All posts tagged: longer

Driscoll on Army Gen. George’s ouster: I ‘personally regret’ he’s no longer in active service

Driscoll on Army Gen. George’s ouster: I ‘personally regret’ he’s no longer in active service

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll on Thursday addressed the firing of the service’s former chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, saying he deeply respects the ousted officer but that civilian officials “get to pick the leaders that they want.” “I was in North Carolina when Gen. George was asked to put in his resignation paperwork, with my… Source link

iOS 26.4 No Longer Signed by Apple, Blocking Downgrades From iOS 26.4.1

iOS 26.4 No Longer Signed by Apple, Blocking Downgrades From iOS 26.4.1

Apple today stopped signing iOS 26.4, so iPhone users who have updated to iOS 26.4.1 are no longer able to downgrade to the earlier version of iOS. iOS 26.4.1 came out a week ago. When software is “signed,” it means it can pass the server-side verification check that Apple does when a user downloads a new version of iOS on an iPhone. An update that’s not signed can’t be installed because it won’t pass the verification check. Apple does not show users earlier versions of iOS after an upgrade has been released, but when software is still signed, it is possible to downgrade with the macOS Finder app on a Mac or the Apple Devices app on a Windows PC. Unsigning software prevents Apple customers from installing outdated, less secure versions of iOS, and Apple typically stops signing an update a week or so after new software comes out. iOS 26.4.1 fixed iCloud syncing issues and Stolen Device Protection on enterprise devices. While iOS 26.4.1 is the current publicly available version of iOS, Apple is …

Summers are getting longer, hotter and the trend is speeding up

Summers are getting longer, hotter and the trend is speeding up

The old idea of summer, a fixed season that arrives on cue and leaves on time, is becoming out of date. Across the midlatitudes, the stretch of the year with historically summer-like temperatures is now arriving earlier, ending later, and building more heat than it used to. A new study led by researchers at the University of British Columbia found that from 1990 to 2023, average summer length between the tropics and the polar circles grew by about six days per decade. Earlier work had put that figure closer to four days per decade. In some cities, the change is much sharper. Sydney’s summer-like period now lasts about 130 days, up from 80 days in 1990. Toronto’s is expanding by about eight days per decade. For places where people once counted on a slower seasonal shift, the new pattern is harder to miss. “These findings challenge what we believe to be the normal cycle of the seasons,” said lead author Ted Scott, a PhD student in UBC’s department of geography. “When summer happens and how …

donald trump is no longer a chad

donald trump is no longer a chad

Since 2015, Donald Trump has been an apex predator on the internet. His social-media posts have caused geopolitical crises (we’ll invade Greenland!) and stock slumps (Amazon shares down 6 percent in one day!). For years, both Trump’s Republican opponents and Democrats tried to get the better of—or stoop lower than—the president and failed. In contemporary internet slang, Trump is a Chad, an alpha male who almost always comes out on top in any internet spat and dominates his opponents. Those on the receiving end—the weak, feckless losers of the internet—are termed Virgins. Since late February, though, the Chad in chief has run up against a challenger that has relegated him to Virgin status: the Islamic Republic of Iran. The war that the United States fought against Tehran, now in a shaky two-week cease-fire, has been accompanied by a social-media trolling contest. Much as Iran’s forces exceeded expectations against the world’s most powerful military, Iran’s social-media posters have held their own against, or even upstaged, the world’s loudest voice online. The most prominent example of Iran’s …

Microsoft’s Windows Insider Program is no longer a confusing mess

Microsoft’s Windows Insider Program is no longer a confusing mess

Ed Bott / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways Microsoft is making the Insider Program less complicated. Beta channel will be a more reliable preview of the next retail release. Other changes will allow testers to quickly enable/disable new features. Last month, Microsoft took official notice of its customers’ many complaints about Windows 11. Pavan Davaluri, the executive vice president who runs the Windows and Devices group, promised sweeping changes to Windows 11. Today, the company announced the first of those changes in a post authored by Alec Oot, who’s been the principal group product manager for the Windows Insider Program since January 2024. Those changes will streamline the Insider program, which has lost sight of its original goals in the past few years. (For a brief history of the program and what had gone wrong, see my post from last November: “The Windows Insider Program is a confusing mess.”) Also: If Microsoft really wants to fix Windows 11, it should do these …

Can homegrown brands like Yeo’s and Tiger keep their Singapore roots even if they are no longer made here?

Can homegrown brands like Yeo’s and Tiger keep their Singapore roots even if they are no longer made here?

Barely a week later, Yeo Hiap Seng, the maker of Yeo’s beverages, said that it would consolidate its can manufacturing to Malaysia, laying off 25 employees in the process.  Established in Singapore in 1938, Yeo’s first made its name in the domestic market through its soy sauce, and in the 1950s, it diversified into other products such as canned curry chicken, bottled soy milk and other Asian drinks.  The announcements by two Singapore icons made back-to-back led some people to wonder: “Which Singapore brand is next?”  Dr Samer Elhajjar, senior lecturer from the department of marketing at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School, said that this discomfort is a rational response. “Brands are part of national memory and industrial identity. When an iconic brand stops producing locally, people are not only mourning a beverage or a can line.  “They are reacting to the sense that another piece of everyday nationhood has become more abstract,” he added. “In small states especially, brands often carry outsized symbolic weight because they are among the few globally …

I’m no longer using Google Photos as just a cloud storage – 5 tools that elevate the app

I’m no longer using Google Photos as just a cloud storage – 5 tools that elevate the app

Google / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways Google Photos is more than just a storage tool. With these five tricks, you can up your Photos game. Each of these features is built into Google Photos. Google Photos is a necessity for anyone who uses Android and takes a lot of photos. With this app, you can organize, search, and even create. But did you know there were things you can do that go beyond the usual? Also: How I ditched Google Photos for my own private self-hosted alternative – for free Android users who want to level up their Google Photos game are in for a treat. And iPhone users should not feel left out, as the first four of these five tools will work in iOS, too, although the steps will vary. (Naturally, iOS users need to have the Google Photos app installed.) Check these out: 1. Create Reels If you’re seriously into social media, you’re no doubt familiar with Reels, Stories, …

Make Your MacBook Battery Last Longer With This Setting

Make Your MacBook Battery Last Longer With This Setting

If you own a MacBook and work from home, it’s easy to have your laptop plugged in for hours on end without thinking about the long-term battery life implications. Fortunately, Apple recently added a setting that lets you cap how high your Mac’s battery charges, and if you own an iPhone that was released in the last few years, you may already be familiar with it. Lithium-ion batteries generally degrade fastest when held at a high state of charge, which means keeping your iPhone or your Mac’s battery at 100 percent accelerates the chemical wear that permanently reduces its actual capacity over time. To mitigate this on iPhone 15 and newer models, Apple lets you set a Charge Limit that prevents your device from charging beyond 80, 85, 90, 95, or 100 percent. And in macOS Tahoe 26.4, Apple has brought over the same Charge Limit feature to Macs for the first time. This option differs from Optimized Battery Charging, which learns your daily routine and delays charging past 80 percent until you’re likely to …