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Ask Engadget: What are my options when Windows 10 support ends on October 14?

Q: I'm hearing that Microsoft is pulling the plug on Windows 10 later this year. What does that mean for my current Windows 10 PC, and what are my options? A: Microsoft will officially end support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025, a little over 10 years after the operating system was released. While you can continue to use Windows 10 PCs after that date — and it's understandable why, I gave it a glowing review at launch — you'll no longer receive any customer support, security updates or any

8 settings you should change on your Motorola phone to easily improve the battery life

Max Buondonno/ZDNET Google's Pixel phones aren't the only ones with battery-saving secrets to explore. Motorola offers almost as many features inside its menus. After three weeks with the Moto Razr Ultra and separately, the Moto G Stylus 2025, I discovered a handful of tweaks hiding in plain sight that you'll likely find on your Motorola device if you know where to look. 1. Battery Saver keeps the lights on when your gauge hits the red Jason Howell/ZDNET Battery anxiety is the worst, and Bat

The Windows 10 emoji picker has been broken for a month

The Windows 10 emoji picker has been broken for a month August 8, 2025 On July 8th, Microsoft released update KB5062554 to the world. It contains no documented changes or features. This update broke the emoji panel’s search functionality for all Windows 10 users. The broken grammar isn't the bug, that's just... how it is The emoji panel (accessed with Win + .) is the official way of typing emojis on Windows. I’m sure many users don’t know it exists. It’s hardly discoverable, and most desktop

The First Xbox Handheld Could Be Coming Sooner Than You Think

Microsoft may be ready to announce an official release date for its long-awaited Xbox handheld (or at least, the one that’s not actually being made by Xbox). The most recent reliable leaks suggest the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X will hit the scene in October, with Microsoft planning to share pricing and preorder info later this month. The end of the year is shaping up to be open season for handheld PCs, though I’m still biting my bottom lip to get used to the sting of what may be very expensiv

Donald Trump Orders Crackdown on Politically Motivated ‘Debanking’

US President Donald Trump has ordered regulators to investigate the alleged refusal among US banks to supply accounts to customers on the basis of their political or religious beliefs. In an executive order signed Thursday, Trump accused federal banking regulators of presiding over an unlawful discrimination campaign under the guise of risk management, echoing allegations leveled previously by members of conservative groups and the cryptocurrency sector. “Bank regulators have used supervisory

I spent over a week with the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and it’s not the foldable I wanted it to be

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 The Galaxy Z Flip 7 is a good flip phone. It has Samsung's best-ever cover screen hardware, a larger and wider main display, and a surprisingly thin design. But with a disappointing choice in its chipset and truly annoying cover screen software, the Flip 7 isn't an amazing flip phone. It's a great buy for Samsung fans, but it's also not the flip phone king it could have been. For a company that basically invented (or at the very least popularized) foldable flip phones as

Microsoft will kill the Lens PDF scanner app for iOS, Android

Microsoft announced that it will phase out the Microsoft Lens PDF scanner app for Android and iOS devices starting in September. Microsoft Lens (formerly known as Office Lens) can convert images into PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files, and it is capable of scanning both printed and handwritten text. Currently, the app has been downloaded 50 million times on the Google Play Store (with over 952,000 reviews with an average of 4.9/5 rating) and received nearly 136,000 ratings on Apple's App St

Microsoft 365 apps to soon block file access via FPRPC by default

Microsoft has announced that the Microsoft 365 apps for Windows will start blocking access to files via the insecure FPRPC legacy authentication protocol by default starting late August. These changes apply only to Microsoft 365 apps for Windows and will not affect Microsoft Teams users across Windows, Mac, web, iOS, or Android. "Microsoft 365 apps will block insecure file open protocols like FPRPC by default starting version 2508, with new Trust Center settings to manage these protocols," the

Microsoft rolls out GPT-5 across its Copilot suite - here's where you'll find it

Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images ZDNET's key takeaways Microsoft is rolling out GPT-5 to all its AI offerings, Thursday. The Copilot chatbot will provide GPT-5, even to free users. GPT-5 will also be available to coding and enterprise tools. OpenAI released its much-anticipated upgrade to the engine that powers ChatGPT and many other AI implementations, including Microsoft's AI offerings, on Thursday. Concurrent with the GPT-5 release, Microsoft announced that it is upgrading its consu

Donald Trump Orders Crackdown on Politically-Motivated ‘Debanking’

US President Donald Trump has ordered regulators to investigate the alleged refusal among US banks to supply accounts to customers on the basis of their political or religious beliefs. In an executive order signed Thursday, Trump accused federal banking regulators of presiding over an unlawful discrimination campaign under the guise of risk management, echoing allegations leveled previously by members of conservative groups and the cryptocurrency sector. “Bank regulators have used supervisory

Microsoft rolls out GPT-5 across its Copilot suite - here's what we know

Matthias Balk/picture alliance via Getty Images ZDNET's key takeaways Microsoft is rolling out GPT-5 to all its AI offerings, Thursday. The Copilot chatbot will provide GPT-5, even to free users. GPT-5 will also be available to coding and enterprise tools. OpenAI released its much-anticipated upgrade to the engine that powers ChatGPT and many other AI implementations, including Microsoft's AI offerings, Thursday. Concurrent with the GPT-5 release, Microsoft announced that it is upgrading i

Secretive, Peter Thiel-Founded ‘Tech Bilderberg” Group Is Moving Up in the World

A secretive group founded by Palantir mogul Peter Thiel is planning to expand its influence in Washington, D.C., according to a report from Axios. The group, called Dialog, wants to establish a permanent physical campus in the capital, where it can carry on its invite-only meetings involving major power players. Working off information provided by a source with knowledge of the group’s activities, Axios claims that Dialog—which it says is “often compared to a tech-era Bilderberg”—has plans for

Today's NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, Aug. 8

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today's Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles. Today's Mini Crossword might make you hungry. I think I need to put a summer barbecue on my calendar now. The puzzle wasn't terribly tough, but I did mess up on 8-Across for a while, which took me some time to sort out. It was kind of fun that the first three across clue

The ISS Crew Is Returning to Earth: Here's How to Watch Online

It's time to change crews on the International Space Station. On Friday, you can tune in to NASA's live coverage of the return of Crew-10 on NASA Plus, Amazon Prime and more streaming services. Events begin with the hatch closure and undocking on Friday, and the crew returns on the following day. The return was delayed a day due to high winds at the splashdown sites off the California coast. Weather conditions will be continually monitored, and the specific splashdown location will be determine

CISA orders fed agencies to patch new Exchange flaw by Monday

CISA has issued an emergency directive ordering all Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to mitigate a critical Microsoft Exchange hybrid vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-53786 by Monday morning at 9:00 AM ET. Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies are non-military agencies within the US executive branch, including the Department of Homeland Security, Department of the Treasury, Department of Energy, and Department of Health and Human Services. The flaw tracked as CVE-

Encryption made for police and military radios may be easily cracked

Two years ago, researchers in the Netherlands discovered an intentional backdoor in an encryption algorithm baked into radios used by critical infrastructure–as well as police, intelligence agencies, and military forces around the world–that made any communication secured with the algorithm vulnerable to eavesdropping. When the researchers publicly disclosed the issue in 2023, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which developed the algorithm, advised anyone using it for

Encryption Made for Police and Military Radios May Be Easily Cracked

Two years ago, researchers in the Netherlands discovered an intentional backdoor in an encryption algorithm baked into radios used by critical infrastructure–as well as police, intelligence agencies, and military forces around the world–that made any communication secured with the algorithm vulnerable to eavesdropping. When the researchers publicly disclosed the issue in 2023, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which developed the algorithm, advised anyone using it for

Survey reveals how Verizon’s price hikes are affecting its customer base, and it’s not good news

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority Verizon is in the news for losing 51,000 postpaid subscribers between April and June this year and then doubling down by removing loyalty discounts and driving bills up. Ironically, the company recently gave away free concert tickets, gift cards, branded freebies, and more. Either way, customers are not amused by their rising bills, and unsurprisingly, many of you are looking to switch carriers. We received over 1400 votes on our survey, and almost 900 of th

Microsoft has ended 'active development' on Contraband

The upheaval continues for gaming at Microsoft. The latest victim appears to be Contraband, a planned release from Avalanche Studios with Xbox Game Studios as publisher. The co-op open-world game from the studio behind the entertaining Just Cause series was teased in a brief, mostly atmospheric trailer at E3 2021. But very little had been heard since about the project, and it seems the axe is currently hanging pretty precariously above Contraband. "Active development has now stopped while we ev

Microsoft brings GPT-5 to Copilot with new smart mode

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. OpenAI officially launched its new GPT-5 models today, and Microsoft is now bringing GPT-5 to Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Azure AI Foundry, GitHub Copilot, and more. It’s part of a big simultaneous release of GPT-5 that will show up in Copilot as the new smart mode that I detailed in No

Weapons turns our deepest anxieties into a potent horror masterpiece

is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years. Zach Cregger’s first major film Barbarian was tense and frightening, but it was also infused with a healthy dose of absurdity. The movie’s twisted sense of humor made it easier to stomach its grotesque violence and a bit more difficult to anticipate how its unhinged story would unfold. But Barbarian also worked surprisingly well as a

Can't upgrade your Windows 10 PC? You have 5 options - and 2 months to decide

simpson33/Getty Images ZDNET's key takeaways Windows 10 support ends on Oct. 14, 2025. Users have free and paid options for extended updates. Doing nothing is not a safe option. Have you decided what to do with your Windows 10 PCs when they reach their official end-of-support date in two months? I can tell you with absolute certainty that Microsoft is not going to back down at the last minute and extend that deadline. But you do have options, including some new ways to continue getting sec

“We Miss All the Trains to Get Rich”: The Real Story of Crypto and the Black Community

I’ve been at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Annual Convention in Cleveland since August 6. I came expecting to hear about the state of our industry under Donald Trump’s second presidency, especially how to navigate the administration’s anti-DEI policies, which many in the Black community see as a direct attack on progress. I thought the talk would be about AI: how to use it, how to control it, and whether it was a threat to our profession. I definitely did not expect to ta

The Best Hearing Aids of 2025, Tested and Reviewed

How much money should you expect to spend on a hearing aid? The answer depends primarily on whether you’re looking into over-the-counter or prescription hearing aids. Unsurprisingly, the latter is a wallet guzzler, with average costs between $2,000 to $8,000. But OTCs can ring up quite a tab in their own right, and our most highly rated devices will still run you about $800 to $2,000 a pair. So far, we haven’t found an OTC device under this $800 price that is truly effective at treating hearing

This $15 Sunscreen Applicator for Kids Prevents Meltdowns Before Outdoor Adventures With My Toddler

CNET key takeways This affordable sunscreen applicator sells for $15 or less and is effective for sun protection on young children. It’s mess-free, BPA-free and travel-friendly. Since it’s kid-friendly, older kids can apply sunscreen on their own. If you have a toddler like mine, you know what a battle it can be to get them out the door. It’s an even bigger challenge when I apply sunscreen to my son’s face, arms and legs. It’s the equivalent of wrestling an alligator, and as much as I’d love

Xbox Game Pass Subscribers Can Play Assassin's Creed Mirage Now

The Assassin's Creed franchise is one of the biggest series in gaming today. Ubisoft, the publisher of the series, said in 2023 that it has sold more than 155 million copies of Assassin's Creed games, making it one of the bestselling franchises in history. And Xbox Game Pass subscribers can play one of the most recent entries in the series, Assassin's Creed: Mirage, right now. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, a CNET Editors Choice award pick, offers hundreds of games you can play on your Xbox Series X,

TeaOnHer, a rival Tea app for men, is leaking users’ personal data and driver’s licenses

TeaOnHer, an app designed for men to share photos and information about women they have supposedly dated, has exposed users’ personal information, including government IDs and selfies, TechCrunch can confirm. The app, which launched on the Apple App Store earlier this week, is a response to another viral app Tea that allows women to post about the men they date. Tea is advertised as a women’s safety app with more than 6 million users that is similar to “Are we dating the same guy?” Facebook net

Bitcoin jumps as Trump is set to sign an order that allows cryptocurrencies in 401(k)s

Crypto-linked stocks got a boost of energy as well in premarket trading. Coinbase gained 2%, Circle advanced more than 3%, and ether treasury stocks Bitmine Immersion rose 4%, while Sharplink Gaming rallied 7%. The price of bitcoin climbed around 1% to reclaim the $116,000 level for the first time since July 31. Ether rose more than 4%, also returning to a one-week high. President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order that would allow 401(k) accounts to invest in alternative assets, i

Show HN: Stasher – Burn-after-read secrets from the CLI, no server, no trust

Stasher CLI Share secrets from your terminal. One-time only. No accounts. No backend. No BS. I just wanted to share a password. Not spin up a server. Not sign up for a "secure" web app. Not trust a Slack thread. Just. Send. A. Secret. So I built Stasher — a burn-after-read, command-line tool for secure, ephemeral secret sharing. Built for people who are busy, paranoid, or both. "How Can I Trust You?" That's what someone asked me — and they were right to. Even if I say: "It's encrypted"