London-born Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia aged 15, will be canonised by the Catholic church in 2025. Read...

At Ignite 2024, Microsoft unveiled a new feature for the Windows 11 taskbar. It’s called Microsoft 365 Companions and it’ll give users quick access to important data, reports The Verge. These so-called “companions” are additional bits of information that are integrated into the taskbar and Start menu, and you can spot these details — which include contacts, files, and calendar events — at a glance. Get Windows 11 Pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro Microsoft didn’t give a detailed explanation of how it will all work, but companions are very similar to the new Phone Link app features in the Windows 11 24H2 update. Phone Link’s companion experience adds a floating window next to the Start menu that shows recent messages, recent calls, and battery percentage for the connected phone. It’s currently unclear whether third-party developers will also be able to create their own companions for Windows 11. Further reading: Microsoft teases AI interpreter that can translate speech between languages in real time Read...

With Black Friday approaching fast (also Thanksgiving if you’re in the US, but who cares about that?), we’re already seeing some amazing deals on monitors. For example, Newegg is offering this MSI 27-inch OLED gaming monitor with 1440p resolution and 240Hz of refresh for just $499.99 with a coupon code. That’s $200 off its retail price! But you have to act fast because Newegg says it’s only available today. The MSI MAG 271QPX is designed to be a fantastic, gaming-focused OLED screen without a lot of extras. 240Hz at 2560×1440 hits the “sweet spot” for a 27-inch monitor, offering a little extra sharpness for high-end AAA games and plenty of speed for online multiplayer. Connections are a bit basic with one DisplayPort and double HDMI. The monitor does support USB-C video, but with just 15 watts of charging you won’t be able to charge up a gaming laptop at the same time. A headphone port for your gaming headset and VESA mounting for a monitor arm round out the features. MSI is offering a 3-year warranty on the OLED panel, which is a nice boost for peace of mind. Newegg At this price for an OLED, beggars can’t be choosers. In order to get it, you’ll need to be quick. Add the monitor to your cart on Newegg, then apply the coupon code MAG27E2 to get $200 off. Newegg says that this code expires at midnight today, Eastern time. We’ve seen this price in and out over the last few days, so it might come back in time for Black Friday. But I’d be surprised if it gets any lower, so if you’re hunting for an OLED deal, you might want to jump on it now. Use coupon code MAG27E2 to get this OLED monitor for $500Buy now at Newegg Read...

Imagine being in a meeting, perhaps with a client or with other team members, and not quite sharing the same preferred languages. Communication barriers can cause all kinds of misunderstandings and issues when collaborating, and a translator isn’t always available. At Ignite 2024, Microsoft just unveiled a cool new feature for Microsoft Teams that uses artificial intelligence to not only translate words from one language to another in real time, but even emulate the speaker’s voice, intonations, and mannerisms. Microsoft says a preview version of this “AI interpreter” feature will come some time in early 2025, but it remains unknown when the feature will be released more generally across all versions of Teams. The Teams interpreter will initially support nine languages: English, Chinese (Mandarin), Korean, German, Italian, Japanese, French, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese. Users will also be able to set whether they want the interpreter to mimic their own voices. For example, so the translated audio sounds like you’re the one speaking Spanish. Further reading: Microsoft’s AI roadmap for Windows 11, revealed Read...

Charging your laptop on the go isn’t just possible — it’s the way to go if you’re constantly out and about and working away from home. All you need is a portable charger that’s capable of the job. The Baseus Blade laptop power bank is super fast, packs a lot of power, and currently has a jaw-dropping discount: get it now for just $51 on Amazon. (You’ll need a Prime membership, but if you don’t have one, sign up for a 30-day free trial. You’ll also need to clip the on-page coupon.) That’s 61 percent off its original price of $130! This Baseus portable charger has a 20,000mAh capacity, which is more than enough to charge most laptops. The 100W output is also fast enough to get it recharged within minutes, not hours. It features two USB-C ports and two USB-C ports, allowing you to charge up to four devices at once if you want to. And it’s slim so it fits right next to your laptop when you pack it away in your bag. Note that only the USB-C ports support the max 100W speed, as the USB-A ports have a 30W limit. And even though it’s nice to be able to charge so many devices at once, note that the charging throughput will need to be split between them, so don’t expect max speed like that. That said, a laptop power bank like the Baseus Blade is definitely something you need, especially when it’s only $51. Remember, this is a Prime deal, so grab a free Prime trial if you need to! Save big on this travel-friendly portable charger for laptopsBuy now on Amazon Read...

If you’re a regular web surfer, you’re probably familiar with cookies, which are data files that are designed to remember things about you like your login information and what you’ve put in your shopping cart. That said, cookies can have an impact on your data and security. If you’re looking to better secure your data, you best listen up. Microsoft Edge offers a number of options for better data protection, but these settings are difficult to find. We’ll show you three easy ways to protect your data. Further reading: 5 ways Microsoft Edge is better than Chrome 1. Prevent third-party cookies Cookies are small text files that are copied to your PC from the websites you surf. First-party cookies can only be read by the website that set them. In online shops, for example, they are used to identify the customer’s shopping basket. Third-party cookies, on the other hand, are usually placed by advertisers. They’re used to recognize the user, which is why they’re also called tracking cookies. Microsoft To block cookies, proceed as follows in Edge: Open the menu at the top right via the three dots and select “Settings.” Click on “Privacy, Search, and Services” and take a look at “Tracking Prevention.” In the default setting “Balanced,” the browser only blocks third-party cookies. With “Strict,” all cookies are rejected. If this setting causes problems with a website, you can add it to the list of “Exceptions.” 2. Delete browser data Microsoft Depending on the cookie settings you’ve selected, you should actively delete the accumulated cookies every few weeks. Edge summarizes these functions under “Settings – Privacy, search, and services.” Click on “Select Elements to be Deleted” and define a “Time Range.” Tick the box next to “Cookies and Other Website Data” and click on “Delete Now.” Windows 11 Pro 3. Use sandbox tabs To increase security, Edge can be run in a sandboxed environment. To do this, follow these steps: Tick the “Microsoft Defender Application Guard” option in the Windows Control Panel under “Programs and Features – Enable or Disable Windows Features.” Confirm by clicking “OK” and restart Windows. Note: This option is only available in the Pro and Enterprise versions of Windows 10 and 11. You’ll find the “New Application Guard Window” entry in the top right-hand corner of the three-dot menu in Edge. This opens the browser in a sandbox from which nothing can escape. If you use it to open a malware-infected page on the Internet, the malware cannot jump over to your PC. Read...

Microsoft’s “see everything, remember everything, everywhere, all the time” Windows Recall feature has been controversial since the moment it was announced. While the utility for users is obvious, it’s also easy to see why people aren’t keen to let either their local PC or Microsoft remember everything they do with a visual record. Microsoft seems to have capitulated, at least for business users. According to a new blog post (spotted by PCMag), Windows Recall will be disabled by default on all enterprise machines. If you want to use it, not only will you need local hardware that meets Copilot+ specs, you’ll need permission from your IT administrator to turn it on. “Recall will be disabled by default, and IT will enable this feature through new policies before it can be made available to employees for opting in,” says Pavan Davuluri, Microsoft’s VP of Windows + Devices. They’d still really like you to use it, though. The post goes on to claim that Recall will ship with “meaningful security enhancements, including additional layers of data encryption and Windows Hello protection, making it one of the most secure experiences we have ever built.” This cautious approach to implementing Recall for its enterprise customers is more stringent than the same feature that’s now enabled on consumer Copilot+ machines, but even there, you can turn it off and remove it completely. That’s after a heavily delayed launch that was originally planned for this summer, delayed into October, and finally postponed until “before December” for Windows Insiders. Considering how we’ve already seen Recall creating massive privacy and security issues, caution seems warranted. Shipping it in a disabled form might make Recall more or less non-existent for enterprise users, which is certainly not what Microsoft was hoping for. Read...

As soon as VR headsets started going mainstream, people were wondering if you could use them to replace conventional monitors for an immersive Windows experience. And yes, you can — there are already several ways to do that right now. But starting in December, Meta’s Quest 3 and Quest 3S headsets will get official support to stream Windows 11, direct from Microsoft. The capability was announced in a post-Ignite news roundup and shown off in a short video, below: Microsoft’s mockup of the integration between Windows and Quest headsets is impressive. The demo user puts on the headset and almost instantly has access to three virtual monitors floating in space via augmented reality, all wireless and apparently seamless. Alternatively, you can put everything on one giant screen right in front of you. Both use a familiar VR control panel that floats beneath the virtual displays. The whole thing is reminiscent of Apple’s Vision Pro “yes, you can use this thing for work” videos. Again, this core capability is not new. Accessing PC content via a standalone VR headset like the Quest is a pretty common thing, though it obviously requires a little more work than on a headset that directly connects to your PC, such as the Valve Index. But at the moment, you still need a bit of third-party software running between them. (Virtual Desktop is a popular option.) Microsoft baking this capability right into Windows indicates a step closer between the platforms, and it’s a somewhat surprising move from a company that seemed to be stepping back from VR and AR with the close of its HoloLens development. This isn’t just a gimmick, either. Microsoft’s news post says you’ll be able to use the feature with a Windows 365 Cloud PC. So, with a little help from a wireless keyboard and mouse, a Quest headset could essentially be your only PC… if your primary desktop lives in the cloud. Even as someone who’s very bullish on VR for entertainment, I still can’t see myself working for eight hours with a headset on. (If the headset battery could even last eight hours. It can’t.) But combine this apparently instant and seamless connection with less bulky hardware, like, say, video glasses from Xreal or RayNeo, and suddenly you have an option for a massively powerful augmented reality setup that can easily travel in a space smaller than a laptop, as seen in the Spacetop design. Assuming that you have a high-speed, always-on connection to a remote machine, of course… and now we’re talking about a lot of different hardware, software, and infrastructure working seamlessly together. Okay, maybe it’s a little farther away than I thought. You’ll be able to try out this native AR workstation feature on Windows 11 with a Quest 3 or Quest 3S headset starting next month, when it goes into “public preview.” Read...

You’re on the web, minding your business—and then out of nowhere, you lose control of your screen. Pop-up windows flash warnings that your PC has been compromised or you’re being spied upon. However, if you take the remedy suggested, like downloading so-called antivirus software, you’ve actually fallen for a type of scam known as scareware. To combat this old form of malware, Microsoft will soon upgrade Edge with a new form of protection. Announced during the Microsoft Ignite conference, the company will use machine learning to identify scareware within Edge tabs and warn users of the danger. The browser will contain the perceived scam attempt unless you give the green light—so if you know the site is safe, you’re still able to proceed. An example of scareware (left), and then Microsoft Edge’s coming ability to quarantine such scam sites (right). Scareware protection will first become available to organizations, who must guard regularly against threats to their users and networks—especially if an employee is tricked into granting remote access to their machine. But with Microsoft saying this feature will make online browsing safer “inside and outside of work,” consumers should expect to eventually get this protection, too. That timeline may be fairly extended, though, as Microsoft also says its scareware blocker will enter public preview in “coming months.” If 2024 was a year of massive data leaks and security issues, 2025 may be on track to patch the damage. In addition Microsoft boosting Edge’s defenses, other huge tech companies such as Google are also giving their products a shot in the arm. Just earlier this week, the possibility of disposable email addresses in Gmail surfaced, which would supercharge the privacy of billions of email users. Read...

Over 10 years have passed since Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl was first announced — and the time for its release has finally come. Today, we’ll get to play it on both PC and Xbox Series X/S. However, before you get started, there are some things you’ll likely want to know to make sure everything goes smoothly. Here’s what you should keep in mind about the release, downloads, and more. Release time for Stalker 2 The official launch of Stalker 2 will take place today at 11am EST. From then on, you’ll be able to download the game if you’ve bought it. (If you pre-ordered it or if you have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you can already download part of the game as a preload.) You can avoid long waiting times by pre-installing the game — as long as there aren’t any issues similar to the preload for yesterday’s Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 release. Simply start the Xbox app on your PC or console and search for Stalker 2 to start the pre-installation process. The game is included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from day one. Incidentally, Stalker 2 will also be released on Steam at the same time, but there is no option to preload it there. Download size for Stalker 2 The official download size of Stalker 2 on Xbox Series X/S is a whopping ~147GB. However, some users who have already installed the 140GB preload have reported a day-one patch that took up another 139GB. After release, there will also be another patch that’s 39GB in size. All in all, you will have to download a lot of data before you can even get started. Let’s hope the game is at least well-optimized by then. Pre-order bonuses for Stalker 2 Anyone who pre-orders the game before its official release time will receive exclusive pre-order bonuses. These include a “Veteran” rifle, a “Tourist” suit, and a “Stalker” backpack. Players will also receive additional stories and music tracks for the campfire. In addition to the Standard Edition for $59.99, there’s also the Deluxe Edition for $79.99 (which includes a bonus side quest, a digital artbook, a soundtrack, plus special suits and unique weapons) and the Ultimate Edition for $109.99 (which includes all of the stuff from the Deluxe Edition plus more special suits and unique weapons as well as two story expansions and all future DLC). Read...