An anonymous reader shares a report: A huge outage hit Microsoft services Tuesday morning, with users across the globe experiencing problems accessing Outlook, Xbox and Skype. Users were unable to log onto the Outlook email client via mobile devices and…
Chatbot that Overturned 160,000 Parking Fines Now Helping Refugees Claim Asylum
Elena Cresci, writing for The Guardian: The creator of a chatbot which overturned more than 160,000 parking fines and helped vulnerable people apply for emergency housing is now turning the bot to helping refugees claim asylum. The original DoNotPay, created…
For the First Time, More US Households Have Netflix Than a DVR
For the first time, U.S. households with the Netflix video-streaming service outnumber those that own a digital video recorder (DVR), a dramatic rise from just five years ago, according to new data. From a report: About 54% of U.S. adults…
Android is About To Eclipse Windows as the World's Most-Used Operating System
John Falcone, writing for CNET: Android is poised to overtake Windows as the world’s most-used operating system. That’s the word from web analytics service StatCounter, which monitors worldwide web traffic with an eye towards device operating systems. The firm found…
Microsoft Releases Visual Studio 2017
Reader Anon E. Muss writes: Microsoft on Tuesday released Visual Studio 2017. The latest version of the venerable Integrated Development Environment supports a variety of languages (C/C++, C#, VB.net, F#, Javascript/Typescript, Python, etc.) and targets classic “Win32” desktop, Universal Windows…
Monday review – the hot 29 stories of the week
From the IT admin ‘authorized to trash employer’s network’ and Apple pushing 2FA to the human cause behind Amazon’s mega outage, and more
Uber under fire for ‘Greyball’ program used to dodge enforcement officials
Uber defends ‘Greyball’ as a way to prevent users abusing its terms of service
News in brief: Facebook tags ‘disputed’ news; products to be judged on security; smart meters snafu
Your daily round-up of some of the other stories in the news
‘Dozens’ of police departments maintain private DNA databases
Campaigners warn of lack of oversight and laws bypassed by databases created and maintained privately