Everyone in tech circles may be goin' gaga over artificial intelligence at the moment, but here in the land o' Android, we've got plenty of other interesting stuff on the horizon. Believe it or not, Google's already hard at work on the next grand Android version — the awkwardly gawky early-teen Android 14. And while it's still far too soon to say exactly what the release will entail, one nugget from the latest Android 14 developer preview is pretty darn intriguing. Specifically, the most recent Android 14 preview introduces a nifty new set of options around notifications — an area that's simul ..read more

Disclosure: Microsoft is a client of the author. In a sense, Microsoft Office and I grew up in this industry together. We both entered tech at around the same time, and I was one of its first users — when it had a problem that continues to plague it. Office was largely built through acquisition, and as a result, it has often suffered from a lack of integration and consistency. While its  various parts have grown more similar over the years, even now, I could argue, they aren’t as integrated as Lotus Symphony was because Symphony’s parts came from the same code base.  Integration give ..read more

Microsoft has launched its Loop app in public preview. The productivity application combines elements of documents, spreadsheets, and presentation apps in a single collaborative space. Microsoft Loop was first unveiled at Ignite in 2021 and has been in beta testing since last year. It is based on the company's Fluid Framework, which is designed to remove barriers among Microsoft 365 applications and allow app components such as tables, charts, and lists to be embedded into different apps and updated in real time by multiple users. To read this article in full, please click here ..read more

Ah, PowerShell. A simple blue window and some text has transformed the world of Windows administration from a point-and-click GUI to scripts that automate everything, as well as provide log rotation and identity lifecycle management and govern which server receives which updates. Everything in the newest versions of Windows Server as well as Microsoft 365, Azure, Intune, Viva, and all of the other cloud jazz is accessible primarily via PowerShell and only secondarily (and sometimes even not at all) via the server’s GUI or a web interface. That means PowerShell knowledge has become a must. Some ..read more

Visual communication platform Canva has announced a host of new AI-powered design tools and brand management features to help creatives to work more efficiently and produce content at scale. The AI-powered tools will be available to users of Canva’s Visual Worksuite, a suite of workplace products that was launched by the company in September 2022 and consists of Docs, Websites, Whiteboards, Video, and Data Visualization. Since the launch of Visual Worksuite, Canva says it has seen its monthly user numbers grow to 120 million, an increase of 35 million during the last six months. To read this a ..read more

Search and hyperscale computing giant Google said today that it has opened up access to Bard, a generative AI chatbot meant to compete with similar services offered by Microsoft and OpenAI, among others. Bard, like similar advanced chatbots, is powered by a large language model. LLMs are essentially advanced deep learning algorithms, with a range of abilities that include translation, summarization and more, powered by huge amounts of text. The LLM used by Bard is a lightweight variant of LaMDA, Google’s main natural-language processing model. To read this article in full, please click here ..read more

Reality? What reality? Soon, apparently, everything from brand assets to corporate videos to illustrations will be created differently using Adobe’s creative and enterprise apps and its generative AI tool Firefly. You’ll literally be able to speak to paint (or make video). If you can say it, you can draw it At Adobe Summit, the company also announced Adobe Express for Enterprise, a new tool to create, share, and collaborate on high-quality brand content such as multimedia assets, social posts and more. It’s about to introduce generative AI tools within Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere P ..read more

Russia’s Kremlin ordered officials to stop using iPhones, apparently over concerns the devices could be vulnerable to Western intelligence agencies, Reuters reports. When surveillance-as-a-service firms sit exposed for brazenly undermining device security, it's hard to think there isn't an argument there. But the bigger story isn’t the harm to Apple’s small business in Russia, it's the threat to digital supply chains it shows. To read this article in full, please click here ..read more

Once you’ve mastered the basics of Google Docs, it’s time take your documents up a notch. Some documents need to include citations, while some can benefit from charts or a table of contents. Others may require a watermark for security or branding purposes. In this guide, we’ll show you how to work with these four elements in Google Docs for more professional documents. [ Google Docs cheat sheet: How to get started ]How to add charts in Google Docs When your document contains lots of facts and figures, charts can highlight and clarify the most important data points. There are two ways to add a ..read more

Microsoft has resolved 80 new CVEs this month in addition to four earlier CVEs, bringing the number of security issues addressed in this month's Patch Tuesday release to 84.  Unfortunately, we have two zero-day flaws in Outlook (CVE-2023-23397) and Windows (CVE-2023-24880) that require a "Patch Now" release requirement for both Windows and Microsoft Office updates. As it was last month, there were no further updates for Microsoft Exchange Server or Adobe Reader. This month the team at Application Readiness has provided a helpful infographic that outlines the risks associated with eac ..read more