On April 4, 1975, two childhood friends, Paul Allen and Bill Gates, started what is today one of the worlds leading technology companies. Inspired by the January cover of Popular Electronics magazine, they created Microsoft (then Micro-Soft, referring to microprocessors and software) to develop software for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal computers on the market.Half a century later, and after establishing its operations center in Redmond, Washington, in 1986, the company has diversified its activity, from Windows operating systems to the cloud and the video game industry, reaching a present dominated by artificial intelligence (AI). In the stock market where it listed in March 1986 it has always occupied the top positions on the Nasdaq, where it is known as one of the magnificent seven along with other major players in the digital landscape.Throughout these five decades it has only had three global CEOs: Bill Gates himself, Steve Ballmer and Satya Nadella, in an industry accustomed to the constant dance of names. But in that time it has acquired and merged with hundreds of companies, including Hotmail, Nokias mobile devices division, and more recently Skype, GitHub, Linkedin and Activision Blizzard, the latter, related to gaming, being the most expensive at $68.7 billion.But lets look back to some of the earliest milestones in the development of the organization. In 1980, Gates and Allen signed an agreement to provide an operating system for IBMs first personal computer. After presenting its MS-DOS PC in 1981, Windows came along in 1985 and, by the end of the decade, it was already the most recognized software brand on the planet. The first version of Microsoft Office arrived around that time, the productivity suite that today, under the Microsoft 365 brand, is used by more than 1.5 billion people.One of the first images of the Microsoft team, TAKEN shortly after its founding. In the bottom row are Bill Gates (left) and Paul Allen (right).MicrosoftDuring the 1990s, Bill Gates vision of the potential of the World Wide Web led to the integration of the companys products and services into the network and the creation of one of the most famous browsers in the digital world, Internet Explorer. Gates has become one of the leading gurus of the computer industry and his thinking has permeated the world through numerous lectures, public appearances and published books. In 1995 he set out a roadmap for the IT revolution in his first major text, The Road Ahead. Of the changes to come, he told Time magazine in a 1997 interview, People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didnt they? That year he created the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to address health and education issues of our time.The arrival of the new century crowned a new CEO, Steve Ballmer. Gates stepped back to let the companys first business manager continue with his strategy. Through 2013 Ballmer laid the first stones of the companys video game business with the launch of the Xbox game console, and of the cloud with the 2008 launch of Azure. It was in 2011 that Office made the leap to the cloud with Office 365, and the company too a further step in collaboration with the purchase of the Skype video calling tool. In Ballmers final years in charge the Surface line of tablets emerged.Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer during a meeting in the 1990s.MicrosoftIn 2014 comes the Satya Nadella era, characterized by a hitherto unknown acceleration of the technology industry around the planet. It stands out for the consolidation of cloud business and video games while introducing new trends, such as AI. Along the way, Windows 10, the purchase of LinkedIn, GitHub, the launch of Teams, which became the fastest growing application for the company, and the strong investment in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. His great achievement, perhaps, is to take Microsoft to a market value of $3 trillion dollars by 2024 thanks to this strategy. But it was in 2015 that he turns the technology around with a new corporate mission: To empower every person and everyorganization onthe planet to achieve more through IT.Today, Nadella leads a company of 228,000 employees spread across more than 190 countries. Supplied Art (with Permission)Paco Salcedo, head of the companys Spanish subsidiary, says, The most relevant learning in these 50 years is to have gone from believing we were a company that knew everything to wanting to become a brand that wants to learn everything. And, if we look to the future, we believe that AI can enable the next billion jobs in all parts of the economy.A marathon journeyReviewing this trajectory, Foundry consultant Fernando Maldonado says the company has adapted to change. You have to know how to rise to disruptions in time, he said, noting the companys entry into the cybersecurity sector under the premise that without protection there is nothing when hardly anyone understood this need. Also, the companys switch to embrace open source, even before its acquisition of GitHub. At the beginning, open source was the enemy and, today, we can say that it also knew how to adapt. [] A lot of its software is already open source.All this gives you an idea that it has always been able to react in time to macro-trends, Maldonado said. Although, he added, the company has taken several hits, inevitable for a company that has been around for half a century, such as the flop of the Bing search engine. If it hadnt had any friction, we wouldnt be talking about its achievements, he says. But it has worked on a very solid foundation with Office, which is the anchoring of all types of companies.Now, it remains to be seen how it fares in the still very young world of AI, with the billion-dollar investments it is making, although there is some slowdown in terms of data centers. In any case, says the analyst, it is also making a very strong bet on the future.Nadellas reflection regarding Microsofts anniversary is in line with the experts analysis: Ive found myself reflecting on how Microsoft has remained a consequential company decade after decade in an industry with no franchise value. And I realize that its because -time and time again, when tech paradigms have shifted- we have seized the opportunity to reinvent ourselves to stay relevant to our customers, our partners and our employees. And thats what we are doing again today, he said.

The tech market lost 29,000 jobs in March, even as the unemployment rate for tech-related jobs slipped 0.1% to 3.1%, according to an analysis of US Labor Department data released today.At the same time, tech sector employment fell by 8,428 jobs last month, driven largely by job cuts in tech services and telecommunications, according to CompTIA, a non-profit IT trade association that analyzed figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)The BLS data, CompTIA said, sent conflicting signals about the IT job market as uncertainty around it accelerated.With many employers in wait-and-see mode, the jobs data is about in line with expectations for the month, said Tim Herbert, chief research officer at CompTIA.Overall, US job growth beat expectations, with the broader economy adding 228,000 positions. Thats nearly 100,000 more than the 135,000 economists had predicted would be added. Conversely, the federal government lost 4,000 jobs, due to reduction in force efforts by the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).Victor Janulaitis, CEO of IT industry research firm Janco Associates, said DOGEs impact is causing IT contracts to be delayed, leaving government IT professionals uncertain about their future.The overall US unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.2% in March, just 0.1% higher than in February. Previous US job gains for January and February were revised down by a total of 48,000, with January reduced by 14,000 and February by 34,000, according to BLS data.In the first quarter of 2025, the IT job market shrank by 34,200 jobs, according to Janulaitis. The number of unemployed IT professionals dropped slightly in March to 133,000 from 148,000 at the start of the year. We believe that many low-skilled, legacy-skilled IT pros, or displaced IT professionals have stopped looking for jobs in the IT sector, he said.CompTIA said new employee job postings for tech occupations rose slightly to more than 213,000. In all, there were nearly 478,000 active tech job postings last month. Industry sectors adding the most new tech job postings included professional, scientific and technical services (52,526), administrative and support services (26,099) and manufacturing (21,975).Software developers and engineers, tech support specialists, systems engineers and architects, and cybersecurity engineers and analysts were in highest demand, according to CompTIA. Positions in artificial intelligence (AI) or that require AI skills accounted for 21% of all active tech job postings. And half of all tech job postings did not require a four-year academic degree.Several industry experts saw the uptick in overall hiring and steady unemployment rates as a good omen.Martha Heller, CEO of executive search firm Heller, called the BLS jobs report healthy, and said it reinforces the plain truth that technology innovation (primarily AI) will drive up employment. In every sector, companies need people to realize the return on their AI investments, and while those people are often technologists, the AI employment boom will expand to include a broader range of skills.With the nearly certain instability that our current economic policy brings, technology and the people who can use it to navigate uncertainty will have job security for a long time, Heller said.Kye Mitchell,head of US tech recruiting firm Experis North America, sees AI as a boon for all businesses. In the tech sector, our real-time data shows that businesses are addressing their AI needs by focusing on their data to be prepared to best leverage AI in this new era, he said.Quarter over quarter, demand for data analysis and cleansing has risen sharply, he said. For example, roles for data scientists are up 238%. Database architect positions rose 142%. And, job openings for mathematicians were up 1,272%, Mitchell said.Additionally, theres a growing need for executive management, indicating businesses are relying on leadership to drive AI integration, he said. The impact of recent economic policy shifts on AI worker demand is still unfolding, and market uncertainty may lead to longer decision timelines and adjustments.Others familiar with the tech industry saw the latest jobs report as positive, including Ger Doyle, US country manager at global staffing firm ManpowerGroup. Todays jobs report is a welcome sign, given the negative indicators we saw leading into it. While the US labor market is proving to be resilient, there are signs of cooling that are consistent with employers navigating uncertainty.ManpowerGroup data shows a 2% overall decline in all job postings and a 3% drop in new job postings. While the labor market appears stable, Doyle said employers remain cautious, with the exception of healthcare and education sectors.Uncertainty is keeping both employers and employees from making moves, leading businesses to focus on maintaining current workforces but considering adjustments if the uncertainty persists, he said.Janulaitis said interviews he performed with more than 100 CFOs and CIOs revealed optimism about Trump administration, though many anticipate a mild economic downturn in mid-2025. Unemployed IT pros found jobs faster than expected as CIOs quickly filled positions while hiring was still authorized, he said.`

At a special 50th anniversary event on Friday, Microsoft executives reflected on the companys storied past and on how its now reinventing itself for an AI-focused future.With previous CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer in attendance, current CEO Satya Nadella boasted that the company is leading this new wave of AI innovation, and more importantly, democratizing just like we did it with the PC.Details about the companys plans were laid out by Microsoft Executive Vice President Mustafa Suleyman, who noted that the ability to customize Windows to every persons specific needs is coming. Years ago, Bill laid out a bold ambition, which at the time probably felt like a pretty crazy dream to put a PC on every desk and in every home.Today, were creating a Copilot for everyone, Suleyman said at the event,which was webcast.Suleyman talked about how the company is transforming its generative AI (genAI)-based Copilot into a personal assistant. Microsoft is replicating key sensory features from humans into the software.Today, were taking the very first steps towards rich memory and personalization, the very foundations of an AI companion, Suleyman said.Copilot is gradually adding a Memory feature that can personalize the tool to remember human preferences, dates, events and more.Suleyman pointed out how the AI agent over time will be able to remember birthdays, and provide reminders on tasks. It will also provide advice on how users go through each step in training sessions on specific topics and even memorize individual traits, such as whether a person greets others formally or informally.The memory feature works with others such as Actions, which can complete tasks in the background.Microsoft is also developing avatars for Copilot that make interacting with it more fun. Suleyman showed off avatars as animated characters, and in jest showcased the dreaded Clippy of old Microsoft Office fame as an avatar.The companys main announcements included Copilot Vision, a mobile app that can help users interact with the real-world. The app uses the phones camera to capture images and in real-time provide context of the surroundings.With our new mobile app, Copilot can actually see what you see and talk to you about it in real time, Suleyman said.The second piece to Copilot Vision is a Windows app, which can take a snapshot of a users PC screen and help explain what is being displayed. The app works across applications, browser tabs or files.It will read the screen and interact with the content. Youll be able to use Copilot to search, change settings, organize files and collaborate on projects without switching between files or apps,the company said in a blog post.With my permission it can see my screen like a second set of eyes, Suleyman said at the event said. Its my sounding board. And most importantly, it can respond in the context of what Im seeing on my screen.Suleyman made no reference to Windows Recall, the controversial Copilot feature that uses snapshots to log the history of activity on a PC. Recall was unveiled last year and quickly ran into astorm of controversy related to privacy concerns.Microsoft has also started rolling out Copilot Search, with AI integrated into a conventional Bing search to provide better search results. The search results will be personalized and dynamically generated on the screen.With Copilots new search capabilities, you can get many magazine style cards made just for you, on any topic that you care about, with text, images, videos, and maps built right in, Suleyman said.Microsoft also unveiled Podcasts, an AI feature that can instantly generate podcasts with video and audio, and newAI technologies for Azure AI Foundry.For enterprise users, Microsoftrecently rolled out Research and Analyst agentsto boost enterprise search and employee productivity.AI will be the biggest change to the PC since the graphical user interface (GUI), and it may be as important as the first databases for enterprise users, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates.But harnessing its potential is a challenge, with numerous usability, privacy and security challenges. The ability to make AI most useful and efficient for enterprise needs still needs a lot of work. Were in the first innings, Gold said.Microsofts challenge with AI is not just in the OS, but also in apps that support enterprise users, where Microsoft has a large installed base.While Copilot may make the way we interact with our devices through agents that implement and execute tasks for us more personal, its what AI may do to enhance our insights from our increasingly complex enterprise informational environment that could be a game changer, Gold said.Its likely to be a decade-long maturing process before enterprises see the same level of maturity and creativity users have grown to expect in day-to-day go-to apps.Enterprises need to start down the path now, but dont expect to achieve the end state in the short term, Gold said.

We are still within the sequence of energies described in Newtons Third Law of Motion, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. In this case, Apple, alreadybadly bruised by Trumps tariffsand their impact on its business, will now take another kicking as nations react to those oddly calculated trade taxes. Europe is gunning for Apples services, while China is about to stick some of the worlds rarest components behind its own trade wall.The third lawChina, predictably, isnt happy. Not only has it slapped a reciprocal 34% tariff against US goods, but it also introduced export restrictions onrare earth materials this will have a direct and significant impact on tech, as these are used in almost every electronic device.That includes Macs and PCs, smartphones and tablets, as well as weapons systems, energy-generation tech, and electric cars. China produces around 90% of the worlds refined rare earths and the new export restrictions are being applied against exports to all countries. The exports havent been banned, but the latest move does give Beijing the strategic power to restrict them or even turn them off. (Not all is lost, of course. Other nations also have some of these materials,including Canada, forexample).France, meanwhile, is warning that the EUs second line response to these tariffs will be aimed at digital services, such as those provided by all the Big Tech firms Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft.This is also a strategic approach, given that services are popular across the region and have already emerged as the bulwark against the recession those firms all knew was coming but never called out, preferringsocialism for the rich. (And given Apples really under pressure in the EU, at what point will the US decide to relent in some fields to give its big tax revenue generator a break?)Also, in the run up to this chapter, dont be too surprised if Apple and other companies selling products into the US imported bigly piles of hardware to meet short-term demand.Tactical silenceDont expect to hear much from Apples leadership quite yet. Execs recognize that the sensible approach is to stay under water until others throw their own responding stones into the pool as the rocks of Trumps tariff troubles ripple across an angry world trade pond.They may have gamed out a whole range of potential scenarios, but must now wait to see whats left after the storm. Its only after both action and reaction have had time to play out that defensive plans can be put into effect.I dont imagine they feel particularly optimistic in the medium term. Investment bank JP Morgan nowsees a 60% chanceof global economic recession this year, up from a still uninspiring 40% before. A recession would further deepen the damage to consumer confidence, and no doubt cut tithes from product sales across every category, not just iPhones. But Americas biggest company will be especially impacted, and given it already supports 2.9 million US jobs, whats good for Apple is good for America.As is whats bad.Battle of the bean countersWhile the extent of the tariffs and the unpredictable nature of reactions to them makes the future hard to see, Apples leadership is shrewd. Theyll have read TheArt of Warenough times to understand the need to preserve what resources they do possess and use what defensive opportunities they can exploit.Look at it this way: every company involved in hardware production rationally knows that the cost of repatriating production to the US would be trillions of dollars, and would take years, even if there were enough skilled workers to handle all that.With trillions at stake, what do they do? Backstage, anticipate political maneuvering, lobbying, and a chance for a cohort of people not usually celebrated too much at Apple to shine. Im talking about lawyers, accountants, tax experts, PR types, and corporate staff.This really is their time.Way I see it, just as product design saved Apple in the late 90s with a messagethat echoed the zeitgeist then, tactical use of obscure tax and territorial law has now become equally important to the future of Apple and any other multinational company exposed to risk. In terms of profit and revenue, this is the time when the back room professionals must save the day. Defend. Delay. Navigate. Obfuscate. Be ready to innovate. Your shareholders are counting on you.You can follow me on social media! Join me onBlueSky, LinkedIn, andMastodon.

Like it or not, those who use Windows Update to obtain and install updates, patches, and fixes will occasionally encounter issues. Sometimes, a specific update may not download. At other times, an update may fail to install. Every now and then, Windows Update (a.k.a. WU) may refuse to interact with the Windows servers from which updates come.Thats where these steps come into play. Try these troubleshooting techniques in the order outlined below to get WU operational again.Although Ive illustrated the WU troubleshooting steps in Windows 11 here, the same techniques also work with Windows 10, with only minor variations. This story covers both Windows OSes quite nicely.1. If at first you dont succeedtry againThough the most basic of all troubleshooting techniques for Windows Update doesnt always work, it can help sometimes. That is, if WU fails to work as expected, the first thing to try is running the Windows Update request again.For best results, restart the target PC before trying again. Its not absolutely necessary, but it may clear some pending or transitory conditions (such as an already-downloaded update that needs to be applied, or some other pending system action) that will put Windows Update back to rights.Heres what to do (see Figures 1 and 2):1. Click Start, then the power button icon (far right), then Restart from its pop-up menu.Figure 1: After saving all work, click the power button in the Start menu (lower right), and then click Restart in the menu.Ed Tittel / Foundry2. When the desktop reappears, click Start > Settings > Windows Update, then click the Check for updates button.Figure 2: Click Start > Settings > Windows Update. Then click Check for updates. It may work!Ed Tittel / FoundryIn my own experience, this works one-quarter to one-half of the time when a WU problem manifests. The upload and install simply succeeds on a second try. Could it have been a download hiccup, or perhaps cosmic rays? Whatever: getting it on that next try is a good thing!But if restarting the PC provides no relief, move onto the next section.2. Try the Windows Update troubleshooter (or Get Help app)As the trite software saying goes, Theres an app for that. For common Windows issues which definitely include WU its equally valid to observe, Theres a troubleshooter for that.Troubleshooters are built-in Windows mini-apps meant to diagnose and fix specific Windows problems.In Windows 11, troubleshooters are being deprecated in favor of a new universal Get Help app, but for now, at least, the Windows Update troubleshooter remains the go-to for WU problems in both Windows 10 and Windows 11. Indeed, if you enter troubleshoot Windows Update errors into the Get Help app, it takes you to this very same troubleshooter.At some as-yet-unknown point in the future, that troubleshooter may be replaced with another tool available via Get Help. In the meantime, heres how to fire up the WU troubleshooter directly:1. Click Start > Settings.2. Insider the Settings app, type trouble into search. Youll see something like the list shown in Figure 3 appear. Click Troubleshoot Other problems.Figure 3: The WU troubleshooter falls under Troubleshoot Other problems.Ed Tittel / Foundry3. In the Other troubleshooters pane, Windows Update appears in position 4 (from top) under the Most frequent heading, as shown in Figure 4. Click the Run button at the right-hand side of that entry.Figure 4: Click the Run button to the right of Windows Update to launch that troubleshooter.Ed Tittel / Foundry4. The Windows Update troubleshooter runs in its own window. Youll pick one of two options: I cant download, install, or uninstall an update or I installed an update, but that update has caused a problem. Pick the one that matches your situation. (For this story, I picked I cant download) The troubleshooter asks permission to run an automated diagnostic. Choose Yes, and it runs be patient, this can take a minute or two.When it finishes, youll see a final report window like the one in Figure 5.Figure 5: When the error check completes, the troubleshooter asks if its fix worked. How can you tell?Ed Tittel / FoundryThe troubleshooter asks if its fix solved the problem, but its difficult to tell that without running another update check in WU. I usually answer Yes to the question shown in Figure 5, restart the PC, and run Windows Update again. Only then is the real Yes/No answer clear.In my experience, the WU troubleshooter actually fixes whats wrong one-third to one-half of the time. If it doesnt, advance to the next section, please.3. Completely reset WUIf the WU troubleshooter doesnt address your issue, there is heavier artillery you can bring to bear. Its fully described in the excellent Windows 11 Forum tutorial entitled Reset Windows Update in Windows 11. This tutorial includes a download link to a special batch file that turns off all WU related services, resets all Windows Update components and policies, then restarts all the services it turns off. (Theres a similar tutorial for resetting WU in Windows 10 on Windows 10 Forums, complete with its own batch file.)The download ends in a ZIP extension, so youll need to unzip it after you download. This will reveal the batch file named Reset_Reregister_Windows_Update_Components_for_Windows11.bat.Next, youll need to open an administrative command prompt or PowerShell session. (Type either cmdorpowershellin the Windows search box, right-clickCommand PromptorWindows PowerShellin the list of results, selectRun as administrator, and enter the password if prompted.)Next, navigate to the folder where the aforenamed batch file resides. (Its so handy, I keep it on the desktop on my Windows 10 and 11 PCs, as shown in Figure 6.)Figure 6: The filename is so long you need to open Properties to see it on the desktop.Ed Tittel / FoundryCut and paste the filename into the command line, and then hit theEnterkey to run it. Thats all there is to it.This batch file takes a while to run and involves checking and stopping WU services (bits, wuauserv, and cryptsvc). It then flushes the DNS cache, clears pending update requests, deletes temporary files and folders related to WU downloads, and resets Windows Update policies in the Windows Registry. Then it restarts the services it stopped, and finally ends by offering a Restart button. Use it, because the PC must restart for all these changes to take effect.Ive used this batch file on most of my Windows 10 and 11 PCs (and 7, 8, and 8.1 PCs before that), and its worked in every case except two to put WU back in action. On the machines where it failed, it turned out I had a hardware problem (a failing SSD) on one of them. On the other, Microsofts update was later documented to pose problems for certain PCs.IMO, the reset-reregister batch file is something of a silver bullet for WU problems. Thus, if you dont mind waiting the time it can take to work through its processes (under 2 minutes on my 8th-gen i7 Lenovo X12 hybrid tablet), its always worth a try.After I ran it on my first test PC, it cleared the error condition the troubleshooter found but couldnt fix, and successfully downloaded and installed a pending Cumulative Update (CU).If the silver bullet doesnt work, then what?On one of the two occasions when the batch file didnt fix WU, I had to take my affected PC to the shop, where they were able to detect and diagnose a failing drive (SSD) that I did not catch on my own. Once that component was replaced, the system returned to normal working order.On the other machine, I learned from the chatter around KB5053390 on Windows 11 Forum that others were having similar problems. After I used DISM to install that package manually, WU resumed working correctly. Thus, online research can also help prevent unnecessary flailing about when WU problems present.Before you take a PC that gets to this stage to the shop, Id recommend trying an in-place repair install. And if that fails, try a clean OS install next. Only then should a trip to the shop be needed. Hopefully, youll never get that far!Additional reading on WU issues and errorsThe Microsoft Learn collection called Windows deployment documentation covers the ins and outs of Windows deployment, including WU and updates. It includes a Troubleshoot section broken into two parts namely, Resolve Windows upgrade errors and Windows Update issues troubleshooting. Both dispense lots of useful advice and techniques, plus discussions of (and references to) Windows Update error codes. For those who want to learn and do more about WU and its workings, these are must-reads.This article was originally published in November 2022 and updated in April 2025.

Two of the biggest names in artificial intelligence are independently developing new AI tools that encourage learning, at a time when the technology has been criticized for dumbing down smart users in the enterprise and discouraging critical thinking. While the new initiatives from OpenAI and Anthropic are aimed at transforming how AI is used in higher education, the opportunities they open up extend beyond universities.The approach taken by the two AI firms, emphasizing learning, retention, and critical thinking, has implications for enterprises that are increasingly integrating AI into their workflows.Such education-focused initiatives arrive at a crucial moment, as research increasingly shows that improper use of AI in workplaces leads to what experts call cognitive atrophy a decline in employees ability to think critically when AI handles too many cognitive tasks.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) payment system has more than 60 million lines of COBOL code. That makes it one of the worlds largest, not to mention oldest, codebases. Everyone agrees it needs to be updated. But, sorry, theres no way it can be updated in mere months.Nevertheless, Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) claim they canconvert the ancient SSA code to Java or some other modern language in only a few months. Reminder DOGE isnt a real department and that modernization effort isnt likely to happen anytime soon.Seriously, Ive seen this rodeo before. For example, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has beentrying to replace the 200,000-line assembly language Individual Master File (IMF) with Java for decades. Hasnt happened. The latest plan was toreplace the IMF by 2028. I say was because President Donald J. Trump, Musk, and DOGE havecut the IRS modernization funds to zilch.As for SSA,it was going to replace COBOL with Java in 2017, a code translation expected to take five years; it failed. (Thats why were having this conversation now.) Part of the problem was due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But, as Ernst & Young noted, the agency also didnt have a real plan for modernizing its legacy IT systems, nor one to identify and track the systems.Guess what? Theres no real plan today, either. All we know is thatMusk, yes-man Steve Davis and nine kid software engineers, and some undefined AI program will miraculously transform the code into Java.I doubt any of them can even read COBOL code. This is, after all, the same crew who thought there were hordes of 150-year-old fraudsters ripping off Social Security. What they didnt realize was thatCOBOL doesnt have a standardized way of dealing with dates, which led to records for numerous century-old-plus people who were not I repeat- not getting an unfair penny of government funds.Why should they know? Over a decade ago,fewer than one in four colleges offered COBOL classes.Thinking of dates, thats not the only data in that codebase kept in formats incompatible with modern languages. Converting this data accurately is crucial and fraught with risks. Any errors during the conversion process could result in data loss or corruption, which would have catastrophic consequences for the millions of Americans who rely on Social Security benefits.Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick believes that if Social Security checks didnt go out one month, hismother-in-law wouldnt call and complain.Maybe she wouldnt after all, she has a billionaire son-in-law. I dont. I bet the vast majority of the 73 million other Americans who depend on it dont have billionaires in the family either.Even if these youngsters did grok the language, knowing COBOL is only part of the problem. You see, COBOL is more than just a coding language. It also incorporates organizational processes and policies. Thats not an approach modern developers deal with.In addition, COBOL systems were not designed to integrate seamlessly with modern technologies. A migration requires extensive customization to ensure compatibility with newer software and hardware, which is both costly and complex. This integration challenge was exacerbated by the need to maintain the systems functionality during thetransition, a delicate balancing act that demands meticulous planning and execution.Meticulous is not the word Id use for Musk and his move-fast and break-things bunch.As Waldo Jaquith, former director of technology acquisition for the Inflation Reduction Act, said on Bluesky about the scheme, Im an expert in modernizing legacy government software systems.This is profoundly stupid and will definitely fail, and its just a question of whether our social security system fails along with it.I cannot think of a single legitimate reason for DOGE to perform such a modernization, especially on such a time scale.Jason Fichtner, a former SSA deputy commissioner, told CNBC: If you startmessing with the systems code, that could impact those who are currently getting benefits now, and thats a new front-and-center concern.You cant just flip a switch one night and expect to be able to upgrade. It takes due diligence, and you have to understand the complexity of the programs, he added.In light of DOGEs employee cuts at the agency, Fichtner and Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and Disability Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, warned in a column: IfSocial Securitys computer systems experience an outage, which has happened twice in recent years, the agency may lack the expertise to resolve it.Unless Congress acts soon to block DOGEs misguided technology plans, Social Security, which has never missed a payment in its nearly 90 years, might finally not deliver American workers hard-earned retirement checks. Yes, legacy systems should be replaced and upgraded. No ones arguing they shouldnt be. But waving a magic AI wand powered up by a political agenda isnt the way to do it.

Microsoft is urgingOffice 2016and2019customers to upgrade toMicrosoft 365 before support ends Oct. 14, but analysts said viable alternatives are available outside Microsofts walled garden.Continuing to use unsupported software can expose your organization to security vulnerabilities, compliance risks, and operational disruptions, the companywarned in a blog post.Microsoft 365 is the cloud-based version of Microsoft Office, which also includes Teams,Copilotand web-based collaborative features. It isavailable only by subscription, with prices starting at $9.99 a month, or $99.99 a year for the Personal edition.The alternative, a standalone desktop version of Microsoft Office, doesnt have the AI and collaboration features, nor does it have Copilot orTeams. Users looking to replace Office 2016 or 2019 could also opt for the convenience of a one-time purchase ofOffice 2024, which costs $149.Microsoft in the blog post talked only about upgrading to M365, which never expires. Office 2024support ends in October 2029.Analysts said enterprise customers might find upgrading to Microsoft 365 worthwhile for its generative AI (genAI) tools, collaborative features and security. Or, depending on enterprise AI and productivity needs, they could jump ship for rivals such asGoogle Workspace.For enterprise customers worried about data privacy in the cloud, the desktop edition of Office or freeopen-source alternatives such as LibreOfficemight be more attractive. The $149 price of Office 2024 might also be cheaper than Microsoft 365 in the long run, analysts said.Microsoft wants to move customers to Microsoft 365 subscription services, said Jason Wong, vice president at Gartner for on app design and development.This makes support easier and lowers the cost of products for Microsoft, while at the same time it opens up many up-sell and cross-sell opportunities such as security products, the Power Platform tools, and of course M365 Copilot, Wong said.Basic Microsoft 365 editions for home users or business users dont include Teams. But users can get features that include Intune, Defender, Clipchamp and Loop at higher subscription prices.For those who only need Microsoft Office apps that include PowerPoint and Word, the standalone option could be attractive, especially if they already use something like Google or Zoho for mail, calendar, and document storage, said Irwin Lazar, principal analyst at Metrigy.For those wishing to take advantage of AI, an upgrade to M365 is a requirement. I expect that for [small and mid-sized businesses], Microsoft now offering M365 without Teams at a lower price could prove attractive, Lazar said.Metrigy in a recent study noted that about 25% of Microsoft customers were evaluating the unbundled option. The study,Employee Experience Optimization: 2025, was published in November.Googles recent price increases for Workspace are likely to help Microsoft, especially for SMBs, though Google includes Gemini AI now with Workspace, Lazar said.Enterprises would see value in moving from legacy on-prem, disconnected apps to Microsoft 365 though at this point those were probably Lotus or legacy on-prem Exchange/Sharepoint customers.The savings is likely to be minimal if customers are already using cloud-based services for document, email, and calendar, Lazar said.Some organizations are resisting the push to the cloud primarily European-based companies with stricter data requirements and regulations.Cost also plays a factor in staying on-premise, but typically organizations realize they wont be getting the latest features and capabilities, like generative AI and Copilot, if they choose this path, Wong said.Gartner sees clients evaluating rival suites to see what life looks like outside of the Microsoft ecosystem. It typically comes down to familiarity of products and features for the workers, and the overall security and cost of ownership for IT to consider whether to switch or not, Wong said.Microsoft, for its part, painted a doomsday scenario to get users to upgrade to Microsoft 365 if they dont quit Office 2016 or 2019 by the time support expires.You may have started noticing limitations, the company wrote. Your apps are stuck on your desktop, limiting productivity anytime youre away from your office. You cant easily access your files or collaborate when working remotely or traveling, creating unnecessary friction for your team. Perhaps youve seen your companys IT expenses creep upwards as youve added separate solutions for email, file storage, and virtual meetings.

Enterprise IT leaders are facing a double-whammy of uncertainties complicating their data center building decisions: The ever-changing realities of genAI strategies, and the back-and-forth nature of the current tariff wars pushed by the United States.This is obviously a fluid situation. The stated goal of the [US] administration is to bring more development into the US, said Forrester Senior Analyst Alvin Nguyen. But with some of these activities, there is the potential that it draws some manufacturing and other capabilities of the data center away from the US.Nguyen, who advises enterprises on data center strategies, said the tariffs are adding complexity and uncertainty into the already volatile genAI data center strategies.Right now, theres too much variability. With all of the tariffs, this may be the thing that slows down AI, Nguyen said. And if you slow down AI, that will slow down the data centers.

Your weekly round-up of the questions asked by readers of CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World sees us learn how culture impacts digital transformation, the rise of cloud-based ERP, and desktop-based office software.Transform FasterDisruptive forces dictate the need for speed when it comes to key digital initiatives. This week we reported 12 ways in which IT leaders are overhauling strategies and processes to streamline IT for quicker success. We explained how to transform: faster. Transformation is not only a question of technology, of course. And the readers of CIO were keen to understand how big a part organizational culture plays in transformation projects. According to Smart Answers: a lot. It says that organizational culture impacts time to business outcomes and the development of digital core competencies. And that a culture committed to digital transformation, such as a cloud-committed culture, can accelerate the adoption of digital technologies. Transformation requires a change in mind set, and culture is a big part of that.Find out: How does organizational culture impact digital transformation speed?SAP is RisingLast week we reported on problems in migrations to SAPs S4/HANA. This week we brought the better news that SAP adoption is surging (in Europe at least) as enterprises embrace cloud. But why? What is driving the trend of cloud ERP adoption?The accepted answer would be that organizations are looking to accelerate digital transformation efforts and seek greater operational efficiency through advanced technologies. Smart Answers takes that ball and runs with it, adding other factors: a broader shift toward scalable and efficient IT infrastructure; SAPs RISE with SAP program, designed to facilitate cloud migration; and the cost savings from not having to refresh systems is another factor driving the adoption of cloud-based ERP systems.Find out: What is driving the trend of cloud ERP adoption? The Price of ProductivityRecently we reported that LibreOffice downloads are on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs. We said that the free open-source Microsoft Office alternative is being downloaded by nearly 1 million users a week. It makes sense, right? Something free is better than something expensive. But is it a fair comparison. Readers of Computerworld wanted to know if a desktop productivity suite could compete with a cloud-based solution such as O365. The answer is yes but Microsofts desktop software is the best solution. At least that is the opinion of Smart Answers. Find out What are the advantages of using a desktop office productivity suite over a cloud-based one? About Smart AnswersSmart Answers is an AI-based chatbot tool designed to help you discover content, answer questions, and go deep on the topics that matter to you. Each week we send you the three most popular questions asked by our readers, and the answers Smart Answers provides.Developed in partnership with Miso.ai, Smart Answers draws only on editorial content from our network of trusted media brandsCIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network Worldand was trained on questions that a savvy enterprise IT audience would ask. The result is a fast, efficient way for you to get more value from our content.

Apples leadership is no doubt scrambling to identify a silver lining (if there is one) as the storm of US President Donald J. Trumpspunishingrange ofglobal tariffsrains heavily across the companys supply chain. Even Apples attempt to mitigate the impact of anticipated tariffs on Chinese goods with big investments in manufacturing inIndia,Thailand, and elsewhere wasnt enough.Most of the world will be affected by Trumps tariffs, which the company is unlikely to be able to swallow whole without raising product prices.The scale is huge 54% (the 34% hike announced last night in addition to an existing 20% tariff) on Chinese imports; India gets a 26%, tariff, Vietnam, 46%, Taiwan, 25%, and Thailand gets a 36% slap.Insert synonym for ouch hereThese tariffs are consequential.Rosenblatt analyst Barton CrocketestimatesApple must realistically prepare itself for an additional $39.5 billion in costs as a result, which will directly impact iPhones sold in its biggest market (the US) and made in China. This will also affect Chinas economy in terms of lost sales.Naturally, Apples stock price fell, and was off a dramatic 8.9% by early afternoon today.To claw that cash back, the company will have little choice but to boost hardware prices across the board, including those goods outside the US. When it does, it will no doubt lean in on its services business in an attempt to help mitigate the consequences of these tariffs. What else can a business with a responsibility to its shareholders do?One thing it will do is try to win exemptions on the application of these tariffs against its products. Perhaps, for example, Apple can point tothe investment it and its partners are makingin processor manufacturing in the US. The argument: any tariff should be waved as that component will eventually be made in the US, but the factories arent ready yet. Perhaps that is part of the reason semiconductors are to be exempted from reciprocal tariffs.Apple might also consider shifting more production to India, particularly if the government there secures positive trade deals with the US. Other responses, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo could include raising iPhone Pro prices as consumers of those products might be more accepting. The company could also increase carrier subsidies, he said, as well as cutting trade-in values and, of course, squeezing suppliers for lower costs.Another thing Apple can do is use this moment as a golden opportunity to re-purchase its shares. It announced a $90-billion-share repurchase budget in January, and the state-mandated damage its stock is currently taking means it will be able to buy more shares for the same money assuming it doesnt use some of this capital to defer the impact of the tariffs (unlikely).Why manufacturing wont come backWhat Apple wont be able to do is moveallof its manufacturing to the US. There are several reasons, but perhaps the most significant one is that there is nothing like enough trained staff for some of the most advanced manufacturing jobs available in the US. Theres been little investment in training up people for those jobs, and there is no way that training can be delivered before the tariffs strike later this week.That means any manufacturer, including Apple, rushing tomigrate more manufacturingto the US will choose to deploy automation and AI in their factories. Make no mistake, Apple and its manufacturers already make copious use ofsmart manufacturing systems, which means any manufacturing facilities they open in the US will be automated. Not only this, but theres a matter of scale. There are physical, financial, and human limits to how many manufacturing lines can physically be built in any given time frame. As a result, building enough factories within a stones throw of the Gulf of America at the scale needed to meet US market demands is probably not going to happen.The art of the dealDespite this, Apple may have one positive thing it can achieve on the back of these Trump taxes (which will soon be felt by US consumers in the form of higher prices): the new tariff against India can be directly seen as a challenge for thetariff-led protectionismthat exists in that market. Ironically, India and other nations hit by these tariffs may now think dropping their own tariffs on US goods could help them at least reduce the tariff applied to their exports. That certainly seems to be the point of these taxes.Will they work?Realistically, it is possible the US can convince some other nations to submit to its approach to taxation, though it could just as easily fan the flames of nativist nationalism, fostering retaliatory tariffs from others andfurther raising prices for US consumers. No man is an island, after all, and we are all involved in the economy mankind makes.Follow the moneyIn my view, a lot now depends on how the administration chooses to deploy the tens of billions it raises through the exercise. Will this money be fed directly into the US economy in a positive way, or does the government simply intend to build up a huge pile of currency for bragging rights or tax cuts?I dont know the answer. But in the short term I do think it reasonable to predict Apple, like every manufacturer, must become accustomed to a higher cost of doing business in America.While we wait, Apples stock is down sharply economic gravity in action.You can follow me on social media! Join me onBlueSky, LinkedIn, andMastodon.

When Google unveiled a new neural network design in 2017 called the Transformer architecture, it probably had no idea this would threaten Google Searchs dominance within seven years.When OpenAI applied Googles Transformer architecture to generative language models, the GPT was born. (GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer.)OpenAI then took the GPT concept and created a chatbot by incorporating reinforcement learning from human feedback, ranked responses, dialogue optimizations, and safety measures.The result was ChatGPT, which OpenAI made public on Nov. 30, 2022.ChatGPT changed the world.Now, AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Metas Meta AI, Microsofts Copilot, Anthropics Claude AI, Perplexity AIs Perplexity, xAIs Grok, and even Googles own Gemini are changing how people search for information online. Instead of relying on Google, some users are turning to AI chatbots.To stop bleeding users, Google has been planning to integrate its own AI technology into the Google Search Experience for the general public, first with AI Overviews in May 2024, which now reportedly has more than 1 billion users, and more recently withAI Mode(March 2025).AI Mode is an experimental serviceavailable to people who signed up for Google Search Labs. Its based on a customized version of Googles Gemini 2.0.Note that AI Overviews, which many users found initially problematic (recommending glue for pizza recipes or suggesting the health benefits of eating rocks), was based on Gemini 1.5 Flash until March when it was updated to Gemini 2.0.In its current state, Googles AI Mode is truly great. Its better than most comparable chatbots in several respects, especially two very important ones.Why attribution mattersThe best feature is that Google surfaces attribution. Just last week, Ico-hosted a TWiT podcast about AIcalled Intelligent Machines, where I advocated for RAG-based chatbots (Retrieval-Augmented Generation systems like Perplexity that use data from searches in their results, rather than just the old data in their training datasets) showing their links conspicuously on the right side of the search. Im in favor of highlighting and offering the easiest access to the actual sources of information rather than stolen knowledge being genericized, commoditized, and buried by AI chatbots.What I described and advocated for in that podcast is exactly what Google Searchs AI Mode does.Like Perplexity, Google AI Mode is a RAG system that performs a Google Search (Perplexity uses Googles PageRank, too), then gets its information for the result from the pages on the other side of those links.But Google AI Mode does a better job showing the main links used for information provided in the answer, complete with an image for each link drawn from the source, where available. This is importantfor the reasons Ive already detailed. AI chatbots are threatening to bury and replace the very sources theyre built on. By highlighting the sources with links, users can explore those original sources from the chatbot response you know, like a search engine.Still, Google understands that even with highlighted sourcing, people are far less likely to click through to linked sources than with Google Search.Less is moreAnother surprising AI Mode virtue is brevity. Unlike most AI chatbots, which often provide long-winded explanations that go off into tangents and background content, Googles AI Mode gets right to the point with very concise responses.Results tend to be very high quality. AI Mode uses whats called a query fan-out technique to handle complex searches. It turns a prompt into multiple related queries targeting different subtopics and data sources, and the results are then combined into a single, detailed response that covers more ground than a traditional search.It also uses a method called agentic reinforcement learning, developed with Googles DeepMind group, to improve the accuracy of its AI-generated responses. This technique rewards the model for producing statements that are more likely to be correct and supported by reliable sources, such as Googles Knowledge Graph or live web data, while also encouraging the retrieval of additional factual information.Despite all this, Google warns that AI Mode can hallucinate, lie, give opinions instead of facts, and generally misbehave in the ways AI chatbots sometimes do.AI Mode offers a surprisingly appealing user interface with a responsive design and fluid layout. And its fast. Besides these qualities, AI Mode has other, more standard benefits found elsewhere, including multimodal queries support, meaning it accepts voice, text, or image inputs.If the subject of the prompt is deemed controversial or problematic in some way, AI Mode throws up its conceptual hands and delivers a list of URLs like old-fashioned Google Search rather than a typed-out response.When AI Mode becomes the leading search option offered by Google and I think thats likely the book on SEO will have to be torn up and re-written. At this point, its not clear how, exactly. Beyond that, the rules for advertising will also need to be re-written.AI Mode is currently a fantastic search replacement. But in the future, how Google handles monetization will make or break the service.Advertising and the future of searchGoogle isnt exactly sure how it will integrate ads into AI Mode searches. If AI Overviews suggests a direction, then Googles AI Mode will likely show ads under the AI answer and will be labeled Sponsored. The ads will come from the same places as normal Google ads, like Search and Shopping, and will try to match the content searched for. The ads should link to things that are helpful for your search.For example, if you search for how-to information like how to get wine stains out of a shirt, ads for Wine Away and other such products will appear below or within the results.Ultimately, its advertising thats likely to lead AI Mode astray, given how Google Search itself has evolved over time.Ads now often blend seamlessly with organic search results, making it harder for users to distinguish between paid content and genuine information. The prominence of ads pushes organic content further down the page, especially on mobile devices, reducing visibility for non-sponsored links and forcing users to scroll more to find unbiased results. Googles strategy of embedding ads within organic listings also disrupts the traditional flow of search results, subtly prioritizing monetization over clarity and usability.So, while AI Mode is a refreshing change from plain old Google Search and clearly one of the best AI chatbots out there, Im pessimistic that Google will be able to monetize the feature without making the user experience much worse.Its a real challenge, because the company really depends on search-based ad revenue. How Google can keep making money on search ads in the age of AI, smart glasses and other trends isnt yet clear.But changes are coming. And it will be interesting to see how Google navigates the future of AI search and advertising.

Generative AI (genAI) is quickly transforming healthcare, according to a survey by consultancy McKinsey & Co. released today. The survey of 150 healthcare industry organizations found 85% are exploring or had already adopted genAI.The organizations, which included insurers, health systems, and health services and technology (HST) groups, found that 40% or more from each group had already implemented genAI. Not surprisingly, HST organizations have the highest rate of genAI implementations at 57%. The least? Healthcare providers with a 40% implementation rate.GenAI has already been proven in studies using historical patient data to be more accurate at diagnosing illnesses and other conditions. For example, OpenAIsGPT-4 Turbo model not only outperformed physicians, but also outdid every single AI system developed for healthcare over the last 50 years, according to the lead doctor in one study at Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston. And it did so without any medical training.Healthcare stakeholders are also using genAI to explore ways to create value and reduce costs, despite ongoing challenges such as evolving regulations and capability gaps.Of the respondents that have already implemented genAI tools, 64% reported that they anticipated or had already quantified positive ROI, suggesting high expectations for genAI technology, McKinsey said.Many organizations are also forming partnerships to access external talent while customizing AI solutions, and partnerships with hyperscalers could ensure successful implementations, McKinsey said.Early genAI use cases have focused on improving administrative efficiency, dealing with IT gaps, and boosting clinical productivity. As capabilities grow, other uses could expand to patient engagement and quality-of-care improvements. Leaders recognize the importance of AI risk management and governance for safe implementation.Organizations that have developed their genAI capabilities are seeing success with large-scale implementations, b ut future success will depend on a value-driven strategy, strong execution, and effective management, McKinsey said.Most respondents reported their organizations had implemented or were developing genAI use cases, with more in the implementation phase than the proof-of-concept stage. However, 15% had not started proof-of-concept work.Other prominent findings include:Nearly half (47%) of payers, health systems and HST groups havealready rolled out genAI tools.About three-quarters of healthcare leaders believe the technology could help most with administrative efficiencies and clinical productivity and more than half (55%) believe it has value for patient/member engagement and IT/infrastructure.Sixty-one percent of payers and providersexpect to collaborate with partners on building out their genAI capabilities; 20% said theyd build their own; 19% said theyd buy a program.GenAI may create tremendous value in areas that could fundamentally improve patient experience and streamline operations to generate cost savings, the report said.

US President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order this week creating the US Investment Accelerator office to oversee the CHIPS Act, a Biden-era program to re-shore semiconductor production.According to a White House statement, the new entitys mission will be to speed up corporate investments domestically by reducing government regulations and coordinating with federal agencies.Trump has criticized the bipartisan CHIPS Act, signed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2022, and said he wants to negotiate better deals. The office will also work to make it easier for companies to invest in US semiconductor manufacturing. In a speech before Congress last month, Trump called the CHIPS Act horrible and said he wanted to defund it: We dont have to give them money; we just want to protect our businesses and our people, and they will come because they wont have to pay tariffs if they build in America.The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the status of CHIPS Act funding.In February, reports emergedthat the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) planned to cut 497 jobs as part of Trumps federal government downsizing. NIST, a non-regulatory agency within the US Department of Commerce (DoC), helps drive innovation and industrial competitiveness and oversees the CHIPS for America program. The personnel cuts were widely criticized as damaging to the rollout of the CHIPS Act.In 2021, the years-long decline in domestic chip production was exposed bya worldwide supply-chain crisisthat led to calls for re-shoring manufacturing to the US. After more than a year of work from the Biden Administration to respond to acute semiconductor shortages, Congress in August 2022passed the measure.The Commerce Department, which is administering the CHIPS Act, spent months negotiating with semiconductor designers and fabricators to gain commitments from them and to achieve specific milestones in their projects before getting government payouts.With the CHIPS Act spurring them on, semiconductor makers including Intel,Samsung,Micron,TSMC, andTexas Instrumentsunveiled plans for a number of new plants on US soil. (Qualcomm, in partnership with GlobalFoundries,also said it would invest$4.2 billionto double chip production in its Malta, NY facility.)The Department of Commerce has beendivvying up $52 billionin the hopes of spurring on-shore chip manufacturing. While about $32 billion of CHIPS Act money has been allocated, the funds have not yet been dispersed. It was not immediately clear whether Trumps action this week could delay disbursement of the monies.

Apple is a hot property, and the big banks all want a chance to grab a piece of the action now that Goldman Sachs hasdecided to leave retail banking behind.Weve entered the breaking it down for parts stage of deal-making now, with banks bidding for both financial network access provision and to be the partner of note for the card.Apple Cardwas the future of bankingwhen it launchedsix years ago. It immediately generated noteworthy public interest, people liked the software that supported it, and the interest rates (which have changed over time) were seen as super-attractive. Apples Daily Cash loyalty scheme became popular, too, as did the Apple Card Savings account the company created a little later. The card was supported by Goldman Sachs as the credit partner and used Mastercard as the payment processor. Following somecostly service failures, Apple has been working to leave the first partner, while the deal with the second has expired. And thats where the action is.The Apple Card yard saleMastercard wants to keep Apples business, but is facing fairly aggressive competition from both Visa and American Express. There is clearly value in the business Visa hasoffered a hefty $100 millionto take over from Mastercard, while American Express is vying to take a partnership position in replacing both Mastercard and Goldman Sachs. Barclays, Synchrony Financia, and JP Morgan Chase have also discussedtaking over the credit side of the Apple Card business.Whats in it for them, of course, is access to Apples high-value market of relatively affluent and very loyal consumers. There are more than 12 million Apple Card users in the US with north of $20 billion in balances. These are (mostly, possibly except me) creditworthy people who spend, save, and borrow money. A 2020 survey told us that a third of Apple Card customershad annual incomes above $100,000.Customers in demandIn an unpredictable economy, customers like these are gold dust and Apple has them. The opportunity to expand the service into other up-and-coming economies wont be lost on the banks, either. Banks usually want to follow the money, so once all these deals are done, it will be interesting to see where Apple Card gets introduced.But thats not all that Apple brings to the table: Challenger banks newer, tech-driven services that arent weighed down by tradition have proliferated and improved since 2008 when bankers seemingly siphoned all the cash from the global economy.Banks responded by improving customer service and developing better B2C and B2B applications and software services. But challengers including Revolut have sought and gained banking licenses and pose more competition now than they did then. Whats limiting all these efforts, of course, is software design; the best services offer the best software.Thats where Apple comes in.Follow the moneyBanks know that Apple is really, really good at software (most of the time). They know that when it comes to usability and platform support, the company is second to none. They read the same research that shows Apples productsrapidly replacing Windows, and they also recognize that Apples commitment to security and privacy is vital essential, even to secure and stable financial exchange.(This is why the UK really shouldannouncewhether it has chosen to sacrifice its financial services sector by breaking end-to-end encryption, because financial firms will be furious when they find their trading system security underminedwithout any warning.)Apple has a lot to offer. But for more traditional financial entities such as those talking with the company about Apple Card, the biggest thing it can offer is that it is more than capable of building software and services to compete with challenger banks.And while many of us might rejoice if those challengers defeat the established order of financial things, incumbent entities will not fold without a fight hence, the interest in Apple Card. They think Apple couldhelp them thrivein the New World Fiscal Order. They are probably right.Deal, or no deal?This is whats at stake in Apples talks around the Apple Card. Banks want a direct line to the worlds most affluent customers, want to surprise and delight those customers, retain and profit from them, and they believe Apple can help them do it. The only snag is going to be whether Apple gets the deal right, or prices itself out of the market after all, Apple was a challenger once, and some other service could conceivably replace it.You can follow me on social media! Join me onBlueSky, LinkedIn, andMastodon.

Mozilla has decided to launch a challenger to Gmail called Thundermail. The upstart is a web-based email service based on the open-source project Stalwart, according to technology site Thurrott.The plan is to eventually add support for calendar and contacts to Thundermail, but when that would happen remains to be seen.Alongside the new email service, Mozilla is also launching Thunderbird Pro. It offers, among other things, an AI assistant, a file-sharing tool and a planning tool and can be seen as a complement to Thundermail.Users interested in trying the new services, can sign up for a waiting list at Thundermail.com.

Google has introduced a new end-to-end encryption (E2EE) feature in Gmail, enabling organizations to send encrypted emails that even Google cannot read to other Gmail users. Later this year, the feature will be expanded to allow the sending of encrypted emails to any email users, including those from other providers.E2EE differs from encrypting email communication in transit between email servers, which is already achieved with TLS (transport layer security), or at rest when stored in Googles data centers. E2EE allows users to encrypt sent messages in a way that only the intended recipients can decrypt and read them.Continue reading on CSO.

Windows 11 does a lot under the hood to speed up a PCs performance. The same PC will generally run faster on Windows 11 than Windows 10. But no matter how zippy your Windows 11 may be, it can run faster. And keep in mind that PCs tend to slow down over time, and you want to make sure that doesnt happen to yours.Its simple to make your Windows PC run faster. Just follow these tips.Top ways to speed up Windows 11Disable programs that run on startupUse efficiency modeUse automatic Windows maintenanceKill adware and bloatwareTurn off search indexingClean out your hard diskDisable shadows, animations, and visual effectsDisable transparencyChange your power settingsTurn off Windows tips and tricksDisable Game ModeUpdate device driversGet a burst of RAM with ReadyBoostRoll back your PC to a previous stateRestart WindowsRead on for details.Note: This story covers Windows 11 version 24H2. If you have an earlier release of Windows 11, some things may be slightly different. If you have Windows 10, see our Windows 10 speed tips.1. Disable programs that run on startupYour Windows 11 PC could be a laggard if programs you rarely or never use are running in the background. Your PC will run faster if you stop them from running.To do it, first launch the Task Manager in one of these ways: Press Ctrl-Shift-Esc, right-click the lower-right corner of your screen and select Task Manager, or type task manager into the Windows 11 search box and press Enter. Theres a lot you can use Task Manager for, but here were focusing only on killing unnecessary programs that run at startup.Click the Startup apps icon on the left side of the screen. (Its the fifth icon from the top.) It displays a list of the programs and services that launch when you start Windows. The list includes each programs name as well as its publisher, whether its enabled to run on startup, and its Startup impact, which is how much it slows down Windows 11 when the system starts up. Note, though, that the screen doesnt show how much each program will impact your performance after startup, during normal PC operations.You can use the Task Manager to get information about programs that launch at startup and disable any you dont need.Preston Gralla / FoundryTo stop a program or service from launching at startup, right-click it and select Disable. This doesnt disable the program entirely; it only prevents it from launching at startup you can run the application after launch. Also, if you later decide you want it to launch at startup, you can return to this area of the Task Manager, right-click the application and select Enable.Many of the programs and services that run on startup may be familiar to you, like Microsoft OneDrive or Spotify. But you may not recognize many of them. (Anyone who immediately knows what bzbui.exe is, please raise your hand. No fair Googling it first.)The Task Manager can find information about unfamiliar programs. Right-click an item and select Properties for more information about it, including its location on your hard disk, whether it has a digital signature, and other information such as the version number, the file size, and the last time it was modified. (Note that not all programs provide this information when you right-click them the Properties button may be grayed out.)You can also right-click the item and select Open file location. That opens File Explorer and takes it to the folder where the file is located, which may give you another clue about the programs purpose.Finally, and most helpfully, you can select Search online after you right-click. Bing will then launch with links to sites with information about the program or service. With Task Managers help, I easily discovered that bzbui.exe is Backblaze backup software, something I want to run automatically during startup.If youre worried about one of the listed applications, you can go to a site run by Reason Software called Should I Block It? and search for the file name. Youll usually find very solid information about the program or service.Now that youve selected all the programs that you want to disable at startup, the next time you restart your computer, the system wont launch those unnecessary programs automatically, and your PC may run faster.2. Use Efficiency ModeTask Manager has another trick up its sleeve for juicing Windows 11 performance. Efficiency Mode can speed up your PC and improve laptop battery life. It lowers the process priority of background applications, among other efficiency tricks.The term is a bit of a misnomer, because you cant put your entire PC into Efficiency Mode. Instead, you use Task Manager to put individual apps and processes into it. Theres one caveat: Youll only be able to use it on some apps and processes.First launch Task Manager using one of the methods covered in the previous tip. If youre already in Task Manager, click the Processes icon (three squares in a grid) on the left side of the screen to get to the Processes screen. A list of currently running apps and processes appears.Click the app or process you want to put into Efficiency Mode, click the Efficiency mode icon at the top right of the screen, then confirm that you want to turn on Efficiency Mode for the app. Note that if the Efficiency mode icon is grayed out when you click an app or process, you wont be able to use it. Also, some apps, including Microsoft Edge, automatically work in Efficiency Mode by default, and the mode cant be turned off.Turning on Efficiency Mode for an app.Preston Gralla / Foundry3. Use automatic Windows maintenanceIn the background, Windows 11 constantly performs maintenance on your PC, doing things like security scanning and performing system diagnostics to make sure everything is up to snuff. It automatically fixes problems it finds, which helps your PC run at peak performance. The automatic maintenance runs every day at 2:00 a.m. if your device is plugged into a power source and is asleep.However, that feature may have been accidentally turned off, or it may not have run recently if you shut down your PC at night (rather than putting it in Sleep mode) or you havent had your laptop plugged in for a while. You should make sure its turned on and runs every day. You can also run it manually if youd like.Type control in the search box on the taskbar and select Control Panel from the results to run the Control Panel app. In the app, selectSystem and Security > Security and Maintenance. In the Maintenance section, under Automatic Maintenance, click Start maintenance if you want it to run now. To make sure that it runs every day, click Change maintenance settings, and on the screen that appears, select the time youd like maintenance to run and check the box next to Allow scheduled maintenance to wake up my computer at the scheduled time. Then click OK.Heres how to set a time each day for Windows 11 to run its maintenance tasks.Preston Gralla / Foundry4. Kill adware and bloatwareIt may be that whats slowing your PC down isnt Windows 11, but bloatware or adware that takes up CPU and system resources. Adware and bloatware are particularly insidious because they may have been installed by your computers manufacturer. They typically run automatically at startup without you even knowing it. Youll be amazed at how much better your PC will run if you get rid of it.Start by running a system scan to find adware and malware. If youve already installed a security suite such as Norton Security or McAfee LiveSafe, you can use that. Windows 11s built-in anti-malware app, Windows Defender, also does a great job. Just typewindows defenderin the search box, press Enter, and click Scan Now. Windows Defender will look for malware and remove any it finds.You should get a second opinion, though, so consider a free tool likeMalwarebytes. The free version scans for malware and adware and removes what it finds; the paid version offers always-on protection to stop infections in the first place.Malwarebytes scans for and removes malware.Preston Gralla / FoundryNow that youve done all that, check for bloatware and uninstall it. A good free anti-bloatware tool is Bulk Crap Uninstaller. You can also go to the website Should I Remove It? it offers recommendations on what software is useful, and what you can uninstall. Theres a section of the website devoted to advice on how to remove bloatware on PCs from specific manufacturers. I highly recommend going there, because it lists all the bloatware different manufacturers install on their PCs. That section of the site also compares how much bloatware major manufacturers ship on their PCs. It rates Toshiba as having the most and Acer as having the least.Finally, when you buy a new PC online, check whether theres an option to leave off trial software and software you dont need to run your PC. That will stop bloatware from getting on your system in the first place.5. Turn off search indexingWindows 11 search performs indexing in your hard disk in the background, allowing you to search your PC more quickly than if no indexing were being done. Thats good for fast searches, but not so good for slower PCs, because indexing can cause a performance hit. You can give a slower machine a speed boost by turning off indexing. Even if you have an SSD disk, turning off indexing can improve your speed, because the constant writing to disk that indexing does can eventually slow down SSDs.To turn it off, type services.msc into the search box on the taskbar and press Enter. The Services app appears. Scroll down to either Indexing Service or Windows Search in the list of services. Double-click it, and on the screen that appears, click Stop. Then reboot your machine. Your searches may be slightly slower, but you also may not notice the difference. You should, though, get an overall speed boost.Heres how to turn off Windows 11 indexing.Preston Gralla / FoundryAlternatively, you can turn off indexing only for files in certain locations. In this way, you can still index files and folders you often search for but turn off indexing for the rest of your hard disk. So youd still get fast searches for files you use often, while increasing your PCs performance.To do it, type index in the Windows 11 search box and click the Indexing Options result that appears. The Indexing Options page of the Control Panel appears. Click the Modify button, and youll see a list of locations that are being indexed, such as Microsoft Outlook, your personal files, and so on. Uncheck the box next to any location, and it will no longer be indexed.6. Clean out your hard diskA bloated hard disk filled with files you dont need can slow down your PC. Taking a few minutes to clean it can give an immediate speed boost. A built-in Windows 11 tool called Storage Sense will do the job for you.Launch the Settings app, select Storage, scroll down to the Storage management section, and next to Storage Sense, move the toggle from Off to On. From now on, Windows will constantly monitor your PC and delete old junk files you no longer need temporary files, files in the Downloads folder that havent been changed in a month, and old Recycle Bin files.Heres where to customize the way Storage Sense works.Preston Gralla / FoundryYou can also customize when Storage Sense runs and what should be deleted automatically for example, whether to delete files from the Downloads folder after theyve been there for more than 30 days. To do it, click the right-facing arrow next to the Storage Sense On/Off slider.7. Disable shadows, animations, and visual effectsThose who like eye candy are probably big fans of Windows 11s shadows, animations, and visual effects. They typically dont affect performance on fast, newer PCs. But they can exact a performance hit on older, slower machines.If youve got a slower PC, turn them off. To do it, in the Windows 11 search box, type sysdm.cpl, press Enter, and then click the sysdm.cpl icon. That launches the Control Panels System Properties dialog box. Click the Advanced tab and click Settings in the Performance section. That brings you to the Performance Options dialog box. (Make sure youre on the Visual Effects tab of the dialog box.) Youll see a varied list of animations and special effects.The Performance Options dialog box lets you turn off visual effects that might be slowing down Windows 11.Preston Gralla / FoundryIf you love to tweak, you can turn individual options on and off. These are the animations and special effects youll probably want to turn off, because they have the greatest effect on system performance:Animate controls and elements inside windowsAnimate windows when minimizing and maximizingAnimations in the taskbarFade or slide menus into viewFade or slide ToolTips into viewFade out menu items after clickingShow shadows under windowsHowever, its a lot easier to just select the Adjust for best performance option at the top of the screen and click OK. Windows 11 will then turn off the effects that slow down your system.8. Disable transparencyTo get an even bigger speed boost, go beyond turning off shadows, animations, and visual effects. Also disable the transparency effects in the taskbar and other Windows 11 locations. Windows does a surprising amount of heavy lifting to create transparency effects, and turning them off can make a difference in system performance.To do it, run the Settings app and select Personalization > Colors, then move the Transparency effects slider to Off.Turning off Windows 11s transparency effects can help speed up performance.Preston Gralla / Foundry9. Change your power settingsYour Windows 11 PCs power settings let you balance its energy use with its performance. If youre using the most power-efficient setting, youre slowing down your PC, because the setting reduces your PCs performance to save energy. (Even desktop PCs typically have a power-saving setting.) Changing your power setting to one of the less power-efficient options will give you an instant performance boost.To do it, run the Settings app, then choose System and click the right-facing arrow next to Power. Depending on whether youre using a laptop or a desktop PC (and if youre using a laptop, whether its plugged in), youll see either a Plugged in or On battery setting that lists the power mode youre using. Click the drop-down arrow next to it and choose the setting you want.Change your power settings to give your PC a performance boost.Preston Gralla / FoundryBest Performance gives you the most oomph but uses the most power. Balanced finds a happy medium between power use and better performance, and Best Power Efficiency does everything it can to give you as much battery life as possible. Desktop users have no reason to choose Best Power Efficiency, and even laptop users should consider the Balanced option when unplugged.10. Turn off Windows tips and tricksWindows 11 constantly watches what youre doing on your PC and gives you tips about things you might want to do with the operating system. Ive never found these tips helpful. And I dont like the privacy implications of Windows constantly taking a virtual look over my shoulder.Beyond that, this monitoring can also make your PC run more sluggishly. So to speed things up, tell Windows to stop being so nosy and giving you advice. To do it, run the Settings app and select System > Notifications. Scroll down to Additional settings and click the down arrow. From the options that appear, uncheck the box marked Get tips and suggestions when using Windows.Turn off Windows suggestions to help things run more smoothly (and regain a measure of privacy).Preston Gralla / Foundry11. Disable Game ModeWindows 11s Game Mode optimizes your PC for playing games. When it detects that youre playing a game, it prioritizes system resources for gaming, taking them away from other apps and background processes. Thats great for serious gamers, but when youre not playing games, it can slow down your system because it keeps some system resources in reserve in case you start playing a game. It occasionally causes stability issues as well. So turning off Game Mode may be able to give your PC a quick boost. (You can always turn it back on again when you want to play a game.)Game Mode is turned on by default, so even if youve never played a game on your PC, its probably enabled. To turn it off, go to Settings > Gaming > Game Mode and move the Game Mode slider to Off.Game Mode can sometimes cause stability and performance issues, so turning it off may give your PC a boost.Preston Gralla / Foundry12. Update device driversYour Windows 11 PC can become a slowpoke if its drivers are old and in the way. Outdated drivers can exact a big performance hit. Graphics drivers are often the biggest culprit in driver-related slowdowns. To check whether yours is outdated, and to update to the latest one:In the Windows search box, type device manager, and click on the Device Manager icon that appears.Scroll to the Display Adapters entry and click the side-facing arrow to expand it.Right-click the driver, and from the context menu that appears, select Update Driver.Youll be asked whether to have Windows search for an updated driver, or whether you want to find one and install it manually. Your best bet is to let Windows do the work. Follow the on-screen instructions to get the driver installed.You can use the Device Manager to update all your drivers this way. Thats time-consuming, so consider asking Windows to do the work for you. To do it, launch the Settings app (pressing the Windows key + I is a good shortcut for doing it) and select Windows Update from the left pane. Select Advanced Options > Optional Updates. Youll see a list of all the updates Windows has found but hasnt installed. Select any of the drivers you want to install, then click Download & install.Tell Windows Update to update your drivers.Preston Gralla / Foundry13. Get a burst of RAM with ReadyBoostIf youve got a sluggish PC, the issue may be that you havent got enough RAM. One solution is to add more RAM to it, but that can be a daunting task if youre not comfortable opening up your computer and fussing around with its innards, or if youve got a laptop whose RAM cant be added to.For a simple, easy-to-use low-cost solution, turn to the Windows 11 feature ReadyBoost, which uses a USB flash drive to essentially boost your RAM by caching data on it. Make sure the flash drive you buy has at least 500MB free and has a minimum data transfer rate of 3.5 MB/s for 4KB random reads and 2.5 MB/s for 512KB random writes. The flash drive needs to be USB 2.0 or above, as does the slot into which youll insert it.To do it:Put the flash drive into a free slot.Right-click it in File Explorer and select Properties.From the screen that appears, select ReadyBoost > Use this device.Click OK, then Apply.Note that if Windows is installed on a solid state drive (SSD), you wont be able to use ReadyBoost, because SSDs are fast, and Windows will already be using it as a cache to boost performance.14. Roll back your PC to a previous stateSometimes your PC will slow down for no apparent reason, and stay slow. It could be a new driver slowing your system down. Perhaps accidentally you changed a system setting that caused the problem. It can be difficult, and often impossible, to get to the root of these kinds of problems and fix them.If youve noticed that your computer has become sluggish recently, theres something that might solve the issue: Restore your PC to the state it was in before the problem began. You can easily do this via System Restore.To do it:Type advanced system into the search box on the taskbar and click the View advanced system settings icon that appears.From the screen that appears, select System Protection > System Restore.On the screen that appears, select Recommended restore and click Next if you want to revert to the most recent restore point. Select Choose a different restore point if you want to choose one yourself, and click Next.Restart your PC. It will revert to its previous state. Note that when you do this, your documents, pictures, and personal data wont be deleted.If System Restore hasnt already been turned on for your system, you wont be able to revert to a previous restore point. Its easy to turn on if you want to use it in the future, though.Go to the System Protection screen as outlined above, and click Configure. Select Turn on system protection and click OK. From then on, your PC will regularly create restore points. If you want to create one right away, back on the System Protection screen, click Create.Heres how to turn on System Restore.Preston Gralla / Foundry15. Restart WindowsHeres one of ITs not-quite-secret weapons for troubleshooting and speeding up a PC: shut it down and restart it. Doing that clears out any excess use of RAM that otherwise cant be cleared. It also kills processes that you might have set in motion and are no longer needed, but that continue running and slow your system.If your Windows 11 PC has turned sluggish over time for no apparent reason, you may be surprised at how much more quickly it will run when you do this. I can vouch for it, and I restart my Windows 11 PCs regularly even if theyre not sluggish, just as a precautionary measure.This article was originally published in February 2023 and most recently updated in April 2025.[ For more tips, see Microsoft cheat sheets: Dive into Windows and Office apps ]

Who doesnt 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 theres much more to Google Maps than meets the eye and odds are, you arent taking advantage of at least a few handy hidden features lurking within the Maps Android app. With Android 16 now right around the corner and more shiny new Googley goodies showing up left and right lately, I thought itd be a fine time to dive deep into this ever-evolving Android anchor and think through some of its more off-the-beaten-path advanced options.Take a few minutes to explore these possibilities the next time youve got Maps pulled up on your phone, and get ready to experience the world around you in a whole new way.[Psst: Love shortcuts? My Android Shortcut Supercourse will teach you tons of time-saving tricks for your phone stretching far beyond Maps borders. Sign up now for free!]Google Maps Android trick #1: Better directionsThe most important part of Maps is navigation right? And yet, the Maps Android apps best navigation experience is curiously tucked away in a labyrinth of options and disabled by default. In fact, most average roaming land mammals would never even know the superior route exists!But hey, youre reading this column. You clearly arent an average organism. So lets take your Maps adventuring to the next level, shall we?Start by opening up the Maps app on your phone, then:Tap your profile picture in the apps upper-right corner.Select Settings, then scroll way down and select Navigation.Scroll down again until you see the section labeled Glanceable directions while navigating, and flip the toggle within that section into the on and active position.One quick switch, and boom: The next time you search for a specific location, youll see the detailed steps and ETA info right on the route overview from the second you hit the Directions button.Google Maps glanceable directions options makes it infinitely easier to see where youre going at a glance.JR Raphael / IDGMuch better, wouldnt ya say?!Google Maps Android trick #2: Drive time IQWhile were thinking about smarter directions, make a mental note of this route to higher Maps enlightenment: You can find out how long any specific drive is likely to take at any specific time with the help of Maps intelligent traffic estimation tool.Just search for a location in the Android Maps app, then tap the Directions button and put in whatever starting point you want.Tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner of the same box where you typed the address, then select Set depart or arrive time. You can then specify exactly when you want to leave or when you want to arrive with a specific day and time and Maps will show you the likely traffic conditions and estimated travel time for that exact moment, based on mountains of historical data.Google Maps Android trick #3: Faster pathsHeres an interesting one that I only learned about recently by way of some chatter in my Intelligence Insider Community: By default, Maps now gives you directions based on the most fuel-efficient path to your destination.Thats great if youre trying to save on gas, but when youre really in a hurry, you may just want the absolute fastest path possible even if it potentially costs you a few extra pennies.If so, do this:Speed your way back into the Maps Android apps settings and again head into the Navigation area.Scroll down to the Route options section of the screen.See the line labeled Prefer fuel-efficient routes? Tap the toggle next to it to turn it off.And if you wouldrather stick with the fuel-efficient path, theres still an option in that area youll want to adjust:Within the Navigation area of the Maps apps settings, tap the line labeled Your vehicles.Select the type of car youre actually using gas, diesel, electric, or hybrid.Thatll help Maps better select routes based on actual fuel (or energy) use for your specific vehicle type, if thats the navigation approach youd prefer.Google Maps Android trick #4: Car customizationWhy stick with the boring ol blue dot to represent your location during a Maps navigation?As of a very recent update, the Android Maps app now empowers you to pick your own custom icon to represent your vehicle as youre driving which can be both fun and practical, since it makes it a whole lot easier to spot yourself at a glance. A custom icon even carries over to a cars display via Android Auto, too, so youll see it there once you select it.Best of all? Itll take you all of 20 seconds to do.Google Maps Android trick #5: Advanced maneuversSpeaking of making your way around maps, sometimes, it isnt exactly practical or maybe even possible to use two fingers to pinch and zoom your way around an area.So remember this useful alternative: In addition to the standard pinch-to-zoom system, the Android Maps app supports a secret gesture for zooming in or out of any map view. Just double-tap anywhere on an active map screen, then keep your finger down and slide it up to zoom out or down to zoom in. You can also just double-tap without the slide to zoom in a teensy bit at a time.Beyond that, you can spin a map around to change your perspective by placing your index finger and thumb on the screen and then twisting em together to the left or right and you can shift into a funky three-dimensional flyover view of any area youre examining by placing two fingers on a map together and sliding em upward on the screen.Google Maps Android trick #6: Smarter searchingI dont know about you, but I tend to be a semi-obsessive planner. And part of that, erm, condition means a burning need to know, anticipate, and well, yknow, plan things out ahead of time.Maps has a splendid system for this sort of in-advance organization. The next time youre looking at directions to a specific spot, try this:From the directions screen within the Android Maps app the first screen you see after tapping the Directions button for any given destination tap the Start button to begin a navigation (even if you arent actually ready to roll quite yet!).Once the navigation is active, swipe upward on the bar at the bottom of the screen, where you see your current travel time.In the menu that pops up, select Search along route.You can then type any term into the box that appears to seek out a specific place along the way or look for, say, restaurants, gas stations, or any other type of business imaginable.Searching along a specific route is one of Maps most helpful hidden options.JR Raphael / IDGGoogle Maps Android trick #7: On-demand contextWhen youre looking at a specific location within the Android Maps app be it a restaurant or any other type of business you can now lean on Googles next-gen Gemini assistant to learn more about it on demand, without having to do any manual digging.Youll need to be using Gemini as your devices default assistant in order for this to work. Provided thats the case, pull up any location within Maps and then summon Gemini either by pressing and holding your physical power button or using the Hey Google launch phrase.See the new Ask about place option above its main prompt area?Gemini integrates with the Android Maps app to offer on-demand info when summoned.JR Raphael, FoundryTap that and then, you can simply ask anything you want to know about the place present on your screen. And Gemini will serve up answers.You can ask all sorts of questions about locations and get instant info from Googles Gemini assistant.JR Raphael, FoundryGoogle Maps Android trick #8: Helpful hailingThe next time you need a lift somewhere be it via the actual Lyft service, Uber, or some other ridesharing provider save yourself some steps and order your ride directly from the familiar Maps interface.Start by searching for a specific place and then tapping the Directions button, as if you were gonna make the trek on your own. Then, look for the icon with a person waving her hand in the air like she just dont care (or, erm, like shes hailing a cab). Your friendly waver should show up within the directions panel at the bottom of the screen, to the right of the biking guy. If you dont see her right away, swipe horizontally along that line to reveal her.The Android Maps app integrates with ridesharing services like Lyft and Uber, provided you have the associated apps installed.JR Raphael, FoundryThatll show you current prices and wait times for both Lyft and Uber, right then and there, and allow you to hop directly into the ride-ordering process within either app assuming you have them installed. (If you arent seeing any of this, incidentally, you probably need to install a compatible rideshare app first so Maps will detect it and start showing the associated info.)Google Maps Android trick #9: Location curationOne of the Android Maps apps most underappreciated features is its ability to let you create collections of places and then revisit em or share em with other human person-people later. Its like a super-specific sort of bookmarking service thats all about locations and connected directly to your favorite navigation companion.And its super-practical, too, whether youre looking to get organized ahead of a Very Important Business Trip or even just to plan around a drive to a different part of town for some manner of work-related meeting.To take advantage of the system, tap the You tab at the bottom of the Maps app, then look for the section labeled Your lists. Tap the New list command within that area of the screen, and you can then give your fancy new list a name and a description and decide whether you want it to be private, shared only with specific people, or public for anyone to find.Location lists are a lovely way to save related places for future reference for yourself or for a group.JR Raphael / IDGWith shared lists, you can even opt to let other people edit and add their own items into the mix an easy way to collaborate with colleagues, cousins, or chinchillas on a list of lustworthy lunch spots or business supply stop-bys.Google Maps Android trick #10: Spot savingRemember way back in the early days of Android when one of the most popular apps was a simple little tool called Car Locator? No? Well, I do but then again, Ive been writing about Android for approximately 973 years now. (Related: I may or may not be a wise, if somewhat shriveled, tortoise elder.)These days, that app is long gone but little-known fact: Maps itself can do exactly what it used to do and save any location you want, then help you mosey back to it later.The next time your noggin needs a memory aide, just open up Maps and tap the blue dot that represents your current location. Thatll pull up a big honkin menu, within which youll see the incredibly useful Save parking option inside a horizontally scrolling bar of buttons toward the top of the panel. (And dont let yourself be fooled: While its official purpose may revolve around parking, you can just as easily use the feature to save any kind of location for any reason you want.)Tap that option, and thats it: Your current location will be burned into Maps memory. If you want to add extra info to help your own mushy mammal brain later, swipe up on the bar that says Parking location at the bottom of the screen. You can then enter notes about your saved location (what level you parked on, how many oatmeal-serving establishments were in the vicinity, and so on), attach photos (you making silly faces in front of various passersby, etc), and create an alert to remind you about the location after a certain amount of time has elapsed.Saving your location may be the best way you put Maps to use, ever.JR Raphael / IDGWhen youre ready to get back to your car or whatever sort of spot youve saved all youve gotta do is tap that same Parking location bar at the bottom of the Maps app or look for the Parking location notification from anywhere in your phone.Google Maps Android trick #11: Shared perspectiveNext up: Help someone find you or maybe just give em an update on your whereabouts and progress by tapping the blue location dot within the main Maps screen and then selecting Share location from the menu that comes up.Thatll let you send anyone a link to follow your location in real-time on a map for a specific amount of time or until you turn the feature off. You can beam the link directly into another app or service on your phone to get it wherever you need. You can also even ask Maps to give you helpful notifications about someones whereabouts once theyve opted into location sharing with you, if you want.(And yes, this is the same underlying location sharing system now also available within Googles Find My Device app as well as the Google Contacts app for Android.)Alternatively, if youre in the midst of a navigation, swipe up on the time estimate panel at the bottom of the Maps navigation screen. There, youll find a handy hidden Share trip progress option thatll do exactly what you desire.Google Maps Android trick #12: Traffic trackingDid you know Maps can show you live, real-time traffic info as youre navigating with your phone? All youve gotta do is tell it you want that info a feat thatll require approximately seven seconds of your time.The next time youre in the midst of a navigation within the Maps app on your phoneSwipe up on that time estimate panel at the bottom of the screen.Flip the toggle next to Show traffic on map.Perform a spritely little jig to celebrate whilst whistling the tune of Tom Cochranes timeless 1991 hit song Life Is a Highway. ** Jig and whistling optional but highly recommendedGoogle Maps Android trick #13: Private perusingOn your way to a secret lair? Well, look at you, Bruce Wayne. Pin this bit of info to your amygdala: If you tap your profile picture in the Maps app and then select Turn on Incognito mode, Maps will temporarily stop saving your location and using it for any future purposes. And no one not even Google will know where you are.Not to worry: Your secrets safe with me.Google Maps Android trick #14: Hands-free helpingLast but not least, youd be forgiven for forgetting or maybe not ever knowing but Maps has its own custom set of voice commands that work whenever youre in the midst of a navigation. All youve gotta do is say Hey Google or activate your assistant in whatever manner you prefer, and then shout out the command in question.So buckle up here are some of the more intriguing possibilities:Hows traffic ahead?Hows traffic home?Show the route overview.Show an alternate route.Whats my ETA?What road is this?Whats my next turn?Navigate home.Avoid tolls.Avoid highways.Find a gas station.Take me to Best Buy.Find a restaurant.Find me somewhere that serves oatmeal, gosh darn it.That last one may or may not work, but hey its always worth a shot.Go beyond Maps and get even more Android shortcut knowledge with my free Android Shortcut Supercourse. Youll learn tons of time-saving tricks for your phone!

Windows is full of useful features, and new elements are constantly coming into the mix. To be sure, Microsofts given us plenty of features that arent particularly useful. Some things even blink into existence for a short while before vanishing completely. (Remember Paint 3D, or when Cortana was the Copilot of its day?)But dont let that give you the wrong impression. Microsoft has added all sorts of awesome options into Windows in recent months, and many likely arent yet on your radar.Here are the ones you should be using and, statistically speaking, probably arent.Want more Windows PC tips? Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter. Ill send you free copies of Paul Thurrotts Windows Field Guides (a $10 value) as a special welcome bonus!Windows feature #1: Security code magicMany websites and online services send you a security code via SMS when you log in. You dont have to pick up your phone to find it, though theres a better way.Assuming youve set up Phone Link and given it access to your text messages and notifications, you can do it all in a few clicks. Simply click the code in the notification on your screen and then paste it into whatever website you need. Its incredibly convenient and fast.Just note that this only works if you have an Android phone. It wont work with iPhones. Apple doesnt give Microsoft a way to integrate with iPhones at such a deep level. For iPhone users, this kind of magic will require a Mac.The Phone Link messaging notification offers up a one-click-copy button when a code is involved.Chris Hoffman, FoundryWindows feature #2: Voice typingYou can easily type with your voice within any Windows text field using Windows Dictation. To get started, just press Windows+H.The Windows Dictation program will pop up, and you can then use Windows+H to toggle dictation on and off whenever you want to speak into your computers microphone.Its incredibly easy and doesnt require any complicated setup.Windows feature #3: Virtual desktop shortcutsYouve probably seen the Task View button pinned to every Windows PCs taskbar out of the box. That button can help you manage multiple desktops but theres something about clicking it multiple times that makes things clunky.To use virtual desktops properly, you need keyboard shortcuts. Try pressing Windows+Ctrl+Left arrow and Windows+Ctrl+Right arrow to quickly move between desktops. This is the key to properly integrating multiple desktops into your workflow in a clean-and-quick way.Windows feature #4: Smarter snippingWindows 11s Snipping Tool is particularly powerful. It now has built-in optical character recognition, too, so you can use it to convert words in any application into copy-pasteable text.To do so:Press Print Screen or Windows+Shift+S. Take a screenshot of your entire screen, a window, or perhaps just part of your screen.Click the image thumbnail when it appears in the notification.Click the Text actions button on the bar it may appear at the top or bottom of the window, depending on your windows size.You can now select any text you like or click the Copy All Text button. Easy.Windows 11s Snipping Tool also lets you record a video of your screen thats another useful feature many people may not know about.The Windows 11 Snipping Tool Text actions button looks a bit like text on a page.Chris Hoffman, Foundry(Windows 10 has an older version of the Snipping Tool, and these features arent available in it.)Windows feature #5: Clipboard historyWindows can keep a history of things you copy to your clipboard both text and images. To give it a try, and turn it on if it isnt already, just press Windows+V.The system is pretty self-explanatory, but you can also pin things youve copied to your clipboard history to make them easily accessible in the future.Dont miss the emoji picker, either. Its somewhat integrated with the clipboard history, but you can press the Windows key and either the period or semicolon key to open a pop-up emoji menu directly.From there, just type to search for an emoji. Lets say you want to insert a ghost emoji, just press the Windows key and the period key and then start typing ghost.Windows feature #6: File Explorer tab togglingWith the release of Windows 11, File Explorer gained tabs. But Ive seen a lot of people who dont use them very often.Heres a way to make it easier: You can middle-click a folder in File Explorer to open it in a new tab. Then, you can click that tab or use Ctrl+Tab to switch to it.Want even more tricks for File Explorer tabs? No problem. (That middle-click-to-open-a-new-tab trick works in web browsers, too!)Windows 10s File Explorer still doesnt have tabs, notably unless you turn to third-party software.Windows feature #7: Nearby sharingWindows has a built-in Nearby sharing feature that lets you wirelessly transfer files between Windows PCs. Its kind of like Apples AirDrop but just for Windows computers.To find it, head to Settings > System > Nearby sharing. Then, whenever you select a file in File Explorer and activate Share on the toolbar or in the context menu, youll have the option to send files to nearby PCs.This only works between Windows PCs. If you want to transfer files wirelessly between Android phones, too, you can install Googles Quick Share app. (Unfortunately, theres no good way to use AirDrop with an iPhone from a Windows PC.)Windows feature #8: Advanced pastingMicrosofts free PowerToys package is full of useful tools you should be using. One especially unappreciated one is PowerToys Advanced Paste. After installing PowerToys, you can copy text and then press Windows+Shift+V to open the PowerToys Advanced Paste window.One of the options youll find is Paste as Markdown. Markdown is a formatting language that many modern applications use. This makes it a great bridge you can copy formatted text in Microsoft Word and then use PowerToys Advanced Paste to paste it into an application that supports Markdown formatting, keeping all that Word formatting. Its a great trick.PowerToys lets you paste as plain text, even in apps that dont support it.Chris Hoffman, FoundryWindows feature #9: Snappier snappingWindows lets you snap windows to different areas of your screen by pressing the Windows key along with an arrow key. Thats an old keyboard shortcut many people know, but theres something new you mightve missed.On Windows 11, things get a little more interesting with Snap Assist. You can now press Windows+Z to see a menu of various window positions you can snap the current window to complete with suggested windows to snap alongside. Then, you can press one of the arrow keys displayed on the Snap Assist popup to choose how you want to snap the window.Try it its powerful.Windows feature #10: Automatic cleanupAssuming you dont use your Recycle Bin for long-term file storage, you may want to have Windows automatically clean it. Windows can get rid of old files for you for example, you could have it automatically clear files 30 days after you send them to the Recycle Bin.Its all part of Windows Storage Sense feature. Heres how to set it up.Hey Ill stay on top of the latest Windows features for you and bring you only what really matters. Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter today to get three new things to try in your inbox every Friday and a free in-depth Windows Field Guide gift.

A major European cloud provider organization has committed additional funding to drive a push towards what it calls sovereign, Trump-proof cloud services.Many cloud customers, including European public administrations, are concerned that foreign governments have too much power to demand data, impose tariffs and restrict services on the cloud infrastructures they use, said the statement from CISPE (Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe). Customers need options to select Trump-Proof cloud services that rely on 100% European cloud infrastructure and services and are immune from disruption, access, and potential removal by foreign actors.Ben Maynard, CISPEs director of communications, said the goal of the groups financial commitment of 1 million (about $1.1 million) for open-source software development is to accelerate the Fulcrum Project, an open-source digital exchange enabling European service providers to federate distributed cloud services to match the scale, reach, and capabilities of hyperscale cloud providers. It is not necessarily to encourage all European enterprises to abandon their US hyperscaler relationships, but is more geared, he said, to SMBs and smaller enterprises who want more local options.

Download the April 2025 issue of the Enterprise Spotlight from the editors of CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World.

If you are among therapidly-growingnumber of Mac users in the enterprise, you should know that Apples newly-released macOS Sequoia 15.4 is festooned with security updates, brings support for Apple Intelligence across most major languages (including to Europe), and introduces new AI tools for the app you most likely use every day, Mail.Those new tools already available on iPhones in iOS mean your Mac will try to highlight what it believes are the most important messages you receive, which could help you stay on top of your flow. There are some limitations the biggest of which is that you cant create your own Mail message categories.What are categories?We looked at Apples AI-boosted email categorization system for iPhones when it wasfirst made available. It tries to sort your incoming communications within the following categories:All Mail:All your Mail as it is received.Primary:All the messages Apple Intelligence thinks might be important to you.Transactions:Invoices, shopping receipts, banking messages.Updates:Subscriptions and stuff that you probably ignore.Promotions:All the mail you also probably ignore.Note: Mail puts time-sensitive emails in your Primary account.How to navigate categoriesClick on the currently selected category and you can access the All Mail category, or tap on that to select another.How to turn categorization offTo disable categorization on your Mac, tap the three-dot icon just above your in-box. You will then be able to choose to show your email by category, return to the familiar Mail in-box view in chronological order or find out more about what categorization is doing on your Mac.How to improve categorizationThe system isnt perfect. To change the category, command click on the email in the inbox to invoke a contextual menu within which you can select the Categorize Sender item. Use this to assign all emails from that sender to a more appropriate category.Can you create your own categories?As noted, you cant yet create your own custom categories; the best you can do is create Smart Mailboxes for specific contacts or topics. Perhaps this will change one day, but it hasnt changed yet.Now available internationallyThe new tools arent just for English emails. Apple Intelligence is also now available in 10 new languages and English language variants. Importantly, these include many of the worlds most widely used languages, including Chinese, Spanish, French and Portuguese, with localized English for India and Singapore, German, Japanese, and Korean.What else is new?Mail now also offers a Digest View in which you can look at all the messages you have received from a sender withing a single thread. If you choose to use it, you can also see relevant Contact photos in the inbox, just as you already do in Apples Messages app.Additional improvements, tweaks, and features in macOS 15.4 exist, but for me, the best enhancement is one you have to pay for: Apple News+ subscribers gain an Apple News Food section aggregating recipes, articles about food, and other information you can use to get more creative in your kitchen. (Its hard to avoid seeing this as an app designed for the tabletop iPad Apple is meant to be developing.) Other casual tweaks include a new Sketch style in Image Playground, Memory Movie support for custom slideshows in Photos, and new emojis.Significant security updatesThis particular macOS update comes with well in excess of 50 security updates addressing vulnerabilities across the system, from WebKit to Safari and beyond. Many of these vulnerabilities concern attacks designed to access sensitive user data or attacks designed to execute arbitrary code (to mess up your Mac or steal your digital stash). The number of security patches in this release alone should be good reason to install the new update.Growing painsIf you use driver extensions for some reason, such as for third-party accessories, you might experience issues when you upgrade. If you do, try this approach: Open System Settings>General>Login Items & Extensions and disable your affected driver extensions. Restart your Mac. After restarting, return to that section to re-enable the drivers.You can follow me on social media! Join me onBlueSky, LinkedIn, andMastodon.

A wave of new AI products is hitting the market, signaling a shift toward more autonomous, task-completing systems that could reshape how businesses and consumers interact with digital services.Amazon has unveiled Nova Act, an AI agent designed to operate a web browser much like a human user. In parallel, OpenAI said it will release an open-weight language model.Meanwhile, Chinas Zhipu AI introduced a free AI assistant aimed at strengthening its position in the domestic market and competing with Western tech giants.The announcements reflect a growing competitive push among US and Chinese firms to define the next generation of AI capabilities, with a particular focus on agentic AI -systems that can plan, reason, and take action on behalf of users.These tools are expected to become central across industries, including productivity applications, customer service platforms, and e-commerce systems.AI agent race heats upAgentic AI systems that can autonomously perform tasks has captured the imagination of the tech industry, but experts caution that the technology is still maturing before it can be widely deployed in high-stakes enterprise environments.The launch of Amazon Nova Act seems to be an interesting one for use cases that are public facing which dont have too much of risk associated with it (even if operations go slightly wrong), said Sharath Srinivasamurthy,associate vice president of Research at IDC. The potential for enterprise use cases for Agentic AI is huge but needs some time to evolve as every enterprise is different, workflows are different, and risks associated with operations going wrong are high.While Amazons Nova is designed to tackle relatively low-risk browser-based tasks, OpenAIs move toward releasing an open-weight model could have more immediate implications for enterprise adoption strategies.An open-weight language model provides public access to its trained parameters, enabling developers to adapt the model for custom applications without needing the original data used during training.In contrast, open-source models go a step further by releasing the underlying code, datasets, and training processes.The world is moving towards open models as enterprises prefer to have more control over what they are using, Srinivasamurthy said. With Meta and DeepSeek gaining traction due to their open nature and democratization of AI. A shift towards open models was a matter of time for a pioneer like OpenAI. This move will make the market even more competitive.As companies reassess their AI strategies, the tension between control, performance, and innovation is expected to shape how and when agentic AI tools are adopted at scale.Reshaping enterprise strategyThe new launches underscore the shift in how AI is poised to integrate into the enterprise technology stack. Analysts say these developments could accelerate adoption while also forcing businesses to rethink control, customization, and competitive strategy.The recent developments from OpenAI, Amazon, and Zhipu AI signal a transformative period in the AI industry, said Abhivyakti Sengar, practice director at Everest Group. Amazons Nova Act has the potential to redefine enterprise workflows by embedding AI directly into browser environments, streamlining tasks across various sectors.Beyond automation, OpenAIs decision to offer an open-weight model could mark a turning point in how organizations approach AI deployment, particularly in regulated industries or complex internal environments.Zhipu AIs emergence as a serious player from China introduces new geopolitical considerations for global companies operating in or partnering with firms in the region.OpenAIs release of an open-weight model democratizes AI development, offering enterprises enhanced customization capabilities while also posing new security considerations, Sengar added. Meanwhile, the ascent of Zhipu AI highlights Chinas escalating role in AI innovation, urging multinational firms to thoughtfully assess partnerships and competitive strategies in this evolving landscape. Together, these shifts signal not only the rapid evolution of agentic AI, but also the growing need for enterprises to evaluate AI readiness, governance, and the strategic value of openness in a highly competitive global market.

Generative AIs newest super stars independent-acting agents are on a tear. Organizations are adopting the technology at a staggering rate because they can use APIs or be embedded with standard apps and automate all kinds of business processes.An IDC report predicts that within three years, 40% of Global 2000 businesses will be using AI agents and workflows to automate knowledge work, potentially doubling productivity where successfully implemented.Gartner Research is similarly bullish on the technology. It predicts AI agents will be implemented in 60% of all IT operations tools by 2028, sharply up from less than 5% at the end of 2024. And it expects total agentic AI sales to reach $609 billion over the next five years, Gartner sai.Agentic AI is gaining popularity so quickly because it can autonomously make decisions, take actions, and adapt to achieve specific business goals. AI agents like OpenAIs Operator, Deepseek, and Alibabas Qwen aim to optimize workflows with minimal human oversight.Essentially, AI agents or bots are becoming a form of digital employee. And, like human employees, they can be gamed and scammed.For instance, there have been reports of AI-driven bots in customer service being tricked into transferring funds or sharing sensitive data due to social engineering tactics. Similarly, AI agents handling financial transactions or investments could be vulnerable to hacking if not properly secured.In November, a cryptocurrency user tricked an AI agent named Freysa to send $50,000 to their account. The autonomous AI agent had been integrated with the Base blockchain, designed to manage a cryptocurrency prize pool.To date, large-scale malicious abuse of autonomous agents remains limited, but its a nascent technology. Experimental instances show potential for misuse through prompt injection attacks, disinformation, and automated scams, according to Leslie Joseph, a principal analyst with Forrester Research.Avivah Litan, a vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner Research, said AI Agent mishaps, are still relatively new to the enterprise. [But] I have heard of plenty potential mishaps discovered by researchers and vendors.And AI agents can be weaponized for cybercrime.Gartner ResearchThere will be a great AI awakening people learning how easily AI agents can be manipulated to enact data breaches, said Ev Kontsevoy, CEO of Teleport, an identity and access management firm. I think what makes AI agents so unique, and potentially dangerous, is that they represent the first example of software that is vulnerable to both malware and social engineering attacks. Thats because theyre not as deterministic as a typical piece of software.Unlike alarge language model(LLM) or genAI tools, which usually focus on creating content such as text, images, and music,agentic AIis designed to emphasize proactive problem-solving and complex task execution, much as a human would. The key word is agency software that can act on its own.Like humans, AI agents can be unpredictable and easily manipulated by creative prompts. That makes them too dangerous to be given unrestricted access to data sources, Kontsevoy said.Unlike human roles, which have defined permissions, similar constraints havent been applied to software. But with AI capable of unpredictable behavior, IT shops are finding they need to impose limits. Leaving AI agents with excessive privileges is risky, as they could be tricked into dangerous actions, such as stealing customer data something traditional software couldnt do.Organizations, Kontsevoy said, must actively manage AI agent behavior and continually update protective measures. Treating the technology as fully mature too soon could expose organizations to significant operational and reputational risks.Joseph agreed, saying businesses using AI agents should prioritize transparency, enforce access controls, and audit agent behavior to detect anomalies. Secure data practices, strong governance, frequent retraining, and active threat detection can reduce risks with autonomous AI agents.Growing use cases amplify vulnerabilitiesAccording to Capgemini, 82% of organizations plan to adopt AI agents over the next three years, primarily for tasks such as email generation, coding, and data analysis. Similarly,Deloitte predict enterprises using AI agents this year will grow their use of the technology by 50% over the next two years.Benjamin Lee, a professor of engineering and computer science at the University of Pennsylvania, called agentic AI a potential paradigm shift. Thats because the agents could boost productivity by enabling humans to delegate large jobs to an agent instead of individual tasks.But by virtue of their autonomy, Joseph said, AI agents amplify vulnerabilities around unintended actions, data leakage, and exploitation through adversarial prompts. Unlike traditional AI/ML models with limited attack surfaces, agents operate dynamically, making oversight harder.Unlike static AI systems, they can independently propagate misinformation or rapidly escalate minor errors into broader systemic failures, he said. Their interconnectedness and dynamic interactions significantly raise the risk of cascade failures, where a single vulnerability or misstep triggers a domino effect across multiple systems.Some common ways AI agents can be targeted include:Data Poisoning: AI models can be manipulated by introducing false or misleading data during training. This can affect the agents decision-making process and potentially cause it to behave maliciously or incorrectly.Adversarial Attacks: These involve feeding the AI agent carefully crafted inputs designed to deceive or confuse it. In some cases, adversarial attacks can make an AI model misinterpret data, leading to harmful decisions.Social Engineering: Scammers might exploit human interaction with AI agents to trick users into revealing personal information or money. For example, if an AI agent interacts with customers, a scammer could manipulate it to act in ways that defraud users.Security Vulnerabilities: If AI agents are connected to larger systems or the internet, they can be hacked through security flaws, enabling malicious actors to gain control over them. This can be particularly concerning in areas like financial services, autonomous vehicles, or personal assistants.Conversely, if the agents are well-designed and governed, their very AIs autonomy could be used to enable adaptive security, allowing them to identify and respond to threats.Gartners Litan pointed to emerging solutions, called guardian agents autonomous system that can oversee agents across domains. They ensure secure, trustworthy AI by monitoring, analyzing, and managing agent actions, including blocking or redirecting them to meet predefined goals.An AI Guardian Agent governs AI applications, enforcing policies, detecting anomalies, managing risks, and ensuring compliance within an organizations IT infrastructure, according to business consultancy EA Principles.While Guardian Agents are emerging as one method of keeping agentic AI in line, AI agents still need strong oversight, guardrails, and ongoing monitoring to reduce risks, according to Forresters Joseph.Its very important to remember that we are still very much in the Wild West era of agentic AI, Joseph said. Agents are far from fully baked, demanding significant maturation before organizations can safely adopt a hands-off approach.

Although many C-suite and line-of-business (LOB) execs are doing everything they can to focus on generative AI (genAI) efficiency and flexibility andnotabout how often the technology delivers wrong answers IT decision-makers cant afford to do the same thing.This isnt just about hallucinations, although the increasing rate at which these kinds of errors crop up is terrifying. This lack of reliability is primarily caused by elements from one of four buckets:Hallucinations, where genAItools simply make up answers;Bad training data, whether that means data thats insufficient, outdated, biased or of low-quality;Ignored query instructions, which is often a manifestation of biases in the training data;Disregarded guardrails, (For a multi-billion-dollar licensing fee, one would think the model would at leasttryto do what it is told to do.)Try and envision how your management team would react to a human employee who pulled these kinds of stunts. Heres the scenario: the boss in his or her office with the problematic employee and that employees supervisor.Exec: You have been doing excellent work lately. You are far faster than your colleagues and the number of tasks you have figured out how to master is truly amazing. But 20 times over the last month, we found claims in your report that you simply made up. That is just not acceptable. If you promise to never do that again, everything should be fine.Supervisor: Actually, boss, this employee has certain quirks and he is definitely going to continue to make stuff up. So, yes, this will not go away. Heck, I cant even promise that this worker wont make up stuff far more often.Exec: OK. Well overlook that. But my understanding is that he ignored your instructions repeatedly and did only what he wanted. Can we at least get him to stop doing that?Supervisor: Nope. Thats just what he does. We knew that when we hired him.Exec: Very well. But on three occasions this month, he was found in the restricted part of the building where workers need Top Secret clearance. Can you at least get him to abide by our rules?Supervisor: Nope. And given that his licensing fee was $5.8 billion this year, weve invested too much to turn back.Exec: Fair enough. Carry on.And yet, that is precisely what so many enterprises are doing today, which is why a March report from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is so important.The NASA reportfound that genAI could not be relied on for critical research.The point of conducting the assessment was to filter out systems that create unacceptable risk. Just as we would not release a system with the potential to kill into service without performing appropriate safety analysis and safety engineering activities, we should not adopt technology into the regulatory pipeline without acceptable reasons to believe that it is fit for use in the critical activities of safety engineering and certification, the NASA report said. There is reason to doubt LLMs as a technology for writing or reviewing assurance arguments. LLMs are machines that BS, not machines that think, and thinking is precisely the task that must be automated if the technology is to improve safety or lower cost.In a wonderful display of scientific logic, the report wondered in a section that should become required reading for CIOs on down the IT food chain what genAI models could be truly used for.Its worth mentioning the obvious potential alternative to using empirical research to establish the fitness for use of a proposed LLM-based automation before use, namely putting it into practice and seeing what happens. Thats certainly been done before, especially in the early history of industries such as aviation, NASA researchers wrote.But it is worth asking two questions here: (1) How can this be justified when there are existing practices we are more familiar with? and (2) How would we know whether it was working out? The first question might turn largely on the specifics of a proposed application and the tolerability of the potential harm that failure of the argument-based processes themselves might lead to: if one can find circumstances where failure is an option, there is more opportunity to use something unproven.The report then points out the logical contradiction in this kind of experimentation: But that leaves the second question and raises a wrinkle: ongoing monitoring of less-critical systems is often also less rigorous than for more critical systems. Thus, the very applications in which it is most possible to take chances are those that produce the least reliable feedback about how well novel processes might have worked.It also pointed out the flaw in assuming this kind of model would know when circumstances would make a decision a bad idea. Indeed, it is in corner cases that we might expect the BS to be most likely erroneous or misleading. Because the LLM does not reason from principles, it has no capacity for looking at a case and recognizing features that might make the usual reasoning inapplicable. Training data comprised of ISO 26262-style automotive safety arguments wouldnt prepare an LLM to recognize, as a human would, that a submersible Lotus is a very different kind of vehicle than a typical sedan or light utility vehicle, and thus that typical reasoning e.g., about the appropriateness of industry-standard water intrusion protection ratings might be inapplicable.These same logical questions should apply to every enterprise. If the mission-critical nature of sensitive work would preclude genAI use and if the low monitoring involved in the typical low-risk work makes it an unfit environment for experimenting whereshouldit be used?Gartner analyst Lauren Kornutick agreed these can be difficult decisions, but CIOs must take the reins and act as the voice of reason.Enterprise technology projects in general can fail when the business is misaligned on expectations versus reality, so someone needs to be a voice of reason in the room. (The CIO) needs to be helping drive solutions and not just running to the next shiny thing. And those are some very challenging conversations to have, Kornutick said.These are things that need to go to the executive committee to decide the best path forward, she said. Are we going to assume this risk? Whats the trade-off? What does this risk look like against the potential ROI? They should be working with the other leaders to align on what their risk tolerance is as a leadership team and then bring that to the board of directors.Rowan Curran, senior analyst at Forrester, suggested a more tactical approach. He suggests IT decision-makers insist they be far more involved in the beginning, when each business unit discusses where and how they will use genAI technology.You need to be very particular about the new use case they are going for, Curran said. Push governance much further to the left, so when they are developing the use case in the first place, you are helping them determine the risk and setting data governance controls.Curran also suggested that teams should take genAI data as a starting point and nothing more. Do not rely on it for the exact answer.Trust genAI too much, in other words, and you might be living April Fools Day every day of the year.

Sales of foldable mobile phones are expected to fall by 4% this year compared to 2024, according to a new forecast by research firm Counterpoint.If the forecast comes true, it would be the biggest decline to date for the category. But those numbers could rise again as soon as 2026; Apple is rumored to be planning to release a foldable version of the iPhone then. That would likely give the entire segment a big boost.Samsung remains the leader in foldable mobile phones, but Huawei, Honor, Motorola and Xiaomi have closed the gap with Samsung significantly over the past year.

Chinese companies are trying to cut Taiwans lead in semiconductor technology by hiring away its best engineering talent through front companies that hide their connections to China, the Taiwanese Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) has alleged.In a dramatic crackdown on the practice last week, MJIB said its agents raided 11 Chinese companies in 34 locations, questioning 90 individuals in connection with what it described as an illegal poaching campaign.According to an MJIB statement, several Chinese companies had set up companies that looked as if they were Taiwanese, foreign-owned, or overseas Chinese, using tactics designed to hide their connections to the mainland.The statement provided three examples, the most prominent of which was Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), Chinas largest chip maker, which is partially owned by the Chinese state. The company had started recruiting staff via a front company set up in Taiwan as a subsidiary of a separate entity apparently based in the island of Samoa, the MJIB claimed.Meanwhile, Chinese networking chip company Cloudnix, had aggressively recruited talent from major global firms such as Intel and Microsoft since its establishment in 2020, the MJIB said. The company had set out to hide its Chinese control by registering itself in Taiwan, and later, to avoid deeper scrutiny, as being owned by an entity based in Singapore.A third, Shenzhen Torey Microelectronics Technology, had tried to hire Taiwanese from inside the country while keeping its presence on the island a secret.Disguising themselves in this way allowed Chinese companies to evade sanctions against the country as part of their attempts to undermine Taiwans lead in semiconductors:Taiwans high-tech industry is the backbone of our economy, with semiconductor companies and related industries serving as the countrys National Protective Shield. Consequently, Taiwans high-tech talent has become a key target for recruitment by Chinese enterprises, said the MJIB.Existential threatStealing its chip engineers and their knowhow is, to the Taiwanese, perhaps akin to the Soviets secretly trying to hire members of the US Apollo rocket program during the 1960s space race. Anything that threatens its prowess in this area is viewed as an existential threat to a small island trying to remain independent,.So far, Taiwans Ministry of Justice hasnt provided any evidence that the incidents are part of a wider and more organized campaign against the countrys chip sector. It could just as easily be the way many organizations behave when they believe they are behind in an area of strategic importance: they try to hire the oppositions talent.Normally, staff are targeted in more direct and malicious ways, for example by using fake recruiters to trick people into downloading malware as the North Korean hackers are believed to have done earlier this year.Another alternative tactic is that of workers trying to get themselves hired by western companies to conduct insider attacks on behalf of North Korea. Spotting these attacks can be incredibly difficult. Often the candidates look like any other aspiring tech worker in an industry where skills shortages cause some organizations to lower their guard.Further afield, cases have emerged of insiders allegedly hired to steal secrets directly from their employers, such as Google, on behalf of China.Unusually, the Taiwanese warning turns this idea on its head: its not so much who you are hiring that is the threat, its who is hiring you.

Microsoft is adding new data agents to Fabric, its cloud-based offering combining data warehousing, data science, data engineering, and data analytics services.Its goal is to help business users find insights in enterprise data without the help of a business analyst.Most enterprises either dont have business analysts or their analysts are too busy to deal with all the demands for their services, said Arun Ulag, corporate vice president of Azure Data at Microsoft.Thats why self-service analytics tools like those Microsoft is adding to Fabric are necessary, he said.The new data agents will be available across all Fabric services, including Synapse and PowerBI. They can be created from within any service and configured by providing them with access to the data the user wants to analyze.The agents can access data held in Fabrics OneLake storage, or data elsewhere using over 200 connectors, Ulag said.Natural-language interactionTriggered by natural-language queries, the agents can complete tasks such as retrieving data, reasoning, and creating data visualizations. Ulag said the agents should be able to deal with prompts such as, Can you analyze all my customer survey questions, comments, focus on all the negative comments, categorize them into the top five buckets and give me examples?That kind of natural-language interaction is key, said Arnal Dayaratna, research vice president at IDC.The innovation here is that these data agents can provide conversational assistance to any enterprise knowledge worker that is interested in performing data-driven analytics, he said. This enables a radical democratization of the capability not only of data analysis, but also the skill of explaining the significance of data-centric insights.While such agents could be relevant for any enterprises, Forrester principal analyst Noel Yuhana sees them delivering the most significant value to large enterprises grappling with complex, multi-platform data environments.Nucleus Researchs Duncan Van Kouteren further narrowed down the list of likely adopters to enterprises with existing Microsoft ecosystem investments, noting that the company is following an industry trend of targeting such agents at business analysts and decision-makers with less technical expertise.Other comparable offerings include Salesforces Einstein Copilot, Google Clouds agents built via Vertex AI Agent Builder, IBMs Watsonx Assistant, agents inside Snowflake Cortex, and a combination of OpenAI GPTs, custom tools and RAG pipelines.Data agents can be customized via Copilot StudioThe data agents built inside Fabric automatically show up inside Microsofts Copilot Studio and can be used as base templates to build more customizable agents that can complete more tasks without manual intervention, Ulag said.The agents interactive nature means They can correspond with your business users; They can update systems as well among other things, Ulag said.Van Kouteren foresees that the Copilot Studio integration could enable domain-specific agent customization.Dion Hinchcliffe, lead of the CIO practice at The Futurum Group, sees applications for agents customized in Copilot Studio across supply chain, finance, and HR operations.In supply chain operations, a custom Copilot could proactively monitor logistics data in OneLake and trigger alerts if shipping delays are likely. In Finance operations, enterprises could automate forecasting conversations with an agent grounded in real-time data and ask questions of it like, What will Q3 expenses look like if hiring increases by 10%?Data agents are currently in public preview. Part of the Fabric subscription, they will use up Fabric credits when interacted with.Risk of lock-inHinchcliffe said the data agents follow the classic land and expand strategy for Microsoft.In the short-term, these agents will drive higher Fabric and Azure AI consumption (and value delivery), bundling value into existing E5 or Fabric SKUs to accelerate usage, Hinchcliffe said.In the mid-term, Microsoft will look to monetize high-value, vertical-specific copilots via Copilot Studio customizations and the Azure AI Agent Service, he added.In the longer run, he sees Microsoft trying to position Fabric as the control plane for enterprise data agents, making it indispensable to enterprise AI orchestration.This will support higher Azure usage, seat-based Copilot licensing, and enterprise lock-in, he said.

Apple and SpaceX may be on a satellite communications collision course with Elon Musks firmattempting to block Apple fromexpanding satellite messaging for iPhones unless it does so with Starlink rather than other satellite communications partners. Its a big issue that raises concerns that go far beyond smartphones and extend into the futures of multiple industries.Whats happening is that in order to deliver on Apples need foradditional satellite bandwidthto support future messaging on iPhones, Apple partnerGlobalstar recently applied to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to acquire permission to use more radio frequencies.Musks company wasnt happy about this and asked the FCC to reject the application to stall Apples attempt to expand its own satellite services. The new FCC chair is Musks close ally, Brendan Carr, who has historicallyattacked the FCCfor failing to give SpaceX what it wants. He replaced former Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, whoadvocated competitionin the space, erm, space.Given Musks well-publicizedproximity to the US President and his influential position with the FCC, this presents a challenging situation for Apple, which is also in talks with SpaceX to use its service to support its iPhone via satellite efforts.Outer space iscomplicatedWith support all the way to the top, Apples biggest hope is that the administration sees that ensuring meaningful competition in the new race for space is precisely whats required, given the need to optimize development and deployment of these technologies fornational security. Even within that, the fact remains that there is only so much available spectrum with which to support satellite communications, and competition between the globes satellite and networking operators to seize control of those frequencies is fierce.At the same time, the attempt to stop Apples partner from getting any will not prevent every competitor from getting some, and it seems likely that at least some of Apples billions will go into SpaceX competitors, such as Echostar and Boeing. Apples billion-dollar-plus investments in Globalstar show the extent to which the company is reluctant to leave itself in thrall to one supplier, which is what it would be if it does not support competition in the sector.With good reason. After all, just prior to Apples first introduction of SOS Messages via Satellite, SpaceX announced a deal with T-Mobile that gave similar support to smartphones on that network. This was widely seen as an attempt to throw a spanner in the success of Apples announcement. Since that time, SpaceX and T-Mobile have sought Apples permission to offer support for Starlink on iPhones, and following what The Wall Street Journal describes as tense talks eventually agreed to let the forthcoming SpaceX/T-Mobile satellite cellphone servicework seamlessly on new iPhones.A future at stakeThis isnt just about cellphones. Its also about future networking standards. For example, Apple is on theATIS board, which is a standards body designing thenext generation of networking tech, 6G, which is likely to include satellite-based communicationswithin the standard itself.Apple is also part of theNext G Alliance, an industry group tasked with establishing, North American pre-eminence in the 5G evolutionary path and 6G development.All of this may have a future bearing on the amalgamation of satellite within future telecoms. 6G isnt expected to be ratified until 2030, butApples positionsonrelevant standards-setting boards speak to theimportance of those standards.Connectivity is, after all, the special glue that binds devices and systems, and the future of multiple sectors relies on reaching acceptable deals for the foundational standards to support such connectivity. Making devices that talk to each other is relevant to so much, from space exploration to military and national security to the future of telecommunications, computing, and the consumer electronics industry.With so much at stake, its essential that balanced decisions are reached today as they are likely to have a big impact later and one decision that makes sense, at least according to most free market theory, is to ensure the healthy existence of multiple service providers for strategically important services such as satellite communications. And one way to achieve that is to ensure the available bandwidth is equitably shared.Thats not to say it isnt, nor is it to say that this is the essence of the Globalstar request; its just that if a balanced decision is not reached, the consequences will likely bring long-term challenges across key industry sectors.You can follow me on social media! Join me onBlueSky, LinkedIn, andMastodon.