People who have signed up for the Windows Insider program are among the first to be able to get hands on with Windows 11, but the preview builds that have been released so far are not complete. Microsoft is still working away on the operating system ahead of next month's rollout, and CPO Panos Panay has given us a glimpse of the new Photos app that is coming.

In typically dramatic style, a "pumped" Panay describes the updated app as being "beautifully redesigned" -- and this is something you can judge for yourself thanks to the video he has shared.

We’re a year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, and burnout is hitting employees hard. Recently, Okta CEO Todd McKinnon used an all-hands meeting with employees to underline the importance of taking vacation. In April, LinkedIn announced it was giving the entire company a full week off to unplug, recharge and help curb burnout. 

For security teams, burnout isn’t a new phenomenon. Given the need to always be on and ready, cybersecurity professionals already face high levels of stress, and the pandemic has added to increasing and alarming burnout rates. On the heels of the Exchange, Kaseya, and SolarWinds attacks, it’s no surprise that cybersecurity teams are overworked and exceptionally stressed -- we’re under a lot of pressure.

Windows 11 is here, and it brings a whole new look. While the new aesthetic is largely loved, change is always divisive and there are plenty of users who are less then enamored with the new Start menu and yearn for the way things used to be.

And this is precisely where StartIsBack can help you out. In a few steps, it gives you a way to customize and personalize not only the Start menu but also the taskbar in Windows 11. You can bring the look of Windows 10 or Windows 7 to Windows 11, including changing the appearance of Explorer.

Although people are sometimes seen as a weak link in information security, a new report from F-Secure shows that a third of emails that employees report as suspicious are actually phishing.

The finding comes from an analysis of emails reported by employees from organizations around the world, using F-Secure's mail reporting plugin for Office 365, during the first half of 2021.

Seriously, y'all, I can't believe how great Windows 11 already is -- and the operating system is still only in beta! The developers over at Microsoft are clearly firing on all cylinders, preparing to deliver the most cohesive user experience in years. Not only is Windows 11 beautiful and fast, but it improves my mood while I use it. No, I am not exaggerating -- I feel happier when using Windows 11.

Today, Microsoft announces it is acquiring Clipchamp, and it is clearly an attempt to bolster the upcoming Windows 11 operating system. If you aren't familiar, Clipchamp is a free web-based video editing app. Apparently, the Windows-maker seems keen on integrating its newly-acquired video editor into its Microsoft 365 subscription service. In other words, Clipchamp's days of being a free video editor may be numbered.

We live in a world where there’s so much information that keeping on top of it all can be nearly impossible. According to research commissioned by Microsoft, people "spend seven hours a day online, use six different feeds on a regular basis and check their feeds five times a day".

To help combat this, the software giant is introducing a personalized news feed called Microsoft Start, with news from premium publishers that’s tailored to your interests.

Solid state drives make wonderful internal boot drives for computers, but they are also great options for external storage too. Not only are they smaller than mechanical hard disk drives, but they use less power and are much quicker as well. Quite frankly, if you are someone that needs to transport data on a portable drive, you'd be crazy to still use HDD in 2021.

If you want a diminutive external solid state drive, you must check out the Kingston XS2000. Not only is the drive fast, durable, and small, but it utilizes USB-C too. Not to mention, its design is so cute -- I absolutely adore it.

A recent IBM report showed that over 90 percent of organizations are planning to implement edge computing strategies within the next five years.

Now 5G security company Exium is collaborating with Big Blue to help clients adopt an edge computing strategy designed to enable them to run AI or IoT applications seamlessly across hybrid cloud environments.

Creating the code for an Android app is only part of the job, you also need to consider mobile app management and mobile device virtualization as well as testing.

To help with this process Canonical is launching its Anbox Cloud Appliance on the AWS Marketplace from today. A small-scale version of Canonical's Anbox Cloud, developers can use it for rapid prototyping of Android-in-the-Cloud solutions.

MINISFORUM is a computer manufacturer that has been gaining many fans lately. Its tiny PCs are looked upon favorably by many consumers that like the diminutive desktop form factor. Not only are its computers well-made and small, but often quite powerful too. These machines can be good servers, retro-gaming machines, office workstations, home theater PCs, and more.

Many MINISFORUM computers are powered by capable Intel processors, but understandably, AMD fans want to get in on the small desktop action too. I am happy to say MINISFORUM does cater to those that prefer AMD. In fact, the company has several AMD-powered options.

Many enterprises have adopted DevOps practices in order to streamline their development. But security is all too often treated as an afterthought.

There is of course a way around this which is to integrate security into the DevOps pipeline, in other words move to DevSecOps.

Infecting office files has been a popular malware technique for some time but is still popular among cybercriminals as it allows them to evade many detection solutions. New research from AtlasVPN reveals that 43 percent of all malware downloads in the second quarter of this year were malicious office documents.

This is an increase from the same period in 2020 when only 14 percent of malware came in office files. In the third quarter of last year the volume jumped to 38 percent before declining to 34 percent in Q4 2020 and Q1 2021.

Security researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design have disclosed a new family of security vulnerabilities in commercial Bluetooth stacks used in billions of devices. Collectively known as BrakTooth, the vulnerabilities pose a range of risks including remote code execution and DoS via crashes and deadlocks.

The Bluetooth stacks found to be vulnerable are used in System-on-Chip (SoC) boards from various big-name manufacturers including Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Silicon Labs; numerous Microsoft products are also affected, including Surface Pro 7, Surface Laptop 3, Surface Book 3 and Surface Go 2.

Microsoft is hardly a stranger to making controversial decisions with Windows, and it has previously been accused of taking liberties by using the operating system to advertise its other products and services. Windows 11 may not even been officially released yet, but the company seems to have learned nothing and has started injecting ads into the latest version of its operating system.

The ads themselves -- for Microsoft Teams -- are something that will divide opinion, but that's not really the issue here. Advertisements in Windows will always prove to be divisive and controversial, but the problem this time is that the ads (cum promotional message, cum user advisory, cum tip... call it what you will) caused the taskbar and Start menu to become unresponsive. The issue hit both the Beta and Dev builds that was pushed out just a couple of days ago and raises serious questions about Microsoft ability to deliver a stable build of Windows 11 on time.

With the latest release of PowerToys, Microsoft has focused primarily on fixing bugs and improving stability, with the promise that updated utilities will be included in next week's experimental version.

But PowerToys v0.45.0 also sees a visual makeover which had been teased recently. The update gives the suite of utilities a modern look that is in keeping with Windows 11. The development team may be slightly biased, but describes this as a "truly spectacular update".