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Jun 25, 2019
Apple earlier this month issued previews for this year's upgrades to iOS and macOS, its two most popular operating systems, at the firm's annual Worldwide Developers Conference.
It also debuted a new OS for the iPad - called, not surprisingly, iPadOS - and seeded a preview of that, too.
The betas of iOS 13, iPadOS and macOS 10.15 - the latter's nickname came from another California location, "Catalina" - were initially delivered only to registered developers. But anyone who wants to run the rougher code can do so now: Free public betas for iOS 13, iPadOS and Mojave were released Monday, a week before the start of July, the month Apple had initially pegged as the availability window.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 25, 2019
Millions are exploring the iOS 13 public beta now it is available, here are some easy to miss features in Apple's new iPhone OS.
The hidden mouse
You can use a Bluetooth mouse with an iPad - to some extent - but Apple doesn't make the feature particularly easy to find. To enable it you must:
Open SettingsAccessibility
Open Touch
Turn Assistive Touch on
Add the Bluetooth mouse as a Pointing Device.
This support is very limited - it really just lets you point at and click items on the display. It really is an accessibility feature and acts pretty much as a Switch Controller (on a budget).
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 25, 2019
Hear ye, hear ye, citizens of the Android-using world. You no doubt know by now that Android upgrades are, by and large, a steaming hot mess (to use the technical term). But there's new reason to remain alert and think extra carefully about any Android phone purchase you might one day consider.
You're probably already aware that no Android phone-maker other than Google treats timely and reliable software upgrades as a top priority and explicit guarantee. That's nothing new, and we've seen the results of that reality time and time again — both with the platform's monthly security patches and with the larger operating system updates that surround them (and yes, both elements absolutely matter).
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 25, 2019
Millions are exploring the iOS 13 public beta now that it is available. As they do, they should take a look at these easy-to-miss features in Apple's new iPhone OS.
The hidden mouse
You can use a Bluetooth mouse with an iPad - to some extent - but Apple doesn't make the feature particularly easy to find. To enable it you must:
Open SettingsAccessibility
Open Touch
Turn Assistive Touch on
Add the Bluetooth mouse as a Pointing Device
This support is very limited - it really just lets you point at and click items on the display. It really is an accessibility feature and acts pretty much as a Switch Controller (on a budget).
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 25, 2019
Google is looking to make it easier to build chatbots for Hangouts Chat, thanks to an integration with its Dialogflow conversational AI platform.
Google launched Hangouts Chat early last year, a chat-based collaboration tool that replaces the Hangouts app for G Suite customers, of which there are are now more than 5 million, according to Google's latest stats.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 25, 2019
It's the early '80s and operations manager is tired of getting repeated calls to the basement computer room to repair buttons on the mainframe. The "ready" buttons on the IBM 3420 tape drives keep breaking, and he wishes he knew why.
These buttons, which are pushed after the tape reel is mounted, always seem to break during the night shift, so the operations manager decides to investigate. He sneaks into the computer room one night — and discovers that the buttons are the victims of job boredom. The young and rambunctious night operators mount a tape, and rather than use a finger to press the ready button, they jump up and grab one of the pipes overhead, then use their foot to kick the ready button. Naturally, the buttons break after just a few nights of that kind of abuse.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 24, 2019
Microsoft last week unveiled preliminary versions of its remade Edge browser for Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.
The preview builds for the older operating systems were marked as from the "Canary" channel, the least polished of the four eventual versions Microsoft will support. Two other more reliable channels - "Dev" and "Beta" - will lead to the production build, dubbed "Stable."
[ Further reading: Google's Chromium browser explained ]
When Microsoft first told users it would ditch Edge's home-grown browser technologies and replace them with those from the Chromium open-source project, the company promised to craft editions for not only Windows 10, but also its predecessors as well as macOS. Going cross-platform was, Microsoft contended, one of the benefits of jumping aboard Chromium, the project whose rendering and JavaScript engines also power Google's Chrome, Opera Software's Opera and several niche browsers.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 24, 2019
Apple officially opened up its Public Beta Program today for its newest deskop OS.
So I thought it might be useful to share some first impressions of macOS Catalina. I've spent a little time with it since its introduction at WWDC.
You can try macOS Catalina for yourself
Mac users who want to test the beta themselves can sign-up to join Apple's Public Beta Program.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 24, 2019
Whether you're collaborating with colleagues or flying solo on a mission, you can't do much better than Trello when it comes to keeping the pieces of your projects in order.
Trello is an Atlassian-owned task-management app that makes it easy to organize practically anything imaginable — images, ideas, links, lists, you name it — via a series of drag-and-drop cards that live within subject-oriented boards. If you're reading this story, though, you probably already know that. (And if you don't, you might want to mosey over to Computerworld's Trello introduction before reading any further.)
To read this article in full, please click here
(Insider Story)
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Jun 24, 2019
Pilot fish walks into his small lab at a big computer maker one morning and finds one of the building's maintenance guys packing up his tools. So fish chats with him for a bit and then asks what he had been working on. "I had a work order to change the wall power for the lab's printer from 240 volts to 120 volts," responds the maintenance guy.
"That's odd," says fish. "The printer's been happily plugged into that outlet for years."
Maintenance guy shrugs and leaves. Almost immediately, one of fish's co-workers announces that the printer is down.
Fish opens the printer's cover and looks at the power plate. Sure enough, the printer is built to use 240 volts. So when the printer vendor's repair guy arrives to troubleshoot the problem, fish immediately fills him in about what the maintenance guy had done.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 21, 2019
Microsoft this week quietly alerted customers running last year's Windows 10 version 1803 that it would soon start a forced upgrade to the latest feature refresh.
In a note added to the Windows release health dashboard on June 18, Microsoft wrote: "We are now beginning to build and train the machine learning (ML) based rollout process to update devices running the April 2018 Update, and earlier versions of Windows 10, to ensure we can continue to service these devices."
[ Related: Windows 10 May 2019 Update: Key enterprise features ]
The move was expected, as last month Microsoft said that starting in late June it would begin upgrading Windows 10 Home PCs - and perhaps Windows 10 Pro systems as well - from 1803, the April 2018 Update, to this year's 1903.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 21, 2019
Apple is changing how its Find My Mac tool works in macOS Catalina and iOS - it will now use Bluetooth and should find your Mac even when it is asleep.
How does ‘Find My' Mac work?
Apple is combining two apps - Find My Friends and Find My iPhone into a new ‘Find My' app.
The combined app offers what we are used to from each one of these individual apps, but introduces new tools based on Bluetooth.
The ideas is that it will use low energy Bluetooth signals to help bring people together with lost things.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 21, 2019
Tech Events
Event
Description
Starts
Ends
Location
Running Remote
Running Remote is aimed at offering smart, actionable strategy and tactics to help businesses build and scale frontline or remote worker teams.
2019-06-29
2019-06-30
Bali, Indonesia Microsoft Inspire
Microsoft's partner-centric tech conference.
2019-07-14
2019-07-18
Las Vegas, NV FutureIT
FutureIT is a one-day regional event series that delivers an in-depth look at the evolving digital enterprise, with a focus on topics such as IoT, AI, Edge computing, analytics and digital transformation.
2019-07-18
2019-07-18
Dallas, TX Voice Summit 2019
This event bills itself as "the world's largest voice-tech conference, attracting 5,000 developers, conversational designers, startups, brands, agencies and executives at the forefront of the voice-first era.
2019-07-22
2019-07-25
Newark, NJ Black Hat USA
Four days of
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Jun 21, 2019
[Disclosure: Cisco is a client of the author.]
To say I'm not a fan of Cisco's WebEx platform would be a huge understatement. But every platform out their sucks in some way with the current darling in market likely being Zoom.
So, it was with some surprise that, as I watched Amy Chang present in San Diego on the near-term future of WebEx, I actually stopped doing email and was pulled into what she was saying and concluded "damn, she gets it."
I've been involved in this space since the late 1980s and I've seen a ton of firms screw up, from IBM to Google. Every decade or so the industry gets excited about collaboration/video conferencing…and then loses its shirt. Largely because it doesn't get that it isn't about speeds and feeds, processors, closed systems or even platforms. It's about communications, interoperation, simplicity and making it so someone working remotely isn't disadvantaged.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 21, 2019
It's 1984, and pilot fish's software development unit is getting ready to move into brand-new quarters in a building that's still under construction. Electricians are already installing the power and telephone wiring for all of the offices and cubicles, so it's decided to have them install the Ethernet cabling as well.
It being the '80s (which someone cleverly has dubbed "The LAN Before Time"), the workstations on every desk will have to be networked together using 10Base5 Ethernet — the original thick Ethernet. The backbone bus is made of thick, stiff, shielded coaxial cable. One cable will run the length of the office, a couple of hundred feet, with a few dozen transceivers about every 10 to 15 feet. The transceivers will be in sealed black boxes about the size of a VHS tape cassette (again, the '80s!), with a type N screw-on coax connector on each end and a 15-pin D connector for the drop cable that will connect to a computer.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 21, 2019
Slack's public listing on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday marks the latest chapter in the company's remarkable rise since its launch five years ago.
More than 10 million people use Slack on a daily basis and it has become integral to workflows in a variety of industries. The app is widely credited with reinvigorating the team collaboration market, now worth $3.5 billion globally, and has attracted a host of big-name competitors including Microsoft, Google and Facebook.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 20, 2019
Facebook's plans to launch a cryptocurrency and digital wallet for users to make online purchases and money transfers should have the financial services community in a tither, with some expecting banks to quickly follow Facebook's lead.
The social network's shift into financial services also has raised the specter of regulatory oversight of cryptocurrency. The U.S. Senate Banking Committee announced Wednesday it will hold a hearing over Facebook's cryptocurrency plans on July 16. The hearing will explore Facebook's project Libra and data privacy considerations associated with it, according to Reuters. In a tweet Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, called on Facebook to halt its crypto plans and wants hearings to further study it.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 20, 2019
Slack and Microsoft may be battling for dominance in the booming team collaboration market, but most organizations rely on both applications - and some companies use even more.
Those are some of the results of a survey by Mio, an Austin, Texas-based startup that sells software to enable communication between different messaging tools. Mio polled 200 IT decision-makers at organizations ranging in size from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of employees.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 20, 2019
Here's an interesting little nugget of info to chew on: Google's decided to step away from its self-made tablets and focus instead on the laptop form.
To be clear, Google hadn't actually announced any tablet-specific products this year; the last such item that made its way to the market was the Pixel Slate in 2018. But, as I learned today, the company did have two smaller-sized tablets under development — and earlier this week, it decided to drop all work on those devices and make its roadmap revolve entirely around laptops instead.
A couple of clarifying points here: First, none of this has any impact on Pixel phones. Pixel phones and Pixel computers are two different departments, and the roadmap in question is related exclusively to the latter. (The same applies to the various Google Home/Nest products. What we're talking about today has absolutely zero impact on any that stuff.)
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 20, 2019
Here's an interesting little nugget of info to chew on: Google's decided to step away from its self-made tablets and focus instead on the laptop form.
To be clear, Google hadn't actually announced any tablet-specific products this year; the last such item that made its way to the market was the Pixel Slate in 2018. But, as I learned today, the company did have two smaller-sized tablets under development — and earlier this week, it decided to drop all work on those devices and make its roadmap revolve entirely around laptops instead.
A couple of clarifying points here: First, none of this has any impact on Pixel phones. Pixel phones and Pixel computers are two different departments, and the roadmap in question is related exclusively to the latter. (The same applies to the various Google Home/Nest products. What we're talking about today has absolutely zero impact on any that stuff.)
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 20, 2019
It's tough to do much of anything involving technology these days without running into a virtual assistant.
Pick up your Android phone or Chromebook, and there's Google Assistant waiting for a chat. Power up any Amazon-made gadget, and Alexa's standing by with an open ear. Apple's got Siri, poor Samsung's got Bixby, and even random companies like Bank of America are getting in on the action with their own woefully unnecessary A.I. personalities (sorry, "Erica").
We've talked plenty about the reasons why everyone and their mother wants you to get friendly with their flavor of robot aid — and why that, in turn, has led to what I call the post-OS era, in which a device's operating system is less important than the virtual assistant threaded throughout it. It's no coincidence that Google is slowly expanding Assistant into a platform of its own, and what we're seeing now is almost certainly just the tip of the iceberg.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 20, 2019
CIOs across the planet spend a lot of time wishing for unicorns.
"If only there were a technology solution that could reduce costs and boost productivity," they cry to the great executive bonus gods sitting high in their capitalist sky.
Get a Mac
Times have changed since Apple's hugely popular Get a Mac ads encouraged so many Windows using iPod users to make the switch.
[ Related: Weighing a move from Windows 10 to macOS? An IT checklist ]
Millions did, Mac marketshare climbed, Apple introduced iPhone, and Steve Jobs got cross. Now the company sells the most advanced smartphone in the world, and it doesn't even snap.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 20, 2019
Facebook's plans to launch its own cryptocurrency and digital wallet should be a clarion call to commercial banks: if you don't begin to explore blockchain technology, tech companies could eat your lunch.
[ Further reading: Blockchain: The complete guide ]
Worldwide, blockchain-derived business value is forecast to grow from $9 billion this year to $50 billion in 2022, according to Gartner. The greatest growth between now and 2050 is expected to take place in 2020, when Facebook plans to launch its Libra coin and Calibra digital wallet; that year alone will see a 128% annual increase in business value.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 20, 2019
This company moves its plant to a new location and switches its internet service from a local cable company to a satellite provider, reports the pilot fish who handled the switchover. The transition goes smoothly, but six months later, the accounting office receives a collection bill from the cable company for a half-year of unpaid service, says fish, who is instructed to sort it out ASAP so the company can get it off its credit report.
Fish dials the cable company's customer service line, listens to the same on-hold rock medley 20 times, and finally gets through to a customer service rep and explains the situation.
Rep asks fish for his cancellation number and fish provides it. Then rep explains that, per company policy, all cancellations must be validated online by responding to a cancellation verification email sent to the customer's account.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 19, 2019
Microsoft never sleeps. Even before the Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903) started to roll out, the company began working on upcoming feature updates to Windows 10. As it did with version 1903, Microsoft has been releasing a series of public preview builds to members of Microsoft's Windows Insider Program.
After years of using "Redstone" in its code names, Microsoft switched to a new format with the May 2019 Update. The new code names use a YYH1/YYH2 format, with the YY standing for the last two numbers of the year and H1 or H2 referring to the first or second half of the year. So Windows 10 version 1903, which was released in May 2019, was code-named "19H1" (for first half of 2019) rather than "Redstone 6." The next feature update, due in the fall of this year, is code-named "19H2," and the feature update that's coming in the spring of 2020 is code-named 20H1.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 19, 2019
Google this week asked for help in identifying suspicious websites, offering users of its Chrome browser an add-on that lets them rat out URLs.
The Suspicious Site Reporter, which can be added to desktop Chrome, places a new flag-style icon on the top bar of the browser. "By clicking the icon, you're now able to report unsafe sites to Safe Browsing for further evaluation," Emily Schechter, a Chrome product manager, wrote in a Tuesday post to a company blog.
[ Related: How to protect Windows 10 PCs from ransomware ]
Safe Browsing is the name of the technology used by Google's search engine, Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari, and Android to steer users away from sites that host malicious or deceptive content. On the back end, Google uses robots to scan the web and build a list of websites that host malware, harmful downloads or deceptive ads and pages. Software developers can then plug into an API to integrate this list into their own applications, something rival browser makers have done for years.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 19, 2019
Do you think Apple Watch is a great fitness tracker, but not really an enterprise product?
I'd like to prove you wrong
I've been saying for years that Apple would need to ensure Apple Watch could exist independently of the iPhone.
There were several challenges to achieving this.
One was the need to find a modem sufficiently low-powered to run inside the watch without bleeding the battery dry.
Another was the need to find battery technologies that could handle robust use during the day.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 19, 2019
Do you think Apple Watch is a great fitness tracker, but not really an enterprise product?
I'd like to prove you wrong
I've been saying for years that Apple would need to ensure Apple Watch could exist independently of the iPhone.
There were several challenges to achieving this.
One was the need to find a modem sufficiently low-powered to run inside the watch without bleeding the battery dry.
Another was the need to find battery technologies that could handle robust use during the day.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 19, 2019
If you're running Win10 version 1803 — still, by far, the most common version of Win10 — Microsoft has a little surprise for you. Yesterday, a one-paragraph amendment appeared on the official Release Information page for version 1903:
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 19, 2019
Two years ago, Adobe announced it would finally kill and bury Flash Player, the plug-in that simultaneously launched a million websites and gave security professionals nightmares.
The oft-abused technology, equally praised and scorned even when it was at the top of its game, will land in the digital landfill at the end of 2020, when the company said it "will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player."
[ Related: Get serious about privacy with the Epic, Brave and Tor browsers ]
Browser makers quickly chimed in to tell their users how they would sunset Flash, setting up sometimes specific, sometimes vague, timetables for curtailing usage, figuring that going cold turkey would catch site owners unprepared, break the web and turn customers into angry peasants waving torches and pitchforks.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 19, 2019
It's a lovely spring day, and pilot fish who works for a company's software division located in its own hillside office building set in suburban woodland is enjoying the view from his third-floor office, hoping that this lovely spring day will be duplicated when Saturday comes around. Shortly before lunchtime, a loud "BANG!" reverberates throughout the building, and the lights go out.
It's a lovely spring day and the computers aren't working, so fish and most of the building's other occupants head out of doors, to enjoy the lovely spring day and have a look around.
They notice that two of the three circuit breakers on top of a power pole have blown open, and eventually the office manager lets it be known that the transformer located on the first floor has shorted out, and it's going to take the rest of the day for the electric company to bring in a replacement. With that news, nearly everyone takes off to enjoy what's left of a lovely spring day.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 18, 2019
A mobile device forensics company now says it can break into any Apple device running iOS 12.3 or below.
Israeli-based Cellebrite made the announcement on an updated webpage and through a tweet where it asserted it can unlock and extract data from all iOS and "high-end Android" devices.
[ Further reading: The wireless road warrior's essential guide ]
On the webpage describing the capabilities of its Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) Physical Analyzer, Cellebrite said it can "determine locks and perform a full file- system extraction on any iOS device, or a physical extraction or full file system (File-Based Encryption) extraction on many high-end Android devices, to get much more data than what is possible through logical extractions and other conventional means."
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 18, 2019
Commercial real estate firm JLL has partnered with Google to create a conversational AI assistant that helps employees locate and book spare desks, set up meetings with colleagues and more.
Dubbed JiLL, the smart office assistant will be available for JLL's customers as Android and iOS mobile apps later this year. Users can invoke the assistant with the phrase "Hey Jill," by inputting text, or tapping on options.
[ Related: How AI is changing office suites ]
The AI assistant is the product of the recently launched JLL Labs, a Silicon Valley development hub tasked with creating new digital services as a range of "proptech" startups threaten to disrupt the market. Development of JiLL was led by JLL's chief digital product officer Vinay Goel, who joined from Google last year after 11 years as a product manager on services such as Google Maps.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 18, 2019
Facebook is going after the banking business with a new digital currency and financial transaction network all based on blockchain.
After months of speculation and rumor, Facebook today announced it is creating a fiat-backed cryptocurrency that can be stored in digital wallets and used by consumers and others to transfer funds or make purchases anywhere in the world.
[ Further reading: What is FinTech (and how has it evolved)? ]
Calibra, Facebook's digital wallet, will store Libra, Facebook's digital currency. A Facebook user would download the Calibra digital wallet application, purchase the Libra digital currency through a financial network, and then perform peer-to-peer digital money transfers through Calibra as a stand-alone app. A user could also do the same thing through Facebook's most popular communication platforms: WhatsApp and Messenger.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 18, 2019
It's hard out there on the front lines of IT. And it can help to share just how tough it can be, what with witless users, demanding bosses, wasteful projects and technology that never stands still.
That's why Computerworld's Shark Tank is one of our most popular features — because it's the one place those who know IT can share their tales of woe. (And maybe even educate the non-techie hoi polloi who depend on you, day in and out, to get work done.)
We want to hear about all the crazy things you have to do! So jot down your tale(s) and send them along to sharky@computerworld.com. And be sure to subscribe to Computerworld Daily Shark newsletter!
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 18, 2019
Sigh. Another one bites the dust.
In what's starting to feel like the year of virtual bloodshed, the gang over at Google's gearing up to kill off yet another standout service — this time, the slick and useful travel planning app Trips.
Google Trips made travel management simple as can be by automatically pulling receipts and itineraries from your Gmail inbox and then organizing them into nifty trip-based bundles. You could view all your plans in a single place, share 'em, keep tabs on 'em offline — you name it.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 18, 2019
Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has deployed Microsoft's mixed reality (MR) Hololens devices in a bid to speed production and improve training for new staff. Airbus is also teaming up with Microsoft to sell MR apps to other businesses in the airline industry.
The Netherlands-based company, which competes with the likes of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, aims to build 20,000 aircraft over the next two decades.
[ Related: AR and VR bring a new twist to collaboration ]
Airbus has been an advocate of virtual, augmented and mixed reality for some time, and has worked with Microsoft on related projects for four years, including trials and deployments of its HoloLens hardware and software.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 18, 2019
Between coursepacks and contracts, no college campus or workplace is complete without PDF files. That's because PDF is, globally, the predominant format for file viewing. PDFs enable documents to be shared electronically while maintaining all elements of its original formatting. However, average PDF readers lack special tools to optimize your PDF experience. Luckily, PDFpenPro's advanced features provide Mac-based professionals precisely what you're looking for-- and you can sign up now for a free trial.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 18, 2019
This security pilot fish is a big believer in automated systems. And he's very impressed when his company moves into new offices where the meeting rooms take the manual labor out of scheduling meetings.
"There are room wizards outside every door to assist in scheduling," fish says. "And there's full integration with Microsoft Exchange, so that your meeting information is accurate and timely and always shows the proper room."
One of fish's most important meetings is a committee meeting every month on the day after Patch Tuesday to consider how to handle that batch of Microsoft updates. It's been a regular meeting for years, and after the move the new scheduling system seems to handle it fine.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 17, 2019
Ever since Apple introduced the Mac App Store developers have warned it plans to close off its platform, so news the company will insist on App Notarization in macOC Catalina set those critics off again. The thing is, it's a little more complicated.
What is Apple doing?
Yes, Apple is making it a little more difficult for Mac users to install apps that aren't sold at the Mac App Store or made available from bona fide developers happy to submit their software for the company's speedy App notarization service.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 17, 2019
Microsoft had such grand plans for Windows 10.
Like any proud parent, the company wanted its offspring to succeed in life, to have opportunities galore. Go to an Ivy League college, land a good job.
To Microsoft, Windows 10 would be different than, better than, the other kids. It would improve itself several times a year, not just once every several years. It would be smarter, more helpful because it evolved faster and, so, adapted with the times. While its older siblings remained mired in their outdated habits, Windows 10 would rapidly learn new skills because it upgraded itself multiple times each year.
If Apple boasted that its OS X, later renamed macOS (like that fooled anyone), was smarter than Windows because it upgraded annually, Microsoft could brag that its Windows 10 was three times smarter than macOS because it morphed three times a year.
To read this article in full, please click here
(Insider Story)
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Jun 17, 2019
Heresy. Yes, I know. Any way you slice it, from my point of view anyway, Windows Automatic Update is for chumps.
Just like the "users must be forced to change their passwords frequently" argument that's no longer au courant, the "users must get patched immediately" argument is based on old, faulty, and totally unsubstantiated claims that make security people feel better — and little else.
With a few notable exceptions, in the real world, the risks of getting clobbered by a bad patch far, far outweigh the risks of getting hit with a just-patched exploit. Many security "experts" huff and puff at that assertion. The poohbahs preach Automatic Update for the unwashed masses, while frequently exempting themselves from the edict.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 17, 2019
VP for this manufacturing company has two large TV screens in his office that display real-time metrics and machine details for the manufacturing floor in the production facility. The info is fed to the TVs by a laptop that sits on the VP's desk. One day the VP contacts the support team to report that this laptop has died; nothing is being displayed on the two screens, and he needs a replacement computer ASAP.
Pilot fish heads to the VP's office, where he finds that the TVs are powered off. He turns them on and the dashboards appear. But the laptop's screen was blank, too, protests the VP. Yes, explains fish; it always will be blank when it's projecting to external screens — even if those screens are turned off.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 17, 2019
The technology team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, a federally funded research and development center in Pasadena, Calif., is helping build the future of space exploration and answer big questions like, "Is there other life out there in the universe?"
"This is where we do one-of-a-kind work, where you have an opportunity to do things and be part of teams that are on the edge," says Whitney Haggins, an IT communication strategist in JPL's Office of the CIO, who described spending part of a recent workday examining NASA's Mars 2020 rover.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 17, 2019
Every year since 1994, Computerworld has published a list of the 100 Best Places to Work in IT. The list highlights organizations across the U.S. that attract skilled tech professionals by offering robust salaries; stellar benefits; access to cutting-edge tech; flexible, fast-paced work environments and more.
Want to see if a potential employer has ever been on the list, or which organizations have earned a spot on the list in multiple years? Download this Excel spreadsheet to browse, sort or search through 26 years of Best Places lists.
To read this article in full, please click here
(Insider Story)
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Jun 17, 2019
Computerworld's annual 100 Best Places to Work in IT list showcases the top 100 U.S. workplaces for technology professionals. Our 26th annual report ranks top organizations across the country that offer IT professionals challenging projects, robust salaries, superior benefits, flexible work/life options and unsurpassed access to training and career advancement opportunities.
To see which U.S. organizations are the Best Places to Work in IT and what it is that makes them such desirable places to work, read our special report in an enhanced PDF format that includes video content.
Read the Best Places to Work in IT 2019 special report as an enhanced PDF
Here's what you'll find inside:
To read this article in full, please click here
(Insider Story)
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Jun 15, 2019
Suddenly, everybody's talking about ambient computing. I blame Intel, and I'll tell you why in a minute.
Ambient computing is real. It's the next megatrend in computing.
Ambient means "in the air" or "present on all sides" or "all around us." To interact in an "ambient computing" context means to not care and not even necessarily know where exactly the devices are that you're interacting with.
When IoT devices and sensors are all around us, and artificial intelligence can understand human contexts for what's happening and act accordingly and in our interests, then ambient computing will have arrived.
In the past, computing existed inside a computer, which you saddled up to and consciously used. In the future, connected computing devices will be all around us, and we'll always be interacting with them, even when we don't know or think about it.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 14, 2019
[Disclosure: Microsoft is a client of the author.]
This week Microsoft announced that Apple's iCloud app would be available in the Microsoft Store. At face value, this isn't really a big announcement…more along the lines of "dog bites man."
For some time now, Microsoft has defined itself by being open and focusing on interoperability. And while Apple hasn't exactly embraced competing systems like they did when Steve Jobs ran the company (after all, the Apple watch is simply a wearable iPhone), putting their stuff on Windows PCs isn't new, either.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 14, 2019
From travel tickets to Airbnb, the $8 trillion travel industry is already a digital industry, and Apple's iOS 13 will accelerate its transformation.
How iOS 13 changes the travel industry
If all you do is watch the WWDC 2019 keynote and State of the Union address you'll get an inkling of how Apple's new technologies may accelerate industry transformation.
If you managed to watch some of the developer sessions, then you are probably already imagining how you may build products to surf the change.
Here are some of the ways Apple will continue to drive change in this industry.
Don't forget your Apple Watch
Apple's smallest computer, Apple Watch becomes independent later this year.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 14, 2019
Companies are still cautiously dipping their toes into the blockchain trough, hoping to discover where the distributed ledger technology can create efficiencies in their business processes. But for those who are ready to take the plunge, there are common missteps to avoid.
Based on its research of blockchain implementations, Gartner this week published a guide to the seven most common mistakes companies should avoid.
Gartner gauges the maturation of new technology through a "Hype Cycle," a graphic-based lifecycle that follows five phases: from the Technology Trigger, when proof-of-concept stories and media interest emerges, to the Plateau of Productivity, when mainstream adoption occurs - if the technology is more than niche.
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Jun 14, 2019
Apple is likely preparing to let iPhone owners turn their devices into hardware wallets that allow them to store and use bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for mobile purchases of everything from a cup of coffee to clothing and groceries.
Unlike other announcements at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) last week, Apple's new CryptoKit for iOS 13, got little attention. But it will allow developers to easily create hashes for digital signatures and public and private keys that can be stored and managed by Apple's Secure Enclave. Those keys, which can represent cryptocurrencies, can then be exchanged by iPhone owners as a form of payment through an app.
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Jun 14, 2019
It's more than a few years ago, when PCs are new, parts are expensive and this pilot fish is working as a PC tech for a school district.
"One day, I was called to fix a PC at a school library," fish says. "After I fixed the PC, I noticed the keyboard was incredibly grimy due to many little fingers typing on it.
"I snapped the keys out, shook out crumbs and dust, cleaned each key and reassembled the keyboard."
Next day, fish gets another call from the same school library. One of the library admins is complaining that her computer shows garbage on the screen when she types.
After asking a few questions, fish concludes that the PC has either a virus or a bad motherboard. He grabs a replacement PC and heads back to the school.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 13, 2019
Apple will make NFC much more useful in iPhones running iOS 13, and these enhancements will impact the retail, medical, government and security industries.
What is Apple changing?
Apple already uses NFC to support Apple Pay and the Apple Pay Express Transit system which is rolling out at this time.
While it has incrementally extended the tasks NFC supports over the years, the company has limited its NFC support to the NDEF standard until now, but extends this with support for new standards in its Core NFC Framework in iOS 13.
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Jun 13, 2019
I don't know about you, but I've given up on Microsoft's ability to deliver reliable patches. Month after month, we've seen big bugs and little bugs pushed and pulled and squished and re-squished. You can see a chronology from the past two years in my patching whack-a-mole columns starting here.
[ Related: Windows 10 May 2019 Update: Key enterprise features ]
For the past few months, though, we've seen some improvement. Microsoft has started identifying and publicly acknowledging big bugs, shortly after they're pushed. Consider:
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Jun 13, 2019
Once the stuff of science fiction, augmented reality (AR) is increasingly finding a place in the workplace as a driver of collaboration and productivity. Some companies use it as a tool for employee training, others use it to offer remote assistance to field service technicians. There are surgeons now using AR devices in the operating room.
Though primitive AR systems date back to the 1960s, today it's used mainly to overlay virtual objects and information onto physical environments, using either a heads-up display built into smartglasses or a smartphone or tablet camera (think Pokemon Go).
[ Related: 6 tips for scaling up team collaboration tools ]
As AR has evolved, business interest has grown - a trend that's expected to continue over the next few years. Combined global spending on AR and virtual reality (VR) hit $16.8 billion this year, according to IDC's Worldwide Semiannual Augmented and Virtual Reality Spending Guide, and is forecast to reach $160 billion in 2023. That's more than double the forecast from Markets and Markets, which puts the AR market at $61.4 billion in 2023, still up sharply from this year's levels.
To read this article in full, please click here
(Insider Story)
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Jun 13, 2019
This state university is in the process of getting rid of its custom-programmed mainframe software, virtualizing its server environment and trying to integrate the whole works into something manageable, says a pilot fish on the scene.
"In our quest for companies that would have the correct type of management software to meet our complex needs and wants, we interviewed two very extensively," fish says. "This included several RFIs and phone interviews and emails for several months."
And because it's a state university — with all the rules and regulations of a state-run agency — the process of vetting the vendors is grueling.
That's not the worst of it, though. Once the vendors have passed muster from the standpoint of support, usability, integration and security — the things IT cares about — there's the even more challenging task of getting a response from upper management about OK'ing the two short-listed vendors.
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Jun 12, 2019
Mozilla will introduce subscriptions to one or more as-yet-unknown services this fall, but will not charge people to use its Firefox browser, the company said.
"A high-performing, free and private-by-default Firefox browser will continue to be central to our core service offerings," David Camp, Mozilla's top executive for the browser, said in an email reply to questions Tuesday.
[ Related: Get serious about privacy with the Epic, Brave and Tor browsers ]
Camp's assertion that Firefox will remain free followed reports that the company will introduce paid subscriptions to the browser's users, likely starting in October. In a June 7 interview with t3n, a German business magazine, CEO Chris Beard acknowledged the firm sees subscriptions as an important source of revenue.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 12, 2019
The launch of a major Windows 10 update like the May 2019 Update isn't the end of a process — it's really just the beginning. As soon as a big feature update is released, Microsoft quickly gets to work on improving it by fixing bugs, releasing security patches, and occasionally adding new features.
Here we've summarized what you need to know about every Windows 10 update being released to the public. First come updates to the currently shipping version of Windows 10 — version 1903, known as the May 2019 Update — with the most recent updates on top. (Note that the May 2019 Update is on a phased rollout, so you may not have received it yet.) Below that are updates to version 1809, known as the October 2018 Update; version 1803, the April 2018 Update; version 1709, the Fall Creators Update; and finally updates to version 1703, the Creators Update. For each build, we've included the date of its initial release and a link to Microsoft's announcement about it.
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Jun 12, 2019
This month, Microsoft delivers a big, complex series of updates to Windows, Azure and Edge. With 88 vulnerabilities addressed and four made public, we see "Patch Now" recommendations for both browsers, Windows and Adobe. I think that we should pay special attention to this month's significant updates to ADO and JET. You can find our monthly update infographics here. And, I think I did a reasonable job of describing the different approaches to patching in our latest Readiness "Patching at Full Throttle" video.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 12, 2019
Dropbox has given its file-sharing software a major overhaul in an effort to reposition itself as a hub for workplace collaboration and productivity.
The company's aim is to combine various fragmented digital workplace tools into one place. "It's a single workspace to organize your content, connect your tools, and bring everyone together, wherever you are," the company said in a blog post Monday.
Three main components of the new Dropbox app aim to achieve this goal.
[ Related: How collaboration apps foster digital transformation ]
First, it combines documents from a range of sources, including Google Docs, Sheets and Slides and Microsoft Office files, making them accessible in one place. Users can create, organize and share content direct from Dropbox, the company said, while bookmark shortcuts for webpages and other SaaS tools can also be stored. There is also an improved search interface to find documents.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 12, 2019
Well, here's something straight out of science fiction for ya: If a pair of recent rumors is to be believed, Google may be planning to include a futuristic radar chip in its next Pixel phone — possibly to allow for a wild new kind of touch-free gesture controls.
Stop and let that sink in for a second. Crazy stuff, right?
Now, let's be clear: The chip itself is absolutely real — no question about it. Google's been talking about the thing since 2015, in fact, as part of its Motorola-born Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group. That's the same group that came up with Google's now-defunct modular smartphone system, Project Ara, as well as the also-abandoned Project Tango program that aimed to create a new kind of augmented reality platform.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 12, 2019
Well, here's something straight out of science fiction for ya: If a pair of recent rumors is to be believed, Google may be planning to include a futuristic radar chip in its next Pixel phone — possibly to allow for a wild new kind of touch-free gesture controls.
Stop and let that sink in for a second. Crazy stuff, right?
Now, let's be clear: The chip itself is absolutely real — no question about it. Google's been talking about the thing since 2015, in fact, as part of its Motorola-born Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group. That's the same group that came up with Google's now-defunct modular smartphone system, Project Ara, as well as the also-abandoned Project Tango program that aimed to create a new kind of augmented reality platform.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 12, 2019
Apple has published an all-new version of its iCloud app for Windows users and the software is available for download from Microsoft's App Store.
What is Apple's iCloud?
iCloud is an essential component across Apple's universe.
You use it to share iCloud Drive files, sync contacts, devices and other personal data, to access a range of Apple's services and to access key apps like Photos and Mail. You can also make use of limited collaboration and sharing features.
Ever since it opened the iTunes Store to Windows users, Apple has shown that it understands that many of its customers use multiple platforms, an iPhone and a Windows PC, for example.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 12, 2019
Last week's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote was loaded with news about iOS 13, watchOS 6, macOS Catalina, the newly christened iPadOS and the new Mac Pro (which returns to a tower enclosure with serious upgrade and customization options).
[ Related: How to craft an MDM policy BYOD workers will actually follow ]
Tucked away at the end of the conference late in the week was a 59-minute session: "What's new in managing Apple devices" (it's now available via streaming from Apple's developer site). The presentation, combined with related sessions and documentation, offered major news that most enterprise IT pros will cheer:
To read this article in full, please click here
(Insider Story)
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Jun 12, 2019
This small independent software vendor has plans to produce and market a suite of software products for a particular niche of the manufacturing sector. It's a market rife with acronyms, and the brass decide they will combine some of them to devise the company's name.
Of course, acronyms come and go, and after a couple of years, management announces a company name change, using more up-do-date buzzwords. According to pilot fish on the scene, the idea is that a buzzier name will mean a higher stock price when the company goes public.
More years go by, and there still has been no IPO, but one morning all employees find on their desks copies of an interoffice memo from the company president announcing that the corporate name is reverting to the original name. Consternation ensues, until someone recalls the date: It's April 1.
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Jun 11, 2019
BOSTON - While blockchain may never be a panacea for solving all business transaction problems, it will eventually become a foundational technology across industries that will lead to new business models.
Before that can happen, however, proprietary blockchains will have to run their course and be replaced by open software and industry standards that enable distributed ledgers to communicate across competing businesses and borders, according to Dale Chrystie, a FedEx business fellow and blockchain strategist.
[ Related: Blockchain vs. a database: What's the difference? ]
"Some years from now, I think it's a foundational layer under everything," Chrystie said during the Enterprise Blockchain Summit here this week. "Twenty year ago, you put the word 'internet' in front of everything and now you don't. Today, we're putting the word 'blockchain' in front of everything and I don't think we're going to in the future; it's just going to be the way it works."
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Jun 11, 2019
In this modern-day mobile world in which we work, IT admins often find themselves facing a bewildering number of challenges brought on by the surge of mobile devices in the office and the consumerization of IT.
One answer to managing all of those corporate devices: Microsoft Intune.
In partnership with PluralSight, Computerworld is offering a free course, "Managing PCs and Devices with Microsoft Intune," created by veteran Windows administrator and trainer Jason Yates. The course is available until Aug. 1, 2019.
To read this article in full, please click here
(Insider Story)
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Jun 11, 2019
Imagine if, back in 2010, I had told you we'd reach a point where smartphone hardware would become so advanced that we'd by and large run out of ways to improve it. And so people would start waiting longer and longer to buy new phones — and phone-makers, in turn, would scramble to come up with ways to make each new generation of phones seem sexy and exciting and different from the last.
But they'd struggle — and in their quest to attract attention and convince us to open up our wallets, they'd actually make each new generation less user-friendly and effective than the last. Sure, the shiny new model might look somewhat sleeker than its predecessor, but it'd present a dangerous bargain of sacrificing significant function in exchange for superficial form. And there wouldn't be a damn thing we practical, productivity-minded phone-using mammals could do about it.
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Jun 11, 2019
Apple also introduced numerous productivity enhancements that will make iPads even better laptop replacements, which ones make the the biggest difference to enterprise productivity
What happened at WWDC?
Developers and Apple users will be most interested in two major iPad-related announcements at WWDC: Catalyst and iPad OS.
Catalyst is Apple's name for the huge-big-massive set of iOS APIs it is bringing to macOS to enable developers to swiftly port iPad apps to Macs, while the re-branded iPad OS reflects that the tablet is now developing a unique identity as a productive tool.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 11, 2019
Manager at a beer distributor discovers that a barcode scanner wand can be attached to the tablet computers used by the warehouse crew. This is a great thing, since the warehouse crew routinely mistypes information when moving stock in and out of inventory. Scanning both the product and the shelf number would reduce the high error rate to zero.
Manager immediately takes his idea to the big boss, bragging about how much time and effort he is about to save the company. Then he goes to the Accounting Department to get IT's input.
Wait, what? Beer distributor, cheapskate boss, a one-person IT department consisting of a woman who works in Accounting? Yes, if you're a Shark Tank fan, you've read about Betty, the accountant/tablet savior, before. This true tale of IT, says the pilot fish who sent it in and who has forever been grateful that he never worked at that beer distributor, took place a few years before Betty's last straw. Like Hollywood, Sharky is now doing prequels.
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Jun 10, 2019
Chrome gets fat while every other browser starves.
Now with more than two-thirds of the world's browser user share - a measure of browser activity calculated monthly by metric vendor Net Applications - Google's Chrome has no peer in popularity. Its rivals are barely worth the name, with Microsoft's Edge so feeble that its maker decided to replace its internals with the same technology that powers Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox trying to hang on to just 10%.
Not surprisingly, when Chrome speaks, everyone listens, whether about each browser upgrade - something Computerworld tracks in the What's in the latest Chrome update? series - and in what it plans to do in the near future.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 10, 2019
Companies traditionally deployed physical storage and systems to handle their infrastructure. However, cloud computing makes it easy for said enterprises to borrow storage and processing power to add to their network. As more companies migrate to the cloud, the demand for cloud computing architects has skyrocketed. If you're interested in landing a job in this field, this $39 bundle is for you.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 10, 2019
I began covering the PC industry in 1981 and was one of the first professional analysts to study and chronicle the PC market. Over 38 years, the PC industry has produced close to $3 trillion in revenue and created a lot of wealth and jobs for people who create PC's, PC software and services that support them.
At its height, the PC industry sold close to 380 million PCs a year. Demand for PC's has decreased in the last 10 years, but PC makers still sell about 270 million PC's and laptops each year worldwide. Today, the majority of personal computers sold are laptops and notebooks. While desktop computers are still made, they represent only about 20% of all PC's shipped today. The real PC workhorses that fuel a much more mobile business lifestyle are notebooks and laptops that drive today's productivity, education, entertainment and social media applications.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 10, 2019
Google last week (June 6) confirmed that cyberthieves had managed to pre-install malware into the Android framework backdoor. In short, the malware appeared to be blessed by Google at the deepest point within Android.
"In the Google Play app context, installation meant that [the malware] didn't have to turn on installation from unknown sources and all app installs looked like they were from Google Play," wrote Lukasz Siewierski, of the Android security and privacy team, in a blog post. "The apps were downloaded from the C&C server and the communication with the C&C was encrypted using the same custom encryption routine using double XOR and zip. The downloaded and installed apps used the package names of unpopular apps available on Google Play. They didn't have any relation to the apps on Google Play apart from the same package name."
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 10, 2019
Google last week (June 6) confirmed that cyberthieves had managed to pre-install malware into the Android framework backdoor. In short, the malware appeared to be blessed by Google at the deepest point within Android.
"In the Google Play app context, installation meant that [the malware] didn't have to turn on installation from unknown sources and all app installs looked like they were from Google Play," wrote Lukasz Siewierski, of the Android security and privacy team, in a blog post. "The apps were downloaded from the C&C server and the communication with the C&C was encrypted using the same custom encryption routine using double XOR and zip. The downloaded and installed apps used the package names of unpopular apps available on Google Play. They didn't have any relation to the apps on Google Play apart from the same package name."
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 10, 2019
One week on and the industry continues to think about the armada of announcements Apple launched at WWDC last week - but how did the public react to some of the big highlights of what it was saying?
I contacted SEMRush to get some kind of idea.
Search traffic reveals interest in Apple news
We can't really tell how everyone felt concerning Apple's announcements during the event, but we can gather a little insight by considering how search traffic around certain keywords changed during the Apple announcement.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 10, 2019
One week on and the industry continues to think about the armada of announcements Apple launched at WWDC last week - but how did the public react to some of the big highlights of what it was saying?
I contacted SEMRush to get some kind of idea.
How can we tell?
We can't really tell how everyone felt concerning Apple's announcements during the event, but we can gather a little insight by considering how search traffic around certain keywords changed during the Apple announcement.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 10, 2019
Much has changed in the past month. We've seen an emergency cry for all Windows XP, Vista, Win7, Server 2003, 2008 and 2008 R2 systems to get patched in order to fend off widely anticipated BlueKeep attacks. We've also seen Microsoft officially release Windows 10 version 1903, with unsuspecting "seekers" now the prime targets.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 10, 2019
This company replaces all of its printers, so pilot fish sends out comprehensive instructions to everyone: Here's how to set up the new printers on your workstation, and here's where you go to download the drivers you will need.
Everything seems to go smoothly, but one user shows up in fish's office brandishing printouts with severe color streaking. "And the colors are all wrong!" he tells fish. He has tried multiple applications and even different printers, all with the same result.
Fish is going to be out of the office for a couple of days, but he's secretly glad he is going to have to get the printer vendor to deal with this user's problem.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 10, 2019
Google Assistant is artificial intelligence at your fingertips — but sometimes, it can be tough to know what to ask an omniscient robot to do.
I'm here to help. I've talked to my phone more than I'd care to admit (even before it did anything in response — boy, were those awkward times), and I've put together the ultimate guide to Google Assistant's most useful productivity-oriented commands.
So clear your throat, grab your nearest Assistant-packing gadget, and start putting that virtual companion of yours to work.
[ Related: 22 top tips for Google Keep on Android ]
(Google Assistant is natively available on most reasonably current Android devices. You can typically access it by pressing and holding your Home key or by setting up "Hey, Google" voice activation in your system settings. You can also create a regular home screen shortcut to Assistant by downloading the standalone Assistant app. Assistant is available on iOS devices via a downloadable app, meanwhile, on certain Chromebooks via either a dedicated keyboard button or within the launcher's search function, and on Google Home and other smart speaker or Smart Display products via their built-in voice commands and on-screen options.
To read this article in full
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Jun 10, 2019
Google last week refreshed Chrome, upgrading it to version 75 by patching 42 security vulnerabilities and adding a basic "reader" view that rips ads and nonessential non-text content from pages.
The company paid out $9,000 - only a third the amount of the last cycle - in bug bounties to a handful of researchers who reported some of the vulnerabilities fixed in Chrome 75. Only two of the flaws were ranked "High," the second-most-serious category in Google's four-step rating system. None were rated "Critical," the top-most threat level.
Because Chrome updates in the background, most users only need to relaunch the browser to finish the upgrade. To manually update, select "About Google Chrome" from the Help menu under the vertical ellipsis at the upper right; the resulting tab shows that the browser has been updated or displays the download process before presenting a "Relaunch" button. New to Chrome? Download the latest in versions for Windows, macOS and Linux from here.
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Jun 07, 2019
One of the biggest mistakes Microsoft ever made was when they decided to port Windows NT - which was initially designed to displace UNIX - to the same general consumer market as Windows 9x. [Disclosure: Microsoft is a client of the author.]
Servers and workstations have very different priorities than a typical desktop OS. So when they blended the efforts, the general user and consumer OS became too complex, and the workstation and server OS picked up consumer elements that made the result less attractive to IT buyers and engineers.
At WWDC, Apple appears to have announced they are taking iOS to where Windows 9x used to be and allowing the MacOS to mainly focus on their workstation products (they'd tried servers last decade and that effort ended badly).
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 07, 2019
Apple introduced an array of additional privacy protections at WWDC 2019. Many of these both offer protection and help us better understand how our privacy is undermined.
Why does this matter?
Apple CEO Tim Cook is passionate about the need to protect user privacy and this is by no means a one man mission.
Speaking with Vector, Apple's VP Software Technology, Bud Tribble stressed the need to educate people into the needs and benefits of privacy, a topic he believes is much more" widely discussed now than before.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 07, 2019
Pilot fish is a consultant doing IT support for local businesses, and one afternoon he gets a call from the undertaker, whose fax machine isn't faxing.
A couple of days earlier, someone had tried to send him a fax, and despite trying four times, the fax machine didn't print anything. Undertaker tried to send a fax as well, with no more success. Today, though, those four faxes were sitting in the output tray of the printer.
Fish gives it a try, dialing his mobile phone from the fax. The machine scans the originals, and fish can hear it dialing his number, and then a ringing tone. But his phone doesn't ring.
Fish then dials the fax number from his mobile and gets a fax receiving tone back. But he can see that the fax machine is not answering the line.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 06, 2019
Mozilla this week began to switch on an aggressive anti-tracking technology in Firefox that it has touted since 2015.
With a June 4 update to Firefox 67, Mozilla turned on Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) by default for new users. Existing customers simply updating their browsers may enable ETP themselves. The default-of-on will be extended to those users "in the coming months," Mozilla said, apparently activating it in stages as a last-step quality control.
[ Related: What's in the latest Firefox update? ]
Mozilla also used the update to Firefox 67.0.1 to trumpet other privacy- and security-centric enhancements, including an add-on that brings its Lockwise password manager to the desktop browser and an improved Facebook Container, an extension designed to keep the social network behemoth from tracking users elsewhere on the web.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 06, 2019
Apple's new online authorization feature in iOS 13 - Sign in with Apple - allows iPhone, iPad and Mac users to securely sign into apps and websites. But it's not likely a competitor for business mobile device management (MDM) platforms that also protect user log-ins.
While Sign In with Apple is not designed for enterprise use, iOS 13 does have a new Single Sign-on Extension enterprise developers can access, and it can integrate with existing IDs businesses may already be using.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 06, 2019
Google's Chrome OS platform sure has come a long way.
From the early days, when Chrome OS was little more than an experimental "browser in a box," to today — with the platform powering first-class hardware and supporting a diverse range of productivity applications — Google's once-crazy-seeming project has turned into one of the world's most intriguing and rapidly expanding technological forces.
I've been covering Chrome OS closely since the start. I lived with the first Chromebook prototype, the Cr-48, and have used Chromebooks as part of my own personal computing setup in varying capacities ever since. I write about the field not only as someone who's studied it professionally from day 1 but also as someone who has used it personally that entire time, up through today.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 06, 2019
If there's one problem with Chrome OS upgrades, it's that they happen so frequently and with such little fanfare that they often slip by completely unnoticed. And that means your Chromebook or Chromebox might get some valuable new capability that you never even realize is there.
Chrome OS upgrades, for the uninitiated among us, happen automatically and quietly — almost too quietly, with no real announcements or indicators of their arrival most of the time. The regular stable version of Chrome OS is updated every two to three weeks with minor fixes, in fact, and every six weeks with more significant revisions. And sometimes, upgrades show up even more frequently than that (though you'd never know it unless you were actively looking for 'em).
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Jun 06, 2019
It's not for the mass market, and it costs as much as a car and most people will never even see one, but Mac Pro is still the best Mac Apple has ever made.
Mac Pro built for the real world
I've been wandering around WWDC speaking with people, and the general feeling about Mac Pro seems to be that the company has got this really, really right.
These Mac systems are not compromised on cost, components or design and were developed with just one primary mission in mind: to radically enhance professional workflow.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 06, 2019
A server has gotten flaky, and this IT pilot fish determines that the problem is a failing motherboard. It's still under a support contract, so fish calls the vendor.
"Please tell me the express support code on the front," vendor tech says.
Fish reads off the number.
"That server is in our warehouse," tech says.
No, fish says, I can assure you that it's in my rack. Let's check again.
Tech double-checks. "Our records show a refund was issued for this server 15 months ago," he says. "You used that refund to purchase a more powerful server, and were supposed to ship that one back."
Fish does a little quick math: Fifteen months ago was right about the time the then-sysadmin left the company.
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Jun 06, 2019
Slack's launch in 2014 helped ignite demand for chat-based collaboration tools in the workplace, and, in turn, paved the way for a range of team messaging offerings that now provide a simple and effective alternative to email.
The upstart has proved popular since its launch, attracting 10 million daily users. The secret to its success? A user-friendly and intuitive interface that encourages quick communication between team members, whether they're in the same office or many time zones apart.
More and more, today's collaboration tools serve as the hub for an increasingly digital office, where real-time, synchronous conversations suit the ad-hoc and informal discussions scattered teams use to collaborate on projects.
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Jun 05, 2019
Apple's recent developer conference, WWDC, had the longest keynote in recent memory. From Memojis to the new Mac Pro, Apple unveiled all types of new tech. But what updates are most important for enterprises? TECH(talk) host Juliet Beauchamp talks to Computerworld's Jonny Evans and dissects the biggest business takeaways from WWDC 2019.
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Jun 05, 2019
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) on Tuesday called on IT administrators to apply security updates issued by Microsoft three weeks ago, adding to a chorus of voices urging haste.
"The National Security Agency is urging Microsoft Windows administrators and users to ensure they are using a patched and updated system in the face of growing threats," the NSA said in a June 4 advisory.
[ Related: Microsoft Windows 10 vs. Apple macOS: 18 security features compared ]
The agency's advice followed by several days that of Microsoft itself. On Thursday, May 30, a company official reminded users of the updates - which the company released May 14 - and implied that time is short. "We strongly advise that all affected systems should be updated as soon as possible," Simon Pope, the director of incident response at the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), wrote in a blog post.
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Jun 05, 2019
Which of these four things is different from the others: the iOS App Store, Android's Google Play, the Chrome browser's Chrome Web Store and the Microsoft Store built into Windows 10?
If you answered the Microsoft Store, you're right. While the other three download stores host many thousands of useful apps of every type and description, and have a thriving, engaged audience, the Microsoft Store offers very few truly useful downloads and has an indifferent base of users who rarely bother to spend the time to rate and review the software the store hosts.
The problem isn't that there's not a lot of great Windows software to download. There's plenty of it — just not on the Microsoft Store. In November 2018, Mike Fortin, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Windows, said in a blog post that there are "over 35 million application titles with greater than 175 million application versions" available for Windows 10. Having reviewed Windows software for many years, and at one point been in charge of one of the web's largest Windows download sites, I have no reason to doubt him.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 05, 2019
This netadmin pilot fish working for a school district gets a help desk ticket from a library assistant, who complains that a wireless device she uses won't work.
"I went down to the library to see what was going on," says fish. "They had factory-reset the device, and then they took out the manual to put in all the settings.
"There was an example picture of the input screen with 192.168.1.1 as the IP address, 255.255.255.0 as the subnet mask, and 192.168.1.254 as the gateway. This is exactly what they entered."
Fish explains to the library assistant that the school's network uses DHCP, and the address she had typed in won't work.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 04, 2019
Office 365 subscribers always have the latest version of Microsoft Office — currently Office 2016. They also get more frequent software updates than those who have purchased Office 2016 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 key updates to Office 365 for Windows since Office 2016 was released in September 2015 — all the 2017 updates and the most important ones from 2016 and late 2015, with the latest releases shown first. We'll add info about new updates as they're rolled out.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 04, 2019
Apple kept to past practice yesterday when it said virtually all Macs able to run the current version of macOS will be supported by the upcoming upgrade, dubbed "Catalina," when it ships this fall.
On Monday, the Cupertino, Calif.. company unveiled mac OS 10.15, or Catalina, at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). The free upgrade, likely to be released in September, includes a host of security enhancements, several revamped first-party apps, support for iPad apps and more.
Odd, even
Apple has relied on an odd-even cycle for its macOS upgrades' system requirements. The cadence has alternately retained the prior year's models on the new version's support list (odd-numbered years, like this one, with odd-numbered editions, as in 10.15) and dropped models from the list (even-numbered years, even-numbered editions).
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Jun 04, 2019
There's lots of interest in Apple's new Sign In with Apple system, a highly secure, private way to sign in to apps and websites. Here's what you need to know:
What is Sign In with Apple?
Apple has noticed that sign-in systems for services, apps, and websites rely on services that use your action of signing in to place cookies on your computer and track what you do.
Apple's focus on privacy means it is attempting to restrict such practices, which is why it has developed the new system as a more private way to sign into these apps and services.
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 04, 2019
Just when you thought life in 2019 couldn't get any more surreal, here's a wild new nugget of possibility to chew on: What if at some point in the not-so-distant future, America's four major mobile carriers were Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and...Amazon?
Far-fetched as it may sound, it's not entirely implausible. Just ahead of the weekend, when most of us were already tuned out and thinking about what cured meats we wanted to ingest that evening (or whatever it is you think about on a Friday ahead of dinnertime), word broke via Reuters that Amazon was interested in buying the prepaid wireless provider Boost Mobile from Sprint and T-Mobile as part of the carriers' long-pending proposed merger. (Seriously — I can't be the only one sick of hearing about this "will they, won't they" dance, can I? It's starting to feel like a never-ending, mildly nauseating flirtation between two obnoxious people you kinda-sorta know and can't entirely avoid. Just do the frickin' deed or shut up about it already, I say.)
To read this article in full, please click here
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Jun 04, 2019
May 2019 will go down in the annals of Patch-dom as the month we all ran for cover to fend off another WannaCry-caliber worm, but a convincing exploit never emerged.
Microsoft officially released Windows 10 version 1903 on May 21, but I haven't yet heard from anyone who's been pushed. All of the complaints I hear are from those "seekers" who went to the download site and installed 1903 with malice and forethought. A triumph of hope over experience.
This month, if you let Windows Update have its way on your machine, you may end up with a different build number than the person sitting next to you. Blame the gov.uk debacle for that: Folks with Windows set up for U.K. English get an extra cumulative update pushed onto their machines, whilst those who don't fly the Union Jack will get the fix in due course next month.
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