Computerworld

Meetings have been problematic for decades. They’re often used as a catch-all solution to unresolved problems. And a chronic lack of meeting discipline means that, for all the time spent getting people together, little is accomplished. Now, in a post-pandemic remote work world, where hybrid work and flex work are common, meetings are turning into something like an ongoing crisis at many organizations. They’re harming productivity and causing havoc with employee morale. And yet with many remote …

The global outage that last month prevented McDonald's from accepting payments prompted the company to release a lengthy statement that should serve as a master class in how not to report an IT problem. It was vague, misleading and yet the company used language that still allowed many of the technical details to be figured out. (You know you've moved far from home base when Burger King UK makes fun of you— in response to news of the McDonald's outage, Burger King played off its own slogan by po…

Scale AI, the data processing company that advertises itself as a way to train generative AI on higher-quality information, has apparently shut down access to its platform in several countries, leaving gig workers in the lurch. The company, which does much of its data processing through a subsidiary called Remotasks, cut access to its portal for workers in Nigeria, Kenya and Pakistan in March, according to a report by Rest of World . The gig workers used by Remotask, and by extension Scale, imp…

With WWDC 2024 now set , Apple continues to work on bringing itself more in line with US government demands . What we don’t know yet is the extent to which these changes will be restricted to the EU , or whether Apple intends to make them available worldwide in an attempt to quell regulatory zeal . To read this article in full, please click here

The marketing hype surrounding AI broadly — and generative AI (genAI) more specifically — is becoming tiresome. You can't open an article or watch a news video without running into at least a reference to it. We may be approaching the point at which we stop breathlessly extolling its virtues (and dreading some of its outcomes). The hype is so extreme that a fall-out, which Gartner describes in its technology hype cycle reports as the "trough of disillusionment," seems inevitable and might be co…

Though most companies have settled on return-to-office (RTO) policies now that COVID-19 is no longer considered a global health emergency , many continue to adjust their practices, often to the detriment of their workforce. Several workforce surveys over the past three months have revealed that employees do not view mandated RTO policies favorably, even when hybrid, because the guidelines are often too rigid. During the pandemic, employees became comfortable with flexible work arrangements. Whe…

Microsoft’s Copilot AI could soon run locally on PCs rather than relying on the cloud. Intel told Tom’s Hardware that the chatbot could run on future AI-enabled PCs that would need to incorporate neural processing units (NPUs) capable of exceeding 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS) — a performance level not yet matched by any consumer processor currently available. Intel mentioned that these AI PCs would be equipped to handle “more elements of Copilot” directly on the machine. Copilot cur…

Have you ever had an unexpected direct phone call from Apple support? I have not, and if you do ever receive one, you probably aren’t talking to Apple. The company says you should immediately hang up. “If you get an unsolicited or suspicious phone call from someone claiming to be from Apple or Apple Support, just hang up,” the company support website states . Don’t fall for it Other things it warns against are suspicious calendar invitations in Mail or Calendar, annoying pop-ups in the browser,…

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…

The launch of a major Windows 10 update isn’t the end of a process — it’s really just the beginning. As soon as one of Microsoft’s feature updates (such as Windows 10 version 22H2) is released, the company quickly gets to work on improving it 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 versions of Windows 10 — versions 22H2 and 21H2. (Microsoft rele…

Amazon has announced it is investing $2.75 billion in OpenAI-rival Anthropic, bringing its total investment in the AI startup to $4 billion, as initially announced . In September last year, Amazon had invested an initial tranche of $1.25 billion. As part of this partnership, Anthropic will use Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its main cloud provider for key operations, including safety research and the development of foundational models. Anthropic will also use AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips for…

Essentially, all software is built using open source. By Synopsys' count, 96% of all codebases contain open-source software . Lately, though, there's been a very disturbing trend. A company will make its program using open source, make millions from it, and then — and only then — switch licenses, leaving their contributors, customers, and partners in the lurch as they try to grab billions. I'm sick of it. The latest IT melodrama baddie is Redis . Its program, which goes by the same name, is an …

Apple has a lot to prove at WWDC 2024. Not only must it fend off the negative attention it has been picking up from regulators , but it must also galvanize loyal developers and disabuse the industry perception that it has fallen behind on AI . To read this article in full, please click here

Microsoft is sitting on top of the world right now, thanks to its lead in AI. It’s the most valuable company on the planet, with a valuation of more than $3.2 trillion. Its rise was rocket-fueled by its investor relationship with OpenAI , the company that makes the wildly popular generative AI (genAI) chatbot ChatGPT. OpenAI’s GPT large language model is also the basis for Microsoft Copilot, the genAI tool that Microsoft is building into just about every one of its products, from GitHub to Wind…

Who doesn't love Google Maps? The Maps Android app helps those of us with oatmeal for brains find our way anywhere, without having to fire any neurons or exercise any synapses. It even helps us find places to pick up tasty cuisine — like, uh, oatmeal (yum!). But there's much more to Google Maps than meets the eye — and odds are, you aren't taking advantage of at least a few handy hidden features lurking within the Maps Android app. With Android 15 right around the corner and more shiny new Goog…