But, just as my jaded tech reviewer heart was withering from this malaise, the Lamzu Atlantis arrived. Not only does it feature a legitimately original shape, but it packs a jaw-dropping weight and top-end internal components. Amazingly, it’s still under $100, and made by a company that few of us had even heard of six months ago. Let’s learn more about the most refreshing gaming mouse I’ve tested in years....
And, ZDNET has you covered. Our editors hosted a YouTube livestream on Dec. 16, where our team ran through the best deals we’ve found on the tech products we liked the most from 2022. We’ll help you find the best deals you can get right now on smartphones, tablets, headphones, robot vacuums, smart home gear, TVs, gaming equipment, laptops, and more. We’ve been researching and keeping an eye on the best tech deals since the beginning of November and we’ve pulled together all that research and wisdom here....
Nothing can beat automating daily work tasks. IT pros and system administrators – who may be learning Windows Powershell Scripting for the first time – can significantly increase their productivity with the skills taught in the 2022 Windows PowerShell Certification Bundle. Best of all, it’s currently on sale for only $19.99. System administrators can jump right in with a couple of one-hour courses. “Essential Tools for Windows System Administrators” covers open-source tools plus those already built in to Windows to boost your efficiency....
Chris Haroun, an award-winning business school professor and former venture capitalist, will teach you how to draft better speeches and deliver them more confidently. In his course, he even includes 25 speech guides and more than 50 slide templates to help you deliver the perfect presentation. This will be especially handy if you’re ever speaking at a conference or in front of potential investors. Professional mind mapper Barry Mapp will teach you how to brainstorm and visualize thoughts linked around a central concept, allowing you to improvise more freely and make quick connections that will serve you well in sales pitches....
The assistant will help users write the About and Headline sections on their profile, which are important to help a professional stand out, and therefore, can be extra difficult to write. Also: What is GPT-4? Here’s everything you need to know Once the AI assistant generates the personalized description, users will have the opportunity to edit text and further tailor it to meet their needs. In fact, LinkedIn actually recommends that users take this extra step since “customization is still important....
Since the first release candidate (rc1) for Linux 6.0 in August, Torvalds has played down the meaning of the major version number change, which would have otherwise been 5.20. While he has called 6.0 a “fairly sizable release”, he also said at conference last month “I wanted 6.0 to be boring.” As he wrote on Sunday in an update: “So, as is hopefully clear to everybody, the major version number change is more about me running out of fingers and toes than it is about any big fundamental changes....
LockBit Adds California Department of Finance to List of Victims In a post to its dark web portal on Monday, LockBit said the stolen data includes databases, financial files, and, oddly enough, “sexual proceedings in court.” Though no specifics on the ransom amount have been provided, LockBit has been known to demand tens of millions of dollars for the safe return of sensitive data. While the California Department of Finance handles the state’s budgeting, it does not have direct access to taxpayer funds or government bank accounts....
Two weeks ago, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) issued a warning that an ‘unknown threat group’ is attempting to exploit a Log4j vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228) in VMware Horizon servers to establish web shells that could be used to distribute malware and ransomware, steal sensitive information, and complete other malicious attacks. Since then, several cybersecurity companies have confirmed that hackers are continuing to target VMware Horizon servers. In a statement to ZDNet, VMware said they are continuing to urge customers to apply the latest guidance found in their security advisory, VMSA-2021-0028, in order to resolve vulnerabilities CVE-2021-44228 and CVE-2021-4504....
The challenge with the Log4j flaw (also known as Log4Shell) is not only that admins need to patch the flaw – which got a ‘critical’ rating of 10 out of 10 – but that IT folk can’t easily discover whether a product or system is affected by the vulnerability in the component. Google has calculated that approximately 17,000 Java packages in the Maven Central repository – the most significant Java package repository – were found to contain the vulnerable log4j-core library as a direct or transitive dependency....
(Security) cameras should be mentioned on Airbnb listings, but this is not always the case In the description of their Airbnb accommodation, hosts nowadays have to report the presence of a (security) camera. An analysis of nearly a million Airbnbs by VPNoverview shows that 1 in 132 Airbnbs has one or more cameras. In addition to the Airbnbs that are known to have cameras, hidden cameras are regularly discovered by guests....
Mastodon, a “decentralized social media” platform, has seen its daily users increase significantly over the past weeks in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. But its decision to allow anyone to inject HTML may expose users to privacy risks. PortSwigger researcher Gareth Heyes could swipe users’ passwords on Mastodon by taking advantage of an HTML filter bypass and exploiting Google Chrome’s autofill feature. Heyes injected code to spoof a toolbar on Mastodon, and when users clicked on the toolbar, their credentials were sent to an external server....
Recently, it emerged that McDonald’s has decided that delivery apps, such as Uber Eats and DoorDash, were charging too much for their services. So the burger chain renegotiated its contract and declared its franchisees would now be able to make more money. More details, however, have emerged about another aspect of the new McDonald’s-DoorDash relationship. The Wall Street Journal reports it isn’t all one-way traffic. It seems that if a particular McDonald’s restaurant is slow to prepare a customer’s delivery order, DoorDash will impose penalties....
It explained that the decision was made after it “became clear” that federal regulators would not allow the project to move ahead. In making the announcement, the association said it will sell those assets to Silvergate, a crypto-focused bank it was working with last year to launch a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, for $200 million. “We remain confident in the potential for a stablecoin operating on a blockchain designed like Diem’s to deliver the benefits that motivated the Diem Association from the beginning....
The list includes a Microsoft Windows SAM local privilege escalation vulnerability with a remediation date set for February 24. Vulcan Cyber engineer Mike Parkin said the vulnerability – CVE-2021-36934 – was patched in August 2021 shortly after it was disclosed. “It is a local vulnerability, which reduces the risk of attack and gives more time to deploy the patch. CISA set the due date for Federal organizations who take direction from them, and that date is based on their own risk criteria,” Parkin said....
The ID@Azure program was originally launched in December as an invitation-only closed beta program. As of today, it’s generally available. Microsoft’s xCloud game-streaming service runs on Azure. Game developers, including Microsoft itself, already have access to Bing Maps, Microsoft Mesh, Bing Maps, Azure AI, PlayFab developer services, and other Microsoft cloud technologies for building and maintaining their games. In turn, all the work game developers do on Azure “informs and accelerates cloud computing,” officials have said....
A site called Windows Prime has posted what Windows watcher Paul Thurrott reckons to be an official specs sheet for the forthcoming Surface Laptop 5. The 2021 Surface Laptop 4 13.5-inch and 15-inch models, which Microsoft released in April, are available with both AMD and Intel processors. However, they are only available with the previous-generation AMD Ryzen mobile processors versus the then-current 11th generation Intel Core CPUs. Surface Laptop 3 ship with AMD processors for the 15-inch model only....
Also on the list of today’s Microsoft gaming announcements: Later this year, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate users will be able to play from the cloud select games they already own or have bought outside of the Xbox Game Pass library Microsoft and Samsung, starting June 30, will bring the Xbox App to Samsung 2022 Smart TVs so users can play cloud-enabled games in the Game Pass Ultimate library on Smart TVs without a console Microsoft is adding Argentina and New Zealand to its list of regions supported by Xbox Cloud Gaming as of June 9 Microsoft will add curated demos of upcoming games for Xbox Game Pass members to aid with game discovery as part of “Project Moorcroft” some time “within the next year....
Last week, during Microsoft’s Build 2021 conference, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Microsoft would share more “soon” about the next Windows. He said it would be “the most significant updates of Windows of the past decade.” He said he has been self-hosting it over the past several months and called it “the next generation of Windows.” This Windows variant is expected to include the “Sun Valley” user-interface refresh, as well as some underlying improvements, such as better touch capabilities and a new app Store, based on various leaks....
After a year of testing and monitoring Motorola launches, I’m finding the company’s portfolio one of the more interesting ones in the smartphone race. Motorola, which is owned by Lenovo, has homed in on a category I’d call value innovation. The smartphone maker covers a wide range of price points including the Moto G Stylus, which has improved greatly in its second gen, to devices that’ll cost you as much as a pair of running shoes to the border of premium....
“I do see AI as an inflection point in terms of what’s possible next because this puts you on a new trajectory for better 5G performance and user experience,” Nitin Dhiman, Qualcomm’s director of 5G product marketing, said to ZDNet. “Similar to what AI has done for cameras, for audio, for sound – now it will be able to do for 5G as well.” The new AI-powered 5G modem is one of several connectivity announcements Qualcomm is making this week during the Mobile World Congress (MWC)....
