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Is Google Calendar down?
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Is Google Calendar down? The widely-use calendar service provided by Google, and synced with many of our work and personal email accounts, appears to be having trouble keeping it together.

A number of TechRadar staff are seeing Google Calendar dip in and out of live service, with a '500' error code coming up instead of our usual view of events, meetings, reminders, and more meetings.

More on this as the story develops…

It looks like a global problem

Google Calendar appears to be down for TechRadar's UK staff, flitting in and out of service. We have word that the service is experiencing issues worldwide, from contacts in India and Spain too.

Reported cases are rising

Downdetector is reporting a surge in user-generated reports of Google Calendar issues since 9am GMT (1am PST / 4am EST). Only 16 reports in the view so far, but 0-16 in the space of 20 minutes shows something is picking up.

Users are taking to social media

People are cottoning on to the service being down, though the official Google Calendar Twitter account has yet to post anything about the issues.

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Be free, workers!

Some are taking the outage on a lighter note, such as Twitter user @jerelleaj, who celebrates that they must “have nothing planned for today”. Performance review? What performance review?

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Partial functionality?

You may find that you can enter the Google Calendar, and only see a few events out of your usually-packed schedule. I'm able to see my own events, and things I've confirmed attendance to – stored locally – but my work calendar of everything else going on in the company is absent. Sorry boss.

I was able to use a Google Calendar event to jump into a Google Meet video call, so you may be able to briefly gain access for an important meeting if you keep trying. We tend to switch between half-filled screen and full-on error message every time we refresh the page, though.

Reports continue to pour in

Downdetector is now reporting a whopping 2,960 issues – and the real number is likely to be far beyond that, given that the site relies on user-generated complaints.

Users commenting on the website say that Calendar is “down for Romania as well”, “Not working in Czech Republic”, “Unable to sync in India”, and “Down in Denmark.” France and Greece appear to be affected too – is anyone left out?

A Google in denial

No official word from Google yet, and the Google Workspace Status Dashboard shows Google Calendar as working perfectly fine. Read the room, Google.

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Google Meet arms hosts with tools to silence disruptive attendees
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Keeping your meetings on track in Google Meet is about to get a whole lot easier as Google has added the ability to lock audio and video in its video conferencing software.

Previously the feature was only available when using Google Meet on a computer but now the company has made it possible for hosts and co-hosts to lock all participants' audio and video from iOS devices.  According to an update in the Google Workspace blog though, Google also plans to make this feature available for Android smartphones early next year.

By giving hosts and co-host the ability to mute all participants' audio and preventing them from using their cameras, it will be easier to keep meetings on track and productive as there will be less disruptions.

Audio Lock & Video Lock

Google Meet's new Audio Lock & Video Lock setting applies to all devices regardless of whether it's set on a computer or an iOS device.

However, when this feature is enabled, mobile participants may be removed from a meeting if their device doesn't have the most recent version of the Meet or Gmail app, Android OS version M or newer or iOS version 12 or newer. Once the feature has been disabled though, these removed participants will be able to rejoin a meeting.

It's also worth noting that this feature is available to all Google Workspace customers as well as all G Suite Basic and Business customers.

While employees, managers and partners are a bit better at quieting down in a meeting, Audio Lock & Video Lock could be particularly useful for teachers and educators conducting remote learning classes using Google Meet.

Looking to improve your video call experience? Check out our roundups of the best video conferencing software, best business webcams and best headsets for conference calls

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Browser wars: Microsoft Edge is beginning to steal users from Google Chrome
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New data suggests Microsoft Edge is slowly beginning to lure users away from Google Chrome, which has had a stranglehold on the web browser market for years now.

According to the latest figures from Statcounter, the Microsoft Edge market share exceeded 4% for the first time ever in November, cementing the browser’s place as the world’s third most popular service (behind only Safari and Chrome).

The only major browser to lose market share last month, meanwhile, was Google Chrome, which is now responsible for 64.04% of web activity, down from a peak of 65.27% in the summer.

Microsoft Edge vs. Google Chrome

Of course, the gap between Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome remains massive, and the latter won’t fall from the top spot any time soon.

However,  Microsoft will nonetheless be encouraged by the performance of its new flagship browser, with which it hopes to regain a foothold in the browser market after the infamous decline of Internet Explorer (which was once used by 95% of netizens).

Since the new Chromium-based Edge went live last year, its growth has been fueled in large part by the retirement of Edge Legacy and Internet Explorer, whose users Microsoft carefully funnelled towards its new service. To maintain this rate of growth, however, the company is tasked with figuring out how to lure people away from the likes of Firefox, Safari and Chrome.

In recent months, Microsoft has been aggressive in its attempts to push Edge, both leveraging the large Windows 10 and 11 install base to boost its user numbers and making it more difficult to switch default browsers (although it has since retreated a little on its position).

The company has also delivered a consistent stream of new features for the browser, ranging from new Microsoft 365 integrations to tools designed to help users save money in the run-up to Christmas.

After overtaking Mozilla’s browser in the rankings for the first time in July, Edge now appears to be successfully padding out its user base with converts from Chrome. Admittedly, progress is slow, but the signs are positive for Microsoft.

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Google is launching a more secure place for your photos
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Keeping the photos and videos stored on your Android smartphone away from prying eyes is about to get a whole lot easier as the new Locked Folder feature in Google Photos is now rolling out to even more devices.

Google's own Pixel phones were the first devices to get access to this feature and now almost six months later, it's finally becoming available to smartphones from other device manufacturers including Samsung, OPPO and OnePlus.

While Google Photos acts as a cloud storage service for your photos, it's worth noting that pictures moved to a Locked Folder will no longer be backed up to the cloud and will only be available on your smartphone. At the same time, if you uninstall Google Photos or clear its app data, all of the items inside your Locked Folder will also be deleted.

For this reason, you should back up these photos online using one of the best photo cloud storage services for safekeeping before getting started with Google Photos' Locked Folder feature.

Hiding sensitive photos and videos

According to a support document from Google, to configure the Locked Folder feature in Google Photos, you'll first need to open the app and go to Library > Utilities > Locked Folder.

From here, just follow the on-screen instructions to unlock your device though if you don't have a screen lock set up for your smartphone, you'll need to do that first before using Locked Folder. Once the Locked Folder feature is ready, you can select the photos and videos you want to secure, tap on the three dot menu and select Move to Locked Folder to hide these items from the main Google Photos library.

If you own one of Google's Pixel phones, you can save photos directly from Pixel camera to Locked Folder to have them hidden automatically.

Up until now, Android users had to rely on third-party apps to hide photos and videos stored on their devices but with Locked Folder now rolling out to non-Pixel phones, you'll be able to secure all of your photos and videos directly in Google Photos.

We've also rounded up the best cloud storage, best photo cloud storage and best cloud backup services

Via Android Central

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Microsoft vs Google browser fight gets ugly with Edge pop-up Chrome diss
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Microsoft has fired more flak at the Chrome browser, trying to persuade those who are attempting to download Google’s web browser that Edge is a superior piece of software.

As Neowin spotted, in the scenario that you are using Microsoft Edge, and you head over to download Google Chrome, Edge will serve a pop-up promoting itself – there are actually several messages which have been spotted on both Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems.

One of them insists: “Microsoft Edge runs on the same technology as Chrome, with the added trust of Microsoft.”

And another pop-up really goes for the throat, stating: “That browser is so 2008! Do you know what’s new? Microsoft Edge.”

Do you know what isn’t new? Microsoft badgering users who are already using one of its products (Windows) to use its other products like Edge and OneDrive – and this practice was getting old some time ago.

Analysis: The heavy hand of Microsoft

As we’ve said before, this kind of promotional activity inevitably puts us in mind of the nag-fest days when Windows 10 was first launched, and Microsoft set about trying to convince Windows 7 and 8 users to take the free upgrade. It felt unnecessarily heavy-handed back then, and it still does now.

I suppose one thing we can be thankful for – sort of – is at least the pop-ups are gaining something of a sense of humor. Calling Chrome ‘so 2008’ did elicit a chuckle from us, but we guess you could argue this perhaps serves to remind people that Google has been working to refine and hone its browser for 13 years now. And just because something is ‘new’ does not equate to it being good (that said, we do think Edge is a good browser, in fairness).

As for: “Microsoft Edge runs on the same technology as Chrome, with the added trust of Microsoft.” Well, it does indeed use Chromium – along with a number of other browsers – but as to the ‘trust’ of Microsoft, that’s a pretty bizarre angle to throw in. What is Microsoft trying to suggest? That Google is anything less than unimpeachable in the browser world? Tsk, tsk, whatever next…

To be honest, we are wondering what on earth Microsoft will do to promote Edge next, as the gloves are seemingly coming off. But the real shame here is that Edge promotes itself quite well on its own merits, and any perception of verging towards desperation to drive adoption will surely backfire.

Via Windows Central

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Google Cloud wants to up your business AI with Bot-in-a-Box
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As more consumers are now sending messages to interact with businesses online, Google Cloud has introduced AI-powered Business Messages to make it easier for both small and large businesses to respond to customer requests.

Over the last two years, the search giant has seen a significant uptick in the number of people using messages to connect with businesses to check their hours of operation, verify if an item is in stock, scheduling a pick-up and more.

As messages are quickly becoming the go-to way to interact with businesses, consumers expect communication with them to be speedy, simple and convenient. However, for businesses, keeping up with custom inquiries can be quite labor intensive especially outside of store hours.

Google Cloud's AI-powered Business Messages allow business owners to connect with their customers on Google Search and Google Maps where they're likely already looking for answers. This new service allows customers to chat with virtual agents that can understand, interact and respond in natural ways. 

At the same time though, Google Cloud is combining smart automation with the ability for customers to chat with live agents when they need too. Since Business Messages automatically handle customer inquiries in the background, businesses can distribute their human customer service agents to address other needs.

Bot in a Box

(Image credit: Google Cloud)

Bot-in-a-Box

As getting started with AI can be difficult for any business but especially so for small businesses, Google is utilizing its existing AI tools like Google Cloud Contact Center AI's Dialogflow to create a new capability called Bot-in-a-Box within Business Messages.

Bot-in-a-Box makes getting started with conversational AI easy as it allows for fast and effective adoption of automation regardless of the size of your business. Enabling this new functionality can be as simple as using an existing customer FAQ document you already have regardless of whether it's from a web page or an internal document.

Since the conversational AI is powered by Business Messages and Dialoglfow working together, a business' chatbot is able to understand and respond to customer questions automatically without the need to write code. Bot-in-a-Box also supports “Custom Intents” which means that a chatbot is able to understand all of the different ways customers might express a similar question such as “What's my order status” and respond accurately using machine learning capabilities.

Businesses interested in using Bot-in-a-Box and AI for Business Messages can check out this page to find one of Google Cloud's partners that specialize in setting up and using this new service.

We've also featured the best live chat software and the best help desk software

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Google Drive for desktop finally has full Apple M1 Mac support
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In the latest update to its cloud storage service, Google has added full support for Apple M1 Macs to Google Drive for desktop.

With the release of version 52.0 of Google Drive for desktop, Mac users with a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini or iMac running Apple silicon can now take full advantage of the search giant's new unified client.

Google's new unified client also offers improved support for Apple's Photo Library including media that is synced with iCloud as part of Google Photos.

Google Drive for desktop

After years of maintaining two separate clients in the form of Backup and Sync for consumers and Drive File Stream for businesses, Google decided to merge them into one offering back in July.

While Backup and Sync gained “improved Apple M1 support” at the beginning of this year, Drive File Stream only added “open beta” support for Apple Silicon in February. An update in May brought improvements in regard to Apple M1 support though it was still a beta.

In addition to M1 Mac support, the latest Google Drive update also offers improved accessibility for folders and files created offline, support for some cameras to back up to Drive for desktop, the ability to manage and purchase additional cloud storage from within the client, improved sync performance when connecting to a network after working offline and other improvements.

Now that Google no longer has to maintain two separate clients, expect updates to Google Drive for desktop to begin rolling out at a faster pace.

Via 9to5Google

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