The Death of Classic Outlook; Microsoft will let you install Windows 11 on unsupported PCs; Google Says We Live in Parallel Universes; FCC threatens to block spammy VOIP services… and more!
Every day, we scan the tech world for interesting news, sometimes from outside the tech world. Every Thursday, we feature news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s ‘Thursday Newsbytes’ informative and interesting!
Classic Outlook gets an official ‘death date’ and users are urged to switch
Microsoft wants everyone off classic Outlook by April 2026, but will continue to support it until at least 2029.
Last month, Microsoft officially announced the coming end of its Mail, Calendar, and People apps. If you’re still using those apps, you’ll start receiving pop-ups notifying you that end-of-support is coming up on December 31, 2024, and you’ll be urged to switch over to the new Outlook app that Microsoft is focusing on.
More recently, Microsoft has started pushing users in that direction even harder. According to Windows Latest, business-oriented Microsoft 365 users are being urged to switch from classic Outlook to the new Outlook app, despite it lacking several features from the legacy app.
There will first be an optional period where users can choose to switch over at their convenience, with a deadline at which point users will be forced to give up classic Outlook.
For Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Premium users, the transition will begin as early as January 2025. Microsoft 365 Enterprise users may have a little more time. Microsoft’s plan is for the entire transition over to the new Outlook app to be completed by April 2026…
Microsoft will let you install Windows 11 on unsupported PCs after all — what you need to know
Even if you don’t have a TPM 2.0 chip
With Windows 10 seeing its final days in October next year, Microsoft is really recommending users upgrade to Windows 11 — unless their PC doesn’t have a TPM 2.0 chip. However, you can still run the latest version of Windows on unsupported PCs.
Microsoft updated its support page to warn users not to run Windows 11 on an unsupported PC, but the company also has official instructions on installing the operating system on devices that don’t meet minimum requirements. Generally, that means PCs with a TPM 2.0 chip — a security chip required for Windows 11.
While the support page states there “might be malfunctions” and these incompatible devices “aren’t guaranteed to receive updates,” Windows 11 can still be officially installed and run on PCs.
“Installing Windows 11 on a device that doesn’t meet Windows 11 minimum system requirements isn’t recommended,” Microsoft says. “If Windows 11 is installed on ineligible hardware, you should be comfortable assuming the risk of running into compatibility issues.”
For those using Windows 10 and looking to upgrade…
Google Says Its New Quantum Chip May Prove Parallel Universes Exist
Google’s latest breakthrough in quantum computing, the Willow chip, is reigniting discussions among the scientific community about the possibility of parallel universes.
Hartmut Neven, the founder and lead of Google Quantum AI, stated this week that Willow’s extraordinary performance—capable of performing in minutes tasks that would take supercomputers billions of years—could be explained by the concept of parallel universes.
“The performance of the Willow chip was so phenomenally fast that it had to have ‘borrowed’ the computation from parallel universes,” Neven said in a blog post on Google’s website.
The idea that parallel universes may play a role in quantum computing isn’t new, but Neven’s statement marked the first time a major tech executive linked his company’s achievements to the multiverse theory.
According to Neven, the chip performed a computational task that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years in under five minutes. “This mind-boggling number exceeds known timescales in physics and vastly exceeds the age of the universe,” Neven wrote.
Neven even suggested that Willow’s extraordinary performance “lends credence to the notion that quantum computation occurs in many parallel universes, in line with the idea that we live in a multiverse,” a concept first proposed by physicist David Deutsch…
FCC threatens to block spammy VOIP services
The Federal Communications Commission is putting more than 2,000 American VOIP providers on notice for failing to comply with spam mitigation systems.
I can’t go a week without someone illegally calling me about a small business loan or car insurance, and despite coming from a local phone number, I’m fairly certain they aren’t from around here.
Such spammers are usually using Voice over IP (VOIP) to fake phone numbers, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is as fed up as the rest of us. It’s threatening to shut down thousands of VOIP services.
In a press release issued yesterday, the FCC says 2,411 of these providers “failed to properly file in the Robocall Mitigation database, and must now show cause why they should not be removed.” In other words, these VOIP companies are lightning rods for spammers using their services to spread illegal calls, and they’ve ignored federally mandated action to stop spammers from pestering and scamming Americans.
The FCC’s authority over conventional phone calls is basically absolute, and this action was taken in partnership with attorneys general from every US state and Washington DC. If you’re a company providing call service, whether over standard networks or Voice over IP, you have to comply with the STIR/SHAKEN protocol for caller ID verification and you have to send the FCC a robocall mitigation plan. The FCC alleges that these companies have failed on both counts and missed multiple deadlines for compliance checks.
The press release also outlines new proposed rules to create stricter fines …
Common Blood Pressure Drug Extends Lifespan And Slows Aging in Animals
The hypertension drug rilmenidine has been shown to slow down aging in worms, an effect that in humans could hypothetically help us live longer and keep us healthier in our latter years.
Previous research has shown rilmenidine mimics the effects of caloric restriction on a cellular level. Reducing available energy while maintaining nutrition within the body has been shown to extend lifespans in several animal models.
Whether this translates to human biology, or is a potential risk to our health, is a topic of ongoing debate. Finding ways to achieve the same benefits without the costs of extreme calorie cutting could lead to new ways to improve health in old age.
In a study published in 2023, young and old Caenorhabditis elegans worms treated with the drug – which is normally used to treat high blood pressure – lived longer and presented higher measures in a variety of health markers in the same way as restricting calories, as the scientists had hoped…
Thanks for reading this week’s Thursday Newbytes. We hope these articles were informative, interesting, fun, and helpful.
Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas!
Darcy & TC
