Two ministers have argued politicians` scrutiny - by Cabinet and Parliament - is enough, and the Attorney-General says it wasn`t necessary to examine the changes. Read...

Amazon’s October Prime Day, aka “Prime Big Deal Days,” is returning once again, as Amazon endeavors to lengthen the holiday shopping season. The pre-holiday sales take place on Oct. 8 and 9 2024, and are Amazon’s fall complement to its July Prime Day event. Expect to see big sales on all types of tech gear, alongside deals of up to 55 percent on Amazon-branded electronics. And of course, you’ll find discounts on seasonal clothing and decor. As you might expect, you’ll need to be an Amazon member to take advantage of the savings. You can either join now, or visit Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days page to launch a trial account. So, what’s hot for Amazon Prime Big Deal Days? Amazon is positioning this sale as a pre-holiday extravaganza, hoping to save you the effort of rushing out to the mall to buy stuff. Obviously, a lot of tech gear will go on sale, and if you want to stock up on Amazon devices, this is usually the time to buy. At PCWorld, we’ll be looking for deals in all the major tech categories, including laptops, Chromebooks, desktops, storage, docks and hubs and more. This article will be updated as soon as we publish our deal roundups in all the tech categories PCWorld covers. For now, you can check out all our Prime Day coverage from July. October Prime Day 2024 FAQ 1. When are Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days? Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days kick off at 12:01 AM PT on Oct. 8 and run through Oct. 9. They’ll take place in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, the U.K., the U.S., and for the first time, Turkey. Prime members in Japan can shop on Prime Big Deal Days later in October, Amazon says. 2. What’s the difference between Amazon Prime Day and Amazon Prime Big Deal Days? We consider Amazon Prime Day in July to be the “big” deals event, with a number of discounts across various categories of electronics and gadgets. Prime Big Deal Days, meanwhile, kicks off the fall shopping season (well, according to Amazon, anyway). Holiday and Black Friday sales happen later, and Amazon obviously participates in these, too. The bottom line is that Prime Day is the big event, and Prime Big Deal Days typically showcases fewer great tech deals. It’s more like a soft lead in to general holiday shopping. 3. Do you need to subscribe to Amazon Prime to shop Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days? Yes, you do. You’ll need to either be an existing Prime Day member or visit Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days page to launch a trial account. 4. What electronics deals can I expect during Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days? According to Amazon, you can expect savings of up to 55 percent on select Amazon devices, including the Blink Outdoor 4 six-camera system, eero mesh wifi systems, 40-inch Fire TV 2-Series, and Luna gaming controllers. You’ll also see Amazon’s lowest price ever on its Blink Outdoor 4 four-camera system. If you pay with your Prime credit card, you’ll earn 10 percent back on select Amazon device purchases, including the Fire Max 11 tablet, Amazon Echo (4th Gen), and 65” Fire TV Omni QLED Series. Amazon’s handing out a $150 Amazon gift card to sign up for a Prime Visa from Oct. 2-31, and you can get $80 in Amazon credit if you sign up for a Prime Store card between Oct.3 and Oct. 9. One place to start is with Amazon’s earlier Prime Day deals. They’ve since expired, but you can use them to help comparison shop. (And sometimes, Amazon will launch a few stealth sales early!) 5. Are there any more electronics-related deals during Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days? Customers who haven’t tried Amazon Music Unlimited can listen free, for a limited time, Amazon says. Non-Prime members can get access to three months free, and Prime members can get four months free. If you already subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited, you can upgrade to a family plan for two months, with no extra cost. Amazon has already opened their Holiday Shop to start planning out your gifts. Read...

Yesterday, Microsoft announced the release of the final version of Microsoft Office LTSC 2024, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneDrive, OneNote, and Microsoft Access. LTSC stands for Long-Term Servicing Channel and it denotes a version that doesn’t receive feature updates for a long while. As described by Microsoft, it’s a “locked-in-time” version that gets some of the features that were released since the last LTSC release, and it gets five years of support from the time it’s released. Get Windows 11 Pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro As such, Microsoft Office LTSC versions are one-time purchase, have no subscription obligations, can only be installed on a single device per license, and don’t require internet connectivity. However, it’s important to note that Microsoft Office LTSC is expressly meant for companies, not private users — LTSC licenses can only be acquired through volume licensing agreements. After lengthy praise for Microsoft 365, the Redmond-based company is now ready to admit that there are still good reasons for a non-subscription version of Office. Microsoft writes: “Still, we know that some customer scenarios require a different approach. Some devices must never be connected to the internet; others need to remain unchanged for years at a time. We remain committed to supporting our customers and these scenarios.? Earlier this year, we offered a public preview of Microsoft Office Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) 2024. Today, we’re announcing the general availability of this next perpetual version of Office for commercial and government customers.” Microsoft will support Office LTSC 2024 for five years as part of the Fixed Lifecycle Policy. Office LTSC 2024 will not receive any feature updates, only security updates, and it offers the following benefits: “Office LTSC 2024 offers a locked-in-time version of familiar productivity tools, updated with a subset of the features that have been added to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise over the last three years. New features for this release include Dynamic Charts and more than a dozen new text and array functions in Excel, enhanced search and meeting creation options in Outlook, and improvements to performance, security, and accessibility.” At the bottom of this page, there’s a comparison of Microsoft 365 and Office LTSC 2024. Key benefits of Microsoft 365 include the ability to install apps on up to 5 devices, access to web app versions, eligibility for the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on, and 1TB of cloud storage. Corporate customers can find the GVLKs for Office LTSC 2024 here. Microsoft Office 2024 is not yet available for home users. Further reading: Everything you need to know about Microsoft 365 Read...

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If Windows 11 no longer works properly, you can reset the operating system, download the installation files from the Microsoft cloud, and reinstall Windows 11. You can also restore your data in the process. However, this requires a fast internet connection, as the operating system downloads all the required data from the internet. The advantages of this method are that you do not need an installation medium and can restore your data from the cloud. get windows 11 pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro Cloud recovery is generally also possible in the computer repair options, which start when Windows 11 can no longer boot completely. But you will need a cable network connection in this case, as there are no Wi-Fi drivers available in the recovery environment. However, if Windows 11 starts reasonably stable, you can also perform the recovery via Wi-Fi in the settings. Starting the restore process in Windows 11: Backup and OneDrive Before you start the process for restoring Windows 11 from the cloud, you should make a few preparations. Firstly, you should make sure that you have backed up as much data as possible that you still need after the installation. Either back up the data to a drive or to the cloud. Further reading: Best Windows backup software It makes sense to use OneDrive here, as the Microsoft cloud storage works perfectly with Windows 11 and recovery. Other cloud storage is of course also possible, but OneDrive is integrated directly into the operating system and allows you to synchronize various data and settings without having to use other apps and services. Foundry Foundry Foundry Windows 10/11 includes the Windows Backup tool. You can start it directly from the Start menu. The tool backs up the data on your PC to OneDrive. If you restore Windows 11, whether via the cloud or a local drive, you can then restore your data quickly and easily using the internal backup program. If you are not yet using the free app, you can set it up with just a few clicks before the cloud restore and back up your data to OneDrive. This makes cloud recovery much easier. This allows you to restore them to your PC, but also to other devices that you sign in to with the same Microsoft account. The tool can also back up your settings in Windows 11 and apply them after a restore. This not only allows you to restore your PC from the cloud, but also to restore your data and settings. Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Before you restore Windows 11 from the cloud, you should run the backup once so that you can restore all data later. In general, it doesn’t hurt to synchronize your data with OneDrive using Windows 11. This means that the data for which you have activated synchronization is available in the cloud. If you log in again with your Microsoft account after restoring Windows 11, the synchronized data will also be available. Therefore, if you use OneDrive in Windows 11 in conjunction with Windows Backup, all your data is collected in one central location and can therefore be accessed and restored anywhere. Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Document drivers and applications Before you restore Windows 11, you should check the drivers used. This ensures that if drivers are missing from the Windows 11 installation, you can download the latest drivers yourself from the device manufacturer. To do this, open the device manager with “devmgmt.msc” in the search field of the taskbar. Make a note of the exact type of graphics adapter, network adapter, and other special devices such as cameras, scanners, or printers. This will make it easier for you to update the drivers later if necessary. Foundry Foundry Foundry You should do the same with the installed applications. Call up “appwiz.cpl” to display a list of all installed applications. Make sure that you have the installation files of the programs you want to continue using in the event of a complete restore. Foundry Foundry Foundry If you perform the restore in such a way that apps and data are retained, you do not need to reinstall anything. For a complete reinstallation, however, you will need all installation files. Resetting Windows 11 and restoring from the cloud In the Windows 11 settings, go to System > Recovery. Then click on “Reset PC.” At this point, you can either select “Keep my files” or “Remove all.” If the restore does not work with “Keep my files,” you can start the process again with “Remove all.” If you have backed up your data in the cloud using Windows Backup and synchronized your data with OneDrive at the same time, Windows 11 can restore the data from the cloud at any time. Foundry Foundry Foundry On the next page of the wizard, select “Cloud Download” if you want to ensure that Windows is completely restored with new installation files from the cloud. You will then receive a summary of the data entered so far, which you confirm with “Next.” However, you can cancel the process at any time without consequences. Foundry Foundry Foundry The installation wizard then prepares a few more things and finally starts the reset. You must confirm this with the “Reset” button. The wizard then starts downloading the necessary files, resets Windows 11 completely, and allows you to set it up again. Once you confirm the process, it can no longer be cancelled. If you log in after the reset with the same Microsoft account that you used to back up Windows and set up OneDrive synchronization, all your data will be available again. However, you can also just log in to the Windows backup app with the Microsoft account to restore. Check the device manager to see if any drivers are missing and download them. The documentation created for the installed drivers will help you do this. If you have removed everything, you will need to reinstall the applications you need. It is therefore advisable to ensure in advance that you have the installation files for the applications. Documentation is therefore also useful here before a reset. Further reading: 18 tweaks that give Windows 11 a personalized feel Completion of the cloud restore As soon as Windows 11 has been restored from the cloud, you should ideally log in again with the same Microsoft account. Then make sure that OneDrive is started and you are logged in with the Microsoft account. Synchronization will then start. You can also restore your data and settings from the Windows Backup app after starting the app. You can find the settings for this under Account > Windows Backup. Of course, you can also restore using other tools and cloud storage. The advantage of using Windows Backup and OneDrive is that both solutions are firmly integrated into the operating system, which makes restoring and synchronization much faster. Further reading: The best cloud backup services Read...

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Today, Microsoft is announcing “Wave 2” of its Microsoft 365 Copilot AI innovation, which is geared towards users who are paying for a Microsoft 365 Copilot Pro subscription. But one feature, known as Pages, may be available to business customers who use Copilot without a subscription. The subtext of Pages — and the overall theme of the new Copilot wave in general — is that Copilot’s AI contributions matter. Normally, any advice provided by Copilot remains within Copilot and only for a short time. Microsoft characterizes Copilot’s output as “ephemeral,” signifying something that eventually passes over. But the new Pages feature treats Copilot’s insights as equal to something that you or your coworkers themselves might have authored, saving Copilot’s output on a “page” to be worked on with your colleagues. Here’s what Copilot Pages looks like. Here’s what Copilot Pages looks like.Microsoft Here’s what Copilot Pages looks like.Microsoft Microsoft Pages will initially be available to users who subscribe to Microsoft 365 and have a Microsoft 365 Copilot Pro subscription, which is a $20-per-month add-on. But in the coming weeks, Pages will also be added to Entra accounts. (Entra is Microsoft’s corporate identity solution, which your employer may or may not use.) Entra accounts won’t require a Copilot for Microsoft 365 subscription to use Pages. The goal, of course, is to sell more of these Copilot for Microsoft 365 subscriptions. But Microsoft is also trying to make Copilot itself stickier and more appealing. The company cited customer testimonials that say Copilot saved them several hours per week. Microsoft is also adding additional features to its Microsoft 365 apps, including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. Copilot in Excel: Copilot in Excel is now generally available. The key addition is Copilot in Excel with Python, which means you’ll be able to “write” Python functions for Excel using a Copilot prompt. Copilot for Excel now also supports XLOOKUP and SUMIF, conditional formatting, and the ability to iterate with Copilot on visualizations like charts and PivotTables, Microsoft said. Microsoft’s Excel is gaining Python capabilities, combined with Copilot. Microsoft’s Excel is gaining Python capabilities, combined with Copilot.Microsoft Microsoft’s Excel is gaining Python capabilities, combined with Copilot.Microsoft Microsoft Copilot in PowerPoint: Narrative Builder is the latest feature within Copilot for PowerPoint, helping to come up with a “draft” presentation and then refine it until you’re satisfied with your product. Soon Copilot will also be able to add images from your SharePoint library and create approved branded presentations. Copilot in Teams: Later this month, Copilot will be able to summarize both Teams meetings and related chats in meetings, so that the official stuff and the backchannel explanations are summed up. Copilot in Outlook: Although Outlook already has Focused Inbox, a new Prioritize My Inbox feature will pull out your most important emails based on the contents of emails and relationships of senders to you. A summary email sums up those emails and explains why they’re important. Prioritize My Inbox inside Copilot for Outlook. Prioritize My Inbox inside Copilot for Outlook.Microsoft Prioritize My Inbox inside Copilot for Outlook.Microsoft Microsoft Copilot in Word: “Coming later this month, Copilot in Word will enable you to quickly reference not only web data and work data like Word, PowerPoint, PDFs, and encrypted documents, but also emails and meetings,” Microsoft said. Microsoft recently added suggested prompts, which are generally available. Copilot in OneDrive: Later this month, Copilot for OneDrive will allow you to compare up to five files and provide “insights” into the others. Hate PowerPoint? Copilot might help you bang out a quick presentation. Hate PowerPoint? Copilot might help you bang out a quick presentation.Microsoft Hate PowerPoint? Copilot might help you bang out a quick presentation.Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft is also announcing Agent Builder, the ability to create agents with Copilot Studio. These agents, now available, can automate business processes, ranging from simple prompt-and-response agents to “more advanced, fully autonomous agents,” said Microsoft. One of the example agents is a Visual Creator agent, which creates AI images, designs, and soon videos. Further reading: What can Copilot Pro really do? Read...

Microsoft recently unveiled plans to clean up the increasingly labyrinthine Settings page in its Edge browser. First spotted by Windows Latest, you can see these plans for yourself if you head over to the official Microsoft 365 roadmap page and expand the description for the item labeled “Microsoft Edge: Elevating top settings and improving settings page navigability.” The plan appears to include three distinct parts: The first part will be “introducing quick access to the most used actions on the landing page of Edge Settings.” The second part will be to “feature quick access to [the] most used actions” on “each densely populated page,” which will include the pages for Privacy, search, and services; Appearance; Cookies and site permissions; System and performance. The third part will be for those same pages as well, where “each section will now click-through to its respective sub-settings (similar to a table of contents).” All of this should have a beneficial clean-up effect on the Settings page, making it far easier to navigate as it won’t be bombarding you with tons of overwhelming information at every turn. The new Settings page should start rolling out worldwide in October with general availability, but don’t be surprised if it takes longer before they appear in the stable version of Edge. Further reading: What’s the fastest web browser? Edge vs. Chrome vs. Firefox vs. more, compared Read...

There’s nothing more heart-stopping than frantically searching for the nearest outlet while your laptop verges on dying. Want to avoid such panic-inducing scenarios? You’re going to need a long-lasting laptop with lots of juicy battery life. That’s where we come in. We’ve personally tested over 80 laptops so far this year (as of this writing) and many more over the past decade. I can point you to the ones that have the best battery life, period. Here are the five laptops we tested with the longest battery life. How PCWorld tests battery life: When it comes to testing battery life for laptops, we loop a 4K file of a short film on screen until the laptop dies. We set the brightness level to 250 to 260 nits, unplug all USB drives, disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and plug in a pair of earbuds. We run this test twice per laptop to ensure consistent results. 1. Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 (24 hours) Pros Remarkable battery life A great array of ports Sturdy, lightweight design High visibility display Cons Variable performance trails competitors A bit pricier than the competition The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 has a 58 watt-hour battery that keeps going, lasting just shy of 24 hours on a single charge (!!!). Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor. It pummels other laptops with similar hardware like the Asus Vivobook S 15 (which manages a feeble 15 hours of battery life by comparison), and its performance is bolstered by its inclusion of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 processor, which is quite power-efficient. We believe the low-power screen plays a part in this laptop’s runtime, as the battery itself isn’t very big. The 14-inch display has a 1920×1200 resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate, so it’s not very demanding, either. The Vivobook, on the other hand, has a higher resolution OLED display at 2880×1620, which likely impacts the battery life. (OLED displays achieve better contrast and color accuracy, but they can negatively impact battery life, especially when displaying bright content.) All in all, it isn’t the fastest or flashiest system, but the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is efficient at a level we haven’t seen elsewhere. It’s an all-around strong machine for general productivity on the go and proves tough to beat on that front. Read our full Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 review 2. Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge (21 hours) Pros Very thin and light for a 16-inch laptop Long battery life Beautiful OLED display Highest-end Snapdragon X Elite hardware available Cons No facial recognition login eUFS storage is soldered to the motherboard Limited to 16GB of RAM Expensive compared to other Snapdragon-powered laptops The top-end Snapdragon X Elite hardware isn`t much faster The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge has a 61.8 watt-hour battery that died at the 21-hour mark. It’s not the 24-hour result we saw with the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, but 21 hours is nothing to sneeze at, especially for a 16-inch laptop with an OLED screen. You’d think the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge’s 16-inch 2880×1800 OLED would be a drain on the battery, but we believe the long battery life is a direct result of the power-efficient Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 processor. This CPU is a step up from the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 that’s inside the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 6, and this higher-tier processor offers better performance for slightly shorter battery life. Plus, based on our testing, laptops with Intel Core or AMD processors tend to have shorter battery life than those with Snapdragon processors, which are designed to be more power-efficient. All in all, the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is an excellent Snapdragon X Elite-powered PC with a beautiful display, long battery life, and great build quality. But you’re paying extra for the high-end Snapdragon X Elite hardware on the 16-inch model, and it doesn’t deliver the big performance bump you might expect. Read our full Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge review 3. Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (20 hours) Pros Attractive, slim, and light Class-leading battery life Excellent wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi 7 Good performance in real-world situations Cons Vague keyboard falls short of competitors IPS touchscreen`s image quality can`t compare to OLED Gaming performance doesn`t hold up Best Prices Today: $987.85 at Amazon$999.99 at Best Buy The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 is another Snapdragon-equipped machine with spectacular battery life: 20 hours, to be exact. This result is especially impressive because the battery size is only 54 watt-hours, which is small compared to other laptops of its class (like the 84 watt-hour battery in the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1). You can thank the power-efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor for that. In addition, this laptop also weighs just under 3 pounds, making it a super travel-friendly option if you’re always on the go. All in all, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7’s strong processor performance and top-tier battery life prove that Windows’ transition to Arm has staying power, but even the most casual gamers should think twice because gaming on a Snapdragon laptop has its problems. Note that while we specifically reviewed the $1,999.99 version — a bit pricey for some folks, I know — you can get the base configuration for a much more affordable $999.99. Read our full Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (13.8?) review 4. HP OmniBook X (18 hours) Pros Long battery life Slim and lightweight Decent keyboard and trackpad Cons Dim and glossy display can be hard to see Priced too close to better PCs Outperformed on many fronts The HP OmniBook X boasts the same CPU (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100) that’s inside the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, but it only manages 18 hours. That’s still a fantastic result, don’t get me wrong, but it does fall several hours short of the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6. That’s likely because of the HP OmniBook X’s 14-inch 2240×1400 touchscreen, a higher-resolution display that consumes more power. According to our review, during day-to-day use it lost “just 9 percent of charge per hour.” Battery life aside, the HP OmniBook X offers reliable performance as well as a robust build. All in all, the HP OmniBook X is an effective laptop and makes decent use of its Snapdragon processor to run for hours on end, but it doesn’t set itself apart as it skimps in other areas. Read our full HP OmniBook X review 5. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 (17 hours) Pros ThinkPad build quality Good battery life 360-degree hinge with a pen and touchscreen Cons Expensive Long battery life comes at the cost of performance Slow integrated graphics Won`t run Copilot+ PC features Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors reign supreme on this list, which is why the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 is a notable inclusion: it’s the longest battery life laptop with an Intel processor (so far). Granted, much like the Snapdragon processor, the Intel Core Ultra 7 155U is also designed with power efficiency in mind. However, the 17-hour battery life definitely stands out, and it’s rooted in its combination of power-efficient processor and lower-resolution display. The laptop’s 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS touchscreen isn’t all that demanding, and that’s what allows this laptop to beat out the 10.5-hour battery life of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which has the same processor but a higher-resolution OLED display (2880×1800). All in all, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 is a quality laptop with a robust build, a nice pen, and serious battery life. But if you’re thinking of buying one, you may want to wait for the upcoming next-gen model that’s going to be powered by Intel’s Lunar Lake hardware. Read our full Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 review Further reading: Our top picks for laptops in every category Read...

Baron Waqa has confirmed the Forum suffered a cyber-attack and says the threat has been isolated but his team does not yet know who was behind it. Read...