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23 May 2025

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BeyondTrust recognised as leader in secrets management
BeyondTrust named Overall Leader in the 2025 KuppingerCole Leadership Compass for Enterprise Secrets Management, praised for secure, scalable secrets solutions.

This ultra-portable Sonos Bluetooth speaker just hit its lowest price
Sonos is one of the better audio brands out there, but we rarely see significant deals on their products. That’s why today is a special day. Right now, the Sonos Roam 2 portable Bluetooth speaker just got its largest discount to date, bringing it down to $134 (25% off). This kind of discount is notable for just about any Bluetooth speaker, but particularly noteworthy for Sonos speakers. The Roam 2 is gorgeous with its sleek design and elegant build, while being compact and lightweight so it can join you outdoors with ease. It’s perfect whether you’re spending a day by the pool, at the beach, or in your backyard. It’s not just durable, but also comes with an IP67 waterproof and dustproof rating so it can survive your adventures in inclement weather. When we reviewed the original Sonos Roam, we gave it a 4.5-star rating and loved how small and lightweight it was along with the awesome features it brought to the table. The fact that it worked with Alexa was the cherry on top, allowing it to be used as a smart speaker. The newer Roam 2 has the same audio quality but better design and battery life, with a single charge able to keep the party going for up to 10 hours—a decent amount of time considering the speaker’s tiny size. With this being the best price we’ve ever seen for the Sonos Roam 2, there’s never been a better time to get one. Snag it now on Amazon for just $134 to level up your parties and adventures! Or check out some of our other favorite smart speakers for smart homes. The Sonos Roam 2 has never had a discount like this beforeBuy now at Amazon

Signal blocks Windows Recall’s all-seeing AI screenshots with a clever DRM hack
Signal has become a go-to chat and communications platform for users who want the peace of mind of secure, end-to-end encryption. It’s recently gotten a lot of free publicity thanks to some questionable applications of its tech, but the company has never wavered in its dedication to privacy. Following that mantra, Signal is blocking functionality for the new Windows Recall. Windows Recall is one of the most visible and divisive features of Windows on enhanced “Copilot+” PCs, taking screenshots every few seconds and allowing the user to search through a history of their own activity. It’s certainly interesting tech, but it’s also a privacy nightmare, which is part of the reason Microsoft delayed its rollout for the better part of a year. Initially intrigued, PCWorld’s Mark Hachman now recommends that you turn Recall off as Microsoft rolls out the full version to millions of users. The developers of Signal appear to agree with Mark. The latest version of the Windows app will simply appear as a blank black window if you try to record its activity with Windows Recall. It’s similar to the implementation of DRM in streaming services — you might have tried to take a screenshot of a Netflix show, only to get a blank black screen. Signal is using built-in functionality in Windows and Recall, working as intended. Any developer can flip that DRM switch and keep Recall from recording its activity by default. “Apps like Signal have essentially no control over what content Recall is able to capture, and implementing ‘DRM’ that works for you (not against you) is the best choice that we had,” explains Signal developer Joshua Lund. This isn’t without complications. Accessibility tools, such as magnifiers or text-to-speech readers, rely on the same sort of automatic screenshot functionality to help visually impaired users. With this in mind, the Signal app has an option to turn the screen security feature off (Settings>Privacy>Screen security). Users will have to click a verification when turning the setting off, but disabling that should allow Windows Recall to record Signal just like any other Windows app. Lund didn’t pull any punches in the announcement post, with harsh words for Microsoft. In fact his criticisms are so good I’m just going to let him close out this article: “Take a screenshot every few seconds” legitimately sounds like a suggestion from a low-parameter LLM that was given a prompt like “How do I add an arbitrary AI feature to my operating system as quickly as possible in order to make investors happy?” — but more sophisticated threats are on the horizon…It’s ultimately up to companies like Microsoft to ensure that their platforms remain a suitable foundation for privacy-preserving applications like Signal. If that ever stops being the case, we’ll have to stop supporting those platforms.”

An America's Cup without an American boat? American Magic says it may not sail in Naples
American Magic has raised concerns about the “transparency” of Team New Zealand's decision to hold the 2027 regatta in Italy.

We finally got to sniff scented thermal paste — and we got it on video
Thermal paste, the heat-transferring goop that goes between a computer chip and whatever you’re using to cool it down, is boring. Does it work? Is it efficient? That’s all I care to know. But PCWorld’s Adam Patrick Murray, veteran technology journalist and scent savant, has been hunting scented thermal paste for years. He found it at Computex 2025. ID-Cooling is the vendor, Frost X55 is the paste. It’s being offered in five different scents: Luna, Viola, Bella, Poma, and unscented. If you want to watch Adam shove little capsules of smelly chemicals under his nose, see below for the video. Enjoy. The specific “flavors” of scent aren’t often hitting the mark. “I don’t mean to be mean, it’s not a bad scent, but it kinda smells like diapers,” said Adam when sniffing the Viola flavor, which is supposed to be floral. “No, no, no, no, no, a clean diaper, let me clarify! A clean diaper is what it smells like, not a dirty diaper!” ID-Cooling will be selling the paste in the usual squeeze tubes. But I wonder how much of the scent will actually make its way into the room after you’ve used it in a desktop PC. “I’d be willing to pay extra for comparable, or maybe even less performance, just to get this scent in my house,” says Adam. For more live coverage of Computex, be sure to subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube and check out our weekly podcast The Full Nerd.

This mom’s teen watched porn on her laptop. Now she’s suing for $200k
Here’s a rather curious case: A woman from Kansas is suing the providers of several pornography websites for high damages. After her 14-year-old son secretly used an old laptop to watch adult content, she’s demanding a sum total of $200,000. Sounds weird, right? As reported by Fox News and later by 404 Media, the mother wanted to prevent her underage child from being exposed to pornographic content while he was still “at an important developmental stage in his life.” She was monitoring all devices closely, but overlooked the fact that an old laptop was still in working order and within the child’s reach. Since August 2024, her son had been using this laptop to consume “hardcore pornography” on sites like Chaturbate, Jerkmate, and Superporn, all of which are now being sued by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) and a Kansas law firm. The websites should have checked for age The lawsuit is based on a new law that came into force in Kansas and more than 20 other US states in July 2024, which requires porn sites to verify the ages of their users. These particular porn providers had not complied with this new legislature. According to the law, any website that offers at least 25 percent of content that’s harmful to minors, including nudity and sexual acts, must set up methods for age and identity verification. As a rule, this is done by means of an ID check or similar. Also according to the law, legal guardians may take legal action if their children nevertheless gain access to pornography sites. In one case, Chaturbate did have an age verification mechanism set up, but it was apparently “child’s play” to bypass it and the 14-year-old child was able to continue watching videos without any problems. Mental trauma due to porn consumption The mother states in the lawsuit that her child has suffered pain, suffering, disability, disfigurement, mental anguish, psychological harm, past and future loss of enjoyment and pleasure in life, and past and future costs for necessary medical care and treatment, all due to the consumption of hardcore pornographic content. She’s therefore seeking $50,000 in damages in each of four separate lawsuits against four different pornography providers, for a sum total of $200,000. One of the providers, the company Multi Media LLC, describes the lawsuit as “completely unfounded” but could quickly have problems arguing its case in court if its age verification mechanisms don’t comply with the legal requirements. In any case, the law on US state age verification for adult content (which can be read here) requires adult site providers to use a database that’s regularly used by businesses or government agencies for the purpose of age and identity verification, or is otherwise appropriate for age verification. The court must now decide whether this was the case.