AT&T and Verizon are probably violating the Federal Communication Commission’s net neutrality rules by allowing third-parties to pay for subscribers’ data usage.That’s the determination FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler provided in a letter to several U.S. Senators on Wednesday, along with a report on the matter from The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. But Wheeler is set to step down as FCC Chair once President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office next Thursday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Windows 10 Insider previews are sometimes just full of surprises. An unmentioned feature in Build 15002 was recently uncovered by Windows Central that appears to be a complementary feature to Windows Hello, the biometric login system that automatically unlocks your PC when you sit in front of it.Dubbed Dynamic Lock, this newly discovered feature is designed to automatically lock down your computer when Windows detects that you’re away. It’s not clear if the feature is working yet and Microsoft has yet to discuss it publicly. For that reason it’s unknown what Dynamic Lock actually does. Though Windows Central says Microsoft’s internal name for the feature is “Windows Goodbye,” which indeed suggests a close relationship with Windows Hello.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Windows 10 Insider previews are sometimes just full of surprises. An unmentioned feature in Build 15002 was recently uncovered by Windows Central that appears to be a complementary feature to Windows Hello, the biometric login system that automatically unlocks your PC when you sit in front of it.Dubbed Dynamic Lock, this newly discovered feature is designed to automatically lock down your computer when Windows detects that you’re away. It’s not clear if the feature is working yet and Microsoft has yet to discuss it publicly. For that reason it’s unknown what Dynamic Lock actually does. Though Windows Central says Microsoft’s internal name for the feature is “Windows Goodbye,” which indeed suggests a close relationship with Windows Hello.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
An odd thing happened this morning. My Windows 10 PC notified me I had another system update ready and waiting for a reboot—the second update in less than a week! Turns out, this latest update fixes a big mistake that may (or may not) have rolled out earlier this month.Several Windows 10 users recently reported difficulty connecting to the Internet, with the presumed culprit being the December 9 update KB3201845.INSIDER Review: Enterprise guide to Windows 10
That may not be the case, however. Woody Leonhard, our colleague over at InfoWorld, says the connection issue pre-dates KB32018045 by several days. Microsoft has posted a banner warning across its entire support site that Windows 10 users with connection issues should first try and restart their PCs—a shut down and later cold boot won’t do.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Forced updates in Windows 10 have their appeal. For Microsoft, it helps keep the majority of its users on the same build of Windows 10, reducing legacy support issues. For users, it keeps your system up-to-date and reduces the chances of getting hit with malware that takes advantage of unpatched systems.But some folks resent the idea of having updates forced on them—especially when some of those updates cause problems or won’t install properly. If you’re running Windows 10 Home you’re at the mercy of Microsoft’s update schedule (though we have some tips for you at the end of this article). Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise users, however, have the opportunity to defer certain types of updates.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Facebook says it’s not a media company, but it just might be turning into a Wi-Fi finder service. Users of the social network’s iOS app report seeing a new feature in the More section that lets them find nearby public Wi-Fi access points.The feature does not appear to be widely available at the moment, which means this is probably something Facebook is only testing. The social network tests numerous features all the time but this one is particularly notable.As The Next Web points out, helping users find public Wi-Fi could enable more people to use Facebook Live. If your cellular connection isn’t strong, a nearby Wi-Fi location can be a big help—unless, of course, your Facebook Live broadcast is dependent on your specific location.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple is reportedly done with routers.While the company hasn’t said anything publicly, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (who has an excellent track record with Apple rumors) reports that Apple’s wireless router division has been disbanded. The engineers who were working on products like the AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time Capsule have been moved to work on other projects over the past year, according to Gurman.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple is reportedly done with routers.While the company hasn’t said anything publicly, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (who has an excellent track record with Apple rumors) reports that Apple’s wireless router division has been disbanded. The engineers who were working on products like the AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time Capsule have been moved to work on other projects over the past year, according to Gurman.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft’s latest Windows Insider build 14965 is showing a "virtual touchpad" feature that could replace the mouse—or in any case, make life easier for Windows tablet users. It puts a touchpad on your tablet screen, so you can use that instead of a mouse whenever you connect your device to a larger display.Features that pop up in builds don't always make it to final versions, of course, but this feature is intriguing. From the sounds of it, first-time setup is fairly easy. When a tablet, such as the Surface Pro 4, is connected to an external display, open the Action Center and tap on the Project Quick Action tile. This will extend the Windows desktop to the external display. Next, long-press the taskbar on your tablet. When it appears select Show touchpad button.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We saw it coming last fall, and now the reality is here: Project Spark is dead. Microsoft removed its game-creation platform from the Windows Store and the Xbox Marketplace on Friday.
Project Spark, which lets users create games with no coding experience necessary, went into “maintenance mode” in September. At that time, Microsoft stopped active development of the platform but continued to operate it as “a free incubation engine.” The company unlocked all previously paid downloadable content—character packs, themes, etc.—and continued to operate the online services for the platform. That will all end soon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
After months of slowly rolling out information, Sony has finally announced the final crucial details you need to know about the PlayStation VR. Sony’s new VR headset will roll out on October 13 and there will be 50 VR-friendly games released for the PlayStation VR in 2016.
Sony announced pricing back in March and reiterated it during E3. The headset as a stand-alone device costs $399, but to actually use it you also need a PlayStation Camera ($40-$60) and a set of PlayStation Move controllers ($25) bringing the real price closer to $500. You’ll also need a PlayStation 4 console, naturally.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In what can only be called awfully suspicious timing, Yahoo has turned off automatic email forwarding—a crucial feature when changing email accounts—for Yahoo Mail users. Anyone who has already enabled the feature is not affected, but others cannot activate it.On its help pages, Yahoo says mail forwarding is currently under development. “While we work to improve it, we’ve temporarily disabled the ability to turn on Mail Forwarding for new forwarding addresses,” the help page says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In what can only be called awfully suspicious timing, Yahoo has turned off automatic email forwarding—a crucial feature when changing email accounts—for Yahoo Mail users. Anyone who has already enabled the feature is not affected, but others cannot activate it.On its help pages, Yahoo says mail forwarding is currently under development. “While we work to improve it, we’ve temporarily disabled the ability to turn on Mail Forwarding for new forwarding addresses,” the help page says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Comcast said bandwidth caps would be back before 2019, and now the company's living up to its promise.The cable provider recently announced that its 1 terabyte bandwidth cap for Xfinity Internet subscribers would start rolling out more broadly. Comcast’s data caps are currently in effect in 16 regions with another 18 regions getting the bandwidth cap on November 1. You'll find the complete list of current and upcoming bandwidth cap regions at the bottom of this post.The company settled on the 1TB cap limit after experimenting with various caps for several years in select areas. During that time, Comcast appeared to be favoring a 300GB cap, but never rolled it out nationwide. Then in April, Comcast bumped up the cap in its test markets to 1 terabyte.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Comcast said bandwidth caps would be back before 2019, and now the company's living up to its promise.The cable provider recently announced that its 1 terabyte bandwidth cap for Xfinity Internet subscribers would start rolling out more broadly. Comcast’s data caps are currently in effect in 16 regions with another 18 regions getting the bandwidth cap on November 1. You'll find the complete list of current and upcoming bandwidth cap regions at the bottom of this post.The company settled on the 1TB cap limit after experimenting with various caps for several years in select areas. During that time, Comcast appeared to be favoring a 300GB cap, but never rolled it out nationwide. Then in April, Comcast bumped up the cap in its test markets to 1 terabyte.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Spotify's ads crossed from nuisance over to outright nasty this week, after the music service’s advertising started serving up malware to users on Wednesday. The malware was able to automatically launch browser tabs on Windows and Mac PCs, according to complaints that surfaced online.As is typical for this kind of malware, the ads directed users’ browsers to other malware-containing sites in the hopes that someone would be duped into downloading more malicious software. The “malvertising” attack didn’t last long as Spotify was able to quickly correct the problem.“We’ve identified an issue where a small number of users were experiencing a problem with questionable website pop-ups in their default browsers as a result of an isolated issue with an ad on our Free tier,” Spotify said on several threads in its support forums. “We have now identified the source of the problem and have shut it down. We will continue to monitor the situation.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
BlackBerry is getting out of the hardware business, but this isn’t the end of BlackBerry phones—or at least not yet.As part of its quarterly earnings report on Tuesday, the company announced that it would soon end all hardware development. Instead, BlackBerry phone production and design will be outsourced to third parties.“We are focusing on software development, including security and applications. The company plans to end all internal hardware development and will outsource that function to partners,” BlackBerry CEO John Chen said in a written statement.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Uber's rushing to replace its million-plus drivers with robots, and the company's early forays towards that effort start in Pennsylvania later in August. The ride-sharing service plans to roll out self-driving cars in Pittsburgh that will accept real world passengers right from the get-go, according to Bloomberg.The cars, while fully autonomous, won’t be unleashed onto Pittsburgh streets without human supervision. The cars will have a specially-trained engineer ready to take the wheel should something go wrong. There will also be a co-pilot taking notes on how each ride goes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft just offered a masterclass on why building back doors into secure systems are a bad idea.
Two security researchers who go by the handles @never_released and @TheWack0lian on Twitter recently announced in a blog post that malicious actors can bypass Windows’ Secure Boot feature on vulnerable machines, as first reported by ZDNet.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft just offered a masterclass on why building back doors into secure systems are a bad idea.
Two security researchers who go by the handles @never_released and @TheWack0lian on Twitter recently announced in a blog post that malicious actors can bypass Windows’ Secure Boot feature on vulnerable machines, as first reported by ZDNet.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Ian Paul