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Over recent years, Apple has increasingly ventured towards entertainment streaming. From third-party support on Apple TV to Apple Music, the company clearly wants to supply entertainment to users of its hardware. The report suggests the Apple Worldwide Video studio is being beefed up and now has 40 employees. The company plans for the division to expand to support shows ranging from adult-oriented, kids, and shows for Latin America. Based at the 128,000-square foot headquarters in Culver City, California, the team reportedly has a $1 billion budget for content....

GLUE is a training, evaluation, and analyzing benchmark platform for natural language understanding services. Developers of the technology can test their models on GLUE to gain better understanding of performance. Microsoft’s MT-DNN-SMART has been the standout natural language processing system. If has topped GLUE, pushing Google’s T3 system into second place. However, there’s a new winner in town as Baidu now tops the standings. The company’s ERNIE (Enhanced Representation through kNowledge IntEgration) system managed a benchmark score of 90....

The service will give members of Microsoft Rewards rebates when they purchase through participating retailers. Those retailers include the Microsoft Store and Game Pass, but also companies like NewEgg, LEGO, and 71 others. As well as Microsoft Rewards, participating users must have a PayPal account. It’s through there that they’ll receive their rebates, with a cap of up to $1000 per year. The typical rebate waiting period is 30 to 90 days....

According to a list published by the Digital Government Secretariat (SGD) for the Ministry of Economy, there are now maximum amounts that will be paid to Microsoft. As reported by ZDNet, the price list will be in place for all 217 central government departments. Officials have become concerned by how much Brazil has been paying the Redmond giant. Between 2012 and 2018, the country paid over 1 billion reais ($246 million) to secure Microsoft developed technology....

In a blog post titled ‘America’s internet speeds continue to soar’, the National Internet & Television Association reported improvements across the board. “On a number of key metrics, the Internet in the United States took a huge leap forward compared to other countries,” said the organization. “The US is now in the top 10 countries for adoption of Internet speeds over 15 and 25Mbps as well as the top 10 for overall average speed....

“As part of this, we intend to become a significant contributor to the Chromium project, in a way that can make not just Microsoft Edge — but other browsers as well — better on both PCs and other devices.” Microsoft Edge becoming Chromium seems a case of if you can’t beat them, join them. Google Chrome dominates the browser market while Edge has struggled to make an impact. Microsoft has added plenty of interesting features, including extension support....

The major addition comes in the form of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which received critical acclaim on its release. Masterminded by video game legend Hideo Kojima, it returns the series to his routes as you play as wounded veteran Snake in Soviet-controlled Afganistan. Combining great stealth mechanics with a compelling, cutscene-driven story, it offers a great single-player experience. After that’s over, however, gamers can head online for entertaining base-building modes....

The beta version of the app Microsoft launched last month has now officially arrived on iPhones and iPads. If you’re unfamiliar with this update, it’s a significant one. Firstly, it bumps Cortana to version 3.0 on Apple’s mobile OS. Secondly, it brings with it a noticeable redesign of the virtual assistant. It’s always good to get a new UI experience, even if that fresh paint smell does not always last (here’s looking at you Skype)....

“The security vulnerability allows [us] to crash the software application with an unexpected exception error, to overwrite the active process registers to execute own malcious codes,” said Mejri. “We place a picture in our clipboard, this needs to be copied from a remote desktop system. This can be pasted into the local skype message box, by the paste function. Then the picture is taken from the clipboard (which is the rdp remote clipboard content) and successfully copies it into the message box....

In fact, researcher Tetra Defense says eighty-two percent (82%) of all attacks on organizations during Q1 2022 were because of known vulnerabilities that the victims had not patched. In other words, the attacks targeted vulnerabilities that were known about and had received a patch, but that patch had not been applied. That completely preventable 82% of attacks dominated the cybersecurity space during Q1, far more than human-error lead breaches that led to financial losses (18%)....

Now EU competition Chief Margrethe Vesteager says the Commission may consider ‘other options’ to get what it wants. “Given the unsatisfactory progress with this voluntary approach, the Commission will shortly launch an impact assessment study to evaluate costs and benefits of different other options,” she said in response to an EU lawmaker. The announcement comes amid rumors that Apple is planning a slow switch to USB-C, a standard among Android phones and now Microsoft’s Surface tablets....

Such a transaction would make perfect sense for Microsoft as it works so closely with Playground Games. Of course, the Forza Horizon series is a Microsoft Studios owned property, but the company uses the third-party Playground Games to develop the titles. Microsoft Studios also has the regular Forza Motorsport series developed by its own Turn 10. Purchasing Playground Games would bring the two developers working on Forza under one roof....

In other words, it seems GitHub will restrict accounts for developers in nations where the U.S. has trade sanctions in place. 21-year-old Anatoliy Kashkin received a notice from GitHub saying his account had been restricted. The company pointed him towards its page detailing U.S. trade controls. Countries listed as being under trade sanctions are Iran, Crimea, Cuba, North Korea, and Syria. Kashkin uses GitHub to host his GameHub website, which is a Linux launcher that bundles GOG, Humble Bundle, and Steam games....

In the latest update for Google Assistant, the company says some new Holiday tools are arriving for families. First up is Family Notes, which is available for Smart Displays. Google Assistant will make it easier to keep users connected by making it more efficient to tap into entertainment and schedules. Available now, Family Notes allow sticky notes to be created through voice commands. These notes can help users stay on track and leave reminders for themselves....

Hackers were able to use vulnerabilities to deliver exploit chains in the form of watering hole attacks. This is a form of attack where the bad actor will monitor which sites and services a victim regularly uses and then attempt to infect one of them. When the victim visits a regular website that is no infected, they too can be compromised by malware. Google Project Zero points out one server was targeting Windows and the other was targeting Android....

However, a report by Thurrott raises an interesting question. How was Google able to enable a system setting remotely, or more specifically why is the company doing this? The idea is users enjoy a private experience on Android. Of course, that’s a pipedream, but gathering data is one thing, actively accessing Android devices without permission is another. In its apology, Google did little to explain its actions: “Hi all, some of you may have noticed that battery saver turned on automatically today,” a pots on Reddit explains....

A Redditor discovered the Google Smart TV kit on an official website. It has since been removed by the company, suggesting someone at Google pulled the trigger too quickly. There is speculation that an employee of Walmart leaked the kit. It is unclear if this was accidental or on purpose. Of course, Walmart has the exclusive on the old Google Smart TV kit, so this makes sense. In terms of the new package, it is a bundle that holds the Chromecast streaming dongle and Google Home mini....

The company initially introduced Nearby Notifications to help Android users to receive information on nearby services. While outside, a device could connect to near Bluetooth signaling beacons to provide data on locations nearby. As mentioned, it was a neat idea. However, Google too to its Android Developers Blog to says Nearby Notifications did not evolve as it had hoped. The company says spam content coming through the feature has increased this year: “We’ve learned a lot building and launching Nearby Notifications....

On ChromeOS, Google’s Chrome Web Share API will function in Windows 10 and on ChromeOS. Of course, the main reason Google would be aiming to achieve this is to provide more access to native applications. According to Techtsp, the testing is focused on Microsoft Edge for Android and Chrome for Android. Both those browsers are running on Google’s Chromium engine and it seems both will support the Web Share API across platforms eventually....

According to MyDrivers, the release will come via an event in China, and will be adapted for that market. A leaked document suggests that both devices will adopt an 18:9 aspect ratio and feature the Snapdragon 835 processor. They’re also predicted to have dual back cameras, water and dust resistance, and no headphone jack. Instead, audio will route through a USB-C port. The Nokia 9 will apparently come in two variants....