Launching it to real humans is also fraught with pitfalls. You might think, though, that Microsoft has had enough practice and comes prepared to deal with anything and everything. If only it was that simple. On introducing Windows 11 with great fanfare and incitement to aesthetic admiration, Microsoft was forced to admit that, no, not every PC will be able to run its new software. Sadly, the company wasn’t entirely sure which PCs would be eligible and which would be discarded to the detritus heap....

Microsoft’s secured-core concept first aimed to improve the security of software interfaces for Windows 10 hardware in 2019 and two years later brought it to firmware for servers running Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI. Secured-core is not focussed on consumer devices but aims to assure enterprise customers that Windows running on non-Microsoft hardware has been certified as secure by Microsoft. The concept was carried across from Microsoft’s Xbox division, which has a more vertically controlled hardware and software stack than the Windows ecosystem....

The attackers used the fraudulent MPN accounts to register fake versions of legitimate-sounding apps, such as “Single Sign On (SSO)” and “Meeting” that were dressed up with convincing visual indicators, including Zoom’s older video icon and and Zoom-like URLs, according to security firm Proofpoint. Also: Public Wi-Fi safety tips: Protect yourself against malware and security threats The attackers first impersonated legitimate companies to enroll in the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program or MCCP (formerly known as Microsoft Partner Network or MPN), and then used the accounts to add a verified publisher to OAuth app registrations, which they created in Azure Active Directory (AD)....

Also: ChatGPT is coming to Slack. Here’s how to access it On Thursday, Discord announced new AI additions coming to the platform –including OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Discord has always had Clyde, a helpful robot meant to help you navigate your way through the platform. Now Clyde is being given some (artificial) intelligence through the implementation of ChatGPT. Clyde will now have ChatGPT’s conversational capabilities and hold conversations with you and your friends....

The 12 Pro and 12 phones are based on Qualcomm’s top-end 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, while the 12X is powered by the less powerful but more power-efficient 7nm Snapdragon 870 5G mobile platform. The 12-series phones employ what Xiaomi calls a ‘high-performing cooling system’, including a ‘super large’ vapour chamber and multiple layers of graphite. SEE: Best cheap 5G phone 2022: No need to pay flagship prices for quality devices All three devices have 120Hz AMOLED displays (6....

On October 25, the development team said that in early June, Firefox discovered add-ons that were misusing the browser’s proxy API, used by software to manage how the browser connects to the internet. Add-ons are software modules that can be installed to customize a user’s browsing experience and may include anti-tracking software, ad blockers, themes, and utilities. However, they may also become a conduit for malicious purposes, such as data theft or eavesdropping, a challenge faced by all browser developers....

At the same time, NBN announced the next 200,000 that will be able to upgrade from fibre to the node (FttN) to fibre to the premises (FttP). This latest announcement now leaves only 400,000 premises remaining to be announced to complete the company’s two million premises able to upgrade target. NBN added it was also expecting the first invitations for customers to upgrade fibre to the curb (FttC) connections to be sent in 2022....

According to NEC, the test involves utilising its vector annealing service and applying it to selected on-site maintenance services to help formulate delivery plans for maintenance parts so that it’s in line with customer engineer (CE) dispatch plans. “There are several hundred maintenance operations each day in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and parts are delivered from parts centres in accordance with the dispatch plans prepared based on CE’s skills and arrival times, taking into account traffic conditions,” NEC said....

How is that increasing size to be dealt with? With more powerful chips, on the one hand, but also by putting some of the software on a diet. On Thursday, the latest benchmark test of how fast a neural network can be run to make predictions was presented by MLCommons, the consortium that runs the MLPerf tests. The reported results featured some important milestones, including the first-ever benchmark results for Nvidia’s “Hopper” GPU, unveiled in March....

Also: Don’t know which Kindle reader is right for you? We break it down The advert-free 2022 model normally retails for $120. However, over Cyber Monday, you can pick one up for the same discount, or $105. Also: The new entry-level Kindle has officially converted me to e-readers

Cadillac’s new XTS luxury sedan features an industry first: vibrating seats that alert drivers to any possible dangers while driving or parking. The seat generates a vibrating pulse when a driver finds himself in a potentially precarious situation, such as drifting into a different traffic lane or coming too close to nearby objects when parking. The seat can vibrate on either the left or right side, depending on where the threat originates....

“(Right now) there’s no alternative to Apple. This means that consumers don’t have a choice, innovation slows down, and that’s not right,” said Pei. To challenge the iPhone makers’ bounded, walled-garden ecosystem of products, Nothing is set to launch the phone (1) later this year, while curating a seamless, integrative ecosystem with third-party products. What those third-party products entail remains unknown. What we do know is a series of key features and specs of the phone (1) and when consumers can expect the Nothing smartphone to arrive in store shelves....

The ARM-based RP2040, its first microcontroller, was available for $1 a piece when it launched in June, but can now be bought in volume at sizable discounts. It features two Cortex M0+ cores, 264KB of on-chip RAM, and support for up to 16MB of off-chip flash memory via a QSPI bus. It was built from TSCM’s 40nm process and is available as a component for the low-powered Pi Pico board or other projects....

The advisory emphasizes that China-backed hackers actively target not just the networks of the US government and its allies but also software and hardware companies in the supply chain to steal intellectual property and gain access to sensitive networks. These hackers are an active threat to the IT and telecoms sector, the defense industrial base, and critical infrastructure owners and operators. “NSA, CISA, and FBI continue to assess [People’s Republic of China] PRC state-sponsored cyber activities as being one of the largest and most dynamic threats to U....

NBN said the main areas where lightning and floods resulted in NCD replacement were Penrith, Miranda, Frenchs Forest, Rockdale, Grafton, Mosman, Peakhurst, Glebe, and Campbelltown. The company further said, during 2020, it swapped 57,000 NCDs and so far this year it has replaced 44,300 NCDs. In March, the company said it was looking for a long-term solution to lightning frying FttC equipment, which was highlighted in the Blue Mountains area of NSW....

Off the back of that period, the NSW RFS realised it needed greater operational transparency of its 75,000 volunteers and 2,000 brigades, beyond understanding where fires and incidents were occurring. “Given that our volunteers come from every walk of life … they also have really different qualifications, and it was essential for us to have a real-time view of their skills and qualifications to help the frontline make the right decision about who to deploy in an emergency,” NSW RFS ICT project manager Emma Casime said, speaking during the virtual Gartner Data and Analytics APAC Summit on Tuesday....

What does it mean to make the cloud invisible? First, it’s important to understand the long shadow that the cloud has cast over the enterprise. Ten years after Nutanix got its start breaking down data center silos, “the new silos are the clouds,” Ramaswami told ZDNet, and “every cloud is somewhat different.” Nutanix on Tuesday released its fourth annual global Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) survey and research report, revealing how committed enterprises are to a multi-cloud approach in spite of ongoing challenges....

Goggles from Facebook’s Oculus unit have improved over the years, but the latest, the Meta Quest 2 model, is still not something most people want to wear around town. Glasses from Vuzix may come closer to being fashion statements, but their display capability is primitive and not anything a person wants to gaze at for extending lengths of time. Fear not, though, help may be on the way. Nvidia, with help from Stanford University, last month proposed what it calls Holographic Glasses, a prototype of which is just a tenth of an inch thick and weighs sixty grams, and can fit in normal glasses-like frames....

Our resident Windows expert, Ed Bott, has been diligent in his coverage of watching Microsoft walk itself back from compatibility commitments in its pre-release documentation to get down to the bottom of exactly which systems would be orphaned by and which ones would move forward to Windows 11. That we did not have a definitive answer from Microsoft from the get-go has added a great deal of frustration from Microsoft’s traditional loyalists....