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Even Homeland Security thinks you should uninstall QuickTime for Windows

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is advising Windows users to uninstall QuickTime for Windows because of a zero-day exploit that won't be patched. Apple's antiquated video player was long bundled with iTunes.

If you have QuickTime installed on your Windows computer, just uninstall it already. Apple isn’t patching it, and the security risk is high enough that the Department of Homeland Security put out a statement advising users to ditch the ancient video playing software.

“Exploitation of QuickTime for Windows vulnerabilities could allow remote attackers to take control of affected systems,” says the statement. The zero-day exploits allowing this takeover may never be fixed, because Apple no longer supports QuickTime for Windows, Endgadget is reporting.

The exploits in question were discovered and reported by Trend Micro, which stated that the only way to protect yourself is to uninstall QuickTime. Apple, for their part, have been encouraging users to uninstall the Windows version of their video player for a while now.

Apple no longer supports QuickTime on Windows, a video player that came bundled with iTunes for Windows until 2011. The software remains on many PCs, however, largely as a legacy of previous bundling: users would install iTunes to manage their iPhone or iPod, and end up with QuickTime installed as well. A security update for the video player was offered three months ago, but Trend Micro says that’s no longer the available.

The exploits are not a problem on computers running Apple’s Mac OS X, and QuickTime remains supported on Apple’s operating system.

As a video player, QuickTime for Windows isn’t worth using at. Videos in 4K generally cause it to crash outright, it’s not particularly strong when it comes to battery usage, and it doesn’t play many formats. While some legacy software does depend on the video player, Apple still recommends users uninstall the software, going so far as to provide official instructions on how to do so.

So head to your PC’s control panel and check if QuickTime is installed. If it is, uninstall it. There’s no reason to keep it around, and every reason to get rid of it.

The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.

The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.

Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.

"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.

I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.

However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.