While Excel feels like an old-school spreadsheet program compared to some other sleek and sophisticated CRM solutions, it’s the only tool you really need for customer relationship management. Before you shell out for that pricey CRM subscription, consider using Excel. Microsoft’s trusty workhorse boasts impressive features, flexibility, and ease of use to make it a viable alternative for small businesses and individuals with straightforward needs. Here are the top reasons why Excel might just be the underdog champion of CRM.

Image: Vizio After announcing plans to acquire Vizio in February, Walmart officially owns the company after the $2.3 billion transaction closed on Tuesday. The retail giant says the acquisition will help bolster its advertising business, as Platform Plus — the TV-maker’s advertising and data division — “accounts for all the company’s [Vizio's] gross profit.”All that data will be a boon for Walmart’s growing advertising business, which has already started leveraging shopper information to target ads on Disney Plus and Hulu. The move will likely open up more opportunities for Walmart to sell more ads on Vizio TVs in stores, something it talked about expanding earlier this year, and maybe even stick ads on the Vizio TVs in people’s living rooms.The deal has raised concerns among privacy advocates, as Vizio has gotten in trouble over advertising and data tracking in the past. In 2017, it paid a $2.2 million fine to settle a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit that accused it of tracking viewers without their consent.An acquisition by Walmart could help Vizio compete with other budget-friendly TV brands that rely on advertising as a significant source of revenue. Roku, which started selling its own TVs last year, made $908.2 million in advertising sales and subscriptions in the third quarter of 2024, with an average revenue per user of $41.10, while Vizio’s last earnings report showed it was making about $37.17 per user.There’s also Amazon’s ad-friendly Fire TVs, Telly — the company that promises free TVs in exchange for showing persistent advertisements, and an incoming platform from advertising firm The Trade Desk that Sonos will use.Despite the acquisition, Walmart and Vizio will continue operating independently “for the foreseeable future.” Vizio CEO William Wang will also remain in his position.“VIZIO has also expertly changed their business over time, like building and quickly scaling a profitable advertising business,” Seth Dallaire, the executive vice president and chief growth officer of Walmart US, said in the announcement. “Pairing it with Walmart Connect will be impactful and allow us to invest in our business even further on behalf of our customers.”

With Windows 10 leaving support in October 2025, people are looking for ways to upgrade to Windows 11 without destroying perfectly good hardware. However, people have held hope that Microsoft would back off the operating system's TPM 2.0 requirement, the biggest pain point keeping older hardware from getting official support. It was a long shot, but it was possible. Well, it turns out that Microsoft has thoroughly dashed that hope, signaling that people have to upgrade or get left behind.

Keeping your Windows system secure is vital for the operating system on your PC, and it takes some time and diligence. However, Microsoft has built several security measures into Windows that work out of the box to help you along the way. For example, there is a built-in Windows Security app where you can manage security options including real-time virus scans, Firewall settings, and advanced security like ransomware protection.

Illustration: The Verge Microsoft is asking the inspector general at the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether agency management improperly leaked news of its antitrust investigation into the company, and make their findings public.Bloomberg first reported that the probe was underway last week, which The Verge later confirmed. The investigation covers Microsoft’s cloud and software licensing businesses, AI, and cybersecurity offerings.Now, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and deputy general counsel Rima Alaily is accusing FTC management of leaking details of the probe, in violation of the agency’s own ethics guidelines. The agency instructs new employees that “the existence of an FTC investigation is nonpublic information,” though it may be disclosed after the Office of Public Affairs determines the target of a probe already made it public in a press release or government filing. Still, the guidelines add that the Commission has authority to make “appropriate disclosures” when “it determines that doing so would be in the public interest.”Alaily writes that the information and sourcing in the Bloomberg story “strongly suggests” the details came from “within the FTC.” She says that the story “appears to be consistent with an unfortunate trend over the last two years of the FTC strategically leaking nonpublic information,” citing a September report from the FTC IG that found a “steadily increasing” volume of “unauthorized disclosures” of nonpublic information to the press. The FTC declined to comment on the Microsoft letter.Microsoft claims it learned about the FTC’s information demand “like the rest of the world, through the Bloomberg story.” Even when it inquired with FTC staff about the validity of the story, Alaily says, they wouldn’t confirm the information demand existed, and she adds that Microsoft still hasn’t seen the information demand reported by the press.The letter is the latest example of a more aggressive approach Microsoft has taken in recent months when it comes to antitrust scrutiny of its business. In October, Alaily accused Google in a blog post of launching an astroturf group “to discredit Microsoft with competition authorities, and policymakers and mislead the public.”Microsoft has mostly flown under the radar in past years as a target of antitrust lawsuits while its Big Tech peers were hit with complaints from US regulators. But it’s increasingly faced scrutiny in both the US and in Europe amid major cybersecurity issues, its acquisition of game studio Activision Blizzard, and its partnership with OpenAI. Still, the fate of any existing investigation will ultimately depend on how officials in the incoming Trump administration view the matter.

Image: Ubisoft Despite only officially launching the game in spring of this year, Ubisoft has already announced that it’s ending development and sunsetting its free-to-play team-based shooter XDefiant. Like Hyper Scape before it, XDefiant had high expectations, with Ubisoft touting more than 1 million players in its closed beta last year. Now, it will disappear quickly, as it’s no longer accepting new players as of today and is scheduled to shut off the servers entirely next June.Despite a delayed launch, Ubisoft said that XDefiant had reached more than 10 million players in its first two weeks and “outperformed expectations thanks to acquisition and strong average revenue per session day.” However, it couldn’t maintain that momentum, and by this fall, rumors of trouble surfaced, with Insider Gaming reporting that concurrent player numbers across all platforms had fallen below 20,000.Ubisoft states, “The game will remain available to all players who joined XDefiant before December 3rd, 2024. All functionalities, including progression, events, rewards, and achievements, will continue to be available until June 3rd, 2025.” The planned Season 3 content will still launch, and the company is refunding anyone who bought the Ultimate Founders Pack, as well as players who bought VC and DLC in the last month.Like with Concord developer Firewalk Studios, this shutdown comes with job losses. According to Ubisoft, “difficult consequences” are leading to “the closing of our San Francisco and Osaka production studios and to the ramp down of our Sydney production site, with 143 people departing in San Francisco and 134 people likely to depart in Osaka and Sydney.”

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is banning data brokers Gravy Analytics and Mobilewalla from collecting, using, and selling “sensitive” location data of Americans, the agency announced on Tuesday. The FTC targeted Gravy Analytics, its subsidiary Venntel, and Mobilewalla for allegedly violating the FTC Act by collecting and selling information that could be used to track people to healthcare facilities, military bases, religious sites, labor union gatherings, and other sensitive locations.The FTC says (PDF) Mobilewalla “relied primarily on consumer information that Mobilewalla collected from real-time bidding exchanges” by bidding to show people personalized ads on their mobile devices and then retaining tracking info identifying them. It also bought info from other sources and used additional data to build out the profiles attached to each advertising ID. Combining that data, according to the complaint, allowed Mobilewalla to create audience segments targeting pregnant women, as well as provide analysis of people who attended protests over the death of George Floyd.Meanwhile, Venntel’s scheme is explained (PDF) as collecting location data from otherwise ordinary mobile apps, and then selling access to the data to other businesses or government agencies. 404 Media reports that the IRS, DEA, FBI, CBP, and ICE have all purchased Venntel data.Now, the companies must comply by never “selling, disclosing, or using sensitive location data in any product or service, and must establish a sensitive data location program.”Mobilewalla’s proposed settlement order will prohibit the company from:Misrepresenting how it collects, maintains, uses, deletes or discloses consumers’ personal information, and the extent to which consumers’ location data is deidentified.Using, transferring, selling and disclosing sensitive location data from health clinics, religious organizations, correctional facilities, labor union offices, LGBTQ+-related locations, political gatherings and military installations.Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon, who led efforts to target a loophole data brokers used to sell sensitive personal data on the market, applauded the FTC and CFPB for limiting what the companies can collect. In a statement sent to The Verge, Wyden said these companies could sell information about “law enforcement, judges and members of the armed forces is on the open market” to “anyone with a credit card,” putting citizens and military personnel in danger.Wyden also said US government agencies spied on Americans by obtaining this data without a warrant. “Many federal agencies hid behind the flimsy claim that Americans consented to the sale of their data, but the FTC’s orders make it clear how untrue these claims were,” said Wyden.

When we think of overclocking a computer, we generally think of an expensive gaming PC being pushed to its limits for the best gaming experience. But did you know you can also overclock your Raspberry Pi relatively easily?

Expanding the capacity of even the best NAS is simple. Fill the enclosure with as many drives as it supports and add an external enclosure once the primary system is fully populated. Larger drives can replace smaller capacities as they reach their end of life, but there's also the possibility of using USB drives to expand capacity. Whether or not you should do this is a different matter altogether.

I've mentioned this multiple times over the past few weeks, but my entire life I've been a Windows user, and only recently did I make the jump to macOS as part of my Mac Mini review. And while I've absolutely loved the hardware Apple has created here, macOS still requires a big adjustment period, and also a lot of changes.

A shocking coup attempt sent South Korea into political upheaval. But on the ground, at the protests that would prevent the President from seizing power, people were organized, angry, and a little drunk. Read the full story at The Verge.

When Google Chrome debuted, it was a lean, lightweight, and fast browsing machine. I remember critics back then describing it as “extremely fast” and “snappy.” But over time, Chrome has gained a reputation for lagging, even on some of the best laptops. And it’s not just Chrome. Browsers like Edge, Firefox, and Vivaldi can also feel sluggish at times. A slow browser can seriously affect your online experience, especially since so much of what you do on a PC happens inside a browser. The good news is you don’t have to let your browser slow you down. Here are a few ways to speed it up.