Google Home users got a surprise on Thursday when their virtual assistants cheerily mentioned that the live-action remake of “Beauty and the Beast” is opening in theaters this weekend. The ad seems to pop up when users ask for a rundown of their day, which kicks off the Home’s “My Day” feature. That feature is…
Researchers at Cornell University have developed a new type of radio-on-a-chip that could mean cheaper, more flexible wireless systems. Smartphone makers could, for example, use the technology to make a single model of each phone that works anywhere in the world. Single-chip radios have become a popular choice for communications hardware in the last decade…
When Microsoft said last year that it would restrict the latest Intel Kaby Lake and AMD Ryzen silicon to Windows 10, enthusiasts wondered what would happen if they tried running those PCs using Windows 7 or Windows 8. Now we know: no new patches. Word of a new Microsoft support document surfaced Thursday, applying the…
Alexa is coming to Siri’s home turf. On Thursday, Amazon began rolling out Alexa and her voice-assistant capabilities inside its flagship iOS app (iTunes link). This means that iPhone users can now ask Alexa questions, get shopping assistance, track orders, and play Prime videos and music. After an initial rollout, Alexa will be available to…
Oracle’s third quarter financial results continue to show that the company’s future is in the cloud. On Wednesday, the company reported massive growth in its software- and platform-as-a-service businesses, promising further gains as its customers do away with their data centers. The company’s SaaS and PaaS revenue from December 2016 through February 2017 was a…
New research is turning on its head the idea that legacy systems — such as Cobol and Fortran — are more secure because hackers are unfamiliar with the technology. New research found that these outdated systems, which may not be encrypted or even documented, were more susceptible to threats. By analyzing publicly available federal spending…
An unpatched command injection vulnerability could allow hackers to take over enterprise networking products from Ubiquiti Networks. The vulnerability was discovered by researchers from SEC Consult and allows authenticated users to inject arbitrary commands into the web-based administration interface of affected devices. These commands would be executed on the underlying operating system as root, the…
Some users have reported that one of this week’s Windows 10 updates crippled their PCs, according to a thread on Reddit. They fingered the KB4013418 update as the most likely culprit. That update was marked simply as “Update for Windows 10 Version 1607” in Windows Update, and in the accompanying support document, tagged as a…
Microsoft this week began a low-key promotion for the next Microsoft Windows 10 feature upgrade after issuing the month’s Patch Tuesday updates. Once Windows 10 applied the March 14 cumulative update, the “Update & security” section of the Settings panel displayed text reading, “Good news! The Windows 10 Creators Update is on its way. Want…
President Donald Trump’s federal budget outline released Thursday represents a major shift in U.S. priorities. It would increase defense spending, boost immigration enforcement and include in seed money for a wall along the southern border. It does all of that, in part, by cutting science funding. [ Further reading: The march toward exascale computers ]…