20Oct, 2022
    Firefox 106 is out with Firefox View and other improvements
    Mozilla released Firefox 106 Stable and Firefox 102.4 ESR. The new Firefox 106 Stable release introduces support for Firefox View, PDF editing, text recognition and extraction on macOS, and new Colorways themes.

    Firefox 106 download and update

    Firefox 106.0 and Firefox 102.4 ESR downloads are available already. Most Firefox installations will receive the updates automatically, thanks to the browser’s built-in updating functionality. Users who want to speed up the updating process may do so in two ways: run a manual check for updates or download Firefox from the official Mozilla website and install the new version manually.

    Do the following to check for updates in Firefox.

    1. Select Menu > Help > About Firefox.

    Firefox displays the installed version and runs a check for updates. It will download and install any new version that it discovers during that check.

    Direct downloads are also available, follow the links below to Mozilla’s download website, to download the new version of the browser.

    20Oct, 2022
    Windows 10 2022 Update is now available

    windows 10 version 22h2 2022 update

    Microsoft released the long-awaited 2022 feature update for its Windows 10 operating system today. The Windows 10 2022 Update follows the same new naming convention as last month’s Windows 11 2022 Update.

    The update is already available via Windows Update. Windows 10 administrators may want to create a system backup before they install the update on their devices. While it is neither feature-rich or changing much, it is still better to have a restore option at hand that is not linked to the operating system itself.

    Devices that run Windows 10 version 20H2 or later will have a speedier upgrade according to Microsoft. Those on earlier versions of Windows 10 will have to go through a longer upgrade process.

    Any version of Windows running Windows 10 version 20H2 or later should get the new Windows 10 2022 Update offered via Windows Update, according to Microsoft. All it takes for that is to go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update, and activate the Check for updates button. Since there are no changes in system requirements, all systems are compatible with the new version of Windows 10. Some devices may also see an offer to upgrade to the Windows 11 operating system. Devices need to meet the new operating system’s requirements for that, though.

    Note: A check on a Windows 10 version 21H2 system did not return the update at this point. The system has no update blocks, at least not according to the list of known issues published by Microsoft. The Windows 10 2022 Update can also be installed using the Update Assistant.

    Microsoft still has not revealed the “limited set of features focused on productivity and management”. The official blog post on Microsoft’s Windows website reveals nothing, and there are not any links or other posts by Microsoft that provide information on the changes in the Windows 10 2022 Update.

    Windows 10 version 22H2 will be supported for 18 months for consumer devices (Home and Pro editions), and for 30 months for Enterprise and Education devices. Microsoft notes that support for Windows 10 version 20H2 is ending in December 2022, and that systems should be upgraded to a newer version of Windows to continue being supported with security updates.

    Closing Words

    It seems strange that Microsoft has not revealed any information about the changes in the Windows 10 2022 Update. It may be best to wait a while before installing the update on production machines. Microsoft may reveal information about the update in the coming days or weeks.

    19Oct, 2022
    Will the UK financial chaos spark a wider meltdown?
    Governments everywhere are finding it more costly to borrow

    The recent chaos on the UK financial markets has generated waves of stress and selling by investors far beyond the UK.

    As the sell-offs collide with high inflation, rising interest rates and the war in Ukraine, they have raised fears the turmoil in the UK could set off a wider crisis.

    Many analysts have said they believe the fallout is likely to be limited, especially amid signs that the government is reconsidering some of its plans.

    Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng was sacked on Friday, and the government has dropped parts of the package of tax cuts that initially sparked the market turmoil.

    But the episode has highlighted the financial risks of the current moment.

    “Markets are fragile. We have seen vulnerability that’s been building over the last decade-plus,” Fabio Natalucci, a deputy director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said earlier this week, describing the UK episode as a “warning shot”.

    “That fragility makes the financial risk much more elevated.”

    More>>>

    19Oct, 2022
    Increasing food prices push inflation to 40 year high!
    UK food prices are rising at their fastest rate in 42 years as the cost of living crisis continues to squeeze household budgets.

    Food costs jumped 14.6% in the year to September – the biggest rise since 1980 – with bread, cereal, meat and dairy prices all climbing.

    It comes as people also struggle with higher energy and transport costs.

    Overall inflation – the rate at which UK prices rise – surged to 10.1% last month and is expected to climb further.

    The prices of most key items in the average household’s food shopping basket went up last month, including fish, sugar, fruit and rice, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

    Experts say the rise in the cost of groceries has been accelerated by the war in Ukraine, which has disrupted grain, oil and fertiliser supplies from the region.

    Food and drink prices have also been affected by the recent weakness in the pound, which has made imported products and ingredients more expensive.

    More>>>

    14Oct, 2022
    PC sales fall off a cliff
    arrows yin yang opposites black and white changing directions up down robinolimb getty
    The sale of personal computers, which surged as companies turned to hybrid and remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, fell sharply in the third quarter. The release of Windows 11 and its first annual update seemed to have no effect.

    The sale of PCs in the third quarter of the year fell nearly 20% compared to a year ago, the largest drop in decades and the fourth straight quarter of year-over-year declines, according to preliminary research by two analyst firms.

    The surge in PC sales created by the pandemic and the tremendous uptick in hybrid and remote work is over and no longer adding to computer sales. Back-to-school PC purchases also showed “disappointing results, despite massive promotions and price drops, due to a lack of need as many consumers had purchased new PCs in the last two years,” according to Mikako Kitagawa, a director analyst at Gartner.

    On the business side, geopolitical upheavals, such as the war in Ukraine, and economic uncertainties “led to more selective IT spending, and PCs were not at the top of the priority list,” Kitagawa added.

    Globally, PC sales fell a whopping 19.5% in the third quarter of 2022 — the largest decline since Gartner began tracking sales in the mid-1990s. Research firm IDC pegged the year-over-year drop at 15%, and echoed Gartner’s take on the issues effecting sales, according the firm’s Worldwide Tracker.

    “During the peak of the pandemic, many consumers, schools, and business sought new PCs and that surge has been largely fulfilled,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers.

    The US PC market dropped 17.3% in the third quarter of 2022, the fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year shipment decline. Slow laptop sales drove the overall US market down, while desktop sales showed modest growth — driven by pent-up demand among businesses as well as the public sector, according to Gartner.

    “Inflation is the biggest concern in the US. market, but smaller businesses are showing relative optimism about macroeconomic conditions,” Kitagawa said. “While laptop demand among large enterprises sharply decreased in the third quarter of 2022, small and midsize businesses did not show as steep of a drop.”

    screen shot 2022 10 11 at 4.08.07 pm
    Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q22 (Thousands of Units)

    The Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions were hit particularly hard by plummeting sales, decreasing 26.4% year-over-year in the third quarter to 17 million units – the steepest decline among all regions, according to Gartner. It was the third negative quarter for the EMEA PC market following a boom at the start of the pandemic.

    Globally, shipments of PCs totaled 74.3 million, according to IDC. (Gartner pegged global sales of PCs at 67.9 million.)

    More>>>

    14Oct, 2022
    Being back in the office is not making UK workers more productive: report
    get rid of toxic workers

    New research from Slack has found that two and a half years after the UK government enforced its work from home order in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, 88% of desk-based employees in the UK are working from the office at least one day a week, with the average worker visiting the office three days a week.

    While 60% of survey respondents coordinate their office attendance with their teams, the survey, based on responses from 1,000 knowledge workers of all ages, job levels and locations across the UK, found that being in the office actually makes employees feel less productive due to the wrong tasks being prioritised, a disorganised approach to communications and meetings, and time spent catching up with colleagues.

    Speaking at Slack’s Frontiers event earlier this week, Daniel Hansens, EMEA senior director at Slack, said that over the last two years, we’ve seen that when offices are taken out of the equation, businesses can still survive and thrive in many cases.

    “One of the interesting things that the research pulls up is, it’s not just about getting more people into the office, or getting them together as a team, the question is what they’re actually doing when they’re in the office,” Hansens said.

    More>>>

    14Oct, 2022
    Office time not for video calls …
    Office time not for video calls …

    Businesses should rethink the way staff use their time in offices, says the boss of the messaging platform Slack.

    With the rise of hybrid working, lots of people now divide their working week between home and going into their workplace.

    But being in the office should be an opportunity to do things that cannot be done at home, argues Stewart Butterfield, Slack’s chief executive.

    Sitting at a desk with headphones on is not one of them, he says.

    Of course the boss of an online messaging platform is not going to go so far as to say staff should leave their laptops at home, but he does say it would “put a strong line in the sand about what the purpose is of getting together”.

    Slack has headquarters in the US, Canada, Japan, Australia and India.

    Reflecting on its offices before the pandemic, Mr Butterfield says: “The 80% of the floor space that we dedicated to kind of factory-farm, battery-chicken housing for people to use their desks all by themselves and listen to their headphones, and not talk to anyone else… was a bit of a waste.”

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    7Oct, 2022
    Common charging cable approved

    European MPs have voted for a law requiring all new portable devices to use the same type of charging cable.

    Smartphones and tablets, including the Apple iPhone and iPad, would have to use a USB-C charger from 2024, while laptop manufacturers would have until 2026 to make the change.

    There were 602 votes in favour and 13 against, with eight abstaining.

    Member states are expected to grant approval on 24 October, before the rule is signed into law at the parliament.

    Following a provisional agreement by the European Union, in June 2022, the UK government told BBC News it was not “currently considering” introducing a common charging cable.

    Read more >>>

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