By Nick Godt Voltpost is partnering with AT&T to provide lamppost and curbside internet-connected chargers across Michigan.

Source:: Digital Trends

By The Conversation The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is often held as a model for driving technology advances. For decades, it has contributed to military and economic dominance by bridging the gap between military and civilian applications. European policymakers frequently reference DARPA in discussions, as outlined in the 2024 Draghi Report, but an EU equivalent has yet to materialise. To create such an agency, the governance and management of European innovation programmes would need drastic changes. DARPA supports disruptive innovation Founded in 1958, DARPA operates under the US Department of Defense (DoD) with a straightforward mission: to fund high-risk technological…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Andrii Degeler About one in every 10 European startups that have raised VC investment are also backed by an EU grant of equity financing, according to a research project conducted by Dealroom and Dealflow.eu. While the full report is expected to be published later this year, the authors presented a few preliminary numbers in Warsaw last week. In financial terms, the 10% share translates into EU-backed startups having raised €70bn in VC funding since 2010, or some 11% of total funding in Europe (which in this case includes the EU, Switzerland, Norway, UK, and Israel). With some €400bn in total enterprise value…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Deepti Pathak Teaching kids how to stay safe online is essential in today’s digital world. Fun games can…
The post Safe Play Online: Fun Cybersecurity Games for Kids appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

Extending the standard refresh cycle of laptops in a corporate environment can significantly reduce a workplace’s carbon footprint, according to new workplace sustainability research. However, challenges in ensuring the older laptops still meet Windows OS requirements, and other cost issues, could offset these environmental gains, experts said.

The Atos Sustainable Workplace report, published this week and aimed at providing insights to help improve corporate social responsibility, found that by refreshing laptops every four years rather than three, organizations achieve up to a 25% reduction in carbon and related emissions without downgrading device performance or user experience.

Moreover, by using what it called “data-driven, condition-based device refresh combined with remanufacturing,” organizations can even extend the life of laptops within an organization for eight to 10 years, according to the report.

Most (79%) of a laptop’s carbon footprint is produced during manufacturing, with each new device creating roughly 338kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) before use, according to Atos. This means that extending the lifecycle of corporate laptops can have a huge impact on how sustainable a corporate environment is.

Atos research also found that 76% of large organizations’ laptops can be remanufactured — that is, stripped down and updated with newer parts where needed, and then sent back into the workforce — with the remaining 24% of devices available for refurbishment or recycling to contribute to the circular economy.

Moreover, the study found that employees are more than willing to use their older laptops longer for the sake of environmental benefits, with 75% of them saying they would be willing to keep them longer if it meant a more sustainable workplace.

Real-world issues to consider

Improving sustainability in a workplace is certainly a noble and, in the current global environment, even necessary goal. However, the vision Atos presents for extending laptop lifecycles to achieve environmental gains may not make practical, economic, or even cultural sense for current corporate environments, analysts noted.

One issue with the idea of keeping older laptops for longer is that Microsoft’s support for Windows 10 ends in less than a year. Most organizations are likely in the middle of a migration to Windows 11, which is challenging, as many older PCs may not meet the minimum requirements for the new operating system.

If organizations choose not to migrate, they may soon have to start paying for extended Windows 10 support, which starts at $61 per device in the first year, doubling to $122 per Windows 10 device in year two, and $244 per device for the third and final year.

Indeed, organizations are currently facing an important choice as the end of Windows 10 support looms: how do they want to approach either migration to Windows 11, or staying with older Windows 10 devices, noted Everest Group senior analyst Prabhneet Kaur.

“While component upgrades, like increasing RAM, can help meet Windows requirements, or informal workarounds may bypass them, maintaining robust security and a quality user experience will be tricky,” she said.

‘A lot of work for IT departments’

According recent Neowin numbers, overall share of Windows 10 users is currently at 60.95%, while the overall share of Windows 11 users is at 35.55%. These are consumer numbers; corporate environments often lag behind consumer adoption of new versions of Windows.

If an IT department wants to keep older laptops and migrate them to Windows 11, it will take both time and financial investment to maintain the older devices — neither of which corporate IT departments or budgets historically tend to have much of, another analyst noted.

“TCO [total cost of ownership] increases as the device gets older,” observed Ranjit Atwal, research director in Gartner’s Quantitative Innovation team, adding that remanufacturing laptops “sounds expensive to do every few years.” Overall, the idea of keeping older laptops in corporate circulation for a longer period of time “sounds like a lot of work for IT departments that don’t like change,” he noted.

Sebastien Vibert, solution manager at Atos, said his company’s analysis found that of tens of millions of devices observed, 96% of devices in large organizations are already compatible with Windows 11. This indicates that “a majority of corporate organizations have taken the necessary steps to refresh their devices, ensuring they meet the requirements for Windows 11” and thus support Trusted Platform Module 2.0, a critical hardware component of Windows 11 security.

Even if this is the case, there still remain “many challenges” to Atos’ vision of sustainability through laptop lifecycle extension, Atwal observed.

“There are lots of different parts of the organization to persuade to make the move to this type of sustainable path,” he noted. “However, sustainability is a major factor on the CIO agenda and these considerations are being discussed.”

Source:: Computer World

Smartphone deliveries worldwide increased by 5% during the third quarter of 2024 compared to the same period a year ago, according to a new survey from analysis firm Canalys. That equates to about 310 million units and is the best performing third quarter for the smartphone market since 2021.

Canalys traces the growth to increased demand and an aggressive launch of several new products, including Samsung’s latest smartphone series and Apple’s iPhone 16 series.

During the quarter, Samsung maintained its lead in the market, taking 19% of sales, followed closely by Apple with 18% and Xiaomi with 14%. In fourth and fifth place were Oppo and Vivo, with 9% of the market each.

Canalys expects continued growth for the market through the end of the year.

Source:: Computer World

By Deepti Pathak If you need to share or edit a Google Doc in another format, downloading it as…
The post How to Download Your Google Docs as .doc? appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

By Deepti Pathak Spotify allows users to stream millions of songs, but downloading songs makes it easier to listen…
The post How to Download Songs on Spotify in 2024? appeared first on Fossbytes.

Source:: Fossbytes

It’s been a few weeks since EU regulators put pressure on Apple, but that brief reprieve is over as they begin an investigation that might affect Apple’s iPad in Europe. 

On the surface, it’s relatively straightforward. Apple’s iPad OS was declared to be a “gatekeeper” under Europe’s Digital Market Act earlier this year. The significance of this is that Apple is required to open up aspects of its operating system in order to foster the chimera of open competition, which might or might not benefit users.

“Apple must, among others, allow users to set the default web browser of their choice on iPadOS, allow alternative app stores on its operating system, and allow accessory devices, like headphones and smart pens, to effectively access iPadOS features,” the Commission said. 

Failure to meet those DMA requirements means the European Commission can fine Apple up to 10% of its annual global revenue (or 20% for repeat infringements), so the company is under serious pressure to get its response right.

What Apple has done is explained in a document

With that in mind, Apple has made or is making multiple changes to its tablet operating system, just as it has with iOS. The company has explained those changes in a compliance report it was forced to publish under European law. That 12-page document was released Nov. 1 and is available for review here.

In it, Apple stresses that some of the changes to the system bring greater risks to customers. Those risks include exposure to potential malware, fraud, malicious apps, and lack of support if a user is impacted by issues with apps downloaded outside of the App Store.

The company has attempted to protect against such problems by insisting that developers, including those selling apps outside the store, notarize their apps to provide some degree of protection. The report explains how it supports third-party stores, some of the limitations in that support, the tools it provides, and more, including some discussion around cost.

The report also confirms upcoming changes, some of which may be less well known, for example (most verbatim from Apple’s report):

In an update later in 2024, iOS and iPadOS will include the following updates to app deletion: the App Store, Messages, Camera, Photos, and Safari apps will be deletable for users in the EU. Only Settings and (on iOS) Phone will not be deletable. 

By the end of the year, Apple intends to introduce a secure solution for users to authorize developers to access data related to their users’ personal data (to the extent it is available to Apple and users have consented to their personal data being shared with the developer). 

Also scheduled for introduction by the end of the year, Apple is building a browser switching solution for exporting and importing relevant browser data into another browser on the same device. 

Apple is also developing a solution that helps mobile operating system providers develop more user-friendly solutions to transfer data from an iPhone or iPad to a non-Apple phone or tablet. Apple aims to make this solution available by fall 2025.

The company also suggests it will allow users in the EU to set default navigation and translation apps beginning in the spring of 2025.

Apple’s report confirms it has put a DMA Compliance team together to help maintain compliance with European law, and created a mediation process that’s independent and free of charge to developers following the company’s newly introduced appeals process for DMA compliance.

Now, Europe plans to check Apple’s homework

Now that Apple has shared its approach to compliance, EU antitrust regulators will take a look to make sure that approach meets the demands of the Digital Markets Act. While it sounds alarming, this also feels like a relatively normal step — Apple published its approach, and regulators will now assess it

In a statement, the European Commission said: “The Commission will now carefully assess whether the measures adopted for iPad OS are effective in complying with the DMA obligations.”  It will also consider input from third parties about Apple’s approach.

Hopefully during the review, regulators will work with Apple to rectify any identified lacks, but the Commission does warn that if it decides the solutions Apple has put forward are not compliant it will take “formal enforcement action as foreseen in the DMA.”

The way that is articulated somewhat suggests that the time for negotiation may be over, but, as Apple’s own report observes, “Apple has already announced changes to its compliance plan to address stated concerns which are being implemented across iOS and iPadOS.”

Apple has also hinted that Apple Intelligence will be introduced in Europe next year, which itself suggests some ongoing dialog. All the same, the kiss of death will be if Europe’s regulators choose to use the power they have to reduce the value of Apple’s platforms to end users, who already have a choice of platform to use.

Unfortunately, it seems the Apple-versus-regulation game will run and run.

Please follow me on LinkedIn, Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill group on MeWe.

Source:: Computer World

Attackers are exploiting a recently disclosed remote code execution vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint to gain initial access to corporate networks.

SharePoint’s main role in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem is for building intranets and dedicated web applications to support organizational processes. It is also used to build websites, and to gather together files in SharePoint teams connected to the Microsoft Teams communicator.

CVE-2024-38094 is a high-severity remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability that affects Microsoft SharePoint. Microsoft fixed the vulnerability on July 9, 2024 as part of July’s Patch Tuesday package, marking it as “important”.

Source:: Computer World

By The Conversation When Apple’s version of AI, branded as Apple Intelligence, rolls out in October to folks with the company’s latest hardware, the response is likely to be a mix of delight and disappointment. The AI capabilities on their way to Apple’s walled-garden will bring helpful new features, such as textual summaries in email, Messages and Safari; image creation; and a more context-aware version of Siri. But as Apple Intelligence’s beta testing has already made clear, the power of these features falls well below what is on offer from major players like OpenAI, Google, and Meta. Apple AI won’t come close to…This story continues at The Next WebOr just read more coverage about: Apple

Source:: The Next Web

By Ryan Waniata Spotify vs. Pandora — which music streaming platform is best for you? From visual interface to music discovery features, we’ll help you weigh these two giants.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Nick Godt Rivian is offering gas-powered vehicle owners $3,000 off the purchase of select EVs.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Nick Godt Yamaha announced it will pull out of the e-bike business in the U.S. by the end of the year.

Source:: Digital Trends

By The Conversation While many people in the creative industries are worrying that AI is about to steal their jobs, Oscar-winning film director James Cameron is embracing the technology. Cameron is famous for making the Avatar and Terminator movies, as well as Titanic. Now he has joined the board of Stability.AI, a leading player in the world of Generative AI. In Cameron’s Terminator films, Skynet is an artificial general intelligence that has become self-aware and is determined to destroy the humans who are trying to deactivate it. Forty years after the first of those movies, its director appears to be changing sides and…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web

By Nick Godt Amid slowing supply from Tesla, Ford is turning to Lectron, an EV-accessories supplier, to provide (NACS) adapters to its customers.

Source:: Digital Trends

By Nick Godt Aptera just completed a successful test drive of PI-2, the first production-intent version of its futuristic-looking two-seater, three-wheel solar EV.

Source:: Digital Trends

Microsoft’s second quarter results beat analysts’ expectations. as revenue increased by 16% to $ 65.6 billion — higher than the $64.5 billion analysts had expected. Net income rose 11% to $ 24.67 billion.

Following major investments in AI, revenue from the Azure cloud business is now up 33%.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a comment that the company’s AI business will soon be worth $ 10 billion a year, making it the fastest product category to reach that milestone, Axios reports.

Revenue from server products and cloud services increased by 23%, with revenue from the Microsoft 365 commercial products and cloud services up by 13% for the quarter.

Source:: Computer World

As the pandemic eased in 2022 and 2023, US core business centers in large and small cities continued to suffer the after effects or remote- and hybrid-work policies, which led to a 20% to 40% reduction in office space use and a devaluation of properties. The big switch to remote work left many downtowns largely empty for months.

Since then, commercial areas have seen a slow but steady return to the office, with average office occupancy rate hitting more than 60%.

Still, many offices remain partially or completely empty.

“We are approaching 20 quarters of contraction in the office market,” according to Peter Miscovich, global future of work leader at Jones Lang LaSalle IP (JLL), a commercial real estate and investment management services firm. “There are signs of stabilization of vacancies in certain parts of the country.”

One trend affecting the repopulation of corporate cubicles involves a rash of return-to-office (RTO) mandates. Last month, for example, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees to get back into the office five days a week beginning in early 2025. Ericsson recently tightened its policy for office attendance, too.

Earlier this year, Dell Technologies ordered many workers to return to their corporate desks, and more recently told its global sales team to work in office five days a week. And just last week, 3M ordered senior employees back to corporate headquarters.

According to one recent survey, most companies are pushing for RTO mandates in 2025. The survey by ResumeBuilder found that nine in 10 companies will enact RTO mandates based on data from 764 companies that transitioned to a fully remote work model during the pandemic. But the data is nuanced. Not all RTO policies, of course, require employees to be in the office five days a week.

Kastle

“There’s only 25% of companies, overall, seeking RTO five days per week, and the remaining 75% are involved in various forms of hybrid or hybrid/remote and my forecast is that hybrid will endure,” Miscovich said.

The ResumeBuilder survey results were similar to Miscovich’s findings. The majority of companies are operating with a hybrid model, while 30% require employees to be in the office full-time.

Office occupancy rates fell from 100% in February 2020, at the start of the pandemic’s stay-at-home orders, to just 14% by April of that same year. Over the next four years, those rates have slowly climbed as companies embraced hybrid work policies. But on average, occupancy never fully returned to 100%, according to Kastle Systems, a provider of security key fob technology for 2,600 buildings in 138 US cities.

Recent data shows occupancy rates are again climbing. In January, the peak occupancy rate of US office buildings stood around 46% based on a 10-city average, according to Kastle. Today, more than 61% of buildings are occupied in those same 10 large cities. And cities such as Austin and Houston are seeing occupancy rates as high as 77% to 71%, respectively. Chicago’s office building occupancy rate stands at 69%.

Peak occupancy rates are only half the story. “Peak” relates to days when offices are most full, such as on Mondays and Tuesdays. On less popular days, such as Fridays, office occupancy rates dipped as low as 33% this month.

Kastle

Despite the rise in occupancy rates, office values remain depressed compared to before the pandemic, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). It found there has been a 39% decline in office building values since 2020 — and a large percentage of pre-pandemic leases will come up for renewal in the next few years. That could force some companies to more closely evaluate their office needs.

The COVID pandemic served as something of an unintentional experiment that revealed a host of uncomfortable workplace truths — namely, that most employees always preferred remote work and at-home knowledge workers were just as, if not more, productive. Another realization: working in the office, by default, isn’t as rewarding some people as it is for others, according to Phil Kirschner, an associate partner in McKinsey & Co.’s real estate and people and organizational performance practices.

Not everyone, for example, feels the same level of inclusion and equality in an office setting. “Diverse populations of almost any measure — whether skin color, sexual orientation, physical disability — are affected by in-office requirements, and there’s a higher desire for workplace flexibility either when taking a job or the likelihood to leave a job if you’re not offered it,” Kirschner said in an earlier interview with Computerworld.

Higher quality buildings, such as those that are newer and have more amenities, have fared better of late. That’s prompted a rush to build or renovate older offices that not only have newer amenities and mixed-use spaces (such as combined office, shopping and recreational facilities) but updated technology to better support remote and hybrid workers.

But older properties with fewer amenities could suffer. In particular, Class B, Class C and even lower-end Class A grade buildings could see the biggest valuation declines in the current market; those who are leasing or buying space now want top-notch AAA buildings — those with the latest amenities, technologies, and locations.

“There’s a potential space shortage in certain districts and locations,” Miscovich said. “Even three-days a week in the office is affecting demand. We are seeing demand for that high-quality space, but there’s also the surplus of the obsolete, class B- or C buildings that are not serving the workforce of the future.”

Leading the return-to-office trend are legal firms, financial services organizations, defense contractors, and industrial companies seeking to expand their footprint as the result of business demands.

“And, then the technology sector is picking up in places where they have AI talent demands and key urban centers for tech talent,” Miscovich said. “Technology is fascinating because you have some firms becoming more office centric and others are still offering more of a hybrid approach. We’ll see how that sector plays out over the next couple of years.”

Miscovich describes the pandemic was “an accelerant” and “time machine” that moved the US workforce 10 years into the future in just two years. Remote work was inevitable with the evolution of the digital economy, and the pandemic showed the promise of hybrid and distributed work.

Now workplace design, leadership, culture, workplace practices, change management, hybrid workplace technologies — all need to mature as we go forward beyond the post pandemic world, he said.

“The future of work will be distributed; it will be diverse and it will be dynamic. I think the RTO mandates occurring are for individual companies in that 25% range,” Miscovich said. “That may increase to 30%, but our point of view is hybrid work will endure for the longer term. We have some clients that by 2027 or 2030 may have a portion of their workforce in office five days a week and another portion of their workforce at three days a week or three days a month.

“I don’t think there will be ever a future steady state, just given the dynamism of artificial intelligence, talent and distributed work,” he said. “I think we’ll see a continuous evolution and continuous learning mind set relative to future of work strategies.”

Source:: Computer World

By The Conversation OpenAI, the company that made ChatGPT, has launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) system called Strawberry. It is designed not just to provide quick responses to questions, like ChatGPT, but to think or “reason”. This raises several major concerns. If Strawberry really is capable of some form of reasoning, could this AI system cheat and deceive humans? OpenAI can program the AI in ways that mitigate its ability to manipulate humans. But the company’s own evaluations rate it as a “medium risk” for its ability to assist experts in the “operational planning of reproducing a known biological threat” – in…This story continues at The Next Web

Source:: The Next Web