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MacOS malware Shlayer and Bundlore may have variations, but the behavior of their attacks have not changed – attacking older macOS versions and poorly-protected websites.
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Microsoft PowerPoint update will help spice up your boring presentations
Microsoft is working on an update for PowerPoint that will give users ever greater creative freedom when it comes to presentation design.
According to new entries in the company’s product roadmap, PowerPoint will soon allow organizations to add their own custom fonts to presentations. The information is sparse, but presumably these custom fonts will be made available to all employees, once set.
The feature will first be made available via PowerPoint Online next month, and arrive for the Windows and Mac clients in March and June, respectively.
PowerPoint presentations
Although PowerPoint has long been the default presentation software for many businesses, the market has become much more competitive in recent years, and all the more so as a result of the rise of remote working.
In the face of increasingly stiff competition from the likes of Prezi and Google Slides, Microsoft has pushed out a range of improvements and integrations designed to cement its position.
For example, Microsoft 365 customers can now launch PowerPoint presentations from directly within Teams, the company’s popular collaboration platform. Known as PowerPoint Live, the feature eliminates the perilous practice of screen sharing, which has been responsible for various gaffes over the years.
Even more recently, Microsoft rolled out a recording studio for PowerPoint, which allows users to practice their presentations in advance. The idea is that reviewing the footage will help people hone their delivery and identify any areas in need of improvement.
The latest update, meanwhile, covers off the presentation design process, which is as equally important as rehearsal and execution. Although the introduction of custom fonts may appear comparatively insignificant, the update will allow businesses to establish consistency across their brand, which will be particularly useful when presenting to partners, investors and the like.
Alternatively, the facility could be used to add a bit of color and personality to otherwise bland presentations, which is always welcome.
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Browser wars: Apple’s M1 chips help Safari close the gap on Google Chrome
The success of Apple’s M1 range of silicon could have inadvertently helped drive up the market share of web browser Safari, new data suggests.
The first M1-powered MacBooks were launched in 2020, followed by a series of mobile workstations powered by the M1 Max and M1 Ultra in October, 2021. Both launches were met with critical acclaim.
All Apple devices, of course, come with Safari pre-installed. And according to the latest figures from Statcounter, the company’s browser now accounts for 19.6% of internet activity, up 1.2% in the last three months alone.
While the increase may sound relatively insignificant as a percentage, the raw numbers are much more compelling; data on the total number of web users from Statista suggests Safari has attracted roughly 58 million additional users since the start of October.
A big year for Safari?
The ubiquity of Apple products (iPhones and iPads, as well as Mac devices) means Safari is comfortably the world’s second largest browser, streets ahead of the likes of Microsoft Edge and Firefox.
However, Safari is still nowhere near as widely used as Google Chrome (with 64% market share), which currently has somewhat of a stranglehold on the sector.
That said, the ever-growing popularity of Apple devices and the company’s reputation for high levels of security and data privacy could see Safari begin to close the gap on Chrome this year.
Apple has also been transparent about its efforts to accelerate the adoption of business Macs, which may have a knock-on effect on the size of the Safari user base. Last month, Apple announced it is preparing a device subscription offering whereby businesses will be able to lease MacBooks for as little as $ 30/month.
Although Google executives won’t lose any sleep over the threat posed by Safari just yet, the browser wars appear set to rage on in 2022.
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This Microsoft Teams update will help enforce social distancing rules
Keeping control of your Microsoft Teams meetings could soon get a lot easier thanks to a new update aimed at limiting participant numbers.
The video conferencing service has announced new meeting room capacity notifications for Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android, hopefully helping prevent virtual overcrowding.
The feature could also help in-office staff decide whether to move an in-person meeting online as concerns over Covid continue to rise.
Overcrowded
According to its entry on the Microsoft 365 roadmap, users will now see a notification on the front of room display alerting in-room meeting participants if the room is over-capacity.
This decision is based on the capacity defined in a room account, which for Android users of Microsoft Teams can be limited in order to cope with computing power and battery life.
Microsoft notes that only cameras that support people counting will support this feature.
When a panel is deployed outside a Teams Room that supports this feature, an alert will also be visible on the Teams panel, notifying people outside the room that it has reached capacity.
Microsoft introduced people counting to Teams in 2020 as more and more users flocked to the platform after being told to work from home. Currently, up to 1,000 people can chat and call in to a Microsoft Teams meeting, although this number rises to up to 20,000 for view-only and listen-only calls, such as presentations or webinars.
The new meeting room capacity notifications are set to roll out in February 2022, with all Microsoft Teams on Android users around the world able to experience it.
Users will need to ensure their devices are running some of the latest Android builds, after Microsoft recently revealed it will soon revoke support for versions of Teams running on older versions of the software. Support will be pulled for Teams on Android 5 on March 1, 2022, while Android 6 and 7 will retain support until July 1 and September 1, respectively.
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Google wants to help you set up a unique online store
Google's Area 120 incubator has launched a new website builder and ecommerce platform called Qaya which is now available in beta in the US.
According to a new blog post, co-founder and GM of Qaya, Nathaniel Naddaff-Hafrey came up with the idea while working from home during the pandemic after spending time with creators who said it was difficult and time consuming to build an online business around their content.
This led to the creation of a new product called Qaya which provides web storefronts for creators that want to sell products and services directly to their audiences.
The company has a small and agile team that believes creators are the next generation of entrepreneurs. As the CEOs of their own businesses, they require the same commercial tools as any successful founder.
Building your creator businesses
Qaya first began live testing its new service in early 2021 and since that time, the company has learned a lot from the creators on its platform, their fans and other creator economy projects.
Creators on Qaya can sell everything from workout guides to photo filters, productivity templates, knitting patterns and more. The company currently supports both pay-gated and free products with new features like tipping, subscriptions and other monetization types coming soon.
By signing up for Qaya, creators can use the service as the hub for all of their business activity across the web. Many link to their storefronts from their social media bios and showcase digital products they upload or products and services hosted on other sites. The company provides all of its users with a custom yourname.channel or qaya.store/your-name domain with payment functionality built-in.
At the same time though, Qaya has also developed customer management and analytics tools that creators can use to connect with their fans and understand sales and content performance. The company has also started to integrate with other Google products including YouTube's Merch Shelf and eligible YouTube creators can now promote products from Qaya directly below videos on their YouTube channels.
Qaya is currently in beta in the US though the company hopes to expand to other countries soon.
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Zoom thinks it can help the fight against global terrorism
Far from just allowing users to stay in touch with family and friends around the globe, Zoom now also wants to tackle online terrorism.
The video conferencing giant has announced it is joining the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) alongside the likes of Microsoft, Amazon and Meta.
“It is our responsibility to support our users and protect them against online threats,” Josh Parecki, Zoom's associate general counsel for trust and safety, told Reuters. “By collaborating with other leaders across the industry, sharing key learnings and advancing research, we aspire to make the digital world a safer place for all.”
Zoom GIFCT
Formed by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube in 2017 following a spate of deadly terrorist attacks across Europe, GIFCT says its mission is “to prevent terrorists and violent extremists from exploiting digital platforms.”
Now numbering 18 companies following Zoom's addition, the NGO was initially focused on sharing technical collaboration to combat online extremism, but has since expanded to managing a hash-sharing database.
This allows members to share unique “hashes” – records of original content that have had to be removed from their platforms or services following extremism concerns.
These hashes are then used by other GIFCT members to identify if similar content has been uploaded to their platforms.
In a statement, GIFCT Executive Director Nicholas Rasmussen said it was delighted to have Zoom as a partner. He noted that the group's mission “requires we work with a diverse range of companies …to develop cross-platform solutions that render terrorists and violent extremists ineffective across the Internet”.
After an initial surge in popularity and an explosion in user numbers at the start of the pandemic, Zoom came under heavy criticism for failing to secure its platform.
Following several high-profile “Zoombombing” incidents where outside parties were able to gain access to Zoom calls without permission, the company carried out a major upheaval of its security protections.
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Microsoft Teams update will help you see eye-to-eye with co-workers
Microsoft is readying an update for collaboration platform Teams that will supposedly help make video calls feel more natural in the world of hybrid working.
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.
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This Microsoft Edge update will help you spot why your browser is running so slowly
Spotting potential browser slowdowns in Microsoft Edge could soon be a lot easier thanks to a new tool that will allow users to debug memory leaks.
Memory leaks occur when an application's JavaScript code retains more and more objects in memory that it no longer needs instead of releasing them for garbage collect (GC).
For apps that run for a long time without being closed, small memory leaks of only a few kilobytes can add up to noticeably degrade performance over time according to a new blog post from Microsoft.
Detached
React, the open source JavaScript library for building front end user interfaces, maintains a virtualized copy of the DOM (Document Object Model). However, failing to properly unmount components can lead to an application leaking large parts of the virtual DOM.
For this reason, the Microsoft Edge team worked together with Microsoft Teams to build the browser's new Detached Elements tool that allows users to investigate and resolve DOM memory leaks.
Although there are valid reasons for detaching elements, DOM memory leaks occur when an application keeps references to more and more detached elements without actually reusing them later. As the code used in applications grows in size and complexity, it becomes easier to make mistakes and forget to clean things up which could unknowingly lead to keeping DOM elements in memory.
This is particularly a problem for long running applications. For instance, if an email client detaches DOM elements every time an email is opened and closed and a user keeps the app running for a whole week, it could amount to really high memory usage and slow down a user's business laptop or workstation over time.
While Microsoft's new Detached Elements tool has been available in Edge Canary since version 93, it will roll out to the stable channel of Microsoft Edge when version 97 of the browser launches this month.
To access this new tool early though, you'll first need to open DevTools in Edge by pressing F12 and click on the gear icon to open the DevTools Settings. From here, navigate to Experiments on the left side of the Settings pane, type in Detached Elements and click on the tool to enable it.
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The best Christmas Zoom backgrounds to help you get into the festive spirit
Many holiday celebrations will take place over video conference again this year, which means plenty of people will be on the hunt for an excellent Christmas Zoom background.
Whether you're attending a virtual office party, present exchange or Christmas dinner, a festive background will only add to proceedings.
To help make your virtual festivities feel a little more like the real deal, we’ve compiled a selection of Christmas Zoom backgrounds that are bound to get you in the holiday spirit.
How to use Zoom backgrounds
Before picking out a Christmas Zoom background, you’ll need to know how to configure custom backgrounds on the platform. Thankfully, the process is really simple.
First, ensure the Zoom backgrounds feature is enabled in your account settings. You can do this by accessing your account page via your web browser, navigating to Settings in the left-hand bar, clicking on In Meeting (Advanced) and toggling Virtual Backgrounds to on (the slider will turn blue once the feature has been activated).
To configure your Zoom background, log into the desktop application and click on the settings icon in the top right corner. Under the Virtual Background tab, you can choose from stock options, or upload an image or video via the + icon below the video feed.
Whichever background you select in the settings panel will automatically be applied when you next log into a video conference.
For the best results, it’s important to ensure the video is bright and evenly lit. Your Christmas Zoom backgrounds won’t perform quite as well in partial darkness or glaring light, which can both result in unwelcome distortion.
Using a green screen backdrop is ideal, but impractical for many, and a plain background of any colour works perfectly well so long as your clothing isn’t the same color.
Christmas Zoom backgrounds
Thanks to a few generous elves, you're not short of options when it comes to selecting a Christmas Zoom background for your next video call.
Here’s a rundown of a few different selections you could choose from.
Zoom
On the Zoom website, you can find a curated list of virtual backgrounds of all varieties. Under the Seasonal section, you’ll find a range of suitably festive options.
Hallmark
You’d bet your house on greetings card company Hallmark producing a fine selection of holiday-themed Zoom backgrounds – and the company has duly delivered.
Unsplash
Image library Unsplash has a wide selection of wintery Zoom background options for you to choose from. You’re bound to find an option that suits you.
Cookie Monster
Everyone’s favorite Sesame Street resident is also getting in on the act. This snap of Cookie Monster doing what he does best makes for an excellent Zoom background.
Christmas HQ
We can safely assume that the experts at Christmas HQ know plenty about cultivating holiday spirit. This classy selection of backgrounds is attractive, but not obnoxious.
Frozen – The Musical
The Broadway rendition of hit movie Frozen has offered up a selection of icy Zoom backgrounds for “those of use working from our kingdoms of isolation”. That might not sound very Christmassy, but the backgrounds are rather striking all the same.
Walt Disney World
Disney World has to be up there with one of the most festive places on earth, as demonstrated by this selection of Christmas Zoom backgrounds from WDW Magazine.
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This new Gmail update will help you avoid hybrid working confusion
Showing up alone to an in-person meeting could soon be a thing of the past thanks to a new Gmail update.
With workers across the world slowly returning to office life (if they haven't adopted hybrid working of course) physical meetings are unfortunately becoming more common once again.
But as many workforces balance home and office working, this can lead to confusion about who will actually be at a meeting in-person, and who will be there virtually – something Gmail and Google Calendar now hope to have fixed.
RSVP in Gmail
Going forward, Gmail users will now be able to specify whether they will be attending a meeting either virtually or in-person in their email RSVP.
The function had initially been added to Google Calendar back in July 2021, but is now available within Gmail RSVPs for extra functionality. Users will now see a drop-down arrow next to the “Yes” option in a meeting invite where they can select “Yes”, “Yes, in a meeting room” and “Yes, joining virtually” choices.
“With these RSVP options, you can indicate how you plan to join a meeting—in the meeting room, or virtually,” a Google Workspace blog announcing the feature noted. “Then, both the organizer and guests will be able to see how attendees are planning to attend the meeting in the event detail. This will help meeting attendees know what to expect when joining a meeting, and prepare accordingly.”
The blog did highlight that the new RSVP options are not shared with contacts on other platforms, such as Microsoft Outlook.
Google says the feature has begun rolling out now, and will be available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers, within the next few weeks.
The news comes shortly after the launch of a new “Focus time” feature in Google Calendar that will allow users to block out periods of time where they can avoid meetings and get their heads down for actual work.
Setting such a marker in your Google Calendar will also allow users to automatically decline meetings, meaning no last-minute rush to finish off work.
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