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Dec 08, 2023
The Purple Llama project aims to help developers build generative AI models responsibly.
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Dec 08, 2023
Deploying a conference room for hybrid meetings can be costly if you're a small to midsize enterprise (SME), but the price potentially plummets as online meeting provider Zoom joins Webex in launching a new Apple TV meeting app. The new app uses Apple's Continuity Camera feature, introduced earlier this year, which lets you use the camera on your iPhone or iPad as a camera for a connected Apple device.
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Dec 08, 2023
For more than a year, we've been hearing rumors that Windows 12, the next major release for Microsoft's venerated operating system, could be coming as soon as 2024. As always, Microsoft has refused to confirm or deny those rumors. So when Intel's chief financial officer David Zinsner recently hinted at a Windows release expected next year that would drive new PC (and thus processor) sales, tongues began wagging.
Zinsner didn't set out to tip Microsoft's hand — he did it accidentally during a conversation with a financial analyst at Citigroup's Global Technology Conference in September. In a transcript posted by investor site Seeking Alpha (free registration required), he is quoted as saying, "We actually think '24 is going to be a pretty good year for client [processor sales], in particular, because of the Windows refresh. And we still think that the installed [PC] base is pretty old and does require a refresh, and we think next year may be the start of that, given the Windows catalyst."
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Dec 08, 2023
When you're obsessed with efficiency, like I am, every extra second you shave off your routine absolutely adds up.
And even if you aren't a full-time productivity-seeking super-nerd, some simple adjustments to your mobile-tech setup can go a surprisingly long way.
One of the best places to give yourself a time-saving boost is in your smartphone's keyboard. Much as we've grown accustomed to it over time, text input on a touchscreen is inherently awkward and often an ergonomic disaster.
But Google's Gboard Android keyboard — my favorite Android keyboard app and the one I recommend for most people — has some awesome advanced options for improving its presence and making it easier and more natural to use for your specific style of typing.
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Dec 08, 2023
The European Union (EU) is moving closer to resolving contentious issues to reach a consensus on the AI Act, which is likely to be one of the most comprehensive legislations to regulate the sale and use of AI.
The talks between 27 European Union member states, the European Commission, and the European Parliament continue for the third day in a row to resolve the controversial issues in the legislation.
As the use of generative AI continues to grow, it is imperative for lawmakers to expedite the process of regulating AI. The EU policymakers are keen to get the law passed before the EU parliamentary elections in June 2024.
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Dec 08, 2023
Apple is set to get its fourth manufacturing facility in India with the Tata Group reportedly planning a new factory that will manufacture iPhones, a move that aligns with Apple's strategy of accelerating its supply chain in India.
The new factory, according to a Bloomberg report that cites unnamed sources, is expected to have 20 assembly lines and employ 50,000 staffers within two years of being operational.
The sources further said that the group plans to make the factory operational in the next 12 to 18 months.
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Dec 07, 2023
It's been another bad week in security.
Not only do we learn that so-called "friendly" governments are quietly requesting surveillance data concerning push notifications, but Apple tells us more than 2.6 billion personal records have already been compromised by data breaches in the past two years.
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Dec 07, 2023
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has blamed Microsoft for anti-competitive practices in the cloud computing segment in a letter to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
"Some IT providers, such as Microsoft, use licensing practices that restrict customer choice and make switching more difficult the cloud services provider wrote in the letter to the watchdog, which has now been made public. "For example, Microsoft changed its licensing terms in 2019 and again in 2022 to make it more difficult for customers to run some of its popular software offerings on Google Cloud, AWS, and Alibaba."
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Dec 07, 2023
In a recent appearance at the New York Times Dealbook conference, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said there are dozens of well-funded companies in China trying to build their own GPUs as an alternative to Nvidia's now that the US trade rules mean its best GPUs are not available in the country.
For China, these restrictions are an annoyance. But for Taiwan, this is a much bigger problem.
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Dec 07, 2023
A political standoff that may delay semiconductor initiatives is raising concerns about the viability of the US as a prime location for chip production.
According to a Bloomberg report that cited sources in the know, a provision that would have allowed projects funded by the 2022 CHIPS Act to skip federal environmental checks was removed from key defense legislation due to opposition from Republican lawmakers.
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Dec 07, 2023
In Google Docs and Sheets, you can add smart chips to your document or inside spreadsheet cells. These are interactive elements shaped like capsules; when you move the pointer over any of them, a card pops open with useful information on it. For example, you can insert a People smart chip that will pop open details about a person from your Google Contacts app, such as their full name, title, email address, phone number, and headshot.
To learn more about the smart chip basics, check out our guide "How to use smart chips in Google Docs and Sheets." It describes the most popular smart chips and how to use them in your document or spreadsheet.
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Dec 06, 2023
Google today unveiled Gemini, its most powerful generative AI (genAI) software model to date — and it comes in three different sizes so it can be used in everything from data centers to mobile devices.
Google has been developing the Gemini large language model (LLM) over the past eight months and recently gave a small group of companies access to an early version.
The conversational, genAI tool is by far Google's most powerful, according to the company, and it could be a serious challenger to other LLMs such as Meta's Llama 2 and OpenAI's GPT-4.
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Dec 06, 2023
Dutch provider of key semiconductor technology ASM International is expanding its operations in Arizona with plans to invest $324 million over five years to build a new headquarters in Scottsdale. The state-of-the-art facility will focus on technology development, research, design and engineering capabilities, as well as conduct work on manufacturing capacity, the company said.
The new facility will be built on a 20-acre campus, adding about 500 jobs to the 800 people that the company already employs in the region, according to a press release. The firm, based in the Netherlands, was one of the first semiconductor makers to operate in Arizona and has had its US headquarters in Phoenix since 1976.
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Dec 06, 2023
Apple's machine learning (ML) teams have released a new ML framework for Apple Silicon: MLX, or ML Explore arrives after being tested over the summer and is now available through GitHub.
Machine Learning for Apple Silicon
In an X-note, Awni Hannun, of Apple's ML team, calls the software: "…an efficient machine learning framework specifically designed for Apple silicon (i.e. your laptop!)"
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Dec 06, 2023
I love Windows, but that doesn't mean I love everything about it. In fact, Windows can behave in a lot of very annoying ways until you make some tweaks.
When I set up any Windows PC for the first time, I always find myself fixing a few things to make Windows less obnoxious. Some of them are downright hidden — did you know you could stop the Start menu from searching Bing, for example?
Here are seven of the most annoying aspects of modern versions of Windows — and how to fix them.
Want more Windows advice? My free Windows Intelligence newsletter delivers all the best Windows tips and tricks straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (a $10 value) just for subscribing!
To read this article in full, please click here
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Dec 06, 2023
Whew. Talk about a delicate balancing act.
For seven years now, we've been watching Google walk a tightrope between being the keeper of the Android platform — on a software and ecosystem level — and being one of the companies competing for customers' dollars when it comes to the hardware around that.
It's an awkward position to be in, to say the very least. On the one hand, Google's creating and maintaining software that companies like Samsung and Motorola then use to cook up their own Android-based goodies. On the other hand, Google itself is using that same software to create Pixel products that directly go after that exact same crowd — both on the consumer level and in the world of business.
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Dec 06, 2023
Generative artificial intelligence (genAI) tools to assist in the creation, testing and operation of software are expected to be adopted by half of all enterprise software engineers by 2027, according to a new study by Gartner Research.
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Dec 05, 2023
A Windows launch isn't the end a process — it's really just the beginning. As with Windows 10, Microsoft continually works on improving Windows 11 by fixing bugs, releasing security patches, and occasionally adding new features.
In this story we summarize what you need to know about each update released to the public for the most recent version of Windows 11 — currently version 23H2. For each build, we've included the date of its release and a link to Microsoft's announcement about it. The most recent updates appear first.
The easiest way to install updates is via Windows Update. Not sure how? See "How to handle Windows 10 and 11 updates" for full instructions. Note that Windows 11 version 23H2 is being released as a phased rollout and may not be available to you in Windows Update yet.
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Dec 05, 2023
Facebook parent company Meta is facing yet another legal challenge over user privacy, as a Spanish media company representing top media outlets in the country is suing the social media giant for $600 million for competitively unfair advertising practices based on noncompliance with the EU's General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR).
The Information Media Association (La Asociación de Medios de Información, or AMI), has filed a €550 million ($600 million) lawsuit against Meta, claiming Meta's ability to design personalized advertising on its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms based on its enormous user base represents an unfair competitive advantage in the advertising market in Europe, which includes media companies.
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Dec 05, 2023
Microsoft plans to offer extended security updates to both business and individual Windows 10 users for the first time when the operating system reaches end-of-life in late 2025.
Microsoft encouraged Windows 10 customers to begin plans to migrate to the latest version of the operating system — Windows 11 — last April with the announcement that Windows 10 22H2 would be the final version.
Windows 10 is still the most widely used version of the OS, accounting for 64% of US desktop market share, according to StatCounter's figures; that compared to 30% for Windows 11.
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Dec 05, 2023
Reminiscent of the recurring battle between open source and proprietary ecosystems, the AI Alliance includes about 50 members and is expected to help IBM, Meta and AMD challenge the largest players in generative AI.
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Dec 05, 2023
In yet another illustration of just how devious criminals have become in their attempts to undermine security, Jamf Threat Labs has identified a potential tampering technique that puts a device into Fake Lockdown Mode.
As most people know, Lockdown Mode is an extreme protection feature for iPhone designed to protect the kind of high-value targets some of the nastiestsurveillance and state-sponsored attackers aim for.
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Dec 05, 2023
Singapore government on Tuesday announced its updated national AI strategy, dubbed the National AI Strategy (NAIS) 2.0, as AI technology development gains momentum across the globe.
The new policy introduces three major changes. The first key policy shift is that Singapore now believes that AI is a necessity and no longer "good to have." In this context, it aims to triple the talent pool of AI experts to 15,000 by training and hiring people, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said while launching NAIS 2.0.
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Dec 05, 2023
When it was first released in July 2015, Windows 10 was clearly a winner. It undid the damage wrought by Windows 8, including eliminating the awkward Charms bar and bringing back the Start menu. Windows 10 introduced many key features as well, such as the Edge browser, integration with Microsoft's OneDrive cloud storage service, a shape-shifting interface that works well with both touch-based and traditional PCs, and plenty more.
In the eight years since its launch, Microsoft has honed those features, added new ones, and scrapped some that didn't work out as it's rolled out 12 major updates to Windows 10. For example, the Cortana digital assistant was initially a core part of Windows 10 but has now been discontinued.
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Dec 05, 2023
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, on Monday, said he will "prioritize" Japan for batches of GPUs to help develop the nation's AI industry, promising partnerships with local giants including Softbank to help develop the industry locally.
"Demand is very high, but I promised the prime minister we will do our very, very best to prioritize Japan's requirements for GPUs," Huang is quoted as saying. "In combination with generative AI and Japan's expertise in manufacturing, the future of robotics could be revolutionized here in Japan."
Japan's NTT, Sakura Internet, NEC, and Softbank are reportedly working with the company to develop AI solutions to automate various processes in their respective companies, something that's necessary in a country struggling with a chronic labor shortage.
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Dec 04, 2023
Cloud communications company Twilio is planning to reduce its workforce by 5%, marking its third significant reduction in staff numbers.
Twilio is making cuts mainly in the sales teams for its consumer data and contact center software. The company has let go of more than 3,000 employees since September 2022, cutting down about a third of their total staff from that time.
"Last year, we set out on a path to reorient our business toward profitable growth," said company spokesperson Kari Ramirez. "Specifically, we streamlined our more mature, scaled Communications business to focus on efficiency and profit, and we organized our Technology, Data and Analytics (TD&A) business to optimize for growth. We've made tremendous progress in Communications, even overachieving on our goals; however, we've underachieved on growth in TD&A."
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Dec 04, 2023
Apple has thousands of engineers within its silicon development teams working on a range of projects, including processors, graphics chips and, of course, modems.
And while the modem development work is clearly slower than expected, at Apple the end of some projects is not always the beginning and that is why it is now focusing on the next big networking standard, 6G.
Apple's been saying/not saying this for some time, via its usual outlets of speculation, rumor, and media proxies. It leaves a lot of what we think we know sitting firmly beyond the wall of industry speculation in a place more cynical eyes see as "plausible deniability."
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Dec 04, 2023
Generative artificial intelligence (genAI) is likely to play a critical role in addressing skills shortages in today's marketplace, according to a new study by London-based Kaspersky Research. It showed that 40% of 2,000 C-level executives surveyed plan to use genAI tools such as ChatGPT to cover critical skills shortages through the automation of tasks.
The European-based study found genAI to be firmly on the business agenda, with 95% of respondents regularly discussing ways to maximize value from the technology at the most senior level, even as 91% admitted they don't really know how it works.
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Dec 04, 2023
In less than a week of its launch, Amazon Q — Amazon's Copilot competitor — is already facing a threat to its survival as a new report suggests the generative AI assistant could be hallucinating.
Q is grappling with inaccuracies and privacy issues, including hallucinations and data leaks, The Platformer reported, citing leaked documents. Significantly, the report comes as two major studies showed that large language models (LLMs) are highly inaccurate when connected to corporate databases and are becoming less transparent.
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Dec 04, 2023
A story that got left out of the corporate infighting that led to Sam Altman's firing, then re-hiring as CEO of OpenAI, was about the firm's relationship with a startup called Rain Neuromorphics, which is developing a neuromorphic processing unit (NPU) designed to replicate features of the human brain.
Rain says their brain-inspired NPUs could potentially offer 100 times more computing power and, for AI training purposes, deliver up to 10,000 times greater energy efficiency than the GPUs predominantly used by AI developers.
In theory, these NPUs could provide a big boost in processing power for portable "edge" devices such as smartphones or vehicle infotainment devices located far from a data center. Samsung, for instance, says that the Galaxy S24 - its next-generation flagship phone - will be AI-enhanced, but smartphones are limited in their processing abilities by their portable nature.
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Dec 01, 2023
Mobile phone sales are rising, showing improvement in fourth quarter shipments despite an overall decline in 2023, according to the newly released International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. Notably, iPhones have performed better than other devices, and adoption of 5G technology is anticipated to boost sales further.
Global smartphone shipments are forecast to jump 7.3% in the fourth quarter compared to the year-earlier period. For all of 2023, smartphone shipments are expected to decline 3.5% to 1.16 billion devices, but that's a rosier forecast than the 4.7% drop predicted earlier in the year. IDC says the market recovery will continue in 2024 with 3.4% growth.
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Dec 01, 2023
AWS CEO Adam Selipsky and other top executives at the company's annual re:Invent conference revealed updates and new products aimed at offerings from Microsoft, Oracle, Google, and IBM.
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Dec 01, 2023
If nothing else, Apple's most recent emergency security update should be considered proof of an increasingly tense security environment.
Enterprises must understand that while Apple maintains a pretty solid ecosystem — certainly at present the most secure, even according to Cisco — that doesn't mean it's entirely safe, and every Apple customer needs to get wise to the growing proliferation of threats.
With more and more business users turning to the company's solutions, it's important to get ahead of the threat.
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Dec 01, 2023
Office 365 and Microsoft 365 subscribers get more frequent software updates than those who have purchased Office without a subscription, which means subscribers have access to the latest features, security patches, and bug fixes. But it can be hard to keep track of the changes in each update and know when they're available. We're doing this for you, so you don't have to.
Following are summaries of the updates to Office 365/Microsoft 365 for Windows, with the latest releases shown first. We'll add info about new updates as they're rolled out.
Note: This story covers updates released to regular Office 365/Microsoft 365 for Windows subscribers. If you're a member of Microsoft's Office Insider preview program or want to get a sneak peek at upcoming features, see the company's "Release notes for Office for Windows Desktop (Beta builds)" page.
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Dec 01, 2023
Two reputable news organizations — Reuters and The Information — recently reported sources claiming that recent drama around OpenAI's leadership was based in part on a massive technological breakthrough at the company.
That breakthrough is something called Q* (pronounced cue-star), which is claimed to be able to do grade-school-level math, and integrate that mathematical reasoning to improve the choosing of responses.
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Nov 30, 2023
It's the last call to keep any Gmail accounts you haven't used recently.
Beginning December 1, Google will start deleting accounts that have been inactive for two years, including all associated photos, Drive documents, contacts, emails, and calendar entries. The tech giant first announced this change in their inactivity policy in May.
Google confirmed to Computerworld that it's proceeding with the deletion plan. "We plan to roll this out slowly and in phases, not all at once," spokesperson Christa Muldoon said. "We'll be starting with accounts that were created and never used."
Separate Gmail accounts held by the same user under different names are also subject to deletion, Muldoon said.
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Nov 30, 2023
A UK investigation into Apple's and Google's dominance of the markets for mobile browsers and cloud gaming will go ahead as a local antitrust regulator has won an appeal against a previous ruling that had blocked its work.
The story so far…
The UK Competition and Markets Authority began investigating both companies last year. Part of that probe looked at how Apple might be restricting the cloud gaming market by restricting such spaces on its App Store.
The regulator at the time said, "Apple's restrictions in particular are holding back potentially disruptive innovation that could transform the way that consumers access and experience content online."
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Nov 30, 2023
Zoom has introduced a new tool to create and edit polls and surveys, which it claims will make it easier to gauge employee engagement.
While Zoom had already enabled surveys for feedback during and after meetings, Zoom Surveys extends this capability more widely across its portfolio of collaboration and productivity tools, the company said Wednesday.
"People have different workstyles and meeting styles, and we wanted to make it easier for our customers to interact with their entire audience, not just those who attend meetings," Darin Brown, head of product and productivity applications at Zoom, said in a blog post. "With Surveys, users can easily get a quick pulse on whatever issue they need from those who matter most, without having to call an unnecessary meeting to discuss."
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Nov 30, 2023
Employee-centric super apps are mobile applications that aim to bring together all the tools and resources employees use daily within a single platform.
"A super app is a single application that sits on top of a variety of mini apps... [in a] modular approach that offers users many different functions, all in one single, familiar interface," said Eric Helmer, senior vice president and chief technology officer at IT support services provider Rimini Street.
Traditionally, organizations have used mega applications, continuing to add functionality after functionality over time, he said. However, those mega apps quickly got out of hand. They had performance issues, and users had difficulty navigating them.
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Nov 29, 2023
The Windows 11 2022 Update has been released, but behind the scenes, Microsoft is constantly working to improve the newest version of Windows. The company frequently rolls out public preview builds to members of its Windows Insider Program, allowing them to test out — and even help shape — upcoming features.
Skip to the builds
The Windows Insider program is divided into four channels:
The Canary Channel (new in March 2023) is where platform changes (such as major updates to the Windows kernel and new APIs) are previewed. These changes are not tied to a particular Windows release and may never ship at all. Little documentation is provided, and builds are likely to be very unstable. This channel is best for highly technical users.
The Dev Channel is where new features are introduced for initial testing, regardless of which Windows release they'll eventually end up in. This channel is best for technical users and developers and builds in it may be unstable and buggy.
In the Beta Channel, you'll get more polished features that will be deployed in the next major Windows release. This channel is best for early adopters, and Microsoft says your feedback in this channel will have the most impact.
The Release Preview Channel typically doesn't see action until shortly before a new feature update is rolled out. It's meant for final testing of an upcoming release and is best for those who want the most stable builds.
The Beta and Release Preview Channels also receive bug-fix builds for the currently shipping version of Windows 11. See "How to preview
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Nov 29, 2023
Return to Service is one of the many enterprise-focused improvements Apple introduced in iOS/iPad OS 17. It's a new device management tool designed to help IT manage remote fleets of iPhones and iPads, and it should make it much easier to handle transient deployments and semi-shared devices.
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Nov 29, 2023
Private browsing. Incognito. Privacy mode.
Web browser functions like those trace their roots back more than a decade, and the feature — first found in a top browser in 2005 — spread quickly as one copied another, made tweaks and minor improvements.
But privacy-promising labels can be treacherous. Simply put, going "incognito" is as effective in guarding online privacy as witchcraft is in warding off a common cold.
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Nov 29, 2023
Large language models (LLMs), the algorithmic platforms on which generative AI (genAI) tools like ChatGPT are built, are highly inaccurate when connected to corporate databases and becoming less transparent, according to two studies.
One study by Stanford University showed that as LLMs continue to ingest massive amounts of information and grow in size, the genesis of the data they use is becoming harder to track down. That, in turn, makes it difficult for businesses to know whether they can safely build applications that use commercial genAI foundation models and for academics to rely on them for research.
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Nov 29, 2023
Ah, reminders. I'm not sure how I'd possibly function without 'em. (What were we talking about, again?)
I rely on reminders for almost everything imaginable — making sure I respond to an important message, tackle a pressing task, and perform all sorts of embarrassingly mundane day-to-day chores that are both business-based and personal. (Putting on one's pants technically counts as both, right?)
And goodness gracious, lemme tell ya: Google's got some incredibly useful ways to set yourself reminders in different areas of Android. Most of 'em are options you'd never even encounter if you didn't know where to look.
But once you uncover 'em, holy moly, can these purpose-specific brain jigglers be invaluable for the mushy-minded among us.
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Nov 28, 2023
AWS CEO Adam Selipsky on Tuesday premiered the star of the cloud giant's ongoing re:Invent 2023 conference: Amazon Q, the company's answer to Microsoft's GPT-driven Copilot generative AI assistant.
Selipsky's announcement of Q was reminiscent of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's keynote at Ignite and Build, where he announced several integrations and flavors of Copilot across a wide range of products.
"Amazon Q can handle all of the basic productivity tasks that Copilot can, but can also be used to work across a wide range of apps across the stack, which should appeal to IT managers who want to limit the number of assistants that need to be monitored," said Keith Kirkpatrick, research director of enterprise applications at The Futurum Group.
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Nov 28, 2023
The UK competition authority has objected to Adobe's proposed $20 billion acquisition of cloud-based design company Figma, on grounds that it might stifle innovation.
According to the results of an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Adobe's refusal to provide concessions to alleviate worries about the deal has led to findings that the acquisition would eliminate competition and remove Figma as a threat to Adobe's main products, Photoshop and Illustrator.
Last year, Adobe revealed its intention to acquire Figma, whose platform is designed to enable collaborative app and website design, for $20 billion. Figma is viewed as a significant competitor to Adobe in the design software arena.
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Nov 28, 2023
If you blinked during the prelude to Thanksgiving 2023, you might not have noticed the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) announcement that the first wireless chargers to support Qi v.2.0 (and Apple's MagSafe) are about to ship.
This matters to Apple watchers because many of the first products to appear will be compatible with Apple's iPhone 15, as these are the first Qi2-certified smartphones. This should also be good news for busy mobile professionals who keep their iPhone on a wireless charging pad when at their desk.
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Nov 28, 2023
Enterprise VR/AR hardware vendor Varjo has launched its latest mixed-reality headset, promising levels of realism that surpass consumer-focused devices — and at a price that puts the device in line with Apple's upcoming Vision Pro.
Varjo targets the highest of high-end virtual reality and augmented reality (VR/AR) use cases, including training simulations for airplane pilots and design reviews for global car manufacturers. It's an approach that pushes the boundaries of immersive technologies, the company says, with prices to match: individual Varjo headsets can often run into five-figure sums.
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Nov 28, 2023
The new program allows researchers to cut through waiting queues or wait times while providing the option to connect with experts to seek guidance on quantum workloads.
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Nov 28, 2023
The European Commission (EC) has put Amazon on notice that regulators believe its proposed $1.4 billion acquisition of robot vacuum cleaners (RVCs) iRobot may leave its European competitors in the dust.
EU legislators are worried that purchasing the makers of the popular Roomba vacuum, which Amazon said it aimed to do in August, might cause the online retail giant to restrict or discourage the sale of competitive products on its European websites.
The commission sent a formal statement of objections to Amazon this week after it opened an investigation in July into the potential implications of the deal — originally valued at $1.7 billion before a reevaluation dropped the price.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Nov 27, 2023
Two weeks ago at its Ignite event, Microsoft made something of a snoozy announcement: the company was rebranding its generative AI-based Bing Chat and calling it Copilot instead.
Ho-hum. Another day, another change in the company's branding strategy. Par for the course, right?.
But the announcement was more consequential than you might think. It signaled Microsoft has thrown in the towel on the internet search war with Google and is turning its full attention to AI.
Copilots everywhere
To understand why, let's take a look at Microsoft's innocuous-sounding announcement. The company is renaming Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise, both of which will now be called Copilot. From a branding perspective, it makes perfect sense because it unifies all of the company's genAI efforts under one brand. Microsoft already has several AI tools under the Copilot moniker, including Copilot in Windows, Copilot for Microsoft 365 (currently only available for enterprise customers), and Microsoft Security Copilot, with others to be released.
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Nov 27, 2023
Amazon has added generative AI tools to Lex, its chatbot development tool.
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Nov 27, 2023
Google's dominance in the search arena has given rise to two major antitrust lawsuits from the U.S. government, which allege that the company has manipulated the market to maintain that dominance, to the exclusion of its competitors and the detriment of the public at large.
The first lawsuit, targeting Google's search business, kicked off in mid-September, with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) calling its first witnesses, and a second trial against the tech giant, focusing on advertising, is scheduled for next year.
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Nov 27, 2023
Once upon a time, everybody seemed to believe autonomous vehicles (AVs) would soon be wheeling themselves merrily on every road.
That didn't happen.
Though we still expect these things to arrive on streets eventually, how they do so won't be straightforward, and it's questionable whether private ownership is even a desirable aim. Shared AVs seems like a more promising approach.
Even before we get to that, here are six problems the Apple Car - and anyone else developing such vehicles - must solve.
Saving the world one car at a time
The car you drive is a giant chunk of steel, iron, plastic, aluminium, glass, rubber, precious metals and more. Not all of these materials are as readily available as they once were and the energy used in manufacturing a vehicle is an estimated 2.7MWh/car, according to the European Automobile Manufacturer's Association (ACEA).
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Nov 27, 2023
Buried inside just about every smartphone is a capability that few people take advantage of but that I have come to rely on: the ability to turn my phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot. And since I got a 5G-capable phone — and 5G mobile networks have become reliably available in many places my day takes me — I can supercharge my hotspot with enough data and speed for my entire crew.
You don't need to run out and buy a 5G phone to turn on a hotspot or even to access 5G networks. You only need a 5G phone to access the fast speeds of 5G. If you come to depend on hotspotting the way I have, though, those blazing 5G speeds are a great reason to upgrade as soon as a 5G network is available to you.
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Nov 27, 2023
Alibaba is shutting down its quantum computing research laboratory as part of the company's ongoing restructuring efforts.
The closure of the lab will result in about 30 job losses but the equipment will be donated to Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, where the company is based, a company spokesperson reportedly told Bloomberg.
According to reports from Chinese media and cited by Bloomberg, Alibaba has had an active presence in the quantum computing market since 2015, with its now shuttered Quantum Lab Academy offering an 11-qubit quantum cloud platform to help educate both employees and students about the technology. It's believed that the company has invested around $15 billion in emerging technologies such as quantum computing.
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Nov 26, 2023
Creating a great place for IT professionals to work takes more than offering top salaries and benefits. It means making a commitment to employees' well-being and career growth, providing challenging work, supporting a diverse workforce, and fostering a positive and inclusive culture.
And lately it means making IT an integral part of the business itself. The best organizations recognize the importance of technology in achieving their goals, partnering with IT pros to innovate and drive the business forward.
For the 30th year, Computerworld publisher Foundry surveyed large, midsize, and small organizations to find the top IT employers. Read our special report to see which companies made our list and what makes them such desirable places to work. To read the Best Places to Work in IT 2024 report in PDF format, download it below.
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Nov 26, 2023
In a runup to its annual re:Invent conference, AWS on Sunday unveiled Amazon WorkSpaces Thin Client virtual desktops in a bid to offer cheaper PC alternatives to price-sensitive enterprise customers.
The cloud-based Thin Clients start at $195 a piece, will use the same hardware as the Fire TV Cube, and is targeted at enterprises, including call centers and payment processing centers, which deploy large numbers of PCs, the company wrote in a blog post.
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Nov 26, 2023
There's a standing joke in the executive team at BCU that every strategy or initiative built to service the Credit Union's 350,000-plus members runs through IT.
Whether it's maintaining uptime, rolling out digital banking and payment services, or delivering seamless customer experiences, the 77-person-and-growing IT organization is at the epicenter of BCU's business strategy and innovation, making it a dynamic and rewarding place to pursue an IT career.
And the results are no joke: The team oversaw 150 successful projects in the past year, the two most notable being a conversion of a legacy monolithic middleware environment into a modern microservices architecture, plus the transition to a full agile value stream methodology for project delivery. Both initiatives enable the IT organization to be more responsive to fast-changing business strategy and the needs of its members and employees.
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Nov 26, 2023
UKG was built on the melding of two distinct camps — Ultimate Software and Kronos Software — which merged in early 2020 to create a workforce management and HR software powerhouse. The merged company's commitment to diversity, for both workforce representation and promoting different perspectives and ideas, is a hallmark of UKG's IT organization, reflected in everything from its hiring choices and its hybrid work model to fostering collaboration and cross-pollination across teams.
"We sell diversity wrong in the United States — it's really about bringing in different people with different points of view," says Scott Howitt, chief digital officer at UKG, ranked No. 3 among large companies in Computerworld's "Best Places to Work in IT 2024" survey. "Because of cultural experience, gender experience, or age experience, people see problems in different ways. Diversity gives us the opportunity to come out with better outcomes, because we consider all the angles."
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Nov 26, 2023
"IT that just works" is the mantra of the IT organization at Kinaxis, a Canada-based maker of supply chain planning software. The slogan is written on T-shirts; promoted during meetings; dropped into casual conversation; and, perhaps most importantly, serves as the core design principle guiding all digital experiences.
Whether a project involves equipment setup, employee onboarding, or finessing the user experience for its core software, Kinaxis' IT organization goes the extra mile to simplify interactions and elevate user engagement. Sometimes the quest for quality and innovation takes longer, but it's what defines the Kinaxis IT culture.
"We empower people and give them permission to go for something really good," says Yvonne Holland, CIO at Kinaxis, which ranks fifth among midsize companies in Computerworld's "Best Places to Work in IT 2024" survey. "When they're designing solutions, they aren't afraid to push for excellence. And they're working on projects that are more interesting because of the design principles they're applying."
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Nov 26, 2023
Twenty-two law enforcement and intelligence agencies from 18 different countries signed an international agreement on AI safety over the weekend, which is designed to make new versions of the technology "secure by design."
This agreement comes months after the European Union signed its EU AI Act in June, banning certain AI technologies including biometric surveillance and predictive policing, and classifying AI systems that could significantly impact health, safety, rights, or elections as high risk.
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Nov 24, 2023
My first computer was an IBM 360 mainframe. To use it, I relied on a 3270 terminal. From there, I quickly moved on to a PDP-11 minicomputer running Unix — where my interface was a VT-102 terminal.
In those days, all the computing power was remote. Then, CP/M, Apple, and IBM PCs changed everything. And the desktop became where power lived. That was then; this is now. Today, we're moving back to remote computing and from the PC to cloud-based Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) offerings such as Windows 365.
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Nov 24, 2023
Digital Europe, an advocacy group that represents digital industries across the continent, has released a joint statement ahead of the EU's AI Act's final weeks of negotiations, warning that over-regulation could stymie innovation and cause startups to leave the region.
The group's core argument is that the AI Act now goes beyond its original intended scope, and should instead remain focused on high-risk use cases, rather than being directed at specific technologies. Digital Europe also warned that the financial burden the Act could place on companies wanting to bring AI-enabled products to market could make operating out of the EU unstainable for smaller organizations.
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Nov 24, 2023
The Indian government on Friday launched the Global Digital Public Infrastructure Repository (GDPIR) to bring together resources and learnings from G20 members to design and build Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).
"Its primary aim is to bridge the knowledge gap in the choices and methodologies required for the design, construction, deployment, and governance of DPIs. The GDPIR showcases the information in a standardized format from countries and organizations that have developed DPIs at scale, incorporating elements such as maturity scales, source codes (where available), and governance frameworks," said a press note released by the government.
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Nov 23, 2023
So, you're ready to leave your iPhone for greener pastures — specifically, the bright green hue of Google's Android ecosystem.
It's a major move, to be sure, but it doesn't have to be daunting. Beneath the surface-level differences, Android and iOS actually have a lot in common — and with the right steps, you can switch from an iPhone to an Android device without losing anything significant (including your sanity).
(In case you're looking to move the other way, check out our Android to iPhone switching guide.)
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Nov 22, 2023
Many business professionals require highly secure messaging solutions, particularly when they travel. Apple's iMessage will soon offer a new secure identity verification system enterprise professionals might find useful. It's called Contact Key Verification.
What is Contact Key Verification?
Apple actually announced the system in 2022. It is now expected to go live across the Apple ecosystem with the release of iOS 17.2 and updates for Macs and iPads.
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Nov 22, 2023
Microsoft Forms is a web app that allows users to create various types of forms that gather information from people online and store that data in the cloud for review.
Why is this useful? Surveys, questionnaires, and other interactive forms are a vital part of doing business. They provide a great way to interact with employees, teammates, customers, and potential business partners. You can use online forms to collect customer feedback or business requirements, conduct market research, gauge employee satisfaction, register attendees for an upcoming event, test learners' knowledge after a training course, and more.
Forms is included with Microsoft 365 subscriptions for individuals and businesses, and a limited version is available for free to anyone with a Microsoft account. In this cheat sheet, we will cover how to use this program to create questionnaires, add specific types of questions, and view and analyze the responses.
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Nov 22, 2023
When it comes to thinking about Apple Silicon, any industry insider will tell you that there is a long lead time attached to silicon development — meaning development of the chips inside the most modern devices today probably began several years ago.
Zoom out and think back 13 years to the first real Apple Silicon chip, the A4 processor Apple put inside the iPhone 4 in 2010. That early processor reflected major strategic decisions, including the 2008 purchase of PA Semi and its ongoing work with ARM, which still creates the reference designs Apple uses at the core of its own chips.
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Nov 21, 2023
A group of non-fiction writers has filed a class-action suit against OpenAI and Microsoft for allegedly infringing on their copyrighted materials by training the AI chatbot ChatGPT on their written works and academic journals without their consent.
The suit — one of several filed against the AI platform provider that make a similar complaint — comes as OpenAI ends a tumultuous five days with the reinstatement of Sam Altman as OpenAI's chief executive. His return was spurred by employees, investors, and allies rallying to his defense after his ouster by the company's board of directors last week.
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Nov 21, 2023
Apple hasn't been shy about its view of the Vision Pro as an enterprise device with real-world business applications. (The company even highlighted business apps during the mixed-reality headset's introduction at this year's Worldwide Developer Conference.)
While there's plenty to say about how the Vision Pro can (or can't) fit into workers' daily activities, it's important that IT departments get prepared to support this new technology before Apple rolls it out in 2024.
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Nov 21, 2023
Sam Altman is to return to OpenAI within days of his departure and the company appointing two interim CEOs during the period, OpenAI announced in a post on X.
"We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo," OpenAI said in an update posted to the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Altman's departure late last week from the AI startup because of a conflict with the board was the subject of much speculation, as the reasons weren't clearly spelled out.
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Nov 21, 2023
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Confluent, the data streaming pioneer, has announced Data Streaming for AI, an initiative to accelerate organisations' development of real-time AI applications.
Achieving real-time AI demands more than fast algorithms; it requires trustworthy,
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Nov 21, 2023
Anthropic has upped the ante for how much information a large language model (LLM) can consume at once, announcing on Tuesday that its just-released Claude 2.1 has a context window of 200,000 tokens. That's roughly the equivalent of 500,000 words or more than 500 printed pages of information, Anthropic said.
The latest Claude version also is more accurate than its predecessor, has a lower price, and includes beta tool use, the company said in its announcement.
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Nov 21, 2023
If you've got one of Google's Pixel phones, good news: You've almost certainly got Google's snazzy-sounding update to Android 14 on your device and waiting — whether you've noticed much about it yet or not.
Speaking of which, the slightly less exciting news: Odds are, whenever that update first landed on your device, your initial reaction fell somewhere between a "huuuuh?!" and an "uhh, all riiiiiight...." (There may or may not have been a quizzical expression of some sort involved, too, along with the possibility of a perplexed "harumph.")
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Nov 20, 2023
Amazon confirmed Monday that it is planning to lay off several hundred workers at its Alexa division as part of a shift in focus to generative AI.
The company's emphasis on developing generative AI systems has resulted in the release of new offerings, like the tool rolled out in September to generate copy listings for users selling items on the company's e-commerce platform. The application is fueled by a large language model (LLM) that Amazon has been developing internally, originally to support the Alexa smart assistant.
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Nov 20, 2023
There was, in the oldness of time, demand for Apple to open up its iMessage service a little. Then, out of the blue, over-zealous company Nothing justified Cupertino's privacy and security arguments against doing so in mere hours — even as Apple announced plans to open up a little more.
Winner takes it all
What that hefty opening paragraph means is that:
Apple continues to face pressure from regulators who want it to open up its services, including iMessage, to interoperate with similar services provided by others.
Apple does not agree, and as expected is appealing against regulatory decisions to open up its services. The company, along with several big names in tech, filed appeals against the EU's recently approved Digital Markets Act (DMA).
While the terms of the act demand the companies concerned follow its dictates, the appeals may yet force changes in the DMA restrictions.
When it comes to iMessage, Apple is arguing that its service is not a "gatekeeper" and that opening it up would undermine the privacy and security of users.
And in what could be a defensive move, the company has confirmed it will bow to p
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Nov 20, 2023
The EU Commission has issued a Statement of Objections regarding Adobe's proposed $20 billion acquisition of web-based collaborative design company Figma.
The Statement of Objections is part of an ongoing investigation the Commission launched after Adobe announced its intention to buy Figma, looking into concerns that if the transaction were to go ahead, it could affect competition in the product-design software market.
In its statement, the Commission outlined a number of concerns around the deal, primarily that the acquisition has the potential to not only reduce competition in the market for interactive product-design applications, but also for vector- and raster-editing tools.
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Nov 20, 2023
The fallout over the firing of the co-founder of OpenAI continued this week, raising concerns that the uncertain future of the company could more broadly affect the future of generative AI (genAI) technology.
Hundreds of OpenAI employees — nearly the company's entire staff — signed a letter Monday threatening to quit and go work for Microsoft unless everyone on OpenAI's board of directors resigns and reappoints co-founder Sam Altman as CEO, according to a memo circulated on social media.
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Nov 20, 2023
Chaos continues to reign at OpenAI, with the appointment of Emmett Shear, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitch, a video-streaming website, as OpenAI's interim CEO after the abrupt exit of OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, last week.
Shear would be replacing Mira Murati, OpenAI's chief technology officer, who was initially named OpenAI's CEO after the company board shunted out 38-year-old Altman on November 17.
The board hinted that Altman was not always "candid" in his communications with the board without specifying the exact reasons for shunting him out. A New York Times report quoted an OpenAI executive saying that Altman's exit was because of a "breakdown in communication between Sam and the board."
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Nov 17, 2023
Sam Altman, a key figure in the creation of landmark generative AI application ChatGPT, has been fired by the OpenAI board of directors over an apparent lack of candor in his communications with the board.
According to a statement issued by OpenAI Friday, Altman's departure is the result of a "deliberative review process by the board," which resulted in a finding that he "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities."
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Nov 17, 2023
We are now in the third decade of Microsoft's monthly Patch Tuesday releases, which deliver fewer critical updates to browsers and Windows platforms — and much more reliable updates to Microsoft Office — than in the early days of patching. But this month, the company rolled out 63 updates (including fixes for three zero-days in Windows and Office).
Updates to Microsoft Exchange and Visual Studio can be included in standard patch release cycles, while Adobe needs to be included in your "Patch Now" releases for third-party applications.
The team at Readiness has provided a detailed infographic that outlines the risks associated with each of the updates for November.
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Nov 17, 2023
From its humble origins as a collection of cloud apps known as Gmail for Your Domain, Google's office suite has greatly expanded and matured over the years. Rebranded multiple times as Google Apps, G Suite, and finally Google Workspace, it's now a full-scope productivity and collaboration suite with subscription plans for organizations ranging from the smallest businesses through the largest enterprises.
If you're new to Google Workspace or want to get more out of its apps, our collection of step-by-step tutorials can help.
Google Workspace: Get started
Google Docs cheat sheet
How to use Google Docs to create, edit, and collaborate on documents online.
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Nov 17, 2023
China is stockpiling chipmaking equipment despite the US government's trade restrictions on the export of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to the country.
Some of the leading producers of chip manufacturing technology have almost doubled the percentage of revenue they've generated from China since 2022, according to a report from Bloomberg.
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Nov 17, 2023
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. last month laid down a wide-ranging executive order targeting generative AI, dealing with everything from safety and security measures, to issues related to bias and civil rights, and oversight over how genAI is produced. On the surface, the order sounds like a comprehensive and powerful one.
But is it really? Microsoft, along with most other big genAI creators, welcomed the order, with Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith calling it "another critical step forward in the governance of AI technology…. We look forward to working with US officials to fully realize the power and promise of this emerging technology."
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Nov 17, 2023
Applied Materials, the largest US maker of chipmaking machinery, is facing investigations in the US for violating export restrictions to China.
In a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it was under investigation by the US Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts for certain shipments to China.
"In August 2022, we received a subpoena from the US Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts requesting information relating to certain China customer shipments. We are cooperating fully with the government," the company said in the filing.
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Nov 16, 2023
Microsoft never sleeps. In addition to its steady releases of major and minor updates to the current version of Windows 10, the company frequently rolls out public preview builds to members of its Windows Insider Program, allowing them to test out — and even help shape — upcoming features.
Windows Insiders can choose to receive preview builds in one of four channels: the Canary, Dev, Beta, or Release Preview Channel. Insiders in the Canary, Dev, and Beta Channels are now testing Windows 11 builds.
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Nov 16, 2023
Dell has unveiled a partnership with Hugging Face to help it develop open-source generative AI models for Dell's infrastructure and customers to use. Through the partnership Dell will provide a pre-packaged AI solution.
Hugging Face develops tools for building applications using machine learning and open-source artificial intelligence (AI) models. Dell said it plans to use the software tools to create a "Hugging Face Dell" portal with dedicated containers and scripts for inferencing and fine-tuning generative AI models, according to a Dell blog.
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Nov 16, 2023
Meta and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, have launched a challenge against the gatekeeper status designated to them by the European Commission under the EU's Digital Markets Act.
The DMA came into force in September 2023 and is designed to rein in the power of large tech corporations, requiring them to change how they integrate digital services and handle customer data while also addressing issues including the right to uninstall software on devices, greater personal data access controls, enhanced advertising transparency, an end to vendors self-preferencing their own services, and a stop to certain restrictive app store requirements for developers.
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Nov 16, 2023
The first landmark tech antitrust trial of the century, The United States of America v. Google LLC, is winding down, with the last witness finishing testimony this week. What could be at stake in District Court Judge Amit Mehta's final decision, expected next year, is nothing short of "the future of the internet," as Kenneth Dintzer, deputy director in the Department of Justice's civil division, argued on the first day of the trial.
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Nov 16, 2023
When San Francisco startup OpenAI launched ChatGPT on Nov. 30, 2022, the technology landscape was shaken to its core — and artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly moved from being a fringe idea to mainstream adoption.
"We spent a couple of decades learning how to talk to machines. What changed in November 2022 is that machines learned how to talk to us," said Cisco CIO Fletcher Previn. "By December, it was clear [ChatGPT] would have a significant impact, and for something that's been around a year, it continues to amaze and terrorize."
Like other enterprises, Cisco believes generative AI (gen AI) tools such as ChatGPT will eventually be embedded into every back-end IT system and external product.
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Nov 16, 2023
Even as the popularity of generative AI continues to grow, there is an urgent need for enterprises to clearly define policies to prevent employees from using unauthorized tools, which can potentially put businesses at risk. This is a key result of the recent Salesforce survey of around 14,000 full-time in 14 countries.
A little over a quarter (28%) of workers are using generative AI at work and over half of them are using it without any approval or authorization from their employers, the survey revealed. Significantly, another 32% of those surveyed said they plan to start using generative AI soon. The survey was conducted as part of the Generative AI Snapshot Research Series, "The Promises and Pitfalls of AI at Work."
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Nov 16, 2023
Microsoft plans to integrate the online version of its Project app into Planner next year, creating a single product tool for work management.
Project has been Microsoft's primary tool for in-depth work coordination — and a mainstay for enterprise project managers — since its launch nearly four decades ago.
To track more straightforward team and individual work, Microsoft has added more broadly accessible tools to its portfolio in recent years. Planner, which launched in 2016, is a comparatively simple work management app aimed at less complex team projects, while To Do is for personal task tracking.
At its Ignite event Wednesday, Microsoft announced that both "Project for the web" (one of several Project versions) and To Do will both be integrated into the new Planner app coming in 2024.
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Nov 15, 2023
Apple is under pressure to open up its messaging platform. Now, Nothing says it has found a way to let people get iMessage support on its Android-based devices — but there's a catch that seems to mean users must take a dangerous leap of trust.
The Nothing solution certainly fills a gap.
Apple has consistently refused to make iMessage completely compatible with non-Apple devices, even though it offers business messaging. Most users only notice the difference in the color of the message bubble. Some experience other problems, such as when people in group chats share really low-resolution images due to iMessage's limited compatibility.
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Nov 15, 2023
Google Calendar is a core part of the Android productivity package — but if all you're using is what you see on the app's surface, you're missing out on some pretty powerful possibilities.
Yes, oh yes: Just like so many of our modern digital tools, there's more to Google Calendar than meets the eye. And while the majority of the service's advanced options may revolve around the Calendar website, the Calendar Android app has its share of handy out-of-sight options that are specific to the mobile experience. From time-saving shortcuts to efficiency-boosting options, they're all things that have the potential to make your life easier in small but significant ways.
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Nov 15, 2023
As Copilot rolls out across its software products, Microsoft wants to give customers a way to tailor the generative AI (genAI) assistant to their individual needs. That's the idea behind Copilot Studio, a new automation platform that lets businesses customize Copilot chatbots by connecting data from a wide range of apps, with the ability to publish their own genAI assistant for employee or customer access.
Microsoft announced Copilot Studio on Wednesday at its Ignite event. The company also unveiled integrations with Dynamics 365 Guides mixed-reality app.
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Nov 15, 2023
Microsoft plans to integrate its Copilot generative AI (genAI) assistant into a mixed-reality app that can provide guidance to factory technicians, aiming to reduce the time needed to manage and maintain industrial equipment.
At its Ignite conference Wednesday, Microsoft announced that Copilot will be integrated into Dynamics 365 Guides. Guides, launched in preview in 2019, is a mixed-reality app for HoloLens and mobile devices that provides step-by-step instructions to field workers via graphics overlaid onto physical objects, such as the tools and machine parts workers use.
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Nov 15, 2023
Technology research and advisory firm IDC has readjusted its semiconductor market outlook from September, predicting year-over-year growth of 20.2% in 2024 due, in part, to growing demand from the US.
While global semiconductor revenue is still expected to see a decrease from $598 billion in 2022 to $526.5 billion in 2023, IDC believes that in addition to resilience in the US, increasing demand from AI server and end point device manufacturers will contribute to the market experiencing a period of growth in 2024, reaching $6.33 billion.
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Nov 15, 2023
Picture the ultimate replacement for the Windows Store app. Let's imagine it allows for installing nearly any Windows application; no clicking through software installation wizards; automatically declining junkware in those software installers; keeping everything on your PC up to date; a single command you could run to install all your favorite apps on a new PC without hunting things down one by one.
Well, I've got news for you: This exists. Microsoft built it, and it's already installed on your Windows PC. Some Windows geeks talk about it, but few PC users know the secrets of Winget, Microsoft's secret software installation and updating power tool.
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Nov 15, 2023
Once upon a time, I loaded and ran software from 360-kilobyte floppy disks on my KayPro computer — and I was happy. At the time, I could install software on a huge 10MB hard drive and run from it there. Good times!
The years passed, and my hard drive grew ever larger. But I still "owned" my programs. Well, the End User License Agreements (EULA)s would technically disagree, but the applications were on my computer and under my control.
That was then. This is now.
Over the last few years, software-as-a-service (SaaS) has begun to totally dominate the end-user software market. By 2019, for example, you couldn't buy a "permanent" version of any Adobe program. Instead, you had to subscribe to Creative Cloud if you wanted to run Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro. Rather than paying once for the whole suite, it will now run you $60 a month.
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