Wednesday Newsbytes: Microsoft’s September Patch Tuesday, Google fined $4.3 Billion, New Microsoft PowerToys, Free iPhone 14s… and more!
Every day we scan the tech world for interesting news in the world of technology and sometimes from outside the world of technology. Every Wednesday, we feature some news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s ‘Wednesday Newsbytes’ informative and interesting!
Microsoft September 2022 Patch Tuesday fixes zero-day used in attacks, 63 flaws
Five of the 63 vulnerabilities fixed in today’s (yesterday’s) update are classified as ‘Critical’ as they allow remote code execution, one of the most severe types of vulnerabilities.
The number of bugs in each vulnerability category is listed below:
18 Elevation of Privilege Vulnerabilities
1 Security Feature Bypass Vulnerabilities
30 Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities
7 Information Disclosure Vulnerabilities
7 Denial of Service Vulnerabilities
16 Edge – Chromium Vulnerabilities
The above counts do not include sixteen vulnerabilities fixed in Microsoft Edge before Patch Tuesday.For information about the non-security Windows updates, you can read today’s Windows 10 KB5017308 and KB5017315 updates and the Windows 11 KB5017328 update.
Two zero-days fixed, one actively exploited
This month’s Patch Tuesday fixes two publicly disclosed zero-day vulnerabilities, with one actively exploited in attacks.Microsoft classifies a vulnerability as a zero-day if it is publicly disclosed or actively exploited with no official fix available.
The actively exploited zero-day vulnerability fixed today is tracked as ‘CVE-2022-37969 – Windows Common Log File System Driver Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability.’
‘An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain SYSTEM privileges,’ reads Microsoft’s advisory…
Read more at Bleeping Computer.
Google loses challenge against EU antitrust decision, other probes loom
Google suffered one of its biggest setbacks on Wednesday when a top European court fined it 4.125 billion euros ($4.13 billion) for using its Android mobile operating system to thwart rivals, offering a precedent for other regulators to ratchet up pressure.
The unit of U.S. tech giant Alphabet (GOOGL.O) had challenged an earlier ruling, but the decision was broadly upheld by the Europe’s second-highest court in Wednesday’s ruling and the fine was reduced only modestly from 4.34 billion euros.
It is a record fine for an antitrust violation. The EU antitrust enforcer has imposed a total of 8.25 billion euros in antitrust fines on the world’s most popular internet search engine in three investigations stretching back more than a decade.
This is the second court defeat for Google which lost its challenge to a 2.42 billion euro ($2.42 billion) fine last year, the first of a trio of cases.
PowerToys update adds OCR and two more free tools
Our favorite Microsoft freebie also gets a pixel screen ruler and an easy tool for adding accents.
If you use Windows, you want PowerToys. This collection of open-source goodies, guided and published by Microsoft itself, is one of the best free software packages out there, and we can’t recommend it enough. That only becomes more true today, as the company publishes an updated version with three brand new tools: the previously-spotted Text Extrator (an Optical Character Recognition tool), a ruler for measuring pixels on your screen, and a tool for quickly inserting little-used accents into text.
Text Extractor is probably the most universally-applicable addition here. It’s an open-source version of Joseph Finney’s paid Text Grab app, now integrated into PowerToys and free for Windows users. The tool essentially acts just like a screenshot grabber, allowing you to highlight an area of an image and automatically grab any text inside it, then paste it into the field of your choice. It isn’t magic: Text Extractor will need fairly clear images in order to, um, extract text, very much like Google’s Lens on smartphones. But it’s undeniably handy for those very specific situations.
Quick Accent from developer Damien Leroy is also more or less an existing project dropped into PowerToys, this time PowerAccent. To use it, simply hold down the relevant alphabet key and then tap either the space bar or the left arrow. For example, if you need to rapidly write about a spicy pepper but your keyboard isn’t set up for Spanish characters, just hold down the n key and tap space to put in an ñ for jalepeño. Characters with multiple accent options can be selected with the arrow keys.
Screen Ruler is pretty much exactly what it says: a quick way to measure the area between two points on your screen, in pixels. For example, just by pressing the activation shortcut Win+Shift+M, I can tell you the width of my WordPress writing window is exactly 1836 x 1392 pixels, something I’d have to dip into Photoshop to figure out before now. Neat!
Why wireless carriers are able to give out iPhone 14s
The unveiling of the latest iPhone 14 lineup earlier this week has already spurred a flurry of new promotions from wireless giants including AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.
All three of the major US carriers have announced deals that allow qualifying customers to get the latest Apple smartphone for free, under certain conditions, which often include trading-in an older iPhone model. AT&T and T-Mobile, for example, are both offering up to $1,000 credits, after trade-ins, for buying the iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Pro. Verizon is offering up to an $800 credit after a trade-in for the iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Pro, per some of the offers rounded up and touted by Apple.
While Apple managed to keep the base price for the latest iPhone the same as it was for the previous generation, the iPhone 14 still starts at a hefty $799, and $899 for the 14 Plus model. Meanwhile, the higher-end 14 Pro model starts at $999 and the 14 Pro Max at $1,099. At a time when inflation is pinching consumers from all sides, deals from carriers can help make the latest iPhone more affordable.
Exhausted by software updates? These Microsoft apps can now update even when your PC is locked
Microsoft streamlines app updates to minimize disruptions for users and cut down on update notifications.
Microsoft has rolled out a new method called “update under lock” to revise Office apps while a PC is in idle, locked mode or if the apps are running. If all goes smoothly, the process should take four seconds.
Microsoft promises the new method for updating Microsoft 365 apps will mean “zero notifications, zero disruptions” to users and will reduce the need for forced updates.
“Update under lock” tries to shut down Office apps when its safe to do so and then apply a pending update. It then restores closed apps to their previous state. All this should happen in seconds, according to Microsoft.
Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday Newbytes. We hope you found these articles informative, interesting, fun, and/or helpful. Darcy & TC
PowerToys looks like it is starting to take off more now. I was not so sure for a while.
When I get a chance I will read more on Wednesday Newsbytes.
I look forward to reading these each week…thank you!