As per a new entry in the company’s product roadmap, Microsoft Teams users will soon benefit from an additional video call layout, called Front row.
“Front row is a new layout that enables better hybrid meetings,” explained Microsoft. “It brings remote participants to eye level with participants in [conference] rooms and adds additional data like chat to give in-room users better context of what’s happening in the meeting.”
The new layout is still under development, but should be available to all Teams users via the layout picker by the end of January.
Microsoft Teams calls
Since the start of the pandemic, vendors of video conferencing services like Teams, Zoom and Meet have fought to optimize call layout for maximum engagement and productivity.
Until now, the emphasis has been on creating new layouts that help remote workers present more effectively. In June, for example, Microsoft launched two new layouts for Teams, called Reporter and Side-by-Side. The former positions content above the presenter’s shoulder, as if they were a news anchor, and the latter displays content next to the presenter’s video feed.
On the side, there has also been a race to see who can support the largest number of video call participants on-screen at once. Currently, Teams and Zoom lead the way with massive 49-person gallery layouts.
Now, however, Microsoft appears to have turned its attention to augmenting its collaboration platform for hybrid working, whereby employees split their time between the home, office and any other location.
A major priority among businesses is to ensure meetings remain equitable when half the participants are in the room and the other half are dialling in remotely. According to Microsoft, a small change like the new Front row layout can help create “a more inclusive environment” and head off some of these potential issues.
TouchBistro Inc. is an all-in-one mobile Point of Sale (POS) and restaurant management system that helps to streamline the running of your restaurant.
It often comes up in conversations about the best POS systems for restaurants, thanks to its ease of use. Although, some online reviews suggest that it might not be quite as good as it appears at first glance.
In the rest of this TouchBistro review, we analyze every aspect of this company to help you determine if it’s a viable option for your next restaurant POS solution. We evaluate TouchBistro prices, main features, user interface and support, plus more, so you don’t have to.
TouchBistro POS system offers customizable, mobile POS solutions just for restaurants (Image credit: TouchBistro )
TouchBistro POS plans and pricing
POS software licenses start at $ 69 per month (Image credit: TouchBistro)
How much does TouchBistro cost? Good question! Expect to pay into triple figures each month to get the best from TouchBistro's restaurant management systems.
The TouchBistro website provides a small amount of pricing information, but there isn’t nearly as much transparency as we would have liked to see. According to the company’s website, POS licenses start from just $ 69 per month, which is comparable to the entry-level plans of most other companies.
This includes:
Various menu management
Table management
Analytics tools
24/7/365 customer service support
Unfortunately, though, there’s no readily available information about what higher-end plans are available or what they include.
Add-ons
There are various TouchBistro POS add-ons, shown below.
TouchBistro Inc POS pricing add-ons
Add-on
Cost
Online ordering
From $ 50/month
Reservations
From $ 229/month
Gift card support
From $ 25/month
Loyalty
From $ 99/month
Self-serve kiosk
From $ 69/month
Digital Menu Boards
From $ 20/month
Kitchen Display System
Hardware costs only
Customer Facing Display
Hardware costs only
On top of this, you can expect to pay some sort of card processing and/or transaction fees. However, these will vary according to your country/region, and the TouchBistro website provides no information about exactly what you will pay.
How does TouchBistro's POS system work?
TouchBistro POS software
Is TouchBistro POS cloud-based? Yes, partly. Although their software is hosted through an on-site server, the data in the POS application is stored in the cloud. Not only does this mean you can continue with customer sales without an internet connection, it also allows you to access company data from any browser.
The user interface itself is quite attractive and functional, if a little clunky. There are various add-on integrations available, including a kitchen display system, a self-ordering kiosk display, and a customer-facing display.
TouchBistro POS hardware
TouchBistro uses an iPad-based system that’s designed for ease of use and flexibility. Getting started is quite simple, and, in many cases, you'll be able to access professional technical assistance to ensure you’re up and running as soon as possible.
Small businesses will benefit from a streamlined single-iPad POS system, suitable when you have one terminal to take payments and manage orders. Medium-sized systems with up to five iPads can be used with a sixth iPad acting as the central terminal, for seated table transactions.
Larger systems can be custom-built with a more powerful computer as the central hub, allowing you to connect as many mobile devices as required.
TouchBistro’s POS interface is simple and easy to use (Image credit: TouchBistro)
TouchBistro POS features and services
Like most restaurant-specific POS systems, TouchBistro offers a range of features designed to help you maximize occupancy, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.
✓ TouchBistro table management tool
One of our favorite features is TouchBistro’s table management tool. Sure, this isn’t unique by design, but it does let you create a unique floor plan that mirrors your restaurant to make order management easier everyday.
✓ TouchBistro Tableside ordering and payment
TouchBistro’s tableside ordering and payment tools stand out as excellent. Each feature provides staff with everything they need to maximize order value, ensure accurate order placement, and process payments fast and flexibly.
✓ TouchBistro analytics and reporting
There’s nothing worse than being forced to make important business decisions without knowing what you should be doing. TouchBistro POS systems assist you in making informed business decisions, by providing a range of powerful reports and in-depth analytics.
✓ TouchBistro's staff management and scheduling tools
Save time and simplify the scheduling process with TouchBistro's in-built tools. Easily create new rosters with the click of a button, track employee working hours and labor costs, and communicate directly with employees if there are any concerns.
✓ Inventory management
Calculate basic stock inventory at speed and monitor beverage costs with ease, thanks to TouchBistro's user-friendly inventory management feature.
With real-time performance feedback, order accuracy improvement and communication transparency between back of house and front of house staff, TouchBistro's KDS is one not to miss. Your team can minimise human errors and optimise every order without a blink: TouchBistro's POS will do the thinking for you!
TouchBistro’s analytics tools stand out as excellent (Image credit: TouchBistro)
TouchBistro POS support and customer care
There are various self-help resources, but reports suggest that things might not be as good as they appear (Image credit: Oatawa / Shutterstock)
TouchBistro provides a a great range of support services, including multinational phone support and email service through its online contact form. They also have local offices in the United States, Canada, the UK, and Mexico, which have their own local phone numbers and contact information.
So, wherever you are, help is easy to reach anytime. And we do literally mean anytime: you can contact TouchBistro 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days of the year.
From the very start of your experience with TouchBistro you are supported. Their “one-box POS solution” is can be setup fast so you can start using your POS system straight away. If you prefer in-person help, they can also delegate an expert installation specialists to assist you remotely.
Their online self-help resources are plentiful too, and available through the Support & Training centre. There, you'll find various setup tutorials and user guides. There are even useful videos detailing specific actions.
However, online customer reports don’t paint a mixed picture of TouchBistro’s support and post-sales customer care. The company receives a commendable rating of 4.2/5 stars (from 308 reviews) on Capterra, but its customer service rating is slightly lower at 3.9/5.
A large proportion of reviews touch on poor customer care and support services, which is a major concern.
TouchBistro's POS competition
TouchBistro has the hospitality industry pretty well covered when it comes to point of sale systems. They cater for every business from the humble food truck to the fancy fine dining restaurant.
However, if you’re looking for a higher-rated restaurant POS service provider, we’d recommend checking out Upserve POS. Its software prices start from $ 59 per month, it uses a very flexible system, and its customer service is reported to be excellent.
Another great option is Square POS, which offers flexible POS services tailored to various industries. It doesn’t charge any monthly software fees, but you will be hit with 2.6% + 10c transaction fees.
Final verdict
All things considered, TouchBistro provides excellent restaurant POS solutions. Its customer service receives poor online ratings, but reports suggest that this is largely because its agents are slow and response times can be long.
At the end of the day, the company’s feature-rich software, competitive prices, and simple setup process more than outweigh these negatives. We’d recommend checking out TouchBistro if you’re looking for a powerful, customizable, data-driven POS program that’s designed specifically for restaurants.
Keeping track of your team in this new hybrid working age should soon be more straightforward thanks to a new update to Microsoft Outlook.
The email service is working on a new feature that it says will allow workers more flexibility and efficiency when working away from the office.
According to an entry in the Microsoft 365 roadmap, the update, simply entitled “working hours and location” will allow users to set a notice showing where they are working, whether that be at home, in the office, or anywhere else in particular.
Flexible working
“New working hours and location options in Outlook lets people set more flexible working hours each day and specify the location from where they plan to work,” the roadmap entry adds.
The update is scheduled for general availability for all Web Outlook users across the globe, with a targeted release date of June 2022.
The news does mean that Outlook is finally catching up to some of its rivals when it comes to having flexible working-linked tools enabled.
Google Calendar launched a similar feature in August 2021, allowing users to highlight exactly where they would be working, with the options of home, office, or a specific other location.
Users can also create a weekly working location routine if they plan on going into the office on certain days and working remotely on others, which can be updated at any time if plans change. There was no information as to whether Microsoft's Outlook update will do the same, but we're hopeful it will.
In July, Google Calendar also added an option that allows users to specify whether they would be attending a meeting in-person or virtually using video conferencing software.
Outlook has released a number of updates recently as it looks to maintain its place as a leading email service for users across the world. Most intriguingly, the company says it is working on a tool that will help users eliminate mistakes from their messages with the launch of spelling and grammar checks for its Outlook on mobile platform.
One feature that Apple showcased at WWDC this year is still yet to appear, which would make creating and distributing apps on iPad a reality.
Swift Playgrounds is Apple’s app to help users learn how to code in the company’s own programming language, called Swift. While developers can code in a language called Objective C, Apple’s own language allows you to code in the Swift Playgrounds app on iPad, generating simple vehicles and levels within it.
But the upcoming version allows users the ability to create and distribute iPhone and iPad apps to the App Store, all on the tablet through Swift Playgrounds.
With Universal Control delayed into Spring 2022, we wonder where Swift Playgrounds 4 is to help the next generation of developers.
Inspiring the next generation
The only way you could code and distribute an Apple app was on a Mac, through Xcode. Released in 2003, this contains everything you need to create and distribute an app on any Apple platform and update it with new features whenever you were ready.
Swift Playgrounds was released in 2016, alongside iOS 10 for iPad, with a macOS version appearing in 2020. As this can only be used in Apple’s Swift programming language, users would need to relearn how to create an app for Apple’s devices.
However, for students and those wanting to learn to code, it’s a fantastic app in how it guides you from the basics of coding to the advanced levels.
Back in June at WWDC, version 4 was announced, with an aim to release the app at the same time as iPadOS 15 in September. But while the software update came out for iPad, the Swift Playgrounds update didn’t.
While macOS users have been waiting for Universal Control to arrive, which allows an iPad to be used as a second screen with a Mac, Swift Playgrounds 4 has not seen any update from Apple on where it is.
The sign of things to come?
In the meantime, features delayed for iOS 15 and macOS 12 have been rolled out to subsequent updates in iOS 15.2 and macOS 12.1, with SharePlay and Legacy Contacts arriving one by one.
But the update to Swift Playgrounds is a significant one, which may be a sign of where programming apps for Apple devices are heading towards.
We all use our devices in different ways, with some using an iPad to edit videos, or another to write the next novel with the Smart Keyboard attachment for example.
Users have been wanting new iterations of Final Cut and Xcode from the Mac to come to the iPad. A 1:1 copy wouldn’t work, as a redesign would be needed to see these appear on the tablet.
This is why Swift Playgrounds 4 is an intriguing concept. Apple hasn’t yet made clear if you can create a watch app or a widget as well on the app, but it could be possible.
The design of the iPad makes a reality of creating apps from start to finish. There’s great potential in the next generation of developers discovering Swift code and seeing how they can create the next great app, all on their iPad.
While we don’t know when the update may arrive, around Christmas would be great timing for it, especially as many kids will be unwrapping iPads on Christmas Day.
But for now, Swift Playgrounds is a tantalizing hint into a future of creating apps, and how the next generation can be inspired to change our routines with the ideas of apps that they have.
Windows 11 has received a new cumulative update which applies some important fixes, including patching up some File Explorer problems, and tackling the big SSD and hard drive slowdown bugbear which has been looming over the OS for a long time now (at least, in theory the patch deals with it – more on that later).
That includes solutions for Bluetooth audio volume problems, and various glitches with File Explorer such as it crashing after closing a window, and problems with displaying shortcut menus.
The big fix, though, is the cure for the gremlin causing sluggish drive speeds for some users. As Microsoft notes, the patch “addresses an issue that affects the performance of all disks (NVMe, SSD, hard disk) on Windows 11 by performing unnecessary actions each time a write operation occurs”.
Those write slowdowns can cut drive speeds in half, or worse, going by previous reports, so this is a major spanner in the storage works, and it’s good to see the fix go live.
Windows Latest reports that the cumulative update fixes these drive-related problems in its experience, but on a cautionary note, we have seen a few reports on the likes of Reddit from users who say their drive is still slower than it should be under Windows 11, even after applying KB5008215. There are also satisfied users commenting on those threads, too, saying their performance has been improved after the update.
Analysis: New patch is a positive step forward, but there are still concerns here
The fix for the driver issue is obviously an important one, as the performance reduction is huge in some reported cases, which hardly puts the new operating system in a good light. While this patch seems to fix things for a good number of Windows 11 users affected by sluggish drive performance, there are folks out there reporting that it didn’t do them any good; and that must remain a concern.
The drive slowdown bug is an issue which has been around for a good while now, indeed it surfaced a few months ago before Windows 11 was even released, and this – plus some scattered reports of it still not being cured now, with the fix applied – clearly point to it being a seriously thorny problem.
Hopefully Microsoft will be able to finalize any fresh tweaks that need to be done soon enough, but given that the holidays are almost here, the software giant won’t be putting out a preview update late in December. In other words, it won’t be until January that we see any further movement on this issue.
Obviously it’s also useful to see some File Explorer issues cleared up as well, but it’s another point of concern exactly how much has gone wrong with these fundamental building blocks of the desktop on Windows 11, all adding to the perception of the OS having been released a bit too early.
LogMeIn has revealed its intentions to spin off the popular password manager and security tool LastPass as a standalone company.
The company's password manager is used by over 30m users and 85k businesses worldwide and is set for strong and sustained growth going forward as both consumers and businesses continue to prioritize password security.
By establishing LastPass as a standalone business, LogMeIn plans to increase investment in its customer experience, go-to-market functions and engineering to accelerate its growth in password management, Single Sign-On (SSO) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
Chief executive officer of LogMeIn, Bill Wagner provided further details behind the reasoning to spin off LastPass in a press release, saying:
“The substantial scale of LastPass, its tremendous growth, and its market leading position and brand makes it a perfect candidate to seize new opportunities as its own standalone company. Today's announcement also reflects our strategic priority to strengthen and invest in our flexible work enablement portfolio across unified communications and collaboration and IT management and support. We believe that LogMeIn is well positioned to continue to deliver strong results and capitalize on the tremendous opportunity in today’s virtual environment.”
Spinning off LastPass
According to LogMeIn, the significant majority of LastPass' business is represented by corporate customers which makes sense given how password management has become a business imperative for organizations of all sizes.
At the same time, the shift to working from home during the pandemic has fueled the adoption of new accounts and applications with 50 percent of those surveyed in the company's 2021 Psychology of Passwords report saying that they now use twice the number of accounts today compared to pre-pandemic levels.
LastPass employs a zero-knowledge security model which empowers end users to generate, secure and share credentials seamlessly while also monitoring their personal information on the Dark Web. By reducing the number of credentials users need to remember through simplified access with SSO and passwordless MFA, LastPass further improves security for businesses.
We'll likely hear more regarding LastPass becoming a standalone company next year when LogMeIn's plans go into effect.
Customizing Mozilla's browser with add-ons can give you a whole new experience when browsing the web though only one-third of Firefox users have installed an extension or theme.
Among the 100m+ users that did install an extension this year, adblockers were the most popular with Adblock Plus taking the top spot followed by uBlock Origin. Across the span of 2021, Adblock Plus had an average of over 6.1m daily users while uBlock Origin averaged just over 5m+ daily users over the course of the year.
While Adblock Plus led the charge at the beginning of the year, uBlock Origin was able to close the gap and if current usage trends among Firefox users continue, it may take the top spot in early 2022 according to a new blog post from Mozilla.
One of the reasons users choose Firefox as their preferred browser is to further protect their privacy online. While adblockers can stop ads from following you around the web, other popular extensions this year that protect against invasive tracking include Mozilla's own Facebook Container with 1.7m daily active users and Ghostery with 1.1m daily active users.
Firefox Recommended Extensions
In addition to putting out a list of the most popular extensions each year, the Firefox Recommended Extensions program is a curated list of third party extensions that meet Mozilla's highest standards of security, utility and user experience.
For those who often find themselves drowning in a sea of open browser tabs, Tab Stash may be the perfect extension as it adds a toolbar button that when clicked, saves all of your open tabs as temporary bookmarks. If you're using Firefox Sync, the service will automatically show your Tab Stash bookmarks synced to other devices.
Another interesting extension highlighted by Mozilla is Stylebot. This extension gives you the power to dramatically alter the way any website looks from font sizes to color schemes to content layout. Perhaps you're intrigued by vertical tabs in Microsoft Edge? Then the Sideberry extension can be used to organize your open tabs in a cascading “tree” tucked away to the side of your browser.
While web browsers have certainly come a long way, extensions allow you to further customize their look and fell as well as their functionality which can help you be more productive or just have a better browsing experience overall.
WhatsApp is launching a new preview feature for voice messages which should make them even more useful, by enabling you to listen to a message after recording it to check for mistakes, and to check the audio quality, before sending it.
Voice messaging is nothing new, and it's an option that serves as a handy halfway house between real-time voice conversations and laborious hand-typed messages. This type of message is more personal than a text, and far, far more flexible than a phone call.
WhatsApp has supported voice messages for some time, making it possible to record and send audio messages to your contacts.
Until now, it's been all too easy to send a message, only to later discover that background noise or interference have rendered a key part of what you've recorded inaudible; or perhaps you mumbled some of your words, but didn't realize until the recipient of the message pointed it out.
Take two…
The new Voice Message Preview option enables you to listen to a message after you've recorded it, so that you can re-record the message if you notice that you've made a mistake or that the sound quality is poor, or if you simply think you could make a message sound better in some way.
Using the new Voice Message Preview feature is fairly straightforward and almost self-explanatory, but WhatsApp shares the following simple guide:
Open an individual or group chat
Touch the microphone icon, and slide it up to lock hands-free recording
Start speaking
Once finished, tap the stop icon
Tap play to listen to your recording. You can also tap any part of the recording to play it from that timestamp
Tap the trash can icon to delete the voice message, or tap the send button to send it
So, what are you waiting for? Take the time to preview your next voice message, and then send it, confident in the knowledge that it sounds as good as you'd like it to – no matter how many attempts it takes you!
Thousands of UK small businesses are still not prepared for important digital tax changes set to come into force within the next few months, a study has found.
The UK government has ruled that by April 2022 over one million small businesses will need to comply with incoming digital tax legislation, called Making Tax Digital (MTD). The changes — which require digital tax records uploaded online — apply to any business with less than £85,000 turnover.
Except there’s a problem: Intuit has conducted a survey and found that around 300,000 businesses are not yet compliant.
Falling behind
The company, which makes the QuickBooks tax software suite, found nearly half (41%) of those it surveyed have been delaying making the necessary changes to comply with MTD, most likely because of the extensive paperwork.
According to Intuit, most small business owners spend four hours per month worrying about VAT returns and some can spend up to seven hours per month.
“Tax returns are a necessary fact of life for most small businesses, but that doesn’t mean they are enjoyable. With many experiencing sleepless nights around filing their returns, it’s understandable that many are avoiding thinking about upcoming VAT legislation,” noted Pauline Green, Head of Product Compliance & Programs at QuickBooks.
“But it doesn’t have to be this way. Using digital software for VAT can actually reduce stress by automating the process, therefore minimising the time spent, improving efficiency and ensuring returns are accurate. Software also provides real-time insights into finances, helping to build better habits and financial awareness. If they prioritise becoming MTD compliant, small businesses will start to experience these benefits and eliminate tax worries – allowing them to focus on building a successful business.”
Intuit has also worked with University of Bath Professor Bas Verplanken to create a free guide for alleviating some of the stress that stems from taxes, with a focus on simple changes that can make a big difference, freeing up time for other activities.
As Verplanken says, “Successful habits form when you frequently and regularly conduct a task and protect against forgetfulness, procrastination, and even fear by making your tasks part of your daily or weekly routines. Building and adhering to these habits can minimise small businesses’ worries about their VAT returns and put them in full control of their business.”
Protecting your Microsoft Teams calls and messages will soon be easier than ever thanks to a new update coming to the service.
After months of planning, Microsoft has revealed that end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is finally set to launch for its video conferencing software soon.
This should make it harder for outside forces such as hackers or fraudsters to gain access to Microsoft Teams and the chats within, hopefully keeping private or valuable information being discussed safe.
Teams security
According to an entry in the Microsoft 365 roadmap, full E2EE will be coming to Teams calling by March 2022.
“End-to-end encryption is the encryption of information at its origin and decryption at its intended destination without the ability for intermediate nodes to decrypt,” the company noted.
“End-to-end encryption would be an optional mode of real-time media collaboration where one-to-one Teams calls between two parties would be end-to-end encrypted.”
The update is classified as general availability, meaning it should be on offer to all Microsoft Teams users across desktop and mobile – including both Android and iOS.
Microsoft revealed back in October 2021 that it was trialling E2EE in Teams as it looks to boost security for its video call platform.
Rival Zoom was forced to up its security protections after several high-profile “Zoom-bombing” incidents saw outside parties able to gatecrash what should have been private calls.
The update will mean that Teams users will soon see an encryption indicator in the upper left corner of the software which shows that their calls are encrypted. Microsoft Teams will also display a security code for the call which both parties can verify on their respective ends.
However it seems that some Microsoft Teams features, recording, live caption and transcription, Call park, Call Merge, Call Companion, Call transfer and the ability to add a participant to make a one-to-one call a group call won't be available when E2EE is enabled.
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