Warmer weather often means travel—a fact that scammers know very well. You just want to plan your vacation, so they flood the internet with fake booking sites, phony emails, and bogus deal links to take advantage of the unsuspecting. To avoid losing your money to fraud, it pays to stay sharp when making reservations or buying gear for your trip. Fortunately, you can do so pretty easily if you ask yourself the questions below. Is the booking site you’re on legitimate? Whether booking direct on a carrier website or through a third-party online travel agency, make sure the website you’re on is legit.PCWorld You can save a lot of headache by double-checking the reservation website you’re on before committing to plans. For direct bookings, make sure the URL matches the known address. Scammers can buy a search engine sponsored link to promote false websites that look like the real ones. Or they can display copies of real websites when you enter the wrong address into your browser. For third-party travel sites, run a search to see if the online travel agency (OTA) is well-known, as well as what the reviews say about the booking process and customer support. Travel forums and Reddit are good sources for opinions, good and bad. Is that email deal real? The first Travelzoo email I ever got was a forward from a friend—and I spent some time checking out the source before clicking on any links.Travelzoo / PCWorld You should only be getting travel deal emails from sites you signed up for—and those messages should be easily traced back to legit senders. A first clue that an email is fishy: The sender email address doesn’t match the official URL. (e.g., deals@expedia.com)  To be more sure, you can dig into the message headers to see if the email was sent from a server owned by an official travel agency. In Gmail, you can click on the three-dot icon in the far right of a message, then choose Show original. Is the deal reasonable? ravel sites gush about this $275 suitcase—and it sells quickly whenever it goes on sale.Even before I looked up historical data, that tells me I’d still pay at least $200+ after the best discounts. (Research on Slickdeals bears that out.)Away / PCWorld Maybe you saw a deal shared on social media, or a friend forwards you a link. Whether shopping for a flight or hotel, or a new suitcase or power bank, go into your purchase knowing what a reasonable discount price is. For flights, hotels, car rentals, and cruises, you can compare costs against the big online travel agencies (Expedia, etc.) or find recent reports from people who’ve visited your destination. If a price seems absurdly low, you can gauge from online discussions if it’s reasonable. (e.g., I saw nonstop flights between San Francisco and Tokyo for under $600 on ZipAir, but didn’t recognize the airline. A little searching showed it was a new budget airline, and people had already tried it out.) For gear like power banks, suitcases, and the like, you can look up past deal prices for that model (or at least general style of the item) with a quick online search. You can also look up reviews—maybe a discount is unusually high due to a new version having released, or there’s a flaw that caused the product to be unpopular. Travel booking resources I like to use Current fares for SFO-JFK on Google Travel—September looks like a good time to visit.Google / PCWorld Deal hunting is one of my side hobbies, and for travel, I have a few sites that help me find good discounts with very little fuss. Google Travel’s flight search engine helps me see which dates have the cheapest prices for a particular route (e.g., SFO to JFK). I like this data because it’s the prices on the airlines’ direct sites, which I can then compare against online travel agency offers. Usually I book direct for better customer support, should something go wrong with my flight. Google Travel also offers a hotel search feature that lets you scout hotels and their prices near a given location (e.g., 6th and Canal in Manhattan). It gives a list of various third-party booking sites (some I think of as less established than others). I use that info to get an idea of what’s reasonable, and then I look directly on a hotel’s website for equal or better deals. (Booking direct sometimes works out more in my favor.) Costco comes through strong for its members, especially on car rentals. A second driver is included, and you can cancel your reservation any time before pickup without penalty. Depending on how good a deal you get on a vacation package or car rental, the savings can end up covering the cost of a yearly Costco membership for access. Finally, searching on Slickdeals.net helps me see historical data for previous deals on a given product. Sometimes none exists though, so then I turn to the Keepa.com extension to see if price history exists for the item on Amazon. Read...

In the last two years, Microsoft has invested a lot of money in the ChatGPT inventor Open AI and in its own AI developments. Since then, Microsoft has been equipping more and more programs with artificial intelligence, above all the Edge browser and Office programs. But AI is also finding its way into Windows. In this article, we present the new AI functions in Windows, the Windows apps, and Microsoft 365. Windows 11 Pro Artificial intelligence: Copilot Microsoft’s AI engine Copilot has been part of the operating system since Windows 11 23H2 for U.S. users, and is available via the Copilot app in the Microsoft Store for others. It can be integrated into the taskbar or simply accessed via the Start menu. The trick: The app simply links to Copilot in Edge, where the AI then runs as an independent program in its own window with a slightly different interface. However, Edge must be installed; the app will not work without the browser. You can chat with Windows Copilot and ask questions, which the AI assistant answers with the help of Bing. It displays the sources it has used. You can choose between “Creative,” “Balanced,” and “Accurate” conversation styles. However, the differences are hardly noticeable. The AI can also write letters, articles, and poems. With the help of Microsoft Designer and the support of the open AI tool Dall-e 3, Copilot can also generate images based on descriptions. Copilot is directly integrated into Microsoft’s Edge browser. You can ask the AI questions or have it summarize the currently open website.Mark Hachman / IDG The Edge browser has been equipped with Copilot since 2023. You can open the AI function via the icon in the top right-hand corner. Compared to the app, this has two advantages: Firstly, it allows you to ask questions directly about the website currently being accessed in the browser or request a summary of an online article. In the app, you can simply formulate a command such as “Summarize this article” and then add a link to the desired website. You can also activate Copilot plugins in Edge, such as Kayak for searching for flights, accommodations, and car rental, or Opentable for searching for restaurants. This is not possible in the Windows app. Further reading: The AI PC revolution: 18 essential terms you need to know Cocreator & Imager Creator: Create images in Paint The Windows drawing program Paint gets new features from time to time, most recently working on multiple layers and the AI function Image Creator were added — previously called Cocreator. Following this renaming to Image Creator, Cocreator is now available again in parallel, albeit with more advanced functions. However, most Windows users will not be able to use the new Cocreator, as it only runs on Copilot Plus notebooks (see box “AI processors in Copilot PCs”). The new Cocreator can now be found in the Paint toolbar alongside the Image Creator. The Image Creator is a slimmed-down version of the Bing Image Creator available online and Microsoft Designer. All three tools are based on Dall-e from Open AI and create images using descriptive text. You simply type in what you want to see and Image Creator creates a corresponding image. The Cocreator also works in the same way. However, while the Image Creator accesses Microsoft’s server resources on the internet, the Cocreator works locally on the computer and uses the NPU or the AI processor of the Copilot Plus notebooks. Local processing ensures better data protection, but Cocreator still requires an internet connection. Describe what you want Image Creator to create and select the desired style.Mark Hachman / IDG The Image Creator in Paint accepts your descriptions and generates images from them. You can choose between photos and different painting styles. Retouch photos with the Windows photo viewer The Windows Photo Viewer, simply called “Photos” in earlier versions, has had a generative erase function for a few months now. This allows you to selectively remove individual objects from a photo. The software fills the empty space amazingly well in the style of the image environment, the editing is often not recognizable. To do this, open the photo display by entering photos in the search field in the taskbar. In the program, click on the “All photos” icon on the left or on “Folder;” here you can add a picture directory to the program via “Add folder.” To open, double-click on an image in the preview and then click on the “Edit” button at the top left. Now select the “Delete” command and set the brush size on the right-hand side. The smaller the object to be deleted, the smaller the brush should be. Use the mouse to select the object to be deleted or the distracting area. As soon as you release the mouse button, the software starts working and retouches the photo. You can use the delete function in the Windows photo display to mark distracting objects. The software removes them and fills the space intelligently.Microsoft AI processors in Copilot Plus PCs The use of AI functions is very computationally intensive. For this reason, AI operations are currently mostly outsourced to the cloud, i.e. to the global data centers of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others. This causes potential problems with data protection, as the prompts, i.e. your queries, also end up with the IT companies and can therefore be assigned to you. At the same time, the AI operations in the data centers consume a lot of money and energy. The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge notebook is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor and thus belongs to the new class of Copilot Plus devices. Samsung This is why PCs have been developed that can also perform AI tasks locally. Microsoft certifies correspondingly powerful Windows computers with the “Copilot” logo. These new notebooks have been available since the summer, initially all models with a Snapdragon X processor from Qualcomm and Arm architecture. AMD now also offers a CPU for Copilot Plus, Intel follows with its Core Ultra 200V mobile processor. The CPUs in Copilot Plus PCs accelerate AI functions and calculations to such an extent that it is not necessary to move them to the cloud in most cases. These chips are known as Neural Processing Units (NPUs). Designer: AI functions in the Microsoft 365 apps Designer was initially only available in PowerPoint, but is now included in the Microsoft 365 word processor. You will therefore need a paid Personal or Family account to be able to use the AI functions. Corporate customers are currently excluded. With a 365 account, you can use Designer in the online version of Word and in the desktop and online versions of PowerPoint. The program appears in the “Start” ribbon in each case. In PowerPoint, give your first slide a title and call up the Designer. It suggests various design templates that match the theme of the presentation. However, this only works in English. Further reading: 9 free AI tools that run locally on your PC Advanced AI function Copilot Pro only with additional subscription If you click on “Test Copilot Pro” in one of the 365 programs under File > Account > Manage account > Account, you can play with the extended AI functions for the Office programs free of charge for one month. After that, the subscription costs $22 per month. After activation, the Copilot icon appears at the beginning of the line next to the cursor in Word. After clicking on it, you can send the AI a description of the type of text you need. For example, Copilot can write speeches on a given topic, create a template for a CV or write short stories. In Excel, Copilot automatically creates formulas and sorts, analyzes and highlights data. However, this only works in the online version of the program and the files must be stored in a Onedrive or Sharepoint folder. Although Microsoft has made improvements in the meantime, the AI in Excel is still not as good as we would like it to be. In Outlook, Copilot is also limited to the online version. There, the AI summarizes the content of emails and translates foreign-language emails into your language of choice. Copilot Pro can also compose messages itself based on a short description. Copilot Pro in the video editing tool Clipchamp and in Teams The video editor Clipchamp offers a little more AI. The tool displays the “Create video with AI” button on its start page. Click on it to call up an AI wizard, which you can use to upload the images and videos for the Clipchamp film. After asking for a few pre-settings, it combines the media into a new film. Music can also be added if required. In the online version, you will find additional functions supported by artificial intelligence. These include a text-to-speech module and a presentation coach that provides real-time feedback on camera recordings. Finally, the Teams video conferencing software has received AI support: Users can ask Copilot questions during a conference or also use it as a writing assistant that automatically formulates chat messages after a few keywords have been entered. You can also instruct the AI to summarize the content from chats and channels for you. The AI also translates foreign-language posts, which are displayed as subtitles in real time: However, “Live Captions” only runs on Copilot Plus notebooks. Microsoft waits for Recall When Microsoft announced the new AI function Recall in early summer, data protectionists expressed concerns. Microsoft Recall is supposed to take and save a screenshot every five seconds in the background. Using a timeline, users will then be able to see what they have been doing on their PC on a particular day and at a particular time. With the help of artificial intelligence, the information in the images was to be analyzed and made available for questions such as “Where did I last read something about Copilot?”. However, following protests, Microsoft has now put the project on hold for the time being. The function has now been implemented in the Insider pre-release versions. However, the function is not expected to be integrated into normal Windows before spring 2025 — and if it is, then presumably as an additional app to be installed, as with Copilot. The circle of potential users is also very limited, at least initially, because Recall requires a Copilot Plus PC. Read...

Video footage shows the car slipping off a road and washing down the flood-swollen Dart River. Read...

Being able to use an app on my phone to start my car and warm it up ten minutes before I leave on a cold morning is some real “living in the future” stuff. I love it. But connecting everything to everything does open up a lot of potential risk, and security researchers just demonstrated that. A four-person team recently discovered a way to remotely hack into almost every recent car made by Kia with little more than a mobile connection. They built a phone app that can scan the license plate of any car with Kia Connect functionality to gain almost total remote access to it. The tool works on Kia models as far back as 2014, with newer cars opening up more and more capabilities. On the latest Kia models, for example, the tool was able to track a car’s location via GPS, start and stop its engine, lock and unlock its doors, activate its lights and horns, and even peek through the car’s 360-degree cameras. Perhaps even more concerning is that the tool allowed them access to personal information on the car’s owner: Name, email and password for Kia Connect, along with an associated phone number and physical address were all available. These remote capabilities and information were exposed by the tool even when the owner of the car wasn’t actively subscribed to Kia Connect. The only limitation of the app-based tool was that it didn’t overcome an “immobilizer” component that prevents the car from being driven away without a key… though others have defeated those systems, too. Before you start panicking: Sam Curry and his associates informed Kia of the vulnerability back in June, and it was fixed in August, long before the exposé was published in Wired. The system and its proof-of-concept were tested “in the wild” on cars used by the team’s friends and families as well as vehicles not in use at rental agencies and dealers. It was never used to actually put real people in danger, and the vulnerability is now gone as far as the researchers and Kia can tell. But based on Curry’s public writeup of the hack, it’s actually shockingly simple. This isn’t the sort of thing the average person could do, but someone with a high school level of computer science knowledge could penetrate these systems put in place by a corporation that sells millions of cars every year around the globe. (And similar systems are being used in most of the new cars sold today, some of which have already been “hacked” in similar fashions.) Wired’s interview with Curry illustrates a nightmare example. “If someone cut you off in traffic, you could scan their license plate and then know where they were whenever you wanted and break into their car. Anybody could query someone’s license plate and essentially stalk them.” These are vulnerabilities that typical car buyers probably aren’t aware of, for which they aren’t prepared to defend against. The responsibility to protect the car and the person using it rests on the manufacturer… and it looks like they’re not living up to that responsibility. Read...

Rental services are everywhere now. If you can’t outright afford something pricey, you can usually find someone who will lend it to you for a monthly fee, whether it’s a home, a car, a couch, or a DVD. So, maybe it’s not all that surprising that someone is now renting out full-fat gaming desktop PCs, but it is surprising to hear that that “someone” is case and accessory maker NZXT. The NZXT Flex program at a glance The NZXT Flex program is essentially a monthly subscription for a beefy gaming PC. Prices range from $59 to $169 per month based on hardware configurations. The plans have no contracts so you can cancel at any time, and return shipping is free with a prepaid label. The company is offering three different pre-built models headlined by Nvidia RTX 3050, 4070 Super, and 4070 Ti Super graphics cards in order of ascending price. (The promo page says the Player One package uses an RTX 4060, but the RTX 3050 is currently live on the order page.) Each pre-built package comes in an NZXT-branded case: the H5 Flow, H5 Elite, and H7 Flow, respectively. But a gaming PC isn’t a couch—it will need periodic refreshes to stay relevant. According to the Flex program’s FAQ section, each PC package gets a free upgrade after you’ve stayed subscribed for two years. (The exact details of the upgrade aren’t spelled out, but presumably NZXT will bump the tiered packages up at some point.) To swap out your current subscription PC for a more powerful one before then, it’ll be a flat $100 charge plus the increased cost of the higher tier. To be clear, this is not a financing plan or a rent-to-own setup. If you rent an NZXT PC for ten years and then cancel, you’ll still have to send the PC back despite having paid far more than what it’s worth. Is the Flex program worth it? A little napkin math (and the aid of PCPartPicker) shows that over the course of two years, you’ll be paying significantly more than each PC is worth in terms of hardware at all three tiers. Granted, that napkin math doesn’t account for the markup of a pre-built PC, the shipping costs, or the hassle-free service. But even so, renting a gaming PC is indeed a “bad deal” in purely financial terms. (And you don’t need to do much research to determine that because NZXT is outright selling near-identical packages on the same page.) But that’s also true of pretty much any rental service. The value proposition here is two-fold: you don’t have to front all the cash of a big-ticket purchase, and you have the flexibility to cancel or upgrade on a whim. Plus, NZXT is offering a “lifetime warranty” with these Flex PCs, with free swap-outs for any serious issues except theft. So, the NZXT Flex program seems like a decent option if you just can’t cobble together the four figures needed for a top-notch gaming PC. Combine it with an Xbox Game Pass subscription for immediate access to lots of high-quality games. It’s also a low-hassle option if you’re new to PC gaming and want to try it with low commitment. (That’s especially useful if you’re a console gamer who’s intimidated by the platform.) Some caveats to keep in mind There are two provisos that give me pause. The NZXT Flex program doesn’t include a mouse, keyboard, monitor, headset, or speakers with the PC. If NZXT wants this to be a one-stop shop for prospective PC gamers, it’s a hard ask if the prospective buyer also needs to buy hundreds of dollars worth of accessories. NZXT’s FAQ also says that when you subscribe you’ll get a “new or like-new Gaming PC.” That sounds like NZXT will be refurbishing units after they’re returned and shipping them out to new subscribers. It makes sense from a business standpoint—the overhead would be massive if they built new PCs for every customer and sold the returned ones—but I can’t help but feel like a lot of players wouldn’t feel great about paying a premium for what’s essentially used hardware. Read...

Mary is a frail pensioner who is living out of her car after losing her rental property. Read...