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Microsoft is getting ready to return to the office

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Microsoft originally encouraged its employees to work from home amid the coronavirus outbreak in 2020. This new flexible working arrangement then became an official “hybrid workplace” policy several months after the pandemic began, allowing managers to approve permanent remote work. Now that the pandemic has settled into endemicity, Microsoft wants employees to return to the of

Apple Watch getting redesigned blood oxygen feature following legal dispute

Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) at Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, US, on Monday, June 9, 2025. Apple on Thursday announced a redesigned blood oxygen feature for some Apple Watch users, following a years-long intellectual property dispute over the capability. Apple said the redesigned feature is coming to some Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 users on Thursday. The update was possible b

Google Messages can now blur nude images on Android

Google is rolling out a new safety feature for the Messages app on Android. As spotted by 9to5Google , the company is making Sensitive Content Warnings more broadly available after beta testing the option since April . Google announced it last October. The feature can detect and blur images that include nudity. However, it’ll only work if you’re signed into a Google Account in the Messages app. When Messages detects and blurs such an image, you will be able to choose between several actions. Y

Google Wants You to Pick Your Own News Sources for Searches

Perhaps in response to suggestions that its Search functions have been degraded or been usurped by AI summaries that not everybody wants, Google will now let you select news sources to narrow things down. The company said in a blog post this week that it's launching Preferred Sources in the US and India over the next few days, along with a plus icon to the right of Top Stories in searches. Clicking on that plus symbol allows you to add blogs or news outlets. There doesn't appear to be a limit o

Ice discs slingshot across a metal surface all on their own

Scientists have figured out how to make frozen discs of ice self-propel across a patterned metal surface, according to a new paper published in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. It's the latest breakthrough to come out of the Virginia Tech lab of mechanical engineer Jonathan Boreyko. A few years ago, Boreyko's lab experimentally demonstrated a three-phase Leidenfrost effect in water vapor, liquid water, and ice. The Leidenfrost effect is what happens when you dash a few drops of

The Apple Watch Is Finally Getting Blood Oxygen Sensing Back

If you have an Apple Watch Series 9, 10, or Ultra Watch 2 that you bought in the US in the past year, you'll finally get the blood oxygen sensing feature back via a software update later today, according to Apple. To make sure you get the feature, update your paired iPhone to iOS 18.6.1 and the Apple Watch to watchOS 11.6.1. Sensor data will be calculated in the app, and you will be able to see your blood oxygen in the Respiratory section of the Health app. If you bought your watch before 2024

Computing’s Top 30: Zhihao “Zephyr” Yao

On a typical mobile device today, financial and medical apps nestled up next to everything from karaoke playlists to time-killing games like Fruit Ninja. How to secure data that matters in this diverse digital buffet is a challenge for many researchers. For Zhihao “Zephyr” Yao, it’s a challenge that fuels his life’s work and also led to an award-winning project. That project—which earned ACM MobiSys 2023’s Best Artifact Award—demonstrated that making systems less complex can actually enhance m

Apple shares video of epic Severance mural in LA

LA is populated with marketing materials for all sorts of entertainment, but this giant painted Severance mural is one-of-a-kind. Apple shared photos of “The Exalted Victory of Cold Harbor” mural on display near an Apple TV+ billboard on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles this week. The finishing touches were put on the mural at the end of July, according to passersby on social media. These are the shots shared by Apple, including a selfie by Severance lead actor Adam Scott: Meanwhile, a Facebook

Blood Oxygen Tracking Returns to U.S. Apple Watches Today After 5-Year Patent Dispute

Good news: Apple Watches sold in the U.S. after January 2024 lost their built-in blood oxygen tracking because of a patent dispute with medical company Masimo, but the feature will return via a software update coming out today. In a Newsroom post, Apple says it’s introducing a “redesigned Blood Oxygen feature for some Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2.” The reworked blood oxygen feature will be pushed out on iPhone and Apple Watch via an iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1 soft

Apple Watch gets reformulated, non-patent-infringing blood oxygen monitoring

In early 2024, Apple removed a blood oxygen monitoring feature from its then-current Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 watches, following a ruling that the feature violated light-based pulse oximetry patents from a California-based company called Masimo. Removing the feature allowed Apple to circumvent an import ban and continue selling the Series 9 and Ultra 2 (and, later, the Series 10) in the US. Today, Apple announced that it's restoring a version of the blood oxygen monitoring feature to af

Apple launching ‘redesigned Blood Oxygen feature’ on Apple Watch in the U.S. today

Apple has announced that it will release a software update for iPhone and Apple Watch later today with a “redesigned Blood Oxygen feature” for Apple Watch users in the United States. This comes over 18 months after Apple began selling the Apple Watch without the Blood Oxygen feature in America due to a patent dispute. The new feature will be made available as part of iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1 updates. In a statement to 9to5Mac today, an Apple spokesperson said: “Apple will introduce a red

Apple's 'redesigned' blood oxygen monitoring feature hits Apple Watches in the US today

More than a year after an import ban forced the company to remove blood oxygen monitoring from some US Apple Watch models, Apple says it will introduce a redesigned version of the feature later today. In a post on its newsroom website, the company says the feature will roll out to Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Watch Ultra 2 users through a joint Apple Watch and iPhone update. Once Apple begins rolling out the software, you'll need to update your devices to iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1 to

Canada’s House of Commons investigating data breach after cyberattack

The House of Commons of Canada is currently investigating a data breach after a threat actor reportedly stole employee information in a cyberattack on Friday. While the lower house of the Parliament of Canada has yet to issue a public statement regarding this incident, CBC News reports that House of Commons staff were notified of a breach on Monday via email. The alert states that the attacker exploited a recent Microsoft vulnerability to gain access to a database containing sensitive informat

Microsoft patches more than 100 Windows security flaws - update your PC now

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET ZDNET's key takeaways The August Patch Tuesday update for Windows fixes 107 security flaws. Among all the security flaws, 13 are ranked as critical. Also adds the new Black Screen of Death and Quick Machine Recovery. Microsoft's August Patch Tuesday update adds a couple of cool new features. But the main reason you'll want to install it is to squash a large array of security bugs. Patches 107 flaws, including 13 critical Released this past Tuesday, the latest

I’m Watching Every Conjuring Movie Before 'The Conjuring: Last Rites.' Here’s Where to Stream Them All

When The Conjuring debuted in 2013, directed by James Wan, the movie felt like a throwback to atmospheric 1970s horror flicks such as The Changeling or The Manitou. From its simple opening title card -- yellow text on a black background -- to its relatively little gore and slow build of suspense, The Conjuring was a breath of fresh air. It arrived at a time when the horror genre was rampant with gruesome movies like Saw (which was also directed by Wan) and Hostel. The Conjuring kick-started not

Apple’s blood oxygen monitoring returns to its latest Apple Watches

Apple announced on Thursday it’s introducing a redesigned Blood Oxygen feature for some Watch Series 8, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra. With this move, Apple is bringing back blood oxygen monitoring by tweaking the feature to get around the International Trade Commission’s (ITC) import ban. Blood oxygen data will be measured and calculated on the user’s paired iPhone, and results can be viewed in the Respiratory section of the Health app. This means users won’t be able to view the data on the

YouTube Music gets another music discovery tool that Spotify doesn’t have

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Google is testing a new Daily Discover feed in YouTube Music. Like the existing weekly discover, the daily discover aims to help you find artists or music similar to what you already listen. Google only appears to be testing it at the moment, as the feature hasn’t rolled out widely. Although its supremacy is contentious, YouTube Music is easily among the top five music and podcast streaming services globally. Its popularity naturally stems from the f

Google Messages now ensures you don’t get flashed without your consent

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Google Messages will now automatically blur NSFW photos that you receive or send. It will show warnings before opening any explicit media shared with you to ensure you approve of it. It will also warn you of the risks of sending such photos before you do. All processing takes place locally on your device, so none of the private media is sent to Google. The outpouring of multimedia junk, thanks to RCS, in Android’s default Messages app has inspired G

CISA warns of N-able N-central flaws exploited in zero-day attacks

​CISA warned on Wednesday that attackers are actively exploiting two security vulnerabilities in N‑able's N-central remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform. N-central is commonly used by managed services providers (MSPs) and IT departments to monitor, manage, and maintain client networks and devices from a centralized web-based console. According to CISA, the two flaws can allow threat actors to gain command execution via an insecure deserialization weakness (CVE-2025-8875) and inject

Changing these 6 settings on my iPad improved the battery life by hours

Adam Breeden/ZDNET As an avid iPad user, I'm all too familiar with the internal struggles that course through me when the battery is about to die. I love using either the iPad 11 or iPad Air to write and work, but I also use it to stream content, play games, and browse the internet after work. This makes me appreciate the iPad's long battery life, yet my anxiety grows when I start getting 'low battery' alerts without a charger nearby. Also: How you're charging your tablet is slowly killing it

Funding Open Source like public infrastructure

To protect the digital foundation of essential government services, governments should invest in Open Source as public infrastructure and shift from consumption to contribution. Fifteen years ago, I laid out a theory about the future of Open Source. In The Commercialization of a Volunteer-Driven Open Source Project, I argued that if Open Source was going to thrive, people had to get paid to work on it. At the time, the idea was controversial. Many feared money would corrupt the spirit of volunt

Today's NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, Aug. 14

Gael Cooper CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.

Today's Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Aug. 14, #1517

Gael Cooper CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.

Report: Apple’s smart home ambitions include “tabletop robot,” cameras, and more

Rumors about a touchscreen-equipped smart home device from Apple have been circulating for years, periodically bolstered by leaked references in Apple's software updates. But a report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman indicates that Apple's ambitions might extend beyond HomePods with screens attached. Gurman claims that Apple is working on a "tabletop robot" that "resembles an iPad mounted on a movable limb that can swivel and reposition itself to follow users in a room." The device will also turn t

Fortinet warns of FortiSIEM pre-auth RCE flaw with exploit in the wild

Fortinet is warning about a remote unauthenticated command injection flaw in FortiSIEM that has in-the-wild exploit code, making it critical for admins to apply the latest security updates. FortiSIEM is a central security monitoring and analytics system used for logging, network telemetry, and security incident alerts, serving as an integral part of security operation centers, where it's an essential tool in the hands of IT ops teams and analysts. The product is generally used by governments,

Google CEO adds a new calendar feature at Stripe co-founder’s request

Talk about customer service. On Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai posted on X about Google Calendar’s new feature to duplicate events — an addition that was specifically requested by Stripe co-founder John Collison last month, also via an X post. On July 5, Collison asked if Google Calendar users could get a Ctrl-click option that would allow them to easily duplicate events, similar to the feature that many native calendar applications already have. Collison tagged Pichai in his post at the t

Report: Apple planning ecosystem of home security devices to compete with Ring and Nest

A new report from Bloomberg dives deep into Apple’s plans to lean on artificial intelligence as a way to expand into robotics, home security, and smart displays. One interesting tidbit in the report is that Apple is aiming to develop a system of smart home cameras and other home security products to compete with the likes of Amazon’s Ring brand. Bloomberg first reported that Apple was developing a home doorbell with support for Face ID last December. As it turns out, the company’s ambitions ex

Google Gemini will now learn from your chats—unless you tell it not to

As Gemini is increasingly woven into the fabric of Google, the way the chatbot accesses and interacts with your data is in a constant state of flux. Today, Google is announcing several big changes to how its AI adapts to you, giving it the ability to remember more details about your chats for improved answers. If that's a concern, Google also has a new temporary chat option that won't affect the way Gemini thinks about you. You might recall several months back when Google added a "personalizati

Norton VPN review: A VPN that fails to meet Norton's standards

One thing I need to make clear right from the start: this is a review of Norton VPN (formerly Norton Secure VPN, and briefly Norton Ultra VPN) as a standalone app, not of the VPN feature in the Norton 360 package. They're similar, but Norton VPN has a few more features, including the ability to choose cities as server locations in countries with more than one option. I'll state my opinion up front. Norton VPN isn't a bad service, but it's not good enough to get ahead of its direct competitors.

Spider-Man and Mortal Kombat 1 head up August's PS Plus Game Catalog additions

Sony just announced some new additions to the PS Plus Game Catalog for August and it's a pretty beefy lineup. All of these titles will be ready to play on August 19. There's something here for just about everyone, so let's get started. Perhaps the biggest game of the bunch is Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered. This is the PS5 port of the PS4 hit, which upgrades the graphics and swaps out the actor playing Peter Parker. PS4 owners aren't being left out in the cold here, as Marvel’s Spider-Man: Game