When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Microsoft 365 security in the spotlight after Washington Post hack Paul Hill Neowin @ziks_99 · Jun 16, 2025 03:36 EDT The Washington Post has come under cyberattack which saw Microsoft email accounts of several journalists get compromised. The attack, which was discovered last Thursday, is believed to have been conducted by a foreign government due to the topics the journalists cover, including national security, economic policy, and China. Following the hack, the passwords on the affected accounts were reset to prevent access. The fact that a Microsoft work email account was potentially hacked strongly suggests The Washington Post utilizes Microsoft 365, which makes us question the security of Microsoft’s widely used enterprise services. Given that Microsoft 365 is very popular, it is a hot target for attackers. Microsoft's enterprise security offerings and challenges As the investigation into the cyberattack is still ongoing, just how attackers gained access to the accounts of the journalists is unknown, however, Microsoft 365 does have multiple layers of protection that ought to keep journalists safe. One of the security tools is Microsoft Defender for Office 365. If the hackers tried to gain access with malicious links, Defender provides protection against any malicious attachments, links, or email-based phishing attempts with the Advanced Threat Protection feature. Defender also helps to protect against malware that could be used to target journalists at The Washington Post. Another security measure in place is Entra ID which helps enterprises defend against identity-based attacks. Some key features of Entra ID include multi-factor authentication which protects accounts even if a password is compromised, and there are granular access policies that help to limit logins from outside certain locations, unknown devices, or limit which apps can be used. While Microsoft does offer plenty of security technologies with M365, hacks can still take place due to misconfiguration, user-error, or through the exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities. Essentially, it requires efforts from both Microsoft and the customer to maintain security. Lessons for organizations using Microsoft 365 The incident over at The Washington Post serves as a stark reminder that all organizations, not just news organizations, should audit and strengthen their security setups. Some of the most important security measures you can put in place include mandatory multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all users, especially for privileged accounts; strong password rules such as using letters, numbers, and symbols; regular security awareness training; and installing any security updates in a timely manner. Many of the cyberattacks that we learn about from companies like Microsoft involve hackers taking advantage of the human in the equation, such as being tricked into sharing passwords or sharing sensitive information due to trickery on behalf of the hackers. This highlights that employee training is crucial in protecting systems and that Microsoft’s technologies, as advanced as they are, can’t mitigate all attacks 100 percent of the time. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Microsoft accidentally replaced Windows 11 startup sound with one from Vista Taras Buria Neowin @TarasBuria · Jun 14, 2025 14:46 EDT The recently released Windows 11 Dev and Beta builds introduced some welcome changes and improvements. However, those preview builds are not flawless and have a pretty long list of known issues. One of those issues, though, is a rather delightful one: Windows 11's default startup jingle has been accidentally replaced with one from 2006. After Windows Insiders discovered that Windows 11 now plays the Windows Vista startup sound and reported it to Microsoft, the company acknowledged it and added it to the list of known bugs in the latest Windows 11 Dev and Beta builds: This week’s flight comes with a delightful blast from the past and will play the Windows Vista boot sound instead of the Windows 11 boot sound. We’re working on a fix. Although Windows Vista is nearly two decades old, it was brought to everyone's attention this week after Apple introduced macOS 26 Tahoe with its controversial "Liquid Glass" redesign, which many consider a rather miserable remix of Windows Aero from Windows Vista and Windows 7. While it is definitely an interesting coincidence, Microsoft did not intentionally replace the startup sound in Windows 11 preview builds. Brandon LeBlanc from the Windows Insider team confirmed in his X that that is a bug after joking about everyone talking about Windows Vista once again in light of Apple's latest announcements: It is worth noting that if you miss the startup sound of Windows Vista, you can still use it in modern Windows versions. All it takes is the original WAV file and a few clicks in the Windows Registry and Sound settings. And for those who want a shot of nostalgia, here is the sound of Windows Vista startup: What startup jingle do you like more: Windows Vista or Windows 11? Share your thoughts in the comments. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

Deal  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. The 2025 Complete Splunk Beginner Bundle is now 25% off Neowin Deals · Jun 14, 2025 16:00 EDT Today's highlighted deal comes via Neowin Deals store, where you can save 75% on The 2025 Complete Splunk Beginner Bundle Splunk is a powerful data platform used to gather information from multiple sources and index it for efficient access. You can then use collected data to create visualizations, analytics, and a variety of automated and security-related functions. With its web-style interface, Splunk is easy to use and is utilized by many companies worldwide. What's Included: Splunk Fundamentals for Effective Management of SOC and SIEM Oak Academy 38 Lessons (3.5h) Lifetime $20.00 Value Splunk | Splunk Core Certified User Certification Prep Lab Oak Academy, 63 Lessons (6h),Lifetime, $20.00 Value Splunk | Splunk Core Certified Power User SPLK 1002 Prep Oak Academy, 53 Lessons (5.5h), Lifetime, $20.00 Value Splunk| Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin Certification Prep Oak Academy, 68 Lessons (8.5h), Lifetime, $20.00 Value Requirements Basic understanding of IT and networking concepts Familiarity with Linux and Windows operating systems A computer with internet access for hands-on practice Good to Know Length of time users can access this course: lifetime Access options: desktop or mobile Redemption deadline: redeem your code within 30 days of purchase Experience level required: all levels Certificate of Completion ONLY Updates included Closed captioning NOT available NOT downloadable for offline viewing Learn more about our Lifetime deals here! Lifetime access to this 2025 Complete Splunk Beginner Bundle normally costs $80, but this deal can be yours for just $19.99, that's a saving of $60. For full terms, specifications, and info, click the link below. Although priced in U.S. dollars, this deal is available for digital purchase worldwide. We post these because we earn commission on each sale so as not to rely solely on advertising, which many of our readers block. It all helps toward paying staff reporters, servers and hosting costs. Other ways to support Neowin Whitelist Neowin by not blocking our ads Create a free member account to see fewer ads Make a donation to support our day to day running costs Subscribe to Neowin - for $14 a year, or $28 a year for an ad-free experience Disclosure: Neowin benefits from revenue of each sale made through our branded deals site powered by StackCommerce. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is a new narrative-driven sci-fi RPG inspired by Mass Effect Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Neowin @LoneWolfSL · Jun 7, 2025 17:18 EDT Out of nowhere, a narrative-driven sci-fi action RPG has been announced that will take players into the universe of The Expanse TV show and novels. The reveal trailer landed today during the Future Games Showcase, offering both a cinematic look at the setting as well as snippets of gameplay. Check out the The Expanse: Osiris Reborn debut trailer above. The studio behind the project is Owlcat Games. Some may remember that name from being involved in the role-playing titles Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, as well as the most recent hugely well-received RPG Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. Now, the studio's sights are set on The Expanse universe, and it's going for the over-the-shoulder third-person gameplay route for the first time. “We’ve been dreaming about building a sci-fi action RPG of this scale for a long time, and The Expanse is the perfect universe to bring that vision to life,” says Owlcat’s Creative Director, Alexander Mishulin. “It’s a world grounded in realism and complexity, perfect for telling a story the way we like it— mature and character-driven, where your choices truly matter." The story will have players taking the role of a custom captain that can be from the Earth, Mars, or the Belt to take control of the most advanced ship currently available. There's a crew to meet and lead, tactical third-person combat, and, as expected from this franchise, a divided solar system to navigate and make decisions on. The studio was also very direct about this experience being inspired by BioWare's Mass Effect trilogy. Aside from the action-heavy gameplay seen in the trailer, Owlcat is promising plenty of political intrigue, as well as romance options for players to dive into. Game Design Producer Yuliya Chernenko added "many of us first played it in our teenage years, and it left a lasting impression," and that "we are building on that legacy and expanding what players anticipate from this experience." The Expanse: Osiris Reborn does not have a release window just yet, but it will be coming out on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG), Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Microsoft 365 Word gets SharePoint eSignature, now you can ditch third-party signing tools Paul Hill Neowin @ziks_99 · Jun 6, 2025 03:02 EDT Microsoft has just announced that it will be rolling out an extremely convenient feature for Microsoft 365 customers who use Word throughout this year. The Redmond giant said that you’ll now be able to use SharePoint’s native eSignature service directly in Microsoft Word. The new feature allows customers to request electronic signatures without converting the documents to a PDF or leaving the Word interface, significantly speeding up workflows. Microsoft’s integration of eSignatures also allows you to create eSignature templates which will speed up document approvals, eliminate physical signing steps, and help with compliance and security in the Microsoft 365 environment. This change has the potential to significantly improve the quality-of-life for those in work finding themselves adding lots of signatures to documents as they will no longer have to export PDFs from Word and apply the signature outside of Word. It’s also key to point out that this feature is integrated natively and is not an extension. The move is quite clever from Microsoft, if businesses were using third-party tools to sign their documents, they would no longer need to use these as it’s easier to do it in Word. Not only does it reduce reliance on other tools, it also makes Microsoft’s products more competitive against other office suites such as Google Workspace. Streamlined, secure, and compliant The new eSignature feature is tightly integrated into Word. It lets you insert signature fields seamlessly into documents and request other people’s signatures, all while remaining in Word. The eSignature feature can be accessed in Word by going to the Insert ribbon. When you send a signature request to someone from Word, the recipient will get an automatically generated PDF copy of the Word document to sign. The signed PDF will then be kept in the same SharePoint location as the original Word file. To ensure end-to-end security and compliance, the document never leaves the Microsoft 365 trust boundary. For anyone with a repetitive signing process, this integration allows you to turn Word documents into eSignature templates so they can be reused. Another feature that Microsoft has built in is audit trail and notifications. Both the senders and signers will get email notifications throughout the entire signing process. Additionally, you can view the activity history (audit trail) in the signed PDF to check who signed it and when. Finally, Microsoft said that administrators will be able to control how the feature is used in Word throughout the organization. They can decide to enable it for specific users via an Office group policy or limit it to particular SharePoint sites. The company said that SharePoint eSignature also lets admins log activities in the Purview Audit log. A key security measure included by Microsoft, which was mentioned above, was the Microsoft 365 trust boundary. By keeping documents in this boundary, Microsoft ensures that all organizations can use this feature without worry. The inclusion of automatic PDF creation is all a huge benefit to users as it will cut out the step of manual PDF creation. While creating a PDF isn’t complicated, it can be time consuming. The eSignature feature looks like a win-win-win for organizations that rely on digital signatures. Not only does it speed things along and remain secure, but it’s also packed with features like tracking, making it really useful and comprehensive. When and how your organization gets it SharePoint eSignature has started rolling out to Word on the M365 Beta and Current Channels in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia-Pacific. This phase of the rollout is expected to be completed by early July. People in the rest of the world will also be gaining this time-saving feature but it will not reach everyone right away, though Microsoft promises to reach everybody by the end of the year. To use the feature, it will need to be enabled by administrators. If you’re an admin who needs to enable this, just go to the M365 Admin Center and enable SharePoint eSignature, ensuring the Word checkbox is selected. Once the service is enabled, apply the “Allow the use of SharePoint eSignature for Microsoft Word” policy. The policy can be enabled via Intune, Group Policy manager, or the Cloud Policy service for Microsoft 365 Assuming the admins have given permission to use the feature, users will be able to access SharePoint eSignatures on Word Desktop using the Microsoft 365 Current Channel or Beta Channel. The main caveats include that the rollout is phased, so you might not get it right away, and it requires IT admins to enable the feature - in which case, it may never get enabled at all. Overall, this feature stands to benefit users who sign documents a lot as it can save huge amounts of time cumulatively. It’s also good for Microsoft who increase organizations’ dependence on Word. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. China blocks Apple-Alibaba AI venture in retaliation for the US trade war Hamid Ganji Neowin @HamidGanji_ · Jun 5, 2025 05:28 EDT iPhones sold in China, Apple's second biggest market, still lack AI features. While Apple tried to solve the issue by forming an AI venture with China's e-commerce giant Alibaba, the move has faced setbacks from China's regulator, presumably to get back at the US trade war under the Trump administration. According to a new report by Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter, Apple and Alibaba have been working on their AI venture over the past few months, hoping to bring some AI features to iPhones sold in China. However, the Cyberspace Administration of China hasn't approved the collaboration. "Apple's rollout of artificial intelligence services in China with Alibaba is being held up by a Beijing regulator, as the tech partnership becomes the latest casualty of Donald Trump's trade war. The tech giants have been working together to launch Apple Intelligence, the iPhone-maker's suite of AI services, for Chinese users. The system would be supported by Alibaba's latest models." Every new iPhone sold worldwide has built-in ChatGPT as a result of the Apple and OpenAI partnership. Since OpenAI has no official presence in China, Apple must partner with local tech companies like Alibaba to offer AI capabilities on iPhones sold in the country. The move could help Apple navigate China's regulatory restrictions, but it's now stalled due to the US-China trade war. The Cyberspace Administration of China doesn't publicly confirm whether halting the Apple-Alibaba AI venture is a response to the US trade war. Still, sources claim this is China's response to the recent tariff clash with the US. China also has a pretty solid record of retaliating against the US reciprocal tariffs. However, the Apple and Alibaba AI partnership also has some opponents in the US. Lawmakers and government officials in Washington have raised concerns about the AI deal. They fear that this collaboration could significantly bolster China's AI capabilities. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Raspberry Pi Imager 1.9.4 released bringing performance improvements, bug fixes and more David Uzondu Neowin · Jun 5, 2025 05:12 EDT Raspberry Pi Imager 1.9.4 is now out, marking the first official release in its 1.9.x series. This application, for anyone new to it, is a tool from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It first came out in March 2020. Its main job is to make getting an operating system onto a microSD card or USB drive for any Raspberry Pi computer super simple, even if you hate the command line. It handles downloading selected OS images and writing them correctly, cutting out several manual steps that used to trip people up, like finding the right image version or using complicated disk utility tools. This version brings solid user interface improvements for a smoother experience, involving internal tweaks that contribute to a more polished feel. Much work went into global accessibility, adding new Korean and Georgian translations. Updates also cover Chinese, German, Spanish, Italian, and many others. Naturally, a good number of bugs got squashed, including a fix for tricky long filename issues on Windows and an issue with the Escape key in the options popup. Changes specific to operating systems are also clear. Windows users get an installer using Inno Setup. Its program files, installer, and uninstaller are now signed for better Windows security. For macOS, .app file naming in .dmg packages is fixed, and building the software is more reliable. Linux users can now hide system drives from the destination list, a great way to prevent accidentally wiping your main computer drives. The Linux AppImage also disables Wayland support by default. The full list of changes is outlined below: Fixed minor errors in Simplified Chinese translation Updated translations for German, Catalan, Spanish, Slovak, Portuguese, Hebrew, Traditional Chinese, Italian, Korean, and Georgian Explicitly added --tree to lsblk to hide partitions from the top-level output CMake now displays the version as v1.9.1 Added support for quiet uninstallation on Windows Applied regex to match SSH public keys during OS customization Updated dependencies: libarchive (3.7.4 → 3.7.7 → 3.8.0) zlib (removed preconfigured header → updated to 1.4.1.1) cURL (8.8 → 8.11.0 → 8.13.0) nghttp2 (updated to 1.65.0) zstd (updated to 1.5.7) xz/liblzma (updated to 5.8.1) Windows-specific updates: Switched to Inno Setup for the installer Added code signing for binaries, installer, and uninstaller Enabled administrator privileges and NSIS removal support Fixed a bug causing incorrect saving of long filenames macOS-specific updates: Fixed .app naming in .dmg packages Improved build reliability and copyright Linux-specific updates: System drives are now hidden in destination popup Wayland support disabled in AppImage General UI/UX improvements: Fixed OptionsPopup not handling the Esc key Improved QML code structure, accessibility, and linting Made options popup modal Split main UI into component files Added a Style singleton and ImCloseButton component Internationalization (i18n): Made "Recommended" OS string translatable Made "gigabytes" translatable Packaging improvements: Custom AppImage build script with Qt detection Custom Qt build script with unprivileged mode Qt 6.9.0 included Dependencies migrated to FetchContent system Build system: CMake version bumped to 3.22 Various improvements and hardening applied Removed "Show password" checkbox in OS customization settings Reverted unneeded changes in long filename size calculation Internal refactoring and performance improvements in download and extract operations Added support for more archive formats via libarchive Lastly, it's worth noting that the system requirements have changed since version 1.9.0: macOS users will need version 11 or later; Windows users, Windows 10 or newer; Ubuntu users, version 22.04 or newer; and Debian users, Bookworm or later. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. WhatsApp beta users can now craft their own AI chatbots - here's why you might want one Paul Hill Neowin @ziks_99 · Jun 3, 2025 05:10 EDT Since the end of 2022, tech companies, and even non-tech companies, have been clamoring to pile AI into their services. Despite what many people say about not liking AI, plenty of people are still using it every day, making it a key offering. Not only that, but for public companies like Meta, the inclusion of AI does very well with investors, so that’s another reason it’s being added. While the most common chatbot people talk about is ChatGPT, which is pretty faceless, there is demand for AI chatbots with a face, this is why people use tools like Character.ai and Replika. One of the only big tech firms that has gone down this route is Meta, which lets you create and share AI characters. To date, some of Meta’s apps, like Messenger, allow you to chat with these AI personas but you can’t do that yet in the stable version of WhatsApp. The company is now testing it with the Android Beta and when it’s ready, it should make a more seamless experience across Meta’s applications. Many of the popular bots that people use including ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek are faceless and offer the same tone out of the box. To be fair to Gemini, it does allow all users to create Gems now, and they actually offer a bit more flexibility than just creating characters to talk to like in Messenger. The chatbots in Messenger have the benefit of being in the Messenger app, which most people use and giving them a personality and making them feel like an “AI person” fits better in Messenger. Whether we really need these AI bots in Messenger is still up for debate. It’s quite a new feature and some people may find some good uses for them, but as mentioned, they don’t seem as flexible, or provide as detailed responses as custom bots made on Poe or Gemini Gems. They are definitely for having casual conversations with. WhatsApp's new AI chatbot creator We’ve known that the chatbot feature was coming to WhatsApp for a long time already. WhatsApp beta for Android 2.25.1.26, released in January, included the feature for some beta testers. With the latest WhatsApp beta for Android 2.25.18.4, it seems like WhatsApp is trialing the feature with members of the public, suggesting its release is imminent. Screenshots of the app, obtained by WABetaInfo show that you can describe your AI, select its personality, its traits, its image and more. The process seems to be the same as the process already available in Messenger. One of the nice things that Meta provides when creating these AI bots is templates and suggestions such as the attitude of the bot or the instructions for the bot. This is the same as in Messenger and allows you to get started chatting with your custom bots faster. In terms of sharing, you have the option to make the bots private, share them with friends (at least in the case of Messenger and presumably WhatsApp), or share them publicly. If you make something specific for your needs then the private option would be best, while bots with mass appeal could be set to public. Creating bots in WhatsApp is straightforward once you have access to the AI Studio. During the creation process you’ll need to name your AI, define its personality, choose a tone, design an avatar (some will be made for you with Meta’s AI), and create a catchy tagline to attract users if you ever set it to public. Much of the information will be pre-filled based on the initial details you provide about the AI’s role and personality. Some ideas for bots that you can create include a motivational coach, a travel recommendation AI, or a daily planner. While setting up these AI bots is easy to do, users may find their actual benefits limited. Besides the nagging feeling that you’re socializing with a clever bit of code, Meta seems to truncate the answers of these bots so they don’t rattle on, but depending on what you want them to do, you may need them to give a lengthy response, but they won’t. What personalized AI chatbots could offer If you are looking for an AI that chats to you conversationally like real people do, then this could be the feature you’re looking for. The fact that you can personalize bots with specific traits is something you can’t do as easily in apps like ChatGPT and Gemini and the fact that they have an avatar makes them more connectable too. Two of the defining features of Meta’s AI implementation is the ability to create custom AIs with a unique personality and to share them publicly. If you are having difficulty thinking of what a bot could be instructed to do, you can easily find community bots and interact with those instead and may find they provide some value. While these bots could be interesting for some people, they do carry the same risks as other AIs and that is that they can hallucinate. There was also a case in the UK where a man had been encouraged by his Replika to break into Buckingham Palace with a crossbow to kill the then head of state. Similar issues to this could result from Meta’s AI chatbots in time. Potential pitfalls While the feature is pretty interesting there are some things to be aware of. Firstly, the feature is still in beta on WhatsApp so you may run into issues and things could change once it’s finally released. Meta also states that it uses your interactions to improve its AI services, for this reason it is essential not to share personal information as Meta could read it. While Meta does limit the creation of bots that go against its standards, the company also warns that bots can output harmful content, so this could be dangerous for impressionable people who end up acting on what an AI has said with negative outcomes. What to watch for next It’s not clear when these AI chatbots will be available in the stable channel but given that a wider rollout is underway among beta users perhaps we are not too far off. For most people, this is not going to be a must-have feature, just a nice to have. We’ve been using WhatsApp to chat with friends for years, so clearly the app is just fine without the inclusion of AI, but when it’s available, people may be able to get more value out of the app. When the feature launches for all users, bots should be discoverable in the same way they are on Messenger where they’re categorized by category allowing users to begin chats easily. It remains to be seen how users will interact with this feature in the long-run. Last year, we reported that Meta was looking to give bots profiles on its social networks and this was met by somebacklash in our comments section. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

Deal  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Hisense U6 Smart Fire TVs are at their lowest prices ever Fiza Ali Neowin @Fiza_Aliii · May 31, 2025 14:48 EDT Ahead of Father's Day, Hisense is offering five variants of the U6 Series Smart Fire TV (2025 model) at their all-time low prices. The U6 Series offers a 4K UHD (3,840×2,160) resolution while its backlight system comprises approximately 1,000 mini-LEDs arranged in a Full Array Local Dimming configuration. Colour reproduction is achieved through QLED quantum-dot technology, enabling the display to render over one billion colours. Furthermore, the panel supports a wide colour gamut, which results in more accurate renditions of natural hues. A Total HDR Solution ensures compatibility with multiple HDR formats, including Dolby Vision IQ, HDR 10 + Adaptive, HDR 10, HDR 10 + Gaming, and HLG. At the core of the U6 Series is the Hi-View AI Engine, a chipset that handles advanced picture processing tasks. These include an AI-powered 4K Upscaler, AI Smooth Motion, and AI Sports Mode. Collectively, these features ensure that fine details are reproduced with greater clarity. For gaming, the TV offers Game Mode Pro, which supports a native 144Hz refresh rate and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) ranging from 48Hz to 144Hz. An on-screen Game Bar allows users to toggle VRR settings, monitor input lag, and access gaming presets directly. Connectivity options include four HDMI ports (two HDMI 2.1 and two HDMI 2.0), one of which supports eARC via HDMI 1, two USB ports (one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0), an Ethernet (LAN) port and an optical digital audio output. Moreover, wireless connectivity comprises Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. The U6 Series runs on the Fire TV platform with Alexa built in, granting access to a library of streaming apps and voice control functionality. Audio is enhanced by Dolby Atmos, and the unit features a 2.1-channel surround-sound configuration. Additional capabilities include noise-reduction processing, closed caption support, a sleep timer, and parental control functions. 55" Hisense U6 Series Mini-LED 4K Smart Fire TV: $528.99 (Amazon US) 34% off 65" Hisense U6 Series Mini-LED 4K Smart Fire TV: $698.99 (Amazon US) 30% off 75" Hisense U6 Series Mini-LED 4K Smart Fire TV: $898.99 (Amazon US) 31% off 85" Hisense U6 Series Mini-LED 4K Smart Fire TV: $1,299.99 (Amazon US) 35% off 100" Hisense U6 Series Mini-LED 4K Smart Fire TV: $2,599.99 (Amazon US) This Amazon deal is US-specific and not available in other regions unless specified. If you don't like it or want to look at more options, check out the Amazon US deals page here. Get Prime (SNAP), Prime Video, Audible Plus or Kindle / Music Unlimited. Free for 30 days. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. DirectX Raytracing gets performance boost with Opacity Micromaps, now in Agility SDK 1.616 Paul Hill Neowin @ziks_99 · May 31, 2025 07:44 EDT Back in March at the Game Developers Conference 2025 (GDC 2025), Microsoft unveiled DirectX Raytracing (DXR) 1.2, which introduces Opacity Micromaps (OMM). The Redmond giant has now announced the Agility SDK 1.616-retail, which includes support for OMM. You can grab it at the Agility SDK downloads page right now. What are OMMs? The new Opacity Micromaps (OMM) feature has been designed to improve the efficiency of rendering objects such as foliage, fences, transparent features, and other complex alpha-tested geometry (objects with transparent parts that aren't fully opaque or transparent) in ray-traced scenes. The main performance boost comes from reducing the need for “AnyHit” shaders, which require lots of computation and can slow down raytracing. The performance improvements from OMM are not just theoretical, either. At GDC 2025, Remedy Entertainment showed off the performance wins it had using the technology in Alan Wake 2. When will we get OMM support? In terms of support for OMM, Nvidia already has it activated on all Nvidia GeForce RTX GPUs, AMD is planning to make it available during the summer, and Intel is still evaluating the technology and “looks forward to supporting the feature in the future.” Before users can unlock the performance boosts associated with OMM, developers will need to start building with tools such as the new Agility SDK, which was released on Friday. Aside from performance boosts, it could also unlock new artistic possibilities and reduce development hurdles. How do OMMs work? In ray tracing, when a ray hits alpha-tested geometry, the graphics card runs an AnyHit shader to determine if the part of the object the ray hit is opaque or transparent. If it’s transparent, the ray keeps going until it hits another object. As mentioned, using the AnyHit shaders can slow things down, so they’re best avoided as much as possible - this is where Opacity Micromaps comes in. These OMMs are essentially a pre-check for AnyHit shaders. They first try to determine if an object is opaque or transparent, and only if they aren’t sure will AnyHit shaders be run. This process is much more efficient than running AnyHit shaders in every situation. Going forward The option to use OMMs in games via the Agility SDK is a big step forward in ray tracing performance. However, end users will need to wait until developers have started building with it in their games and support by hardware manufacturers like Nvidia and AMD is also key. Developers can head to the Agility SDK downloads and grab version 1.616 to get started. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

Weekend PC Game Deals is where the hottest gaming deals from all over the internet are gathered into one place every week for your consumption. So kick back, relax, and hold on to your wallets. The Humble Store's latest bundle is for fighting game fans. The Badass Brawlers bundle begins with Final Vendetta, Full Metal Furies, and Double Dragon Neon for $6. Going up a tier gets you River City Girls and Young Souls, with the price jumping up to $10. The complete bundle costs $16, and it adds River City Girls 2 and Dawn of the Monsters to all the previous games. The bundle has a three-week counter before it goes away. The Epic Games Store's mystery freebies promotion continued this week. The double giveaway was revealed earlier this week to be Tiny Tina's Wonderlands and Limbo. From the duo, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands comes from Gearbox Software. The title is a spin-off from the Borderlands franchise, adding in RPG elements, magic, and a fantasy storyline into the mix. Next, the award-winning puzzle platformer Limbo puts you into the shoes of a nameless boy looking to find his missing sister, with plenty of env Limbo and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands giveaways are slated to run until Thursday, June 5, which is when the next round of mystery freebies will be revealed. Free Events A single free event is running this weekend for any PC gamer to jump into, and it's coming from Ubisoft's coffers. The cooperative third-person shooter The Division 2 is currently available to try out from the Ubisoft Connect client, letting you jump into the complete edition of the looter shooter RPG until June 2. Big Deals Massive specials from series like The Elder Scrolls and Dragon Quest are currently having discounts, which are joined by zombie festivals, an Activision publisher sale, and more. With highlights from those and more, here's our hand-picked big deals list for this weekend: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 – $38.49 on Steam Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 – $35.99 on Steam DayZ – $24.99 on Steam DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2 – $24.99 on Steam Dying Light 2 Stay Human: Reloaded Edition – $23.09 on Steam They Are Billions – $20.99 on Steam DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age™ - Definitive Edition – $19.99 on Steam My Time at Sandrock – $19.99 on Steam Call of Duty: Modern Warfare® – $19.79 on Steam Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver 1-2 Remastered – $18.84 on Indiegala Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy – $15.99 on Steam Tony Hawk's Pro Skater™ 1 + 2 – $15.99 on Steam Warhammer 40,000: Darktide – $15.99 on Steam Football Manager 2024 – $14.99 on Steam The Talos Principle 2 – $14.99 on Steam HUMANITY – $14.99 on Steam The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR – $14.99 on Steam Red Dead Redemption 2 – $14.99 on Steam Spyro Reignited Trilogy – $13.99 on Steam Project Zomboid – $13.39 on Steam Tiny Glade – $12.74 on Steam Ravenswatch – $12.49 on Steam Detroit: Become Human – $11.99 on Steam Escape Simulator – $11.99 on Steam Jurassic World Evolution 2 – $11.39 on Gamebillet Viewfinder – $11.24 on Steam Gas Station Simulator – $10.99 on Steam Boxes: Lost Fragments – $10.49 on Steam Superliminal – $9.99 on Steam The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition – $9.99 on Steam Unpacking – $9.99 on Steam TimeShift – $9.99 on Steam World War Z – $9.89 on Steam Singularity – $9.89 on Steam Dorfromantik – $9.79 on Steam Dying Light – $8.99 on Steam Storyteller – $8.99 on Steam The Evil Within 2 – $7.99 on Steam Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege – $7.99 on Steam The Wolf Among Us – $7.49 on Steam A Little to the Left – $7.49 on Steam The Evil Within Bundle – $6.24 on Steam Back 4 Blood – $5.99 on Steam The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition – $5.99 on Steam FEAR Complete Pack – $5.49 on Steam Zombie Army 4: Dead War – $4.99 on Steam Beyond: Two Souls – $4.99 on Steam The Pedestrian – $4.99 on Steam The Elder Scrolls Online – $4.99 on Steam The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition Deluxe (2009) – $4.99 on Steam Sticky Business – $4.99 on Steam Prototype – $4.99 on Steam Pharaoh + Cleopatra – $4.99 on Steam Gorogoa – $4.94 on Steam Graveyard Keeper – $3.99 on Steam Heavy Rain – $3.99 on Steam Streets of Rogue – $3.99 on Steam FEZ – $3.99 on Steam Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura – $3.89 on Steam Caesar 3 – $3.89 on Steam Plague Inc: Evolved – $3.74 on Steam SUMMERHOUSE – $3.74 on Steam Ryse: Son of Rome – $3.49 on Steam 20 Minutes Till Dawn – $3.49 on Steam Death Road to Canada – $2.99 on Steam Killing Floor 2 – $2.99 on Steam SpeedRunners – $2.99 on Steam Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 – $2.99 on Steam An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire – $2.39 on Steam The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard – $2.39 on Steam Portal – $1.99 on Steam Left 4 Dead 2 – $0.99 on Steam DRM-free Events The GOG store's own DRM-free sales are going strong too, including discounts for big Atari classics. Here are some highlights from its weekend specials: System Shock - $14.79 on GOG Alpha Protocol - $13.39 on GOG Terra Nil - $12.49 on GOG Cold Waters - $9.99 on GOG Streets of Rage 4 - $9.99 on GOG Overcooked! 2 Gourmet Edition - $9.71 on GOG Weird West: Definitive Edition - $5.99 on GOG The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition - $5.99 on GOG The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Game of the Year Edition Deluxe - $4.99 on GOG Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut - $4.99 on GOG Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - $4.79 on GOG Tomb Raider GOTY - $2.99 on GOG Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition - $2.99 on GOG Far Cry - $2.99 on GOG Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director’s Cut - $2.99 on GOG I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream - $2.69 on GOG Blade Runner - Enhanced Edition - $2.49 on GOG Blood: Fresh Supply - $2.49 on GOG SiN Gold - $1.99 on GOG The Wheel of Time - $1.49 on GOG RollerCoaster Tycoon Deluxe - $1.19 on GOG Pirates! Gold Plus - $1.19 on GOG Sid Meier's Colonization - $1.19 on GOG Keep in mind that availability and pricing for some deals could vary depending on the region. That's it for our pick of this weekend's PC game deals, and hopefully, some of you have enough self-restraint not to keep adding to your ever-growing backlogs. As always, there are an enormous number of other deals ready and waiting all over the interwebs, as well as on services you may already subscribe to if you comb through them, so keep your eyes open for those, and have a great weekend.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. KDE is bringing memory optimizations and more to Plasma 6.5 David Uzondu Neowin · May 31, 2025 06:06 EDT The KDE team has released the latest issue of This Week in Plasma, and it's packed with goodies. Most of the current effort is focused on polishing Plasma 6.4, as shown by yesterday's Plasma 6.4 Beta 2 release with bug fixes and improvements like smarter Bluetooth with better device recognition and easier pairing. At the same time, the latest report gives us a tantalizing look at what's cooking for Plasma 6.5. The big headliner for Plasma 6.5 has to be memory optimization. The developers are working to reduce Plasma's memory footprint by making it smarter about how it handles wallpapers. Apparently, Plasma has been keeping a few too many unnecessary copies of each screen's wallpaper sitting in memory, and fixing that should make the whole desktop feel a bit lighter and snappier. Beyond that, 6.5 is also set to introduce the ability to advance your wallpaper slideshow with a keyboard shortcut. KWin's Magnifier and Zoom effects will also get smarter, sharing their initial zoom level and zoom factor settings, making them more consistent to use. The Digital Clock widget's calendar add-ons page is getting a visual makeover, and Plasma will even start warning you if you crank up the "Raise maximum volume" setting for too long, reminding you it is for temporary boosts and could damage your speakers. Plus, the System Settings page for Legacy X11 App Support is being made clearer about its purpose and security implications, and the menu you get when clicking an app icon in a window's titlebar will now be consistently called the "Window Menu" everywhere. Behind all this desktop goodness are regular updates to KDE Frameworks and Qt, the core libraries that KDE software depends on. For example, Frameworks 6.15 is fixing some annoying KWin crashes, glitches that made KWallet freeze, and a bug that turned some Breeze icons into plain white squares in GTK 3 apps. On the Qt side, version 6.8.4 tackles one of the most common random crashes in QtQuick-based KDE apps, bringing a big boost in stability across the board. Looking ahead, Qt 6.10 will fix the issue where context menus pop up in the wrong spot on multi-screen setups. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

Sponsored  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Download this AI and Innovation eBook (worth $21) for free Sponsored · May 30, 2025 11:00 EDT Claim your complimentary eBook worth $21 for free, before the offer ends on June 11. AI and Innovation: How to Transform Your Business and Outpace the Competition with Generative AI is an expert blueprint on shaping and scaling the AI ecosystem of the future, revealing frameworks already tested and implemented at leading companies including Siemens, GE, and Microsoft. This book contains insight, use cases, tools, and templates to help readers build a brighter future for their organizations based on a fusion of disciplines, new concepts, and foresight thinking. Written by two transformational business leaders, this AI and Innovation shows readers how to create the future of the innovation engine by connecting the dots between technology, change, and business success. The authors discuss topics including: Understanding the core concepts behind AI, including why it matters and what it actually is Generating a roadmap of change, then applying concrete tools and methods to kick-start and anticipate transformational change Transforming the ways of working, collaborating, and realizing new market opportunities Preparing for the future as AI and related technologies continue to progress at a breathtaking pace AI and Innovation is a timely, essential read for business leaders, innovation and strategy managers, and executives seeking state-of-the-art guidance on AI and proven best practices for implementation. How to get it Please ensure you read the terms and conditions to claim this offer. Complete and verifiable information is required in order to receive this free offer. If you have previously made use of these free offers, you will not need to re-register. While supplies last! Offered by Packt, view other free resources The below offers are also available for free in exchange for your (work) email: DearMob iPhone Manager for PC/Mac ($79.95 Value) FREE – Expires 6/3 The Cybersecurity Control Playbook ($100 Value) FREE – Expires 6/4 The Embedded Linux Security Handbook ($31.99 Value) FREE – Expires 6/4 Teach Yourself VISUALLY Microsoft 365, 2nd Edition ($20 Value) FREE – Expires 6/4 Winxvideo AI V3.0 Lifetime License for PC ($69.95 Valued) FREE – Expires 6/8 Aiarty Image Enhancer for PC/Mac ($85 Value) FREE – Expires 6/8 Solutions Architect's Handbook, Third Edition ($42.99 Value) FREE – Expires 6/10 AI and Innovation ($21 Value) FREE – Expires 6/11 Macxvideo AI ($39.95 Value) Free for a Limited Time – Expires 6/22 The Ultimate Linux Newbie Guide – Featured Free content Python Notes for Professionals – Featured Free content Learn Linux in 5 Days – Featured Free content Quick Reference Guide for Cybersecurity – Featured Free content We post these because we earn commission on each lead so as not to rely solely on advertising, which many of our readers block. It all helps toward paying staff reporters, servers and hosting costs. Other ways to support Neowin The above deal not doing it for you, but still want to help? Check out the links below. Check out our partner software in the Neowin Store Buy a T-shirt at Neowin's Threadsquad Subscribe to Neowin - for $14 a year, or $28 a year for an ad-free experience Disclosure: An account at Neowin Deals is required to participate in any deals powered by our affiliate, StackCommerce. For a full description of StackCommerce's privacy guidelines, go here. Neowin benefits from shared revenue of each sale made through the branded deals site. Tags Ebook offer Sponsored Ai Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Google AI Overview finally admits that it's the year 2025 Aman Kumar Neowin @kraman19999 · May 30, 2025 09:24 EDT Google launched its AI Overview feature last year with the intention of saving users time by providing AI-generated summaries for their queries. Just one year later, they've introduced AI Mode, which is an expansion of the AI Overview feature and is said to be useful for queries that require deeper exploration and reasoning. Despite that, the AI Overview feature has struggled multiple times, even when answering basic, fundamental queries. Recently, many users on X reported that when they asked Google, “Is it 2025?”, the AI Overview responded, “No, it's not 2025. The current year is 2024, according to a calendar.” Interestingly, a user on Reddit mentioned that he was able to get the correct answer by adding the F-word at the end of the question. Fortunately, it seems that Google has finally fixed this issue. Now, the AI Overview correctly states that the current year is 2025. Although Google hasn't commented on why this happened, one of their spokespersons told TechCrunch that they use examples like this to update their system so that such mistakes are not repeated. AI Overview making such a blunder in answering a simple question is enough to make anyone believe that you shouldn't completely rely on the answers you get from AI Overview. If you’re not living in a cave, then you’d definitely know the answer to what year this is, so you can easily say that the Overview response is incorrect. But what if you search for something complex, the answer to which you aren't sure about? In such cases, you won't be able to confirm whether the AI Overview answer is correct. That’s why it is very important to manually check the sources that Google’s AI Overview cites in its responses. Interestingly, this isn’t the first time AI Overview has made such a big blunder. In May 2024, users reported that AI Overview was recommending they eat one small rock per day. There were also reports in the same month of users being advised to use glue to stick cheese to a pizza. Google CEO Sundar Pichai mentioned at the I/O 2025 annual developer conference that AI Overview has over 1.5 billion monthly active users. If Google truly wants this number to increase rapidly, it needs to ensure that the AI Overview feature does not repeat such mistakes again. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands and Limbo are free to claim on the Epic Games Store Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Neowin @LoneWolfSL · May 29, 2025 11:32 EDT The Epic Games Store just revealed its latest mystery giveaways lineup, and two games are on offer this week. Replacing last week's Deliver At All Costs, Gigapocalypse, and Sifu, copies of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands and Limbo are now available for all PC gamers to claim. The double giveaway is available to claim for the next seven days as usual. From the duo, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands comes from Gearbox Software. The title is a spin-off from the Borderlands franchise, and like the name suggests, the popular explosion-loving character Tiny Tina is a big part of it. After players create their own character from six different classes, Tina leads them through storylines as a whimsical dungeon master. The gameplay involves first-person looter shooter aspects from the main series, spells, and melee combat. Some RPG elements are also blended into the experience. Moreover, local and online multiplayer is supported, letting up to four players jump into the action together. Meanwhile, if you're looking for a single-player experience, then Limbo may be up your alley. Developed by Playdead, the award-winning puzzle platformer puts you into the shoes of a nameless boy looking to find his missing sister. The game takes place in a mysterious world depicted in a minimalist fashion, where environmental puzzles and platforming challenges offer ways forward. The world is filled with traps and hostile creatures as well, while players can only use move, jump, and interact controls to creatively think around the obstacles and foes. Limbo and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands giveaways on the Epic Games Store are now available, and they are slated to run until next Thursday, June 5. Coming up next are even more mystery giveaways, which will only get revealed when the timer hits zero. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Nothing CEO envisions a single-app smartphone while calling out Apple's declining creativity Hamid Ganji Neowin @HamidGanji_ · May 27, 2025 13:58 EDT Launched in 2020, Nothing is a newcomer to the smartphone market. Meanwhile, the novice company has gained a solid reputation over the past few years for its unconventional design and offering a perfect blend of performance, features, and price. Nothing CEO Carl Pei, who is also a former co-founder of OnePlus, has now vented his ideas about the future of the smartphone market and how smartphones will be over the next decade. In an interview with WIRED, Carl Pei envisioned a smartphone that only requires one app: the operating system. He believes operating systems would become so intelligent that they would know everything about the user. "I believe that in the future, the entire phone will only have one app—and that will be the OS. The OS will know its user well and will be optimized for that person," Pei said. Pei says the ultimate benefit of a single-app smartphone is that users would spend less time doing boring things, saving more time for valuable tasks. Pei added that the process of moving toward a single-app smartphone should be slow and calculated, and it might take seven to ten years. "At this point, if we said, "We have eliminated apps from smartphones," no one would buy it. So we have to ship a little bit, look at the data, look at the feedback, iterate, and then ship again. Gradually make suggestions over and over again. We could do this quicker, but we need to bring the user with us on the journey." The CEO also took a critical stance on Apple's current state of creativity, saying, "I was very inspired by Apple when I was younger—the first iPod, the first iPhone—that's the reason I'm in this industry." He added that these once-creative companies have now become "very big" and "very corporate," leading to a decline in their innovative spirit. He further noted that "Apple today is very different from the Apple when I was younger" and also disparaged Apple Intelligence. He described Apple's AI service as "not much more than some generated emojis" and said it has made consumers very skeptical. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

This week's news recap is here with a lot of news and announcements from the Build 2025 developer conference, a bunch of new Windows 11 preview builds, fresh features for inbox Windows 11 apps, more Xbox games for PlayStation 5, and other stories. Quick links: Here, we talk about everything happening around Microsoft's latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And, of course, you may find a word or two about older versions. Build 2025, Microsoft's annual developer conference, took place this week. There, the company announced some interesting stuff for Windows 11. While it was primarily aimed at developers, regular users will also find some of the upcoming changes useful and interesting. The Settings app, for one, is getting the new Advanced page for the Settings app (now available in the latest preview build). There is also a new command-like editor called Edit, WinGet Configuration for quick dev environment deployments, and more. Developers and users will also be glad to learn about the Microsoft Store improvements, which include the "last updated" date for apps, free registration for individual developers, better Health Reports in the Partner Center, direct Win32 updates, and more. Microsoft is also improving Administrator protection in Windows 11, adding quantum encryption to Windows builds, and bringing Model Context Protocol support to its operating system. Moving from announcements to releases, Microsoft pushed KB5061768 to Windows 10 users to address BitLocker recovery loops on certain Intel-based systems. The update is available in the Microsoft Update Catalog only (not obtainable via Windows Update). Now, here is some interesting Windows trivia. A Microsoft engineer published a blog post explaining how Windows cleverly guesses it despitenot knowing how fast your processor actually is. Another engineer showed how bad code in apps can lead to Windows system slowdown. Also, here is a remastered version of the original Windows 95 wallpaper, in case you want some high-resolution nostalgia on your 4K monitor, and an interesting discussion about which Windows version is the best for old PCs (not Windows 11). Here is what Microsoft released for Windows Insiders this week: Builds Canary Channel Build 27863 The Canary Channel received a relatively small build with post-quantum cryptography support and a few bug fixes. Dev Channel Build 26200.5603 (KB5058488) A pretty big release with new stuff like the announced AI actions in File Explorer, the Advanced Settings page, redesigned Windows Widgets, an improved energy saver, the ability to compress images before sharing them, and plenty more. Beta Channel Build 26120.4151 (KB5058486) This build is identical to 26200.5603 from the Dev Channel. Build 26120.4151 (KB5058515) In this build, Microsoft introduced new capabilities for Click to Do, some widget improvements, lock screen widget customization, more app recommendations across the operating system, and various fixes. Release Preview Channel Build 26100.4188 (KB5058499) This preview of the upcoming non-security update delivers more AI-powered capabilities to compatible Copilot+ PCs, HDR improvements, new Copilot features, and various fixes for audio, USB, MMC, input, and more. Plenty of new features in this week's builds are rolling out gradually, including AI Actions for File Explorer. However, as usual, you can enable them with a simple third-party tool. Check out this article to learn how to force-enable AI Actions in File Explorer. Some hidden stuff for Windows 11 was also discovered this week. For one, it looks like Windows 11 will soon have its own variant of Handoff from macOS. During a Build session, Microsoft showcased how users can transfer their workflow from a mobile device and continue where they left off on Windows 11. Nothing has been publicly announced, though. Second, Microsoft is working on the ability to save screen recordings as GIFs in Snipping Tool. What is not hidden are the new features for Paint, Snipping Tool, and Notepad, which Microsoft announced earlier this month at its Surface event. Those features are now rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Dev and Canary Channels. This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties. At Build 2025, Microsoft announced many updates. Starting with open-source, GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code and Windows Subsystem for Linux are now open-source, which means everyone can build their own projects based on them and contribute to the development. Recently, Microsoft sent an email asking for feedback on a new set of Office icons. While a public announcement has not been made yet, someone on Reddit took the matter into their own hands and made the icon pack themselves. Behold, a pack of high-quality Office icons that you can download right now. Speaking of Office, Microsoft introduced its presentation customization tool for PowerPoint to Mac users. This accessibility feature helps create a logical reading flow for elements in your slide and improves other aspects that make it easier for viewers to make sense when viewing and reading your slides. This week brought plenty of browser updates. Microsoft, for one, is making Google Chrome a bit safer by bringing Edge's automatic privilege de-elevation mechanism to the most popular browser in the world. Microsoft Edge received this feature six years ago, and now, it is finally making it to Chrome. Microsoft also released two updates: one for Edge Stable and one for Edge Beta. These updates introduced more Copilot for the new tab page and fixed a bunch of bugs. At Build 2025, Microsoft announced several updates to its browser, including free content filtering on Edge for Business, PDF translation, summaries, and take automation. The company also proposed a new AI API web standard to help developers integrate AI functionality into their web apps. Vivaldi received a new feature update under version 7.4. While it is not the biggest release, it introduced some neat improvements, such as better keyboard shortcut controls and enhancements to the address bar. Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting: Here are the latest drivers and firmware updates released this week: Nvidia 576.52 WHQL with the RTX 5060 support and bug fixes. Also, Nvidia released a firmware update for the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti to fix black screens during reboots on systems with old motherboards. Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week This week, Robbie Khan reviewed the Sharge ICEMAG 2, an interesting Qi2 wireless power bank with active cooling to keep temperatures low when charging your device wirelessly. It has a unique design and solid build quality, but some of its quirks lowered the final score. Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts, and more. PlayStation is getting another slice of the Xbox pie. Ninja Theory announced that Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is coming to PlayStation 5 later this year. No exact dates have been shared yet, though. Valve released an update for SteamOS. Version 3.7.8 arrived in the Stable Channel with a few important changes, such as support for other AMD-based handhelds, a battery limiter for the Steam Deck, and multiple bug fixes. Nvidia is running a Summer Sale, during which you can purchase six months of the GeForce NOW Performance plan with a 40% discount for just $29.99. In addition, the company added support for more games, including the enhanced edition of the STALKER trilogy, Survive the Fall, Blades of Fire, Monster Train 2, and more. Speaking of GeForce NOW, it is now available in the updated Xbox app on PC. The app can now prompt you to select the preferred streaming service: Xbox Cloud Gaming or GeForce NOW. Other changes in the May 2025 update include improved widgets for the GameBar and more. Xbox Game Pass now has more games. Microsoft announced the latest additions to the catalog, which include Moster Train 2, Creatures of Ava, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Symphonia, Spray Paint Simulator, and more. Deals and freebies This week's Weekend PC Game Deals is full of Warhammer specials, Witcher anniversary discounts, and three freebies from the Epic Games Store, which include the just-released Deliver At All Costs. Other gaming news includes the following: Every week, we cover many deals on different hardware and software. The following discounts are still available, so check them out. You might find something you want or need. Samsung Q-Series Soundbar HW-Q900F - $1,097.99 | Skullcandy Crusher ANC 2 Wireless - $128.99 | 44% off Sonos Move 2 - $336 | 25% off Samsung Q990F Soundbar - $1,597.99 | 20% off This link will take you to other issues of the Microsoft Weekly series. You can also support Neowin by registering a free member account or subscribing for extra member benefits, along with an ad-free tier option. 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When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Microsoft reveals unexpected way that Windows 11 clean install can boost your PC performance Sayan Sen Neowin @ssc_combater007 · May 25, 2025 05:10 EDT Earlier this year, in March, we covered an interesting Microsoft recommendation for new Windows 11 PCs. The company highlighted how its Smart App Control feature can keep PCs more secure. However, we noted that the feature is only available with clean installations. For those wondering, Microsoft debuted Smart App Control (SAC) with the release of Windows 11 version 22H2 in September 2022. And in a new article, Microsoft has shared several advantages of it over traditional antivirus software. One of those, according to Microsoft, is the inherent advantage Smart App Control offers in terms of performance over the typical AV application. The tech giant explains how constant background scanning by the latter can bog down devices. Microsoft writes: An advantage of Smart App Control is its lighter impact on your PC’s performance. Since it helps block harmful apps before they can run, there’s no need for constant scanning of active files. This means less strain on your system, so you can keep working or gaming without worrying about slowdowns. Traditional antivirus software, on the other hand, can sometimes use more resources as it scans files and processes continuously. The company says this is so because Smart App Control is a proactive antimalware solution rather than being reactive like a traditional AV. Thus the benefit is twofold according to Microsoft. Not only do users get better performance and a snappier system, but SAC can also neutralize new threats based on suspicious behavior that it can pick up based on its past machine learning and cloud data. It writes: Smart App Control takes a proactive approach, blocking suspicious apps before they get the chance to do any harm. Traditional antivirus, however, is more reactive, responding to threats only after they've been detected on your system. This means traditional antivirus is excellent at identifying and removing known threats, but it may not catch new or sophisticated ones as quickly. Irrespective of what Microsoft says though, there are reports from time to time about SAC impacting performance too due to bugs that do pop up sometimes, as this Broadcom support article points out. Curiously, Broadcom also highlights that the Redmond giant provided "no specific guidelines on how to address/remediate such scenarios." The discussion is quite relevant given that the majority seem to still feel older Windows editions like Windows 8.1/8 are ahead performance-wise, despite being relatively modern in terms of UI/UX and feature-set. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

Review  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. AMD RX 9070 AI performance benchmark review vs 9070 XT, 7800 XT, Nvidia RTX 5070, 4070 Sayan Sen Neowin @ssc_combater007 · May 24, 2025 14:40 EDT Earlier this month, we shared the first part of our review of AMD's new RX 9070. It was about the gaming performance of the GPU, and we gave it a 7.5 out of 10. The 9070 XT, in contrast, received a full 10 out of 10. The main reason for the lower score on the non-XT was the relatively high price and thus the poorer value it offered compared to the XT. We thought the price was much closer to the XT than it needed to be. While the RX 9070 proved to be more power efficient than the XT, for a desktop gaming graphics card, value and performance typically take the front seat compared to something like power efficiency. However, that may not be the case in terms of productivity which also takes into account things like power savings. Thus, similar to the one we did for the XT model, we are doing a dedicated productivity review for the RX 9070 as well where we compare to against the 9070 XT, 7800 XT, as well as Nvidia's 5070 and 4070. AI performance is a very important metric in today's world and AMD also promised big improvements thanks to its underlying architectural improvements. We already had a taste of that with the XT model so now it's time to see how good the non-XT does here. Before we get underway, this is a collaboration between Sayan Sen (author), and Steven Parker who lent us their test PC for this review. Speaking of which, here are the specs of the test PC: Cooler Master MasterBox NR200P MAX ASRock Z790 PG-ITX/TB4 Intel Core i7-14700K with Thermal Grizzly Carbonaut Pad T-FORCE Delta RGB DDR5 (2x16GB) 7600MT/s CL36 (XMP Profile) 2TB Kingston Fury Renegade SSD Windows 11 24H2 (Build 26100.3194) Drivers used for the 7800 XT, 9070 XT and 9070 were Adrenaline v24.30.31.03 / 25.3.1 RC (press driver provided by AMD), and for the Nvidia RTX 5070 and 4070, GeForce v572.47 was used. (From the left) Sapphire Pulse 9070 XT, Nvidia 5070 FE, and Pulse 9070First up, we have Geekbench AI running on ONNX. The RTX 5070 gets beaten by both the 9070 XT and 9070 in quantized and single precision (FP32) performance. Similarly, the 4070 gets close to the 9070 in half-precision (FP16) performance, but the latter is an enormous 30% faster in quantized score and nearly 12.2% better in single precision (FP32). The reason for this beatdown is the amount of memory available to each card. The Nvidia GPUs have 12GB each and thus only do better in the FP16 precision tests since the other ones are more VRAM-intensive. Next up, we move to UL Procyon suite starting with the Image generation benchmark. We chose the Stable Diffusion XL FP16 test since this is the most intense workload available on Procyon suite. Similar to what we saw on Geekbench AI, the Nvidia GPUs to relatively better here as it is FP16 or half precision which means the used VRAM is lower. So this is something to keep in mind again, if you wish to float32 AI workloads, it is likely that graphics cards with greater than 12 GB buffers would emerge as victors. There is still a big improvement on the RX 9070 compared to the 7800 XT as we see a ~54% gain. This boost is due to improvements to the core architecture itself as VRAM capacities of both cards are the same at 16 Gigs. Following image generation, we move to the text generation benchmark. In this workload, we see the least impressive performance of the 9070 in terms of how much it improves over the 7800 XT. The former is up to ~7.25% faster here. The 9070 is also not as well-performing as the Nvidia 4070 in Phi and Mistral models, although it does do better in both the Llama tests. Another odd result stood out here where the 5070 underperformed all the cards including the 7800 XT in Llama 2. We ran each test three times and considered the best score and so we are not exactly sure what happened here. Wrapping up AI testing, we measured OpenCL throughput in Geekbench compute benchmark. The RX 9070 did not fare well here at all even falling behind the 7800 XT and it is significantly slower than the three other cards. Interestingly, even the RTX 5070 could not beat the 4070 on OpenCL so perhaps this suggests that OpenCL optimization has not been a priority for either AMD or Nvidia this time. It could also be an issue with Geekbench itself. Conclusion We reach the end of our productivity performance review of the 9070 and we have to say we are fairly impressed but there is also a slight bit of disappointment. It is clear that the 9070 as well as the 9070 XT really shine when inferencing precision is higher, and that is due to the higher memory buffers they possess compared to the Nvidia 5070. But on FP16, the Nvidia cards pull ahead. Still RNDA 4, including the RX 9070, see big boost over RDNA 3 (7800 XT). As we noted in the image generation benchmark, which is an intense load, there is over a 50% gain. So what do we make of the RX 9070 as a productivity hardware? We think it's a good card. If someone was looking for a GPU around $550 that can do both gaming and crunch through some AI tasks this is a good card to pick up especially if you are dealing with single precision situations or some other VRAM-intense tasks. And we already know it is efficient so there's that too. For those however looking for a GPU that can deal with more, AMD recently unveiled the Radeon AI PRO R9700 which is essentially a 32 GB refresh of the 9070 XT with some additional workstation-based optimizations. Considering everything, we rate AMD's RX 9070 a 9 out of 10 for its AI performance. Price is less of a factor for those looking at productivity cases compared to ones considering the GPU for gaming, and as such, we felt it did quite decent overall and can be especially handy if you need more than 12 GB. Purchase links: RX 9070 / XT (Amazon US) As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Diving into the ocean with golf ball-inspired vehicles is what scientists are working on Sayan Sen Neowin @ssc_combater007 · May 24, 2025 16:24 EDT Image by Kindel Media via PexelsResearchers at the University of Michigan have come up with a new idea that could make underwater and aerial vehicles move more smoothly and efficiently. Their inspiration? The dimples on a golf ball. Golf balls fly farther than smooth ones because their dimples cut down on pressure drag—basically, the force that slows things down when moving through air or water. The researchers applied this concept to a new spherical prototype with dimples that can be adjusted. They tested its performance in a wind tunnel. “A dynamically programmable outer skin on an underwater vehicle could drastically reduce drag while eliminating the need for protruding appendages like fins or rudders for maneuvering,” said Anchal Sareen, an assistant professor at U-M. “By actively adjusting its surface texture, the vehicle could achieve precise maneuverability with enhanced efficiency and control.” This could be useful for things like ocean exploration, mapping, and gathering environmental data. The prototype is made by stretching a thin latex layer over a hollow sphere filled with tiny holes. When a vacuum pump is turned on, the latex gets pulled in, forming dimples. Turning off the pump makes the sphere smooth again. To measure how well the dimples reduced drag, researchers placed the sphere inside a three-meter-long wind tunnel, holding it in place with a thin rod. They changed the wind speed and adjusted the depth of the dimples. A load cell recorded the aerodynamic forces, while high-speed cameras tracked airflow patterns. The results showed that shallow dimples worked better at high wind speeds, while deeper dimples were more effective at lower speeds. Adjusting dimple depth helped cut drag by up to 50% compared to a smooth sphere. “The adaptive skin setup is able to notice changes in the speed of the incoming air and adjust dimples accordingly to maintain drag reductions,” said Rodrigo Vilumbrales-Garcia, a postdoctoral research fellow at U-M. “Applying this concept to underwater vehicles would reduce both drag and fuel consumption.” The researchers also discovered that the textured surface could generate lift, a force that helps steer the sphere. By activating dimples on only one side, they caused the air to flow differently, creating a force that pushed the sphere in a specific direction. Tests showed that, with the right dimple depth, the sphere could generate lift forces up to 80% of the drag force. This effect was similar to the Magnus effect, which typically requires constant rotation. “I was surprised that such a simple approach could produce results comparable to the Magnus effect,” said Putu Brahmanda Sudarsana, a graduate student at U-M. Looking ahead, Sareen hopes to collaborate with other experts to improve this technology. “This smart dynamic skin technology could be a game-changer for unmanned aerial and underwater vehicles, offering a lightweight, energy-efficient, and highly responsive alternative to traditional jointed control surfaces,” she said. Source: University of Michigan, AIP Publishing This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed