to join that duo on our best Netflix shows list shortly.
Even more impressively, The Night Agent's opening week viewing figures were three times bigger than its nearest rival. Shadow and Bone season 2, which landed on March 16, collected 55 million hours viewed in its second week on Netflix (read our Shadow and Bone season 2 review while you're here). Love is Blind season 4 and Waco: American Apocalypse, which debuted alongside The Night Agent, performed terribly compared to the spy thriller – the pair racking up just 25.5 million hours and 21.5 million hours streamed respectively.
Unexpected as The Night Agent's, well, overnight success has been, it's unlikely to trouble Netflix's most-watched original shows of all-time.
Stranger Things season 4, Wednesday, Squid Game, and Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story racked up one billion-plus hours viewed each in the weeks after their respective launches. With Stranger Things season 5, Squid Game season 2, and Wednesday season 2, and a new installment in Netflix's Monster series all in development, the next entry in each of these global hits is likely to surpass their predecessor in the viewership stakes.
The Night Agent might be the latest TV darling to grace Netflix, but it's got a huge fight on its hands to even come close to matching its contemporaries' viewing figures. Of course, the series could enjoy a bumper second week at the top of the charts, especially if Netflix users recommend The Night Agent to their families, friends, and co-workers. Even with that word of mouth aid, though, we'd be surprised if The Night Agent makes a major play for the Netflix TV show throne. Yes, it'll continue to perform well for a couple more weeks, but it'll need more traction among viewers to stand a chance of tackling Netflix's most-streamed shows ever.
For more Netflix coverage, check out our new Netflix movies, best Netflix movies, and best Netflix documentaries guides.
Oh, Elon. When will you learn? Never, if this latest development is anything to go by: according to a memo reported on by the Wall Street Journal, an internal valuation has just placed Twitter’s total value at around 20 billion dollars. Hilariously, that’s less than half of the $44 billion Musk originally paid for the social media site back in October 2022.
But it seems Elon isn’t content with just sitting in the hole he’s fallen into; some unpaid intern has handed him a shovel, and he’s gonna keep on digging down until everyone on Twitter is paying for Twitter Blue - or the site collapses entirely.
Musk’s latest move to drag more people kicking and screaming into $8-subscription land is to reveal more limitations on free accounts; unless you cough up for a Blue membership, your tweets won’t be recommended to other users in the ‘For You’ tab, and non-verified users won’t be allowed to vote in polls either.
Now, any Twitter user with two brain cells to rub together (so, at least half of them) can probably already tell you that the ‘For You’ page is garbage, and it’s really worth sticking to the ‘Following’ tab if you want something approaching the original Twitter experience. But shutting non-paying users out of polls entirely is, well, a dick move from Musk - perhaps he’s scared there might be a repeat of the embarrassing poll where he was told by the site’s user base to step down as CEO.
It’s worth bearing in mind that these latest death throes from the apparently-cursed social media platform come directly from the horse’s mouth - that is to say, Elon’s own Twitter account. That means we should take them with a sprinkling of sodium, since Musk has tweeted out ‘upcoming features’ in the past that have never actually materialized.
Musk claims that the changes are ‘the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over’ even though, you know, everything he’s done so far has yet to make any sort of tangible impact on Twitter’s bot account problems. Bots comprise roughly 5% of the platform’s 330 million users, but account for more than 20% of actual tweets in the US. Oh, and he’s getting rid of 2-factor authentication for non-paying users too, which is going to further worsen the site’s security issues.
Starting April 15th, only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations.The is the only realistic way to address advanced AI bot swarms taking over. It is otherwise a hopeless losing battle.Voting in polls will require verification for same reason.March 27, 2023
Another part of the problem is that despite constantly worsening the free user experience, Twitter Blue is estimated to have made the company just $11 million from mobile users since its soft relaunch after Elon took the reins. That sounds like a lot, but it’s a comically small drop in the bucket for a social media giant like Twitter. Nonetheless, Elon claimed in the aforementioned valuation memo that he believes the company will be profitable as early as next quarter.
I’m putting on my best impression of Chris Hemsworth in Thor: Ragnarok to say “will it, though?” - Twitter is still burning money despite slashing staff counts (which leads to trouble like this) and is embroiled in a laundry list of legal disputes which are no doubt costing it a ton of cash. To compound the issues further, many of those cases are specifically Twitter being sued over nonpayment of everything from contracted wages to rent owed to, uh, the British royal family. Yup, you read that right.
Now, as a fun (read: horrifyingly dystopian) little thought exercise, let’s contextualize Elon’s massive losses by taking a little look at some of the things he could’ve spent that wasted $24 billion on instead:
Marvel has seemingly leaked the release date for Secret Invasion on Disney Plus.
The studio, which has suffered from its fair share of bad press in recent days, appears to have accidentally confirmed Secret Invasion's launch date. As revealed on Reddit – and later confirmed by many news outlets – the Marvel TV series is apparently due to arrive on June 21, 2023.
Initially, Secret Invasion was expected to be released on Disney Plus in Q1 2023. However, in light of some release schedule tweaking on Marvel's part, the spy thriller show's launch was given a more generic 'coming soon' placeholder on the official Disney Plus Originals website. That was the case until yesterday (March 27), anyway. Overnight, the series' Disney Plus landing page was updated with its new release date.
Realizing their error, Marvel and Disney have now removed the launch date and any mention of Secret Invasion from DisneyPlus.com and its corresponding app. Now, searching for the Marvel Phase 5 show on Disney Plus delivers an error code 41 message, which reads: "The requested media is not available. Please try again. If you continue to have problems, please contact Disney+ Subscription Support."
Unfortunately for the two studios, multiple users managed to grab a screenshot of the updated landing page before posting it online as proof (see the image above). Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fans are now expecting an official announcement about Secret Invasion shortly, potentially alongside a new trailer.
We've reached out to Disney and Marvel for an official comment on the series' apparent launch date. We'll update this article if we hear back.
Secret Invasion stars Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury and Ben Mendolsohn as Talos. The series, which will make Disney Plus history by becoming the first crossover event in the MCU, will follow the pair as they try to uncover a mass conspiracy that's seen many of Talos' fellow shapeshifting skrulls infiltrate Earth and live among humanity for decades. Olivia Colman, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Emilia Clarke, Martin Freeman, and Don Cheadle will all play supporting roles.
After months of silence, it seems that Secret Invasion's release date isn't so secret after all. Or maybe it is...
On the surface, it appears that the show will land on Disney Plus in June. After all, it would be a huge faux pas on Marvel and Disney's part if Secret Invasion's June 21 launch date was nothing more than a placeholder. In our view, the MCU's fanbase would not be best pleased, especially as we've had to wait a long time for Secret Invasion to arrive.
There's reason to believe that a June 2023 launch could be in the offing, too. Marvel might have *ahem* secretly altered its 2023 release schedule plans in recent weeks, with numerous reports suggesting we'll only receive three movies, plus two or three Disney Plus shows, this year as the studio looks to space out its stacked lineup of Phase 5 projects.
Currently, Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and The Marvels are the only Phase 5 productions with confirmed launch dates. Unless The Marvels' release date is pushed back again following its recent delay to November, the two movies' launch dates are definitely locked in.
However, Marvel's 2023 lineup of TV shows, including Secret Invasion and Loki season 2, still don't have official release dates. With a six-month gap needing to be filled in Marvel's and Disney Plus' calendars, it would make sense for Marvel and Disney to release one or both of the aforementioned series to keep MCU fans entertained between Guardians 3 and The Marvels. If they choose not to, it could be a very long and barren summer (or winter, for those of you in the southern hemisphere) for Marvel's worldwide fanbase.
For more MCU-based content, find out how to watch the Marvel movies in order. Additionally, read our best Marvel movies ranked piece, and see which MCU TV shows made it onto our best Disney Plus shows list.
Following the announcement of Bing Image Creator, Microsoft has dropped another update to the ever-popular improved Bing and introduced ‘Knowledge Cards 2.0’. These knowledge cards will appear on the right side of the Bing search results page and help give users a deeper insight into topics they’re interested in, but in convenient bite-sized chunks.
These nuggets of knowledge include facts, timelines, and related topics all generated by AI. Of course, that last bit does make us a little wary, as Microsoft’s Bing AI does have a history of making stuff up. But we’re hopeful that Microsoft has done its due diligence and wouldn’t roll something like this out without making sure the bot has its facts straight.
The blog post from the official site also details that the knowledge panels are accompanied by Stories; Bing will now put out AI-generated stories that will add more context to your area of interest in the search engine, using text, images, and video. These will be accessible to all Bing users in English, French, Japanese, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, and Arabic.
The steady stream of updates from Microsoft does show that the company is not only committed to evolving and improving its AI-powered product, but also that it can do so quickly. Whether you’re best friends with Google Bard or not, you do have to admit that we have yet to see them start dropping fun and funky updates in the same way Microsoft is. We noted earlier this month that Bing AI is slowly but steadily poaching users from Google, and this is likely one of the main reasons.
👀 we’re testing 20/200 this weekend to see how things go https://t.co/ptD2qhOYGuMarch 26, 2023
Alongside the Knowledge Cards, Microsoft has also increased Bing Chat’s session limit from 15 to 20 turns. The Vice President of Microsoft Bing’s Growth and Distribution team, Michael Schechter, confirmed in a tweet that the company did also test out bringing the daily chat limit up to 200.
MSpoweruser noted that while the increased chat limit may be a positive change, users are still asking the company to address the 2000-character limit on Bing’s AI chat.
While we may be able to work around the character limit if we’re allowed to maintain longer interactions, it’s a request we hope Microsoft gets around to addressing soon so we can see how Bing performs in long-form text.
As a big fan of Google Bard, it is still rather easy to see why so many people are gravitating towards Bing instead. I enjoy the steady and consistent tone Bard has, and the user interface is comforting and easy to navigate, but we Google fans are simply not getting the kind of updates Bing fans are.
That can make it super tempting to move over to Microsoft’s side. Google has yet to put out major updates or introduce any significant new features to Bard and we can’t be sure how reliable such updates will be when they do arrive. Obviously, Microsoft is using OpenAI’s GPT-4 and so has access to other products developed by Open AI, like DALL-E.
Google developing its own bot from the ground up does explain the delays a little bit, but I’m not sure how long people will be willing to wait - particularly when it seems like every week Microsoft is announcing a new update, showing off new tests and potential new features.
I’m hopeful that Google will catch up once the company has its footing in this new, weird terrain of AI-powered consumer tech, but until then we can all get acquainted with Microsoft’s latest update and muse over whether we’re all going to be using Microsoft Edge so we can use Bing AI. What a shake-up that would be.
The Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate was always going to have high-end specs, and now we have an idea of just how high-end, as a leak has revealed many of the supposed specs for both this and the standard Asus ROG Phone 7.
According to leaker Abhishek Yadav on Twitter (via Phone Arena), both of these Asus ROG Phone 7 models have a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, run Android 13, and come with a trio of rear-facing cameras; with a 50MP IMX766 primary snapper, a 13MP ultrawide, and an 8MP macro sensor.
They also apparently both have a 32MP front-facing camera, and come in at 173 x 77 x 10.3mm and 239g.
On top of that, the Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate is said to have a massive 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Based on past form, it’s likely that will be the only configuration this phone is available in.
They don’t mention the RAM and storage of the standard Asus ROG Phone 7, but do note that this is apparently the only difference between the standard phone and the Ultimate. They also claim that there won’t be an Asus ROG Phone 7 Pro.
This makes for a strong selection of specs, and you can see these along with previously rumored specs in the table below.
Based on this latest specs leak, the Asus ROG Phone 7 and, in particular, the 7 Ultimate sound like very powerful phones. But the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro actually comes with even more RAM at 18GB, paired with 512GB of storage.
The Asus ROG Phone 6 and 6 Pro also have the same weight and dimensions as the new phones will apparently have, suggesting that they’ll be physically very similar devices. Here's hoping for some accessory cross-compatibility.
The main camera sensor hasn’t been upgraded either, if this leak is right, and the ultrawide apparently has the same number of megapixels, though it remains to be seen whether the sensor is the same.
So what’s being upgraded? The macro camera here is likely better, as the Asus ROG Phone 6 series has just a 5MP unit, and likewise the selfie camera on those phones is only 12MP. So the photography experience might be slightly improved on the Asus ROG Phone 7 series.
The main upgrade though looks to simply be the chipset, which is reportedly a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 here. That should provide a significant power boost compared to the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 found in the current models, but that’s also about the bare minimum you’d expect from a new model.
Previously rumored specs don’t point to much of an upgrade either, with older leaks suggesting the screen size, resolution, refresh rate, battery capacity, and charging speed will all be about the same as before too.
So while the Asus ROG Phone 7 – and especially the 7 Ultimate – will probably rank among the very best gaming phones, they might not be worth buying if you already have a ROG Phone 6 series handset. We’ll have a clearer idea soon, as Asus is unveiling these phones on April 13.
Microsoft has acted swiftly to patch up the worrying 'acropalypse' bug that we reported on earlier this week – a bug that could enable information cropped out of images by the Windows screenshot tools to be recovered.
As per BleepingComputer, Microsoft has now issued an OOB (out-of-band or emergency) update that fixes the issue, which has the technical designation of CVE-2023-28303. Microsoft is recommending that users apply the update at their earliest opportunity, as you might expect.
Applying the update isn't difficult at all: from the Microsoft Store, click the Library icon on the left, then pick Get updates (top right). This should force the patch to be applied, if it hasn't already been automatically installed.
The bug – which is similar to one that has affected the Markup feature on Google Pixel phones – means that images and screenshots cropped in the Windows 11 Snipping Tool and the Windows 10 Snip and Sketch tool could be compromised.
Essentially, the CVE-2023-28303 vulnerability means that parts of a PNG or JPEG image that have been cropped out aren't properly removed from the file after it's saved again. Those cropped sections could include sensitive information such as bank account details or medical records, for example.
It's important to note that applying the patch won't fix any files that have already been cropped, only ones that are edited in the future. You'll need to recrop any existing images to be sure the excess parts of the picture have been properly removed.
At first, the opportunity of recovering cropped out parts of images may not seem like a particularly terrible security vulnerability – after all, who cares if someone manages to add back in some empty sky that you've removed from one of your vacation photos?
There are lots of reasons that images are cropped though, as tech journalists know all too well. Personal information such as email addresses, bank account numbers and contact names need to be cut out of pictures before they're shared widely on the internet.
With so many of us sharing so many of our photos with other people and on the web at large, it's crucial from a security perspective that these images don't reveal more than we want them too – something which was a problem with CVE-2023-28303.
Microsoft has at least acted quickly to get the fix tested and then applied – but it's a concern that this same bug has appeared completely separately in software from both Microsoft and Google in recent days.
The air fryer has revolutionized how many of us cook our breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Not only for those main meals of a day, they're also fantastic counter-top appliances for filling in the hunger gaps in-between. But since humans are creatures of familiarity, tending to stick to what we know instead of trying something new (especially when it comes to food), many folk rarely step beyond those familiar foods that are known for being cooked well in an air fryer, such a fries and chicken wings.
Over the past few years, we've seen the best air fryers fly off the shelves as we look to save money on our energy bills. In addition, air fryers deliver a means to cook foods faster, keeping apace with our busy lives, and eat healthier, too, since they don't necessitate the need for using too much, if any, oil. We hear a lot about air fryer mistakes and foods to avoid cooking in an air fryer, but what about all the delicious foods that deliver excellent results when cooked in an air fryer?
Below we round up nine foods that produce superb results. We're sure that there are plenty more – and the best way to find out if a new air fryer food type will work out or not is to give it a go.
If you’re a Krispy Kreme fan, then definitely give these air-fried donuts a go. By using deep-frying donut recipes as a guide to the temperature requirements – in this case, 356ºF / 180ºC – and reducing the cooking time to five minutes, we put the dough into a metal baking tin rather than onto the crisper plate – and our resulting air fryer donuts rivaled those of Krispy Kreme.
They were a soft golden color on the outside, and soft and fluffy on the inside. Don't be surprise if your family and friends are convinced that you've bought a dozen donuts from the local shop rather than having actually made them at home.
Yes, you can cook ice cream in an air fryer. And it’s delicious. Deep-fried ice cream is a popular dessert often served in South American restaurants. An ice cream ball is coated in a batter of sorts and deep-fried for less than a minute to create a warm, crisp shell while the ice cream remains intact on the inside.
We recreated this treat and found that Honey & Nut Corn Flakes (or Crunchy Nut Cornflakes in the UK) worked a treat to coat the ice cream. The ice cream balls not only tasted delicious, they're healthier – and the process of making them in an air fryer is safer than deep frying, too.
When we made cinnamon rolls in an air fryer, the results were better than following my usual method of baking, so there was no going back. Perfecting the dough – and the buttery, slightly-spicy filling – is the key to success when making air fryer cinnamon rolls. We landed on a filling of 2.1oz / 60g soft butter spread over the dough, sprinkled with a mix of 3oz / 85g of dark muscovado sugar and 1.5tsp of cinnamon.
You're air fryer may not have the capacity to cook all the rolls in one go, so you can set aside any remaining dough and cook later.
Also known as a cheese toastie, this air fryer food type may surprise you. The usual way to make a grilled cheese sandwich is on the stove, unless you have a specifically designed appliance for the job.
In the air fryer we found that you can make the sandwich as usual, but spreading a thin layer of butter on the outside of the bread and cooking the sandwich on the crisper plate of the air fryer drawer for six minutes on both sides delivers an delicious, crispy grilled cheese sandwich.
Don't fancy a sandwich? You can also make air fryer cheese on toast. Load on the cheese and / or use a variety of cheeses to deliver a super-tasty snack.
We worked an egg into the mix, which delivers results in a more oozy top, with the cheese nicely spread out and melted. Season with salt and / or pepper for a punchier flavor.
We mastered the viral air fryer Creme Egg recipe from last year, and although the initial attempts weren't straightforward, we cracked it (punn intended). The trick is to evenly cover the creme egg in a croissant dough and crank up the temperature of the air fryer.
We also tried air frying a caramel egg, which was less sickly-sweet than the creme egg – so that's worth a go, too.
Surely you can't boil an egg in an air fryer? Yes, actually, you can! Get the timing and temperature right, and the air fryer will deliver perfect results every time. In addition, in the air fryer you're likely to be able to cook more eggs than you can fit in a typical saucepan, and there's minimal washing up, too. Note that the various cooking times for different-sized eggs in an air fryer aren't far off how long they'd take to cook in a pan, either.
The baked potato is a staple meal for many households and although not all air fryers have a "bake" preset, we can vouch that there is such a thing as a baked potato air fryer recipe that works. Depending on your air fryer, it won't necessarily save you money on your energy bills due to the time it takes to bake a potato in the counter-top appliance, but we can all but guarantee that you'll achieve a crispy skin and fluffy inside – so it will certainly be worth it.
Arriving in a can, there's very little prep you need to do before cooking chickpeas in the air fryer – with the results a delicious, crunchy, super-healthy snack. Simply rinse, drain and season; they'll be ready to enjoy within just 15 minutes.
We're still some way off from getting any real news about Android 14 from Google, but the tweaks and updates are still appearing for Android 13 – and one that's apparently in the pipeline will stop your phone's screen from blinding you in the dark.
As spotted by Mishaal Rahman (via Phandroid), the code for the next Android update looks to include a feature that will sense the ambient light conditions around a smartphone even when the screen is switched off.
So, the next time you lock your phone, go somewhere that's a lot darker, and then unlock it again, you won't be blinded by the previous brightness setting. The phone will recognize it's now in a darker environment and adjust the brightness accordingly, assuming of course you have the brightness set to adjust itself automatically.
"Use a brightness sensor to determine the screen's initial brightness"Test: Use the device in a bright room, turn the screen off, go to a dark room, turn the screen on, see that the screen doesn't start as too bright.https://t.co/r59GQDBWbMMarch 23, 2023
If you have a Pixel phone from Google, you'll find the screen brightness options in the Display section of Settings, though for now this feature isn't enabled, and is indeed only in the Android 13 QPR2 beta release that isn't widely available yet.
That QPR stands for Quarterly Platform Release, so the extra option may appear as part of an Android 13 update in the next few months. Alternatively, Google's software development team might decide to hold it over to Android 14, which is due to be officially unveiled at Google IO 2023 in May.
Let's hope it does indeed arrive at some point, as it's a useful tweak – as you'll know if you've ever locked your phone in a bright environment (outdoors in the sun, for instance), and then unlocked it in a darker environment (such as a theater).
We're now very familiar with the idea of Apple, Google, Samsung and other phone manufacturers pushing out regular updates for their mobile operating systems. These updates can add features, squash bugs, and more besides.
The example we have above shows how tweaks can be useful even if they're small. This fixes a very real annoyance that a lot of people are going to come across on a regular basis, and it means Android is going to be better to use.
It also shows the benefit of mobile OS updates appearing throughout the year, rather than in one hefty chunk on one particular date. When it comes to iPhones, we're now up to iOS 16.3, and there have been lots of improvements since iOS 16 launched in September 2022.
If the brightness feature does indeed make it into the next Android update, it's difficult to predict exactly when your phone might get it – a lot of it depends on the manufacturer of your phone, and Google's own Pixel handsets are going to be first in line, as usual.
Global payments solution provider Checkout.com has unveiled a new debit card issuing service for businesses to tap into the lucrative embedded finance market.
Online travel, marketplaces, and digital banking are all said to have been pivotal to the explosion in embedded finance in recent years, according to Checkout.com CPO Meron Colbeci, who states that fintech and Big Tech are no longer alone in the revolution, and that the market is estimated to increase in value by 187% to $121 billion in Europe and the UK by 2029, and to $7.2 trillion globally by 2030.
Card issuing is designed to enable businesses to offer physical and virtual cards as they look to diversify revenue, unlocking financial service provision to strengthen their ecommerce portfolio.
Businesses can choose to create their own branded cards that stand out from others, including a variety of sustainable and recycled materials, or digital options that are compatible with wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay.
The precise card type is entirely under the control of a business and can include debit and pre-paid cards for consumer and commercial uses. There are also single-use and multi-use options for further control.
Another benefit for businesses looking to issue their own card is the streamlining and enclosure of the customer journey within an ecosystem, which grocery shopping and meal planning app Jow’s co-founder, Antoine Maillard, claims has been transformative for the business.
This shift in control of course comes at a time when global banking is facing increasing pressure amid a lack of trust, as consumers seek to diversify where they store their money.
At launch, Checkout.com card issuing is available in the UK and European Economic Area, with other regions to follow in due course.
Many Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) are worried about threats coming from the dark web, but aren’t doing much about it, a new report published by Searchlight Cyber has found.
The dark web intelligence company recently polled more than a thousand CISOs working in large enterprises, and found 93% were worried about dark web threats, and 72% believed intelligence on cybercriminals is “critical” in efforts to protect their organization' endpoints and data from hackers.
But other than collecting intelligence on these groups, their tools, networking, MOs, and similar - they aren’t really doing much about it.
That being said, the researchers claim 71% of CISOs would love to see if their suppliers are being targeted on the dark web. In fact, just a third (32%) of those gathering intelligence from the dark web are using it to look for attacks on their supply chain.
For Ben Jones, CEO and co-founder of Searchlight Cyber, businesses have a lot of work ahead, but it just might pay off: “What is significant is the clear pattern that emerges between gathering more threat intelligence and data from the dark web, and a better security posture,” he said.
“For the UK enterprises that haven’t identified the opportunity of dark web intelligence the results make it crystal clear: gathering dark web intelligence will help them gain a better understanding of their adversaries and increase their chances of spotting an attack.”
Drilling deeper into the results, the researchers found that businesses in different industries respond differently to threats coming from the dark web. The majority of those in the finance industry (85%) already gather data from the dark web, while the healthcare industry lags behind with 57%. The oil and gas industry could also do better, as just two-thirds (66%) of CISOs saying they harvest data from the dark web.
As a result, CISOs aren’t as confident about stopping cyberattacks as they could be. Just 60% of healthcare CISOs and 74% of those in the oil and gas industry believe they understand the profile of their adversaries properly, which is way below the industry standard of 77%.
It is “an imperative for these organizations to begin monitoring the dark web, to spot the early warning signs of attack, and improve their security posture based on a better understanding of their adversaries,” concluded Jones.
Months after its tumultuous launch, Twitter has announced that Twitter Blue is now available globally - and the social media company plans to pull checkmarks from ‘legacy’ verified accounts on April 1st.
Twitter Blue has expanded to users across the globe, so if you thought you were free from the Twitter madness, think again.
Twitter Blue is now available globally! Sign up today to get your blue checkmark, prioritized ranking in conversations, half ads, long Tweets, Bookmark Folders, custom navigation, Edit Tweet, Undo Tweet, and more. Sign up here: https://t.co/SBRLJccMxDMarch 23, 2023
Twitter’s legacy verification system did have some contention surrounding it due to its inconsistency even before Elon bulldozed through the site, but upheaving the entire system and putting it behind a paywall was undeniably not a popular change.
The new Twitter Blue subscription brings support for a ‘verified’ checkmark alongside prioritized ranking in conversations, fewer ads (notably not no ads, just fewer of them), and the ability to edit and undo tweets. The most recent addition to the feature roster is the ability to tweet up to 4,000 characters, which totally ruins the point of Twitter, but whatever.
Alongside the announcement Twitter also confirmed plans to ‘wind down’ its previous verified program, which granted a blue checkmark to accounts based on real-world ID and individual notoriety. Understandably, many ‘legacy’ verified users who jumped through hoops to gain verification before Musk took over are unhappy with the change.
On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks. To keep your blue checkmark on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue here: https://t.co/gzpCcwOpLp Organizations can sign up for https://t.co/RlN5BbuGA3…March 23, 2023
As it stands, Twitter Blue costs $8/£6.99/$13AUD and you can get $1 a month off if you choose to be billed annually. The price is pretty standard regionally, adjusted for local currency. One odd wrinkle is that purchasing a Blue membership in-app on your phone actually costs a bit more, which Twitter says is due to Apple and Android storefronts taking a cut of in-app purchases.
The sweeping decision to ‘de-verify’ legacy accounts is as bizarre as it is dangerous. The move will make it a lot easier for impersonation accounts to pop up and no real well of identified who is who if you were not following the original account. Twitter will also be lowering the time it takes for Blue verification from 90 days to 30 which means creating fake accounts will become a much faster process.
PayPal has further expanded its support for passwordless logins with the announcement of passkey support for some Android users, however only some of those ‘some’ will actually be able to use it.
The online payments platform can be credited with being among the first adopters of passkeys, but the rollout has been far from speedy.
Back in October 2022, the company announced that it had brought support for passkeys to Apple’s platforms to certain US citizens. Five months later, the company has added support for Android devices.
Now supported on the two main mobile operating systems, there are still a handful of limitations that mean that not everybody will be able to transition to passkeys.
Only personal account holders will be able to benefit from the more secure login method leaving many businesses uncatered for including sole traders, and they have to reside in the US.
To set up a passkey, eligible PayPal users will need to be running Android 9 Pie or later, which accounts for 92% of all US installations (via Statcounter). PayPal’s press release also states that support is “starting on Android mobile web” thus it is unclear whether the app will gain support from day one. TechRadar Pro has asked PayPal to confirm.
As ever, customers in other markets must wait for US customers to successfully adopt the new technology first, however PayPal has finally hinted at expansion, indicating a wider rollout to other countries in early 2023.
Despite its cautious rollout, PayPal still remains one of the leaders in passkey adoption with other companies failing to adapt so quickly, though the transition to a passwordless future now looks to be one step closer at least.
