Microsoft Begins Removing Copilot Branding From Windows 11 Apps
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Feeds last updated @: UTC - 20:45 - 10/04/2026
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/10/battery-recycler-ascend-elements-files-for-bankruptcy/
https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/10/france-to-ditch-windows-for-linux-to-reduce-reliance-on-us-tech/
As child social media bans spread across Europe and beyond, Estonia isn't having it. On Friday, the country's education minister said the bans won't "actually solve problems," while warning that the kids will find a way regardless.
Although companies like Meta would love for you to believe it’s a fairy tale, social media addiction is associated with tangible negative repercussions for children. Studies show that its harms range from depression and anxiety to sleep deprivation and obesity. (The latter is from all the targeted junk food advertising.) On the other hand, teens can find community and support from social media.
A growing list of countries looked at the negative data and concluded that the answer was to ban social media altogether for children. Although the age cutoff varies, legislation has been floated or enacted in Australia, Greece, France, Austria, Spain, Indonesia, Malaysia, the UK and Denmark — just to name a few.
Estonia's education minister believes these countries are coming at the very real problem from the wrong angle. "The way to approach this, to me, is not to make kids responsible for that harm and start self-regulating," Kristina Kallas said at a Politico forum in Barcelona. She added that "kids will find very quickly the ways to go around and to still use social media."
Instead, she said the responsibility lies with governments and corporations. "Europe pretends to be weak when it comes to big American and international corporations," she added. But she called that a "pretense," challenging the EU to "actually take this power and start regulating the big American corporations."
To be fair, the EU regulates the tech industry more effectively than anywhere else in the world. But the point on childhood social bans stands.
Another argument against the bans is that it’s a short path from the well-meaning to a more sinister erosion of basic freedoms. In February, France suggested that the next logical step after passing an under-15 social media ban would be to go after VPNs. After all, once you pass the ban, you need to enforce it — and that can mean snuffing out the tools children could use to work around it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/estonia-is-the-rare-eu-country-opposing-child-social-media-bans-194620916.html?src=rssWhoop, the makers of a screen-free fitness tracker of the same name, could soon have some competition. Fitbit teased its take on a Whoop-style band with the help of Steph Curry at the end of March, and based on a trademark filing spotted by Gadgets & Wearables, Garmin appears to be working on its own band that tracks similar health metrics.
This new Garmin wearable, called "CIRQA" in the trademark filing submitted in February, is designed to measure "the body's physical parameters and other physiological data, bio-signals, and bodily behavior." That could broadly describe the smartwatches and fitness trackers Garmin already sells. But the CIRQA apparently goes further, by also measuring "recovery from physical and emotional stress, human alertness level, and performance," a set of more granular, wellness-focused features that could bring the unreleased wearable into the same ballpark as a Whoop.
Garmin accidentally leaked that it was working on a new wearable via a hastily removed store page in January, Android Authority reports. While some phantom web pages and a trademark do not guarantee Garmin is working on a new device, or that the band will be screen-free in the same way the Whoop is. If the company is preparing a competitor, though, the timing makes sense. Where other devices try to split the difference between tracking biometrics and offering real-time information or other smartwatch features, Whoop is decidedly data-first. Its wearables monitor as much information as possible through a nondescript band, and then analyze and display what it learned via a smartphone app. The approach is attractive to anyone tired of dealing with screens, and the growing number of people obsessed with optimizing their health. In fact, Whoop just raised $575 million on the back of its current success. It would make sense that Garmin and Google (via its Fitbit brand) would want a piece of the company's audience, too.
Whoop-style bands are also a perfect fit for future uses of AI in health and fitness tracking. Google is interested in having users turn to Fitbit's AI-powered health coach for everything from workout tracking to nutrition advice. If health data processing is going to happen in the cloud, and you're going to have to pull out your smartphone to view that data anyway, it makes sense to sell a tracker without a screen.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/garmin-may-be-working-on-a-whoop-competitor-191802041.html?src=rssAmazon is ending support for third-party integrations on its Luna cloud gaming service. The most immediate changes mean that it's no longer possible to buy Ubisoft+ and Jackbox Games subscriptions or standalone games through Luna.
Amazon will automatically any cancel active subscriptions bought through Luna at the end of customers' next billing cycle. If you have a Ubisoft+ subscription that you bought directly from Ubisoft instead, you’ll still be able to access games on that service through Luna until June 10.
The Bring Your Own Library option — which allows users to play games they own on the likes of EA, GOG and Ubisoft on Luna — is going away too. You won't be able to access games from on those storefronts via Amazon's streaming service after June 3.
If you bought any games outright on Luna, you'll still be able to play them there until June 10. Unlike Google did when it shut down Stadia, Amazon isn’t offering refunds for those purchases. However, you'll still have access to them through the respective third-party platform that's linked to your account, be it the EA App, GOG Galaxy or Ubisoft Connect.
That doesn't exactly help folks who don't have powerful-enough systems to play more demanding games and were relying on Luna. As such, some people might need to turn to the likes of GeForce Now in order to keep playing games they bought through Luna (and they’ll need to hope GFN actually supports their specific games).
Amazon has been reshaping Luna over the last several months. It rolled out a revamped version of the service back in October, with more of a focus on GameNight party games that you can play with a smartphone.
Prime subscribers will still be able to claim PC games and stream games on the Luna Standard tier at no extra cost. The Luna Premium subscription, which includes a wider range of third-party games, is still available too.
“We’re doubling down on a broad range of gaming experiences, including strong third-party titles, delivered in ways that make great games more accessible, as well as new and unique gaming experiences like GameNight,” Amazon wrote in an email to Luna users. The company also said it will offer some folks a free Luna Premium subscription.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/amazon-luna-ends-support-for-third-party-subscriptions-and-game-purchases-171329996.html?src=rssAmerica's Big Tech companies may soon learn that saddling up with Donald Trump doesn't tend to work out in the end. As the president sows chaos and distrust around the globe while taking aim at EU tech regulations, Europe is looking for ways to adopt its own alternatives. The latest example is France, which said it's dropping Microsoft Windows in favor of Linux.
On Wednesday, France said (via TechCrunch) it plans to move its workstations from Windows to the open-source Linux. It's part of a broader movement across Europe toward digital sovereignty, aimed at reducing reliance on foreign tech — especially American and Chinese. Although homegrown alternatives aren't available in many areas, the EU seems prepared to wean itself off where it can.
In January, France announced that it would move its videoconferencing from Zoom and Teams to the French-made Visio. As part of this week’s Linux announcement, France added that it would also migrate its health data to a new platform by the end of 2026.
Since taking office, Trump has used tariffs and other measures to try to bully European nations into dropping their regulations on America's tech industry. In August, he vowed to "stand up to Countries that attack our incredible American Tech Companies." (The strange capitalizations are his, not ours.) His administration has described laws like the EU's Digital Services Act as "censorship" and "a tax."
So far, Europe has stood firm. "I want to be very clear: our digital sovereignty is our digital sovereignty," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the Munich Security Conference in February. "We have a long tradition in freedom of speech. Actually, the Enlightenment started on our continent."
Christian Kroll, CEO of German search engine Ecosia, foresaw Europe's predicament soon after Trump's 2024 reelection. "We, as a European community, just need to make sure that nobody can blackmail us." He added that "if the US turned off access to search results tomorrow, we would have to go back to phone books." Granted, the guy is selling a European-made search engine, so his bias is clear. But the salience of his point stands.
Giorgos Verdi, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the Trump administration's behavior underscores the need for Europe to break free. "Could the US use its dominance over AI chips, its dominance over cloud in Europe, its dominance over AI systems in order to exert more pressure?" Verdi asked CNN rhetorically in January. "In order to build more resilience for Europe... there is a geopolitical case for European innovations to emerge."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/french-government-says-au-revoir-windows-bienvenue-linux-165407232.html?src=rssGoogle has announced that end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for Gmail on Android and iOS is now rolling out for its enterprise users. Emails that require E2EE in Workspace can be composed and read within the Gmail app, so eligible users won’t need additional apps or portals.
The new feature expands Google’s client-side encryption (CSE) offering, a little more than a year after E2EE was introduced to Gmail on the web. According to a Google blog post, any encrypted message sent to a recipient who uses the Gmail app will appear in their inbox as any email thread would. If they don’t have the app, they’re still able to read and reply to the email in their browser securely, regardless of their email address.
Google says the new functionality "combines the highest level of privacy and data encryption with a user-friendly experience for all users, enabling simple encrypted email for all customers from small businesses to enterprises and public sector." Of course, "all users" applies only to Enterprise Plus members here, with the millions of people who use Gmail as their personal email service currently unable to take advantage of the highest level of privacy and data protection.
In order for Gmail users to start using E2EE in the app, an admin must first enable Android and iOS clients in the CSE admin interface, which is available in the Admin Console. When sending an email, you have to click the lock icon and select additional encryption before sending. Attachments can then be added as normal.
E2EE is available straight away in the Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains. Enterprise users will need the Assured Controls or Assured Controls Plus add-on, which provides businesses and organizations that handle sensitive data with extra security and compliance-related tools.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/google-adds-e2e-to-gmail-for-ios-and-android-enterprise-users-165345116.html?src=rssFirefox-maker Mozilla is calling out Microsoft after Redmond said it would scale back some Copilot features in Windows, arguing the rollback shows the company pushed AI too far without enough regard for user choice....
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2026/04/10/mozilla_microsofts_copilot_strategy/
The Global Electronics Association (GEA) warns that the US ban on foreign-made network routers is impractical because few are made domestically, leaving consumers with little choice and delaying access to next-gen products, just as Wi-Fi 7 adoption should be ramping up....
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2026/04/10/gea_fcc_routers/
Visitors to the CPUID website were briefly exposed to malware this week after attackers hijacked part of its backend, turning trusted download links into a delivery mechanism for something far less welcome....
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2026/04/10/cpuid_site_hijacked/
Amazon's board of directors is urging shareholders to reject a proposal that would have the megacorp disclose more information on the impact of datacenters on its climate commitments....
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2026/04/10/amazon_climate_goals/
Most UK business leaders will keep AI at the top of their spending priorities, with 65 percent planning to maintain investment whether they see immediate measurable returns or not....
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2026/04/10/ai_roi_kpmg/
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Samsung is reportedly considering a $4 billion chip packaging and testing project in Vietnam, deepening the country’s role in the global semiconductor supply chain.
The post Samsung Eyes Vietnam for $4B Semiconductor Packaging Project appeared first on TechRepublic.
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-samsung-vietnam-semiconductor-packaging-apac/
Alibaba launches a new AI data center powered by 10,000 homegrown chips, signaling a major push toward self-reliance amid US export restrictions.
The post Alibaba Launches AI Data Center Powered by 10,000 Homegrown Chips appeared first on TechRepublic.
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-alibaba-10000-ai-chips-data-center-apac/
A flaw in the EngageLab SDK exposed 50 million Android users, allowing malicious apps to exploit trusted permissions and access sensitive data.
The post Microsoft: Third-Party Android Vulnerability Leaves Over 50M Users Exposed appeared first on TechRepublic.
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-engagelab-sdk-android-vulnerability-malware-bridge/
Google is rolling out notebooks in Gemini, giving users a new way to organize chats, files, and instructions into AI-powered project hubs.
The post Google Brings NotebookLM to Gemini for Easy Project Organization appeared first on TechRepublic.
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-google-gemini-notebooks-update/
See what you missed in Daily Tech Insider from April 6–10.
The post AI Expansion, Security Crises, and Workforce Upheaval Define This Week in Tech appeared first on TechRepublic.
https://in.mashable.com/tech/108299/samsung-galaxy-a57-review-reliable-where-it-matters-most
https://www.geekwire.com/2026/mary-jo-foley-microsoft-windows-new-lease-on-life-why-now/
https://www.geekwire.com/2026/artemis-2-moon-watch-splashdown/