Nordsec adds encrypted cloud storage for business offer
(Image credit: NordLocker)
Just days after it announced that it had received investments of $ 100 million, Nordsec, the holding company for the popular NordVPN, has added yet another product to its portfolio. Nordlocker for business is its second product that targets the multi-billion dollar enterprise security market. After NordLayer, NordLocker is a secure cloud storage service that competes with the likes of Wasabi.
“We introduced NordLocker as a robust file encryption tool in 2019. Since then, the product has undergone a few solid development phases and is now positioned as an end-to-end encrypted cloud storage option with a file encryption solution,” says Aivaras Vencevicius, head of product at NordLocker. “It was only natural for us to move forward and launch an encrypted cloud service for business clients to offer a secure, convenient, and cost-effective way to store and manage their data.”
Apple has released the next version of Final Cut Pro, version 10.6.2, and introduces a host of new improvements and new features, including optimizations for Mac Studio workstations, and introduces new Duplicate Detection and Voice Isolation features.
For the Mac Studio, the new update is somewhat vague other than indicating that there have been optimizations for playback and graphics performance on both the M1 Max and M1 Ultra versions of the Mac Studio, but users should see an overall improvement in performance.
Duplicate detection, as the name suggests, searches for duplicate ranges within the timeline and marks the clips for easier editing, something that would be especially helpful for long-form content.
Meanwhile, Voice Isolation, as the name suggests, is a feature that uses machine learning to isolate voice frequencies from other sounds in the background.
Other improvements to Final Cut Pro include updates to its companion apps Motion and Compressor, various updates to Tracker Options/Object Tracker, and other performance and reliability enhancements.
iMovie has also been updated to its 3.0 version, which adds Storyboards and Magic Movie features.
Apple has announced iMovie 3.0, available from today (April 12) which allows users on iOS and iPadOS to more easily compile photos, movies, and music into a home movie thanks to two new features.
iMovie is a popular app from Apple for quickly creating movies and clips on Mac, iPhone and iPad with minimal hassle.
However, Instagram and TikTok have been using AI (Artificial Intelligence) features that make creating and sharing great-looking video clips even easier. For example, they can automatically adapt music to fit video clips. Meanwhile, iMovie was falling behind, with users having to align their music and content manually. But the new update looks to alleviate this with 'Storyboards' and 'Magic Movie'.
It’s rolling out to devices running iOS 15.2 or later and iPadOS 15.2 or later. But Apple declined to say whether these features would also be coming to the macOS version eventually.
What’s new in iMovie 3.0?
(Image credit: Apple)
Storyboards is one of two new features where you can choose from 20 templates to fit the videos, photos, and audio tracks, and each placeholder describes what kind of clip should be in that section of the movie.
This can be helpful for content creators or those who want to test the waters with editing video in general. The feature can guide users with framing their shots and telling a story through their video, and then export it to another app.
When you edit a clip you've already inserted, you can have a voiceover, insert music, trim the clip, adjust the volume, tweak the speed, add titles or delete the clip entirely. If you decide to change a template, the titles and transitions will adapt instead of disappearing and requiring you to start the project all over again.
(Image credit: Apple)
Meanwhile, the Magic Movie feature allows you to select an album of photos and videos, and will compile these into a movie. You can re-arrange and delete clips, and the feature will adapt while keeping the theme of the project intact. This feature will analyze your clips for dialogue and movement and will arrange them to fit the movie you've picked.
There's also helpful descriptions of where to add certain clips, whether it's for a close-up shot or something else to help fit the movie.
You can also pick a soundtrack, such as a file from Garageband, Apple Music, or the Files app for example, and iMovie 3.0 will also adapt to this to fit the video, similar to TikTok and Instagram's takes.
It looks to automate how you can create a movie in a half-hour, without going through many menus to achieve the same result.
Magic Movie reminds us of its trailer feature in iMovie on macOS, where you can create small movies of movie trailers with your clips. This looks to be the next step in this feature that's been available on macOS since 2011.
(Image credit: Apple)
We asked Apple whether there will be a way of adding live transcriptions to clips. We were told that this would have to be added in another app, like Final Cut on the Mac, which was disappointing, especially as its Clips app can do this on iOS already.
Apple also declined to comment on whether these features were coming to the Mac version of iMovie, but it did say that the reason they’re on iMovie for the iPhone and iPad versions from today is due to the ease that users have in creating and managing their media content on those devices.
Analysis: A much-welcome update to iMovie
(Image credit: TechRadar)
iMovie is something that goes as far back as the iLife suite in the early 2000s, where you would have a suite of apps such as iMovie, iPhoto, iWeb, and iDVD, all to help create content on your Mac.
But since iMovie’s appearance on iOS in 2010, followed by an iPad release in 2011, its usage has changed, which makes sense for these new features to arrive on iPhone and iPad first.
Having seen the features in action, it’s surprising how few taps and clicks are required to make a movie from start to finish. It looks like an evolution of the trailer feature above, with full movies now taking advantage of this.
But, it is disappointing that there’s no way to add audio transcriptions for when you’re editing a clip for a Storyboard or Magic Movie project. With Instagram and TikTok already showcasing this feature, it would have made sense for this to come to iMovie 3.0.
However, it’s a significant update that’s going to take advantage of the cameras and the content that every iPhone and iPad user has access to. And with its ease of use, it does have the potential to become a common method for those longer movies you want to share with a social platform, or with friends and family.
Apple has announced iMovie 3.0, available from today (April 12) which allows users on iOS and iPadOS to more easily compile photos, movies, and music into a home movie thanks to two new features.
iMovie is a popular app from Apple for quickly creating movies and clips on Mac, iPhone and iPad with minimal hassle.
However, Instagram and TikTok have been using AI (Artificial Intelligence) features that make creating and sharing great-looking video clips even easier. For example, they can automatically adapt music to fit video clips. Meanwhile, iMovie was falling behind, with users having to align their music and content manually. But the new update looks to alleviate this with 'Storyboards' and 'Magic Movie'.
It’s rolling out to devices running iOS 15.2 or later and iPadOS 15.2 or later. But Apple declined to say whether these features would also be coming to the macOS version eventually.
What’s new in iMovie 3.0?
(Image credit: Apple)
Storyboards is one of two new features where you can choose from 20 templates to fit the videos, photos, and audio tracks, and each placeholder describes what kind of clip should be in that section of the movie.
This can be helpful for content creators or those who want to test the waters with editing video in general. The feature can guide users with framing their shots and telling a story through their video, and then export it to another app.
When you edit a clip you've already inserted, you can have a voiceover, insert music, trim the clip, adjust the volume, tweak the speed, add titles or delete the clip entirely. If you decide to change a template, the titles and transitions will adapt instead of disappearing and requiring you to start the project all over again.
(Image credit: Apple)
Meanwhile, the Magic Movie feature allows you to select an album of photos and videos, and will compile these into a movie. You can re-arrange and delete clips, and the feature will adapt while keeping the theme of the project intact. This feature will analyze your clips for dialogue and movement and will arrange them to fit the movie you've picked.
There's also helpful descriptions of where to add certain clips, whether it's for a close-up shot or something else to help fit the movie.
You can also pick a soundtrack, such as a file from Garageband, Apple Music, or the Files app for example, and iMovie 3.0 will also adapt to this to fit the video, similar to TikTok and Instagram's takes.
It looks to automate how you can create a movie in a half-hour, without going through many menus to achieve the same result.
Magic Movie reminds us of its trailer feature in iMovie on macOS, where you can create small movies of movie trailers with your clips. This looks to be the next step in this feature that's been available on macOS since 2011.
(Image credit: Apple)
We asked Apple whether there will be a way of adding live transcriptions to clips. We were told that this would have to be added in another app, like Final Cut on the Mac, which was disappointing, especially as its Clips app can do this on iOS already.
Apple also declined to comment on whether these features were coming to the Mac version of iMovie, but it did say that the reason they’re on iMovie for the iPhone and iPad versions from today is due to the ease that users have in creating and managing their media content on those devices.
Analysis: A much-welcome update to iMovie
(Image credit: TechRadar)
iMovie is something that goes as far back as the iLife suite in the early 2000s, where you would have a suite of apps such as iMovie, iPhoto, iWeb, and iDVD, all to help create content on your Mac.
But since iMovie’s appearance on iOS in 2010, followed by an iPad release in 2011, its usage has changed, which makes sense for these new features to arrive on iPhone and iPad first.
Having seen the features in action, it’s surprising how few taps and clicks are required to make a movie from start to finish. It looks like an evolution of the trailer feature above, with full movies now taking advantage of this.
But, it is disappointing that there’s no way to add audio transcriptions for when you’re editing a clip for a Storyboard or Magic Movie project. With Instagram and TikTok already showcasing this feature, it would have made sense for this to come to iMovie 3.0.
However, it’s a significant update that’s going to take advantage of the cameras and the content that every iPhone and iPad user has access to. And with its ease of use, it does have the potential to become a common method for those longer movies you want to share with a social platform, or with friends and family.
Highlighting emergency calls through Microsoft Teams should soon be a lot easier thanks to a new update coming to the service.
The video conferencing platform will soon allow admins to create customizable banners within Microsoft Teams that will alert users when an emergency call is coming through.
This should help such calls stand out immediately to users, particularly if their attention is divided between a number of other tasks.
Microsoft Teams emergency
In its official entry on the Microsoft 365 roadmap, the company notes that users will be able to acknowledge their admin's message by clicking on the banner within a Microsoft Teams call.
This will allow admins to phrase or word the alerts however they need to, which could be extremely handy for schools or industrial customers, who might have entirely different emergency categorizations.
The feature is still in development for now, but Microsoft has set an expected release date of April 2022, meaning it could arrive soon.
Upon launch, the feature will be available for Microsoft Teams users across the world on desktop and Mac platforms.
The news is one of a long series of improvements and upgrades made to Microsoft Teams in recent months as the company looks to ensure hybrid and remote workers are still able to get the most out of its collaboration tool.
Perhaps most usefully, Microsoft recently revealed that Teams users will soon be able to mute notifications whilst they are in a video conferencing meeting or don't want to be disturbed.
On a similar note, another upgrade concerns the addition of chat bubbles so that users wouldn't miss private messages sent during a video call, both 1:1 or as part of a group call.
For those unfamiliar, Microsoft Loop is a new app that combines a powerful and flexible canvas with portable components that move freely and stay in sync across the software giant's apps. It is made up of three elements in the form of Loop components, Loop pages and Loop workspaces.
While Loop pages are flexible canvases where users can organize all of their Loop components in one place and Loop workspaces are shared spaces that allow teams to see and group everything important to a project, Loop components are an evolution of Fluid components that help users collaborate and get things done in chats, emails, meetings and documents.
Now Microsoft Outlook users will be able to leverage the power of Loop components when using the company’s email service.
Loop components in Outlook
According to a new post in the Microsoft 365 roadmap, Loop components are now rolling out in Microsoft Outlook and these live, interactive objects can be embedded in email messages to provide real-time collaboration.
In a support document, Microsoft highlights several of its Loop components that users can add to emails in Outlook or even messages in Microsoft Teams. These include bulleted lists, checklists, numbered lists, paragraphs, tables, task lists and more.
One of the nice things about Loop components is that they are automatically saved to OneDrive so that you’ll be able to easily find and use them again later.
With the addition of Loop components in Outlook, emails will become much more fluid as they’ll even be able to update themselves after being sent. Say you add a list of follow-up tasks to an email, collaborators can check off items as they complete them and all of the changes made to the Loop component will be reflected in the original email. This way users don’t have to waste time sending emails back and forth to one another once a task has been completed.
We’ll likely hear more from Microsoft regarding Loop components once Microsoft 365 users get a chance to test them out for themselves.
Windows 11 is getting a redesigned 'Do Not Disturb' mode in its next major feature update, which aims to eliminate those distracting notifications.
With endless possibilities of procrastination just a click away and notifications constantly vying for your attention, staying productive is not always an easy task.
Thankfully, that seemingly impossible task is one that is made easier by Microsoft’s Focus Assist, which comes handily built into Windows 11.
Focus Assist allows users to limit notifications, so only chosen priority notifications or alarms go through, offering a variety of options for those looking to cut down on the notifications and distractions during the time your PC is on.
However, sometimes being given space to focus on a task isn’t quite enough and you need something more to help focus your time, which is where Do Not Disturb aims to help in those situations.
How does 'Do Not Disturb' benefit compared to Focus?
Unlike the other available modes in Focus Assist, the new Do Not Disturb feature shuts off all notifications entirely, sending them straight to the notification center instead. You can focus on your tasks without any interruptions or distracting notification icons catching your eye.
Microsoft’s recent 2022 Work Trends Index indicated that 35% of employees wanted to spend more time working on solitary or focused work to be more productive.
This harsher-focus Do Not Disturb feature should be what a third of users are looking for at least, so long as they remember to turn it off once they’re done being isolated from the world.
Windows 11 is getting a redesigned 'Do Not Disturb' mode in its next major feature update, which aims to eliminate those distracting notifications.
With endless possibilities of procrastination just a click away and notifications constantly vying for your attention, staying productive is not always an easy task.
Thankfully, that seemingly impossible task is one that is made easier by Microsoft’s Focus Assist, which comes handily built into Windows 11.
Focus Assist allows users to limit notifications, so only chosen priority notifications or alarms go through, offering a variety of options for those looking to cut down on the notifications and distractions during the time your PC is on.
However, sometimes being given space to focus on a task isn’t quite enough and you need something more to help focus your time, which is where Do Not Disturb aims to help in those situations.
How does 'Do Not Disturb' benefit compared to Focus?
Unlike the other available modes in Focus Assist, the new Do Not Disturb feature shuts off all notifications entirely, sending them straight to the notification center instead. You can focus on your tasks without any interruptions or distracting notification icons catching your eye.
Microsoft’s recent 2022 Work Trends Index indicated that 35% of employees wanted to spend more time working on solitary or focused work to be more productive.
This harsher-focus Do Not Disturb feature should be what a third of users are looking for at least, so long as they remember to turn it off once they’re done being isolated from the world.
It seems that Apple forgot about the A13 Bionic processor that powers its own Studio Display, as a recent firmware update caused the monitor to malfunction.
On April 8, Apple stopped signing iOS update 15.4 after it pushed down update 15.4.1 on March 30. Normally when an update stops signing, it’s not available anymore and can no longer be installed. But since Studio Display uses 15.4 and cannot install 15.4.1, this meant that over the weekend users were out of luck.
According to MacWorld, anyone with issues using the monitor was met with a message stating: “Apple Studio Display firmware update could not be completed. Try again in an hour. If the problem persists, contact an authorized Apple service provider.”
As of April 10, Apple has fixed the issue and users have reported that the firmware update was installed without a hitch. However, the tech giant will most likely need to overhaul the signing and un-signing of iOS updates since multiple products require various versions to operate.
This isn’t the first time the Apple Studio Display needed a fix. Soon after its launch, the monitor received an update in order to fix the low quality of its webcam, as reported by multiple outlets such as TechCrunch and The Wall Street Journal.
Analysis: the perils of an ecosystem
When you have a whole lot of products that are supposed to work with each other seamlessly, but they aren't running on the same system, problems are bound to pop up.
While Apple is known for a very tight product catalog that keeps the number of models currently being sold to a fairly lean lineup, Apple has been expanding its offerings in recent years.
Whether it's the Apple HomePod, the recent Apple AirPods 3, or any number of its MacBook and Mac products, Apple is having to juggle a lot more discrete systems that are supposed to work without the user even really thinking about it. It's kind of Apple's thing, so while it's kind of funny to think that Apple accidentally nerfed its own high-end workstation monitor by mistake, it's also symptomatic of a growing number of interlocking products where it becomes harder to predict what any single change to the system will have.
While Apple typically runs a tight ship, we wouldn't be surprised if we saw more of this kind of thing in the future.
These are two features that users had been long-requesting, and while they arrived in the iOS and Android versions, they were yet to arrive for Windows 11, until recently.
However, with video calling in the desktop app, and GIFs having just arrived after the web version has had the ability for the last year, it makes us wonder if there's any point in using WhatsApp in our web browsers anymore.
Analysis: Time to move on from WhatsApp Web
Using WhatsApp on the web on your PC or Mac has been the norm for years now. Using a tab in your web browser to quickly reply to messages, instead of reaching for your phone, is very useful.
However, there's times when you can discover its limits, such as missing reactions and video calling.
This is where the desktop app has already superseded the web version on Windows and Mac. Calling your contacts through audio or video will be a big benefit to many, and while GIFS are already on the web version, they feel faster and display in a higher quality compared to how they show on the web browser.
It's at the point where we're already making sure that the app starts up alongside Steam, Chrome, and more when we switch on our PCs.
Reactions and the method to keep archived chats, archived, are only going to spur users to move away from the web version as well, and as far as we're concerned, any way to reduce the tabs in our web browser is a benefit regardless to make them more manageable.
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