Month: September 2024
Microsoft explains how Windows 11’s controversial Recall feature is now ready for release – it’s coming to Copilot+ PCs in November
You’ll be getting Recall in November, if you want it – and Microsoft has made a lot of changes on the security front.
Microsoft has provided an update on Windows 11’s Recall feature – which has been on ice for some time now, since its revelation caused a massive stir due to security and privacy worries – and when it plans to forge ahead with the feature and bring it to Copilot+ PCs.
As the BBC reports, Microsoft said in a statement that the plan is to launch Recall on CoPilot+ laptops in November, with a bunch of measures being implemented to ensure the feature is secure enough detailed in a separate blog post.
So, what are these measures designed to placate the critics of Recall – a capability which is a supercharged AI-powered search in Windows 11 that leverages regular screenshots (‘snapshots’ as Microsoft calls them) of the activity on your PC – as it was originally envisioned?
One of the key changes is that Recall will be strictly opt-in, as Microsoft had told us before, as opposed to the default-on approach that was taken when the feature was first unveiled.
Microsoft notes: “During the set-up experience for Copilot+ PCs, users are given a clear option whether to opt-in to saving snapshots using Recall. If a user doesn’t proactively choose to turn it on, it will be off, and snapshots will not be taken or saved.”
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Also, as Microsoft previously told us, snapshots – and other Recall-related data – will be fully encrypted, and Windows Hello authentication will be a requirement to use the feature. In other words, you’ll need to sign in via Hello to ensure that it’s you actually using Recall (and not someone else on your PC).
Furthermore, Recall will use a secure environment called a Virtualization-based Security Enclave, or VBS Enclave, which is a fully secure virtual machine isolated from the Windows 11 system, that only the user can access with a decryption key (provided with that Windows Hello sign-in).
David Weston, who wrote Microsoft’s blog post and is VP of Enterprise and OS Security, explained to Windows Central: “All of the sensitive Recall processes, so screenshots, screenshot processing, vector database, are now in a VBS Enclave. We basically took Recall and put it in a virtual machine [VM], so even administrative users are not able to interact in that VM or run any code or see any data.”
For that matter, Microsoft can’t get in to look at your Recall data, either. And as the software giant has made clear before, all this data is kept locally on your machine – none of it is sent to the cloud (that could be a big security worry if it was). This is why Recall is a Copilot+ PC exclusive, by the way – because it needs a powerful NPU for acceleration and local processing for Recall to work responsively enough (as the cloud can’t be leveraged to speed up the AI grunt work).
Finally, Microsoft combats a previous concern about Recall taking screenshots of, for example, your online banking site and perhaps sensitive financial info – the feature now filters out things like passwords, credit card numbers and so on.
Other privacy tightening measures include the ability to exclude specific apps or websites from ever having snapshots taken by Recall (and we should note that private browsing sessions, such as Chrome’s Incognito mode, are never subject to being screenshotted – at least in supported web browsers).
An icon will appear in the taskbar when a Recall snapshot is being saved, incidentally, and it’ll be easy to pause these screenshots from there if you wish to do so.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Analysis: Recalled from the bench – but with a lot to prove
Microsoft has basically taken Recall back to the drawing board on the security and privacy fronts over the past few months, and in broad terms, the results deserve a thumbs-up. (Although let’s be honest, elements like the tight encryption should have been in place to begin with – and it’s a bit frightening that they weren’t).
If you’re still concerned about Recall despite these measures, you simply don’t have to enable it. And with it being off by default in a clear manner now, there’s no danger of less tech-savvy folks ending up using the feature by accident, without realizing what it is.
The path Recall is on now is that it’s returning to testing in October, so very soon, and with the release coming to Copilot+ PCs in November, it’s on something of a fast track to arrive with the computing public – well, those who’ve invested in a Copilot+ laptop anyway. We’re sure that for those folks, Recall will still be marked as in ‘preview’ and it’s debatable whether you should be taking the plunge with an ability like this when it’s not quite fully finished.
Of course, we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves here – the next step is for Recall to arrive in Windows 11 test builds, and see what Windows Insiders make of it. If problems crop up in those preview builds, we may yet see Recall delayed for release to Copilot+ PCs.
Microsoft is talking a much bigger security game for Recall here, without a doubt, and let’s hope there are no setbacks or mistakes in terms of actually implementing all of this. Given how the initial incarnation of Recall was put together – with a worrying lack of attention to detail – it’s easy to be cynical here, but presumably Microsoft is not going to fall into this trap again.
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Tractor Boys host a Villa side on a run of five straight wins.
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Never Let Go had a lot of promise but I’m tired of bad Hollywood endings
Never Let Go was let down by its ending and it’s a shame the movie ran out of steam.
Full spoilers for Never Let Go follow.
Never Let Go is the latest movie by hit production company Lionsgate, which is a studio known for the huge horror franchise Saw, as well as popular action franchises The Hunger Games and John Wick (which recently got a trailer for Ballerina). Although this creepy survival horror hit, which gave similar vibes to A Quiet Place, had potential, it really ran out of steam in the third act.
It is annoying that this appears to be a common occurrence with new movies. While I’m not entirely opposed to mystery and questions, sometimes it feels like the script was missing something and the result might leave audiences disappointed, and hungry for something they’ll never get to have. That was definitely the case with Never Let Go, which teased this great, evil threat and then fizzled out at the very end.
Movies shouldn’t have to over-explain what’s going on, but it’s nice when they give us something to work with. For me, Never Let Go was ambiguous to the point of being frustrating, leaving me with more questions than I had going in, which is never a good sign.
The evil, which is just named ‘The Evil’, is this apparent great threat that has taken over the world and leaving Momma (even she doesn’t have a name) and her two boys as the only survivors. By the end, we find out this is a lie, and it literally does not elaborate beyond that. The boys go off into this civilization they’ve been sheltered from their whole lives, and that’s it. We don’t find out what it is, if it was all in their mother’s head or if it’s some demonic figure isolated to their remote cabin.
The boys could not see The Evil, but it still doesn’t answer why it was so central to their lives for all these years. A lot of it didn’t add up and despite the good performances and the creepy atmosphere, the story was lacking compared to the best horror movies.
Should we completely do away with ambiguous endings?
Inception‘s final scene is an example of an open ending done right. (Image credit: Warner Bros)
No, not entirely, but they do seem to be happening in abundance and the result is not always good. But as we’ve seen throughout film history, it can be done very well. Take a look at Inception – one of the best Christopher Nolan movies – and its now iconic totem ending. We never get to find out if Cobb was in the real world or not, but given the richness of the hours that preceded that final shot, the ending is memorable. Frustrating, sure, but it’s great.
Never Let Go wasn’t able to reach those heights as we barely knew anything about the threat to begin with. There was little to keep the audience engaged, if anything I found myself braced for another jump scare where Momma would see another manifestation of The Evil but that was more to do with loud audio cues than me being scared of the antagonist. I don’t really care if I know nothing about what’s jumping out to scare me in the first place. Lore building is important.
Endings are tricky, but many big-budget movies are really struggling to stick the landing. A prime example of that is Lionsgate’s abysmal Borderlands, which insulted video game fans everywhere and then fizzled out into an unsatisfying conclusion. Not ambiguous, just boring. Can you tell I absolutely loved it? In all seriousness, if you want to read my takedown of Borderlands, here’s why I called it the death of good video game adaptations.
It’s not all bleak though, 2024 has seen plenty of great movies, and A24 in particular is leading the charge with recent movies like I Saw the TV Glow and MaXXXine, which was one of five A24 movies I couldn’t wait to watch in 2024 – both of which nailed that all-important finale. I just wish the bigger names would follow suit.
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Hitler Speeches Going Viral on TikTok: Everything We Know
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submitted by /u/BobbyLucero
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Why Stellantis, Owner of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram, Is Struggling
The automaker, created by a 2021 merger, is dealing with labor unrest, slumping sales and a revolt from its dealers.
The automaker, created by a 2021 merger, is dealing with labor unrest, slumping sales and a revolt from its dealers.
‘Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape’ review: A loving homage to an internet oddity
“Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape,” compiled by Jane Schoenbrun and Jordan Wippell, is a YouTube compilation that creates a space for outsider art. Review.
Underground web personality Kati Kelli died in 2019, leaving behind six years of her bizarre, avant-garde YouTube series Girl Internet Show. Lovingly curated by filmmakers Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow) and Jordan Wippell (Kelli’s widower), the loosely connected program is refashioned in cinematic form, albeit with minimum interference, in Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape.
The film is, as the title suggests, a playlist of various sketch videos run back to back, followed by Kelli’s first short film, which was completed just days before her death from asthma. This effectively makes it the most raw and unfiltered possible big-screen adaptation of her absurd work and eccentric persona, making for a surreal, fun, and disorienting 79 minutes.
What is Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape about?
With minimal interference, Wippell and Schoenbrun let Kelli’s comically disturbing work speak for itself, only providing brief text cards at the beginning and near the end for a smidge of additional context. All we really know about Kelli when the compilation begins is that she was homeschooled in Los Angeles.
This detail also proves subtly revelatory, but before it ever comes into play, the audience is whipped back and forth between ostensible video shitposts with cheap effects and narcissistic characters in a litany of wigs and outfits. The whole thing has a frenetic, DIY vlogger feel from the years before cheap but effective cameras and equipment were readily available, à la ring lights for Zoom meetings. However, Kelli’s rudimentary equipment seems like no hurdle to her gonzo creativity; in fact, her constraints enhance her aesthetic as something emanating from a lonely bedroom, made with no additional help.
That we never see anyone else is mildly curious — sometimes it appears as though her camera is being manually operated, but she also adds camera shakes in post production to create a handheld feel. Mostly, her work feels singular and strange, from her echoing sound effects and her casually macabre tone, to her mommy-blogger sketches in which she enacts hilariously twisted violence on dolls, all while maintaining a sunny disposition befitting of a mainstream personal brand. It’s cute and concerning all at once, a disconnect that runs through most of her sketches.
Finally, her short film Total Body Removal Surgery plays as a coda to the mixtape, allowing us to see Kelli with on-screen collaborators for the first time, albeit with the exact same esoteric vibe and no-budget approach. However, what’s mostly clear by this point is that, despite how playful and unserious her work might seem, there’s a prescience to it too.
Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape predicts the internet’s future.
Kelli may not have been a literal soothsayer, but she tapped into where online entertainment was headed, and how it was slowly reshaping culture, and she regurgitated it in wonderfully weird ways. Shades of future vlogging norms can be glimpsed in her parodies as well, especially the highly personality-driven content that now rules the YouTube algorithm.
But no matter her subject, Kelli always seemed to deliver her most acerbic jokes with sincerity. Spoofs and satires can be so easily laced with venom, but Kelli’s asides about her “mansion” and her numerous sped-up catwalks don’t so much make fun of lifestyle, fashion, and makeup vlogging — forms still in their infancy at the time — as they simply reflect and refract the online world as it existed at the time, and as it would continue to grow.
One character in particular, a dissatisfied, upper-class wife named Marva, is particularly fun to watch, in a Brian Jordan Alvarez kind of way, wherein her affirmations hide a deep malaise. This dissonance between presentation and reality underscores pretty much all of Kelli’s videos. It’s a great running gag no matter in which direction her humor darts off — but at the same time, it proves self-reflexive too.
While simply pressing play on a video mixtape may not fit the traditional confines of filmmaking, crediting Kelli as the writer, director, and editor allows Wippell and Schoenbrun to present her as she may have wanted to present herself. However, watching all these works in quick succession also threads an important thematic needle.
Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape is a film about loneliness.
Between Kelli’s homeschooling, the fact that her work seems made with little to no help, and that she often deals in broad caricatures of pop culture (some of it Kardashian-esque), it’s hard not see her as alone in some way. Schoenbrun’s involvement is key here, as both their films — I Saw The TV Glow, but especially We’re all Going to the World’s Fair — deal with haunting forms of millennial ennui. The latter even revolves around online creepypasta and video challenges as a window to emotional connection, with a protagonist who peers out into the void through her webcam.
It’s hard not to see echoes of Schoenbrun’s work in this film, or rather, reasons Schoenbrun might have been drawn to Kelli, who seems to similarly peer out into the world from an isolated vantage. Her characters and scenarios all have hints of the real world, but seem to process reality through layers and filters of entertainment, like reality TV. Kelli more than likely had friends — Wippell may have even been holding the camera at times, though that’s left unclear — but the version of her that ends up in her videos, and her droll authorial voice, seem desperately lonely.
From its cheap compositing and repetitive cuts to its eerie silences and harsh noise, Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape joins the ranks of recent web-saturated films (alongside The People’s Joker) that speaks the language of the burgeoning internet, as a tool to express oneself and find connections. It’s no doubt hyper-specific in its conception — few outside of underground genre festivals will even find themselves interested — but the film is also freeing in a way, as a montage of found footage that helps carve out a cinematic space for off-beat outsider art from a place of disguised, disfigured honesty.
Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape was reviewed out of its screening at Fantastic Fest.