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US DHS: Chinese criminal organizations made $1B+ in the past three years via scam texts; Proofpoint: last month, a record 330K US toll-scam texts were reported (Robert McMillan/Wall Street Journal)

US DHS: Chinese criminal organizations made $1B+ in the past three years via scam texts; Proofpoint: last month, a record 330K US toll-scam texts were reported (Robert McMillan/Wall Street Journal)

Robert McMillan / Wall Street Journal : US DHS: Chinese criminal organizations made $1B+ in the past three years via scam texts; Proofpoint: last month, a record 330K US toll-scam texts were reported —  Messages seeking payment for unpaid tolls or postage fees prompt victims to hand over credit-card information, which gangs use to buy gift cards and luxury goods

Windows 10 support has ended, but here's how to get an extra year for free

Windows 10 support has ended, but here's how to get an extra year for free

You'll get access to Windows 10 a little longer by doing this. (Getty Images) Still running Windows 10 on your PC? Did you know that as of October 14, Microsoft moved the software to its "end of life" phase? So while Windows 10 PCs will continue to work, they'll stop getting important security updates by default. The good news is you still have three options to make sure your computer remains secure: You can choose to upgrade to Windows 11 for free if your computer is compatible. You can buy a new PC that already has Windows 11 pre-installed (or opt for an alternative, like a Mac or a Chromebook). Forget about Windows 11 right now and sign up for the Extended Security Updates (ESU), which lets you kick the can down the road for a year. Option three is pretty easy — and can now be done for free in many cases — so we'll focus on that one here. We'll walk you through the steps of keeping Windows 10 on your PC… for now, at least. How to sign up for Windows 10 Extended Security Updates on your computer We can question Microsoft's motives for killing off Windows 10, even though it works perfectly well on most older PCs. But without those periodic security updates, your PC will become increasingly susceptible to malware with each passing week. To that end, enrolling in Extended Security Updates (ESU) will give you another year of using Windows 10 securely. At one point, Microsoft suggested the 12-month extension would require a $30 fee. While that's still an option, there's now a free path for Windows 10 users in the US. Here's how to make it happen. Step 1: Make sure your PC is up to date You can find out if your computer is up-to-date by going into your Settings > System > About, then scroll down to see what version you're running. If not, you'll want to make sure you also install all the Windows 10 updates available. Step 2: Make sure you're using an administrator account If you share a computer with multiple people in your household, make sure you're signed in to the administrator account. Typically, it's the first account created on the computer. You'll know it's the right one when you see "Administrator" under the name. (You can double-check under Settings > Your Info.) Step 3: Verify if your PC is eligible to upgrade to Windows 11 (or not) If you see an option to upgrade to Windows 11 , just do that. It's free and it keeps you in the Windows loop. Otherwise, continue following the steps below so you can keep your computer safe with security updates. Step 4: Enroll in Extended Security Updates Sign up for ESU by selecting Update & Security from the Settings menu. Click the "Enroll Now" sign-up link, as pictured below. Again, you may see an option to download Windows 11 if your computer meets the requirements (again, definitely do that if you see it). Find out if you need to update your computer. (Screenshot/Engadget) If you're not seeing the "Enroll now" link, you probably need to update and install the latest Windows 10 updates (as noted above). By enrolling in Extended Security Updates, you'll have another year before you need to upgrade to Windows 11. (Screenshots/Engadget) Step 5: Choose your upgrade method Next up is choosing how you want to enroll, and you have a few options. The easiest way is to back up your PC settings. It's free, but it takes a little bit of time since you'll need to back up your data. Again, you'll need to use your administrator account to get started. Back up your PC before you enroll in ESU. (ExplainingComputers via YouTube) That said, the free option here comes with two catches, at least for users in the US. (European users will get the free option with no strings attached .) The first is that you'll be linking your Windows login to Microsoft's cloud-based online service. Most users have likely already done this (if they're using CoPilot, Office 365, GamePass, OneDrive or one of Microsoft's other various online services). But if you've specifically opted for a local login to Windows, the price you're paying for this "free" extension is joining the cloud-connected Microsoft universe. The other potential issue is that the free backup only applies to the first 5 GB of storage . Anything more, and you’ll need to pay up for Microsoft's OneDrive services. But thankfully, you can turn off anything you don't want to back up by going to Settings > OneDrive and toggling off options like Documents, Pictures and Videos to get in under the free threshold to start. Once you're signed in, a window will pop up that says "Add this device to receive Extended Security Updates." Click Add Device to enroll it. Click Done. A note: Thanks to YouTube's Explaining Computers channel , where we grabbed the screenshot above (since our test PC was already signed up for cloud backups, and didn't provide the splash screen to choose options). You can watch their full video if you'd like a deeper dive into the process. That's it, you're done! (Until next year) You've got 12 more months to figure out an alternative upgrade path to Windows 11. If anything changes next year, we'll update this story with what your next steps are. You did it right if you see this window. (Screenshot/Engadget) This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/windows-10-support-has-ended-but-heres-how-to-get-an-extra-year-for-free-125118875.html?src=rss

Ball x Pit Review - Breathtaking Brick Breaking

Ball x Pit Review - Breathtaking Brick Breaking

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5 Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC Publisher: Devolver Digital Developer: Kenny Sun Release: October 15, 2025 Rating: Teen If I had a dollar for every Arkanoid-inspired, roguelite, post-apocalyptic fantasy, bullet hell, town-building simulation, arcade/action game, I’d have – well, precisely one dollar. Ball x Pit triumphs by taking familiar, approachable dynamics drawn from across the history of gaming, and layering them into an instantly understandable and immersive whole. It’s one of those surprise successes of a game that is easy to recommend to almost anyone for some simple fun, following in the footsteps of titles like Vampire Survivors to present a perfect zone-out and focus-in experience. In a loose narrative intro, we see the mighty city of Ballbylon destroyed by a massive glowing interstellar sphere, leaving behind a great pit. You must rebuild a town on the edge of that pit, and send brave souls into the depths to fight monsters and retrieve resources. It’s mostly silliness, beyond the establishment of a loose fantasy setting to serve as a backdrop to the action. After establishing the “story,” Ball x Pit is split into two distinct play loops, each feeding into the other. The core activity is an arcade-style brick-breaking mode, where you control townspeople as they flit about a vertically scrolling playfield down in the pit, firing off balls with various magical, explosive, or other effects. Balls can bounce against walls, as well as brick-shaped rows of enemy creatures that are inexorably marching down-screen. Like the classic games upon which it’s based, there’s a happy thrill to charting the physics and trajectory of your fire, maximizing the number of bounces, and the satisfying pop as each enemy clears from the field. Each run into the pit allows for resource collection, but also XP gems that gradually improve your destructive brick-breaking capability with passive abilities and better balls for that stage. In turn, leveling up also allows fusions and evolutions of those balls, leading to ever more frenzied screen displays. Perhaps you’ll poison the enemies before blasting them with lasers. Maybe you’ll blind them, and then send out balls that spawn additional baby balls upon each strike. Building the perfect combo is intensely gratifying. Over time, players also unlock additional characters, and I’m amazed by how much each character changes the nature of the game. One can shoot balls through enemy bricks. Another shoots balls from the back of the field. In every case, those new characters (and the upgrades you apply to them) change up the tactics of movement and aiming, and contribute to a growing sense of delight. Enemies are often more than blocky bricks, and leverage different attacks and techniques to force a strategic shift in how you’re engaging the battlefield. That’s especially true for each level’s mini-bosses and main bosses, which often add entirely new dangers, changing the screen into a bullet hell of projectiles. That can make for a nice challenge, but the pixelated art style doesn’t really support the level of precision dodging needed, which can be frustrating at the end of a 15-minute level attempt. I appreciate that a buried settings option adds a hitbox, but even with that activated, the bullet dodging feels imprecise. After each run, it’s back to the top of the pit, and the chance to build a town with your resources – the other core loop of play. New blueprints acquired in the pit can add additional global character upgrades, add new heroes to take into the pit, or expand your resources even further. In a nod to consistency, the ball-and-brick mechanic persists here in town, as each turn above ground lets you harvest with your growing population of townspeople, sending each bouncing back and forth across the city to build, upgrade, and snag wheat, wood, and stone. Freeform rearrangement of buildings and expansion of the buildable spaces encourages experimentation with placement to maximize your harvest, and it’s almost embarrassing how much time I spent tweaking my layout. If there’s a fault to Ball x Pit, it’s only that the repetition has a danger of sapping at least some of the fun in the later game, and likely before you see credits, since all levels must be beaten multiple times (with different characters) before you can progress. Once you grasp the fundamentals of the town simulation, late-game town development also grows a tad stale. The variation in playstyle and bonkers onscreen destruction is certainly enough to keep things amusing in perpetuity, which is why the addition of a higher-challenge New Game + is still worthwhile and welcome. Still, some of the challenge and sense of discovery falls away in those later hours. Even if some fraction of the joy drops off in the endgame, Ball x Pit remains a deeply entertaining update to an ancient arcade formula. It’s easy to lose yourself in the flow of the seemingly endless bouncing balls, and I was consistently eager to unlock new characters, levels, and new balls to experiment with in battle. This is one of those “don’t judge a book by its cover” sorts of games, where the real excitement only reveals itself once the controller is in your hands. It will only take a single level to make you a believer. Score: 8.75 About Game Informer's review system

An internal Google email said it received many complaints over Israeli government YouTube ads about food access in Gaza, but ruled the ads could remain online (Washington Post)

An internal Google email said it received many complaints over Israeli government YouTube ads about food access in Gaza, but ruled the ads could remain online (Washington Post)

Washington Post : An internal Google email said it received many complaints over Israeli government YouTube ads about food access in Gaza, but ruled the ads could remain online —  An internal Google email said it received many complaints about Israeli government YouTube ads about food access in Gaza, but ruled they could remain online.