Apple's practices with its App Store and the policies relating to it means that the company is in breach of European Union laws. The European Commission says that Apple fails to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The iPhone-maker has been criticized following an investigation by the Commission, and the findings say that App Store rules "prevent app developers from freely steering consumers to alternatives channels for offers and content".

What's the time? Well, it's time for yet another problematic update from Microsoft! The culprit on this occasion is the KB5039212 update from earlier this month, and it's especially worrying for the enterprise.

As it includes security fixes, this particular update is one that would have been installed automatically on many systems. But in addition to addressing security issues, the KB5039212 update also brought problems of its own; Microsoft has acknowledged a Windows 11 upgrade issue. Not for the first time, a fix is yet to be created.

If you uninstalled the recently released KB5036979 update for Windows 10, you may have experienced unwanted Open With dialogs appearing. While first spotted in Outlook for Windows, Snip & Sketch, and Teams, the problem affects other apps as well.

While there is not yet a fix for this irritating, semi-random pop up, Microsoft has acknowledged the issue. The company is working on a patch for the bug, and offers up some insight and advice in the meantime.

Developers working on the PowerToys collection of utilities have a lot of exciting things in the pipeline for eager users. Building on the New entry in the Windows content menu, New+ is a module that, in the words of its main developer, Christian Gaardmark, "enables users to create files and folders from a personalized set of templates".

As there are already numerous third party utilities that extend the capabilities of the New menu, there is clearly an appetite for the likes of New+. It's aimed at Windows power-users, developers and, over time, also regular users who find themselves often creating files or folders that contain similar content, such as VS Code development projects, job applications and cover letters, scripts, etc and it already looks incredibly intriguing.

With the official launch of Copilot+ PCs, Microsoft has also unleashed Windows 11 24H2. This most recent update to Windows 11 has been a long time in the works, and there have been numerous preview builds available.

What is interesting is the way in which this launch is taking place. Copilot+ PC are now available with Windows 11 24H2 pre-installed, and it is also available to Insiders. The fact that systems have this version of the operating system installed means that development is complete (well, as complete as such work ever is), but the launch is dividing the Windows userbase into haves and have-nots -- in more ways than one.

If you have been experiencing higher than normal CPU usage in Windows 11 recently, you are certainly not alone. There is good and bad news.

The good news is twofold. Firstly, the cause of the issue has been identified by Microsoft, and secondly, it only affects Insider builds of Windows 11. The bad news, however, is that there is no fix available, and no indication of when this may change.

Since it was first announced, the Recall feature for Copilot+ PC has been a major headache for Microsoft. The AI-powered feature has raised all manner of privacy concerns, and now the company has responded by putting the brakes on rolling it out.

Microsoft doesn't use words like "delay" or "postpone", of course. In an update to an earlier blog post about the rollout of the feature, the company now says: " We are adjusting the release model for Recall to leverage the expertise of the Windows Insider community to ensure the experience meets our high standards for quality and security".

Whether you use WhatsApp on the desktop, or on your mobile device, there are a raft of changes and improvements coming to enhance the call experience.

Rolling out over the next few weeks, the changes include support for video calls with up to 32 people across all devices. There is also the arrival of sharing audio when screen sharing, and a switch to the new, more efficient codec means that you can expect higher call quality even when connectivity is poor.

Making good on a promise made earlier this year, X has confirmed that Likes have now been made private for all users on the social platform. Elon Musk says that that change has been made because it is "important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so".

Hiding Likes was something that was only previously available to paying X subscribers, but now it has rolled out to everyone. Musk is already claiming that there has been a "massive increase" in Likes since they were made private.

Somewhat out of the blue, Microsoft has announced that DirectAccess is to be deprecated. This feature is used by remote workers to access company networks, but it has been superseded and is now considered outdated.

As is so often the case with the deprecation of Windows features, there is currently no precise timeline for removal, but Microsoft is advising users to make the move to Always On VPN. The company has also provided detailed instructions for how to migrate from DirectAccess to Always On VPN.

Microsoft is far from giving up on Windows 10 or abandoning its users. With the release of the KB5039211 update, the company has not only fixed issues such as the lsass.exe memory leak, but is also bringing new features to the aging operating system.

The Snipping Tool receives a major update that will please Android users. The KB5039211 update also addresses a number of security problems with Windows 10, but a number of known issues remain.

When Microsoft announced the new Recall feature that is coming to Windows 11 later this year, privacy concerns were very quickly voiced by many.

In response to this, the company announced that Recall would not be enabled by default and would be made an opt-in feature. This PR move was made very publicly for maximum attention, but Microsoft has also withdrawn the build of Windows 11 which provided early access to Recall.

The way Windows 11 interacts with mobile devices -- and, in turn, the way it lets users interact with them -- has been a little odd for some time. The Your Phone / Phone Link app showed that using Windows to use or browse your smartphone was really something of an afterthought for Microsoft.

Continuing the piecemeal approach to mobiles, it looks as though the company is finally about to give File Explorer the ability to browse smartphone contents. The option has been unearthed in Windows 11, although we don't yet know when it will be released properly.

In order to comply with the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) Act in the UK, Apple says it will provide security updates for iPhones for a minimum of five years.

While Apple has not previously abandoned iPhone users and left them with insecure devices -- in fact, the company has been known to release updates for very old handsets in extraordinary circumstances -- it has never previously committed to any particular period of support.

For all of the excitement currently surrounding artificial intelligence, there are also a lot of concerns. Not only are people worried about the power of AIs, but there is also a great deal of apprehension about the privacy and security of ChatGPT and other tools of its ilk.

Stepping up with a solution is privacy-centric firm DuckDuckGo. With the newly launched DuckDuckGo AI Chat, it offers "anonymous access to popular AI models, including GPT-3.5, Claude 3, and open-source Llama 3 and Mixtral". There is also the promise that chats will not be used to train AI models.