Tech Advisorの April 2024 の目次

Microsoft has scheduled a powerful feature to launch within Copilot: Copilot for OneDrive, which will allow you to query and ask about files stored in the Microsoft cloud. It’s a powerful tool, if only because it takes a surprising amount of horsepower to reproduce on a local computer. It’s scheduled to roll out in May 2024, and will require a Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 license (fave.co/3umQdwg), the £24.70 per-user per-month business upgrade, only available to enterprises and schools. The announcement, available on Microsoft’s Microsoft 365 feature road map, doesn’t say anything about whether this feature will be available for consumers who subscribe to Copilot Pro (fave.co/4bqSTtq) £19 subscription service. So why is this an important announcement? Because it will ask Microsoft’s cloud servers to learn the contents of your…

Google’s AI services are receiving boosts across the board, with AI image generation arriving in Google Bard, powered by a new Imagen 2 technology that Google promises is more lifelike (and weirdness-free) than ever. And just days after the Internet voted its Gemini Pro chatbot technology as nearly the world’s best, it’s arriving pretty much everywhere Bard is offered. Google is also releasing a dedicated AI art tool, known as ImageFX, to go along with its existing MusicFX and TextFX tools, inside its AI Test Kitchen beta program. Overall, it’s a multifaceted improvement for Bard, both from a quality standpoint and the number of services Google is integrating AI into. Although Google launched its Gemini Pro upgrade last December, the chatbot was available to just a subset of users. (Although…

2023 was arguably the year of AI, but the influence of artificial intelligence is only set to grow in 2024 and just about everything has AI slapped on it now. Samsung is starting the year off strong with its flagship Galaxy S24 series smartphones and alongside the usual high-end specs and polished software, AI is at the forefront of all three new devices. But ‘AI’ is a generic term – what does it actually mean for Galaxy S24, S24+ and S24 Ultra? Here are five new ‘Galaxy AI’ features that will make a noticeable difference to the way you use your smartphone. 1. CIRCLE TO SEARCH If you’ve ever used Google Lens before, you’ll know the power of capturing something and easily being able to find out information about it.…

Price: £1,399 from fave.co/49l05WJ I’ve tested several versions of the HP Spectre x360 over the years, a luxurious and exemplary well-built laptop with a flip-up screen and pen rest. They’ve often been a little too expensive, a little too heavy, and a little too behind the curve to merit a solid recommendation. But always good. The latest 2024 model is very elegant and sleek with a 14-inch screen covered by a glossy glass panel, a solid metal chassis, and aluminium surfaces in a muted dark grey-blue tone. A high-quality keyboard provides a nice typing feel and a large mouse pad with force feedback from a haptic motor instead of a mechanical click provides both good control and a comfortable working position. While this machine has a lot to offer, it’s…

The BSI report on the state of IT security in Germany presents alarming figures: in 2023, the Federal Office for Information Security registered an average of 68 new vulnerabilities in software products every day, resulting in almost 25,000 new vulnerabilities per year. Security-related errors were counted in programs of all kinds, from specialist applications for industry to server software for companies and smartphone apps. Most of these vulnerabilities, around 47 percent, enabled the execution of unauthorized commands or program code. In this way, the attackers could, for example, install ransomware on a computer, bypass security measures, extend their own access rights, or read out data in order to sell it to other groups or blackmail the owners. 1. WINRAR EXECUTES EMBEDDED SCRIPTS AND LOADS MALICIOUS CODE In August 2023, a…

Any files you have stored in OneDrive or other cloud services are probably organized by file and name so you know where they are. But in the workplace, all bets are off. A new OneDrive for the web UI feature helps solve that problem. OneDrive’s new feature allows you to organize files by people, not just file name. You can also organize them by meeting, too – even upcoming meetings that haven’t happened yet. Microsoft added this new UI refresh in 2023, but said that consumers will see it as well by the end of February 2024. (This update applies to the OneDrive app for Windows, not File Explorer.) Those are two solid improvements to the OneDrive UI. If you’re the type of person who can mentally categorize files across…

AMD may have just launched the Ryzen 8000 series of mobile processors, but company executives confirmed that its next mobile processor, Strix Point, will make the leap to the next-generation Zen 5 architecture. The disclosure was made by Dr. Lisa Su, AMD’s chief executive officer, during the company’s fourth-quarter 2023 earnings report. They reported a net income of $667 million, up 3,076 percent from $21 million in profits a year ago. Revenue climbed 10 percent to $6.168 billion. AMD launched its Ryzen 8000 mobile line-up in December and Su recently noted that the chips will begin shipping in notebooks this month. But AMD is already looking ahead to Strix Point, the next-generation mobile chip scheduled to launch later this year. Like the recent Intel 14th-gen Core HX, the Ryzen 8000…

Price: £1,349 from fave.co/3vZF5G6 Samsung releases dozens of phones every single year but unless you want a high-end foldable, it’s the Galaxy S series that gets most of the attention. And within that range, the Ultra model is the one Samsung really wants you to buy. This is a Samsung smartphone at full throttle, offering almost every conceivable feature people are looking for in a handset. That’s certainly true of the S24 Ultra, which adds a new chipset, titanium build and several AI features to the mix, not to mention a new and improved commitment to software updates. But is that enough to make it worth the eye-watering price tag? For some people, the answer will be a resounding yes. And from using it as my main phone for a…

Price: £289 from fave.co/48XFfwj Chinese company Xiaomi has been releasing wearables since 2014, but it’s never nailed down the premium smartwatch category. Attempts up until now have boasted great hardware, yet always been let down by Xiaomi’s own brand software. Despite offering plenty of health and fitness features, its major flaw is the inability to download third-party apps. There appears to be a very simple solution to this: switch to Google’s Wear OS and that’s exactly what Xiaomi has done on the Watch 2 Pro with impressive results. Alongside an even better design than usual, it’s Xiaomi’s finest smartwatch to date, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should buy it. DESIGN In a world where many Android-based smartwatches look similar, the Watch 2 Pro truly stands out. That’s primarily due…

No operating system is without its merits, and that includes Windows 11, even as much as I complain about Microsoft’s latest operating system. Its handful of useful features continues to grow as time goes on, with more and more being teased for future release (like native RGB lighting controls). But with helpful utilities and settings trickling out slowly, it’s easy to miss a few here and there, especially when the flashier features hog the news headlines. We’ve pulled out 10 features that we don’t think get enough love – if you’ve heard of them and haven’t tried them yet, now’s the time. NOTEPAD TABS Notepad actually predates Windows, but it’s still fully relevant (and useful) today. The streamlined app lets you open a window to make quick notes. And in…

WordPad, a Windows rich editing app that has been a mainstay of the platform since Windows 95, is on its way out. Microsoft has marked it for deprecation, a death knell that signals that it will be removed in a future version. The change was made official in Microsoft’s list of deprecated Windows features, in September 2023 (fave.co/42sdOs0). And now the axe has started to fall. One of the changes being made in the latest Canary Channel build of Windows 11 is the elimination of WordPad from new Windows 11 builds – perform a clean install and WordPad will no longer be included. While it’s unclear how many users actually pined for (and used) WordPad and its RTF file format, it does rob Windows 11 of a native rich text…

The year has only just begun, but Samsung already has a contender for the biggest smartphone launch of the year. The Galaxy S24 series of flagship phones are here, and there are three handsets to choose from: the regular S24, S24+ and S24 Ultra. All of them get access to a range of new AI functionality, though several other features are exclusive to the Ultra. Here’s everything you need to know about the new phones, including release date, pricing and all the key specifications and features. RELEASE DATE Each model is available to buy now. PRICE Galaxy S24 128GB: £799 256GB: £859 Galaxy S24+ 256GB: £999 512GB: £1,099 Galaxy S24 Ultra 256GB: £1,249 512GB: £1,349 1TB: £1,549 SPECS AND FEATURES The S24 series was extensively leaked ahead of time, and…

Price: £1,399 from fave.co/42yr527 The Framework Laptop 16 is a laptop with a mission. It wants to prove a large, powerful laptop can deliver great performance alongside a repairability that puts other laptops to shame. The Laptop 16 delivers on that promise if you’re willing to pay a premium. Let’s dive right in. The model I received was the DIY Edition, which meant some assembly was required. The memory, storage, ports and expansion bay are configurable. Shoppers can buy their own memory and storage separately, but the ports (which Framework calls Expansion Cards) and the Expansion Bay must be purchased from Framework since they are designed for its laptops. The DIY Edition offers a long list of options for configuring the laptop. I configured it with the Radeon RX 7700S…

For the first time in many years, you have a choice when buying a new Intel-based laptop: Intel’s 14th-gen Core Ultra (Meteor Lake) or its latest 14th-gen Core HX chip. Which should you buy, and why? We’ll talk about the differences between the two platforms, with some testing to help illustrate the distinctions. As the codenames suggest, the two platforms are quite similar. But Intel’s Meteor Lake is significantly different, both in design as well as purpose. Intel is using ‘Core Ultra’ as well as ‘Core’ as the brands of both the 14th-generation Meteor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh, and that’s what you’ll see on the box. As Intel moves into subsequent generations, such as Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake, executives have said the company will maintain those brands –…

Even supposedly straightforward tools such as Windows Explorer offer options that are not always recognizable at first glance. The search function, for example, not only finds files and folders. With additional search options, the result can be refined and used for numerous purposes. However, the Windows search is not always fast enough and often does not deliver the desired results. This can be optimized, but alternative search tools offer better performance, depending on the purpose. There is also room for optimization in the Windows update. This allows the system and some Microsoft applications to be updated automatically. For some time now, Microsoft has been offering a tool for the command line that can be used to install and update popular tools and applications. Here we present a program that enables…