Information Technology

Kerry Wan/ZDNETI love March Madness, at least until Louisville gets knocked out in the first round. Then, I just sit back, free of stress, and enjoy watching other teams play their hearts out like everything is on the line — because it is. While NCAA basketball continues to be broadcast in standard HD, the games can look clear, bright, and beautiful on most modern TVs. Part of that appeal, though, is owed to your TV’s motion-smoothing capabilities. Also: Your TV’s USB port is seriously underrated: 5 benefits you’re not taking advantage ofFor many people, motion smoothing is only appropriate for gaming and watching live sports; enthusiasts typically prefer turning off the feature to watch anything else because it can detract from the filmmaker’s original intent, making on-screen images seem artificial or hyper-realistic. This is what’s called the “soap opera effect.” It’s a perfectly descriptive metaphor that probably requires no explanation. You can see it all too well: the cinematic film should not look like a daytime soap; you shouldn’t feel like you’re on the set with the actors. But it is appealing to feel like you’re in the stadium watching your team with thousands of fans. The soap opera effect makes sense for live sporting event broadcasts. More

LagartoFilm/Getty Images It’s a jungle out there. And by “out there,” I mean in the online world, where scams, data breaches, and outright thievery are depressing facts of life. For those with a reasonable technical background, spotting the markers of an online attack is usually easy. But if you’re like me, you probably have a […] More

Roland W. Kunz/Getty Images LONDON — When I met up with my open-source buddy Dustin Kirkland, VP of engineering at Chainguard, at KubeCon Europe, he said he had me to thank for his company’s new Linux distribution, Chainguard OS.  Why? In my May 2024 story about kernel security, I’d said all distros had been doing […] More

Yuichiro Chino/Getty Images On Nov. 7, 2024, Google released a System update for Android 9 and later, which included a new service, Android System SafetyCore. Most of these patches were the usual security fixes, but SafetyCore was new and different. Google said in a developer note that the release was an “Android system component that provides […] More

Yuliya Taba/Getty Images Cisco has released a “2025 Data Privacy Benchmark Study” that looks at the privacy challenges companies face with the rise of artificial intelligence. It offers practical insights for businesses that want to integrate AI while keeping privacy front and center. Also: The best free AI courses and certificates in 2025 The study gathered […] More

LagartoFilm/Getty Images If you use a VPN, are you using it all the time and for everything on your desktop or laptop?  You probably assume that more is always better, right? It is like Windows users thinking if they install two antivirus tools, they will be safer — not knowing that running two such tools […] More

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images If you’re a T-Mobile user (or were in 2021), a check might arrive in your mailbox soon. In 2021, the mobile carrier suffered a massive data breach that affected around 76 million customers (this isn’t related to the 2023 breach that affected 37 million people). T-Mobile denied any wrongdoing but agreed to settle […] More

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETHave you ever run into trouble trying to boot up your Windows PC? Boot-up errors are among the most challenging to troubleshoot and fix. Now, Microsoft is launching a new tool that will step in when your computer refuses to boot properly.Also: Microsoft just blocked this popular Windows 11 local account trick – but workarounds remainKnown as Quick Machine Recovery, or QMR, this feature is ready for testing in the latest Windows 11 Insider build. Though Microsoft touts it as a tool for IT administrators, it is also available for home use, where it is turned on by default. How it worksThe Windows Recovery Environment, or WinRE, is a dedicated recovery partition on your computer that attempts to repair boot-up problems. Normally, you might have to trigger WinRE manually, but with QMR, the process is designed to be more automatic. When a critical boot-up problem occurs, your PC will enter WinRE mode, connect to your network, and then send diagnostic data to Microsoft. Based on that data, a specific fix for the issue is sent to your PC via Windows Update. If the fix is successful, your PC should then be able to boot without further trouble. Also: 6 things I always do after setting up Windows 11 – and why you should tooOne key benefit is that the recovery process is designed to run automatically and even remotely. In an organization, IT administrators can send targeted fixes to problematic PCs without requiring physical access. For a home user, the fixes are managed by Microsoft. In either scenario, you do not have to spend time manually diagnosing or trying to resolve the glitch. QMR is part of the Windows Resiliency Initiative that Microsoft announced last November at Ignite 2024. The company is asking IT staffers and other Windows Insiders to start testing the new feature and provide their feedback through the Feedback Hub built into Windows. Insiders should also expect a test remediation package over the next few days, which will let them see how QMR performs. More