Wednesday Newsbytes: Windows Copilot Coming to Windows 11; Curtains for Cortana; Read This if You Don’t Want Your Phone hacked; All Gmail Users Need to Read This; Hackers Use Images Instead of Text in Phishing Emails… 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 news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s ‘Wednesday Newsbytes’ informative and interesting!
Microsoft announces Windows Copilot, an AI ‘personal assistant’ for Windows 11
Move over, Cortana. Copilot is the new assistant in Windows town.
Microsoft is adding a Copilot AI assistant to Windows 11. Much like the Copilot sidebars we’ve seen in Edge, Office apps, and even GitHub, Windows Copilot will be integrated directly into Windows 11 and available to open and use from the taskbar across all apps and programs.
“Once open, the Windows Copilot side bar stays consistent across your apps, programs, and windows, always available to act as your personal assistant,” explains Panos Panay, Microsoft’s head of Windows and devices. “It makes every user a power user, helping you take action, customize your settings, and seamlessly connect across your favorite apps.”
The Windows Copilot can summarize content you’re viewing in apps, rewrite it, or even explain it. It looks very similar to the dialog box that’s found in Bing Chat, so you can ask it general questions and things you might usually ask a search engine.
It won’t directly replace the search bar on the Windows 11 taskbar and is a separate Copilot button alongside it instead, much like how Cortana had its own dedicated space on the taskbar in Windows 10. Windows Copilot is a “personal assistant,” according to Microsoft, which sounds a lot like how Microsoft described Cortana as a “personal productivity assistant.”
Since Copilot is integrated into Windows, you can also do things like ask this assistant to “adjust my settings so I can focus” or take other actions on a PC…
Microsoft says it’s curtains for Cortana in Windows 11 (and 10) – but that’s no surprise
Cortana is redundant in Windows at this point, particularly with Copilot incoming
Microsoft has announced that it’s killing off Cortana, at least in Windows, where the assistant will be dropped in the not-so-distant future.
Windows Central reported on Microsoft’s revelation that the Cortana app will no longer be supported in Windows late in 2023 (as tipped by @Perbylund on Twitter).
However, the aged assistant will still remain in other Microsoft services, including various bits of Microsoft Teams and Outlook mobile, so Cortana hasn’t entirely been binned.
As for Windows 11, though, you won’t be needing Cortana anyway, because as Microsoft reminds us, the operating system already has elements in place to replace the digital assistant.
For voice controls, there’s now a comprehensive Voice Access feature which Microsoft has been beavering away honing considerably of late.
And for queries and assistance, naturally there’s the new Bing AI (ChatGPT-powered bot) on tap, plus there’s something bigger in the pipeline – Copilot…
Microsoft finally adds some useful Widgets to monitor your PC
Who knew that the Dev Home Preview app hid a few key tools?
If you’ve complained that Windows’ own Widgets simply clutter up your screen with junk stories, pay attention: There are several new, useful widgets that a recent Microsoft app makes available for you to use.
You might not think that the Microsoft Dev Home app would add anything useful to your PC, given that it’s an app aimed at managing a developer’s pull requests. But the app actually makes available widgets to monitor your CPU, memory, GPU usage, and network performance, too.
Neowin unearthed the new widgets in testing out the app. They’re similar to what Windows’ own Task Manager does, of course, with a few tweaks that could be useful.
Microsoft’s Widgets are either a useful gateway to additional content, or just a bunch of junk information that clutters up your screen. Microsoft previously invested in licensing news, and began launching experiments in 2020 with the News Bar to push that content to you. (Our story also discusses how to manage Microsoft’s news sources, adding and subtracting publications—but it’s doubtful that many people actually do that.)
In 2021, Microsoft began migrating Bing’s news content to Windows 10’s “News and Interests,” which eventually became Windows 11’s Widgets, powered by Start. Microsoft then began inviting developers to populate the Widgets news feed last year. Microsoft is pledging even greater control over Widgets, too.
Credit PC World
Don’t want your phone hacked? Just do this one thing
If you follow one phone security best practice, make it this one.
Almost daily, a new warning about mobile phone security is posted on any given website to send users into a spiral of fear. Sometimes that warning goes unheeded and users suffer the consequences. Of course, some of those warnings might sound like hyperbole, but there is almost always a universal truth behind them — your privacy and security are always at risk.
Every so often, I have to dive back into mobile security and offer up a hard truth for users. Most often these truths are pretty easy to accept, such as never installing a piece of software unless it’s found in the app store for your ecosystem (Google Play Store and the iOS App Store), using a password manager, or always making sure to keep both apps and the operating system updated.
Anyone can follow those best practices. They’re simple, harmless, and require very little effort on the part of the user…
All 1.8 billion active Gmail users need to read this warning to prevent getting ripped off
No matter where you use Gmail, if you use Google’s email app or website, a tweet from cybersecurity engineer Chris Plummer (via Forbes) should serve as an alert and wake-up call. It all starts with a checkmark system that Google introduced last month. Designed to verify emails supposedly sent by legitimate corporations and organizations, an email in your Gmail inbox with a blue checkmark was supposed to indicate that you can safely open the missive without worrying about getting scammed, spammed, or hacked.
Thanks to a bug, scammers can get Gmail to verify their fake email by having a blue checkmark appear
The aforementioned Plummer discovered a way for bad actors to have a blue checkmark “verify” their phished gmail. Plummer submitted a bug report with Google after spotting a scammer sending a verified email impersonating UPS. The email even included the iconic UPS shield icon. Google at first rejected Plummer’s submission saying that it won’t fix the bug since ‘this is intended behavior. As Plummer asks in his tweet, “How is a scammer impersonating @UPS in such a convincing way…
Hackers are using pictures to trick you into clicking on phishing links — Don’t fall for this
That promotional image inside an email could take you to a phishing site instead
In order for their attacks to be successful, hackers need to constantly come up with new ways to bypass the best antivirus software and other security solutions.
This is especially true with phishing attacks, which often rely on getting unsuspecting users to click on suspicious links in emails and other messages. However, new research from the cybersecurity firm Check Point has revealed a new technique used by hackers that’s currently making the rounds online.
As reported by our sister site TechRadar, instead of trying to write out convincing phishing emails, hackers have taken to using images to do the heavy lifting instead. While phishing messages can be easy to spot due to poor spelling, bad grammar and other red flags, hackers are now using large, promotional images in their attacks to avoid detection.
Just like when you get a promotional email from Best Buy, Amazon or other large retailers, these phishing emails feature a large image instead of any text. However, when you click on one of these images, you’re taken to a phishing site designed to steal your passwords and other sensitive information.
Even pictures can be dangerous in suspicious emails
These suspicious emails wouldn’t be phishing messages without a good lure to draw people in and this time, the hackers behind this campaign are using gift cards and loyalty programs to get unsuspecting users to click. However, they’re also impersonating brands like Kohl’s and Delta.
Robot farmers? Machines are crawling through America’s fields. And some have lasers.
Looking like the ungainly combination of a Transformer and Edward Scissorhands, the robot slowly trundles across the field of tiny plants. It uses three high-resolution cameras to peer down at the ground below.
Lit by synchronized strobe lights, an onboard computer creates a digital image of each seedling as it glides by, comparing them with all the greenery it might reasonably find in a field of rich Salinas Valley farmland two hours south of San Francisco.
In a fraction of a second, there’s a match – broccoli – and the computer hones in on the exact center of the plant, creating an on-the-fly chart of its placement.
“It puts a dot on the stem and maps around it,” says Todd Rinkenberger of FarmWise, the robot’s maker. “Now it knows what’s plant. Everything else is a weed.”
The robot’s circular set of metal blades smoothly move so they’re right in front of the plant, then snick open and shut, precisely digging into the soil one on each side of the broccoli seedling, destroying the weeds while leaving the sprout untouched, ready to grow to harvest size in another month or so…
Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday Newbytes. We hope you found these articles informative, interesting, fun, and helpful. Darcy & TC
Hi folks,
Love you folks and your Info Avs newsletters but am not crazy abt always looking at the “Wednesday Newsbytes” except when a headline catches my eye. Today all articles were a valuable sources of info. Thanks
I really like Wednesday Newsbytes! Nice to read about new tech developments. Thanks for gathering the info for us!