#software
- The Software Year That Ended With Everything on Fire
Looking back at 2021's biggest software and security stories, from Log4Shell to Copilot to Gopher, as the year closes out.
- Skillsoft Buys Codecademy for $525 Million: What It Means for Learn-to-Code
Corporate e-learning giant Skillsoft is acquiring Codecademy in a ~$525 million cash-and-stock deal, betting big on developer upskilling.
- Patch Tuesday Lands on Windows 11 While the Internet Fights Log4Shell
Microsoft's December cumulative update brings fixes and small UX polish to Windows 11, arriving as IT teams scramble to contain Log4Shell.
- Log4Shell Just Dropped and the Internet Is on Fire
A critical remote-code-execution flaw in the ubiquitous Log4j library was disclosed today as CVE-2021-44228, and exploitation is already underway.
- Jack Dorsey Is Out at Twitter — Now What?
Dorsey stepped down as Twitter CEO and handed the reins to Parag Agrawal, ending an era defined by his split attention with Square.
- Jack Dorsey Steps Down as Twitter CEO
Dorsey resigned as Twitter CEO today, handing the reins to CTO Parag Agrawal while staying on as Square's chief.
- Microsoft Ignite Makes Its Pitch: Windows 11 Is the Hybrid Work OS
At Ignite, Microsoft leaned hard into Windows 11 for enterprises, expanded Windows 365, and previewed autoscaling for Azure Virtual Desktop.
- Low-Code Is Eating the Backlog
Why Power Apps, Airtable, Retool, and Bubble are showing up in every software team's toolkit this year.
- Bitcoin Just Blew Past Its Old Ceiling
Bitcoin hit a fresh all-time high near $69,000, and Taproot plus inflation fears are doing a lot of the pushing.
- Rust's Third Edition Is Here, and It's Barely Noticeable (That's the Point)
Rust 1.56 shipped the 2021 Edition with small, opt-in changes that quietly smooth out years of rough edges.
- Intuit Officially Owns Mailchimp Now
Intuit closed its roughly $6.3 billion acquisition of Mailchimp, folding the email-marketing giant into its small-business software stack.
- Facebook Is Now Meta, and It's Betting the Company on the Metaverse
Facebook's parent company rebranded as Meta at Connect, reorganizing around Zuckerberg's metaverse ambitions just days after the Facebook Papers hit.
- macOS Monterey Lands, and Apple Finally Drops the OS X Numbering
Apple's macOS Monterey ships today with Universal Control, iOS-style Shortcuts, and cross-device Focus modes.
- Bitcoin Gets a Wall Street Wrapper, and Google Finally Shows Its Chip
ProShares' Bitcoin Strategy ETF stormed onto the NYSE the same day Google took the wraps off the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.
- The SEC Just Let Wall Street Buy Bitcoin Without Buying Bitcoin
The SEC has cleared ProShares' Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) to launch on the NYSE, the first U.S. Bitcoin futures ETF.
- Silverlight Is Officially Dead, and Almost Nobody Noticed
Microsoft ended support for Silverlight on October 12, 2021, quietly closing the book on the browser plugin era that Flash's death began.
- Twitch's Nightmare Week: A 125GB Leak and a Scramble to Contain It
An anonymous leak of Twitch's source code and payout data forced the platform into emergency damage control this week.
- Windows 11 Is Here, and the TPM Wall Is the Real Story
Windows 11 began rolling out October 5 as a free upgrade, but its TPM 2.0 and CPU requirements are locking out a surprising number of otherwise capable PCs.
- Android 12 Is Here, and Your Phone Is About to Match Your Wallpaper
Google officially released Android 12 today, led by the Material You design system that builds a color theme from your wallpaper.
- Windows 11 Arrives This Week — What Actually Changed
A look at what's really new in Windows 11 ahead of its October 5 rollout, from the redesigned Start menu to the Android apps that aren't ready yet.
- iOS 15 Lands: Focus Mode, Live Text, and a FaceTime That Finally Gets Serious
Apple's iOS 15 rolled out today with Focus mode, Live Text, and big FaceTime upgrades — here's what actually matters.
- Windows 11 Gets a Launch Date: October 5
Microsoft confirms Windows 11 begins rolling out October 5, 2021, with a redesigned Start menu, centered taskbar, and deeper Teams integration.
- El Salvador Just Made Bitcoin Legal Tender. It Did Not Go Smoothly.
El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender today, with a rocky Chivo wallet rollout and a sharp price drop on launch day.
- Windows 11 Finally Gets a Release Date
Microsoft confirms Windows 11 launches October 5, with a phased free upgrade rollout starting on newer eligible PCs.
- Microsoft Is Teasing a Windows 11 Launch Date, and the Internet Noticed
Microsoft dropped hints today pointing toward an imminent Windows 11 release-date announcement after a summer of Insider previews and TPM 2.0 controversy.
- NortonLifeLock and Avast Are Joining Forces, and It Says a Lot About Where Security Is Headed
NortonLifeLock's roughly $8 billion deal to acquire Avast consolidates two of the biggest names in consumer antivirus software.
- Apple's iCloud Photo Scanning Plan Is a Privacy Minefield
Apple's new on-device CSAM detection for iCloud Photos aims to fight child exploitation but opens a surveillance debate security researchers can't ignore.
- Poking Around the Windows 11 Insider Builds
A look at what's actually in the early Windows 11 Insider Preview builds ahead of a promised Holiday 2021 launch.
- Apple's $81.4B Quarter Shows the Chip Shortage Isn't Slowing Everyone Down
Apple posted a record fiscal Q3 with $81.4B in revenue, but warned supply constraints will bite harder next quarter.
- Kaseya Finally Gets Its Decryptor — Three Weeks Late
Kaseya says a "trusted third party" handed it a universal REvil decryption key, three weeks after the ransomware attack locked out roughly 1,000 businesses.