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Blackmagic Design’s latest point release, Desktop Video 15.1, lands as a narrowly targeted but important maintenance update for users of the DeckLink Quad HDMI Recorder — addressing two high-impact capture problems that have plagued multi-input HDMI capture workflows: distorted audio when capturing computer resolutions and incorrect bit‑depth detection where 8‑bit RGB inputs were being reported as 10‑bit. The update is small in scope, but the fixes address real-world reliability and quality...

After years of trying multiple assistants, some users now say they won’t switch away from Google Gemini — and their reasoning captures a larger trend: AI loyalty is increasingly less about which model “talks best” and more about how deeply the assistant is woven into the tools people already use every day. A recent first‑person writeup praising Gemini’s seamless access to Gmail, Calendar and Drive captures that mindset: for many, Gemini is not just an assistant; it’s an extension of a...

Microsoft has quietly restored a modern take on DreamScene: recent Windows 11 Insider preview builds include a native “video wallpaper” capability that lets you set common video files (MP4, MOV, MKV and others) as a looping desktop background from Settings, without installing third‑party wallpaper engines. Background / Overview Windows personalization has long been a battleground between built‑in features and third‑party creativity. In 2007 Microsoft shipped DreamScene for Windows Vista...

Microsoft has confirmed that the Windows 11 September 2025 cumulative update (KB5065426) — and an August optional preview (KB5064081) that preceded it — introduced a cluster of regressions that can break DRM-protected playback on certain legacy players, interfere with file sharing over SMBv1, and produce edge-case failures in PowerShell Direct and game anti‑cheat modules. These problems are concentrated in older media and networking pipelines — Enhanced Video Renderer (EVR) + HDCP/DRM...

X has confirmed that paid middlemen tried to bribe platform employees to reinstate accounts that were suspended for running crypto scams — and the episode exposes a wider, organized criminal pipeline that spans social platforms, gaming ecosystems, and notorious online threat groups. The company’s Global Government Affairs arm announced the discovery on September 19, 2025, saying banned accounts “involved in crypto scams and platform manipulation paid middlemen to attempt to bribe employees...

Google’s recent announcements that fast-growing AI coding startups Lovable and Windsurf have added Google Cloud to their infrastructure mix are a clear, measurable sign that the cloud provider’s strategy to court early-stage AI founders is paying off — and that those startups are, in turn, helping to accelerate Google Cloud’s rapid revenue expansion. The deals, first reported in TechCrunch and summarized in the material provided by the user, underline two concurrent dynamics: the enormous...

In 2025 the long-running duel between Windows and Linux looks less like a single “winner takes all” contest and more like a partitioned battlefield: Windows still rules the desktop, powering the majority of personal and enterprise PCs, while Linux has entrenched itself across servers, clouds, and many developer workflows — and is closing important gaps on the desktop in pockets like gaming and lightweight reuse of older hardware. The numbers and trends underpinning this reality are clear...

Masked man in a sterile room holds a teddy bear; a moth hovers nearby.

Portable batteries have become the unsung MVP of modern family road trips — and after testing the compact EcoFlow TRAIL 300 DC alongside the real-world chaos of three kids, the verdict is clear: small, high‑power DC-only units can be legitimately reliable travel companions, but knowing what they do (and what they don’t) is the difference between “smooth ride” and “sorry, we forgot the charger.” Background / Overview The EcoFlow TRAIL 300 DC is a new entrant aimed squarely at people who want...

Jimmy Kimmel’s late‑night future hangs in the balance as talks between his representatives and Disney — ABC’s corporate parent — continue over whether Jimmy Kimmel Live! can return to the air after a controversial monologue about the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk triggered an unprecedented chain of affiliate preemptions, regulatory pressure and a network suspension that began in mid‑September 2025. The next steps in the negotiations will determine more than the fate of...

AI models that promised to dissolve language barriers instead helped expose a widening digital language divide in 2024 — a gap where mainstream systems perform brilliantly in a handful of dominant tongues while delivering vague, incorrect, or simply absent support for the world’s many minority and indigenous languages. This pattern, documented in recent reporting and regional initiatives, is not a transient bug: it is the product of training choices, dataset imbalances, and institutional...

Microsoft has quietly made the full installation ISOs and the enablement package (eKB) for Windows 11, version 25H2 available to testers and administrators — a move that signals the update is in its final validation window and is likely to begin broader distribution soon. Background Microsoft seeded Windows 11, version 25H2 to the Windows Insider Release Preview channel as the 26200 family (initial seed Build 26200.5074) and confirmed that this annual feature update will be delivered as an...

Digital twins are moving from engineering demos and marketing decks into the operational heart of cities and heavy industry, promising faster decisions, lower life‑cycle costs, and measurably greener infrastructure—but that promise comes with technical complexity, governance questions, and new classes of cyber risk that municipal planners and IT teams must treat as first‑order problems. Background / Overview What a digital twin is has a deceptively simple definition: a live, data‑linked...

Principled Technologies’ recent hands‑on evaluation argues that running an end‑to‑end Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) stack entirely on Microsoft Azure — instead of splitting model hosting, retrieval, and compute across multiple clouds — can produce measurable improvements in latency, simplify governance, and deliver more predictable multi‑year costs for many enterprise GenAI workloads. Background / Overview Principled Technologies (PT) built a canonical RAG pipeline twice: once as an...

Microsoft is retiring the standalone "Windows 10 S" SKU and folding its restrictive, store‑only model into a configurable S Mode that can be enabled on Windows 10 Home, Pro, Enterprise and Education — a shift that simplifies Microsoft's SKU strategy but also raises questions about upgrades, pricing reports, and the long‑term role of a locked‑down Windows experience. Background Windows 10 S debuted in 2017 as a lightweight, secure configuration aimed primarily at education and low‑end...

Steam will stop supporting 32‑bit versions of Windows on January 1, 2026 — a quiet, inevitable end to a long era that leaves a tiny sliver of PC gamers with one clear instruction: upgrade or accept an unsupported Steam client and growing security risk. Background The shift away from 32‑bit desktops has been ongoing for more than a decade. Hardware vendors, drivers, anti‑cheat stacks and modern web runtimes have long prioritized 64‑bit builds; Microsoft shipped Windows 11 as 64‑bit only and...

Microsoft’s servers are now carrying the near‑final artifacts for Windows 11, version 25H2, and public rollout appears imminent — but this is an incremental, enablement‑package style update that most users and IT teams should treat as a managed, low‑risk operational change rather than a wholesale OS rebase. Background / Overview Windows 11 25H2 continues Microsoft’s multi‑year shift to a shared servicing branch model: feature binaries are staged in monthly cumulative updates for the active...

Microsoft’s latest earnings sprint left headlines and investor decks buzzing, but the more important story is the market’s tempering of enthusiasm: despite a blowout quarter and visible AI monetization, the company lacks an obvious new catalyst to justify an even loftier premium, and investors are increasingly parsing whether the “AI bubble” is inflating expectations faster than revenue can catch up. Background Microsoft reported a strong fiscal fourth quarter for FY25: revenue of $76.4...

Microsoft’s near-final Windows 11 25H2 build has quietly begun to appear as official ISO media on Microsoft’s delivery infrastructure, with Release Preview ISOs now discoverable by enthusiasts and the enablement-package (eKB) path — KB5054156 — confirmed as the primary in-place upgrade for patched 24H2 devices. Background / Overview Windows 11 version 25H2 is not being shipped as a traditional, full rebase feature update. Instead, Microsoft has used the same shared-servicing and...

Google’s Gemini is positioning itself as more than a chatbot — it’s being packaged, integrated, and promoted as a daily workhorse that can replace single-purpose assistants and win user loyalty through consistent utility rather than flash. Recent coverage and first‑hand user testimonials point to three converging dynamics: Gemini’s multimodal capabilities and agentic features, Google’s tight product integrations (notably across Chrome, Workspace and Google One), and a growing trend of users...