PSA: New Character Bug in Messages Causing iOS Devices to Crash [Updated]

There appears to be a new character-linked bug in Messages, Mail, and other apps that can cause the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch to crash when receiving a specific string of characters. Image from Twitter In this particular case, the character string involves the Italian flag emoji along with characters in the Sindhi language, Read more about PSA: New Character Bug in Messages Causing iOS Devices to Crash [Updated][…]

Windows 10 Update: Would You Like Deleted Files And Blue Screens With That?

As users complain of blue screens of death, deleted files and reboot loops, here’s what you need to know about this Windows 10 update. There’s a lot of truth in the notion that you can’t please all the people all of the time, as Microsoft knows only too well. With Windows 10 now installed on Read more about Windows 10 Update: Would You Like Deleted Files And Blue Screens With That?[…]

Apple’s latest macOS Catalina update mysteriously borks SSH for some unlucky fans. What could be the cause?

Apple’s latest update to macOS Catalina appears to have broken SSH for some users. Developer Tyler Hall published a blog post on Monday detailing the issue, but removed it after his writeup got noticed. The issue is that under Apple’s macOS 10.15.4 update, released on March 24, trying to open a SSH connection to a Read more about Apple’s latest macOS Catalina update mysteriously borks SSH for some unlucky fans. What could be the cause?[…]

Singapore Government to make its contact-tracing app freely available to developers worldwide

SINGAPORE – In a move to help the international community combat the coronavirus pandemic, the Government will be making the software for its contact-tracing application TraceTogether, which has already been installed by more than 620,000 people, freely available to developers around the world. In a Facebook post on Monday (March 23), Minister-in-charge of the Smart Read more about Singapore Government to make its contact-tracing app freely available to developers worldwide[…]

Iowa has already won the worst IT rollout award of 2020: Rap for crap caucus app chaps in vote zap flap

It’s all so painfully familiar: with a crunch date of February 3, the Democratic Party in Iowa decided to charge ahead with an IT rollout that comprised an entirely new software system spread out across thousands of sites to record the result of the Democratic caucus for its presidential nominee. It was, inevitably, a complete Read more about Iowa has already won the worst IT rollout award of 2020: Rap for crap caucus app chaps in vote zap flap[…]

Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance joined together to form working group to develop open standard for smart home devices

Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance joined together to promote the formation of the Working Group. Zigbee Alliance board member companies IKEA, Legrand, NXP Semiconductors, Resideo, Samsung SmartThings, Schneider Electric, Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), Silicon Labs, Somfy, and Wulian are also on board to join the Working Group and contribute to the project. The Read more about Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance joined together to form working group to develop open standard for smart home devices[…]

Getting Drivers for Old Hardware Is Harder Than Ever

despite the fact that all the drivers generally have to do is simply sit on the internet, available when they’re necessary. Apparently, that isn’t easy enough for Intel. Recently, the chipmaker took BIOS drivers, a boot-level firmware technology used for hardware initialization in earlier generations of PCs, for a number of its unsupported motherboards off Read more about Getting Drivers for Old Hardware Is Harder Than Ever[…]

Bose customers beg for firmware ceasefire after headphones fall victim to another crap update which kills noise cancelling

Owners of Bose QuietComfort 35 headphones are still trying to get the company to either fix or roll back a firmware update that removed noise-cancelling functions from their over-ear gear. The problems date back to July and some owners seem to have managed to get Bose to exchange their cans for the company’s shiny new Read more about Bose customers beg for firmware ceasefire after headphones fall victim to another crap update which kills noise cancelling[…]

White Screen of Death: Admins up in arms after experimental Google emission borks Chrome – yay auto updates

An experimental feature silently rolled out to the stable Chrome release on Tuesday caused chaos for IT admins this week after users complained of facing white, featureless tabs on Google’s massively popular browser. The issue affected thousands of businesses’ terminal servers, with multiple users on the same server experiencing “white screen of death” at the Read more about White Screen of Death: Admins up in arms after experimental Google emission borks Chrome – yay auto updates[…]

Microsoft’s visual data explorer SandDance open sourced

Microsoft just open sourced their data exploration tool known as SandDance: For those unfamiliar with SandDance, it was introduced nearly four years ago as a system for exploring and presenting data using “unit visualizations.” Instead of aggregating data and showing the resulting sums as bar charts, SandDance shows every single row of a dataset (for Read more about Microsoft’s visual data explorer SandDance open sourced[…]

DoNotPay app waits on hold for you, cancels subscriptions, helps you out of parking tickets

DoNotPay helps you get out of parking tickets and cancel forgotten subscriptions, and now it can call you when it’s your turn in a customer service phone queue. The app today is launching “Skip Waiting On Hold.” Just type in the company you need to talk to, and DoNotPay calls for you using tricks to Read more about DoNotPay app waits on hold for you, cancels subscriptions, helps you out of parking tickets[…]

Deep TabNine AI-powered autocompletion software is Gmail’s Smart Compose for coders

Deep TabNine is what’s known as a coding autocompleter. Programmers can install it as an add-on in their editor of choice, and when they start writing, it’ll suggest how to continue each line, offering small chunks at a time. Think of it as Gmail’s Smart Compose feature but for code. Machine learning can seriously improve Read more about Deep TabNine AI-powered autocompletion software is Gmail’s Smart Compose for coders[…]

Airbus A350 software bug forces airlines to turn planes off and on every 149 hours – must have borrowed some old Boeing 787 code

Some models of Airbus A350 airliners still need to be hard rebooted after exactly 149 hours, despite warnings from the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) first issued two years ago. In a mandatory airworthiness directive (AD) reissued earlier this week, EASA urged operators to turn their A350s off and on again to prevent “partial or Read more about Airbus A350 software bug forces airlines to turn planes off and on every 149 hours – must have borrowed some old Boeing 787 code[…]

Bulb smart meters in England wake up from comas miraculously speaking fluent Welsh

Smart meters in England are suddenly switching to Welsh language displays, much to the confusion of owners. Several people report that the meters, made by energy provider Bulb, are spontaneously opting for Welsh instead of English, sometimes after freezing and being restarted. This would be unhelpful even for many residents of Wales, but the problem Read more about Bulb smart meters in England wake up from comas miraculously speaking fluent Welsh[…]

Windows 10 SFC /scannow Can’t Fix Corrupted Files After Update

Starting today, Windows 10 users are finding that the /sfc scannow feature is no longer working and that it states it found, but could not fix, corrupted Windows Defender PowerShell files. The Windows System File Checker tool, commonly known as SFC, has a /scannow argument that will check the integrity of all protected Winodws system files and Read more about Windows 10 SFC /scannow Can’t Fix Corrupted Files After Update[…]

Increase Your Privacy in Windows 10 With ‘O&O ShutUp10’

You might not even know what options you can tweak (or turn off) in your operating system, which is where the cleverly named O&O ShutUp10 application comes in to play. It’s a simple application that makes it incredibly easy to tweak various aspects of Windows 10 that are normally buried or otherwise inaccessible to regular people. Read more about Increase Your Privacy in Windows 10 With ‘O&O ShutUp10’[…]

Linux Mint 19.2 ‘Tina’ is on the way, but the developers seem defeated and depressed

I have been a bit critical of Linux Mint in the past, but the truth is, it is a great distribution that many people enjoy. While Mint is not my favorite desktop distro (that would be Fedora), I recognize its quality. Is it perfect? No, there is no such thing as a flawless Linux-based operating Read more about Linux Mint 19.2 ‘Tina’ is on the way, but the developers seem defeated and depressed[…]

Excel Can Now Turn Pictures of Tables Into Actual, Editable Tables

Microsoft is introducing a really useful feature for Excel on mobile devices. The company is rolling out a new update to the Excel app for Android that makes it really easy to capture data. If you ever had to manually enter data from a paper in real life into your spreadsheets, you are going to Read more about Excel Can Now Turn Pictures of Tables Into Actual, Editable Tables[…]

spacedesk – extend or duplicate your desktop on a smartphone or tablet

At least 2 machines are needed to operate spacedesk. These machines must be connected via a Local Area Network (e.g. Ethernet or Wireless) supporting TCP/IP network protocol. Each one of the two machines is running a different spacedesk software: 1. The Primary Machine is a Windows PC, laptop or Surface Pro tablet. It runs the spacedesk DRIVER Read more about spacedesk – extend or duplicate your desktop on a smartphone or tablet[…]

Ubisoft And Mozilla Announce A.I. Coding Assistant Clever-Commit

Video game publisher Ubisoft is working with Mozilla to develop an artificial intelligence coding assistant called Clever-Commit, head of Ubisoft La Forge Yves Jacquier announced during DICE Summit 2019 on Tuesday. Clever-Commit reportedly helps programmers evaluate whether or not a code change will introduce a new bug by learning from past bugs and fixes. The Read more about Ubisoft And Mozilla Announce A.I. Coding Assistant Clever-Commit[…]

South Korea rules pre-installed phone bloatware must be deletable

Smartphone users in South Korea will soon be able to have the option of deleting unnecessary pre-installed bloatware, thanks to new industry guidelines commencing in April. “The move aims to rectify an abnormal practice that causes inconvenience to smartphone users and causes unfair competition among industry players,” said the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Read more about South Korea rules pre-installed phone bloatware must be deletable[…]

Too Good To Go app – anti supermarket food wastage, in 9 EU countries, including NL

Supermarkets create cheap “magic boxes” with end of life food in them. You can see where to pick them up on the app. Jumbo NL has started a pilot in 13 shops.   Het van oorsprong Deense initiatief Too Good To Go heeft na één jaar in Nederland meer dan 200.000 maaltijden gered van de Read more about Too Good To Go app – anti supermarket food wastage, in 9 EU countries, including NL[…]

NSA to release a free reverse engineering tool GHIDRA

The US National Security Agency will release a free reverse engineering tool at the upcoming RSA security conference that will be held at the start of March, in San Francisco. The software’s name is GHIDRA and in technical terms, is a disassembler, a piece of software that breaks down executable files into assembly code that Read more about NSA to release a free reverse engineering tool GHIDRA[…]

HTTP-over-QUIC to be renamed HTTP/3

The HTTP-over-QUIC experimental protocol will be renamed to HTTP/3 and is expected to become the third official version of the HTTP protocol, officials at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) have revealed. This will become the second Google-developed experimental technology to become an official HTTP protocol upgrade after Google’s SPDY technology became the base of Read more about HTTP-over-QUIC to be renamed HTTP/3[…]