Tech News

Though we get a reprieve from Exchange updates in this month's Patch Tuesday update, more printer updates are on the way. Even with no updates for Microsoft Exchange or Visual Studio, Adobe is back with 15 critical updates for Adobe Reader. And Microsoft's new patch deployment tool Auto-Patch is now live. (I always thought application testing was the main problem here, but actually getting patches deployed is still tough.)Though the numbers are still quite high (with 86+ reported vulnerabilities), the testing and deployment profile for July should be fairly moderate. We suggest taking the time to harden your Exchange Server defenses and mitigation processes, and invest in your testing processes.To read this article in full, please click here

Apple CEO Tim Cook has given his backing to a major effort to convince state governors, government, and educators to make computer science classes available to every student in every school. But it’s not just philanthropy in play.We just can’t get the staff Demand and supply. In theory, when demand increases, supply emerges to meet it. Except it doesn’t always work out that way and as the world gets more digitized, the need for coders is growing faster than the world can keep up.To read this article in full, please click here

Top executives sometimes make stupid decisions. The goal of any support group is either to help prevent those decisions, or to quickly point to the adverse impacts to the decisions so they can be reversed before causing terminal damage to a company.  You can’t do either without solid — and often real-time — metrics because you’re seldom brought in before a bad decision has been made.After the fact, you must instead create and present a compelling argument to limit the damage.My bad approach to a problem Years ago, when I worked for IBM, I was given the chance to meet with the head of my division and speak candidly. The rule was I could not be held accountable for anything I said. (I expect that policy was revisited after my meeting, because the first words out of my mouth were: “Are you a complete idiot?”) I had just joined the Internal Audit division, but before that I was running sales compensation — and I have a degree in a related field. So I knew how commissions worked, and knew the division head had just effectively killed the division. To read this article in full, please click here

New data from Pricewaterhouse Coopers dramatizes how out-of-touch corporate leaders are with the factors contributing to customer trust and how the steps they take to build trust with their markets are largely falling flat.The PwC Trust Survey asked more than 5,000 consumers and business people about the dynamics that underpin trust, which “we believe is an essential currency for business going forward,” says Wes Bricker, U.S. Trust Solutions co-leader at the consulting giant, in a media briefing.The results indicate that executives still have a lot of work to do.To read this article in full, please click here

Join Macworld executive editor Michael Simon and Computerworld executive editor Ken Mingis as they break down the pros and cons of Apple's newest laptop. To read this article in full, please click here

It's been 15 years since the iPhone gave rise to the modern smartphone, and mobile now sits at the center of almost every thing we do. So it matters that US shoppers will soon find retailers prepared to take contactless payments using iPhone’s new Tap to Pay feature.The retail experience is a mobile experience One of the biggest US payment services providers, Adyen, has officially commenced support for Tap to Pay in its merchant networks and retailers.To read this article in full, please click here

Over the past two decades, Apple has seen tremendous growth in enterprise adoption due to its ease of use, advanced security and privacy tools, and the fact that employees prefer using Macs. As Apple adoption in the enterprise becomes the norm, some organizations may find themselves struggling to manage and protect these devices. As a result, IT administrators may grapple with cumbersome, time-consuming workflows and legacy solutions that are not automated or unified.Mosyle is changing that dynamic with a new generation of Apple endpoint software. The company got its start as an MDM provider and has quickly grown into an innovator in the Apple device management market. Earlier this year, Mosyle disrupted the industry with the introduction of its Apple Unified Platform concept.To read this article in full, please click here

Before COVID-19, open-plan offices were on the rise. Facebook's new Menlo Park headquarters boasted the "largest open floor plan in the world," for example.The open-plan office obsession, which probably peaked around ten years ago, was based on what I've called "collaboration bias" — the under-examined assumption that ad-hoc social encounters are more valuable for business, creativity, and productivity than un-interrupted "deep work."But a series of recent surveys shed new light on the misguided disaster that is the open-plan office and the importance of private offices, regardless of where they are.To read this article in full, please click here

As more employees work remotely in the aftermath the global COVID-19 pandemic, salaries based on where in US they live are showing signs of leveling.For example, a recent study by fintech startup Carta found that salaries for tech start-up employees in Seattle now match those of workers in San Francisco, which is a tech market salary leader.“As remote work becomes a fact of life, [start-up] founders are increasingly faced with a key decision: should they adjust compensation by location?” the Carta report said. “The vast majority of companies (84%) do take location into account when deciding on compensation packages.”To read this article in full, please click here

Even Apple must surely now see that the future of work is a technology challenge. Solving that challenge will demand new generations of office equipment designed to support much deeper experiences of remote and hybrid collaboration, and solutions must reflect the needs of employees.Searching for a collaboration superstar Corel offers up fresh insights from its Collaboration Survey, which polled 2,027 office workers in the US, UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Australia. It found that 54% of enterprise employees believe poor collaboration tools are a problem and 70% believe they limit productivity and waste time.To read this article in full, please click here

Visual collaboration tool Miro is further integrating with the Google Meet videoconferencing platform, allowing users to access and share new and existing Miro boards during meetings.The announcement, which was first teased back in May, further builds on the existing partnership between Google Workspace and Miro, which already enables users to collaborate using Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides directly within a Miro board. Miro for Google Calendar was also launched earlier this year and lets users attach Miro boards directly to Google calendar invites.To read this article in full, please click here

Man, I had one hell of a streak.All these years — approximately 7,967 since I first started using and writing about Android — and somehow, rather miraculously, I’d never outright broken a phone.Impressive, I know. But don't let yourself get wrapped in awe yet, my fellow drop-dreading denizen: My streak of impeccable Android phone protection has officially come to a crashing halt.[Got Android? Get Android Intelligence in your inbox and get three new things to try every Friday.] Now, I didn’t technically drop my phone, mind you. And I didn’t technically break it myself, either. But it was definitely broken. And it happened on my watch.To read this article in full, please click here

With unemployment in the tech industry hovering around 2% and the Great Resignation seeing employees quitting in record numbers, organizations need to proactively work to attract young talent and retain those employees for greater lengths of time. Companies should shoot for at least seven-year retention periods, according to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Most workers today, however, move on after about three years — especially young employees.To read this article in full, please click here

Apple has always said it tries to put the human at the center of everything it does. It is likely discovering that it must do the same thing with Apple Car for a simple reason: human augmentation beats human replacement through automation.Here’s why.People remain smarter than machines The Information reports challenges involving the Apple Car project. That’s bad, I suppose, but the emerging truth seems to be that, to coin a phrase from Elon Musk, the need for humans was underrated by those pushing the AI automation envelope.To read this article in full, please click here

According to the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB),  half of US small-business owners said they had open positions they couldn’t fill this June. But look at it this way: that’s better than May 2022, when it was more than half. That, by the way, was a 48-year record high.Sure, inflation is eating our lunch, and we may be on our way to a recession, but workers still aren’t coming into the workforce. Instead, we’re still suffering from a Great Resignation hangover.To read this article in full, please click here