If you’re even vaguely paranoid about someone listening in on your conversations, you might be a little anxious about that phone sitting in your pocket going forward—if you use Bluetooth. Newly discovered flaws in Bluetooth security mean that your Bluetooth earbuds and headphones are a lot more vulnerable than you thought. Security researchers at ERNW presented vulnerabilities in widely used Bluetooth hardware, finding three crucial weaknesses and creating a proof-of-concept exploit. The implementation wasn’t all that sinister—just “reading” what media was currently playing—but the three bugs, one of which was rated as a “high severity issue,” could be expanded far beyond snooping on your racy audiobooks. It’s possible that they could be used to execute calls to specific phone numbers, scrape contacts or call history, or in the most extreme cases execute code remotely and fully compromise a connected smartphone. According to BleepingComputer, the affected Bluetooth headphone, speaker, and microphone hardware is used by at least 29 devices (and probably many more) from brands like Bose, Sony, Jabra, JLab, Marshall, and JBL, among others. Notable popular models include the Bose QuietComfort earbuds, Sony’s WF and WH headphone series, and Marshall’s Woburn and Stanmore speakers. That doesn’t mean you should immediately toss your gear in the trash. We’re talking about some pretty in-depth research from people whose entire job is to find and fix these vulnerabilities, and there’s no indication that these problems are actively being exploited “in the wild.” Furthermore, an attacker would need to get physically close to you while you’re using affected Bluetooth hardware to do anything with it. I suppose it’s technically possible that a hacker could, say, hang out in Times Square and just randomly try to drop malicious code on strangers’ smartphones while they’re listening to Brat. But a more likely scenario is a targeted attack on a specific, high-level individual, which is generally the purview of state-sponsored hacking campaigns. If you’ve never clapped eyes on anything with “TOP SECRET” in the header, you probably don’t have too much to worry about here. The affected companies were alerted to the vulnerabilities in May, and according to one German publication, some (less than half) have already patched firmware for affected devices. Read...

In summer of last year, we saw several laptops with new Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite processors from Qualcomm released. Many users were impressed by them, as Snapdragon laptops aren’t just fast but also power-efficient, offering much longer battery life and requiring virtually no fan. PCWorld’s Mark Hachman was personally impressed by his Snapdragon laptop while on a business trip. Plus, with the integrated NPU (neural processing unit), these laptops also have local AI capabilities with lots of future processing potential. But for some, there’s been one big problem with these Snapdragon laptops: they could only run Windows 11. No Linux distribution was able to support them well due to numerous technical problems, and that was despite the existence of Arm editions of Linux. Qualcomm had even originally announced its intention to actively support Linux with them. Tuxedo presented this prototype in the summer of 2024, but is still unable to show a finished operating system.IDG That said, one of the first Linux providers to come out of the woodwork early on was the Augsburg-based company Tuxedo. In June 2024, the manufacturer presented a prototype with a Snapdragon X Elite processor at Computex in Taiwan. Tuxedo announced its own Linux implementation as the operating system. In July 2024, however, a spokesperson for the company admitted that the hardware was already ready, but that there was “still a lot to do” on the software side. After that, the project went quiet. A Snapdragon breakthrough at Canonical Ubuntu is already a big step further. Canonical announced its breakthrough at the end of March 2025. After initial trials with the ARM64 architecture, which started in 2023, and a concept image for developers published last year, the first standard distribution to support Snapdragon X Elite laptops “out of the box” was released in April with Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin). The company has come a long way, from early ARM64 support for a single device (the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s), to the later concept image with support for more laptops, to the current release. Canonical made a breakthrough with a concept image, which was able to run on numerous Snapdragon X laptops. But it was primarily aimed at developers.IDG The first success came with the concept image for Snapdragon X Elite laptops. It’s based on Ubuntu 24.10 and, according to Canonical, is already running on a large number of Snapdragon X Elite laptops. The company named models including the Acer Swift 14 AI, Asus Vivobook S 15, Dell XPS 13 9345, HP OmniBook X 14, Lenovo Thinkpad T14s Gen6, Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x, as well as Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 7. Nevertheless, the concept image was initially only aimed at developers and brave end users who were keen to try out Linux on their Snapdragon X Elite computers. It was not yet intended for productive use. According to Canonical, supporting the ARM64 ecosystem is a greater challenge than the more traditional x86 processors used by PCs. One reason for this is that it’s less standardized. According to Canonical, different devices use different levels of UEFI firmware support or utilize different device-specific drivers and custom power management features. The Ubuntu development team has therefore had to invest a lot of work to fix these problems and address the issues. In future, Canonical wants to support ARM64 versions in the same way it supports x86 releases. Both versions should contain the same software and the same functions, but run equally well on their respective architectures. Canonincal also intends to release official updates and security patches at the same time. In this way, Canonical wants to set itself apart from community images for the ARM64 platform and offshoots of other distributions, which may not be able to provide “security patches in good time.” Tuxedo isn’t dead just yet In spring, work also continued at Tuxedo. At the beginning of March, a developer reported on the current status of the Elite 14 Gen1 model on the Linux kernel mailing list LKML. Some things such as the touchpad, keyboard, embedded display port, NVMe and USB Type-C port are now working. However, other parts—like the graphics card, USB Type-A port, energy saving mode, audio, camera, and fingerprint sensor—weren’t working. Shortly afterwards, the company added in a blog post that development had been “somewhat slow” over the past few months. On the one hand, the developers were needed elsewhere. On the other hand, it was also due to the fact that the preparatory work on which they depended had not made much progress. At the beginning of March, Tuxedo once again reported on the current development status of its Linux-on-Arm implementation at the LKML.IDG However, Tuxedo now says it has a first version of the device tree ready. This tree structure is required by the kernel on ARM64 architectures in order to manage and access hardware. It also tells the CPU which devices are connected to which ports and how they are to be controlled. According to Tuxedo, the main focus at the moment is on integrating further hardware components into the device tree. Testing drivers is also still in planning. Unfortunately, the fact that the intended collaboration with Qualcomm—the manufacturer of Snapdragon X Elite processors—hasn’t materialized has made things more difficult. Instead, the company is now working with Linaro, a specialist for Linux-on-Arm. However, it’s not yet possible to say when the first Snapdragon X Elite laptop with Tuxedo OS on board will be ready for the market. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x is one of the handful of Snapdragon X Elite laptops on which Canonical has had initial success with its concept image.IDG When asked, Tuxedo also stated that they see the biggest advantage of the Snapdragon X Elite laptops in the “longer runtimes with high performance and very low noise levels.” Initial benchmarks for performance and runtime have looked promising, but specific figures haven’t yet been published. When asked about the integrated NPU, Tuxedo stated no current plans for it. “Too much is still missing for that at the moment,” says Tuxedo. In principle, however, the company sees “great potential” in Arm-based Linux laptops, “otherwise we wouldn’t have started working on it.” How will this all develop? It’s hard to say just yet. But if Tuxedo has its way, this could well be the future standard. Only time will tell. Read...

If you’re always on the go and need a reliable laptop with a gorgeous screen and plenty of power, then you might want to check out the Asus ProArt PX13. Normally available for $1,800, right now you can get this OLED laptop for a stunning $1,250 at Best Buy. Where do I even start with this one? There’s so much to gush about! How about the vibrant OLED touchscreen with a super-crisp 2880×1800 resolution that looks incredible on the 13.3-inch display? With 500 nits of brightness, it’ll shine and serve you well in most environments, too. Not to mention the dedicated RTX 4050 graphics card that’s great for modern 3D gaming, which will also look fabulous on this screen. All of that is founded on top-notch specs, including the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, speedy 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and spacious 1TB SSD. That’s enough power for gaming, productivity, and creativity! Flip the screen over and use it like a drawing tablet, or prop it up like a tent and conveniently read PDFs or watch streaming video. And did I mention that CPU qualifies this as a Copilot+ PC? That means you’ll have full access to all the new AI features in Windows 11. We reviewed the Asus ProArt PX13 and absolutely loved it, giving it a bright 4.5-star rating and our Editors’ Choice award. “The Asus ProArt PX13 is an incredible laptop.” Enough said. Frankly, what are you even waiting for? Laptops like this rarely come this cheap—get the Asus ProArt PX13 for $550 off at Best Buy before this deal expires! Save $550 on this Copilot+ OLED laptop with RTX 4050 and 32GB RAMBuy now at Best Buy Read...

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recently released an update to the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) image format, one of the most popular image formats for web content. Tom’s Hardware writes that this is the first time the W3C has updated the file format since 2003. The PNG image file format was originally launched in 1996, but this is only the third version ever. New features in the latest version include support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) images, animation via animated PNG (APNG) files, and storage of EXIF metadata. The W3C decided to update the file standard after another group within the consortium—working on time-based text such as subtitles, captions, and audio descriptions—realized that PNG files needed HDR support. The newest version of PNG is already supported by popular web browsers including Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, as well as creative editing software such as Adobe Photoshop and Da Vinci Resolve. Read...

The 2025 school year may be ending, but students who return in the fall will have a new AI tutor: Google Gemini for Education. At the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference, Google launched its new AI teaching tool. “Gemini for Education provides default access to our premium AI models, soon with significantly higher limits than what consumers get at no cost, plus enterprise-grade data protection and an admin-managed experience as a core Workspace service — all included in your Workspace for Education plan free of charge,” Google said. Google is pitching the ability for educators to roll their own “Gems,” or AI experts, which can help students learn new concepts. Google NotebookLM also provides a repository for students to upload documents into and then hear an audio summary, via Audio Overviews. Google recently added Video Overviews, too, which adds a visual element. Google Gemini for Education will be free, though Google is offering a paid Google Workspace with Gemini add-on for $18 per user per month, though with some educational discounts. That program includes the ability to include some 8-second video clips using the Veo 3 text-to-video generator, which will help teachers up their meme game to connect with kids. Of course, there’s a bit of irony in all of this, since teachers are mortally afraid of AI’s ability to help their students cheat — even as they don’t want to deny them the ability to use it, either. It’s a big moral quandary, especially when it comes to testing. The upshot last year was that teachers might use AI to teach, but the safest way to avoid AI cheating was to go back to pen and paper at test time. Gemini will get its own tab in Google Classroom.Google Google, meanwhile, seems to want to make AI as ubiquitous as a laptop. We’ll see what happens in the fall. Read...

If you’re having trouble getting your Windows PC to connect to a NAS, you’re not the only one. A recent update in Windows 11 Pro 24H2 introduced introduced security settings that block certain types of file sharing, specifically guest access. This can result in confusing error messages when trying to access shared folders. Fortunately, there are ways to work around this while staying safe on a private network. For example, the message reads: You cannot access this shared folder because your organization’s security policies block unauthenticated guest access. These policies help protect your PC from insecure or malicious devices on the network.The network path was not found. You might get system error 3227320323 or see codes like 0x80070035 or 0x800704f8. But don’t worry, you can still connect Windows 10 PCs to the NAS. In most cases, the problem stems from new security restrictions introduced in Windows 11 24H2. For instance, Microsoft has now disabled guest access to shares. In the past, it was possible to connect to a share or NAS without entering a username and password—but this is no longer allowed in Windows 11 Pro 24H2. Check whether or not the signing of SMB connections is already set to “Disabled” on your computer. IDG There are two logical solutions to this problem: Either you do without guest access to your NAS drive and set up one or more user accounts with a password. In the interest of data security, this is the recommended method. As the steps required to create a user differ from NAS system to NAS system, we will not go into further detail here. Alternatively, you can partially override the changes in Windows 11 Pro 24H2 and deactivate the user login requirement. Attention: You should only select this option on a private network where you do not store any confidential data on the NAS. This is how you proceed. First, check the signing of the SMB connection to your NAS device. SMB is the protocol that lets you access shared folders on a network. To check it, open Group Policy Editor by typing gpedit in the taskbar search and clicking “Edit group policy.” Then go to: Computer configuration > Windows settings > Security settings > Local policies > Security options. On the right side, find the policy “Microsoft network (client): Digitally sign communication (always)” and make sure it’s set to “Disabled.” If not, adjust the setting and confirm with “OK.” Now make sure that the guest login works again. “Computer configuration” > “Administrative templates” > “Network” > “LanMan Workstation.” On the right side, double-click “Enable insecure guest logins,” select “Enabled,” and click “OK.” Access to the NAS should now also work in the latest version of Windows. Nevertheless, a warning once again: You should only change these default settings if there’s no other option. There is no Group Policy Editor in the Home version of Windows, so you must make the changes in PowerShell instead..IDG In the Home version of Windows 11 24H2, guest access is still active by default. If there are still problems accessing a NAS device because the setting has been changed for some reason, do the following: Since Windows Home doesn’t have Group Policy Editor, you’ll need to use PowerShell. Just type “powershell” in the taskbar search, then click “Run as administrator” on the right. Now enter the command: Set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false Press Enter and confirm with Y for “Yes.” You have now deactivated SMB signing. For guest access, enter the following command: Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableInsecureGuestLogons $true Then press Enter and confirm again with Y. Read...

Microsoft recently published a new blog post that confirms what has been suspected since March: the next version of Windows will be called Windows 11 25H2 and it will be more of a minor update. Microsoft compares Windows 11 25H2 with version 23H2, which was way more manageable than the mess of 24H2. But “minor” doesn’t mean it won’t have any new features. On the contrary! What’s new in Windows 11 25H2? Even though the Windows 11 25H2 update is expected to be only around 1 MB in size, Microsoft is still preparing a few adjustments for Windows 11 with it. These adjustments include a new Start menu with a grid and category layout, as reported by Windows Latest. Users will then be able to categorize their apps themselves into specific groups—for example, creative apps, games, streaming, social media—to access them more quickly. However, a certain number of apps must be present in a category for it to be visible. Windows Latest There will also be a new feature that throttles your CPU usage when you’re idling or away from your PC for a long time. The main goal here is to reduce power consumption and extende battery life. The first Windows 11 Insiders can already test 25H2 via the Canary Channel. Previously, there were some serious bugs that affected the OS’s stability, causing Microsoft to pause testing for a while. The good news is, updating to Windows 11 25H2 is a lot simpler and more straightforward than it has been in the past. You only need to restart your system once to get the new version. Still, Microsoft recommends updating to 24H2 first before stepping up to 25H2. Why is Windows 11 25H2 a minor update? As Windows 11 25H2 doesn’t contain any far-reaching changes for the operating system, Microsoft is not calling it a complete feature update. That would set expectations too high. It’s also natural that the next Windows 11 version update would be somewhat smaller again, given how tumultuous the 24H2 update turned out to be, causing numerous problems for users that had to be repeatedly rescued via emergency updates and rollout blocks. All the new features introduced in 24H2 will, of course, be included in 25H2. Users who are lagging behind will therefore receive a large package anyway if they haven’t been keeping up to date. It’s likely that Microsoft will finalize and deliver Windows 11 25H2 to users in October 2025. Support for Windows 10 was supposed to end at that time, but Microsoft also recently announced an extra year of free Windows 10 security updates… with a catch. Read...

SquareX warns that Browser AI Agents now pose greater security risks to firms than employees, due to their limited awareness and lack of training in spotting threats. Read...

Tech platforms could be forced to prevent illegal content from going viral, under more online safety measures proposed by Ofcom. Read...

Arvind Krishnan has joined Alteryx as Chief Technology Officer to lead the firm`s AI analytics platform and global engineering team. Read...