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Windows 11’s 24H2 servicing update finally removes a long-standing and deeply irritating trade-off for Bluetooth headset users: you no longer have to choose between pristine stereo audio for playback and intelligible voice when the headset microphone is active. Background / Overview For more than a decade, Bluetooth audio on PCs has been split between two competing worlds: high-fidelity, one-way playback using A2DP and two-way telephony using HFP/HSP. When a capture stream opened (voice...

Microsoft is moving routine Windows 11 quality updates into the initial setup flow so that eligible Entra-joined devices can download and install the latest cumulative fixes during the Out‑of‑Box Experience (OOBE), making day‑one systems more secure—and forcing IT teams to rethink provisioning, bandwidth and failure‑recovery plans. Background Microsoft announced a managed OOBE update capability earlier in 2025 and confirmed that the capability will be enabled by default for eligible...

Godeal24’s Back‑to‑School promotion promising a “lifetime” license for Microsoft Office 2021 Pro for €31.25 (and steep discounts on Windows 11 Pro or bundled Windows + Office packages) landed on several aggregator sites as a time‑sensitive deal aimed at students and budget‑conscious users — but the offer raises a mix of genuine opportunity and real caution for anyone planning to buy productivity software for a new semester or a fresh PC build. The ad copy highlights instant digital delivery...

Samsung and Microsoft have quietly turned the living room into the next front line for conversational AI: starting in late August 2025, Microsoft’s Copilot is rolling onto Samsung’s 2025 smart TVs and Smart Monitors, built into Samsung’s Tizen homescreen and Vision AI ecosystem to offer voice-driven content discovery, spoiler‑free recaps, planning help, and a visually expressive on‑screen assistant optimized for the big screen. Background The integration was publicly announced on August...

Microsoft will remove support for the StrongCertificateBindingEnforcement registry key on Windows domain controllers on September 10, 2025, forcing a permanent switch to stricter, strong certificate-to-account mappings that will break legacy certificate-based authentication setups unless administrators act now. Background Microsoft introduced tighter certificate-based authentication controls after several Kerberos/AD certificate mapping vulnerabilities surfaced in 2022. The changes, shipped...

Microsoft’s decision to terminate four employees after a sit‑in at company president Brad Smith’s Redmond office crystallizes a broader crisis at the intersection of cloud infrastructure, human‑rights scrutiny, and escalating worker activism — a dispute triggered by investigative reporting that alleges Microsoft’s Azure platform was used by Israeli military intelligence to store and analyze mass volumes of intercepted Palestinian communications. Background Employee protests at Microsoft’s...

I switched my gaming desktop to a Linux-based distro two months ago, and the experience was less like a perilous migration and more like finally closing a noisy, intrusive door: games launched, performance was excellent for the titles I care about, and nobody tried to sell me a subscription every time I opened the start menu. Overview The headline claim is simple: the Linux gaming landscape that used to require patience, tinkering, and frequent terminal sessions has matured into a practical...

EA’s PC requirements for Battlefield 6 land as a pragmatic, security-first baseline: you can play the game on mid-range hardware, but meeting the developer’s anti-cheat and platform-security demands will reshape upgrade decisions for a notable portion of the PC audience. rview Electronic Arts and Battlefield Studios published the final PC system requirements leading up to Battlefield 6’s launch, confirming a three-tier approach—Minimum, Recommended, and Ultra—that maps directly to target...

Microsoft’s quiet pivot from partner-dependent innovator to full-spectrum AI builder took a conspicuous turn this week with the public debut of the company’s first in‑house foundation models and voice engines under the MAI umbrella — most notably MAI‑1‑preview and a highly optimized speech model branded MAI‑Voice‑1. The move signals a strategic effort to lower Microsoft’s operational and commercial dependence on third‑party models — especially OpenAI’s GPT family — while knitting tighter...

Microsoft’s longstanding Bluetooth audio headache — the moment your headset’s microphone opens and music or game sound collapses into muffled mono — just got a practical fix on Windows, but the real-world payoff depends on hardware and drivers lining up across the ecosystem. the Bluetooth trade-off persisted For years, Bluetooth audio on PCs lived with a hard architectural compromise: A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) delivered high-fidelity stereo playback but had no bidirectional...

Microsoft has set a hard stop: Windows 10 will reach end of support on October 14, 2025, and consumers who want to keep receiving critical security fixes after that date must take action now — either upgrade to Windows 11, move to another supported environment, or enroll in Microsoft’s consumer Extended Security Updates (ESU) program, which extends security-only updates through October 13, 2026 for eligible PCs. Background / Overview Windows 10 debuted in 2015 and served as Microsoft’s...

If you’re thinking about escaping Windows 11’s telemetry creep or simply want to test a modern Linux desktop without committing, installing Linux alongside Windows — or replacing it entirely — remains the most practical option for most users. This guide walks a careful, practical path through preparing a Windows PC, creating the boot media, partitioning safely, installing a Linux distribution (with Ubuntu-based examples), and recovering from the most common failures. It combines sensible...

China’s KylinSoft has delivered a major new release that pushes its domestic Linux distribution closer to the mainstream kernel line while doubling down on AI and “算力共享” (compute-sharing) features — a technically bold release with strategic as well as practical implications for China’s software sovereignty plans. KylinOS 11 (also marketed as Galaxy Kylin V11) moves the product off an aging kernel and onto Linux 6.6, bundles an on‑device AI subsystem and assistant, claims broad compatibility...

Microsoft has quietly delivered one of the most consequential audio upgrades for PC users in years: Windows 11 now supports Super Wideband Stereo over Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) Audio, allowing compatible headsets to play full‑fidelity stereo while their microphones are active — a change that removes the long‑standing A2DP/HFP compromise and unlocks Spatial Audio for Bluetooth headsets in apps like Microsoft Teams. (theverge.com, tomshardware.com) Background / Overview For more than a decade...

TD SYNNEX announced on August 27, 2025, that it has signed a new multi‑year Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to accelerate cloud and AI adoption across North America, Latin America and the Caribbean—an expanding, partner‑focused pact that promises joint investment, co‑selling, deeper marketplace integration and dedicated enablement for SMB and mid‑market channel partners. Background TD SYNNEX has been steadily deepening its relationship with AWS for...

A wave of worker-led direct actions that shut down parts of Microsoft’s Redmond campus this month has crystallized a larger crisis facing Big Tech: employee activism colliding with explosive investigative reporting, allegations that commercial cloud and AI services were used in mass surveillance and targeting in Gaza, and a corporate response that many workers and human-rights groups call insufficient. On August 20–21 demonstrators — including current and former Microsoft employees organized...

Microsoft has begun public testing of MAI‑1‑preview, a new in‑house large language model from Microsoft AI (MAI) that the company says will be trialed inside Copilot and evaluated publicly on LMArena — a move that signals an accelerated push to reduce reliance on OpenAI while building Microsoft’s own foundation‑model stack. Background Microsoft’s AI organization released two models this week: MAI‑Voice‑1 (a fast speech generation engine already used in Copilot Daily and Copilot Podcasts)...

What began as a succession of internal petitions and quiet town‑hall complaints has hardened into a public, high‑stakes confrontation: Microsoft employees and allied activists have staged sit‑ins and encampments at the company’s Redmond campus, occupied the office of company president Brad Smith, and forced the firm to open an urgent external review into allegations that its Azure cloud and AI services were used to ingest and analyze mass surveillance data collected by Israeli military...

Windows 11’s AI-first push has turned into a study in contradictions: promising productivity shortcuts and local intelligence on one hand, and on the other hand delivering a fragmented, confusing, and sometimes privacy-ambiguous user experience that many feel undermines the core job of an operating system—simply, reliably, and safely making a PC work. Background Microsoft’s public strategy for Windows over the last two years has been unambiguous: ship AI everywhere, make Copilot the default...

Battlefield 6’s updated PC specs make one thing clear: you can play the game on a surprisingly wide range of hardware, but maxing it out will still demand modern, high-end components — and you’ll need to meet new security requirements that affect compatibility and system configuration. Background DICE and Electronic Arts have published refreshed PC system requirements for Battlefield 6 as the game heads toward its October 10 launch. The new list breaks performance targets into three...