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Windows 11 lets you run a network speed test right from the taskbar now - how to try it

Microsoft Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Windows 11 is testing a network speed test that you run from the taskbar. The speed test icon takes you to the Bing website. For now, you need a Windows 11 Insider build to use the feature. Running a network speed test is a helpful way to determine if you're getting the speed promised by your internet provider. Normally, you have to trigger such a test from a third-party web page like Ookla's Speedest or

Death to type classes

Death ( XIII ) Symbolizes significant change, transformation, and endings, rather than literal physical death. Have you ever seen a Number grazing in the fields? Or a Functor chirping in the trees? No? That’s because they’re LIES. LIES told by the bourgeoisie to keep common folk down. But I say NO, no longer shall we be kept down by deceit! Come brothers and sisters, come and let us create a system of values. Where values are no longer constrained by their type class, but instead merged as a si

A string formatting library in 65 lines of C++

In this write-up, I will walk you through an implementation of a string formatting library for C++ I came up with for my video game. The end result came out really compact, at only 65 lines of code—providing a skeleton that can be supplemented with additional functionality at low cost. Usage Given a format buffer… char buffer [ 64 ] ; String_Buffer buf = { str , sizeof str } ; …the fmt::format function provided by this library can be called with a format string parameter, containing the char

Wanted to spy on my dog, ended up spying on TP-Link

Wanted to spy on my dog, ended up spying on TP-Link I recently bought a cheap Tapo indoor camera to see what my dog gets up to when I am out of the house. What actually followed? I ended up reverse-engineering onboarding flows, decompiling an APK, MITMing TLS sessions, and writing cryptographic scripts. My main motivation for this project really stemmed from the fact that the camera annoyed me from day one. Setting the camera up in frigate was quite painful, no one really seemed to know how t

Microsoft to force install the Microsoft 365 Copilot app in October

Next month, Microsoft will begin automatically installing the Microsoft 365 Copilot app on Windows devices that have the Microsoft 365 desktop client apps. The Microsoft 365 Copilot app integrates the AI-powered Copilot assistant with Microsoft 365 suite apps, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as other features like Notebooks and AI agents. While the newly installed app will be added to the Windows Start Menu and enabled by default, IT administrators responsible for managing Micro

Boring Work Needs Tension

We can make our work exciting by chasing the every day tension. We are all moved by great movies, cinematography, and stories. Watching them is fun because you can imagine yourself resonating with a character. You are thrilled by the tension the story creates and curious how it will be resolved. Many find software development a dull job where you have to write exactly what your PM or client asks for. It’s exciting at first, but it can become boring after a few iterations. Whatever doesn’t exc

The ‘Futurama’ Binge Season Is Stuffed With Sly Commentary and Sci-Fi Delights

Futurama’s new season is being called its 13th by Hulu, but the show, which premiered in 1999, has had a stop-and-start presence over the years across Fox, Comedy Central, and straight-to-video movies. The show’s latest season—its third on Hulu—is again treading new ground, getting an all-in-one binge release. One consistent element across Futurama’s discombobulated history has been its loyal fans, so it seems unlikely that dropping the entire season in one go will be a strike against it. Still

Trump Admin Says ‘Framework’ Reached for U.S. Owners to Take Control of TikTok

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that the U.S. has “a framework for a TikTok deal,” suggesting that some kind of agreement is imminent to allow the social media platform to continue operating in the U.S. despite a law passed in 2024 that sought to ban the app or force a sale. The comments from Bessent came as he and U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer took questions from reporters after two days of meetings with Chinese officials in Madrid. “We believe we have an agreement. It

Get into the cockpit as new crop of “Top Gun” pilots get their wings

It's constant corrections that you're doing. It is very much an eye scan. You have to be looking at certain things. Where is your lead indicator coming from? If you wait for the airspeed to fall off, it's probably a little bit too late to tell you that you're underpowered. You need to look for some of the other cues that you have available to you. That's why there's so many different sensors and systems and numbers. We're teaching them not to look at one number, but to look at a handful of numbe

USA Today Enters Its Gen AI Era With a Chatbot

The publishing company behind USA Today and 220 other publications is today rolling out a chatbot-like tool called DeeperDive that can converse with readers, summarize insights from its journalism, and suggest new content from across its sites. “Visitors now have a trusted AI answer engine on our platform for anything they want to engage with, anything they want to ask,” said Mike Reed, CEO of Gannett and the USA Today Network, at the WIRED AI Power Summit in New York, an event that brought tog

Hundreds of Google AI Workers Were Fired Amid Fight Over Working Conditions

More than 200 contractors who worked on evaluating and improving Google’s AI products have been laid off without warning in at least two rounds of layoffs last month. The move comes amid an ongoing fight over pay and working conditions, according to workers who spoke to WIRED. In the past few years, Google has outsourced its AI rating work—which includes evaluating, editing, or rewriting the Gemini chatbot’s response to make it sound more human and “intelligent”—to thousands of contractors empl

NY could force TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram to roll out age verification

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. A New York law could require social media platforms to implement age verification. On Monday, New York Attorney General Letitia James released the proposed rules for the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) For Kids Act, which would force platforms to confirm that someone is over 18 before allowing them to access an algorithm-driven feed or nigh

OpenAI board chair Bret Taylor says we’re in an AI bubble (but that’s OK)

In Brief Bret Taylor, board chair at OpenAI and CEO of AI agent startup Sierra, was asked in a recent interview with The Verge whether he agreed with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s declaration that “someone is going to lose a phenomenal amount of money in AI.” Taylor echoed Altman’s sentiments, suggesting that we are indeed in an AI bubble — but like Altman, he didn’t sound too worried about it. “I think it is both true that AI will transform the economy, and I think it will, like the internet, crea

Zoom’s Eric Yuan and Emergence’s Santi Subotovsky on navigating the second act, at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

You’ve built the hit product — now what? That’s the question Zoom CEO Eric Yuan and Emergence Capital general partner Santi Subotovsky will take on in their session, “What Comes After Breakout Success?” From expanding into new markets to launching the next product bets, this panel will explore how great companies avoid becoming one-hit wonders. Expect insights into the tough calls between focus and diversification, how to keep innovating at scale, and what investors look for in a second act. Th

Time’s running out to volunteer at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

Every year, TechCrunch Disrupt runs on innovation — and the support of our incredible volunteers. If you’ve ever dreamed of a front-row seat to the startup world, this is your chance. But heads-up: volunteer applications close September 30, and the clock is ticking. Why volunteer? Because access is everything Whether you’re a future founder, marketer, engineer, or event producer, volunteering at Disrupt offers a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to run one of the most iconic startup conf

Israel announces seizure of $1.5M from crypto wallets tied to Iran

Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced on Monday that it was ordering the seizure of 187 crypto wallets that allegedly belong to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. In a document detailing the seizure order, the ministry’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) said it was “convinced that the cryptocurrency wallets” in the list are property of the IRGC and are “used for the perpetration of a severe terror crime.” The IRGC is sanctioned as a terrorist organization b

China says Nvidia violated antitrust regulations

Trade tensions between China and the U.S. regarding semiconductors just got even more strained. On Monday, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation ruled that semiconductor giant Nvidia was in violation of the country’s antitrust regulations, as first reported by Bloomberg. The ruling was in reference to Nvidia’s 2020 acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, a computer networking supplier, for $7 billion. An Nvidia spokesperson supplied the following statement, “We comply with the law i

Musk buys $1bn worth of Tesla shares

Musk buys $1bn worth of Tesla shares 1 hour ago Share Save Natalie Sherman BBC News Share Save Getty Images Billionaire Elon Musk has scooped up roughly $1bn (£735m) worth of Tesla shares, in what is being seen as a vote of confidence in the electric car maker. Shares in Tesla, which have struggled to advance this year, jumped more than 6% in early trading on Monday on the news. Musk already held a roughly 13% stake in the company, but he has long sought more control of the firm, which he has

Scientists Tested What's Really in "Psilocybin" Chocolate and Found Something Alarming

Image by Getty / Futurism Mental Health If you're a coward and don't want to munch on awful-tasting shrooms to go on a psychedelic odyssey, you can buy delicious edibles infused with their active ingredient instead: psilocybin. But maybe you shouldn't, because new research suggests that you might be getting ripped off taking these — or even putting your health at risk. After testing 12 edible "magic mushroom" products sold in Portland, Oregon, Richard van Breemen and his colleagues found abso

Amazon sets the date for what sounds like a big fall hardware event

Amazon TL;DR Amazon has scheduled a Devices & Services event for September 30. It’s been just about a year now since Amazon’s last major hardware launches. The invitation’s teaser imagery hints at Kindle, Fire, and Echo news. With summer rapidly drawing to a close, there’s not much time left for companies to get their 2025 hardware lineups ready to go ahead of the all-important holiday shopping season. This year’s already brought us some spectacular devices from many of our favorite brands,

iPhone 17 Pro’s top features could make it an extremely popular upgrade

iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max are reportedly already selling exceptionally well. Despite personally opting for the iPhone Air, the 17 Pro’s success is no surprise to me. Why? Because Apple’s three top new features are exactly what users have been asking for. #1: Best battery life ever Ask the average person what improvements they want from their smartphone, and almost certainly battery life will be near the top of the list. The iPhone has become an essential tool for most of us. Increasing usage,

Topics: 17 apple iphone new pro

Deals: Mac mini $499, M3 iPad Air $150 off, M4 MacBook Air from $799, Beats iPhone 17 cases, more

Alongside ongoing pre-order deals for the new Apple Watch Ultra 3, Apple Watch Series 11, and AirPods Pro 3, today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break is bursting at the seams with new Apple gear deals. Firstly, let’s start with iPad – just about all M3 iPad Air models are $150 off alongside just about all iPad mini 7 configs at $100 off. As for the Mac side of things, the latest M4 MacBook Air lineup returned to some of its best prices ever today at $200 off, Amazon is offering $300 off the most affordable

Topics: 17 air amazon m4 pro

This Paramount+ deal ends soon: Annual subscriptions are 50 percent off

Sometimes, rising prices for streaming services feels as inevitable as death and taxes. So when a serious discount is available, we tend to sit up and take notice. For a few weeks, you can get a whopping half off an annual subscription to Paramount+. A year of the Paramount+ Essential plan, which is ad-supported, will cost $30 compared to the usual $60. Paramount+ Premium, which is ad-free except for live tv programming, will cost $60 for a year instead of $120. This is a substantial deal that

Amazon may be announcing new Echo and Kindle devices on September 30

Amazon has a press event scheduled for September 30 at 10AM ET. Panos Panay, who leads the company's Devices & Services team, will be on hand. This strongly suggests that Amazon will announce some new hardware. We don't exactly know what the company will reveal, but we do have a giant clue. The press invite also included a composite image of various Amazon devices. These appear to include a Kindle ereader, a Fire TV of some kind and an Echo speaker. Those are three of the company's biggest prod

Microsoft to force install the Microsoft 365 Copilot app in October

Next month, Microsoft will begin automatically installing the Microsoft 365 Copilot app on Windows devices that have the Microsoft 365 desktop client apps. The Microsoft 365 Copilot app integrates the AI-powered Copilot assistant with Microsoft 365 suite apps, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as other features like Notebooks and AI agents. While the newly installed app will be added to the Windows Start Menu and enabled by default, IT administrators responsible for managing Micro

The MacBook Air is on sale for $799 - Here's why I recommend it for most people

Apple MacBook Air M4 (13-inch) ZDNET's key takeaways Apple's MacBook Air M4 (13-inch) is on sale at Amazon for $799, a competitive price for its latest ultraportable. The M4 Air supports up to two external monitors with the lid open, and scales up to 32GB of unified memory. There are still only two USB-C ports on the left side, and I wish there were a nano-texture display option. View now at Bhphotovideo View now at Apple View now at Amazon more buying choices The MacBook Air M4 (13-inch) is

Topics: air apple m4 macbook pro

How to disable ACR on your TV - and why you should ASAP

Adam Breeden/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Smart TVs track viewing habits with ACR tech. Collected data fuels billions in targeted ads. Turning off ACR protects privacy but takes effort. Did you know that whenever you turn on your smart TV, you invite an unseen guest to watch it with you? These days, most popular TV models utilize automatic content recognition (ACR), a form of ad surveillance technology that gathers information about eve

Unplugging these 7 household devices saved me $200 a year in electricity

Adela Stefan / 500px / Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Unplugging idle devices can save on power bills. TVs, consoles, coffee makers, and mini-fridges are top culprits. Small daily changes help cut energy waste and lower electricity costs. With costs climbing across the US, energy prices stand out -made worse by record-breaking summer heat and recent waves scorching multiple states. Having endured several of them this season, I'm alw

Android UI finally beats iOS in the looks department - and I'm stunned

Jack Wallen/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Google released the latest Android feature drop. Material 3 Expressive has finally arrived, and it's brilliant. You get more customizations, better animations, and performance. When the latest Android feature drop hit my Pixel 9 Pro a few days ago, I was stunned. There it was -- everything I've been asking of Google. The company has finally given the Android interface a much-needed facelift. Als