Business Technology

YouTube is rolling out new design elements to its app. While this is not a complete aesthetic overhaul, it does provide tweaks to existing components and adds improvements. For example, the ability to pinch-to-zoom is now available for everyone.

This is a handy feature because it means users can pinch on their screen to zoom in on any video just as you would with photos. If you have YouTube Premium, this feature has been available since August but is now graduating to be available to all YouTube users.

Another interesting new ability is precise seeking, which will help users fast forward and rewind to the exact location in the video they want. Anyone who moves through videos a lot will understand how helpful this tool could be.

According to a new report from DigiTimes Asia, underground freelance vendors in China are attracting the attention of major companies. Amid the semiconductor shortage, major automakers are being forced to find components through unusual channels.

The report tracks 32-year-old Wang, who lives and works from a small apartment in Shenzhen, China’s tech capital. She receives coded messages that detail available chips from vendors who use Wang to connect them with buyers.

This grey market has become a haven for finding chips that are hard to find elsewhere. Semiconductors are valuable products in this market. However, it is an illegitimate industry that is also full of second-hand or out-of-date chips. Even so, a quality chip can sell for up to 500 times its original price.

Chinese car manufacturers are increasingly turning to the underground market to find the components they need. One representative believes the semiconductor crisis is still happening:

“Recent US sanctions have introduced another round of panic to the market and disturbed the supply of both entry level and more advanced chips,” China Passenger Car Association secretary general Cui Dongshu says. “Distribution channels and the prices of chips are messed up.”

Dangerous Market

Bloomberg News interviewed people around the world where these grey markets are popping up. However, because so many low-quality chips are being sold, at best the quality of vehicles will decrease and at worst people may be in danger. For example, an old or fake chip could cause breaking or acceleration issues in cars.

Robert Bosch GmbH, a major auto-parts supplier in Germany, says he gets requests from Chinese car manufacturers asking to handle chips that came from the grey market. While Bosch turned down these requests, there is a possibility other suppliers may not.

So, why are these operations not shut down? Well, precisely because of their grey market nature. These are legitimate companies that pay taxes. However, they are not necessarily permitted to buy and sell faulty or fake products.

Wang says the “conventional system whereby auto suppliers place an order through an authorized agent and wait for distribution from an original chipmaker no longer works.”

Tip of the day: Do you know that Windows 11 / Windows 10 allows creating PDFs from basically any app with printing support? In our tutorial, we show you how this works via Microsoft Print to PDF and Bullzip PDF Printer to save a PDF from any app, even with advanced options like adjusted quality, multi-page printing, and password protection.

Source  Winbuzzer

We are always told that smartphone cameras are amazing… and indeed they are. But what would happen with the imaging power of 260 iPhones? Well, a team at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the US has developed the world’s biggest digital camera, known as LSST.

Engineers chose to build the camera with the end goal of putting it on an observatory deep in the Andes mountains in Chile. While The camera is not working at the moment, the SLAC National Accelerator Team says LSST will be up and running soon.

LSST or “Large Synoptic Survey Telescope” is a new digital camera that is still in development. Eventually, it will be put on the El Penon observatory which is located on Cerro Pachon at 2,682 meters in the Chilean Andes.Here you will find the Southern and Gemini South Astrophysical Research Telescopes. The location is considered one of the best on Earth for an observatory.

Details

To achieve a digital camera with the imaging capabilities of hundreds of iPhones, the team used 189 newly designed CCD sensors. Charge-couple device (CCD) sensors are integrated circuits that have linked capacitors. They are standard in digital imaging technology, and are especially important in cameras with ultra-high resolutions.

CCDs must be paired with a super-telephoto lens. When using multiple CCDs, it is important that they are aligned in an array perfectly. A single minor misalignment can cause sensors to be destroyed. With 189 to manage, the creators behind the LSST Camera had to tread carefully.

Each 16mm sensor holds a pixel count higher than the latest iPhone 14 Pro. This means the composite sensor has a resolution of 3.2 Gigapixels.

Now the engineers are testing a new shutter system for the camera. It is also developing a system that would allow the camera to change filters. Once it is ready, the LSST Camera will use its 1.57-meter telephoto lens and sensor composite array to take detailed images. For example, the team says it can take a photo of a dust particle over 200,000 miles away on the surface of the moon.

Once a cooling system is installed before the end of the year and tests are complete, the camera will head to Chile for an unveiling in May 2023.

Tip of the day: Do you know that Windows 11 / Windows 10 allows creating PDFs from basically any app with printing support? In our tutorial, we show you how this works via Microsoft Print to PDF and Bullzip PDF Printer to save a PDF from any app, even with advanced options like adjusted quality, multi-page printing, and password protection.

Source Winbuzzer

Eleven small crypto firms are being hit with a cease-and-desist order by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) under an accusation of perpetrating a Ponzi scheme against customers.

DFPI argues the companies were using customer funds and were in breach of Californian security laws. Furthermore, the regulator claims it is possible the crypto firms were never offering the services they claimed.

In a press release to accompany the filing, DFPI says the following:

“Each of the 11 entities allegedly offered and sold unqualified securities and 10 of them also made material misrepresentations and omissions to investors,” the regulator claims.

“The entities are all alleged to have used investor funds to pay purported profits to other investors, in the manner of a Ponzi scheme. Furthermore, each of the entities had a referral program that operated in the manner of a pyramid scheme,” the press release continues.

“The entities promised to pay investors commissions if they recruited new investors, and additional commissions if the investors that they recruited, in turn, recruited new investors. The referral programs achieved their desired effect, incentivizing investors to create and post content to social media websites, such as YouTube, to entice others to invest in these entities.”

Firms Under Accusation

None of the crypto companies are major names in the industry, but the scheme shows how the nascent crypto market presents dangers for investors. In its press release, the watchdog names the following companies:

• Cryptos OTC Trading Platform Limited d/b/a COTP – purported crypto asset trading platform
• Elevate Pass LLC – purported crypto asset advertising and trading platform
• GreenCorp Investment LLC – purported crypto asset trading platform
• Metafiyielders Pty Ltd d/b/a Metafi Yielders – purported DeFi platform
• Pegasus – purported crypto asset trading platform
• Polinur ME Limited – purported metaverse software development company
• Remabit – purported crypto asset trading platform
• Sity Trade – purported crypto asset trading platform
• Sytrex Trade – purported crypto asset and forex trading platform
• Vexam Limited – purported crypto asset trading platform
• World Over the Counter Limited d/b/a World OTC – purported crypto asset trading platform

Tip of the day: For the most part, Windows apps are stable, but they can still be still thrown out of whack by updates or configuration issues. Many boot their PC to find their Microsoft Store isn’t working or their Windows apps aren’t opening. Luckily Windows 11 and Windows 10 have an automatic repair feature for apps that can resolve such issues.

Source  Winbuzzer

WhatsApp is getting an interesting new feature that will allow users to invite others to join calls through a shareable link. Announced by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the tool will work in a similar way to Microsoft Teams and Zoom’s sharing features. Known as Call Links, the tool will allow call participants who do not have a WhatsApp account.

Call Links will sit under the CALLS tab, allowing users to easy access the feature and generate shareable links. When a link is created, the user can then share it with their contacts on WhatsApp. While there is no confirmation, it is possible users will also be able to share with contacts outside of WhatsApp.

In a tweet to announce the feature, WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart says Call Links work for both audio and video calls. He adds the feature will make its debut this week.

Microsoft News takes a solid proactive approach to fake news, but the company admits there are challenges in thwarting misinformation. It is a challenge all social media and news curation services face, and each tackles the problem in its own way. For Microsoft, it is now ready to ask users to help decide what is true or false.

Speaking to Bloomberg recently, Microsoft President Brad Smith spoke about the company’s new approach to fake news detection. Specifically, Smith says users are increasingly savvy about where they get truthful information, and it is not from governments:

“I don’t think that people want governments to tell them what’s true or false,” says Smith “And I don’t think they’re really interested in having tech companies tell them either.”

User Power

Microsoft says it puts freedom of speech first and will not sensor posts. So, the company will not label social media posts as fake news. However, the company is now abandoning the idea of preventing the spread of misinformation.

“We have to be very thoughtful and careful because—and this is also true of every democratic government—fundamentally, people quite rightly want to make up their own mind and they should,” Smith adds. “Our whole approach needs to be to provide people with more information, not less and we cannot trip over and use what others might consider censorship as a tactic.”

Instead, Microsoft will allow users to use their own discretion and decide what is true or false. Just like the good old days without any hand-holding.

Last year, Microsoft partnered with Adobe and the BBC to start the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity. Under the C2PA coalition, the company and partners will develop open standards that allow sources to be verified. Users will be able to see where media content was sourced.

Tip of the day: Did you know that you can assign keyboard shortcuts for starting applications quickly in Windows 11 and Windows 10? This is a great way to have your most used programs always at your fingertips. In our tutorials we show you how to set those hotkeys for your favorite apps.

Source Winbuzzer

Microsoft has a history of collaborating with Canonical to expand its support of Linux. For example, recently bringing .NET to Ubuntu. In the latest partnership between the two, Microsoft says Canonical has helped to pave the way for systemd on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

Because this support requires big changes to WSL, Microsoft says current support is opt-in. That means users who don’t want their current distros affected avoid systemd. However, after feedback and previewing, Microsoft says it will bring full support by default.

Canonical – the company behind Ubuntu – provided Microsoft with technical support. According to the companies, it was important for WSL to finally get systemd. Many of the popular Linux distributions use the suite, which provides software components for the Linux OS.For example, Canonical’s own Snap software packaging and deployment system uses the suite.

Details

In a blog post to announce the support, Microsoft explains the technical aspects of bringing systemd to Windows Subsystem for Linux:

“Supporting systemd required changes to the WSL architecture. As systemd requires PID 1, the WSL init process started within the Linux distribution becomes a child process of the systemd. Because the WSL init process is responsible for providing the infrastructure for communication between the Linux and Windows components, changing this hierarchy required rethinking some of the assumptions made with the WSL init process.

 Additional modifications had to be made to ensure a clean shutdown (as that shutdown is controlled by systemd now) and to have compatibility with WSLg, It is also important to note that with these change, systemd services will NOT keep your WSL instance alive.”

Windows Insiders can grab the latest WSL update now, before it comes to all users in the coming weeks. Of course, you can also grab the update manually through GitHub.

Tip of the day: Did you know that you can assign keyboard shortcuts for starting applications quickly in Windows 11 and Windows 10? This is a great way to have your most used programs always at your fingertips. In our tutorials we show you how to set those hotkeys for your favorite apps.

Source  Winbuzzer

The work-from-home revolution is well underway. If there were any benefits from an 18-month pandemic, it was a change in the way in which people work. Those who have tasted working from home will understand the obvious perks. However, Microsoft and other major organizations still have concerns. In fact, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says businesses remain unconvinced by the work-from-home era.

So, while you are loving working from home, your bosses are probably thinking of ways to get you back in the office. Or, at least think of ways to tie you down into a schedule and tracking.

Nadella’s comments were part of Microsoft’s recent Work Trend Index Pulse Report titled “Hybrid Work Is Just Work. Are We Doing It Wrong?” That title says a lot. It is clear Microsoft – like other organisations – understands the hybrid workplace is here to stay. However, businesses have concerns about how they manage the new hybrid environment.

According to Nadella, companies have to move beyond what Microsoft calls “productivity paranoia:”

“All of the data we have that shows that 80% plus of the individual people feel they’re very productive – except their management thinks that they’re not productive. That means there is a real disconnect in terms of the expectations and what they feel.”

Work Preference

The Work Trend Index Plus survey polls employees across Microsoft’s global workforce. 87% of participants say they think they are more productive when working at home. 80% of managers within the company think workers are less productive.

There is clearly a divide that must be bridged. Microsoft is more accepting of hybrid work than most. Major companies such as Apple and Google have actively sought to get workers back into the office. Apple takes a strict approach that engineers and developers must be in the office.

Such a stance will likely mean Apple will miss out on talent unless it changes. Microsoft’s approach is more flexible. The company allows employees to spend 50% of their time working remotely.

Still, Microsoft wants to connect managers with employees more effectively over the hybrid bridge. That is why the company last week rolled out a slew of Microsoft Viva apps and tools.

Tip of the day: Did you know that you can assign keyboard shortcuts for starting applications quickly in Windows 11 and Windows 10? This is a great way to have your most used programs always at your fingertips. In our tutorials we show you how to set those hotkeys for your favorite apps.

Source Winbuzzer

It has been no secret that the Microsoft Surface Event 2022 event would happen in October, despite no official word from the company. All that was unclear is what date Microsoft would choose to introduce its next generation of Surface hardware. Well, the company has now officially announced the event will happen on October 12.

Yesterday, Microsoft posted a placeholder webpage (microsoft.com/event). All that the page says is “Watch Live to See What’s Next” alongside a watercolor Windows wallpaper with confirmation of the date (October 12 at 10 a.m. ET).That date is interesting. Firstly, it is the same day that Microsoft opens its Ignite 2022 conference. Perhaps the company is tying in new Surface hardware to announcements at Ignite. If not, one is like to steal the thunder from the other. By the way, October 12 is also when Meta Connect happens, Meta’s metaverse hardware launch.

Again, there is definitely a chance Meta steals attention from the Surface Event. Microsoft will likely be simply offering incremental updates over previous Surface models. Meta, on the other hand, will be launching hardware associated with a nascent but buzzy technology.

What to Expect?

Either way, we now know when we will see the next wave of Microsoft Surface devices. Rumors and leaks in recent weeks give us a good idea of what those devices will be. I will point you in the direction of my recent preview of the Surface Event 2022.

The new Surface Pro 9 is guaranteed, with a 5G variant recently clearing the FCC. It is also thought Microsoft is merging the Surface Pro X into the regular Surface Pro device. This means that there will be an ARM variant of the Pro 9.

Elsewhere, Microsoft will likely roll out a Surface Laptop 5, while there are rumors that a Surface Gaming Laptop might make its debut.

Tip of the day: If you need to Create, Delete or Resize Partitions, Windows has everything you thanks to the built-in Disk Management-tool

Source Winbuzzer

Microsoft this morning published its Work Trend Index Pulse Report titled “Hybrid Work Is Just Work. Are We Doing It Wrong?” In this report, the company highlights how hybrid work continues to transform the workplace. But there are challenges, including “a growing disconnect between employees and leaders.” To address these challenges, Microsoft is rolling out new abilities on its Microsoft Viva platform.

Microsoft has been expanding its Viva employee experience platform over the last couple of use. Based in Microsoft 365, the service is compiled of various components. It is designed to provide a suite of employee tools encompassing knowledge, learning, resources, communications, and insights.

Viva already has a number of components available. Today, Microsoft is expanding the capabilities of those apps while also introducing new apps to the Microsoft Viva ecosystem. According to CEO Satya Nadella, the new services will increase the connection between employees and organizations:

“Thriving employees are what will give organizations a competitive advantage in today’s dynamic economic environment,” says Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “Today, we’re announcing new innovations across our employee experience platform Microsoft Viva to help leaders end productivity paranoia, rebuild social capital, and re-recruit and re-energize their employees.”

Microsoft is covering its Viva platform with new announcements:

Viva Pulse

An entirely new application, Viva Pulse provides managers and team leaders with a solution for getting confidential feedback from their teams. This plug directly into Microsoft Teams and provides templates, analytics, and research questions leaders can put to employees.

On the employee side, Viva Pulse provides an efficient way for teams to give their opinion. Managers can use feedback to make changes to workflows and productivity focus. Furthermore, the app offers learning actions for relevant topics.

Viva Amplify

Another new experience, Microsoft Viva Amplify aims to streamline communication between teams and leaders. The core of this app is a central hub for communication, while also providing structure for energizing connections. For example, Amplify provides writing guidance to employees, HR, corporate communications, and more.

When ready, users can publish the communication to multiple channels. Other tools within Viva Amplify include managing communications from a single location, checking metrics to make future changes, and accessing data.

Answers in Viva

Microsoft wants to empower businesses to gain knowledge from their employee base and spur growth internally. Answers in Viva is the company’s attempt to achieve this goal. Answers plugs into Microsoft Viva components to match employee questions to the correct experts and answers within their organization.

Microsoft leverages its AI technology to provide similar questions that have previously been answered. Moreover, Answers for Viva also recommends topics and experts that can help the employee. At the moment, the tool is available in Viva Topics and Viva Engage but could eventually come to other Viva components.

People in Viva

As the name suggests, People in Viva puts a focus on the people who are essential to the employee experience. It will help users engage with their colleagues by providing discovery for experts and connections. Available in Microsoft 365 profile cards or as a separate app, People in Viva leverages AI to connects colleagues based on knowledge, goals, and interests.

Microsoft points out the tool is designed to improve collaboration and promote team building. In a hybrid environment, remote workers are often disconnected from their in-office colleagues. A tool like People in Viva aims to bridge that disconnection.

Viva Engage

You may remember Microsoft introduced Viva Engage last month in preview. Well, today the app is graduating to general availability. Viva Engage is essentially a social media platform for workplaces. Think Facebook but locked into an internal organization. It allows users to post content and create communities.

Microsoft is today adding new capabilities to Engage. Leadership Corner is a new tool that encourages leaders to start communications within communities. Ask Me Anything (AMA) events, surveys, and other options are available to connect leaders with employees.

Viva Goals

Another new Viva component that launched last month is Viva Goals. The provides a management suite for the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) framework. OKR is popular with major corporations, and Viva Goals will help admins track goals and progress on OKR. Today, Microsoft is providing new integrations within Goals.

For example, there is now an enhanced version of Microsoft Teams that allows users to check and collaborate on OKRs with the activity feed on Teams. There is also a new extension within Azure DevOps, a direct link to Power BI datasets, and integration with Microsoft Project and Microsoft Planner.

Viva Sales

As well as making announcements for the present, Microsoft also had news for the – not so distant – future. Specifically, the company says that Viva Sales will become generally available on October 3. Initially launched in June, Sales has been in preview since.

The app serves sellers by providing a hub for them to connect customer relationship management (CRM) solutions in a single place. Microsoft Viva Sales is available in Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365, allowing users to collect CRMs together and enhance their selling experience through AI tools.

Source  Winbuzzer