`I’ve seen the trend towards more popularity around the sport... more golf entertainment.` Read...

Windows 10, 10 years past. Looking back, I think that the one thing Windows 10 offered more than anything else was: optimism. Ten years ago today, Windows 10 launched. My review of Windows 10 still feels familiar, just like the operating system. And if you rank all of Microsoft’s Windows operating systems, I still say that Windows 10 comes out on top. Why? Because Windows 10 retained a sense of warmth while simultaneously ushering in the future. Microsoft could have added a feature called Windows Biometric Identification 1.0 to Windows. Instead, it added Windows Hello, a feature where your PC recognizes you, like an old friend. The Start menu was bold, bright, and informative. Cortana may have startled you out of your chair while setting up your PC, but SHE WAS HERE TO HELP — and could author a quick email or set a task while you were busy working on other things. Continuum shared a workspace with your phone. So much of today’s entertainment media focuses on the past, precisely because the good old days feel behind us. The whole retrofuturist aesthetic in the Fantastic Four movie reminds of when humanity felt, collectively, that we could accomplish anything. That collective enthusiasm was also the foundation of the Windows Insider program. For a time, especially before Windows 10 launched a decade ago, Microsoft and its community worked hand in hand to try and make Windows 10 as good is it could be. Users would submit feedback. Microsoft would read it. Small groups of Windows engineers would show off preview builds of Windows 10, and it felt — at least from my perspective — that both the community and Microsoft were eager to talk about what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve it. And it paid off. Windows 10’s launch in Redmond, Washington. Mark Hachman / Foundry Today? Today sucks. We’re all worried about keeping our jobs, while dealing with the looming effects of tariffs. Our government is being slowly dismantled. AI, which was once the future, now feels like Damocles’ sword: Do we use it to preserve our own livelihoods, or discard it in what could be an ultimately futile bid to protect human creativity? And if we do use it, do we try to make a free version work or submit to another subscription service that could siphon hundreds of dollars out of our monthly paychecks? Windows 10 certainly wasn’t perfect. Windows 10 ushered in Microsoft’s mixed-reality debacle, and I dedicated an entire article to what Microsoft promised us in its numerous updates, and yet failed to deliver. Windows Phone, RIP. But those were the days when Microsoft invited everyone to launches with names like the Windows 10 Creators Update, showed us its vision of the future, and asked us to join in. Now, Windows 11 increasingly feels like a software shell surrounding Copilot. Maybe that is the future, where the “operating system” fades away behind some sort of assistant that simply does things for you. Science fiction has certainly trod that path several times, going back to the “Computer” in Star Trek and elsewhere. Today, we’re all concerned about Windows 10’s end of life this October: What will happen if you don’t upgrade? Tips, tricks, and hacks to prolong the inevitable. I’m not here to bury Windows 11; I’ve moved on and embraced it, and I think you should, too. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t look back, even through the gauzy filter of nostalgia. Those were better times, and Windows 10 powered our lives. Read...

In 1924, an innocuous American house might’ve hidden a speakeasy, slinging illegal booze to thirsty patrons during Prohibition. In 2020, you might’ve found the same house hiding dozens of Bitcoin miners. But in 2024, an American house hid a data center run by hackers operating it remotely from North Korea—and the US resident who took the job to keep it ticking is going to prison. After a federal investigation and arrest, Christina Chapman will serve 8.5 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release and paying back hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution, if possible. Chapman was certainly not unaware of the illicit nature of her activities—”I can go to federal prison for falsifying federal documents,” one of her chat logs correctly notes—but she is arguably, at least partially, a victim herself. 50-year-old Chapman was searching for a remote job that would allow her to take care of her mother who was battling cancer, according to a letter sent to the judge, when she found the opportunity that would result in her arrest. That job was essentially to be a facilitator for yet more remote workers, in reality North Korean agents posing as Americans in hundreds of US companies, stealing both funds and secrets. Through a combination of identity theft and remote access tools like VPNs and proxies, these agents posed as remote workers while operating out of a coordinated operations center in the isolated and heavily sanctioned hermit country. The FBI estimates that the fraud netted $17 million USD by the time it unraveled. United States Department of Justice Ars Technica reports that Chapman’s job was to be the “warm body” on American soil. In addition to receiving and forwarding paychecks, she would take possession of company-issued laptops, sometimes operating them manually out of her home, sometimes sending them to yet more middlemen in China to be passed on to North Korea. When the FBI finally arrested her, there were more than 90 laptops in her home, open and running on racks, operating as an ad hoc data center. Prosecutors said the hackers, employed under false identities, worked for “a top-5 national television network and media company, a premier Silicon Valley technology company, an aerospace and defense manufacturer, an iconic American car manufacturer, a high-end retail chain, and one of the most recognizable media and entertainment companies in the world.” Many were Fortune 500 companies, like Nike. North Korea has a long history of sophisticated hacking, including massive malware operations and directed attacks at other countries and Western corporations. The most visible to ordinary people is probably the infamous hack of Sony Pictures in 2014, apparently carried out in retaliation for the comedy movie The Interview, which depicts a fictional version of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. But more recent attacks have focused on lucrative ransomware and deep intelligence operations. The rise of generative “AI” tools has fueled a sophisticated campaign of applying for and receiving jobs posing as remote workers from other countries. There’s a growing list of people who have discovered that their new coworker wasn’t who they pretended to be. Chapman was effusive in her letter to the federal judge before sentencing, thanking the FBI for their work even though it resulted in a lengthy prison stay. “I had been trying to get away from the guys that I was working with for awhile and I wasn’t really sure how to do it… While this wasn’t the ideal way to get away from them, it did indeed get me away from them and I am thankful.” Read...

Hackers have accessed personal information of potentially 800,000 customers of Flutter Entertainment. Read...

The government is creating a buffer zone around polling stations where free food, drink and entertainment is banned. Read...

World Wrestling Entertainment has paid tribute to the iconic face who helped turn pro-wrestling into billion-dollar spectacle. Read...

From pivots to presidential blunders, here`s the series you need to watch before you die. Read...

If you’re old enough to remember the original, brick-like Game Boy, you’ll want to check out LEGO’s newest play for adult brickheads. The officially licensed Game Boy building set comes with 421 pieces, including two cartridges for Zelda and Mario games. While you can’t actually play them, you can swap out the simulated screens to match. At 5.5 x 3.5 inches (14 x 9 centimeters, for those who live in civilized countries), the set is a near-perfect match for the original handheld from 1989, though the real thing is ever-so-slightly taller. The set includes a display stand for both the main body itself and the Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and Super Mario Land cartridges. You get a choice of three swappable screens with lenticular black-and-white screenshots of the games or the boot screen, which simulate a bit of screen motion based on how you look at them. LEGO Check out the serial number on the back of the battery bay. The Game Boy was first released in Japan on April 21st, 1989. Considering that it’s a relatively small set, it’s impressive how faithfully the original hardware has been reproduced — even the slanted Start and Select buttons are accounted for with some clever use of ramped pieces. And at $60, it’s surprisingly cheap for a licensed Nintendo set. The far larger and more complex LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System, over 2500 pieces, cost $230 when it debuted in 2020. LEGO is currently making a big play for nostalgia sets for adult builders. In addition to the Game Boy and NES, there’s an officially licensed Atari 2600, a Pac-Man arcade cabinet, and 80s cartoon staples like Transformers and Voltron. The new Game Boy set is up for pre-order now, shipping in October. Read...

WiZ has launched the HDMI Sync Box with TV Backlight, alongside the new Gradient Light Bars and Gradient Floor Light enhancing entertainment with vibrant, real-time lighting effects. Read...

Microsoft said today that it’s shutting down its Movies & TV storefront on Windows and Xbox, though you’ll still be able to play the movies and TV shows you’ve previously purchased. Microsoft’s newly published support document (found by Windows Central) is significant in that Microsoft is no longer selling video content via the Microsoft Store. It follows Microsoft’s decision to stop selling music as part of its Groove Music services, which was shuttered in 2017. But Microsoft’s decision to stop providing movies and TV shows to rent or buy probably should be met with a shrug. Several streaming movie services already show movies just weeks after they’re released in the box office, with rumors that the recent Superman release might be opened to streaming services just 45 days after first appearing in movie theaters. Microsoft doesn’t offer a streaming service; instead, it provides direct sales and rentals to consumers. Plenty of services already do that. So what will happen to movies and TV shows that you’ve already purchased? For now, they’ll remain on Microsoft’s servers. Microsoft’s support document indicates that you’ll be able to continue playing them via the Movies & TV app on either Xbox or Windows PC, and they’ll play back in high resolution. Microsoft’s “Entertainment” page on the Microsoft Store is still technically active, although if you try to buy a movie you’ll see an error message. If you don’t feel like launching a dedicated app for all this, services like Movies Anywhere (which is like GOG Galaxy 2.0 but for movies) can aggregate all the titles you’ve purchased elsewhere. If you’re still suspicious, I can’t really blame you. Previously, Microsoft pushed consumers to Spotify and eventually shifted all of the licensed music purchased by consumers on to that streaming platform. Unfortunately, you can’t download the movies you’ve already purchased from Microsoft, so they’ll be left hanging for the time being. Read...