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Ask in any Linux forum which Linux distro you should use as a beginner, and one of the clear answers will be Ubuntu. Despite being one of the most popular distros, it has disappointed many general Linux users. Distro hopper or not, many people are switching from Canonical's distro to others.

I’m constantly amazed by the projects I see shared online that make increasingly impressive use of cheap $5 microcontrollers like the ESP32. With built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, plus the ability to interface with additional radio interfaces, the wireless possibilities are seemingly endless.

Synology has been scrambling to fix the PHP2Shell vulnerabilities since the PHP developers released emergency security patches on October 21, and the company confirmed that a number of its NAS packages were affected. Now the story has taken a twist, as Synology reports that attackers are exploiting the flaws, and the US cybersecurity agency CISA has added them to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Synology is now extending security fixes to older DiskStation Manager (DSM) versions, following the discovery of a separate ransomware campaign targeting outdated NAS systems.

You don't have to be doing anything shady to still not want your ISP to know exactly what you're up to. It comes down to privacy, and knowing that your ISP, good or bad, knows a lot about your online habits isn't nice.

Installing a Chrome extension might feel seemingly harmless, but it could give someone else a peek at everything you search for online. You might be taking a detour you never signed up for. That’s what security researchers at Socket have uncovered — 319 Chrome extensions with a collective 13.4 million installations that push people’s searches through hidden servers before landing on Bing or Yahoo. Nothing looks alarming, which is why they stay under the radar.

Netflix has no shortage of movies and shows that have won big during awards season, but finding one that fits your mood can still take a bit of searching through the platform's crowded catalog.

Ever found yourself copying a few rows from an Excel spreadsheet into another part of your workbook, only to repeat the whole process when your data changes? There's a better way. Excel's TAKE function lets you extract the rows and columns you need, so you can build focused reports that update automatically.

It's that time of year again when you have to give free candy away or face the consequences. My kids love Halloween, and it's one of the rare times when they are actively encouraging me to do smart home projects, as long as they're spooky. Here are three projects to try this weekend, if you dare.

The best Black Friday Home Depot deals from the ad: Best Decor deal 6.5 ft. Festive Pine LED Pre-Lit Artificial Christmas Tree $49.98 Shop Now Best Tools deal Milwaukee M18 18-Volt Lithium-Ion XC Starter Kit with Two 5.0Ah Batteries and Charger $199 (Save $198 + BOGO offer) Get Deal Best Home Deal Shark PowerPro Cordless Portable Stick Vacuum $199 (Save $130) Get Deal Best Kitchen Deal Whirlpool 30 in. 5-Element Freestanding Electric Range $679 (Save $331) Get Deal

Home Depot is officially kicking off the holiday shopping frenzy weeks ahead of schedule. Running in stores and online from Nov. 5 through Nov. 25, the retailer’s Black Friday Savings Event is doing what it does best: massive cordless power tool promos, rock-bottom holiday decor, and timely kitchen upgrades designed to bail you out before hosting duties begin.

The main draw for DIYers and woodworkers is the return of Home Depot's power tool BOGO event, where buying qualifying battery or starter kits from heavy hitters like Milwaukee, DeWalt, and Ryobi unlocks a free bare tool.

Meanwhile, the seasonal aisles are loaded with budget wins, including $5.98 LED string lights, $19.98 inflatables, and sub-$50 pre-lit Christmas trees, along with tiered appliance discounts that can add up to $1,250 in total savings.

Instead of making you comb through dozens of pages, we filtered out the filler to bring you the best deals worth grabbing from the Black Friday ad.

Best Decor deal Opens in a new window Credit: Home Accents Holiday 6.5 ft. Festive Pine Pre-Lit Christmas Tree $49.98 at The Home Depot
  Shop Now at The Home Depot Why we like it

If you just want a decent tree set up before dinner, this 6.5-foot tree comes ready to go with 200 color-changing lights already wired into the branches. The color-changing micro fairy LEDs stay illuminated even if an individual bulb burns out or gets knocked loose. The 750 branch tips form a classic, dense silhouette with a manageable 41-inch base that tucks neatly into apartments or living rooms without taking up your entire walkways.

You also get plenty of control over the ambiance, thanks to four lighting presets — ranging from steady warm white to multicolor fades — and an included foot pedal switch that saves you from crawling across the floor every night just to unplug the stand.

More Home Depot decor deals

• 3.5 ft. Pre-Lit LED Inflatable Santa — $19.98

• 3.5 ft. LED Yuletide Running Dog — $59.98

• Home Accents Holiday 3.5 ft. LED Pre-Lit Lying Doe with Bow — $89.98

Best Tools deal Opens in a new window Credit: Milwaukee Milwaukee M18 18-Volt Lithium-Ion XC Starter Kit $199 at The Home Depot
$397 Save $198   Get Deal at The Home Depot Why we like it

Cordless tools are useless once their batteries tap out, and this two-pack makes sure you always have a fresh one on standby. With two 5.0Ah packs in the box, you can keep one locked in a drill or saw while the other charges on the charger. They deliver way more runtime than standard packs, handle drops and rough garage knocks without cracking, and even work in freezing weather down past zero degrees.

The everyday perks are just as helpful. Each battery has a built-in LED gauge so you can check how much juice is left before you start a project, and the included charger supports both big M18 and compact M12 batteries, saving you from plugging in two different chargers. Even better, buying the kit unlocks a free bare tool at checkout — with choices, including impact wrenches, circular saws, and jobsite vacs.

More Home Depot tool deals

• DeWalt Atomic 20V Max Cordless 2-Tool Combo Kit — $169 $249 (save $80)

• Ryobi ONE+ 18V Cordless 6-Tool Combo Kit — $199 $299 (save $100)

• Milwaukee M18 Fuel 21-Degree Cordless Framing Nailer — $379 $449 (save $70)

Best Home Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Shark Shark PowerPro Cordless Portable Stick Vacuum $199 at The Home Depot
$329 Save $130   Get Deal at The Home Depot Why we like it

The Shark PowerPro Cordless Stick Vacuum uses a self-cleaning brushroll designed to prevent long hair and pet fur from wrapping around the bar, saving you from having to cut clogs. Its FloorDetect feature automatically adjusts the roller speed when you glide from bare floors to rugs, so you don't have to keep pausing to flip power switches.

Beyond floor cleaning, it runs for up to 50 minutes in handheld mode, has headlights to spot crumbs under dark furniture, and includes a sealed HEPA filter to keep fine dust from escaping back into the air. When you want to clean crumbs off the couch or tidy up car seats, the wand unclicks, turning the Shark PowerPro into a handheld with the included crevice and upholstery tools.

More Home Depot home improvement deals

• Ridgid 16 Gal. NXT Wet/Dry Shop Vacuum — $69.88 $119 (save $49.12)

• Samsung 24 in. Built-In Dishwasher w/ 3rd Rack — $499 $799 (save $300)

Best Kitchen Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Whirlpool Whirlpool 30 in. 5-Element Freestanding Electric Range $679 at The Home Depot
$1,010 Save $331   Get Deal at The Home Depot Why we like it

The Whirlpool 30-inch Freestanding Electric Range is built for busy dinner nights when you just want to get food on the table without hovering over the stove. Its No Preheat Mode lets you skip waiting around for the cavity to warm up when baking things like frozen pizzas, while a built-in temperature sensor balances heat output so casseroles bake evenly from edge to center.

On the surface, the five-burner cooktop includes a FlexHeat dual radiant burner that expands from 6 to 9 inches, letting you fit smaller saucepans or large stockpots that boil water up to 40% faster. You also get a dedicated low-heat Warm Zone right in the middle to hold sides until the main dish is ready.

More Home Depot kitchen deals

• Vissani 18.7 cu. ft. Bottom Freezer Refrigerator — $649 $799 (save $150)

• Whirlpool 24 in. Built-In Tall Tub Dishwasher w/ 3rd Rack — $729 $1,049 (save $320)

• Samsung 30 in. Smart Double Oven Gas Range w/ Air Fry — $1,399 $1,799 (save $400)

TL;DR: The Pokémon TCG Mega Evolution Chaos Rising Booster Bundle is on sale for $48 at Amazon, down from its $59.99 list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: The Pokémon Company Pokémon TCG Mega Evolution Chaos Rising Booster Bundle $48 at Amazon
$59.99 Save $11.99   Get Deal at Amazon

If you're looking to catch a great Pokémon deal this weekend — and what Pokémon collector isn't? — Amazon has marked down the Pokémon TCG Mega Evolution Chaos Rising Booster Bundle. This one's sure to be popular, so move quickly to get the discount.

As of Oct. 30, the Pokémon TCG Mega Evolution Chaos Rising Booster Bundle is available for just $48 at Amazon, which is a 20% discount from the regular list price of $59.99. That's an overall saving of $11.99. Let's face it: Pokémon collecting rarely comes cheap, so a $10-plus saving is always a good thing.

SEE ALSO: The Pokémon TCG 30th Celebration Booster Bundle is now on sale at Walmart — save $15

But it's actually a much bigger saving than it seems. Individual booster packs are up to a whopping $15.88 each on Amazon, so six packs will set you back $95.28. That means this deal saves you $47.28 on buying individual packs.

Each of the booster packs included in this set comes with 10 trading cards and one Basic Energy. Don't miss this awesome deal on the Pokémon TCG Mega Evolution Chaos Rising Booster Bundle this weekend.

I first discovered Waze back in 2014 when traveling to a tech event in Colorado. I flew into Denver and had a 120-mile journey to my destination. It seemed like a simple trip, most of my time would be spent on a single interstate, and the resort was only a few short miles from the exit. About an hour into the trip, Waze suddenly told me to get off the highway at the upcoming exit. I knew I had just over an hour left on this highway, but needing a pit stop, I followed the directions.

When you think of Black Friday, there's a good chance your mind goes to waiting in long lines to grab doorbuster deals at your local Walmart store. While the shopping event has drastically transformed over the last decade, one thing still rings true in 2026: Walmart has one of the most anticipated Black Friday sales of the season.

Walmart is still where you go if you want to shop Black Friday deals in person and avoid shipping altogether. But the retailer also hosts a pretty epic online savings event each year. You'll find deals and discounts across practically every department in the lead-up to the holidays, with things coming to a head on Black Friday proper.

To help you get the details straight and gear up to shop at Walmart on Black Friday 2026, here's everything you need to know, including when stores open, what will be on sale, and how to get early access.

When exactly is Walmart's Black Friday sale?

Black Friday officially takes place on Friday, Nov. 27 in 2026. However, most retailers will kick off their Black Friday sales before that. Walmart has announced plans for three major holiday shopping events on its Black Friday 2026 calendar.

• Walmart Early Black Friday Sale: Nov. 12 to Nov. 15

• Walmart Black Friday Sale: Nov. 23 to Nov. 29 (online only Nov. 23 to Nov. 26)

• Walmart Cyber Monday Sale: Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 (online only)

Credit: Walmart Walmart Black Friday early access

Last year, Walmart+ members got five hours of early access to both Walmart's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales before the events kicked off for the public. This year, during both Black Friday events, select online-only deals will be reserved exclusively for Walmart+ members for the first 24 hours of the sale while supplies last.

A Walmart+ membership costs $98 per year or $12.95 per month for its base plan. You can also bundle it with Sam's Club Plus for $120 per year. A membership comes with tons of free perks, including free delivery, free next-day shipping, free access to either Paramount+ or Peacock, pharmacy delivery, gas savings, and more. You can kick off a 30-day trial for just $1.

Opens in a new window Credit: Walmart Walmart+ Membership 30-day trial for $1 Get Deal at Walmart What time do Walmart stores open on Black Friday?

Since Walmart's Black Friday sale takes place both in-store and online, its stores will be open as well. Walmart stores open at 6 a.m. local time on Black Friday, Nov. 27. There may be exceptions to those hours, so it's best to check Walmart's store locator for the exact opening hours at your local store. Walmart stores are closed on Thanksgiving Day.

What will be on sale at Walmart for Black Friday?

In short: practically everything. Walmart is best known for its doorbuster deals on budget TVs, popular toys, gaming consoles, and small appliances. We expect those categories to be its strong suits once again, but there will be plenty of other categories worth shopping as well.

Last year, we saw pretty wild deals on the Oura Ring 4 and PS5 Disc Console, as well as $69 AirPods, an older generation MacBook Air for only $549, and a 75-inch Hisense QLED TV for only $378. Follow along with Mashable's Black Friday coverage for all the best deal drops from Walmart (and beyond).

We also saw Walmart+ memberships for 50% off during last Black Friday season, a deal we're hoping the retailer revives for 2026.

Best early Black Friday deals at Walmart

While Walmart isn't officially labeling anything as an early Black Friday deal yet, we've found a few noteworthy discounts well ahead of the sale. Here's a glimpse at a few of our favorite early deals so far.

Opens in a new window Credit: LG LG 65-inch C6 OLED 4K TV $1,399.99 at Walmart
$2,699.99 Save $1,300.00   Get Deal at Walmart Opens in a new window Credit: onn. onn. 32-inch 720p HD TV $68 at Walmart
$88 Save $20   Get Deal at Walmart Opens in a new window Credit: Dyson Dyson V15 Detect Cordless Vacuum $649.99 at Walmart
$849.99 Save $200   Get Deal at Walmart Opens in a new window Credit: Dreame Dreame C30 Plus robot vacuum and mop combo $239.98 at Walmart
$329.99 Save $90.01   Get Deal at Walmart Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung Samsung 27-inch Odyssey G55C Curved Gaming Monitor $179
$249 Save $70   Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple AirPods 4 $99 at Walmart
$129.99 Save $30.99   Get Deal at Walmart

The new Apple hardware lineup on Amazon: Apple iPad mini (OLED, A20 Pro) Starts at $699 Pre-Order Here Apple 24-inch iMac (M6) Starts at $1,499 Pre-Order Here Apple 14-inch MacBook Pro (M6) Starts at $1,999 Pre-Order Here Apple 14-inch MacBook Pro (M5 Pro/Max with PROLED Touchscreen Display) Starts at $2,899 Pre-Order Here Apple 16-inch MacBook Pro (M5 Pro/Max with PROLED Touchscreen Display) Starts at $3,399 Pre-Order Here

It’s been a chaotic, hardware-heavy week in Cupertino. Following a surprise wave of drops, Apple capped off its private "Pro and Tell" event in Los Angeles by finally giving fans the holy grail: a touchscreen MacBook Pro equipped with a tandem OLED "PROLED" display.

If you followed our breakdown of everything Apple announced, you already know this wasn't just a one-laptop show. We also got a massively upgraded OLED iPad mini packed with an A20 Pro chip, along with M6 processor leaps for both the 24-inch iMac and the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro.

Preorders went live on Apple's site right after the event, and now the new batch has surfaced on Amazon. You can lock in your order with Prime delivery perks ahead of the official Nov. 6 ship date.

From a fingerprint-friendly MacBook Pro to a waterproof OLED iPad mini, here is every new Apple device you can add to your cart right now.

Apple iPad mini Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple iPad mini (OLED, A20 Pro) Starts at $699 Preorder at Amazon

The iPad mini has always been the tablet you actually toss in a backpack, but this refresh turns it into a pocket powerhouse. The main upgrade is the screen. Apple squeezed in a larger 8.5-inch OLED display by trimming the borders by 24%, so you get more screen space in the same compact build. It hits 1,200 nits of peak brightness with deep black levels that make movies, games, and comics look incredible.

If you work outside, the 256GB and 512GB models even offer a matte nano-texture glass option to kill glare.

It runs on the new A20 Pro processor, so heavy apps and on-device Siri AI features fly without stuttering. You also get an IP67 rating for real water and dust resistance, so a spilled drink or a rain shower won't ruin your day. Apple also finally shifted the 12MP front camera to the landscape edge, so you will no longer look off-center on video calls.

Apple 24-inch iMac (M6) Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple 24-inch iMac (M6) Starts at $1,499 Preorder at Amazon

The iMac is basically the antidote to ugly desk clutter. One power cord, three minutes of setup, and you have a sharp 24-inch 4.5K screen that looks great in any room, especially in colors like Green or Pink. The big change is inside: Apple skipped an entire generation and jumped straight to the M6 chip.

So apps open instantly, photo editing is buttery smooth, and graphics run twice as fast as the old M4. You also get WiFi 7, way faster storage speeds, and the ability to hook up two 6K external monitors if you need a multi-screen setup.

The base model starts at $1,499, but pay the $1,699 for the 12-core version if you can swing it. The extra $200 gets you four ports instead of two, a 2.5Gb Ethernet jack for fast wired internet, and a Touch ID keyboard so you never have to type your password again. Plus, if you work by a sunny window, this is the only tier that lets you add the matte nano-texture glass.

Apple 14-inch MacBook Pro (M6) Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple 14-inch MacBook Pro (M6) Starts at $1,999 Preorder at Amazon

Not everyone wants a touchscreen laptop or wants to spend nearly three grand to get one. If you want a traditional, bulletproof pro machine, the entry 14-inch MacBook Pro with the base M6 chip is where the money goes. Apple packed in a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU, giving it a huge boost for photo editing, code compiling, and local Siri AI workflows.

More importantly, Apple finally bumped the base storage to a generous 1TB, so you don't have to carry an external drive just to hold your basic files. Battery life also reaches an absurd 24 hours — the longest ever in a Mac — and it doesn't throttle power when unplugged. You get a super-bright 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR screen, three Thunderbolt ports, an HDMI port, an SD card slot, and WiFi 7.

Apple 14-inch MacBook Pro (PROLED XDR Display) Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple 14-inch MacBook Pro (M5 Pro/Max with PROLED Touchscreen Display) Starts at $2,899 Preorder at Amazon

After over a decade of Apple insisting touchscreens belong exclusively on iPads, it finally caved. The new 14-inch MacBook Pro brings touch directly to macOS, letting you tap, pinch, zoom, and scrub timelines right on the glass.

The screen itself is the real showstopper. Apple used tandem OLED tech (dubbed PROLED) that cranks out 2,000 nits of peak brightness for both HDR and SDR content, backed by a wild 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Color coverage hits both P3 and Adobe RGB, making it a dream for photo and video work. Apple also ported the iPhone’s Dynamic Island over to house Spotlight search, timers, and Live Activities at the top of your screen.

It runs on Apple's heavy-duty M5 Pro or M5 Max chips, paired with 24GB of memory and a 1TB SSD out of the gate. Even with the touch layer, it dropped by half a pound to an even 3 pounds, while maintaining up to 22 hours of battery life and three Thunderbolt 5 ports.

Apple 16-inch MacBook Pro (PROLED XDR Display) Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple 16-inch MacBook Pro (PROLED XDR Display) Starts at $3,399 Preorder at Amazon

If the 14-inch model is built for portability, the 16.3-inch version is basically a studio-grade monitor you can fold shut. You get the same double-stacked OLED panel and responsive touch glass, but with a massive canvas for editing timelines, grading color, and zooming into high-res photos.

It also runs on Apple's heavy-duty M5 Pro or M5 Max silicon, giving power users more than enough muscle to handle brutal creative workloads and heavy multitasking without breaking a sweat. Apple also shaved 0.7 pounds off the chassis — dropping it down to an even 4 pounds — and gave it upgraded speakers with noticeably punchier bass. You get up to 24 hours of battery life alongside three fast Thunderbolt 5 ports.

If your current tech is feeling a little dusty, head over to Amazon to grab the new releases right now.

At a glance

• Evaluating Microsoft Copilot at enterprise scale requires test data that captures the full complexity of real organizations, yet real enterprise data contains sensitive information that cannot be used for evaluation under any circumstances.
• To resolve this tension, we built Industry Evaluation Data Generation Platform: full-scale synthetic enterprise environments grounded in publicly available real-world data sources such as O*NET occupational data, online job postings, and SEC filings.
• The synthetic environments mimic real business workflows, helping Microsoft find issues that generic benchmarks would miss.
• Safety and privacy are built into the platform by design. Every environment is fully synthetic and automated content-safety checks keep the generated data free of harmful or personally identifiable material.

Every day, millions of knowledge workers around the world rely on Microsoft Copilot to draft documents, summarize meetings, surface relevant information, and accelerate productivity. Behind the scenes, this is powered by a network of AI systems, and ensuring they work as intended requires a thoughtful approach to evaluation. At Microsoft, we know that high performance doesn’t come from guesswork. It comes from testing, measuring, and iterating constantly.

Healthcare organizations are constantly synthesizing safety signals from across teams so that they can make faster, better decisions that directly influence patient outcomes and regulatory confidence.

They may ask Copilot to summarize a meeting and extract action items for their teams. Within seconds, Copilot delivers a structured summary citing specific discussion points from the transcript. But how do we ensure this response is accurate, complete, and properly grounded in the meeting content? This is where our evaluation system comes in.

We’ve developed a structured evaluation strategy called Industry Evaluation Data Generation Platform, which includes industry specific evaluation datasets designed to test AI systems against realistic enterprise scenarios, grounded in three core pillars:

• Synthetic enterprise environments: simulated Microsoft Copilot environments with realistic users, meetings, emails, documents, and organizational structures that replicate the complexity of real organizations without using any customer data
• Automated query generation pipelines for rapid, reproducible creation of evaluation datasets
• Structured quality frameworks to ensure synthetic data meets the bar for meaningful evaluation

Figure 1: Components of Industry Evaluation Data Generation Platform

Together, these pillars help us answer two fundamental questions: Is Microsoft Copilot actually doing what our users need it to do, and can we prove it without ever touching their data?

In this blog post, we’ll walk through our evaluation system and processes, from synthetic environment generation to automated query pipelines, and how it all comes together to establish the first standardized evaluation baseline for Microsoft Copilot.

Synthetic enterprise environments

Evaluating enterprise AI requires test data that captures the full complexity of real organizations: reporting structures, project histories, communication patterns, and domain specific workflows. But real enterprise data contains sensitive information that cannot be used for evaluation under any circumstances. This is the central tension we set out to resolve.

Rather than relying on small, manually curated test fixtures, we generate full scale synthetic environments: simulated enterprise workspaces, each with realistic organizational structures, communication histories, and work artifacts. In Microsoft terminology, each of these simulated workspaces is called a “tenant”. A tenant is an isolated organizational environment with its own users, data, and configurations. These environments are scalable baselines that teams and organizations can build off of however they want. They are designed to exhibit the same structural and behavioral properties that make enterprise AI evaluation meaningful.

Grounding in real world signals

To ensure our synthetic environments are realistic, we grounded them in publicly available real world data sources.

• O*NET data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s occupational database was used to make synthetic employee roles and responsibilities realistic, calibrate the mix and frequency of work activities assigned to different roles, and tailor industry specific workflows such as clinical trial reviews or portfolio updates.
• Online job postings provide realistic role titles, reporting hierarchies, and departmental compositions.
• SEC filings inform organizational scale, business unit structures, and financial contexts. All of these sources are publicly available and have been reviewed and approved by Microsoft’s legal and policy organization.

Figure 2: Real signals from public datasets that are used to ground the evaluation data generation

Importantly, these synthetic environments are not static snapshots. They simulate dynamic, time-evolving organizations with meeting histories, project timelines, email threads that develop over weeks, and organizational changes that unfold naturally. This temporal dimension is essential because a large class of Copilot queries are inherently time aware. Questions like “What did the team decide last Thursday?” or “What’s changed since the last quarterly review?” only produce meaningful evaluations if the underlying data has a genuine temporal structure.

Industry specific simulation

We generated three synthetic environments across multiple industries, each with distinct characteristics that mirror real world usage:

• A pharmaceutical environment that includes regulatory submission workflows, clinical trial discussions, and cross functional safety review meetings
• A capital markets environment featuring deal pipelines, compliance communications, and client portfolio reviews
• An IT/software company that simulates sprint planning, code review discussions, and product launch coordination

Figure 3: Industries targeted for industry evaluation data generation

This industry specificity ensures that our evaluation queries test Copilot against the kinds of questions real users in those domains actually ask, rather than relying on generic test cases that may not surface domain specific failure modes.

Automated query generation

While synthetic environments provide the substrate for evaluation, they face a key limitation: we still need realistic evaluation queries. These are the questions that test whether Copilot can surface the right information, synthesize it correctly, and present it helpfully. Manually writing thousands of grounded, industry specific queries is prohibitively expensive and slow. That’s where our automated pipeline comes in.

The six-stage pipeline Figure 4: Query customization pipeline that turns generic query templates into realistic, industry-specific queries

We built an automated pipeline that turns simple, generic query ideas into realistic, industry-specific questions for Copilot. It starts with a large library of common workplace tasks, narrows them down to what’s relevant for a given industry, and adapts them using domain-specific language and context. The system then uses AI to generate queries grounded in the synthetic environment’s data, rewrites them to sound more natural and human, and validates each one for accuracy and uniqueness. The result is a rich set of high-quality, lifelike queries that enable scalable and reliable evaluation of Copilot across real-world scenarios.

Validating synthetic quality

Of course, generating synthetic data is only part of the challenge. We also need to ensure the data is good enough to produce meaningful evaluations. We assess synthetic environment quality using our internal semantic evaluation framework which measures quality across three dimensions:

• Structural fidelity: Does the organizational structure reflect realistic reporting hierarchies, team sizes, and cross functional relationships?
• Contextual relevance: Are the queries and workflows representative of actual enterprise usage patterns?
• Behavioral realism: Do the simulated users exhibit human-like communication patterns and collaboration dynamics?
• Content safety: Is the generated content free of harmful, offensive, or personally identifiable material, and does it avoid impersonating real individuals?

End-to-end automation

While our synthetic environments and query pipelines provide the methodology, they face several practical limitations without proper automation, including:

• Reproducibility: Manual processes produce subtly different results each time, making it difficult to compare evaluations across releases.
• Scale: The number of industry verticals and configuration variants exceeds what any team can reasonably produce by hand.
• Iteration speed: Manual creation takes days, delaying essential feedback and slowing down development cycles.
• Cross-team consistency: Without standardized tooling, different teams produce evaluation datasets with incompatible formats and quality levels.

This automation reduced evaluation dataset creation from a multi-day manual process to automated runs. We estimate savings of approximately $100,000 per evaluation dataset and $300,000 in total project savings. But the more important outcome is that any team can now regenerate an evaluation dataset from the same configuration and get identical results.

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Learn more Opens in a new tab Privacy and safety by design

Enterprise grade evaluation demands more than good methodology. It requires a privacy posture that allows teams to move fast without compromising user trust. A non-negotiable design principle of our industry evaluation datasets is that no real customer data is used at any stage of the pipeline. Every element, from organizational structures to email content to meeting transcripts, is synthetically generated, with no customer data inputs. Because the data is both fully synthetic and safety-screened, teams can share and reuse it widely without introducing reputational, compliance, or Responsible AI risk.

Our safeguards include privacy preserving aggregation techniques where real-world statistical distributions are referenced, expert legal review and approval of all public data sources, and clear data provenance and lineage tracking throughout the pipeline.

This means teams across Microsoft can use these evaluation datasets freely for experimentation, benchmarking, and regression testing without privacy review overhead or data handling restrictions that would otherwise slow down iteration. The privacy design is not a constraint on the system. It is what makes broad adoption possible.

Results and impact

Since starting this project, we have observed significant improvements across multiple dimensions.

On synthetic data quality, our internal scoring system showed significant quality gains in the structural, contextual, and statistical fidelity of the generated data. Across our composite quality metric (which measures how closely synthetic data mirrors the complexity and patterns of real enterprise environments), scores improved 39% compared to our initial generation approach. Some industry-specific environments reached quality scores above 0.9 out of 1.0, demonstrating that domain focused generation produces highly realistic evaluation environments. The improvements were obtained in part by incorporating realistic, industry signals and in part by automating quality improvements via key composite quality metrics that help improve the structural integrity, contextual coherence and statistical diversity of our synthetic industry environments.

On scale and efficiency, each synthetic environment now contains hundreds of users with complete communication histories across three industry verticals. Evaluation dataset creation has gone from multi-day manual effort to automated pipeline runs.

On organizational adoption, our industry evaluation data generation platforms have been published to an internal shared catalog for cross-team reuse and established as the first standardized evaluation baseline for Microsoft Copilot. The difference wasn’t just incremental. It was a shift in how teams approach evaluation: from ad hoc, manual processes to standardized, reproducible infrastructure.

Conclusion

As we continue to expand what Microsoft Copilot can do, from single turn Q&A to agentic multi-step workflows, our commitment to evaluation remains at the heart of our approach. In enterprise AI, quality isn’t just about accuracy or speed. It’s about trust. Organizations need confidence that AI systems handle their information correctly, and that confidence can only come from thorough, repeatable evaluation. That trust rests on two commitments woven through everything we build: rigorous privacy protection and proactive content safety.

Looking ahead, Microsoft Copilot is tackling even more exciting evaluation challenges: How do we assess the quality of multi-turn agentic interactions? How do we extend synthetic environments to capture organizational dynamics evolving over months or years? How do we build evaluation frameworks for AI systems that take actions, not just generate text? These are the kinds of questions our team is working on next.

At Microsoft, we’re not just building AI. We’re building the infrastructure to ensure it works reliably for every enterprise, in every industry, at every scale.

Thanks to everyone who’s worked on Industry Evaluation Datasets!

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The post From synthetic enterprise data evaluations to real Microsoft Copilot AI confidence appeared first on Microsoft Research.

Icons in the status bar of your Samsung Galaxy device aren't always intuitive, and seeing a dot flash in the corner of your screen can be worrying if you don't know what it means. While a lot of us have gotten used to the green dot and what it signals, those who have recently upgraded to One UI 9 may have started to notice a blue dot as well.

There are quite a few ports that you probably won't find on a modern TV. RCA and RF were some of the first to go, though for a while some TVs kept analog inputs as an option through breakout cables.

Almost every Linux user will tell you that bloat is bad — you should go with something minimal so you can customize it to your liking. There’s also a popular belief that Linux beginners should stay clear of Arch and tiling window managers, which are reserved for more “advanced” users. Well, Omarchy is based on Arch, uses the Hyprland tiling window manager, and is one of the most bloated and opinionated distros out there. And here’s my argument for why, despite conventional wisdom, I think it’s perfect for Linux beginners.

Binance may have been hacked. The popular crypto exchange announced a "potential security issue" on Thursday, freezing withdrawals after an apparent hacker drained hot wallets of several billion dollars in cryptocurrency. As of 10:25 p.m ET / 7:25 p.m. PT, Binance states that the breach has impacted approximately $6.3 billion in funds.

The official Binance X account first acknowledged the issue at 5:15 p.m. ET / 2:15 p.m. PT. This came within minutes of reports that digital finance companies Tether and Circle Group had frozen significant amounts of their respective stablecoins in response to a potential hack — specifically about $971 million in Tether and $823 million in USD Coin.

Binance subsequently stated that a total of $2.54 billion had been frozen, warning that this number would potentially grow as assets were traced. By 8:52 p.m. ET / 5:52 p.m. PT, Binance approximately $3 billion had been verified as frozen.

"Our teams are aware of reports of a potential security issue and are actively investigating," Binance wrote. "Our security teams are reviewing all relevant information with urgency, and we will provide updates through official Binance channels as soon as we have verified information."

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Few details about the hack were initially available. However, the ostensible hacker's wallet held $1.77 billion in Tether, $1.44 billion in Bitcoin, and $1.01 billion in Ethereum, as well as over a billion more spread across other currencies such as USD Coin, Tron, and Solana. 

These assets were reportedly drained from hot wallets: cryptocurrency wallets that are connected to the internet. Compared to offline cold wallets, they are significantly more practical for conducting transactions on exchanges such as Binance. However, they are also less secure.

Binance co-founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao has stated that it "does look like a hack," but maintained a positive outlook on the situation.

"I don't manage Binance (.com) anymore, but as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered," Zhao wrote on X.

In an update at 6:33 p.m. ET / 3:33 p.m. PT., Binance stated that its team was conducting security checks, and attempted to reassure anxious users.

"Withdrawals will resume as soon as the security issue is fully resolved," it wrote. "User funds remain safe."

Binance later announced at 7:06 p.m. ET / 4:06 p.m. PT that it had suspended Binance Alpha trading, which would "resume once the security issue is resolved." Binance Alpha is a platform dedicated to highlighting early-stage crypto projects, which are not yet listed on the Binance exchange.

This freeze was extended to all transactions on Binance a little over an hour later, the exchange stating that it would "cover all losses."

"As a precaution, all deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while our team conducts security checks, freezes funds, and works with law enforcement," Binance posted at 8:13 p.m. ET / 5:13 p.m. PT. "This is an industry-wide effort, and we are grateful to partners across the ecosystem who have moved quickly to help freeze affected assets."

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Over five hours after Binance first acknowledged the incident, the exchange stated it may have found the source of the breach: a compromised laptop.

"Binance's initial investigation suggests that the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions," Binance posted at 10:25 p.m ET / 7:25 p.m. PT. "We have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak."

It further stated that it had revoked the authorisation of the potential hacker's crypto address, and elaborated on its commitment to cover any losses.

"Binance will cover all losses from the SAFU fund and the company’s funds. User funds are safe," Binance wrote in a blog post. "We will also publish an updated Proof of Reserves once the remediation is complete."

The SAFU (aka Secure Asset Fund for Users) is Binance's emergency reserve fund specifically for compensating impacted individuals in the event of severe breaches such as this. Held entirely in Bitcoin, SAFU's assets were valued at $1 billion earlier this month — a sixth of the amount impacted by Thursday's hack. Binance previously stated that it would replenish SAFU if it dropped below $800 million, "helping maintain the fund at a level intended to cover potential extreme-case scenarios."

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Binance's operations continued to be disrupted through the night. On Friday, 12:36 a.m ET / Thursday, 9:36 p.m. PT, the exchange announced that users could now make deposits, but withdrawals remained paused while it conducted a "security revamp" of the service. Withdrawals are expected to resume within 48 hours of this update.

"The incident stems from multiple factors," wrote Binance, offering further information on the breach's origin. "Our security team is tracing the full attack path through the compromised computer which may be the entry point of the incident. A comprehensive report with the root cause will follow."

UPDATE: Oct. 30, 2026, 2:48 p.m. AEDT This article had been updated to add further developments.

UPDATE: Oct. 30, 2026, 4:08 p.m. AEDT This article had been updated to add further developments.

TL;DR: Watch Le Havre vs. PSG in Ligue 1 for free on CazéTV. Access this free livestream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

Ligue 1 is starting to take a familiar shape. PSG struggled in the early rounds, but after beating early leaders OL on Monday night, the defending champions are back at the top of the standings. It's going to be very tough for any other side to really compete, especially bottom side Le Havre. They're without a win this season and come into this clash as major underdogs.

If you're interested in watching Le Havre vs. PSG in Ligue 1 from anywhere in the world, we've got all the information you need.

When is Le Havre vs. PSG?

Le Havre vs. PSG in Ligue 1 kicks off at 2 p.m. ET on Oct. 30. This fixture takes place at the Stade Océane.

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