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It is unlikely these smaller downloads will be available in time for the Creators Update next month. However, UUP tests are progressing and users across Windows 10 devices can expect lighter downloads soon, likely with Redstone 3. The company debuted the Unified Update Platform (UUP) in November. Microsoft developed the platform to reduce the size of updates and to make finding new updates more efficient. This is particularly important for feature updates....

In its place, Microsoft will use a date and release timeframe to reflect its Windows 10 update cycle. These days, Windows is operated like a service. In older versions like Windows 7, users would have to wait until a major upgrade for new features. For example, the jump from Windows 7 to Windows 8. However, Microsoft now employs a consistent feature upgrade cycle. Two times per year, the company launches updates for Windows 10 that are loaded with new tools....

This should cut out a major headache for some IT departments. They’ll no longer have to manage print drivers, servers, and other complexities. Instead, they can register deployed printers with Universal Print. The service will run on the cloud rather than in-house servers, yet Azure AD users can discover and print in much the same way. To aid this functionality, Microsoft is working with Canon to deliver printers geared specifically towards Universal Print....

The big new ability here is tablet support for Arrow Launcher. This means users on Android tablets can now use the launcher with full screen support. To add to this ability, Microsoft has introduced horizontal layout options for the “all apps” page. It is clear this addition comes to take advantage of the bigger tablet screens. Elsewhere, the company says Bing wallpapers for the launcher are now more beautiful. Also, there are extended backup & restore options in this release....

According to Microsoft, Viva Goals provides a management suite for the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) framework. OKR is popular with major corporations, and Viva Goals will help admins track goals and progress on OKR. In a Tech Community post to announce the move to general availability, Microsoft discusses the core deliverables of Viva Goals: “Creating clarity: With one centralized source of truth for goal setting, monitoring progress, and assessing success across your organization, you create clarity for your team, connect daily work to outcomes and align at all levels Focusing teams on impact, not output: Shift focus from effort and activity to impact and outcomes, share progress across your organization with customizable dashboards that turn data into insights, and stay agile at scale Bringing goals into the flow of everyday work: Keep goals top-of-mind by bringing data and actions into the spaces your team is already using, like Microsoft Teams, ADO, and the most popular data and project management tools....

It seems Microsoft is preparing to change that with a Windows 10 Home feature that lets users pause updates for 35 days. At the moment, users on Home are limited to putting an update on snooze and being constantly reminded about it. A Redditor spotted the feature on the latest Windows 10 19H1 preview build (18356), but it seems it is only available through a clean Windows install. Importantly, it means with the launch of Windows 10 April 2019 Update (version 1903), Microsoft is giving Home users an option to delay updates by over a month....

The Discovery Update, as the name suggests, will have maps and additions for users to find. This will include new stashes with cartographer maps. The Minecraft team collaborated with community-known map creators to offer a catalogue of maps, minigames, and more for the update. Among the creator partners are: Noxcrew, BlockWorks, Qwertyuiop The Pie, Blockception, Sphax, Eneija Silverleaf, Imagiverse, Polymaps and Razzleberry Fox. Microsoft says submissions remain open to any registered business owners....

With the full roll out tomorrow, Mozilla will be sending out WebRender. While it will probably not reach all users straight away, but it is coming. If you are unfamiliar with WebRender, it is also called Quantum Render. It is a new tool built with Rust and launched under Firefox Quantum in 2017. Sadly, the tool was not prepared properly at the time but has now reached maturity. Mozilla’s Lin Clark explained the tool in a blog post at the time: “With WebRender, we want apps to run at a silky smooth 60 frames per second (FPS) or better no matter how big the display is or how much of the page is changing from frame to frame....

Politico says the information comes from two sources familiar with the matter. Due to the longstanding grudge between online and traditional media, it’s considered a somewhat controversial move. One of the MPAA’s biggest tasks is lobbying for stricter copyright laws and aiding law enforcement in its efforts. It has previously filed lawsuits against BitTorrent and helped persuade the Swedish government to raid Pirate Bay. Copyright Controversies However, the MPAA itself has been subject to copyright controversies itself, especially when it comes to online streaming....

Wall Street expected 3.2 million additional subscriptions for Netflix during the second quarter of 2017, however, the company notes that it gained 5.2 million new Netflix subscribers. The company reveals that its revenue in Q2 2017 rose 32%, currently standing at $2.79 billion. What is more interesting is the fact that Netflix now has more international than domestic members. According to the report, 50.1% of Netflix subscriptions are from outside the US....

This marks a potentially significant tweak on the browser-based miner attack. Previously, preventing miners on sites could be shut down by simply closing the browser. By doing this, you were cutting off the power supply, so to speak, and stopping the miners from using your CPU. However, the new method allows JavaScript-based in-browser cryptocurrency miners to continuing harvesting power even when the browser is closed. Security company Malwarebytes found a new type of mining technique where the page continues to mine PC resources once the browser has been shut....

In its paper, Nvidia discusses how it trained MineDojo to be able to play Minecraft. The company fed 730,000 Minecraft YouTube videos where it transcribed 2.2 billion words. Further training came from scraping 7,000 webpages from Minicraft Wiki, and 340,000 Reddit posts covering 6.6 million total comments. “While researchers have long trained autonomous AI agents in video-game environments such as Starcraft, Dota and Go, these agents are usually specialists in only a few tasks....

“This update addresses issues that may lead to information disclosure, escalation of privileges, denial of service, or code execution. To protect your system, download and install this software update through the GeForce Experience Downloads page,” said Nvidia in a bulletin. It’s worth noting that both attacks require local system access. The vulnerability of 5678 is found in the Web Helper component and lets attackers craft input that may be not be validated properly for DoS attacks, code execution, or information disclosure....

On Android, the focus is almost entirely on Outlook. As of May 29, the app has received smart replies, which, like Gmail, suggest canned responses to emails to save time. Users can also favorite people to get faster access to conversations. They’ll show up in the sidebar, and users can choose to only get notifications from such users. As we covered previously, the People Card is also getting an update on Android....

A new account manager allows users to see all of their work and personal accounts through a single hub. This means the currently logged in account is visible, while other held accounts are listed byt offline. Switching between accounts is now as easy as selecting between different accounts in the list. This includes the ability to seamlessly move between work and personal accounts without needing to sign out. Microsoft says the ability is available to Insiders on Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Project, Access, Publisher, and Visio....

It seems the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is preparing to launch its first true wireless earbuds. On its Twitter page, OnePlus showed an image of all its previous earphones. Under the photo, the company captioned the text “What’s next in line?”. Of course, there’s no real mention of wireless earbuds, but there have been recent reports OnePlus is preparing to launch such a product. Last month, MSPowerUser reported on mention of the earbuds appearing on the Android 11 build for the OnePlus 8....

S2C2F was created by Microsoft is a guideline standard for OSS software. Microsoft has been using the guideline since 2019 and has been pushing for OpenSSF to adopt the guidelines. In a blog post this week, Microsoft says the OpenSSF adopting the standard is important because the foundation is a Linux Foundation project. “The S2C2F is designed from the ground up to protect developers from accidentally consuming vulnerable packages (including malicious and compromised packages), helping to mitigate supply chain attacks through decreasing consumption-based attack surfaces....

The chip maker has now provided more details, including a release period for the Windows 10 ARM devices. In the latest investor call, CEO Steve Mollenkopf stated: “Our Snapdragon 835 is expanding into Mobile PC designs running Windows 10, which are scheduled to launch in the fourth calendar quarter this year.” That may be a little later than some were hoping for, but it means we should get some polished devices....

The device was first discovered by Cheddar back in October 2018, but was them under the codename ‘Ripley’. The Information says the codename is now ‘Catalina’ and will also come with a physical remote and streaming services. That makes it closer to the box setup of Apple TV, except Catalina will apparently make use of Portal, Facebook’s Camera-fitted smart speaker. Facebook previously said it wanted to release new form factors of Portal devices, so the rumors make good sense....

Tracking prevention comes with a Balanced setting out of the box, with users able to tune it to Strict or Basic plans. The settings affect the type of trackers the browser will block, with Strict only blocking “harmful” trackers. According to Microsoft, the Balanced setting blocks trackers on sites you haven’t visited, will cause less personalized ads, and also stops harmful trackers. Ed Bott put this to the test, using 66 pages from primarily news publishers....