Sometimes, Fridays don’t stick to the slow-news-day script. Sometimes, they like to deliver a horse-kick to your IT systems, followed by a global tech meltdown of epic proportions. That’s what most of us woke up to today, thanks to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike delivering some bad code to countless Microsoft Windows customers – customers who run health, travel, TV networks, and other businesses, enterprises, and infrastructure-level services that impact everyday people. Cases in point: millions stuck at airports, others unable to access healthcare systems. The list goes on.
The good news is that, as you’re reading this, CrowdStrike has resolved the issues and delivered the necessary updates, and most systems are coming back online. Even so, we won’t soon forget The Real Y2K moment of 2024, and questions will persist about what happened, why, and how we prevent such incidents in the future.
It was such a crazy morning that I almost forgot about all the other awesome stuff we did this week. Once again, there’s been a ton of steady, low-grade AI news to consider, from ChatGPT rivals like Claude on Android (finally) to AI that can do research without you.
Apple dropped all its public betas, and we’ve been poring over them – especially iOS 18, which has gotten a lot of new customization capabilities. And I was especially excited by all the hands-on pro-level camera testing our Cameras Editor Timothy Coleman’s been doing – and the best part is that we get to enjoy some of his truly excellent photography.
Okay, I have to get back to tracking the recovery from this CrowdStrike mess. You can read up on that, and all of the week’s other big news, in the articles linked below.
It's not been a happy Friday for CrowdStrike, as one of its software updates crippled Windows systems across the world, affecting hospitals, banks, airlines, broadcasters, and more. We've got all the details on what happened, and the considerable fallout.
According to a new report, ChatGPT developer OpenAI is busy working on new AI models that are better at reasoning, and that can carry out research tasks without human help. If this was the start of a science-fiction movie, we'd be somewhat concerned.
Apple has pushed out the public beta of iOS 18 for anyone who wants to try it on their iPhone, but despite some interesting improvements there's the unmistakable feeling that something is missing: all the Apple Intelligence features that are due later this year.
The EOS R1 is one half of the most exciting Canon camera launch for a long time, and TechRadar's Tim Coleman has been busy putting the high-speed sports shooter through its paces with an action photography session – and he came away very impressed.
Another week is over, so it’s time to kick back and enjoy a veritable bounty of movies and shows on the best streaming services, including the return of Cobra Kai on Netflix, and new movies like Young Woman and the Sea and Those About to Die.
