Latest news with #Windows
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Should You Buy CrowdStrike Stock Before June 3?
CrowdStrike has become one of the world's largest cybersecurity companies thanks to its Falcon platform. However, revenue growth is decelerating as the business matures, which might put its lofty valuation at risk. 10 stocks we like better than CrowdStrike › On June 3, CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) will report results for its fiscal 2026's first quarter, which ended on April 30. The cybersecurity giant is hoping to put its fiscal 2025 firmly in the rear-view mirror, as the year was marred by a devastating gaffe -- the flawed software update it released on July 19 that crashed around 8.5 million Windows computers run by its clients, disrupting the operations of banks, airlines, healthcare providers and more. That incident took a near-term toll on CrowdStrike's business, but management's latest guidance suggests that it won't suffer any lingering long-term effects. That's great news because the digital landscape is growing increasingly dangerous, so cybersecurity providers like CrowdStrike have enormous opportunities in front of them. CrowdStrike's flagship Falcon platform is one of the only all-in-one solutions in the industry. It makes it easy for businesses of all sizes to protect cloud networks, employee identities, endpoints, and more. But should investors buy CrowdStrike stock ahead of its June 3 report? Historically, the cybersecurity industry was fragmented -- the various providers specialized in specific product segments, which meant businesses had to piece their security stacks together from multiple vendors. As a result, achieving adequate protection was often expensive and complicated, which helps explain why CrowdStrike's Falcon platform has become so popular. Falcon features 29 different modules (products), but businesses can pick and choose which ones they want, so they can create a custom solution that's suited to them. During its fiscal 2025 fourth quarter (which ended Jan. 31), 67% of CrowdStrike's customers were using at least five modules, which was a record-high percentage. But CrowdStrike launched a new subscription option in late 2023 called Falcon Flex that allows businesses to reallocate their budgets to different modules as their needs change during their contract periods. As a result, Flex subscribers try an average of nine modules each. These introductions to products they might not have selected initially could lead to clients spending more money with CrowdStrike over the long term. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the secret behind Falcon's success. Its goal is to automate as many threat detection and incident response processes as possible. The company's AI models are trained on new security incidents each day, so they are constantly learning and improving, allowing Falcon to seamlessly operate in the background to protect customers. But CrowdStrike also developed Charlotte AI, a powerful virtual assistant that's embedded into Falcon. It's especially useful for larger organizations with complex digital environments, and saves cybersecurity managers over 40 hours per week (on average) by autonomously filtering alerts and only surfacing incidents that actually need attention. CrowdStrike's quarterly revenue growth has steadily decelerated over the last few years. The company is maturing, and its revenue base has become so large that it's difficult to maintain lightning-fast growth. The July 19 global IT outage -- which was triggered by a flawed Falcon software update -- certainly didn't help. Management said most of its prospective new customers remained in its sales pipeline, but many of them decided to delay signing their deals. Plus, the company offered "customer commitment packages" that included discounted Falcon Flex subscriptions to its many affected clients. Those packages have been a headwind to the cybersecurity giant's revenue growth recently, but they likely have increased the odds that those customers will stick with Falcon for the long term. In fact, management said the packages have accelerated the adoption of its Flex subscriptions, so CrowdStrike could earn back what those discounts and incentives cost it over time. Nevertheless, revenue growth is expected to continue trending down on a percentage basis for now. CrowdStrike's guidance for the fiscal 2026 first quarter was for $1.1 billion in revenue, which would be a year-over-year increase of just 20%. However, it's important to note that management has maintained its long-standing outlook that it will reach $10 billion in annual recurring revenue by fiscal 2031, up from $4.2 billion today. CrowdStrike stock isn't cheap right now. It's trading at a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 28.6, which is a steep premium to its main competitors in the cybersecurity industry. In the past, CrowdStrike has thoroughly deserved its premium valuation because it was growing its revenue so much faster than its peers. However, Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler, and SentinelOne grew their revenue by 15%, 23%, and 29%, respectively, in their most recent quarters. Therefore, CrowdStrike no longer has a clear edge in that department, so investors would be right to call its valuation into question. With that said, if the company does grow its annual recurring revenue by 135% to $10 billion by fiscal 2031, its stock might actually be cheap right now for investors who are willing to hold it for the next five or six years. But that long-term outlook is key, because there is no guarantee the stock will deliver positive returns over the next one or two years given its lofty valuation. As a result, the answer to the question of whether investors should buy CrowdStrike stock before June 3 depends entirely on their ability and willingness to hold it for the long run. Short-term traders should probably stay away for now. Before you buy stock in CrowdStrike, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and CrowdStrike wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $653,389!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $830,492!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 982% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Anthony Di Pizio has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends CrowdStrike and Zscaler. The Motley Fool recommends Palo Alto Networks. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Should You Buy CrowdStrike Stock Before June 3? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Engadget
an hour ago
- Engadget
ExpressVPN review 2025: Fast speeds and a low learning curve
ExpressVPN is good at its job. It's easy to be skeptical of any service with a knack for self-promotion, but don't let ExpressVPN's hype distract you from the fact that it keeps its front-page promise of "just working." Outside of solid security, the two best things ExpressVPN offers are fast speeds and a simple interface. Our tests showed only a 7% average drop in download speed and a 2% loss of upload speed, worldwide. And while the lack of extra features may frustrate experienced users, it makes for a true set-and-forget VPN on any platform. This isn't to say ExpressVPN is without flaws — it's nearly bereft of customization options and it's notably more expensive than its competition — but it beats most VPNs in a head-to-head matchup. For this review, we followed our rigorous 10-step VPN testing process, exploring ExpressVPN's security, privacy, speed, interfaces and more. Whether you read straight through or skip to the sections that are most important for you, you should come away with all the information you need to decide whether to subscribe. Editors' note: We're in the process of rebooting all of our VPN reviews from scratch. Once we do a fresh pass on the top services, we'll be updating each review with a rating and additional comparative information. Try ExpressVPN for yourself with a 30-day money-back guarantee on all plans. From $4.99/month at ExpressVPN Table of contents Category Notes Installation and UI All interfaces are clean and minimalist, with no glitches and not enough depth to get lost in Windows and Mac clients are similar in both setup and general user experience Android and iOS are likewise almost identical, but Android has a nice-looking dark mode Speed Retains a worldwide average of 93% of starting download speeds Upload speeds average 98% of starting speeds Latency rises with distance, but global average stayed under 300 ms in tests Security OpenVPN, IKEv2 and Lightway VPN protocols all use secure ciphers Packet-sniffing test showed working encryption We detected no IP leaks Blocks IPv6 and WebRTC by default to prevent leaks Pricing Base price: $12.95 per month or $99.95 per year Lowest prepaid rate: $4.99 per month Can save money by paying for 28 months in advance, but only once per account 30-day money-back guarantee Bundles ExpressVPN Keys password manager and ID alerts included on all plans Dedicated IP addresses come at an extra price ID theft insurance, data removal and credit scanning available to new one-year and two-year subscribers for free 1GB eSIM deal included through Privacy policy No storage of connection logs or device logs permitted The only risky exceptions are personal account data (which doesn't leave the ExpressVPN website) and marketing data (which the policy says should be anonymized) An independent audit found that ExpressVPN's RAM-only server infrastructure makes it impossible to keep logs Virtual location change Successfully unblocked five international Netflix libraries, succeeding on 14 out of 15 attempts Server network 164 server locations in 105 countries 38% of servers are virtual, though most virtual locations are accessed through physical servers within 1,000 miles A large number of locations in South America, Africa and central Asia Features Simple but effective kill switch Can block ads, trackers, adult sites and/or malware sites but blocklists can't be customized Split tunneling is convenient but unavailable on iOS and modern Macs Aircove is the best VPN router, albeit expensive Customer support Setup and troubleshooting guides are organized and useful, with lots of screenshots and videos Live chat starts with a bot but you can get to a person within a couple minutes Email tickets are only accessible from the mobile apps or after live chat has failed Background check Founded in 2009; based in the British Virgin Islands Has never been caught selling or mishandling user data Turkish police seized servers in 2017 but couldn't find any logs of user activity Owned by Kape Technologies, which also owns CyberGhost and Private Internet Access A previous CIO formerly worked on surveillance in the United Arab Emirates; no evidence of shady behavior during his time at ExpressVPN Windows Version 12 leaked some DNS requests when Split Tunneling was active This section focuses on how it feels to use ExpressVPN on each of the major platforms where it's available. The first step for any setup process is to make an account on and buy a subscription. Once subscribed, download the Windows VPN from either or the Microsoft Store, then open the .exe file. Click "Yes" to let it make changes, wait for the install, then let your computer reboot. Including the reboot, the whole process takes 5-10 minutes, most of it idle. To finish, you'll need your activation code, which you can find by going to and clicking "Setup" in the top-right corner. You can install ExpressVPN's Windows app from the Microsoft store, but we found the website more convenient. (Sam Chapman for Engadget) Extreme simplicity is the watchword for all ExpressVPN's designs. The Windows client's launch panel consists of three buttons and less than ten words. You can change your location or let the app pick a location for you — the "Smart Location" is the server with the best combination of being nearby and unburdened. Everything else is crammed into the hamburger menu at the top left. Here, in seven tabs, you'll find the Network Lock kill switch, the four types of content blockers, the split tunneling menu and the option to change your VPN protocol. You can also add shortcuts to various websites, useful if you regularly use your VPN for the same online destinations. To sum up, there's almost nothing here to get in the way: no delays, no snags, no nested menus to get lost in. It may be the world's most ignorable VPN client. That's not a bad thing at all. ExpressVPN's app for macOS is almost identical in design to its Windows app. The process for downloading and setting it up is nearly the same too. As on Windows, it can be downloaded from the App Store or sideloaded directly from the download center. Only a few features are missing and a couple others have been added. Split tunneling is gone (unless you're still on a macOS lower than 11), and you won't see the Lightway Turbo setting. ExpressVPN recommends some servers, but it's easy to search the whole list. (Sam Chapman for Engadget) Mac users do gain access to the IKEv2 protocol, along with the option to turn off automatic IPv6 blocking — Windows users have to leave it blocked at all times. Almost every website is still accessible via IPv4, but it's useful if you do need to access a specific IPv6 address while the VPN is active. Android users can download ExpressVPN through the Google Play Store. Open the app, sign in and you're ready to go. The Android app has a very nice dark-colored design, only slightly marred by an unnecessary information box about how long you've used the VPN this week. ExpressVPN's Android app puts a little more information on the screen than it needs to, but still runs well. (Sam Chapman for Engadget) There's a large button for connecting. Clicking on the server name takes you to a list of locations. On this list, you can either search or scroll and can choose individual locations within a country that has more than one. We connected to as many far-flung server locations as we could, but not a single one took longer than a few seconds. The options menu is organized sensibly, with no option located more than two clicks deep. You will see a couple of options here that aren't available on desktop, the best of which is the ability to automatically connect to your last-used ExpressVPN server whenever your phone connects to a non-trusted wifi network. There are also a few general security tools: an IP address checker, DNS and WebRTC leak testers and a password generator. These are also available on the website, but here, they're built into the app. With the exception of the latter, we'd recommend using third-party testing tools instead — even a VPN with integrity has an incentive to make its own app look like it's working. You can only install ExpressVPN's iOS app through the app store. During setup, you may need to enter your password to allow your phone to use VPN configurations. Otherwise, there are no major differences from the Android process. ExpressVPN looks good on iPhone and iPad. (Sam Chapman for Engadget) The interface is not quite as pleasing as the dark-mode Android app, but it makes up for that by cutting out some of the clutter. The tabs and features are similar, though split tunneling and shortcuts are absent. Also, both mobile apps make customer support a lot more accessible than their desktop counterparts — plus, mobile is the only way to send email support tickets. ExpressVPN also includes browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome. These let you connect, disconnect and change server locations without leaving your browser window. It's nice, but not essential unless you have a very specific web browser flow you like. Connecting to a VPN almost always decreases your speed, but the best VPNs mitigate the drop as much as possible. We used Ookla's speed testing app to see how much of your internet speed ExpressVPN preserves. For this test, we emphasized the locations ExpressVPN uses for most of its virtual servers, including the Netherlands, Brazil, Germany and Singapore. Some terms before we start: Latency, measured in milliseconds (ms), is the time it takes one data packet to travel between your device and a web server through the VPN. Latency increases with distance. It's most important for real-time tasks like video chatting and online gaming. Download speed, measured in megabits per second (Mbps), is the amount of information that can download onto your device at one time — such as when loading a web page or streaming a video. Upload speed, also measured in Mbps, is the amount of information your device can send to the web at once. It's most important for torrenting, since the amount of data you can seed determines how fast you can download in exchange. The table below shows our results. We conducted this on Windows, using the automatic protocol setting with the Lightway Turbo feature active — a recent ExpressVPN addition that keeps speed more consistent by processing connections in parallel. Server location Latency (ms) Increase factor Download speed (Mbps) Percentage dropoff Upload speed (Mbps) Percentage dropoff Portland, Oregon, USA (unprotected) 18 -- 58.77 -- 5.70 -- Seattle, Washington, USA (best server) 26 1.4x 54.86 6.7% 5.52 3.2% New York, NY, USA 156 8.7x 57.25 2.6% 5.57 2.3% Amsterdam, Netherlands 306 17x 53.83 8.4% 5.58 2.1% São Paulo, Brazil 371 20.6x 53.82 8.4% 5.65 0.9% Frankfurt, Germany 404 22.4x 55.71 5.2% 5.67 0.5% Singapore, Singapore 381 21.2x 52.76 10.2% 5.64 1.0% Average 274 15.2x 54.71 6.9% 5.61 1.6% These are extremely good results. ExpressVPN is a winner on both download and upload speed. No matter where we went in the world, we never lost more than about 7% of our download speeds, and upload lost an astoundingly low average of 2%. This suggests that ExpressVPN deftly distributes its user load between servers to eliminate bottlenecks. This Ookla speedtest shows you can still get fast internet while connected to ExpressVPN -- our unprotected speeds are around 58 Mbps. (Sam Chapman for Engadget) The latency numbers look worse, but the rise in the table is less sharp than we projected. Ping length depends far more on distance than download speed does, so we expect it to shoot up on servers more than 1,000 miles from our location. Keeping the average below 300 ms, as ExpressVPN does here, is a strong showing. A VPN's core mission is to hide your IP address and make you untraceable online. Our task in this section is to figure out if ExpressVPN can carry out this mission every time you connect. While we can't be 100% certain, the tests we'll run through below have led us to believe that ExpressVPN is currently leak-proof. A VPN protocol is like a common language that a VPN server can use to mediate between your devices and the web servers you visit. If a VPN uses outdated or insecure protocols, or relies on unique protocols with no visible specs or source code, that's a bad sign. Not all protocols are available on all apps, but Mac has the full range. (Sam Chapman for Engadget) ExpressVPN gives you a selection of three protocols: IKEv2, OpenVPN and Lightway. The first two are solid choices that support the latest encryption algorithms. OpenVPN has been fully open-source for years and is the best choice if privacy is your goal. While IKEv2 started life as a closed project by Microsoft and Cisco, ExpressVPN uses an open-source reverse-engineering, which is both better for privacy and quite fast. Lightway is the odd one out, a protocol you'll only find on ExpressVPN, though its source code is available on Github. It's similar to WireGuard, in that both reach for faster speeds and lower processing demands by keeping their codebases slim. However, Lightway was recently rewritten in Rust to better protect the keys stored in its memory. Ultimately, you can't go wrong with any of ExpressVPN's protocol options. 99% of the time, your best choice will be to set the controls to Automatic and let the VPN decide which runs best. ExpressVPN is one of the best services, but it's not leak-proof (as you can read in the Background Check below). Luckily, checking for DNS leaks is a simple matter of checking your IP address before and after connecting to a VPN server. If the new address matches the VPN server, you're good; if not, your VPN is leaking. First, we checked the Windows app with split tunneling active to ensure the flaw really had been patched. We tested several servers and didn't find any leaks, which suggests the patch worked, though leaks were rare even before ExpressVPN fixed the vulnerability. We checked our IP while connected to the virtual India location, which is run from a physical server in Singapore. Don't worry -- it still looks like India to streaming services. (Sam Chapman for Engadget) In fact, we didn't find any leaks on any ExpressVPN server we tested on any platform. Though questions remain about iOS, as you'll see later in this section, that's a problem on Apple's end that even the best VPNs can do very little about for now. The most common cause of VPN leaks is the use of public DNS servers to connect users to websites, which can mistakenly send browsing activity outside the VPN's encrypted tunnel. ExpressVPN avoids the risks of the public system by installing its own DNS resolvers on every server. This is the key factor behind its clean bill of health in our leak testing. Two other common flaws can lead to VPN leaks: WebRTC traffic and IPv6. The former is a communication protocol used in live streaming and the latter is a new IP standard designed to expand domain availability. Both are nice, but currently optional, so ExpressVPN automatically blocks both to ensure there's no opportunity for leaks to arise. One note about VPN security on iOS: it's a known and continuing problem that iOS VPNs do not prevent many online apps from communicating with Apple directly, outside the VPN tunnel. This risks leaking sensitive data, even with Lockdown Mode active in iOS 16. A blog post by Proton VPN shares a workaround: connect to a VPN server, then turn Airplane Mode on and off again to end all connections that were active before you connected to the VPN. We finished up our battery of security tests by checking out ExpressVPN's encryption directly. Using WireShark, a free packet sniffer, we inspected what it looks like when ExpressVPN transmits data from one of its servers to the internet. The screenshot below shows a data stream encrypted with Lightway UDP. After connecting to ExpressVPN, HTTP packets were rendered unreadable while in transit. (Sam Chapman for Engadget) That lack of any identifiable information, or even readable information, means encryption is working as intended. We repeated the test several times, always getting the same result. This left us satisfied that ExpressVPN's core features are working as intended. ExpressVPN subscriptions cost $12.95 per month. Long-term subscriptions can bring the monthly cost down, but the great deals they offer tend to only last for the first billing period. A 12-month subscription costs $99.95 and includes three months for free with your first payment, costing a total of $6.67 per month. The bonus disappears for all subsequent years, raising the monthly cost to $8.33. You can also sign up for 28 months at a cost of $139.72, but this is also once-only — ExpressVPN can only be renewed at the $99.95 per year level. There are two ways to test ExpressVPN for free before making a financial commitment. Users on iOS and Android can download the ExpressVPN app without entering any payment details and use it free for seven days. On any platform, there's a 30-day money-back guarantee, which ExpressVPN has historically honored with no questions asked. You will have to pay before you can use it, though. In our opinion, ExpressVPN's service is solid enough that it's worth paying extra. Perhaps not this much extra, but that depends on what you get out of it. We recommend using the 30-day refund period and seeing how well ExpressVPN works for you. If it's a VPN you can enjoy using, that runs fast and unblocks everything you need, that's worth a server's weight in gold. ExpressVPN includes some special features that work mostly or wholly separate from its VPN apps. Some of these come free with a subscription, while others add an extra cost. Every subscription includes the ExpressVPN keys password manager. This is available under its own tab on the Android and iOS apps. On desktop, you'll need to download a separate extension from your browser's store, then sign in using your account activation code. It's available on all Chromium browsers, but not Firefox. Starting in 2025, new subscribers get an eSIM plan through a separate service linked to ExpressVPN. The baseline 1GB holiday eSIM plans last for 5 days and can apply to countries, regions, or the entire world (though it's not clear whether the package deal applies to the regional and global plans). Longer-term plans include larger eSIM plans. You can add a dedicated IP address to your ExpressVPN subscription for an additional cost per month. A dedicated IP lets you use the same IP address every time you connect to ExpressVPN. You can add the address to whitelists on restricted networks, and you're assured to never be blocked because of someone else's bad activity on a shared IP. Unlike many of its competitors, ExpressVPN doesn't currently offer antivirus or online storage services, but there is a comprehensive bundle of ID protection tools called Identity Defender. We haven't reviewed any of these products in detail, but here's a list for reference: ID Alerts will inform you if any of your sensitive information is leaked or misused online. It's free with all plans, but you'll have to enter your personal information on your ExpressVPN account page or a mobile app. ID Theft Insurance grants up to $1 million in identity theft reimbursement and comes free with new ExpressVPN one-year or two-year subscriptions. It's not yet available to those who subscribed before it launched in October 2024. Data Removal scans for your information in data brokerages and automatically requests that it be deleted. It's also free with one-year and two-year plans. Credit Scanner is only available for United States users. It monitors your activity on the three credit bureaus so you can quickly spot any suspicious transactions. The Identity Defender features are currently only available to new ExpressVPN customers in the US. Although we worry that the consolidation of VPN brands under the umbrella of Kape Technologies (ExpressVPN's parent company) will make the industry less competitive, we don't believe it's influencing ExpressVPN to take advantage of its users' privacy. To confirm, and get a full sense of what sort of privacy ExpressVPN promises its users, we set out to read ExpressVPN's privacy policy in detail. It's long, but thankfully aimed at casual users instead of lawyers. You can see it for yourself here. In the introduction, ExpressVPN states that it does not keep either activity logs (such as a user's browsing history while connected to the VPN) or connection logs (such as the duration of a user's session and their IP address, which can be used to extrapolate browsing activity). It then specifies the seven types of data it's legally allowed to collect: Data used to sign up for an account, such as names, emails and payment methods. VPN usage data which is aggregated and can't be traced to any individual. Credentials stored in the ExpressVPN Keys password manager. Diagnostic data such as crash reports, which are only shared upon user request. IP addresses authorized for MediaStreamer , which is only for streaming devices that don't otherwise support VPN apps. Marketing data collected directly from the app — a "limited amount" that's kept anonymous. Data voluntarily submitted for identity theft protection apps. Of those seven exceptions, the only ones that count as red flags are account data and marketing data. Both categories are highly personal and could be damaging if mishandled. Fortunately, complying with subpoenas is not one of the allowed uses listed for either data category, nor does the policy let ExpressVPN sell the data to other private parties. The only really annoying thing here is that if you ask ExpressVPN to delete your personal data, you won't be able to use your account from then on. You aren't even eligible for a refund in this case, unless you're within 30 days of your initial subscription. As for marketing data, ExpressVPN collects device fingerprints and location data when you sign up for an account on its website. The privacy policy also claims this is anonymized, as its "systems are engineered to decouple such data from personally identifiable information." Audits corroborate this, as we'll see in the next section. So, while it would be better if ExpressVPN didn't collect any personal data at all, its practices don't appear to pose a risk to anything you do while using the VPN — just the ExpressVPN website. VPN providers often get third-party accounting firms to audit their privacy policies. The idea is that a well-known firm won't mortgage its reputation to lie on behalf of a VPN, so their results can be trusted. For the last several years, ExpressVPN has had KPMG look over its privacy policy and relevant infrastructure (see "TrustedServer" below). KPMG's most recent report, completed in December 2023 and released in May 2024, found that ExpressVPN had enough internal controls in place that users could trust its privacy policy. The report is freely available to read. This is a very good sign, though we're looking out for a more up-to-date audit soon. "TrustedServer" is a marketing term ExpressVPN uses for its RAM-only server infrastructure. RAM-only servers have no hard drives for long-term storage and return to a standard disk image with every reboot. This makes it theoretically impossible to store user activity logs on them, even if ExpressVPN wanted to do that. The KPMG audit, linked above, reports that TrustedServer works as advertised. Between its many clean privacy audits and the Turkish server incident in 2017, we're prepared to say ExpressVPN is a private VPN, in spite of its aggravating exception for marketing. Next, we tested whether ExpressVPN can actually convince websites that you're somewhere other than your real location. Our security tests have already proven it can hide your IP address, but it takes more than leak-proofing to fool streaming sites these days — Netflix and the others have gotten very good at combing through metadata to sniff out proxy users. The process for testing this is a lot like how we handled the DNS leak tests: try several different servers and see if we get caught. We checked five sample locations outside the U.S. to see if we a) got into Netflix and b) saw different titles in the library. The results are below. Server Location Unblocked Netflix? Library changed? Canada Y Y United Kingdom Y (second try; Docklands failed) Y Slovakia Y Y India Y Y (different from UK library) Australia Y Y In fifteen tests, ExpressVPN slipped up only once. Docklands, the UK server it chose as the fastest, wasn't able to access Netflix. We switched to a server labeled simply "London" and unblocked it without issue. ExpressVPN can change your virtual location so you can explore the wonderful world of K-drama. (Sam Chapman for Engadget) All the other locations got us access to an alternate Netflix library on the first try. We even checked whether the India server, which is physically located in the UK, showed us different videos than the UK servers. It did, which makes us even more confident that ExpressVPN's virtual locations are airtight. ExpressVPN users can connect to a total of 164 server locations in 105 countries and territories. These locations are reasonably well distributed across the globe, but as with all VPNs, there's a bias toward the northern hemisphere. There are 24 locations in the U.S. alone and a further 66 in Europe. That isn't to say users in the Global South get nothing. ExpressVPN has IP addresses from nine nations in South America (Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela) and six in Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco and South Africa). The network even includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia, impressive since central Asia may be the region most often shafted by VPNs. However, many of these servers have virtual locations different from their real ones. For those of you choosing a server based on performance instead of a particular IP address, ExpressVPN's website has a helpful list of which servers are virtual. The bad news is that it's a big chunk of the list. A total of 63 ExpressVPN locations are virtual, or 38% of its entire network. To reduce the sting, ExpressVPN takes care to locate virtual servers as close to their real locations as possible. Its virtual locations in Indonesia and India are physically based in Singapore. This isn't always practical, leading to some awkwardness like operating a Ghana IP address out of Germany. But it helps ExpressVPN perform better in the southern hemisphere. Compared to direct competitors like NordVPN and Surfshark, ExpressVPN doesn't have many special features. It's aimed squarely at the casual market and will probably disappoint power users. Having said that, what they do include works well. In this section, we'll run through ExpressVPN's four substantial features outside its VPN servers themselves. "Network Lock" is the name ExpressVPN gives to its kill switch (though it's called "Network Protection" on mobile). A VPN kill switch is a safety feature that keeps you from broadcasting outside the VPN tunnel. If it ever detects that you aren't connected to a legitimate ExpressVPN server, it cuts off your internet access. You won't be able to get back online until you either reconnect to the VPN or disable Network Lock. ExpressVPN's kill switch is called Network Lock on desktop, and Network Protection on mobile (Android pictured) (Sam Chapman for Engadget) This is important for everyone, not just users who need to hide sensitive traffic. The recently discovered TunnelVision bug theoretically allows hackers to set up fake public wi-fi networks through which they redirect you to equally fake VPN servers, which then harvest your personal information. It's unlikely, but not impossible, and a kill switch is the best way to prevent it — the switch always triggers unless you're connected to a real server in the VPN's network. Like most of ExpressVPN's features, all you can do with Network Lock is turn it on and off. You can also toggle whether you'll still be able to access local devices while the kill switch is blocking your internet — this is allowed by default. ExpressVPN groups three tools under the heading of "advanced protection" — Threat Manager, an ad blocker and parental controls. Threat Manager consists of two checkboxes: one that blocks your browser from communicating with activity tracking software and one that blocks a list of websites known to be used for malware. Check any of these boxes to use the pre-set blocklists whenever you're connected to ExpressVPN. (Sam Chapman for Engadget) You can't customize the lists, so you're limited to what ExpressVPN considers worthy of blocking. They share their sources on the website. While the lists are extensive and open-source, they rely on after-the-fact reporting and can't detect and block unknown threats like a proper antivirus. The adblock and parental control options work the same way: check a box to block everything on the list, uncheck it to allow everything through. In tests, the ad blocker was nearly 100% effective against banner ads, but failed to block any video ads on YouTube or Netflix. The parental control option blocks a list of porn sites. It's an easy option for concerned parents, but only works while ExpressVPN is connected. As such, it's meant to be used in conjunction with device-level parental controls that prevent the child from turning off or uninstalling the VPN client. Sometimes, you'll find it helpful to have your device getting online through two different IP addresses at once — one for your home services and one for a location you're trying to spoof. That's where split tunneling is helpful: it runs some apps through the VPN while leaving others unprotected. This can also improve your speeds, since the VPN needs to encrypt less in total. You can configure split tunneling through either a blocklist or an allowlist. (Sam Chapman for Engadget) ExpressVPN includes split tunneling on Windows, Android and Mac (though only on versions 10 and below). You can only split by app, not by website, but it's still pretty useful. For example, you can have BitTorrent handling a heavy download in the background while you use your browser for innocuous activities that don't need protecting. By now, it should be clear that we find ExpressVPN to be a highly reliable but often unexceptional VPN service. However, there's one area in which it's a clear industry leader: VPN routers. ExpressVPN Aircove is, to our knowledge, the only router with a built-in commercial VPN that comes with its own dashboard interface. Usually, installing a VPN on your router requires tinkering with the router control panel, which turns off all but the most experienced users — not to mention making it a massive pain to switch to a new server location. Aircove's dashboard, by contrast, will be instantly familiar to anyone who already knows how to use an ExpressVPN client. It even allows different devices in your home to connect to different locations through the router VPN. Aircove's biggest drawback is its price. Currently retailing at $189 (not including an ExpressVPN subscription), it's around three times more expensive than an aftermarket router fitted with free VPN firmware. Some of you might still find the convenience worth the one-time payment. ExpressVPN's written help pages are some of the best on the market. Its live chat is more of a mixed bag, and complex questions may cause delays. However, it is at least staffed with human agents who aim to reply accurately, rather than resolve your ticket as quickly as possible. You can directly access both live chat and email from ExpressVPN's mobile apps (on desktop, you'll have to go to the website). (Sam Chapman for Engadget) We approached ExpressVPN's support features with a simple question: "If I requested that ExpressVPN delete all my personal data, would I be able to get a refund for my unused subscription time?" (Remember from the Privacy Policy section that submitting a full deletion request also cancels your ExpressVPN account.) Our first stop was the written support center and FAQ page. It's divided into setup guides, troubleshooting, account management and information on each of ExpressVPN's products. The setup guides are excellent, including screenshots and clearly written steps; each one includes a video guide for those who learn better that way. Troubleshooting is just as good — no videos, but the same standards of clarity and usefulness prevail. The section starts with general problems, then delves into specific issues you might face on each operating system. Each article clearly derives from a real customer need. To get answers on our refund question, we visited the account management FAQs. This section stated that the refund policy only applies within 30 days of purchase. Pretty clear-cut, but we still wanted an answer on our special case, so we contacted live chat by clicking the button at the bottom-right of every FAQ page. Live chat is in the bottom-right corner of every page of (Sam Chapman for Engadget) Live chat starts with an AI assistant, which is not too hard to get past — just ask it a question it can't answer, then click "Transfer to an Agent." We got online with (what claimed to be) a human in less than a minute. Answering the question took longer and involved an uncomfortable 10-minute silence, but we did get a clear verdict from a real person: refunds are within 30 days only, no matter what. If the live chat agent can't answer your question, you'll be redirected to open an email support ticket. Annoyingly, there's no way to go directly to email support through the website or desktop apps, though mobile users have the option to skip directly there. ExpressVPN launched in 2009, which makes it one of the oldest consumer VPNs in continual operation. In more than 15 years of operation, it's never been caught violating its own privacy policy, though its record isn't free of more minor blemishes. Founders Dan Pomerantz and Peter Burchhardt registered the company in the British Virgin Islands from the start to take advantage of that territory's favorable legal environment for online privacy. The BVIs have no law requiring businesses to retain data on their users, and the process for extraditing data is famously difficult, requiring a direct order from the highest court. In 2021, the BVI implemented the Data Protection Act (DPA) [PDF link], which prevents companies based in the territory from accessing data on their users anywhere in the world. It's a great privacy law in theory, modeled on best-in-class legislation in the EU. However, we couldn't find any evidence that its supervising authority — the Office of the Information Commissioner — has a leader or staff. In other words, while ExpressVPN is not legally required to log any data on its users, there's technically nobody stopping them from doing so. Whether you trust the jurisdiction depends on whether you trust the company itself. Let's see what the other evidence says. Two significant incidents stand out from ExpressVPN's 16-year history. In 2017, when Andrei Karlov, Russia's ambassador to Turkey, was shot to death at an art show. Turkish police suspected someone had used ExpressVPN to mask their identity while they deleted information from social media accounts belonging to the alleged assassin. To investigate, they confiscated an ExpressVPN server to comb for evidence. They didn't find anything. A police seizure is the best possible test of a VPN's approach to privacy. The provider can't prepare beforehand, fake anything, or collude with investigators. The Turkey incident is still one of the best reasons to recommend ExpressVPN, though eight years is a long time for policy to change. The second incident began in March 2024, when a researcher at CNET informed ExpressVPN that its version 12 for Windows occasionally leaked DNS requests when users enabled the split tunneling feature. While these users remained connected to an ExpressVPN server, their browsing activity was often going directly to their ISP, unmasked. The bug only impacted a few users, and to their credit, ExpressVPN sprang into action as soon as they learned about it. The team had it patched by April, as confirmed by the researcher who initially discovered the vulnerability. But while their quick and effective response deserves praise, it's still a mark against them that a journalist noticed the bug before they did. In 2021, an Israeli-owned, UK-based firm called Kape Technologies purchased a controlling interest in ExpressVPN. In addition to ExpressVPN, privately held Kape owns CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, and Zenmate (before it merged into CyberGhost). As shown on its website, it also owns Webselenese, publisher of VPN review websites WizCase and vpnMentor, which poses an apparent conflict of interest. When reached for comment, a representative for ExpressVPN said that "ExpressVPN does not directly engage with, nor seek to influence, the content on any Webselenese site," and pointed us to disclosure statements on the websites in question — here's one example. Even so, it's a good reminder not to take VPN reviews at face value without knowing who's behind them (Engadget is owned by Yahoo, which does not own any VPNs). Diving deeper into the background of Kape's ownership will lead you to owner Teddy Sagi. Go back far enough, and you'll see he did prison time in Israel and was mentioned in the Pandora Papers, among other things. More recently, headlines about the billionaire have focused more his businesses in the online gambling and fintech arenas, as well as his real estate ventures. An ExpressVPN representative told us that "Kape's brands continue to operate independently," and our investigation bore that out — we couldn't find any proof that Kape or Sagi have directly attempted to influence ExpressVPN's software or daily operations. Closer to the immediate day-to-day operations of ExpressVPN was the company's employment of Daniel Gericke as CTO from 2019 through 2023. During that time, the US Justice Department announced it had fined Gericke and two others for their previous employment on a surveillance operation called Project Raven, which the United Arab Emirates (UAE) used to spy on its own citizens. The revelation prompted a public response from ExpressVPN defending its decision to hire Gericke, arguing that "[t]he best goalkeepers are the ones trained by the best strikers." ExpressVPN's representative confirmed that the company still stands by that linked statement. Gericke parted ways with ExpressVPN in October 2023, per his LinkedIn profile. While we don't know what we don't know, we can say that ExpressVPN has not notably changed its public-facing security and privacy policies during the time it's been connected to Kape, Sagi, or Gericke. In the end, how much ExpressVPN's history matters to you is a personal choice. If you object to any current or past actions by Kape Technologies or Teddy Sagi, there are other premium VPN options you might prefer. If you need more information to make up your mind, we recommend reading through CNET's 2022 deep dive on ExpressVPN's corporate history. ExpressVPN is the VPN we most often recommend to beginners. It takes zero training to use, and consistently gets past filters on streaming sites. It also runs in the background with virtually no impact. If anything is worth the high price of admission, it's the excellent speeds distributed evenly across the worldwide server network. However, for certain specific cases, ExpressVPN may not be the best choice. There's no way to set up your own server locations, like NordVPN offers, and no double VPN connections, like you can build for yourself on Surfshark. Its corporate background is more suspect than the entities backing Proton VPN, and unlike Mullvad, ExpressVPN doesn't work in China — it's so well-known that the government targets its servers specifically. We suggest going with ExpressVPN for general online privacy, for spoofing locations in your home country while traveling, or if you regularly need to unblock sites in other countries. That encompasses 19 of every 20 users, which is fine by us, as ExpressVPN is a great service. It's just more of a reliable old screwdriver than a multi-tool.
Axios
3 hours ago
- Business
- Axios
Q&A with Mary Meeker on the AI revolution
Mary Meeker, the famed internet analyst turned venture capitalist, on Friday published her first Trends report since 2019 — focused on the AI revolution. Silicon Valley execs and investors are sure to pour over all 340 pages, but Axios chatted with Meeker this morning to distill some top takeaways. What follows is an edited version of our conversation: Axios: What was the most important thing you learned? Meeker: "We've never seen anything like the user growth of ChatGPT, particularly outside the U.S., and it shows how the global dynamics of tech and distribution have changed. I wasn't around for the evolution of the mainframe or mini-computer, but have read up on it and was around for the PC, desktop internet, mobile internet, cloud, and now AI. This is such a faster pace of change. It's also fascinating to imagine what might have happened if Microsoft hadn't come in and given OpenAI capital and focused them on its cloud platform. Google was very early in AI, but it couldn't have launched a product that hallucinated like OpenAI did. Startups can do crazy things." Does OpenAI have an insurmountable lead, at least in terms of consumer AI? "Early leaders fail when they fall behind on innovation or price themselves out of the market, but OpenAI shows no signs of doing either. I think it and ChatGPT will be around for a long time. That said, they also have intense competition the likes of which we've never seen before. Both startups and incumbents. Everyone is engaged. It's a period for lots of wealth creation and wealth destruction." How should early-stage VCs try to suss out potential winners from losers? "I recently rewatched one of Steve Ballmer's speeches at an early Windows conference where he kept repeating the word 'developers.' And he's right, that the companies that get the best developers often win. It's got to be the focus." If people are key, and the U.S. is in a race with China, what do you think about the Trump administration's recent moves to block foreigners from studying here? "America has to be a place where the brightest people in the world want to come ... Our tech ecosystem would not be where it is today without a lot of first-generation immigrants and even more second-generation immigrants. I think this administration has shown an ability to make foundational calls, but then also to change. And I go back to the first Trump administration and its focus on immigrants who could really contribute to America in positive ways.
Tom's Guide
5 hours ago
- Tom's Guide
Xbox's Switch 2 competitor may have hit the wall as Microsoft presses pause on handheld console
We've heard numerous rumors about Microsoft working on an Xbox handheld gaming console to compete with the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch 2. The console is said to be a native Xbox handheld, but a new report suggests that Microsoft is shelving it to focus on other priorities. According to a report by Windows Central, Microsoft has decided to halt development on the handheld, which was rumored to launch in 2027. This isn't the handheld codenamed "Kennan," as that's still on track. The one being put on the shelf is a native Xbox device, more akin to the Nintendo Switch 2 than a Steam Deck or Windows handheld. It was designed to run full Xbox games like a traditional console. According to the report, Microsoft has three console prototypes in development for its next-generation gaming platforms. The handheld would have been the fourth potential device. It's important to note that this is just temporary. Microsoft still has handheld gaming on its radar. Part of that focus is shifted to improving Windows 11's handheld gaming performance, but it's also about releasing its handheld console at some point. "Microsoft is still deeply investing in developing its own Xbox gaming handheld technology in the future," reads the Windows Central report. The company is also focused on cloud gaming. The report states that the company is now testing next-generation Xbox cloud systems at its headquarters, which is exciting for those with fast enough internet to take advantage of the cloud's processing power. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Perhaps Microsoft plans to see how the Asus Kennan device does before it dips its toe more aggressively into the space. Rather than risking its resources, Microsoft can utilize its partnership with Asus to gauge whether gamers are ready for a handheld with Xbox branding attached.
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Elon Musk-Telegram AI pact sets the stage for more drama
HighlightsElon Musk's artificial intelligence lab, xAI, has announced a one-year partnership with Pavel Durov's messaging platform, Telegram, involving a $300 million investment to integrate the Grok chatbot into the app. The partnership could significantly enhance Grok's user base, as Telegram boasts approximately 1 billion users, which is double the number of users on Musk's platform X (formerly Twitter). Concerns arise regarding user privacy and the potential for the Grok chatbot to amplify harmful content on Telegram, a platform already known for hosting extremist material and conspiracy theories. It's hard to find a pair of tech billionaires more alike than Elon Musk and Pavel Durov . Both are staunch libertarians who run large social media platforms with minimal content moderation, and both champion themselves as defenders of free speech . Both are also pro-natalists, with Durov claiming to have fathered more than 100 biological children through sperm donation. It's an ideological match made in heaven — and perhaps in business too. Durov this week announced a one-year partnership with Musk's xAI , in which the latter artificial intelligence lab would pay Telegram $300 million in cash and equity to integrate its Grok chatbot into the messaging app. In essence, Telegram gets whizzy new AI features while Grok gets distribution on a platform with roughly 1 billion users, double the number of people on X. But there are a couple of snags. Durov, for a start, appears to believe an oral contract is as good as a written one. Hours after Durov announced the partnership and its financial terms on X, Musk witheringly replied: 'No deal has been signed.' Musk may not be in the best of moods. With the true impact of his Department of Government Efficiency still unclear, he left his post at the White House this week. Now he's turning back to a business empire in flux, having leaned on AI to balance his books. The generative AI boom has pushed the value of two-year-old xAI to $80 billion, and Musk recently merged that company and X (formerly known as Twitter and worth far less) under a single entity, xAI Holdings. That gives X some much-needed stability, but xAI still needs to make money, and the Durov deal could help. More users of Grok mean more opportunities to sell subscriptions for the AI tool, which cost between $3 and $40 a there's a historical precedent for this kind of distribution partnership to work. Dell Inc. made a killing from pre-installing Microsoft Corp.'s Windows on its PCs, while Apple Inc. has earned $20 billion a year from Alphabet Inc. by making Google the default search tool on iPhones. There's another tantalizing possibility for Musk: scraping messages and content across Telegram and using both to train Grok to be even smarter. A key feature of building today's generative AI systems is that priming them with more data leads to better capabilities, and until now Grok has benefited from training on the mass of text (and bilge) on X. But Durov seems to have nixed that possibility. When a user on X asked Durov if he'd allow such scraping, he replied that user privacy was 'paramount' and that Grok would only extract messages people shared with the bot directly. Perhaps this was Durov's way of preempting Musk from seeking access to Telegram data — hence going public on the partnership so early. And maybe we shouldn't be surprised if the two hash out the issue out publicly. That isn't the only type of drama to expect from this pairing. Should Grok get plugged into Telegram's app this summer, it will be one of the deepest known integrations of an AI tool into a major Western mobile messaging and broadcasting service. You can't use AI to edit tweets on X or messages in WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, even though all those platforms now have an AI assistant of some sort. But on Telegram, you'll be able to do just that. A video demo posted by Durov on Wednesday shows a Telegram user typing the word 'great' in a text to their work colleagues. Grok offers options to 'improve,' 'expand' or 'change tone.' When the user taps 'expand,' their message turns into: 'Excellent, team effort at its best. Keep up the good work!' This at first simply looks like another example of AI bringing blandness and vapidity to human conversation. Apple and Google both offer suggested AI replies in their email software. But using that functionality to edit mobile text messages in real time pushes the technology further into the mechanics behind human voice and intention. It also portends a darker impact on a platform like Telegram, where content rules are scant. The app is well-known for hosting extremist content and conspiracy theories, with neo-Nazi groups in the US using it to organize rallies, while some of last year's anti-immigration riots in the UK were promoted on the platform. Far-right groups, meanwhile, have found ways to 'jailbreak' AI bots like Grok, getting them to generate content that breaks the rules of other social media firms; for instance, generating a photorealistic image of mountains that spell out 'The Jews did 9/11,' according to the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, which singled out Grok as being relatively easy to exploit. Musk has yet to publicly respond to criticisms about jailbreaking Grok. If Grok allows Telegram to create more persuasive memes and other forms of propaganda at scale, that could make it an even more powerful tool for spreading toxicity, from disinformation to hate speech to other odious content. Musk and Durov have kicked off a mini corporate drama of their own, but the real chaos could unfold on the platform itself, and it won't be pretty.
