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For people who entered the world of desktop computing at a certain time, Microsoft Publisher was a revolution. Combining the power of high-end desktop publishing software with the ease of use of a word processor, the application opened up new creative possibilities for a generation. But the party had to come to an end – or at least this is what Microsoft believes. Last year the company announced that the much-loved Publisher would be retired. Now this is getting a step closer. While many users m

Microsoft is starting to automatically install Windows 11 25H2 on unmanaged devices as previous versions of Windows 11 draw closer to the end of their support cycle. While October seems like it is some time off, it will soon roll around – and this is when Windows 11 24H2 will stop receiving updates. Keen to ensure that security updates are available to as many people, this is the reason for Microsoft pushing Windows 11 25H2 to more devices. In a message update on the Windows release health page

Using applications as an attack vector, in a DDoS campaign for example, is not new. But application abuse is evolving making it harder to spot. We spoke to David Mytton, CEO of runtime security specialist Arcjet, to discuss how attacks have changed and why traditional security methods are struggling to keep up. BN: Application abuse today looks very different than it did even a few years ago. What do most teams still get wrong about how abuse actually manifests inside real production systems? DM

Google has given subscribers to Google AI Pro an unexpected free boost to storage. Head of Google Photos, Google One, and AI Subscriptions Shimrit Ben-Yair took to X to share the news that storage is jumping from 2TB to 5TB without an increase in price. The free extra storage is clearly good news, but Google has much more to offer paying subscribers in terms of new features and capabilities. In a fairly substantial thread on X, Ben-Yair starts off by announcing: “Sweet news for our Google AI Pro

Google has announced details of a series of new AI-powered capabilities coming to Google Vids in the coming days. The company has long-prided the ease-of-use the video editing suite offers, and now it is getting more powerful. One of the key benefits compared to other tools is that anyone with a Google account is able to generate video clips free of charge using the video generation model, Veo 3.1 – although there are some limitations. In addition to video editing and generation improvements, cu

Fans of PowerShell were frustrated and confused by the delayed release of the most recent Long Term Support edition. PowerShell 7.6 LTS was only released recently, but it came significantly later than had been planned. Unpicking what happened, Microsoft has provided some details about why there was a delay. The company has conducted what it refers to as a postmortem into the slowed schedule and says that it is making changes as a result. Pointing to the fact that PowerShell is a complicated beas

Google is looking to make the most of Windows 10 reaching end of support, using it as a reason to push ChromeOS Flex. The company’s desktop operating system is billed as a way of breathing new life into an old computer, and it has teamed up with Back Market to create a new ChromeOS Flex USB Kit. The aim here is to make it as quick, easy and painless as possible to install ChromeOS Flex. Low-cost USB drives provide an affordable means of distributing the operating system as Google looks to help r

Google has not only released Gemma 4, it has done so under the Apache 2.0 license. This is a significant change as it, as Google points out, opens up “Gemma 4's applicability and usefulness, providing well-understood terms for modification, reuse, and further development”. But the change in licensing is just the start of things for the open-weight model – there are in fact four distinct models catering for different needs, different circumstances, and different scales. Google is pitching this re

Agentic systems are changing how software behaves. Instead of following predefined code paths, agents interpret context, select tools, and generate execution dynamically at runtime across connected components. This means developer teams must move fast while understanding which components are safe, how they behave, and how decisions propagate. BlueRock is announcing the launch of a Trust Context Engine, a new context layer for the agentic action path that helps teams move faster while making bett

A new report from Abnormal AI uncovers a credential theft campaign that has been systematically targeting C-suite executives and senior officers at major global organizations over a five-month period from November 2025 through March 2026. Dubbed VENOM, the campaign is engineered for invisibility across its delivery and filtering stages. The attackers use email construction techniques designed to defeat both signature-based detection and automated content analysis, and a QR code delivery method t

Yet again, Microsoft has been forced to release an out-of-band update for Windows 11 after a previously released update was found to cause problems. Earlier this month, Microsoft released the KB5079391 update – an optional cumulative update. It was immediately found to be problematic, with users complaining of installation errors. Microsoft initially responded by halting the rollout of the KB5079391 update after numerous reports from users who were seeing error messages reading: “Some update fil

Meta has issued warnings to hundreds of users after it discovered a malicious version of the WhatsApp chat app was being distributed by an Italian spyware maker. The Italian group SIO is said to be behind the app which was being used to target iPhone users – although it did not make its way into the official App Store. The fake app was primarily targeting users in Italy, although not exclusively. As reported by WABetaInfo, the SIO group is a well-known maker of spyware which often produces surve

Proton has launched Proton Meet, an encrypted video conferencing service built as an alternative to platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. The new service focuses on end-to-end encryption for calls, messaging, and screen sharing, with support for both personal and business use. The launch comes as video calls continue to replace in-person meetings across workplaces, schools, and households. While video conferencing has become routine, concerns about how platforms handle meetin

Durabook has announced a new rugged 14-inch mobile workstation built to handle AI processing and graphics-heavy workloads in field environments. Z14I-HG is first such fully rugged device built specifically for AI-ready performance, with processing rated at up to 682 TOPS. The Z14I-HG is built around Nvidia RTX Ada architecture graphics, with options that include RTX 3500 Ada or RTX 5000 Ada GPUs. These configurations provide up to 9,728 CUDA cores and 16GB of GDDR6 memory with error-correcting s

The National Council on Aging has released new findings showing that online scams tied to social media advertising are widely experienced among older Americans, yet many incidents never get reported. The research also found that attitudes change once people learn how advertising systems work, with many placing greater responsibility on the platforms that host paid content. The study, titled “Scroll, Click, Scam: How Social Media Platforms Enable Older Adult Scams,” combined an online poll with i

AdGuard has released its latest Ad Trackers Report, an annual look at how advertising and tracking systems affect internet traffic worldwide. The report shows that ad trackers accounted for 10.22 percent of global internet traffic in 2025, marking a clear increase compared to the 7.84 percent recorded in 2024. The figures reflect what the company describes as "raw requests", meaning the initial connections made when a page loads. These requests are often invisible to users but are triggered alon

Opera has added a new feature to its Neon browser that allows external AI tools to connect directly to live browser sessions and perform actions on behalf of users. The new MCP Connector feature turns the browser into a workspace that AI clients can access, rather than requiring users to copy information between tools. Opera Neon, which launched late last year, is the company’s AI-focused browser, and this update allows third-party AI clients to operate inside the browser itself. Supported tools

Asus has announced the ROG Strix Morph 96 Wireless, a 96 percent mechanical keyboard with hot-swappable switches, and tri-mode connectivity. Priced at $139.99, the new keyboard is aimed at users who want a compact layout without losing the full numpad and dedicated navigation keys. The 96 percent layout keeps most of the functionality found on full-size keyboards while reducing the overall footprint. It measures only slightly wider than a typical tenkeyless design, leaving more desk space availa

Ashampoo Backup Pro 26 is a Windows backup and recovery program that usually sells for $60, but for a limited time it's entirely free for BetaNews readers. The offer runs from April 1 through April 30, giving users access to the full version without paying a penny. The software protects files and entire systems by creating backups that can be restored after malware infections, hardware failures, or corrupted operating systems. You can choose to back up individual files, selected folders, or full

Consolidating cybersecurity information into a ‘single pane’ has been something of a holy grail for the industry in recent years. But does it risk actually hampering remediation efforts? We spoke to Daniel Bogomolny, principal product specialist at Seemplicity, to discuss why consolidating findings isn’t enough, and how security teams can finally close the gap between knowing what’s wrong and getting it fixed. BN: Why is simply aggregating exposure data insufficient for improving security outcom