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Microsoft, OpenAI, and a US Teachers’ Union Are Hatching a Plan to ‘Bring AI into the Classroom’

Microsoft and OpenAI are planning to announce Tuesday that they are helping to launch an AI training center for members of the second-largest teachers’ union in the US, according to details about the initiative that appear to have been inadvertently published early on YouTube. The National Academy for AI Instruction will be based in New York City and aims to equip kindergarten up to 12th grade instructors in the American Federation of Teachers with “the tools and confidence to bring AI into the

Microsoft Offers Free Windows 10 Extended Security Updates: Here's How to Get Them

Microsoft is closing the door on Windows 10 in October 2025, and will be ceasing security support for that operating system unless users pay $30 for a one-year extended security update. Now, Microsoft has added a free option. Users need to turn on cloud backup and connect it to their OneDrive account. The ability to get free updates on Windows 10 is a pretty big deal because it is still the most widely used Windows OS, accounting for just over 53% of installs as of May 2025. That leaves million

Last call: Fortnite players only have two days left to claim their settlement payout

Gary Sims / Android Authority TL;DR Fortnite players who were charged for unwanted purchases can submit a claim to receive compensation stemming from the FTC’s settlement with Epic Games. Eligible claimants only have until July 9 to apply. Refunds are expected to arrive in 2026 after the agency has reviewed and validated all claims. If you’re a Fortnite player, you might be entitled to some money. But you’ll have to act quickly, as those who are eligible only have two days left to submit a c

Get $200 to Spend on Tomorrow's Prime Day Sale With the Prime Visa

Zooey Liao/CNET Amazon's Prime Day starts tomorrow and ends on July 11. It's one of the summer's biggest sales with hundreds of discounts. If you're planning to shop, Amazon is offering a $200 gift card when you're approved for the Prime Visa. It's rare for a credit card to offer a welcome bonus that you don't have to "earn" by spending a certain amount with the card. And while the Prime Visa technically has no annual fee, to get approved for this card, you'll need to be a Prime member, which

Microsoft’s Edge browser now loads sites even faster

is a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2006, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid. In a new post shared to its Windows blog, Microsoft says that it has “reached a major milestone” when it comes to improving the speed of Edge’s user interface. It now takes Microsoft’s browser less than 300 milliseconds to start rendering the first parts of a website for users, whether it’s text, images, or parts of the user interface. It’s a me

Arkane founder calls Game Pass an 'unsustainable model' that's wrecking the industry

Arkane Studios founder Raphael Colantonio had some harsh words for Game Pass in a thread on X, calling it an "unstainable model" that's "damaging the industry." He also said that Microsoft's ability to throw "infinite money" at the platform will eventually wane because "reality has to hit." Colantonio continued by saying Microsoft will "kill everyone else, or give up" and that gamers only like the service because "the offer is too good to be true." He also wrote that these same players will tur

This mid-range Acer laptop is my go-to for work travel, and it's on sale

ZDNET's key takeaways The Acer Swift Go 14 (2024) is on sale now at Amazon for $791. It's a lightweight, responsive laptop with a touchscreen, and a slick media playback menu. However, for a laptop so optimized for media, its speakers aren't the best. $799.99 at Amazon The 14-inch Acer Swift Go was among the first round of laptops to come loaded with Intel's Meteor Lake AI processors last year, and it does so for a sale price of $791, a mid-range price point right in the sweet spot for many c

Xbox producer tells staff to use AI to ease job loss pain

Xbox producer tells staff to use AI to ease job loss pain One X user called it "plain disgusting" while another said it left them "speechless". The BBC has contacted Microsoft, which owns Xbox, for comment. The post, which was captured in a screenshot by tech news site Aftermath , shows Mr Turnbull suggesting tools like ChatGPT or Copilot to "help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss." Matt Turnbull, an executive producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing, wrote the

Windows 11 has finally overtaken Windows 10 as the most used desktop OS

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Microsoft has finally crossed an important milestone for Windows 11, months ahead of Windows 10’s end of support cutoff date. Stat Counter, spotted by Windows Central, now lists Windows 11 as the most used desktop operating system nearly four years after its release, with 52 percent of the market, compared to 44.59 percent for Windows 10. Windows 11 became the most popular OS

Building a Mac app with Claude code

I recently shipped Context, a native macOS app for debugging MCP servers. The goal was to build a useful developer tool that feels at home on the platform, powered by Apple's SwiftUI framework. I've been building software for the Mac since 2008, but this time was different: Context was almost 100% built by Claude Code1. There is still skill and iteration involved in helping Claude build software, but of the 20,000 lines of code in this project, I estimate that I wrote less than 1,000 lines by ha

The New Corporate Memo: Let AI Ease The Pain

A troubling new trend is crystallizing in the tech industry. A company at the forefront of AI development lays off thousands of its human employees, then encourages them to seek comfort from the very technology supplanting them. It’s the automation of suffering, and it’s happening now. This week, Matt Turnbull, an Executive Producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing, became a case study. Following Microsoft’s decision to cut thousands jobs from its gaming division, Turnbull took to LinkedIn. With

Operators, Not Users and Programmers

This post is part 0 of a multi-part series called “the computer of the next 200 years”. the modern distinction between “programmers” and “users” is evil and destroys agency. consider how the spreadsheets grow🔗 spreadsheets are hugely successful. Felienne Hermans, who has spent her career studying spreadsheets, attributes this success to "their immediate feedback system and their continuous deployment model": the spreadsheet shows you its result as soon as you open it, and it requires no steps

Local-first software (2019)

Martin Kleppmann, Adam Wiggins, Peter van Hardenberg, and Mark McGranaghan. Local-first software: you own your data, in spite of the cloud. 2019 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software (Onward!), October 2019, pages 154–178. doi:10.1145/3359591.3359737 This article has also been published in PDF format in the proceedings of the Onward! 2019 conference . Please cite it as: We share some of our findings from developing local-fi

Local-first software: You own your data, in spite of the cloud

Martin Kleppmann, Adam Wiggins, Peter van Hardenberg, and Mark McGranaghan. Local-first software: you own your data, in spite of the cloud. 2019 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software (Onward!), October 2019, pages 154–178. doi:10.1145/3359591.3359737 This article has also been published in PDF format in the proceedings of the Onward! 2019 conference . Please cite it as: We share some of our findings from developing local-fi

Best Laptop Stands (2025): 25+ Models Tested and Reviewed

More Laptop Stands to Consider There’s no shortage of computer stands out there, and most of them get the job done. While these didn’t quite make my top picks, they still have some perks worth considering. Rain Design iLevel2 Photograph: Rain Design Rain Design iLevel2 for $65: I wanted to love the Rain Design iLevel2, assuming that it was a bestseller for a reason. Adjusting the height is easy—you slide the front level—but even at its lowest (5.4 inches), it still feels too high for some set

French City of Lyon Kicks Out Microsoft

European countries have been growing increasingly wary of relying on Microsoft for critical government and public sector services. Concerns about data privacy, digital sovereignty, and potential governmental surveillance have led many to question the viability of depending on an American tech giant for sensitive infrastructure. Many worry that dependence on Microsoft could leave them vulnerable to sudden service interruptions or the risk of sensitive data being accessed without consent. This g

Microsoft is closing its local operations in Pakistan

Microsoft is closing its operations in Pakistan, marking the end of a 25-year presence in the South Asian nation. The Redmond-based company on Friday told TechCrunch that it is changing its operational model in Pakistan and will now serve its customers through resellers and “other closely located Microsoft offices.” “Our customer agreements and service will not be affected by this change,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We follow this model successfully in a number of

Microsoft Is Eliminating Passwords in August: Here's What You Need to Do to Prepare

In June, Microsoft Authenticator stopped letting users create new passwords. In July, it turned off the autofill password function. And in August, the login app will stop supporting passwords entirely, moving to more secure passkeys, such as a PIN, fingerprint or facial recognition. Attila Tomaschek, CNET's software senior writer and digital security expert, says that passkeys are a safer alternative to the risky password habits practiced by 49% of US adults, according to a recent survey by CNE

Is there a no-AI audience?

Published on July 2nd, 2025 how about no I recently saw a post on mastodon which said that someone was actively looking for a code editor that had absolutely no "AI" features. It did not strike me as a wishlist for nostalia's sake. It made me realize that in the rush to integrate artificial intelligence into every aspect of our digital lives, a growing number of companies have diminished the concept of opt-in by choice, it is now being turned into opt-in by default. I see a growing sentiment

Microsoft layoffs hit 830 workers in home state of Washington

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at the Axel Springer building in Berlin on Oct. 17, 2023. He received the annual Axel Springer Award. Among the thousands of Microsoft employees who lost their jobs in the cutbacks announced this week were 830 staffers in the company's home state of Washington. Nearly a dozen game design workers in the state were part of the layoffs, along with three audio designers, two mechanical engineers, one optical engineer and one lab technician, according to a documen

Xbox was funding Romero Games' new game, but layoffs have left the project in crisis

Microsoft was rocked by more than 9,000 job cuts this week. A significant number have come from its gaming division, resulting in the closure of multiple game studios and the cancellation of numerous in-development projects at Xbox and its contracted studios. We’ve already learned that Microsoft has closed the studio that was developing the much-anticipated Perfect Dark reboot, and Rare’s Everwild has also been sunsetted. And now Romero Games — the studio headed up by Doom creator and veteran de

Israeli quantum startup Qedma just raised $26M, with IBM joining in

Despite their imposing presence, quantum computers are delicate beasts, and their errors are among the main bottlenecks that the quantum computing community is actively working to address. Failing this, promising applications in finance, drug discovery, and materials science may never become real. That’s the reason why Google touted the error-correction capacities of its latest quantum computing chip, Willow. And IBM is both working on delivering its own “fault-tolerant” quantum computer by 202

Microsoft investigates ongoing SharePoint Online access issues

​Microsoft is investigating an ongoing incident causing intermittent issues for users attempting to access SharePoint Online sites. Part of the Microsoft 365 suite, SharePoint Online is a cloud-based collaboration and document management platform that allows users to create websites, store and share documents, and collaborate on content over the Internet. As the company announced earlier today in an incident alert published in the message center, users are seeing "Something went wrong" errors

Microsoft Layoffs Are Here and These 3 Games Have Already Been Canceled

Microsoft is moving ahead with mass layoffs, cutting a little less than 4% of its workforce or about 9,000 roles across the company. As a result, multiple games brewing within Xbox Game Studios were canceled, including some fairly high-profile projects. When reached for comment, Microsoft directed CNET to reports Wednesday by Variety, confirming their accuracy. "To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain area

Israeli quantum startup Qedma just raised $26 million, with IBM joining in

Despite their imposing presence, quantum computers are delicate beasts, and their errors are among the main bottlenecks that the quantum computing community is actively working to address. Failing this, promising applications in finance, drug discovery, and materials science may never become real. That’s the reason why Google touted the error correction capacities of its latest quantum computing chip, Willow. And IBM is both working on delivering its own “fault-tolerant” quantum computer by 202

AI Is Not in the Memo, but It Haunts Every Layoff at Xbox

In the new AI economy, it seems no job is safe, not even at a thriving business. Microsoft’s Xbox division is a case in point. Last quarter, its revenue soared by 8% year over year. And yet, the division is now at the center of the tech giant’s largest wave of layoffs since 2023, with thousands of its employees among the 9,000 jobs cut by Microsoft on Wednesday. In a memo sent to his shell-shocked employees and reviewed by Gizmodo, Microsoft’s head of gaming, Phil Spencer, performed a mastercla

Microsoft to cut up to 9,000 more jobs as it invests in AI

Microsoft to cut up to 9,000 more jobs as it invests in AI 33 minutes ago Share Save Lily Jamali • @lilyjamali North America Technology Correspondent Reporting from San Francisco Share Save Reuters Microsoft has confirmed that it will lay off as many as 9,000 workers, in the technology giant's latest wave of job cuts this year. The company said several divisions would be affected without specifying which ones but reports suggest that its Xbox video gaming unit will be hit. Microsoft has set o

U.S. lifts chip software curbs on China in sign of trade truce

The U.S. government has rescinded its export restrictions on chip-design software to China, three of the largest players in the space announced on Thursday. In separate statements, semiconductor software designers Siemens AG, Synopsys, and Cadence all said they received letters from the U.S. Department of Commerce informing them that the controls had been lifted. While Siemens is based in Germany, its chip design software subsidiary, Siemens EDA, is based in Oregon, U.S. As a result of export

Microsoft asks users to ignore Windows Firewall config errors

Microsoft asked customers this week to disregard incorrect Windows Firewall errors that appear after rebooting their systems following the installation of the June 2025 preview update. These warnings are logged in the Event Viewer as 'Event 2042' for Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, with a 'Config Read Failed' warning and a 'More data is available' message. Microsoft added that this known issue is caused by a new feature that's still under development and hasn't yet been fully integrat

Microsoft Is Firing About 9,000 People Because Business Is Great

Microsoft is laying off thousands of employees, even as its profits and stock price hit historic highs. For many worried about the future of work in the age of artificial intelligence, the message is chilling: performance and profitability are no longer protections against the axe. The software giant, which is playing a central role in the generative AI boom, confirmed to Gizmodo on Wednesday that it is undergoing another major round of layoffs. While Microsoft did not provide an exact figure,