By Siôn Geschwindt Swedish foodtech startup Millow has opened its first commercial-scale factory at a former LEGO production hall in Gothenburg.  The facility will use a patented dry fermentation process in which mycelium — the root-like structure of fungus — feeds on oats in a bioreactor. There, it rapidly grows into a meat alternative that can replace everything from beef mince to doner kebab. Millow aims to produce 500kg of the so-called mycoprotein per day at the site once fully operational later this year. The company’s founders hope its product, also called Millow, will iron out the kinks in the alternative meat sector. …This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

Long predicted, the end of the smartphone as we know it now seems to be gradually approaching. The reason: instead of laboriously moving from app to app, artificial intelligence (AI) will enable AI assistants to carry out cross-app tasks in the future, including by voice command.

A look back at the development of user interfaces shows just how significant this step is: While the command line still dominated in the early 1970s, it was gradually replaced by the graphical user interface (GUI) from the 1980s onwards. Touch operation followed in the 2000s and voice input was gradually added. Nevertheless, apps are still silos in which users operate in relative isolation — a situation that is now slowly disappearing with the triumph of generative AI (genAI) and AI agents.

Off to a shaky start

Pioneers in the field of AI devices include the Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit r1. These devices broke away from the classic form factor of a smartphone and were primarily operated by voice. But contrary to what the marketing promised, the technology was not ready for practical use and the commands were not well implemented, disappointing both reviewers and users. Although the Rabbit r1 is still available, the more expensive Humane AI Pin was discontinued in early 2025, less than a year after its launch.

The Humane AI Pin lasted less than a year.shutterstock.com – Tada Images

Deutsche Telekom also presented a concept AI phone at MWC 2024, in which the countless apps on a smartphone were to be replaced by an AI-based assistant.

The idea: like a concierge, the AI understands the user’s wishes and then takes care of the details. Instead of searching for a flight to the World Cup quarter-finals in various portals or airline apps, for example, the user should be able to order this simply by voice command via their smartphone. This is at least one scenario that appears to have been borrowed from the connected car sector.

Deutsche Telekom intends to stick with this idea. The company presented an updated version of its AI phone in Barcelona this year and announced that it would be available “at an affordable price” in the second half of the year.

While the unassuming exterior of the Android smartphone has remained the same, Deutsche Telekom’s technology partner has changed. Instead of Natural AI from Brain.ai, a genAI solution from Perplexity (also cloud-based) is now used. The Telekom phone will offer additional AI features in the form of applications from Google Cloud AI (object recognition), Elevenlabs (a podcast generator) and Picsart (a genAI design tool).

srcset=”https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 6000w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=300%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=768%2C432&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&quality=50&strip=all 1024w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=1536%2C864&quality=50&strip=all 1536w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=2048%2C1152&quality=50&strip=all 2048w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=1240%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 1240w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=150%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 150w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=854%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 854w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=640%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 640w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/MWC_DT_KI_Phone_Magenta_AI_teleko_16.jpg?resize=444%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 444w” width=”1024″ height=”576″ sizes=”(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px”>Deutsche Telekom’s AI phone relies on a cloud AI solution from Perplexity.Deutsche Telekom

Users can get an impression of how it works with the Perplexity Assistant (not to be confused with the AI-supported search engine), which is freely available as an app. On Android devices, the AI tool is able to open various apps, send messages, reserve tables in restaurants via OpenTable, and translate texts on the screen, among other things.

On the iPhone, the app’s functionality is somewhat limited but can easily outshine Siri when accessing third-party apps. The iOS version of Perplexity also offers a function that the company calls “Persistent Listening.” If this is activated, the voice assistant continues to listen to the user’s voice, even if they leave or switch apps. This is a workaround, as Apple naturally does not allow a “wake-up word” such as “Hey Siri.”

OpenAI and Google are getting involved

In view of the current trend towards AI agents, or agentic AI, similar approaches can also be found among other providers. In January, for example, OpenAI presented Operator, an AI agent that can independently perform a range of repetitive tasks on the web. According to the provider, the agent, which is currently only available in the US (as a preview for Pro users of ChatGPT), can be tasked with a variety of repetitive browser-based tasks, such as filling out forms or ordering food. Operator is powered by OpenAI’s Computer-Using Agent (CUA), an AI model that combines the visual capabilities of GPT-4o with reasoning.

According to OpenAI, CUA is trained to interact with graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in the same way that humans do. This is done with the help of numerous “screenshots” of the website, which are evaluated by the AI in order to initiate the next step. According to the company, this makes the agent flexible enough to carry out digital tasks without using operating system or web-specific APIs.

It’s worth noting, too, that OpenAI is showing strong interest in developing AI devices with its $6.5 billion purchase of io, an AI hardware startup founded by former Apple design wunderkind Jony Ive.

Google is working on the topic of AI assistants in several projects. At its I/O 2025 developer conference, the tech giant demonstrated the latest advances in Project Astra, among other things. The most revolutionary innovation: Astra can now act proactively. Instead of only reacting to direct commands, the assistant continuously observes its surroundings and decides independently when it should intervene.

Project Mariner, which was first presented in December 2024, now comprises a system of agents that can perform up to 10 different tasks simultaneously. Among other things, they are able to look up information, make bookings, and make purchases — all at the same time.

In a demo at I/O, Google showed how a simple command such as “Plan a weekend trip to Berlin” led to a cascade of actions: the agent researched flights, hotels, and activities and presented a complete itinerary, all without further user interaction. As with the other tools, the principle of “Human in the Loop” (HITL) applies to such steps: the agents explain their actions, ask questions when important decisions are made, and can be interrupted by the user at any time.

On-device AI or cloud AI — or both?

While cloud AI promises further AI expansion and — with good connectivity — better performance, hardware manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm are focusing on “on-device AI” to differentiate themselves and create incentives to buy new, high-quality devices.

At the launch of its new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S25, Samsung proudly announced that the corresponding features had almost doubled compared to its predecessor. As an example of this, the Korean company cited the ability to activate settings such as dark mode via voice command. And Google’s Gemini assistant can be activated via the function key to use Samsung and Google apps without having to select them individually. Some third-party apps such as Spotify and WhatsApp can also be controlled in this way.

Qualcomm, which provides the necessary AI computing power for high-end smartphones such as the S25 with its Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset (or the Hexagon NPU built into it), is also driving the trend towards on-device AI. The company provides a large number of small language models (SLMs) on its AI Hub. Although the language models are trained in the cloud, inferencing takes place on the device.

And Apple? The iPhone manufacturer is lagging far behind in the field of AI agents, although the original Siri app was already quite advanced in 2014 before Apple bought it and was able to make dinner reservations, find a movie theater, or call a cab. After the death of Steve Jobs, the development team had a hard time convincing software boss Craig Federighi to take AI seriously, Bloomberg reports, citing informed sources and quoting an insider: “When ChatGPT was publicly unveiled in November 2022, Apple Intelligence didn’t even exist as an idea, although it was no secret what OpenAI was doing.”

Apple is now working on “LLM Siri,” but the launch planned for 2025 is still delayed for technical reasons. According to Bloomberg, the biggest problem is that Apple had to split Siri’s infrastructure in half in order to bring the new functions to market as quickly as possible. The old code was used for old functions (such as setting an alarm) and the new code for requests that use personal data. However, this trick caused integration problems that led to delays.

How much personalization is needed?

In order to create context for some tasks, it is of course an advantage if the agents can incorporate personal knowledge about the user, such as gender and age, but also things like location and place of residence or culinary preferences. A classic marketing example is a scenario in which a user wants to eat something on the way home. He asks the AI assistant to find him a restaurant and reserve a table.

When it comes to finding a restaurant that suits the user’s eating habits and is on the route, classic data collectors such as Google have a clear advantage. However, a device such as the smartphone, as a constant companion, is also able to collect a lot of personal data about the user. At the same time, the inhibition threshold for sharing information should not be as high.

Announcements by companies such as OPPO prove that such a personal knowledge graph is not fiction. The smartphone manufacturer recently announced that it is developing a new knowledge system that will serve as a central repository for user data. “The system is designed to learn and adapt from users’ activities, interests, data and memories. This should enable highly personalized AI experiences and thus progress towards a future vision of intelligent, AI-driven operating systems,” the announcement states.

Samsung, for its part, laid the foundation for such a knowledge graph back in 2024 with the acquisition of Oxford Semantic and has now integrated it into its Galaxy S25 family. “RDFox is the technology behind Samsung’s Personal Data Engine, which creates hyper-personalized user experiences while ensuring the privacy and security of data on the device,” Oxford Semantic announced at the launch of the new Samsung flagship. By using knowledge graph technology to integrate and link data, RDFox improves the understanding of how people use a product or service and enables relevant information to be retrieved quickly and recommendations to be made.

Additional considerations

Once such a personal knowledge graph is up and running, the problems are only just beginning: To prevent misuse, it must be stored in a secure enclave in a highly encrypted form. In the case of the Galaxy S25, for example, they are stored in Samsung’s Knox Vault and protected by the blockchain-based Knox Matrix security system.

At the same time, however, numerous other questions arise, some of which still need to be answered, such as:

To what extent is this information passed on when devices are changed? What scenarios are there when switching to the successor model, a model from the same manufacturer, a model with the same operating system or even a different operating system?

Is there a backup in the cloud for migration or loss scenarios?

Do multiple devices — such as a tablet and smartphone — share knowledge?

Is there a cross-device knowledge graph for several agents or several separate ones?

Are there different databases for different personas (e.g., private or professional)?

But more technical aspects also need to be addressed if the AI is constantly listening — such as energy management. One option is to use several AIs: a power-saving AI module waits in the background for commands and then passes them on to other, specialized AIs.

Possible app applications

If the AI agents primarily access functions and services via APIs, this naturally also has consequences for the user interface of apps. “Apps will not become meaningless, but different,” comments the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering (IESE) on the development in a blog post.

A future-proof software concept must therefore be designed in such a way that it also works when users do not even see the software interface. “The ability to function seamlessly in different contexts and across different interfaces is becoming the decisive factor for success,” Fraunhofer IESE states.

“The challenge and the art of native app development will be to see these developments not as competition, but as an opportunity,” adds Mark Zimmermann, Head of CoE for Mobile Application Development at EnBW. “Successful apps of the future will not only rely on classic UI elements, but will also be intelligently interlinked with AI-controlled systems.”

Mobility expert Mark Zimmermann advises app developers to get to grips with the trend early on. EnBW

According to Zimmermann, the key to success lies in integration: “Customers need to be met where they expect to be — be it through voice interaction, multimodal interfaces, or directly in existing ecosystems. So it’s not about the end of the UI, but about its transformation. Those who get to grips with these technologies early on and integrate them will remain competitive in the long term.”

This article was originally published on Computerwoche.

Source:: Computer World

Apple continues to put forth the proposition that how it runs its App Store is good for customers. The company’s annual App Store fraud analysis puts a number to this benefit, revealing that Apple has prevented over $9 billion in fraudulent transactions at the App Store in the last five years.

Apple’s data comes as the company continues to trudge through ice and fire concerning how it runs the App Store, with payment methods and support for transactions outside its store all being attacked by regulators everywhere. And while the arguments against it gain favor, Apple wants its own arguments heard, countering the sometimes one-sided reportage around its mythical “Apple Tax.”

“In the last five years, the App Store has protected users by preventing over $9 billion in fraudulent transactions, including over $2 billion in 2024 alone, according to Apple’s annual App Store fraud analysis,” Apple said. 

That’s up about 10% over last year, when it prevented over $1.8 billion in fraud.

The cost of vigilance, the price of failure

The cost of security is, they say, eternal vigilance, which is what Apple promises at its stores. Achieving that vigilance takes a big investment, not just of time but also of money to pay people to do the watching. 

To give a sense of scale, Apple told us that 7.7 million apps were submitted to the App Store last year, and of these, 1.9 million were rejected. With Apple’s teams assessing 150,000 app submissions every week, third-party stores logically need to be able to provide the same degree of security oversight to protect their own.

Perhaps one of the more staggering takeaways is the scale at which attempts against the store are being made. Apple says that in the last month, it stopped almost 4.6 million attempts to install or launch illicitly distributed apps. It also blocked more than 10,000 illegitimate apps distributed by what the company calls “pirate storefronts.” 

What threats are users exposed to? 

Apple shares a few, including deceptive apps designed to steal personal information, and fraudulent payment schemes that attempt to exploit users. Some of the other commonly used attack forms Apple says it blocked last year: 

Apps with hidden features and functionality that are only enabled after the app passes App Review. Apple rejected over 43,000 apps for this kind of thing last year. 

More than 320,000 submissions that copied other apps, were spam, or otherwise misled users were rejected.

Risky software disguised as innocuous apps. Apple’s App Review team removed over 17,000 apps for bait-and-switch maneuvers such as these in 2024, the company said.

Apple also rejected 400,000 app submissions for privacy violations.

Of course, the company may have highlighted these attack categories as an oblique way to warn consumers using other stores of the kinds of attacks they may fall victim to.

Payment and ratings fraud

Fans of alternative payment methods to Apple Pay take note: Apple identified nearly 4.7 million stolen credit cards and banned over 1.6 million accounts from transacting again in the last year.

The company also stressed that the way its transaction system works gives customers a lot more privacy and security, as actual card details are never shared online. This of course helps prevent those details being stolen in future database attacks.

As Epic’s Fortnite storms up the App Store charts, it is also interesting that Apple’s report pays particular attention to apps that use insalubrious methods to achieve the same thing.

Apple says it removed more than 143 million fraudulent ratings and reviews from the 1.2 billion posted to the App Store last year as it identified attempts to use bots or paid services to game its reviews system. The company also kicked over 7,000 apps out of its store that made such attempts.

Developers, developers…

Of course, it’s not just customers who benefit from a well-curated app reviews system. Developers also benefit from a more equal chance to reach customers, Apple pointed out.

It is to be hoped that any future third-party stores share some of these commitments.

Those commitments should, logically, extend to discipline against developers. Apple says that in order to prevent fraud, it terminated over 146,000 developer accounts last year. It also blocked 139,000 developer enrollments.

Why are tens of thousands of attempts to overcome App Store security taking place? It could be the sheer number of people using the store, which is currently serving 813 million visits each and every week. 

What’s not being said, but could perhaps be inferred, is that once Apple is forced to open up access to third-party stores, consumers will need to become very, very certain the stores they use are delivering at least as secure a purchasing experience as Apple already does or face the consequences of that risk.

Given choice, some stay

Apple’s critics will likely mock the company’s approach, arguing that any good retailer should provide similar protections and that the company’s attempts to reinforce perception of the potential risks reflects its prime need to protect its own revenue.

Perhaps that is true, to some extent — but what is also true is that once Apple is forced to open up access to its stores and devices on a wider basis, then the gloves will be off when it comes to promoting App Store as a service.

Apple will continue to promote the advantages its already trusted service brings, while competitors will be forced to match those commitments or be exposed as providing a more insecure, less trustworthy service. For many customers, Apple’s service will still be the choice they make.

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, and Mastodon.

Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt A quarter of European organisations have banned Elon Musk’s generative AI chatbot Grok, according to new research from cybersecurity firm Netskope.  In contrast, the most popular AI app, ChatGPT, is only blocked by 9.8% of organisations in Europe. The runner-up, Google’s Gemini, is banned by 9.2%. Grok has been under the spotlight recently for a string of blunders. They include spreading false claims about a “white genocide” in South Africa and raising doubts about Holocaust facts.  Such mishaps have raised concerns about Grok’s security and privacy controls. The report said the chatbot is frequently blocked in favour of “more secure…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Hisan Kidwai Inspired by platform fighters like Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros., Project Smash is a fun Roblox game…
The post Project Smash Codes (May 2025) appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

By Thomas Macaulay TNW is tapping a touch of AI magic to discover the next big things in tech. As part of our mission to elevate the startups shaping our future, we’ve partnered with Bounce Watch to bring its powerful analytics to our repertoire of tools. Bounce Watch is an intelligence platform for company performance — and it’s seriously impressed us. The AI-powered system tracks and analyses business activity in real-time, delivering data on over 1 million startups and tailored industry insights.  It offers instant alerts on funding rounds, leadership changes, and key business signals. Investors, scouts, and corporate innovators use the data to…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Siôn Geschwindt David Reger, founder and CEO of Munich-based Neura Robotics, is building humanoid robots — and a reputation with a touch of déjà vu. In the German press, he’s sometimes dubbed the “Young Elon Musk.”  It’s a nickname Reger embraces, despite all of the controversy surrounding the world’s richest man. “For me, it’s a positive, not a negative,” he told TNW in an interview. “I respect how Musk builds companies, how successful he is, how fearless he is to drive things further.” Musk’s politics, Reger continues, aren’t the focus of his admiration. “I’m just thinking about technological advancement and how to…This story continues at The Next WebOr just read more coverage about: Tesla

Source:: The Next Web

By Deepti Pathak Emojis are now part of online chats, and we can use them to introduce emotion and…
The post How To Use Emojis on Chromebook? appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

Hard as it is to believe, there was a time when using any personal technology at work was such a radical concept that most people wouldn’t even consider it an option. IT departments went to great lengths to prevent workers from using their own devices, computers, apps/subscriptions, email, and cloud services.

The release of the iPhone in 2007 began to change that. Suddenly people were discovering that the smartphone they bought for their personal use could make them more efficient and productive at work as well.

But it was Apple’s launch of its mobile device management framework in 2010 that truly created the bring your own device movement. MDM meant that users could bring their personal devices to work, and IT departments could secure those devices as needed. Almost instantly, BYOD was something that companies began to support in industries across the board.

Fifteen years later, BYOD is fully mainstream, and a majority of businesses actively support it. But advances in technology, changing user expectations, and the fallout from Covid’s remote work mandates (and subsequent return to office mandates) have shifted the landscape, sometimes without being overtly visible.

With that in mind, I decided to reexamine the assumptions and realities of BYOD and see what has and hasn’t changed in the past decade and a half.

BYOD is everywhere but device management isn’t

The exact numbers on BYOD adoption vary depending on the source you look to and how it’s being measured. A 2022 paper from HPE claims that 90% of employees use a mix of work and personal devices on the job, while Cybersecurity Insiders says that 82% of organizations have a BYOD program. However you look at it, BYOD is now massively entrenched in our work culture and extends beyond just employees and managers. According to data from Samsung (cited by JumpCloud), 61% of organizations support BYOD for non-employees including contractors, partners, and suppliers to varying degrees.

But overtly or tacitly accepting BYOD doesn’t mean that companies actively manage BYOD devices. Cybersecurity Insiders data (also via JumpCloud) also indicates that as many as 70% of BYOD devices used in the workplace aren’t managed — a number that may seem shocking, but that figure includes personal devices used by non-employees such as contractors.

About those cost savings…

In the early days, there was an assumption that BYOD would lower hardware and service costs, but that wasn’t certain. Today there’s data.

In the early 2010s, Cisco estimated a $900+ annual savings per employee, though more recent data from Samsung (cited by JumpCloud) pegs the savings as significantly lower at $341. Despite that disparity, it’s obvious that there are savings to be had, and with significantly climbing smartphone prices, those savings are is poised to grow rather than shrink.

Of course, the cost of managing devices needs to be factored in. That cost can vary widely depending on the vendor, specific products, and adopted features, but some MDM vendors charge as little as $1 per user per month (not including staff resources). The cost of providing employees company-purchased apps is also worth noting, though that falls more in line with traditional software procurement.

Productivity gains are real, but so are distractions

The data is clear that there can be significant gains in productivity attached to BYOD. Samsung estimates that workers using their own devices can gain about an hour of productive worktime per day and Cybersecurity Insiders says that 68% of businesses see some degree of productivity increases.

Although the gains are significant, personal devices can also distract workers more than company-owned devices, with personal notifications, social media accounts, news, and games being the major time-sink culprits. This has the potential to be a real issue, as these apps can become addictive and their use compulsive.

Tools of the trade

When I think back to the first five to ten years after Apple introduced MDM, it reminds me of the later stages of the birth of the solar system, with dozens of companies offering discrete tools that solved part of the mobility and BYOD puzzle, many colliding into each other or being flung out of existence. Some focused on just supporting the MDM server spec sheet, others on cloud storage, securing and managing access to corporate content, corporate app purchasing and management, secure connectivity, user and identity management, Office alternatives (Microsoft waited nearly five years releasing an iOS version of Office), and more.

Along the way, major enterprise vendors began dominating the market, some by acquisition and others by building out existing capabilities, although there were also businesses that came out of mergers of some of the new players as well.

As the market matured, it became easy to pick a single vendor to provide all enterprise mobility and BYOD needs rather than relying on multiple companies focusing on one particular requirement.

Multiplatform support has morphed into something very different

The iPhone was the clear early standard for supporting personal devices at work, in part because the hardware, operating system, and MDM mechanics were all created by a single vendor. Going multiplatform was typically assumed to mean iOS and Android — and Android was a fragmented mess of different hardware makers with sometimes widely varying devices and customized Android variants (built to spec by the manufacturers and the demands of wireless carriers) that resulted in no coherent OS update strategy.

The gap in management capabilities has narrowed significantly since then, with Google taking a much more active role in courting and supporting enterprise customers and providing a clear and coherent enterprise strategy across a wide swath of major Android phone makers and other vendors.

But that isn’t the only massive shift in what it means to be multiplatform. Today the personal devices used in the workplace (and able to be managed using MDM) include non-phone entries including Macs, Apple TVs, Chromebooks, and Windows PCs — with Macs and PCs making up a significant number of BYOD devices.

Most MDM suites support this full range of devices to one degree or another, but support costs can rise as more and more platforms (and thus complexity) are implemented — and those costs vary by platform, with general agreement that Apple devices provide the greatest savings when it comes to technical support.

How Covid changed the BYOD equation

I’m pretty sure that in 2010, not one person on the planet was predicting a global pandemic that would lead to the vast majority of knowledge workers working from home within a decade. Yet, as we all remember, that’s exactly what happened.

The need to work from home encouraged broader adoption of personal devices as well as ancillary technologies ranging from peripherals/accessories to connectivity. Despite a litany of return-to-office mandates in recent years, remote work is here to stay, whether that’s full-time, hybrid, or just working outside traditional office hours or location.

Samsung notes that 61% of businesses expect employees to work remotely to some degree, while Robert Half reports that only 61% of new job postings in 2024 had full in-office requirements. And data from WFH Research shows that at the start of 2025, employees are working remotely 28% of the time.

Passing support to new generations

One challenge for BYOD has always been user support and education. With two generations of digital natives now comprsing more than half the workforce, support and education needs have changed. Both millennials and Gen Z have grown up with the internet and mobile devices, which makes them more comfortable making technology decisions and troubleshooting problems than baby boomers and Gen X.

This doesn’t mean that they don’t need tech support, but they do tend to need less hand-holding and don’t instinctively reach for the phone to access that support. Thus, there’s an ongoing shift to self-support resources and other, less time-intensive, models with text chat being the most common — be it with a person or a bot.

They also have different expectations in areas like privacy, processes and policies, and work-life balance. Those expectations make it more important for companies to delineate their BYOD and other tech policies as well as to explain the rationale for them. This means that user education remains important, particularly in a rapidly changing landscape. It also means that policies should be communicated in more concise and easily digestible forms than large monolithic pages of legalese.

Users actually want to update (and repair or replace) their devices

Twenty years ago, the idea of updating workplace technology was typically met with a groan from users who didn’t appreciate downtime or changes in the way things looked and worked. Even as BYOD gained traction, getting users to update their devices wasn’t always easy and required a certain amount of prompting or policing. While resistance to change will never truly die out, most smartphone (and other device) users actively update on their own because of the new features that come with OS updates and new hardware. Upgrades are something to get excited about.

BYOD users also tend to be more careful with their devices just because they are their own devices. Likewise, they’re more on point with repairs or replacements and are keen to handle those issues on their own.

Security is ever evolving

Security has always been (and always will be) a major concern when it comes to BYOD, and the threats will always be evolving. The biggest concerns stem from user behavior, with users losing devices being one big concern. Verizon reports that more than 90% of security incidents involving lost or stolen devices resulted in an unauthorized data breach, and 42% involved the leaking of internal data. Another big concern is users falling prey to malicious actors: falling for phishing schemes, downloading malware, allowing corporate data to be placed in public spaces, or letting others use their devices.

Devices themselves can be major targets, with attacks coming from different directions like public Wi-Fi, malicious apps or apps that are not designed to safeguard data properly, OS and network vulnerabilities, and so on. Supporting infrastructure can also be a weak point.

These threats are real. Research by JumpCloud indicates that 20% of businesses have seen malware as a result of unmanaged devices, and nearly half aren’t able to tell if unmanaged devices have compromised their security. Cybersecurity Insiders research shows a similar statistic of 22%, while also noting that 22% of BYOD devices have connected to malicious wireless networks.

Shadow IT will always exist

Shadow IT is a phenomenon that has existed for decades but grew rapidly alongside BYOD, when users began leveraging their personal devices, apps, and services for work without IT’s involvement, knowledge, or consent. Almost every company has some degree of shadow IT, and thus unmanaged devices or other technologies.

Organizations need to educate users (even digital natives) about security and keeping their devices safe. They also need to engage users involved in shadow IT and make allies out of them, because shadow IT often stems from unmet technological needs.

Then there’s the trust component. Many users remain uncomfortable letting IT manage their devices, because they don’t understand what IT will be able to see on them. This is a user education problem that all companies need to address clearly and unequivocally.

Still the same goals

Although much has changed about BYOD, the basic goal remains the same: allowing workers to use the devices and other tools they are comfortable with and already own… and are likely to use whether sanctioned to or not.

Source:: Computer World

Windows may get all the attention, but when you want to get real work done, you turn to the applications that run on it. And if you use spreadsheets, that generally means Excel.

Excel is, of course, part of Microsoft’s Office suite of productivity tools. Microsoft sells Office under two models: Individuals and businesses can pay for the software license up front and own it forever (what the company calls the “perpetual” version of the suite), or they can purchase a Microsoft 365 subscription, which means they have access to the software for only as long as they keep paying the subscription fee.

When you purchase a perpetual version of the suite — say, Office 2021 or Office 2024 — its applications will never get new features, whereas Microsoft 365 apps are continually updated with new features. For more details, see our in-depth comparison of the two Office models.

This cheat sheet gets you up to speed on the features that have been introduced or changed in Microsoft 365’s Excel for Windows desktop client over the past few years. (If you’re looking for Excel tips for the perpetual-license Office suite, see our Office 2021 and 2024 cheat sheet.) We’ll periodically update this story as new features roll out.

In this article

Use the Ribbon

Search to get tasks done quickly

Explore Excel’s advanced chart types

Collaborate in real time

Take advantage of linked data

Make your own custom views of a worksheet

Create dynamic arrays and charts

Use AutoSave to provide a safety net as you work

Review or restore earlier versions of a spreadsheet

Try out Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel — but don’t expect too much

Other new features to check out

Use keyboard shortcuts

Use the Ribbon

The Ribbon interface, which puts commonly used commands in a tabbed toolbar running across the top of the application window, is alive and well in the current version of Excel. Microsoft has tweaked the Ribbon’s looks numerous times over the years, but it still works the same way it always has: just click one of the Ribbon’s tabs to see related commands on the toolbar. For example, click Insert to find buttons for inserting tables, PivotTables, charts, and more.

Through the years, Excel’s Ribbon has gotten a variety of cosmetic changes, but it still works largely the way it always has.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Just as in previous versions of Excel, if you want the Ribbon commands to go away, press Ctrl-F1 or click the name of the tab you’re currently on. (The tabs above the Ribbon — File, Home, Insert, and so on — stay visible.) To make the commands reappear, press Ctrl-F1 again or click any tab name.

You’ve got other options for displaying the Ribbon as well. To get to them, click the Ribbon display options icon (a down arrow) on the bottom of the Ribbon at the far right, just below the Share button. A drop-down menu appears with these four options:

Full-screen mode: This makes Excel take up your entire screen and hides the Ribbon. To get out of full-screen mode, click the three-dot icon at the upper right of the screen.

Show tabs only: This shows the tabs but hides the commands underneath them. It’s the same as pressing Ctrl-F1. To display the commands underneath the tabs when they’re hidden, press Ctrl-F1, click a tab, or click the Ribbon display options down arrow and select Always show Ribbon.

Always show Ribbon: This displays the entire Ribbon, both the tabs and commands underneath them.

Show/Hide Quick Access toolbar: This displays or hides the Quick Access toolbar, which gives you fast access to Excel commands you want to have available no matter which tab you’re on. When you enable the toolbar, it starts off empty. To populate it, click a small down arrow that appears at the right of the toolbar and from the drop-down menu that appears, choose which features to put on it. If you don’t see a command you want, click More Commands. Find the command you want on the left and click Add.

You can have the toolbar appear either at the top of the screen, just to the right of the AutoSave button, or just underneath the Ribbon. To move it from one place to another, click a small down arrow that appears at the right of the toolbar and from the drop-down menu that appears, select either Show below the Ribbon or Show above the Ribbon. 

Microsoft has for many years teased a simplified version of the Ribbon that hides most of the commands to reduce clutter. That simplified Ribbon is available in the Excel web app, but there’s currently no sign that it will appear in the Excel desktop app.

There’s a useful feature in what Microsoft calls the backstage area that appears when you click the File tab on the Ribbon. If you click Open or Save a Copy from the menu on the left, you can see the cloud-based services you’ve connected to your Office account, such as SharePoint and OneDrive. Each location displays its associated email address underneath it. This is quite helpful if you use a cloud service with more than one account, such as if you have one OneDrive account for personal use and another one for business. You’ll be able to see at a glance which is which.

Click the Add a service dropdown to add another cloud storage account.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Search to get tasks done quickly

Excel has never been the most user-friendly of applications, and it has so many powerful features it can be tough to keep track of them all. That’s where the handy Search feature comes in.

To use it, click in the Search box — it’s above the Ribbon in the green title area. (Keyboard fans can instead press Alt-Q.) Then type in a task you want to do. If you want to summarize your spreadsheet data using a PivotTable, for example, type in something like summarize with pivot table. You’ll get a menu showing potential matches for the task. In this instance, the top result is a direct link to the form for summarizing with a PivotTable — select it and you’ll start your task right away, without having to go to the Ribbon’s Insert tab first.

The search box makes it easy to perform just about any task in Excel.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

If you’d like more information about your task, the final items that appear in the menu let you select from related Help topics.

Even if you consider yourself a spreadsheet jockey, it’s worth your while to try out the enhanced search function. It’s a big time-saver, and far more efficient than hunting through the Ribbon to find a command.

Also useful is that it remembers the features you’ve previously clicked on in the box, so when you click in it, you first see a list of previous tasks you’ve searched for. That makes sure that tasks that you frequently perform are always within easy reach. And it puts tasks you rarely do within easy reach as well.

Users of enterprise and education editions of Microsoft 365 can also use the Search box to find people in their organization, SharePoint resources, and other personalized results from within Excel. (See the Microsoft Search support page for more details about all it can do.)

Explore Excel’s advanced chart types

Charts are great for visualizing and presenting spreadsheet data, and for gaining insights from it. To that end, Microsoft has introduced a number of advanced chart types over the past several years, including most notably a histogram (frequently used in statistics), a “waterfall” that’s effective at showing running financial totals, and a hierarchical treemap that helps you find patterns in data.

Note that the new charts are available only if you’re working in an .xlsx document. If you use the older .xls format, you won’t find them.

To see all the charts, put your cursor in a cell or group of cells that contains data, select Insert > Recommended Charts and click the All Charts tab. You’ll find the newer charts, mixed in with the older ones. Select any to create the chart. (For help using charts, see our guide to charts and sparklines in Excel.)

Excel includes several advanced chart types, including waterfall.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

These are the new chart types:

Treemap. This chart type creates a hierarchical view of your data, with top-level categories (or tree branches) shown as rectangles, and with subcategories (or sub-branches) shown as smaller rectangles grouped inside the larger ones. Thus, you can easily compare the sizes of top-level categories and subcategories in a single view. For instance, a bookstore can see at a glance that it brings in more revenue from 1st Readers, a subcategory of Children’s Books, than for the entire Non-fiction top-level category.

srcset=”https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/excel2016_chart_treemap.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 830w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/excel2016_chart_treemap.jpg?resize=300%2C191&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/excel2016_chart_treemap.jpg?resize=768%2C489&quality=50&strip=all 768w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/excel2016_chart_treemap.jpg?resize=264%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 264w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/excel2016_chart_treemap.jpg?resize=132%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 132w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/excel2016_chart_treemap.jpg?resize=753%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 753w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/excel2016_chart_treemap.jpg?resize=565%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 565w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/excel2016_chart_treemap.jpg?resize=392%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 392w” width=”830″ height=”529″ sizes=”(max-width: 830px) 100vw, 830px”>A treemap chart lets you easily compare top-level categories and subcategories in a single view.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Sunburst. This chart type also displays hierarchical data, but in a multi-level pie chart. Each level of the hierarchy is represented by a circle. The innermost circle contains the top-level categories, the next circle out shows subcategories, the circle after that subsubcategories and so on.

Sunbursts are best for showing the relationships among categories and subcategories, while treemaps are better at showing the relative sizes of categories and subcategories.

A sunburst chart shows hierarchical data such as book categories and subcategories as a multi-level pie chart.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Waterfall. This chart type is well-suited for visualizing financial statements. It displays a running total of the positive and negative contributions toward a final net value.

A waterfall chart shows a running total of positive and negative contributions, such as revenue and expenses, toward a final net value.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Histogram. This kind of chart shows frequencies within a data set. It could, for example, show the number of books sold in specific price ranges in a bookstore.

Histograms are good for showing frequencies, such as number of books sold at various price points.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Pareto. This chart, also known as a sorted histogram, contains bars as well as a line graph. Values are represented in descending order by bars. The cumulative total percentage of each bar is represented by a rising line. In the bookstore example, each bar could show a reason for a book being returned (defective, priced incorrectly, and so on). The chart would show, at a glance, the primary reasons for returns, so a bookstore owner could focus on those issues.

Note that the Pareto chart does not show up when you select Insert > Recommended Charts > All Charts. To use it, first select the data you want to chart, then select Insert > Insert Statistic Chart, and under Histogram, choose Pareto.

In a Pareto chart, or sorted histogram, a rising line represents the cumulative total percentage of the items being measured. In this example, it’s easy to see that more than 80% of a bookstore’s returns are attributable to three problems.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Box & Whisker. This chart, like a histogram, shows frequencies within a data set but provides for a deeper analysis than a histogram. For example, in a bookstore it could show the distribution of prices of different genres of books. In the example shown here, each “box” represents the first to third quartile of prices for books in that genre, while the “whiskers” (the lines extending up and down from the box) show the upper and lower range of prices. Outliers that are priced outside the whiskers are shown as dots, the median price for each genre is shown with a horizontal line across the box, and the mean price is shown with an x.

Box & Whisker charts can show details about data ranges such as the first to third quartile in the “boxes,” median and mean inside the boxes, upper and lower range with the “whiskers,” and outliers with dots.Preston Gralla / Foundry

Funnel. This chart type is useful when you want to display values at multiple stages in a process. A funnel chart can show the number of sales prospects at every stage of a sales process, for example, with prospects at the top for the first stage, qualified prospects underneath it for the second stage, and so on, until you get to the final stage, closed sales. Generally, the values in funnel charts decrease with each stage, so the bars in the chart look like a funnel.

Funnel charts let you display values at multiple stages in a process.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

When creating the data for a funnel chart, use one column for the stages in the process you’re charting, and a second column for the values for each stage. Once you’ve done that, to create the chart, select the data, then select Insert > Recommended Charts > All Charts > Funnel.

Map. Map charts do exactly what you think they should: They let you compare data across different geographical regions, such as countries, regions, states, counties, or postal codes. Excel will automatically recognize the regions and create a map that visualizes the data.

You can compare data across different locations with a map chart.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

To create a map chart, select the data you want to chart, then select Insert > Maps, then select the map chart. Note that in some instances, Excel might have a problem creating the map — for example, if there are multiple locations with the same name as one that you’re mapping. If that occurs, you’ll have to add one or more columns with details about the locations. If, say, you’re charting towns in the United Kingdom, you would have to include columns for the county and country each town is located in.

Collaborate in real time

For those who frequently collaborate with others, a welcome feature in Excel for Microsoft 365 is real-time collaboration that lets people work on spreadsheets together from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Microsoft calls this “co-authoring.”

Note that in order to use co-authoring, the spreadsheet must be stored in OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint Online, and you must be logged into your Microsoft 365 account. Also, co-authoring works in Excel only if you have AutoSave turned on. To do it, choose the On option on the AutoSave slider at the top left of the screen.

To share a spreadsheet so you can collaborate on it with others: first open it, then click the Share button on the upper-right of the Excel screen. The “Send link” window pops up. Here you can send an email with a link where others can access the spreadsheet.

Use the “Send link” pane to share a document and the “Link settings” pane to fine-tune its access permissions.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Enter the email address of the person with whom you want to share in the text box. Enter multiple addresses, separated by commas, if you want to share the workbook with multiple people.

One feature I found particularly useful when adding email addresses: As you type, Excel looks through your corporate or personal address book and lists the names and addresses of contacts who match the text you’ve input. Click the address you want to add. This not only saves you a bit of time but helps make sure you don’t incorrectly type in addresses.

Next, decide whether anyone with the link can access the file, or only those whose email addresses you enter. If you see the text “Anyone with the link can edit” near the top of the pane, you can change that by clicking it, then choosing Specific people on the screen that appears. Similarly, if “Specific people” appears above the email addresses, you can change that by clicking it, then choosing Anyone with the link can edit from the screen that appears.

(If you use a business, enterprise, or education edition of Office, your IT department may have set up different sharing permissions on these two screens, such as an option to allow anyone within your organization to edit the document. You may also need to click a Link settings button — a gear icon — to access the “Link settings” pane.)

On this second screen you can also set the document to read-only for everybody, or allow everybody to edit it. In the “Other settings” section, click the down arrow and choose either Can edit, which allows full editing, or Can view, which is read-only. If you want to give certain people editing privileges and others view-only privileges, you can send two separate invitations with different rights selected.

On this screen you can also set an expiration date after which people won’t be able to access the file, and you can set a password so that only people who have the password can access it. When you’ve made your selections, click Apply.

Back in the main “Send link” screen, you can send a message along with the link by typing it into the Message box. Then click Send. An email is sent to all the recipients with a link they can click to open the document.

Your collaborators will get an email like this when you share a spreadsheet.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

(If you’d rather send recipients a copy of the file as an Excel file instead of a link, and thus not allow real-time collaboration, click Send a copy at the bottom of the “Send link” screen.)

There’s another way to share a file stored in a personal OneDrive for collaboration: In the “Copy link” area at the bottom of the “Send link” pane, click Copy. When you do that, you can copy the link and send it to someone yourself via email. Note that you have the same options for setting access and editing permissions as you do if you have Excel send the link directly for you. Just click Anyone with the link can edit or Specific people below “Copy link,” and follow the instructions above.

To begin collaborating: When your recipients receive the email and click to open the spreadsheet, they’ll open it in the web version of Excel in a browser, not in the desktop version of Excel. If you’ve granted them edit permissions, they can begin editing immediately in the browser or else click Editing > Open in Desktop App on the upper right of the screen to work in the Excel desktop client. Excel for the web is less powerful and polished than the desktop client, but it works well enough for real-time collaboration.

As soon as any collaborators open the file, you’ll see a colored cursor that indicates their presence in the file. Each person collaborating gets a different color. Hover your cursor over a colored cell that indicates someone’s presence, and you’ll see their name. Once they begin editing the workbook, such as entering data or a formula into a cell, creating a chart, and so on, you see the changes they make in real time. Your cursor also shows up on their screen as a color, and they see the changes you make.

You can easily see where collaborators are working in a shared worksheet.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Collaboration includes the ability to make comments in a file, inside individual cells, without actually changing the contents of the cell. To do it, right-click a cell, select New Comment and type in your comment. Everyone collaborating can see that a cell has a comment in it — it’s indicated by a small colored notch appearing in the upper right of the cell. The color matches the person’s collaboration color.

To see someone’s comment in a cell, hover your cursor over the cell or put your cursor in the cell and you’ll see the comment, the name of the person who made the comment, and a Reply box you can use to send a reply. You can also click the Comments button on the upper right of the screen to open the Comments pane, which lists every comment by every person. Click any comment to jump to the cell it’s in. You can also reply when you click a comment in the pane.

You can make see comments that other people make, and make comments yourself.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Take advantage of linked data

Excel for Microsoft 365 has a feature that Microsoft calls “linked data types.” Essentially, they’re cells that are connected to an online source (Bing) that automatically updates their information — for example, a company’s current stock price. As I write this, there are nearly approximately 100 linked data types, including not just obvious data types such as stocks, geography, and currencies, but many others, including chemistry, cities, anatomy, food, yoga, and more.

To use them, type the items you want to track into cells in a single column. For stocks, for example, you can type in a series of stock ticker symbols, company names, fund names, etc. After that, select the cells, then on the Ribbon’s Data tab, select Stocks in the Data Types section in the middle. (If you had typed in geographic names such as countries, states, or cities, you would instead select Geography.) Excel automatically converts the text in each cell into the matching data source — in our example, into the company name and stock ticker.

Excel also adds a small icon to the left edge of each cell identifying it as a linked cell. Click any icon and a data card will pop up showing all sorts of information about the kind of information you’ve typed in.  For instance, a stock data card shows stock-related information such as current price, today’s high and low, and 52-week high and low, as well as general company information including industry and number of employees. A location card shows the location’s population, capital, GDP, and so on.

You can build out a table using data from the data card. To do so, select the cells again, and an Insert Data button appears. Click the button, then select the information you want to appear, such as Price for the current stock price, or Population for the population of a geographic region.

srcset=”https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/excel-microsoft365-15-linked-data-2023.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 620w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/excel-microsoft365-15-linked-data-2023.jpg?resize=300%2C293&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/excel-microsoft365-15-linked-data-2023.jpg?resize=172%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 172w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/excel-microsoft365-15-linked-data-2023.jpg?resize=86%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 86w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/excel-microsoft365-15-linked-data-2023.jpg?resize=491%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 491w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/excel-microsoft365-15-linked-data-2023.jpg?resize=368%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 368w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/excel-microsoft365-15-linked-data-2023.jpg?resize=256%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 256w” width=”620″ height=”606″ sizes=”(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px”>Linked data types let you insert information, such as a company’s high and low stock prices, that is continually updated.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Excel will automatically add a column to the right populated with the latest information for each item you’re tracking, and will keep it updated. You can click the Insert Data button multiple times to keep adding columns to the right for different types of data from the item’s data card.  It’s helpful to add column headers so you know what each column is showing.

Make your own custom views of a worksheet

Sheet Views let you make a copy of a sheet and then apply filtered or sorted views of the data to the new sheet. It’s useful when you’re working with other people on a spreadsheet, and someone wants to create a customized view without altering the original sheet. You can all create multiple custom-filtered/sorted views for a sheet. Once you’ve saved a sheet view, anyone with access to the spreadsheet can see it.

Note: To use this feature, your spreadsheet must be stored in OneDrive.

Sheet views work best when your data is in table format. Select the data, then go to the Ribbon toolbar and click the Insert tab. Near the left end of the Insert toolbar, click the Table button and then OK.

To create a new sheet view, click the Ribbon’s View tab, then click the New button in the Sheet View area at the far left. The row numbers and column letters at the left and top of your spreadsheet turn black to let you know you’re in a new sheet view. In the Sheet View area of the Ribbon, it says Temporary View, the default name given to a new sheet view before you’ve saved it.

Here’s a sheet view with data sorted from highest to lowest costs.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Now apply whatever sorting and filtering you like to the data. (If you need help, see the “How to sort and filter data” section of our Excel tables guide.)

To save this view, click the Keep button in the Sheet View area of the Ribbon. When you do that, it is saved as “View1” by default. You can click View1 and type in a more meaningful name for the view. When you click Exit on this toolbar, you return to your spreadsheet, and the row numbers and columns on the left and top of the spreadsheet are no longer black.

To switch from one sheet view to another, click the View tab. At the left of the Ribbon toolbar, click the down arrow next to the name of the current view (it will say Default if you’re viewing the spreadsheet without a sheet view applied) to open a dropdown list of the sheet views created for the spreadsheet. Click the name of a sheet view to switch to it. Whenever you’re looking at a sheet view, the row numbers and column letters framing your spreadsheet remain black to indicate that you’re in a sheet view, not the original spreadsheet.

Create dynamic arrays and charts

Dynamic arrays let you write formulas that return multiple values based on your data. When data on the spreadsheet is updated, the dynamic arrays automatically update and resize themselves.

To create a dynamic array, first create a table as outlined in the previous tip. Make sure to include a column that lists categories. Also put in at least one column to its right that lists corresponding values. Put a header at the top of each column.

So, for example, if you’re creating a spreadsheet for a business trip budget, Column A might list expenses, such as plane tickets, meals, hotel, etc., and Column B could list each item’s cost on the same row.

Once you’ve set up the table, use a dynamic array function on it, such as FILTER, SORT, or UNIQUE to create a dynamic array next to the table. Here’s an example of a formula for using the FILTER function:

=FILTER(A2:B9, B2:B9 Options > Save and uncheck the box marked AutoSave files stored in the Cloud by default on Excel.

Using AutoSave may require some rethinking of your workflow. Many people are used to creating new worksheets based on existing ones by opening the existing file, making changes to it, and then using Save As to save the new version under a different name, leaving the original file intact. Be warned that doing this with AutoSave enabled will save your changes in the original file. Instead, Microsoft suggests opening the original file and immediately selecting File > Save a Copy (which replaces Save As when AutoSave is enabled) to create a new version.

If AutoSave does save unwanted changes to a file, you can always use the Version History feature described below to roll back to an earlier version.

Review or restore earlier versions of a spreadsheet

There’s an extremely useful feature hiding in the title bar in Excel for Microsoft 365: You can use Version History to go back to previous versions of a file, review them, compare them side-by-side with your existing version, and copy and paste from an older file to your existing one. You can also restore an entire old version.

To do it, click the file name at the top of the screen in an open file. A drop-down menu appears. Click Version History, and the Version History pane appears on the right side of the screen with a list of the previous versions of the file, including the time and date they were saved. (Alternatively, you can select the File tab on the Ribbon, click Info from the menu on the left, and then click the Version History button.)

Use Version History to see all previous versions of a spreadsheet, copy and paste from an older file to your existing one, or restore an entire old version.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

In the Version History pane, click Open version under any older version, and that version appears as a read-only version in a new window. Scroll through the version and copy any content you want, then paste it into the latest version of the file. To restore the old version, overwriting the current one, click the Restore button.

Try out Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel — but don’t expect too much

For an additional subscription fee, business users of Excel can use Microsoft’s genAI add-in, Microsoft 365 Copilot. You can have Copilot suggest and create charts, create formulas, mine spreadsheets for data insights you might have missed, and more. If you have a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription, many of those features are now bundled with your core subscription.

To start using Copilot in Excel, open a spreadsheet and click the Copilot button at the right of the Ribbon’s Home tab. The Copilot panel will appear on the right, offering suggestions for actions it can perform, such as summarizing your data with a chart, adding formulas to the spreadsheet, or applying conditional formatting to the sheet. You can also chat with Copilot in the panel, asking questions about your data or how to perform an action yourself.

Note that these suggestions are generic and won’t always make sense. For example, when you start with a blank worksheet and click the Copilot button, its suggestions include summarizing data using pivot tables or charts, even though there’s no data to chart or put into a table.

Microsoft 365 Copilot can help you in multiple ways in Excel, including creating formulas and charts, mining spreadsheets for insights, and more.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

In my testing, I found that Copilot wasn’t particularly helpful. For example, when I asked it to summarize data using a PivotTable or chart, several times it responded, “Something went wrong. Please try again in a moment.” Then it said that I first needed to reformat parts of my spreadsheet by using the Transform() function, and gave confusing advice on how I could do it — it wouldn’t do the task itself. (Eventually, I gave up.)

When I asked it to suggest conditional formatting for my spreadsheet, which would highlight important data, it told me which data I should highlight but didn’t explain why the data was important. It also didn’t do the highlighting for me or tell me how to do it.

I gave it one more try and asked it to perform an advanced analysis, which it would use Python to do. It certainly did something, although it was unclear what it was. It overwrote my original spreadsheet and added a section that claimed to show annual growth rates for revenue streams. But the data seemed to be incorrect.

Perhaps advanced spreadsheet jockeys might be able to make sense of what Copilot is up to whenever they ask it for help. But mere mortal businesspeople may find it of no help at all.

In my testing, I found Copilot not at all helpful, although spreadsheet jockeys may be able to make some sense of what it does.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

What’s more, Microsoft’s focus on Copilot in M365 has reduced the usefulness of Excel in some ways. For example, there used to be a handy feature called Smart Lookup that let you conduct targeted web searches from inside Excel. But at the beginning of 2025, Microsoft removed Smart Lookup from Excel, saying that the feature has been deprecated.

Now the only way to search the web from inside Excel is via Copilot, which lacks some features of Smart Lookup — notably the ability to highlight words or phrases in a document and trigger an automatic web search. And M365 Copilot isn’t available to business customers unless they pay the additional subscription fee.

Other features to check out

Spreadsheet pros will be pleased with several other features and tools that have been added to Excel for Microsoft 365 over the past few years, from a quick data analysis tool to an advanced 3D mapping platform.

Get an instant data analysis

If you’re looking to analyze data in a spreadsheet, the Quick Analysis tool will help. Highlight the cells you want to analyze, then move your cursor to the lower right-hand corner of what you’ve highlighted. A small icon of a spreadsheet with a lightning bolt on it appears. Click it and you’ll get a variety of tools for performing instant analysis of your data. For example, you can use the tool to highlight the cells with a value greater than a specific number, get the numerical average for the selected cells, or create a chart on the fly.

The Quick Analysis feature gives you a variety of tools for analyzing your data instantly.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Translate text

You can translate text from right within Excel. Highlight the cell whose text you want translated, then select Review > Translate. A Translator pane opens on the right. Excel will detect the words’ language at the top of the pane; you then select the language you want it translated to below. If Excel can’t detect the language of the text you chose or detects it incorrectly, you can override it.

Easily find worksheets that have been shared with you

It’s easy to forget which worksheets others have shared with you. In Excel for Microsoft 365 there’s an easy way to find them: Select File > Open > Shared with Me to see a list of them all. Note that this only works with OneDrive (both Personal and Business) and SharePoint Online. You’ll also need to be signed into you Microsoft or work or school account.

Predict the future with Forecast Sheet

Using the Forecast Sheet function, you can generate forecasts built on historical data. If, for example, you have a worksheet showing past book sales by date, Forecast Sheet can predict future sales based on past ones.

To use the feature, you must be working in a worksheet that has time-based historical data. Put your cursor in one of the data cells, go to the Data tab on the Ribbon and select Forecast Sheet from the Forecast group toward the right. On the screen that appears, you can select various options such as whether to create a line or bar chart and what date the forecast should end. Click the Create button, and a new worksheet will appear showing your historical and predicted data and the forecast chart. (Your original worksheet will be unchanged.)

The Forecast Sheet feature can predict future results based on historical data.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Manage data for analysis with Get & Transform

This feature is not entirely new to Excel. Formerly known as Power Query, it was made available as a free add-in to Excel 2013 and worked only with the PowerPivot features in Excel Professional Plus. Microsoft’s Power BI business intelligence software offers similar functionality.

Now called Get & Transform, it’s a business intelligence tool that lets you pull in, combine, and shape data from wide variety of local and cloud sources. These include Excel workbooks, CSV files, SQL Server and other databases, Azure, Active Directory, and many others. You can also use data from public sources including Wikipedia.

Get & Transform helps you pull in and shape data from a wide variety of sources.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

You’ll find the Get & Transform tools together in a group on the Data tab in the Ribbon. For more about using these tools, see Microsoft’s “Getting Started with Get & Transform in Excel.”

Make a 3D map

Before Excel 2016, Power Map was a popular free 3D geospatial visualization add-in for Excel. Now it’s free, built into Excel for Microsoft 365, and has been renamed 3D Maps. With it, you can plot geographic and other information on a 3D globe or map. You’ll need to first have data suitable for mapping, and then prepare that data for 3D Maps.

Those steps are beyond the scope of this article, but here’s advice from Microsoft about how to get and prepare data for 3D Maps. Once you have properly prepared data, open the spreadsheet and select Insert > 3D Map > Open 3D Maps. Then click Enable from the box that appears. That turns on the 3D Maps feature. For details on how to work with your data and customize your map, head to the Microsoft tutorial “Get started with 3D Maps.”

If you don’t have data for mapping but just want to see firsthand what a 3D map is like, you can download sample data created by Microsoft. The screenshot shown here is from Microsoft’s Dallas Utilities Seasonal Electricity Consumption Simulation demo. When you’ve downloaded the workbook, open it up, select Insert > 3D Map > Open 3D Maps and click the map to launch it.

With 3D Maps you can plot geospatial data in an interactive 3D map.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Automate tasks

If you have OneDrive for Business and use Excel with a commercial or educational Microsoft 365 license, you can automate tasks with the Automate tab. You’ll be able to create and edit scripts with the Code Editor, run automated tasks with a button click, and share the script with co-workers. See Microsoft’s “Office Scripts in Excel” documentation for details.

Insert data from a picture into Excel

There are times you may find data inside an image file that you’d like to get into Excel. Typically, you’ll have to input the data from it manually. There’s now a way to have Excel convert the information on the image into data for a worksheet.

In the Get & Transform Data group on the Data tab, click the From Picture dropdown and select Picture From File to choose the image you want to grab data from, or Picture from Clipboard to take a screenshot of an image on your PC and then import the data. For more details, see Microsoft’s “Insert data from picture” support page.  

Use keyboard shortcuts

Here’s one last productivity tip: If you memorize a handful of keyboard shortcuts for common tasks in Excel, you can save a great deal of time over hunting for the right command to click on. See “Handy Excel keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Mac” for our favorites.

This article was originally published in August 2019 and most recently updated in May 2025.

More Excel tutorials:

Excel basics: Get started with tables

Excel basics: Get started with charts and sparklines

How to use PivotTables and PivotCharts in Excel

How to use slicers in Excel

How to use Excel formulas and functions

How (and why) to use conditional formatting in Excel

How to use Excel macros to save time and automate your work

Source:: Computer World

By Deepti Pathak If you’re serious about trading or holding high units in Anime Adventures, you need to have…
The post Anime Adventures Value List (May 2025) appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

By Nick Godt A weekly recap of the revolutionary technology powering, connecting, and now driving next-gen electric vehicles.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Megan Carnegie Sophie Rucker had been living and working in London for five years when a trip to a yoga training school in Bali presented her with an alternative to the rat race. Despite enjoying life in London, witnessing digital nomads balance work with sun, sea, and relaxed vibes in the Indonesian island province prompted her to pursue more freelance work.  At the start of 2020, having set herself up as a communications strategist for NGOs and social impact organisations, Sophie quit her permanent role and moved to Bali. Despite the uncertainty of the progressing pandemic, she found the space she needed…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

Windows, as all but the most besotted Microsoft fans know, has historically been a security disaster. Seriously, what other program has a dedicated day each month to reveal its latest security holes?

But now, Windows Recall, the AI-powered “feature” that continuously takes snapshots of your screen to create a searchable timeline of everything you do, has arrived for Copilot+ PCs running Windows 11 version 24H2 and newer.

After a year of controversy and multiple delays prompted by widespread privacy and security concerns, Microsoft has significantly changed Recall’s architecture. The feature is now opt-in, requires Windows Hello biometric authentication, encrypts all snapshots locally, filters out sensitive data such as credit card numbers, and allows users to filter out specific apps or websites from being captured.

I am so unimpressed. A few days ago, in the latest Patch Tuesday release, Microsoft revealed five — count ’em, five! — zero-day security holes in Windows alone. Do you expect me to trust Recall with a track record like this?

Besides, even if I don’t enable the feature, what if our beloved federal government decides that for our protection, it would be better if Microsoft turned on Recall for some users? After all, it’s almost impossible to run Windows these days without having a Microsoft ID, making it easy to pick and choose who gets what “update.”

Other people feel the same way. Recall remains a lightning rod for criticism. Privacy advocates and security experts continue to warn that the very nature of Recall capturing and storing everything displayed on a user’s screen every few seconds is inherently too risky. Even if you don’t use the feature yourself, what about all the people you communicate with who might have Recall turned on? How could you even know?

A friend at the University of Pennsylvania told me that the school has examined Microsoft Recall and found that it “introduces substantial and unacceptable security, legality, and privacy challenges.” Sounds about right to me.

Amusingly enough, Kaspersky, the Russian security company that has its own security issues, also states that you should avoid Recall. Why? Well, yes, when you first activate Recall, you are required to use biometric authentication. After that, your PIN will do nicely. Oh, and its automatic filtering of sensitive data is unreliable. Sure, it will stop taking snapshots when you’re in private mode on Chrome or Edge. Vivaldi? Not so much.

And as Kaspersky points out, if you use videoconferencing with automatic transcription enabled, Recall will save a complete call transcript detailing who said what. Oh boy!

Signal, the popular secure messaging program (well, secure when you use it correctly — unlike, say, the US Secretary of Defense), wants nothing to do with this. It has introduced a new “Screen security” setting in its Windows desktop app, specifically designed to protect its users from Recall.

Enabled by default on Windows 11, this feature uses a Digital Rights Management (DRM) flag to stop any application, including Windows Recall, from capturing screenshots of Signal chats. When Recall or other screenshot tools try to capture Signal’s window, it will produce a blank image.

Why? In a blog post, Signal explained:

“Although Microsoft made several adjustments over the past twelve months in response to critical feedback, the revamped version of Recall still places any content that’s displayed within privacy-preserving apps like Signal at risk. As a result, we are enabling an extra layer of protection by default on Windows 11 in order to help maintain the security of Signal Desktop on that platform, even though it introduces some usability trade-offs. Microsoft has simply given us no other option.”

Actually, you do have another option: Desktop Linux. I said it ages ago, and I’ll say it again now. If you really care about security on your desktop, you want Linux.

Source:: Computer World

By Thomas Macaulay The collapse of Builder.ai exposes the growing threat of “FOMO investing,” according to an expert in tech growth intelligence. Builder had become one of Britain’s best-funded startups, but is now filing for bankruptcy due to financial problems. The insolvency comes after enormous sums were invested into the business. Big-name backers including Microsoft and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund had poured a total of over $500mn into the startup, which aimed to simplify software development with AI. The funding gave Builder a coveted unicorn status, with a valuation exceeding $1.3bn. But the eye-watering sums couldn’t keep the business afloat. Builder blamed the…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Deepti Pathak HP has introduced the OmniStudio X All-in-One (AIO) PC in India. It is a stylish 32-inch…
The post HP Launches OmniStudio X All-in-One (AIO) in India appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) is implementing AI-driven enhancements to its software and collaboration tools that could translate to big productivity gains.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai started his keynote at the Google I/O developer conference this week with one of those features: real-time language translation in Google Meet, which was until now in research.

The feature uses Google’s AI technology to translate speech from one language to another in near real time, while matching the tone and expressions — such as “hmmm” — during delivery. The technology breaks down language barriers, Pichai said.

A video demonstrated the translation from spoken English to Spanish. A computer-generated voiceover spoke the translation after a one-second delay. Then the other participant’s response was translated from Spanish to English.

“We are even closer to having a natural and free-flowing conversation across languages,” Pichai said.

Translations to English and Spanish are now available in beta for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, with more languages rolling out in the next few weeks.

“Real-time translations will be coming to enterprises later this year,” Pichai said.

Pichai, in the opening moments of his keynote, also mentioned a new product called Google Beam, a 3D video communications platform that transforms 2D video streams into a realistic experience. The product was in development for many years under a research effort called Project Starline.

Behind the scenes, an array of six cameras captures participants from different angles.

“With AI we can merge these video streams together and render you on a 3D light-field display with near perfect head tracking down to the millimeter and at 60 frames per second, all in real time,” Pichai said.

The result, Pichai said, was a much more natural and deeply immersive conversational experience.

The first Google Beam devices will be available for early customers later this year. Google is partnering with device maker HP, which will share more information about these devices a few weeks from now.

Traditional videoconferencing reduces many natural social cues that people experience in face-to-face interactions, which is where something like Google Beam fits in, said J.P. Gownder, vice president and principal analyst on Forrester’s Future of Work team.

“Those subtle cues contain a lot more information than people realize, so richer forms of videoconferencing that feel naturalistic could offer benefits,” said Gownder.

Since users don’t have to wear specialized equipment such as VR headgear, it will be that much more accessible.

“It’s probably a longer-term play, but if the experience is better, over time it could get traction,” Gownder said.

Google also shed more light on how it is implementing Workspace Flows, a feature that was introduced at last month’s Google Cloud Next as a way to automate work across Google Workspace apps.

Workspace Flows brings AI agents into the loop to get work done. Google can utilize AI agents called Gems that specialize in certain tasks such as customer service and work with other AI agents to complete tasks.

An onstage Gems demonstration showed how workers could use AI agents to automate processing customer service by sharing complaints with other employees via Google Chat, looking up product literature, referencing an internal genAI model for further answers, and automatically sending a possible resolution to customers.

Gems use Google’s Gemini AI model to analyze information, prioritize tasks, and generate feedback.

“These are AI experts you can create to solve particular tasks… you can actually have a team of Gems working together to solve these issues for you,” said Farhaz Karmali, Google’s product director for the Workspace ecosystem, during a keynote on the second day of Google I/O.

Karmali also shared some richer conversational features coming to Google Chat. Users will be able to subscribe to messages in a conversation, create groups, and manage memberships. These features will be helpful for ensuring targeted conversations and information reach the right agents.

“Imagine: you build a chat app that is agentic and you want to get all the information from a chat app. You can now summarize it, and this helps you take actions and so on,” Karmali said.

Other AI-powered features coming to Google Workspace include personalized smart replies, directed inbox cleanup, and fast appointment scheduling in Gmail; the ability to turn Google Slides decks into videos; and writing assistance in Google Docs that limits Gemini to specific sources designated by the user.

Google I/O overlapped with Microsoft’s Build developer conference, where the company introduced new Copilot agent features this week. Both tech giants are in the early stages of AI, and the shows focused on how they are still developing their unique agent ecosystems, Gownder said.

Source:: Computer World

By Siôn Geschwindt Again, the German-Danish startup using ancient bacteria to turn CO2 into new chemicals, is building a new bioreactor plant in Texas. The facility will be located at Texas City, a major petrochemicals park located on the Gulf Coast. The industrial centre is run by Diamond Infrastructure Solutions — a joint venture between chemicals giant Dow and Macquarie Asset Management.   “We’re building a global company, and that also means taking our technology into new regions,” Again’s co-founder Max Kufner told TNW. “There is a high demand in the US for our chemicals, particularly ones that can be sustainably made on-shore.”…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

This week, more than 140 civil rights and consumer protection organizations signed a letter to Congress opposing legislation that would preempt state and local laws governing artificial intelligence (AI) for the next decade.

House Republicans last week added a broad 10-year ban on state and local AI regulations to the Budget Reconciliation Bill that’s currently being debated in the House. The bill would prevent state and local oversight without providing federal alternatives.

Editor’s note: On the morning of May 22, the House approved the budget bill, sending it on to the Senate.

This year alone, about two-thirds of US states have proposed or enacted more than 500 laws governing AI technology. If passed, the federal bill would stop those laws from being enforced.

The nonprofit Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) joined the other organizations in signing the opposition letter, which warns that removing AI protections leaves Americans vulnerable to current and emerging AI risks.

Travis Hall, the CDT’s director for state engagement, answered questions posed by Computerworld to help determine the impact of the House Reconciliation Bill’s moratorium on AI regulations.

Why is regulating AI important, and what are the potential dangers it poses without oversight? AI is a tool that can be used for significant good, but it can and already has been used for fraud and abuse, as well as in ways that can cause real harm, both intentional and unintentional — as was thoroughly discussed in the House’s own bipartisan AI Task Force Report.

These harms can range from impacting employment opportunities and workers’ rights to threatening accuracy in medical diagnoses or criminal sentencing, and many current laws have gaps and loopholes that leave AI uses in gray areas. Refusing to enact reasonable regulations places AI developers and deployers into a lawless and unaccountable zone, which will ultimately undermine the trust of the public in their continued development and use.

How do you regulate something as potentially ubiquitous as AI? There are multiple levels at which AI can be regulated. The first is through the application of sectoral laws and regulations, providing specific rules or guidance for particular use cases such as health, education, or public sector use. Regulations in these spaces are often already well established but need to be refined to adapt to the introduction of AI.

The second is that there can be general rules regarding things like transparency and accountability, which incentivize responsible behavior across the AI chain (developers, deployers, users) and can ensure that core values like privacy and security are baked in.

Why do you think the House Republicans have proposed banning states from regulating AI for such a long period of time? Proponents of the 10-year moratorium have argued that it would prevent a patchwork of regulations that could hinder the development of these technologies, and that Congress is the proper body to put rules in place.

But Congress thus far has refused to establish such a framework, and instead it’s proposing to prevent any protections at any level of government, completely abdicating its responsibility to address the serious harms we know AI can cause.

It is a gift to the largest technology companies at the expense of users — small or large — who increasingly rely on their services, as well as the American public who will be subject to unaccountable and inscrutable systems. 

Can you describe some of the state statutes you believe are most important to safeguarding Americans from potential AI harms? There are a range of statutes that would be overturned, including laws that govern how state and local officials themselves procure and use these technologies.

Red and blue states alike — including Arkansas, Kentucky, and Montana — have passed bills governing the public sector’s AI procurement and use. Several states, including Colorado, Illinois, and Utah, have consumer protection and civil rights laws governing AI or automated decision systems.

This bill undermines states’ ability to enforce longstanding laws that protect their residents or to clarify how they should apply to these new technologies.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, warns that a patchwork of state AI laws causes confusion. But should a single federal rule apply equally to rural towns and tech hubs? How can we balance national standards with local needs? The blanket preemption assumes that all of these communities are best served with no governance of AI or automated decision systems — or, more cynically, that the short-term financial interests of companies that develop and deploy AI tools should take precedence over the civil rights and economic interests of ordinary people.

While there can be a reasoned discussion about what issues need uniform rules across the country and which allow flexibility for state and local officials to set rules (an easy one would be regarding their own procurement of systems), what is being proposed is a blanket ban on state and local rules with no federal regulations in place. 

Further, we have not seen, nor are we likely to see, a significant “patchwork” of protections throughout the country. The same arguments were made in the state privacy context as well, by, with one exception, states that have passed identical or nearly-identical laws, mostly written by industry. Preempting state laws to avoid a patchwork system that’s unlikely to ever exist is simply bad policy and will cause more needless harm to consumers.

Proponents of the state AI regulation moratorium have compared it to the Internet Tax Freedom Act — the “internet tax moratorium,” which helped the internet flourish in its early days. Why don’t you believe the same could be true for AI? There are a couple of key differences between the Internet Tax Freedom Act and the proposed moratorium. 

First, what was being developed in the 1990s was a unified, connected, global internet. Splintering the internet into silos was (and, to be frank, still is) a real danger to the fundamental feature of the platform that allowed it to thrive. The same is not true for AI systems and models, which are a diverse set of technologies and services which are regularly customized to respond to particular use cases and needs. Having diverse sets of regulatory responsibilities is not the same threat to AI the way that it was to the nascent internet.

Second, removal of potential taxation as a means of spurring commerce is wholly different from removing consumer protections. The former encourages participation by lowering prices, while the latter adds significant cost in the form of dealing with fraud, abuse, and real-world harm. 

In short, there is a massive difference between stating that an ill-defined suite of technologies is off limits from any type of intervention at the state and local level and trying to help bolster a nascent and global platform through tax incentives.

Source:: Computer World

By Adarsh Verma Privacy is no longer just a buzzword—it’s the basis of trust online. As surveillance grows and…
The post Top VPS Hosting Benefits For Running Privacy-Focused Applications appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes