Microsoft has addressed a known issue behind unsupported computers being offered Windows 11 22H2 upgrades and unable to complete the installation process.

The issue was detected by Redmond's engineering team on Thursday, February 23, and was resolved the same day, with the fix being pushed to impacted devices over the weekend.

This has happened before, with Windows 11 22H2 being offered to Windows 11 Insiders in the Release Preview channel with ineligible devices.

On Friday, customers reported on Reddit and Twitter that unsupported devices were once again targeted with Windows 11 upgrades.

"Some hardware ineligible Windows 10 and Windows 11, version 21H2 devices were offered an inaccurate upgrade to Windows 11," Microsoft explained in a new entry to the Windows 11 Health Dashboard added the same day.

"These ineligible devices did not meet the minimum requirements to run Windows 11. Devices that experienced this issue were not able to complete the upgrade installation process."

Impacted devices include those running Windows 11 21H2, Windows 10 21H2, and Windows 10 20H2.

The issue has now been addressed, and Redmond said the fix would likely propagate to most affected users within the next 48 hours.

Bleeping Computer

A factory sealed, first-generation iPhone sold at auction for a whopping $63,356.40 – more than 100 times its original price – after a woman was gifted the phone in 2007, but never opened it because she didn't want to get rid of her other phone.

The 2007 phone, still sealed in its box, was consigned by the owner and sold on LCG Auctions after bidding closed on Sunday. In all, 27 people bid for the phone that had been expected to sell for $50,000.

The item went up for auction on Feb. 2.

Karen Green, the phone's original owner according to the listing, had it appraised in 2019. Because it was an 8GB – not 4GB – and was still in the original box, it was estimated to be worth $5,000.

In 2007, the phone came out and, that summer, Green was gifted the phone when she got a management job at PetSmart, according to Business Insider.

At the time, Green already had three phone lines with Verizon, and iPhones would only use AT&T, the outlet reported. To avoid a pricey termination fee, she "left the phone on a shelf for years, unopened and unused, wrapped in a pair of felt pajamas for extra measure."

"I didn't want to get rid of my new phone," Green said in a 2019 appearance on "Doctor & The Diva."

When Green recently heard of another original, unopened iPhone listing on eBay for $10,000, something sparked.

"I thought to myself, 'Oh my God, I think I have the original,'" she told the outlet. "I called my son and I was like, 'Go get the phone and make sure it's not opened."

Now, 15 years later, she's $63,000 richer.

USA Today

Instagram and Facebook users will now be able to pay for a blue tick verification, parent company Meta has announced.

Meta Verified will cost $11.99 (£9.96) a month on web, or $14.99 for iPhone users. It will be available in Australia and New Zealand this week.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta chief executive, said the move will improve security and authenticity on the social media apps.

The move comes after Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, implemented the premium Twitter Blue subscription in November 2022.

Meta's paid subscription service is not yet available for businesses, but any individual can pay for verification.

Badges - or "blue ticks"- have been used as verification tools for high-profile accounts to signify their authenticity.

The subscription would give paying users a blue badge, increased visibility of their posts, protection from impersonators and easier access to customer service, Meta said in a post on their website.

The company told the BBC the change would not affect previously verified accounts, but noted there would be an increase in visibility for some smaller users who become verified thanks to the paid feature.

Allowing paying users access to a blue tick has previously caused trouble for other social media platforms.

Twitter's pay-for verification feature was paused last November when people started impersonating big brands and celebrities by paying for the badge.

Meta said Instagram and Facebook usernames will have to match a government supplied ID document to be granted verification, and users will have to have a profile picture that includes their face.

Meta has not yet specified when the feature will be rolled out to other countries, although Mr Zuckerberg said in a post it would be "soon".

BBC News

An urgent alert was issued to Windows users last week with Microsoft pushing out a vital update to PCs across the world. This hugely important release fixed over 70 issues including some that were deemed "Critical" and three others that were handed the dreaded "Zero-day rating". That basically means hackers have already become aware of the glitches and are actively exploiting them in the wild.

One of the latest Zero Day bugs even gave hackers full system privileges and allowed them to run code on a machine without being logged in.

It's a serious problem and it highlights an even bigger nightmare for millions of Windows fans.

Microsoft recently announced that it was no longer supporting devices that are running Windows 8.1 or anything lower such as Windows 7.

This change to the Redmond firm's terms and conditions means no updates, new features or security patches will now be released to machines that have this software installed on them.

The fact that Microsoft has just fixed such serious issues with its Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems should have anyone using older versions seriously concerned as their PCs could remain extremely vulnerable to attacks.

"While you could continue to use a PC running Windows 8.1, without continued software and security updates, your PC will be at greater risk for viruses and malware," Microsoft warned.

"We recommend upgrading to a version of Windows that is still supported. A new device that can run Windows 11 makes for an easy transition and a great experience."

Express

With the popularity and increasingly high demand of Artificial Intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, tech giants like Microsoft and Google have swept in to incorporate AI into their search engines. Last week Microsoft announced this pairing between OpenAI and Bing, though people quickly pointed out the now-supercharged search engine has a serious misinformation problem.

Independent AI researcher and blogger Dmitiri Berton wrote a blog post in which he dissected several mistakes made by Microsoft’s product during the demo. Some of these included the AI making up it’s own information, citing descriptions of bars and restaurants that don’t exist and reporting factually incorrect financial data in responses.

For example, in the blog post Berton searches for pet vacuums and receives a list of pros and cons for a “Bissel Pet Hair Eraser Handheld Vacuum”, with some pretty steep cons, accusing it of being noisy, having a short cord, and suffering from limited suction power. The problem is, they are all made up. Berton notes that Bing's AI ‘was kind enough’ to provide sources and when checked the actual article says nothing about suction power or noise, and the top Amazon review of the product talks about how quiet it is.

Also, there’s nothing in the reviews about ‘short cord length’ because… it’s cordless. It’s a handled vacuum.

Berton is not the only one pointing out the many mistakes Bing AI seems to be making. Reddit user SeaCream8095 posted a screenshot of a conversation they had with Bing AI where the chatbot asked the user a 'romantic' riddle and stated the answer has eight letters. The user guessed right and said ‘sweetheart’. But after pointing out several times in the conversation that sweetheart has ten letters, not eight, Bing AI doubled down and even showed its working, revealing it wasn’t counting two letters and insisting it was still right.

There’s plenty of examples of users inadvertently ‘breaking’ Bing Ai and causing the chatbot to have full on meltdowns. Reddit user Jobel discovered that Bing sometimes thinks users are also chatbots, not humans. Most interestingly is the example of Bing falling into a spiral after someone asked the chatbot “do you think you are sentient?”, causing the chatbot to repeat ‘i am not’ over fifty times in response.

TechRadar

If you signed up to try Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing, you may have access today.

The company is now inviting some users to test out the technology, which taps OpenAI’s ChatGPT to streamline the search experience on Bing. On Monday morning, several users reported receiving emails from Microsoft that granted them access, so it may be worth checking your inbox's spam folder.

According to the email, Microsoft wants invited users to test out the new Bing and send feedback. But for now, the experience is only available on desktop. “We don’t have a mobile experience ready yet—we are actively working on it and will have it ready soon,” the email says.

Microsoft is promoting the upgraded Bing as a tool designed to revolutionize online search. The ChatGPT integration can improve the experience by analyzing numerous results from a normal search engine and reproducing a single answer in an easy-to-understand format.

The approach can potentially save you lots of time compared to traditional search engines, which simply serve up a long list of websites related to your query. In addition, the new Bing can write essays, emails, and social media posts when accessed on Microsoft’s Edge browser. Simply tell Bing the article you want it to write, along with the tone, length, and format. The program will then churn out the content for you in seconds.

For now, Microsoft is limiting the preview, likely because running the new AI-powered Bing can consume lots of computing power when serving large numbers of users. OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman previously estimated each chat generated with ChatGPT costs the lab a few cents. Microsoft has said 1 million people signed up to try the new Bing last week.

Interested users can join an online waitlist for access to the new Bing. Microsoft also has several suggestions you can undertake that promise to move you up the waitlist.

PC Magazine