Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows is getting an amazing new look
Microsoft has revealed details of an upcoming visual update to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows which is due to hit general availability by the end of this quarter.
"Vivid" and "vibrant" are words Microsoft is using to describe the new look and feel that will be making its way to the software soon. A quintet of new themes will be added for greater customization options, and there are new buttons, an updated calendar and better alignment of interface appearance across Windows and Android.
GitHub hit by hackers; code signing certificates for GitHub Desktop and Atom applications stolen
GitHub has issued a warning about "unauthorized access to a set of repositories used in the planning and development of GitHub Desktop and Atom" in a hack that took place back in December.
Users are being advised to ensure that they install the latest updates for the affected software, but there is currently no suggestion that GitHub.com has been impacted. With the attackers having stolen code signing certificates, GitHub is revoking the certificates for some versions of Atom and GitHub Desktop on February 2, so users should update before this date.
Real time data collection is needed for eCommerce companies to reach their full potential
According to new research, 62 percent of eCommerce organizations say that real-time data collection will be at the forefront of their priorities for 2023.
The study, carried out for Oxylabs by Censuswide, surveyed over 1,000 senior data decision-makers, split between UK and US eCommerce companies. It finds that as companies begin to rely more on efficient and low-cost data collection methods such as external data gathering, used by 40.54 percent of respondents, there is a clear shift towards gaining more actionable insights.
Whether you like it or not, AI is coming to search engines
The public release of ChatGPT has started an AI craze that has taken the online world by storm. ChatGPT, for those unaware is a language model that has been trained for dialogue specifically.
It works similarly to chatbots, but is not as limited to returning information based on certain keywords in requests.
Say goodbye to dead batteries: Calculators now live forever on the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is home to all manner of emulated hardware, including retro handhelds and vintage consoles.
Now the archive offers a new family of emulators for people to play around with online -- calculators! Like the various console emulators, this has been made possible thanks to the power of MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator).
Why quantum computing threatens security as we know it [Q&A]
Much of our current IT infrastructure relies on DNS to safely route traffic. Securing that infrastructure is in turn heavily reliant on cryptography, but there's a threat looming on the horizon.
Quantum computing will offer a level of processing power that could render current cryptographic techniques obsolete, and that's a problem for the entire internet and networking world. We spoke to Peter Lowe, principal security researcher at DNSFilter, to discuss the possible impact of quantum computing on security and what can be done to address the threat.
Microsoft is working on a major Edge update known as Phoenix -- and you can try one of the best features right now!
Since consigning Internet Explorer to the trash can and adopting the Chromium engine, Microsoft has developed Edge quite rapidly and it has evolved into a browser that does a lot to make up for its predecessor.
And Microsoft is showing no signs of slowing down. The company is currently working away on a revamped version of Edge, code-named Phoenix. In addition to a more Windows 11-like look, there are some new features on the horizon, including the ability to split an Edge window into two tabs -- and you can even try this out in the preview builds of Edge right now to get a taste of what the future holds.
Battle tested: Continuous testing helps chatbots thrive
If you’ve been interacting with your favorite brands lately, you’ve likely noticed that chatbots seem to be everywhere. We are a society obsessed with instant gratification. We want answers immediately and often that means rolling the dice on using a chatbot to see how close they can get to what we are looking for. As the use of chatbots expands, so can the number of chatbot failures each day. At the same time, customers’ expectations of what a 'good' chatbot experience is has never been higher. And not meeting these stringent expectations means disappointing the customer, which can also result in loss of business, or worse, damage to your brand.
No matter what industry a chatbot operates in, connecting and communicating with people is its primary function. The formula for success for chatbots is the same as it is for traditional customer service channels: quick and effective service. Even though conversational AI has made great technological strides, the user experience is still lacking, especially when it comes to handling natural language processing (NLP), latency, data security, and other issues.
Debugging the monolith: How to change the thinking of an entire tech company
In recent history the tech industry has been impervious to market forces that have crippled adjacent sectors, predominantly because of the public’s insatiable demand for digitization.
However, over the course of the past year vulnerabilities have begun to emerge, with the economic climate growing so harsh that even the mightiest tech giants have faltered. Tech industry investment was down 40 percent in Q3 2022 compared to the same quarter in 2022, while market leaders such as Meta, Amazon and Twitter have all cut jobs to manage costs.
Redefining the 'metaverse' -- how to determine real utility in the Web3 world
It’s time to redefine what has come to be known as the metaverse -- a reimagined internet, integrating both established and new technologies (think mixed reality) -- to Web3. Though possibilities appear to be plentiful, the 'digital reality' perception of the metaverse is too far off in the horizon and not currently widely relevant.
Rather than focusing on the metaverse, then, businesses need to consider the real-life use-cases for Web3 -- including decentralization, blockchain, and token-based economics -- including crypto and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), to gauge their true value, sustainability, and future. Web3 has given us an incredible tool -- the ability to create a 'digital value economy', whereby something can have value in and of itself online, without a trusted intermediary.
Data Privacy Day: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
Privacy Day is of extra importance this year because of a dramatic increase in attacks designed to get around measures that make account log-ins more secure, and therefore protect our privacy.
For example, in mid-September, Uber reported a network breach that led to shutting down some of its internal communications and locking its codebase to prevent any new code changes. The attacker reportedly targeted a contractor by repeatedly sending multi-factor authentication login messages until the contractor accepted and gave the attacker access, according to Uber. Several days later, video game maker Rockstar Games announced it also had suffered a network intrusion from an unauthorised third party. The company says the attacker was able to gain confidential information, including early development footage for its upcoming and much anticipated game, Grand Theft Auto VI.
Ransomware affects every aspect of your organization -- here's how to keep your business-critical applications safe
Cybersecurity continues to be an increasingly complex landscape for businesses to navigate as cybercriminals become more sophisticated and the frequency of attempted attacks grows at a rapid pace. One of the biggest cybersecurity challenges that businesses have to contend with today is ransomware, which has become the biggest global cyber threat as attacks strike fast and can do massive damage.
We particularly saw the rapid rise of the ransomware threat during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic, a time when most organizations and industries were increasingly adopting new technologies to help adapt to a new, remote environment characterized by digital transformation. According to the latest ransomware statistics, more than a third of organizations across the globe suffered an attempted ransomware attack in 2021, an increase of 105 percent -- to 623.3 million ransomware attacks -- compared to 2020. And, while the volume of ransomware attacks fell by 23 percent in 2022, as organizations began to more aggressively respond to cyber threats, attack methods are continuously evolving at the same time that average ransomware demands are dramatically increasing.
Windows' Linux-style package manager WinGet now supports zip files
Fans of the Windows Package Manager app -- also known as WinGet -- have been treated to a new version of the tool this week. In WinGet 1.4 there is quite a lot that's new, but the headline addition is support for .zip-based packages.
Other important changes in this release include new command aliases, new installation options, and numerous improvements and new functions.
Do you trust Microsoft enough to use Windows 11's new 'Fix problems using Windows Update' feature?
Updates for Windows 11 have proved to be astonishingly problematic over the last year and a half. Just about every patch and update that has been released has ended up causing new issues that have had to be addressed with yet another update.
Considering the problems caused by Windows Update, it is interesting to see a new option Microsoft is working on at the moment. Hidden in the latest Insider builds of Windows 11 is a new addition to the Recovery tools in the System section of the Settings app: Fix problems using Windows Update.
Happy Data Privacy/Data Protection day
These days no important topic is worthy of the name if it doesn't have a day devoted to it. Today (January 28) it's the turn of data privacy -- or data protection depending on who you talk to -- to take its turn in the spotlight.
As organizations gather ever more data, concerns around how it is stored and used have grown which has led to legislators taking an interest too.