The 2022 Oscars ceremony has come and gone – and there's lots to discuss in the wake of this year's Academy Awards.
Unsurprisingly – and that's putting it lightly - that Will Smith-Chris Rock incident is dominating the headlines, and there's bound to be plenty more discussion about it in the days to come. Meanwhile, the Zack Snyder fandom continued to show their devotion to the director's back catalog, with Army of the Dead and Zack Snyder's Justice League landing wins – sans trophy – in the Fan Favorite Movie and Most Cheer-Worthy Twitter-Oscar Awards.
Amid all the noise surrounding the Smith-Rock altercation and Snyder film discourse, though, CODA's shock Best Picture win has largely been overlooked.
The Apple TV Plus movie, which features a predominantly Deaf cast, saw off critically-acclaimed flicks including Dune , King Richard , and West Side Story to secure the coveted gong. And, despite what else went down on the night, the significance of CODA's stunning victory cannot be understated – and the data proves it.
For one, CODA is the first-ever streaming service movie to pick up the prestigious Best Picture prize at an Oscars ceremony. In doing so, CODA ensured that it's Apple TV Plus – not Netflix , Prime Video , or HBO Max – that made Academy Award history by becoming the first streamer to secure such a gong. In an era where streaming platforms are becoming an increasingly popular destination for audiences to consume movie and TV content, it was a hugely significant moment.
And not just for the streaming industry in general, but for Apple TV Plus specifically. Apple's streaming platform is arguably the fifth most-popular service worldwide, with the above trio and Disney Plus boasting many more subscribers. For context, the last figures suggest Netflix has a global subscriber base of 222 million (per TechCrunch ), with Apple TV Plus languishing well behind on 40 million (only 20 million of which are paying customers, per The Information ).
Then, there's the fact that numerous productions from Netflix and company have been nominated for Best Picture ahead of previous Oscars ceremonies.
Netflix films including Roma , The Irishman, The Power of the Dog, and Don't Look Up have all failed to land a Best Picture win, while Prime Video's The Sound of Metal lost out at the 2021 ceremony (among others) to Nomadland. An Apple TV Plus film usurping its competitors on such a global scale with the streamer's inaugural Best Picture Academy Award nomination, then, is sure to send shockwaves through the industry as a whole.
CODA's surprise triumph is made all the more remarkable by its audience demand data. According to Parrot Analytics, CODA was the second least-in-demand best Picture nominee among general movie fans when compared to its peers.
As the above Parrot Analytics chart – created before the 2022 Oscars ceremony – shows, CODA was 14.2 times more popular than the average movie among US viewers. However, its audience demand paled in comparison to Dune, The Power of the Dog, and even Universal Pictures' Licorice Pizza. Kenneth Branagh's Belfast was the only film that was less in-demand among US audiences pre-Oscars, proving just how much of a shock CODA's win really is.
Of course, there's not always a correlation between a film's popularity – among general audiences – and its potential to win Best Picture at an Oscars ceremony. Parasite similarly pulled off an upset at the 2019 Academy Awards over perceived favorites including Joker , Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and The Irishman.
Bong Joon-Ho's black comedy thriller, though, was more popular among industry insiders and critics than everyday film fans. Naturally, that changed upon its Oscar win, but Parasite wasn't viewed (or marketed) as a fashionable, must-see film before its Academy Award victory. Maybe CODA will enjoy similar success, based on its own triumph.
All of the above, then, makes CODA's 2022 Best Picture victory all the more remarkable. Much like the movie's cast of characters, CODA has overcome adversity to land an unprecedented win for itself and Apple TV Plus. And, with the company's streaming platform landing multiple awards for the likes of Ted Lasso , plus its prestige TV offerings including Foundation , Apple TV Plus has finally found itself making ground in the ongoing streaming war.
Now, with a Best Picture winner in CODA to boast among its line-up of original productions, Apple TV Plus has to utilize such momentum and seize its moment to make a concerted effort to try and overthrow Netflix and its other competitors. Put simply, it won't have a better chance to do so than now.
Warning: this fake Windows 11 upgrade is filled with malware
Security researchers have found a fake Windows 11 upgrade website that promises to offer a free Windows 11 install for PCs that don’t meet the minimum specifications, but actually installs data-stealing malware.
Windows 11 has some… interesting… requirements to run, and its most famous demand is for Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0 support . This has led to perfectly capable, and powerful, PCs and laptops being unable to upgrade to Windows 11, as they did not meet the minimum specifications.
Understandably, this annoyed people with relatively new hardware that couldn’t upgrade to the latest version of Windows, and many looked at ways of circumnavigating the TPM 2.0 requirement to install Windows 11 on their unsupported devices.
It’s these people that this new threat is targeting, as Bleeping Computer reports .
Looking legitimate
While the website’s address (URL) should be a red flag (we won't mention it here), as it’s clearly not a Microsoft website, the actual website itself does look like it’s an official Microsoft website, using logos and artwork that makes it difficult to tell it apart from a real Microsoft page.
However, as security researchers CloudSEK discovered by clicking the ‘Download now’ button, the website downloads an ISO file that contains malware.
This malware, called ‘Inno Stealer’, uses a part of the Windows installer to create temporary files on an infected PC. These create processes that run and place four additional files on your PC, some of which contain scripts that disable various security features, including in the Windows registry. They also tweak the built-in Windows Defender anti-virus, and remove other security products from Emisoft and ESET.
Other files then run commands at the highest system privileges, while yet another file is created in the C:Users\AppDataRoamingWindows11InstallationAssistant folder, and it’s this file that contains the data-stealing code, named Windows11InstallationAssistant.scr. This then takes information from web browsers, as well as cryptocurrency wallets, stored passwords and files from the PC itself. This stolen data is then sent to the malicious users who created the malware.
Pretty nasty stuff.
Analysis: Be careful what you wish for
The scale of the infection here, and what it’s able to steal from you, is very scary, but the good news is that it’s easy to avoid.
No matter how desperate you are to install Windows 11, you should only download ISO files from sources you are absolutely certain are legitimate. While the makers of this malware have put in a lot of work to make the website look legitimate (like many so-called ‘phishing’ attacks), there are some tell-tale signs, such as the aforementioned URL, which highlights that this is not a genuine Microsoft website.
If your PC is eligible for a Windows 11 upgrade, you’ll be alerted via Windows Update, a tool that’s built into Windows operating systems. This is the safest way to ensure you are downloading and installing a genuine copy of Windows 11.
If your PC isn’t eligible, due to not meeting the TPM 2.0 requirements, then there are some safer ways to install Windows 11 without TPM anyway . But we don’t really recommend any of them, especially as Microsoft is making it harder to run Windows 11 on unsupported systems, which could mean you miss out on important updates, security fixes and features in the future.
Above all, however, you should never attempt to download and install a Windows 11 ISO file from any website that isn’t run by Microsoft itself.
New M2-powered Mac mini could steal the show at WWDC 2022
New rumors suggest that Apple won’t just be showing off a new MacBook Air at its WWDC 2022 event starting on June 6, but also a new Mac mini , with both devices using the rumored M2 chip .
In some respects, this isn’t too surprising, as when the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) , which saw the debut of Apple’s M1 chip , launched, Apple also released a new Mac mini (M1, 2020) which also came with the M1 chip.
So, if Apple is indeed planning on releasing a new MacBook Air, it makes sense that it would also show off a Mac mini as well to help showcase the new M2 chip.
The M1 chip was Apple’s first attempt to create a chip for its computing products, after ending a long-running partnership with Intel . It ended up being a huge success, with Apple’s experience in making chips for its iPhones and iPads translating well to computers. M1-powered Macs and MacBooks offered excellent performance and battery lives, and sales have been some of the best the company has seen . We were so impressed with the MacBook Air (M1, 2020), that it has remained at the top of our best laptops list since it was released.
So it’s little surprise that Apple is working on a successor to the M1, as well two popular products to showcase it. What is surprising, however, is that rumors ( reported by Notebookcheck ) suggest they’ll be shown off at WWDC 2022.
While we had heard that Apple was readying two M1 Macs for WWDC 2022 , the LeaksApplePro Twitter account, which often posts accurate Apple leaks, suggests that the M2 Mac mini and M2 MacBook Air will be the two Macs in question.
Why WWDC?
Apple's WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) is, as the name suggests, primarily aimed at developers working on software and apps for Apple’s devices. It’s not usually associated with big hardware reveals.
Apple usually has its own events to launch brand-new iPhones, for example, and the last MacBook Air and M1 chip launched at a special event on November 10, 2020. So, in some ways, Apple’s decision to showcase it as WWDC is perplexing, especially for people who think a dedicated event later in the year would give any new Mac or MacBook more of a chance to shine.
However, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility, either. Apple has in the past announced new hardware at WWDC, such as the HomePod and iMac Pro in 2017 and the new Mac Pro in 2019.
There’s also the fact that a new and improved M2 chip will have big repercussions for developers, so announcing the M2 at WWDC 2022, and showing off its improved performance and new features, and explaining how developers can make use of them, does make sense.
If Apple is going to reveal the M2 at WWDC 2022, then it also makes sense to show off some devices that will be using it. After all, Apple’s not the kind of company to have someone come on stage and wave a chip around (unlike AMD or Intel).
Analysis: the Mac mini could steal the show
If the new MacBook Air and Mac mini are indeed shown off at WWDC 2022, I actually think the Mac mini could be the star of the show. Most devices shown off at WWDC are aimed at professionals, and while the new MacBook Air would no doubt be a fantastic laptop, it’s a much more mainstream device.
A souped-up Mac mini with Apple’s latest tech, however, could really interest WWDC attendees. Without the constraints of having to be battery-powered and portable, the new Mac mini could really show off what the M2 chip can do.
Of course, there’s something else to consider. The M1 MacBook Air and Mac mini were launched alongside a third device: the MacBook Pro 13-inch (M1, 2020) . While we’ve not heard any rumors, could Apple also release an M2 MacBook Pro at WWDC? If it does, then that may be the device that generates the most excitement by far.