科技新闻

iPhones, iPads, and Macs seem set for even steeper performance and power management gains come 2022, as it looks like the company’s plans to switch to 3-nanometer (nm) chips are falling into place.Apple’s processor development road map We’ve considered the road ahead for Apple Silicon, and those predictions seem to be on the right track for a late 2022 shift to chips manufactured using 3nm processes. Chips manufactured with this process deliver 30% improvements in power consumption and 15% better performance in comparison with 5nm chips.To read this article in full, please click here

Riddle me this: What exactly is a "note-taking app"?It seems almost painfully obvious, I know — but it's a question I've found myself struggling to answer as I've been exploring a new breed of information-storing services.The services allow you to collect and organize thoughts, lists, and all sorts of other materials. They also, however, provide a powerful framework for mapping out complex projects, processing large amounts of data, and even writing documents. And they're all designed to support some pretty sophisticated forms of collaboration.So are they note-taking apps? Are they word processors — or maybe spreadsheet editors? Or are they task management tools, project management tools, or perhaps even just broad "collaboration utilities"?To read this article in full, please click here

Apple Maps is essential to future innovation, from autonomous vehicles to AR experiences, so it's noteworthy that Apple’s own Indoor Mapping Data Format (IMDF) has been adopted as a community standard for indoor positioning services.What is IMDF? IMDF has been accepted as a community standard by the Open Geospatial Consortium in response to proposals from a cross-industry group that includes Apple, Google, Autodesk, and Ordnance Survey.To read this article in full, please click here

Like many of my peers during the pandemic, I’ve been living off a Logitech Brio camera, which was considered the best in the market until recently.  The problem is that Logitech didn’t seem to understand how important this camera had become and refused to support it properly.  (It has driver issues with AMD-based PCs, the company won’t address them, the initial application support ended, and much of it doesn’t work anymore. Most other cameras on the market arrived before COVID-29 and were more designed for infrequent use when traveling — not for permanent use from a home office.  Yes, you can get conference room systems and adapt them for the home, but that is a wicked expensive path — and people don’t have conference rooms at home. To read this article in full, please click here

The latest Insider Pro and Computerworld Salary Survey reveals the current salaries for dozens of tech titles, the IT skills most in demand (and those not), the tech hiring expectations for the coming year, and what matters most to IT pros in their current jobs.

I've been saying for ages now that Google's Chrome OS would become Microsoft's Windows top competitor. I had the timing wrong, but my prediction that "most of us will be moving to cloud-oriented operating systems" is finally coming true. According to IDC's latest PC sales numbers, by 2020's fourth quarter, Chromebooks were outselling Macs by two-to-one.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)

Security researchers uncovered malware affecting tens of thousands of macOS devices, but it's unclear what exactly the malware does. Affecting both Intel and Apple Silicon processors, this malware, nicknamed "Silver Sparrow," still poses a threat. And in other Apple news, some M1 Mac users have reported that the SSDs on their new systems are being overused. Macworld executive editor Michael Simon and Computerworld executive editor Ken Mingis join Juliet to discuss Apple's response to the virus and SSD issues and what users can do if they've been affected. To read this article in full, please click here

Ahh — can you smell it? The scent of freshly baking Android software is very much in the air this week, as Android 12's first official developer preview teases us with a tiny taste of what's to come.Google launched the inaugural public version of Android 12 last week, and the internet's many software-sniffing sleuths have been hard at work pokin' around and clawing at its many crevices to uncover every last hint of the treats lurking within.So far, Android 12 doesn't look like much — and for good reason: This latest Android version really is a true developer preview, with mostly just technical changes aimed at, y'know, developers. It actually makes an awful lot of sense, even if Android previews in the past have generally been a little more elaborate early on.To read this article in full, please click here

Apple’s decision to invent arguably one of the world’s best mobile payment systems seems a really great move now as US consumers shift away from cash in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.Apple Pay advances in the US We know the COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly accelerated global digital transformation projects, nurturing new respect for fron- line and essential workers and prompting what seems likely to be a lasting move to work from home.It has also driven mass adoption of mobile payments systems, according to the latest Worldpay Global Payments report. “2020 catapulted payments years ahead of projections,” the report says.To read this article in full, please click here

Do more certifications lead to new jobs, promotions or a pay rise? We asked 1,172 IT professionals their thoughts and whether or not they are currently pursuing certifications and in which areas of technology?

Microsoft plans to upgrade the "perpetual" Office for enterprises in the second half of the year, when it will also slash support to five years and raise prices by 10%.The company's multiple shots at the traditional form of licensing — dubbed "perpetual" because the license provides rights to run the software as long as one wants — are more evidence, if it's needed, that Microsoft is eager to push, pull, and prod commercial customers into service-esque subscriptions.[ Related: 10 productivity-boosting apps for Microsoft Teams ] Microsoft reiterated, seemingly for the nth time, that it is expending virtually all of its Office-related resources on the subscription-based Office 365 and Microsoft 365, and implied that anything but a subscription would be second rate and substandard.To read this article in full, please click here

The coronavirus crisis has shaken up business as usual, with some IT strategies and tools rising to the occasion and others in line for a rethink or tough recovery post-pandemic.(Insider Story)

When WhatsApp made clear that it planned to share a lot more information with parent company Facebook, including sensitive data such as phone number, device particulars and location, some users were not happy. But WhatsApp didn't just make those changes. It included them in a new privacy policy and asked users to agree or not.TechCrunch noted that users who don't agree will soon become non-users."In an email to one of its merchant partners, …Facebook-owned WhatsApp said it will 'slowly ask' such users to comply with the new terms 'in order to have full functionality of WhatsApp' starting May 15," TechCrunch reported. "If they still don’t accept the terms, 'for a short time (later defined as "a few weeks"), these users will be able to receive calls and notifications, but will not be able to read or send messages from the app. WhatsApp’s policy for inactive users states that accounts are 'generally deleted after 120 days of inactivity.'"To read this article in full, please click here

Delay may be the deadliest form of denial, but Amazon’s decision to introduce Mac support via AWS illustrates Apple’s growing importance in enterprise IT, as vendors across the board follow the money.Big Sur in the cloud That importance is this week reflected by Amazon’s decision to offer macOS Big Sur in the cloud within AWS. The company originally confirmed plans to offer Big Sur support in early December when it first introduced support for Macs in the form of a fleet of Mac minis. Now, it seems those Macs have been upgraded and Amazon has introduced support for macOS Big Sur in its cloud.To read this article in full, please click here

Happy at work? Maybe you are not alone. Our 2021 salary survey of IT professionals reveals current attitudes to pay, responsibilities and what matters most in their current jobs.