Microsoft halts its $1 Xbox Game Pass trial offer

Photo: Microsoft

Microsoft is stopping its $1 trial offer for the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. This offer has been available for years, with brief periods where it wasn't available. But now, Microsoft says it's considering other promotions in its place. This $1 trial allowed users to sign up for Xbox Game Pass for a month before the full Xbox Game Pass subscription kicks in. It costs CAD 11.99 per month for the console and PC subscription and CAD 16.99 monthly for the Ultimate membership for console and PC, EA Play, Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Cloud Gaming.

Microsoft currently offers a Friends & Family plan for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate in some markets. It benefits up to four other friends or family members, with pricing starting at EUR 21.99 per month in Ireland (around CAD 32).

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Some of Twitter's source code was reportedly leaked on Github

Photo: Jorge Urosa/Pexels

Things continue to work against Twitter as a court filing published on Friday revealed portions of the social media site's source code (the programming that makes it possible) have been leaked online. According to the filings, Twitter claimed copyright infringement to have the offending code taken down from Github's collaborative programming network. The code was removed the same day. But it's unclear how long it was left up and the scope and depth of the leak.

Twitter is also asking the US District Court for the Northern District of California to order Github to reveal the identity of the user who posted the code and those who accessed and downloaded it. Based on the New York Times reports, Twitter executives strongly suspect it's the work of a disgruntled former employee who left "withing the last year." The executives who spoke to NYT primarily worry the stolen code could empower future hacking efforts.

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WhatsApp gives admins easier control over who can join groups

Image: WhatsApp

A recent update to WhatsApp simplifies how admins manage membership. You can quickly access all the requests to join a group in one place. You can click on an "X" or a checkmark to either reject or approve a user.

The new update also makes it easier to find out which groups you have in common with your contacts. You can now search for a contact's name to see which groups you have in common. These features come months after WhatsApp launched Communities, a new feature that offers larger, more structured discussion groups. You can expect this update to come in the next few weeks. 

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Microsoft pushes out a fix for Windows 11 screenshot privacy bug

Image: Microsoft

The "aCropalypse" security flaw wasn't just limited to Google. Microsoft started testing a fix for the vulnerability when it was discovered earlier this week. Now, the company rolls out a pair of emergency updates to address the issue affecting the native Windows 10 and 11 screenshot editing apps (Windows 11's Snipping Tool and Windows 10's Snip & Sketch, respectively). 

You can manually prompt Windows to patch the app you use by opening the Microsoft Store and clicking on "Library." Then you need to click on "Get Updates." Microsoft recommends all users install the updates. The flaw affected programs like Windows 11's Snipping Tool which wouldn't properly overwrite cropped PNG data. It didn't affect all PNG files, but there was still concern that bad actors could exploit the vulnerability to partially recover edited images. Unfortunately, this won't protect images previously created with Microsoft's screenshot tools.

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