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On the second Tuesday of each month, Microsoft issues a major security update for Windows users, known as “Patch Tuesday.” Some patches are larger than others; it all depends on how many vulnerabilities researchers discovered over the past month. October’s Patch Tuesday update, however, is quite large.

As reported by Bleeping Computer, this latest Patch Tuesday update fixes over 170 security flaws with Windows. That includes 80 elevation of privilege vulnerabilities, 31 remote code execution vulnerabilities, 28 information disclosure vulnerabilities, 11 security feature bypass vulnerabilities, 11 denial of service vulnerabilities, and 10 spoofing vulnerabilities.

Bleeping Computer only includes the patches released by Microsoft itself in its totals for Patch Tuesday numbers. The total number is higher, as there are patches for Azure, Mariner, and vulnerabilities released earlier in October. All in, there are well over 200 patches here.

While all security patches are important, some are more critical than others. To that point, this Patch Tuesday includes fixes for eight vulnerabilities labeled as “Critical”—that includes five remote code execution vulnerabilities, and three elevation of privilege vulnerabilities.

Six zero-days

But even more important than that are the patches for six zero-day vulnerabilities. Zero-days are particularly dangerous, as there are vulnerabilities that are either publicly disclosed or exploited before the software developer has a chance to issue a patch. In this case, there are six zero-days, three publicly disclosed, and three exploited without this current patch, leaving Windows users vulnerable.

These are the three exploited vulnerabilities:

• CVE-2025-24990: Windows Agere Modem Driver Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability: This flaw allowed bad actors to gain administrative privileges via a bad Agere Modem driver. Microsoft has now removed the driver.

• CVE-2025-59230: Windows Remote Access Connection Manager Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability: This flaw allowed bad actors to gain SYSTEM privileges.

• CVE-2025-47827: MITRE CVE-2025-47827: Secure Boot bypass in IGEL OS before 11: This flaw allowed bad actors to bypass Secure Boot, a security process that helps prevent malware from loading when a user’s computer starts up.

These are the three publicly disclosed vulnerabilities:

• CVE-2025-0033 – AMD CVE-2025-0033: RMP Corruption During SNP Initialization: This AMD flaw could impact memory integrity. Microsoft says this fix is not finished yet, and the patches will roll out through Azure Service Health Alerts when they’re ready.

• CVE-2025-24052 – Windows Agere Modem Driver Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability: This flaw can be used to gain administrative privileges via a Agere Modem Driver. As Bleeping Computer notes, it appears quite similar to CVE-2025-24990.

• CVE-2025-2884 – Cert CC: CVE-2025-2884 Out-of-Bounds read vulnerability in TCG TPM2.0 reference implementation: This flaw could have allowed for information disclosure or denial of service of the target’s TPM.

In other Microsoft news, the company has officially ended support for Windows 10. Unless you enroll in Extended Security Updates, your Windows 10 PC will not receive these security patches going forward.

An anonymous reader shares a report: An attorney in a New York Supreme Court commercial case got caught using AI in his filings, and then got caught using AI again in the brief where he had to explain why he used AI, according to court documents filed earlier this month.

New York Supreme Court Judge Joel Cohen wrote in a decision granting the plaintiff’s attorneys’ request for sanctions that the defendant’s counsel, Michael Fourte’s law offices, not only submitted AI-hallucinated citations and quotations in the summary judgment brief that led to the filing of the plaintiff’s motion for sanctions, but also included “multiple new AI-hallucinated citations and quotations” in the process of opposing the motion.

“In other words,” the judge wrote, “counsel relied upon unvetted AI — in his telling, via inadequately supervised colleagues — to defend his use of unvetted AI.”

The case itself centers on a dispute between family members and a defaulted loan. The details of the case involve a fairly run-of-the-mill domestic money beef, but Fourte’s office allegedly using AI that generated fake citations, and then inserting nonexistent citations into the opposition brief, has become the bigger story.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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As far as action cameras go, GoPro might be a household name, but there are still some high-quality (and often more affordable) competitors that appeal to both casual adventurers and power users. One of them, the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro (Essential Combo), is a #1 bestseller on Amazon, and is currently 21% off, marking its lowest price ever at $269.

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro (Essential Combo)

$269.00
at Amazon

$339.00
Save $70.00

$269.00
at Amazon

$339.00
Save $70.00

This action cam is a tough, waterproof camera (up to 65.6 feet) that you can mount practically anywhere. It has a 10-bit 4K120 video, and at 5.2 ounces, it’s lightweight yet powerful, with dual touch displays and multiple field-of-view options, including an ultra-wide setting without distortion. It also records vertical video, with creative tools like time-lapse, slow motion, and a tracking mode that keeps subjects centered. Its digital stabilization system, RockSteady, keeps things smooth, and while it may slightly narrow the lens’s view, the extra-wide 155-degree angle still allows for immersive coverage. Compared to its predecessor, it has a new image sensor with bigger pixels, a more efficient processor, touch-sensitive OLED panels on both displays, and a bigger battery.

According to PCMag, which awarded it an “Outstanding” rating, its battery life blows other action cameras out of the water. Its 1,950mAh battery uses a 4nm architecture for its image processor. While it claims to provide up to four hours of continuous shooting, the PCMag tester found that it lasts 26 minutes at 4K60, 154 minutes at 4K30, and 182 minutes at 1080p30 without overheating, whereas the GoPro Hero13 only ran for around half an hour before overheating and provided just 80 minutes at 4K30.

While the app features and lens options may not be as strong or varied as GoPro’s, if you’re looking for an action camera with best-in-class battery life, strong digital stabilization, and the ability to record continuously without overheating, the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro (Essential Combo) is a long-lasting powerhouse that rivals contenders like the Hero13. And at a sub-$300 price point, it’s well worth it.

As if DirecTV doesn’t have enough trouble keeping customers, the satellite TV provider’s streaming devices will show AI-generated screensaver ads next year, according to an announcement today from partnering ads company Glance.

People who use either of DirecTV’s two Gemini streaming devices will start seeing the ads “in early 2026,” per the announcement. DirecTV’s Gemini Air is an Android TV-powered USB device that people can plug into a TV for access to live TV channels, as well as streaming apps. Gemini Air doesn’t require a DirecTV satellite connection, and DirecTV gives all of its Internet customers the device. DirecTV first started selling Gemini devices in 2023, when it launched a separate Gemini set-top box that connects through DirecTV satellite setups.

DirecTV made an agreement with Glance to show AI-generated content and ads on Gemini devices’ screensavers. Currently, Gemini devices show Google wallpapers as screensavers, which are on by default. When the new screensavers launch, Glance’s AI content will show if the TV is idle for 10 minutes, The Verge reported.

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In order to avoid paying billions of dollars in fines for violating the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, Google is considering changing how search results are displayed, Reuters reports. EU regulators first took issue with Google’s Search and Play Store businesses in March 2025, claiming it favored its own services in search results over third-party options and prevented developers from informing customers of alternative ways of accessing apps.

One of regulators main issues with Google Search was that Google appeared to favor results from services like Google Flights or Google Hotels over ones from “vertical search services,” providers that specialize in displaying search results from a specific industry, like Expedia or Hotels.com. To avoid fines, Google now wants Search to give VSS businesses equal treatment in results.

“We will create the opportunity for each VSS to show its own box on Search. A VSS box will be populated with results from that VSS inventory,” Google said in a proposal viewed by Reuters. Results from Google’s own services will exist with the same formatting alongside, and the winning VSS box will be displayed in search results based on “objective and non-discriminatory criteria.” Importantly, search results from actual airlines and car rental companies won’t be excluded, they’ll also appear in a box “above or below the VSS box depending on the relevance to the user’s query.”

Engadget has asked Google to comment on Reuters‘ report and to confirm the details of its proposed changes to Google Search. We’ll update this article if we hear back.

Like Apple, Google faces significant scrutiny from the EU because of its monopolistic control over its various platforms and services. The threat of fines from the DMA has forced Apple to open up its products to third-party app stores, among a host of other changes. Clearly, Google is willing to tweak what once seemed like untouchable pillars of its business to avoid fines, too. Whether these proposed changes will be enough for the regulators remains to be seen, though.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-reportedly-offers-to-tweak-search-results-to-avoid-eu-fine-193940005.html?src=rss

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If you have a Premium Family plan through Spotify, there’s good news: You can now set up managed accounts for your kids. Not only can you control what they listen to, their music choices won’t reflect in or affect your listening history. Congratulations: You’re getting your Wrapped back.

On Tuesday, Spotify announced it is rolling out managed accounts for Premium subscribers to seven new regions: the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Premium Family subscribers in these countries can now create managed accounts for users younger than 13 that allow those users to listen on their own, in a controlled environment.

Managed accounts are music-only, so younger listeners can’t browse Spotify’s other offerings, such as podcasts, or send or receive DMs. In addition, account managers can control a number of settings on these accounts, including whether the account can listen to explicit music, choose to block specific artists and songs, and decide to hide video—including short-form Canvas content.

While Spotify has an existing service designed for children, Spotify Kids, it’s much different, as it only contains music hand-picked for the service, and doesn’t allow subscribers to control the account. Managed accounts allow subscribers to give a full Spotify experience to their kids, while having total control over what they can listen to.

Personally, I think this is a fantastic feature. As someone who grew up in the early days of iTunes, I would have loved the ability to add whatever songs I wanted to my playlists—assuming my parents gave those songs the OK, of course. It’s also great that kids can get recommendations for new music from Spotify. If they are obsessed with the latest trending song, perhaps Spotify can recommend similar tunes, both contemporary tracks as well as classics. It could be a great way to expand kids’ music tastes.

Spotify first tested managed accounts in 10 other countries: New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Columbia. It’s now available as part of its Premium Family plan, which costs $19.99 per month.

How to create a managed account

If you’re using the Spotify mobile app, head to Settings and privacy > Account > Premium Family. If you’re on your account page on Spotify’s website, choose “Manage members.” Either way, under Plan members, choose to add members to your plan. Choose “Add a listener aged under 13,” then choose “Add account.”

You’ll then follow the on-screen steps to confirm you are the parent or guardian of the listener; set a PIN to control the experience; choose the name and birthdate of the listener; and choose your settings.

Indonesia’s film industry has started using generative AI tools to produce films at a fraction of Hollywood budgets. The country’s filmmakers are deploying ChatGPT for scriptwriting, Midjourney for image generation, and Runway for video storyboarding. VFX artist Amilio Garcia Leonard told Rest of World that AI has reduced his draft editing time by 70%.

The Indonesian Film Producer Association supports the technology. Indonesian films typically cost 10 billion rupiah ($602,500), less than 1% of major Hollywood productions. The sector employed about 40,000 people in 2020 and generated over $400 million in box office sales in 2023. Jobs for storyboarders, VFX artists, and voice actors are disappearing.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Researchers have demonstrated a new type of malware attack that can steal sensitive information from Android devices—including Google and Samsung phones—without the knowledge or action of the target user.

The attack is called “Pixnapping,” an apparent portmanteau of “pixel” and “snapping.” When you download and open a piece of software containing the malware, the app scans your phone for specific apps it might want to spy on. It then accesses another app on your phone—say, Google Authenticator—but rather than open it, it pulls the information that would be displayed into the Android rendering pipeline. From there, the app scans the display information for individual pixels, targeting areas known to contain sensitive information. In the case of Google Authenticator, the focus is on the pixels known to contain the 2FA codes within the app. The malware then checks to see whether a pixel is blank, or contains some type of rendered content. It uses these findings to recover the original images, like a complete 2FA code, without ever actually having seen the original images in the first place.

This process can repeat for as long as it takes to scan the stolen pixels and pull the original information from them, all without you knowing it’s happening. Researchers compare the process to taking screenshots of screen contents the malware should not have access to.

How the malware works

There are three reasons Pixnapping attacks are possible on Android, according to researchers. First, the OS allows apps to send another app’s activity to the Android rendering pipeline, which allows the malicious app to invoke sensitive activities, like refreshing 2FA codes. Second, apps can run graphical operations on pixels displayed through another app’s activity, which is how the malicious app can pull pixels from something like Google Authenticator. Third, apps can measure the pixel color-dependent side effects of those operations, which allows the malicious app to leak the pixel values.

Researchers demonstrated these Pixnapping attacks on Google and Samsung phones, including the Pixel 6, Pixel 7, Pixel 8, Pixel 9, and Galaxy S25. These phones were running Android 13, 14, 15, and 16. Researchers say they aren’t sure if other types of Android devices are affected by this attack, though the “core mechanisms” involved are usually present in all Android devices. Different Pixel devices had different rates of success in the 2FA hack (73%, 53%, 29%, and 53% for the Pixel 6, 7, 8, and 9, respectively), though researchers could not obtain 2FA codes on the Galaxy S25 within the 30 second timeline before the codes refreshed.

In addition to devices, researchers demonstrated Pixnapping attacks on sites and services like Gmail, Google Accounts, Signal, Google Authenticator, Venmo, and Google Maps. The implication is that this type of attack could steal many different types of information from your phone, including emails, encrypted messages, payment records, and location histories.

According to the findings, Google has tried to patch Pixnapping, but researchers were able to workaround this patch in demonstrated attacks. The vulnerability is currently tracked as CVE-2025-48561. Google is working on a new patch for the December Android security builtin.

How to protect yourself from Pixnapping

The good news, at this time anyway, is that researchers are not aware of Pixnapping attacks happening in the wild. However, that doesn’t mean they won’t happen, especially now that the attack has been disclosed.

The first thing to do to protect yourself is to make sure you’re running the latest security patches on your Android device. While Google is still working on a subsequent Pixnapping patch, there is a patch in existence. Make sure you install it on your phone by heading to System > Software updates.

Next, be cautious with the apps you download on your device. Always try to download apps from trusted and verified marketplaces, as it’s much more difficult for bad actors to hide malware on apps distributed through these stores. Even when you download apps on something like the Google Play Store, investigate the app thoroughly: Ensure it’s really the app you think it is, and it’s coming from the developer that makes it. If you sideload apps, be careful with what you download, and only install apps from developers you trust.

Kobo is making a remote control for its line of ereaders. The appropriately-named Kobo Remote costs $30 and will be available to purchase on November 4.

A remote control for an ereader may seem silly to some, but avid readers will likely appreciate this accessory. It’s basically a wireless page turner, so users can lay in bed and read all day without having to physically hold the device or prop a hand up to push a button every 30 seconds. Kobo is calling it “the ideal reading companion.”

It has been custom-built for Kobo products and will be available in both black and white, which matches the company’s other products. It can integrate with any Kobo ereader with Bluetooth functionality, which includes the Libra 2 and the well-reviewed Clara Colour.

“In a Canadian winter, we know that sometimes maximum reading comfort means burrowing down in the blankets, tucking yourself in and not emerging until spring,” said Rakuten Kobo CEO Michael Tamblyn. “The Kobo Remote is the perfect accessory for peak immersive reading; it’s an invitation to lounge deeper, multitask smarter and simply enjoy reading without limits, no matter whether your environment is beach or blankets.”

The remote will be available in multiple regions, including the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, Singapore, Japan and many others. The company says it’ll be sharing more details about the remote soon, but we aren’t sure what details could be left to share. It’s a remote control for an ereader. Maybe it can do one or two unexpected things.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/kobo-made-a-remote-control-for-its-ereaders-185010955.html?src=rss

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization projects record production of global cereal crops in the 2025-26 farming season. The forecast covers wheat, corn and rice, and comes as the global stocks-to-use ratio stands around 30.6% — the world is producing nearly a third more of these foundational crops than it currently uses.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in August that American farmers would harvest a record corn crop at record yield per acre. The FAO Food Price Index has risen slightly this year but remains nearly 20% below its peak during the early months of the war in Ukraine. Average calories available per person worldwide have climbed from roughly 2,100 to 2,200 kilocalories daily in the early nineteen-sixties to just under 3,000 kilocalories daily by 2022. Cereal yields have roughly tripled since 1961. Yet the World Bank estimates around 2.6 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet, and current famines in Gaza and Sudan stem from political failures rather than crop failures.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

OpenAI announced today that it is creating an advisory council centered on its users’ mental and emotional wellness. The Expert Council on Well-being and AI comprises eight researchers and experts on the intersection of technology and mental health. Some of the members were experts that OpenAI consulted as it developed parental controls. Topics of safety and protecting younger users have become more of a talking point for all artificial intelligence companies, including OpenAI, after lawsuits questioned their complicity in multiple cases where teenagers committed suicide after sharing their plans with AI chatbots.

This move sounds like a wise addition, but the effectiveness of any advisor hinges on listening to their insights. We’ve seen other tech companies establish and then utterly ignore their advisory councils; Meta is one of the notable recent examples. And the announcement from OpenAI even acknowledges that its new council has no real power to guide its operations: “We remain responsible for the decisions we make, but we’ll continue learning from this council, the Global Physician Network, policymakers, and more, as we build advanced AI systems in ways that support people’s well-being.” It may become clearer how seriously OpenAI is taking this effort when it starts to disagree with the council, whether the company is genuinely committed to mitigating the serious risks of AI or whether this is a smoke and mirrors attempt to paper over its issues.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openai-forms-advisory-council-on-wellbeing-and-ai-183815365.html?src=rss

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A four-pack of these TSA-approved travel locks is currently on sale for $79.99 on StackSocial, the same price as a three-pack on Amazon. It’s designed for Apple users, integrating directly with the Find My app, so you can track your bags on a map, ping them with sound if they’re nearby, or get alerts if you’ve walked off and left them behind.

Each lock uses a simple three-digit combination and is TSA-approved, meaning airport security can access it without cutting it open. The build is solid, featuring a durable alloy shell and a thick cable loop that’s tough enough for typical travel abuse. It’s also refreshingly low-maintenance, with no need for constant charging. The built-in battery lasts approximately three months and is replaceable, so you’re not forced to discard the entire device when it runs out of power. You don’t need to install a separate app to manage the tracking, either. If you’ve used Apple’s Find My for AirTags or devices, the setup will feel familiar and straightforward. You also get solid tracking features like Lost Mode and sound alerts.

That said, this is Apple-only. If you use Android, the Find My functionality won’t work, so you’re better off with a traditional smart tracker or lock. If you’re traveling with multiple bags or coordinating group travel, a four-in-one pack makes the price more manageable. For frequent flyers or anyone with a track record of forgetting their carry-on at Gate 17, this is one of those travel add-ons that is actually worth it.

Meetings can be a real drain on productivity, but a new Gmail feature might at least cut down on the time you spend scheduling them. The company has announced “Help Me Schedule” is coming to Gmail, leveraging Gemini AI to recognize when you want to schedule a meeting and offering possible meeting times for the email recipient to choose.

The new meeting feature is reminiscent of Magic Cue on Google’s latest Pixel phones. As you type emails, Gmail will be able to recognize when you are planning a meeting. A Help Me Schedule button will appear in the toolbar. Upon clicking, Google’s AI will swing into action and find possible meeting times that match the context of your message and are available in your calendar.

When you engage with Help me schedule, the AI generates an in-line meeting widget for your message. The recipient can select the time that works for them, and that’s it—the meeting is scheduled for both parties. What about meetings with more than one invitee? Google says the feature won’t support groups at launch.

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OpenAI plans to open the floodgates to more adult uses of ChatGPT starting in December, according to a new post from CEO Sam Altman. The company announced that it would add parental controls and automatic age detection features in September, and it seems like a benefit of sorting out children from adults is an ability to offer more freedom in what ChatGPT can show users.

“In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our ‘treat adult users like adults’ principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults,” Altman says. Some avid ChatGPT users already regularly manipulate the chatbot to engage in NSFW conversations, but Altman’s announcement sounds more like tacit approval from OpenAI that those use-cases are okay.

The company signaled something similar during its DevDay 2025 announcements, when its new guidelines for developers creating apps for ChatGPT shared that “support for mature (18+) experiences will arrive once appropriate age verification and controls are in place.” After December, it sounds like adult interactions with ChatGPT or apps the chatbot can access are fair game.

All of these changes are being made in the shadow of disturbing stories of the seemingly negative influence ChatGPT can have on users, including the death of 16-year old Adam Raine, who allegedly used ChatGPT to plan his own suicide.

Reducing the chatbot’s sycophantic qualities with the release of GPT-5 was one of the ways OpenAI tried to address the mental health impacts of ChatGPT, along with built-in notifications to remind users to take breaks. It’s hard to definitively say whether these tweaks have made a difference, but combined with age-gating, it’s clear OpenAI feels comfortable giving its chatbot a longer leash.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-will-let-adults-use-chatgpt-for-erotica-starting-in-december-182417583.html?src=rss