Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson

Joining the likes of Mozilla and Google, Microsoft has announced that it will support DNS over HTTPS (DoH).

The company says that the adoption of encrypted DNS is important for the overall health of the internet ecosystem. It goes on to set out a number of principles that will be at the heart of adopting DoH in the Windows DNS client.

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Microsoft has always provided numerous ways to upgrade to the latest version of Windows 10, and things are no different with the November 2019 Update.

For most people, the first port of call should be Windows Update, but this does not work for everyone. If you're one of the frustrated many who are yet to see the November 2019 Update offered though this automatic channel, you can now turn to the Windows 10 Update Assistant to get your operating system up to date.

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Social media has evolved over the years in ways that few could have predicted. The likes of Facebook and Twitter are used not only for keeping in touch with friends and family, but also for keeping up to date with news.

But there are endless problems with current social networks, with ads and fake or misleading news being serious problems and irritants. Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, has launched a new social network called WT:Social. It is free from ads and has a news focus. Importantly, users are able to edit headlines which are incorrect or deceptive.

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Microsoft has announced changes to its Online Services Terms for commercial cloud customers after an EU investigation raise concerns about existing policies' compliance with European regulation.

The company bills the changes as the introduction of "more privacy transparency" in the wake of a probe into potential violations of GDPR relating to telemetry data collected from Office 365 users. Microsoft says the new contractual terms will be offered to customers globally, not just within Europe.

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Apple has sent out invitations to a surprise event to be held on December 2 in New York City. It has the tagline "Loved by millions. Created by the best".

The event is billed by Apple as a "special event honoring our favorite apps and games of 2019". It is more usual for end of year app picks to be simply highlighted in the App Store so, while it is unlikely that we'll see any new hardware unveiled, it's possible the bigger staging will be used to reveal just when the new Mac Pro will be released.

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If you're using older Intel hardware, you should think about downloading BIOS updates and drivers for your devices. Why? Intel is removing downloads for older hardware from its website.

While there has -- as yet -- been no official announcement about what is happening, many people have noticed a warning message when they try to download particular pieces of software. It seems that a number of Windows and Linux drivers and updates are being removed as early as the end of this week.

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Wizards of the Coast -- publisher of, among other titles, Magic: The Gathering -- has confirmed a security incident that exposed information relating to 452,634 players.

The company left a backup database containing gamer information in a public Amazon Web Services storage bucket where it was accessible from early September. Specifically, the database was used to house data relating to the game's online portal, Magic: The Gathering Arena.

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Some drivers for Realtek Bluetooth radios are casing compatibility issues with Windows 10 November 2019 Update, leading Microsoft to block the update on affected systems.

Anyone with an outdated version of the Realtek Bluetooth driver will be greeted by a message informing them: "Realtek Bluetooth: Your PC has a driver or service that isn't ready for this version of Windows 10". Updating Windows 10 to the latest version is blocked until users follow the steps set out by Microsoft.

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Microsoft has quietly confirmed the rumors that it is planning to discontinue its Cortana digital assistant for some users. Starting next year, the company will no longer support Cortana on either iOS or Android in certain markets.

While Microsoft is yet to confirm which countries will be affected, the UK, Canada and Australia are known to be on the list. The change means that there will be no Cortana mobile app, and integration will be removed from the Microsoft Launcher.

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When Microsoft was awarded the controversial $10 billion JEDI contract by the US Department of Defense, many people voiced surprise -- including rival bidder Amazon.

Now Jeff Bezos' company is heading to court, claiming that the process of choosing who to assign the contract to was biased. But these claims have been denied, with the Department of Defense saying there was no outside influence involved in the decision.

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The rollout of the successor to SMS is now underway in the US. Having brought RCS (Rich Communication Service) to the UK, Mexico and France, Google has started to deploy it in America.

The move comes as Google's frustration at carriers' apparent unwillingness to commit to RCS boiled over, leading the company to take the bull by the horns and start to push its own implementation of the standard.

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Brave, the open-source web browser which focuses on speed, security and privacy, has officially hit version 1.0 and exited beta.

Available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, Brave boasts that it "blocks ads and trackers that slow you down and invade your privacy". The official launch comes three years after Brave first entered beta testing, and the browser has managed to amass millions of users.

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There are various ways of protecting wireless networks, and as technology develops old methods become outdated. One wireless security technique that has fallen by the wayside is WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) because it is very easily defeated.

Having been superseded by WPA2 and WPA3 (Wi-Fi Protected Access generations 2 and 3), Microsoft is completely dropping support for WEP from Windows 10. Soon, it will not be possible to connect to a wireless network with WEP in place.

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Microsoft is issuing an automatic update to Windows 10 May 2019 Update for anyone still using version 1803 of the operating system.

The Home and Pro editions of Windows 10 April 2018 Update have now reached end of service, and Microsoft is keen for users to upgrade to a more recent version so they can continue to receive security updates.

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Google next big venture appears to be banking. According to reports -- including from the Wall Street Journal -- the company is partnering with Citigroup bank and will start to offer checking accounts from next year.

The project is codenamed Cache and it will also see Google teaming up with credit unions to provide banking facilities to people in the US. But with widespread concern about Google's attitude to privacy, is there a market for banking services from the company?

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