Two years after participating in a groundbreaking four-day work week experiment, 200 companies in the UK have chosen to adopt the policy permanently, marking a significant shift in workplace norms.
By continuing the policy, as many as 5,000 employees at those companies will work one day less a week with no reduction in pay.
Boston College Professor Juliet Schor, the lead researcher in the 4-Day Work Week study, said she was not surprised the companies continued their truncated schedules, as almost all of the firms in the study reported positive results.
“They are continuing because it is successful,” Schor said. “There are a few reasons for this. Employee well-being goes up a lot. Self-reported productivity goes up even more. So, the companies are getting happier, healthier employees who are typically as productive (or more) than on a five-day schedule.”
The companies that participated in the UK experiment and chose to continue include charities, marketing and technology firms.
Many US and Canadian companies have also adopted four-day work weeks, Schor said. Companies worldwide, including in Ireland, Australia, NZ, Germany, Portugal, and Brazil, have seen similar positive results from trials.
A number of new countries are planning trials and research, as well. Italian, Nordic, French and Belgian trials are already in process, according to Schor. “And I think there are a few more that people are trying to organize,” she said.
In the US, the concept of a four-day workweek is also beginning to germinate. A 2024 Harris Poll for the American Psychological Association found that 81% of 2,027 employed adults believe they could be as effective working four days a week — and 67% think a four-day work week will become the norm in the US during their lifetime.
Additionally, the study found the percentage of US employers offering four-day work weeks rose from 14% in 2022 to 22% last year.
Joe Ryle, campaign director of the 4 Day Week Foundation, argues that the traditional 9-to-5, five-day work week, introduced by Henry Ford in 1926 and the office norm by the mid-20th century, is outdated. Initially, the five-day, 40-hour schedule was seen as a balance between productivity and leisure. However, over time, many have criticized it, calling for more flexibility and better work-life balance.
“We are long overdue an update,” Ryle said. “As hundreds of British companies and one local council have already shown, a four-day week with no loss of pay can be a win-win for both workers and employers. With 50% more free time, a four-day week gives people the freedom to live happier, more fulfilling lives.”
A survey by UK-based Spark Market Research found that 78% of 18- to 34-year-olds expect a four-day workweek to become common in the next five years, while 65% oppose a return to traditional full-time office work.
“This group also say[s] that mental health and improving their overall wellbeing are their top priorities, so a four-day week is a really meaningful benefit and a key enabler of their overall quality of life,” said Lynsey Carolan, managing director of Spark Market Research.
Starlink support appears to be a secret iOS 18.3 feature for iPhones, some of which now support satellite communication services from SpaceX — but only for users invited to join public beta testing of the service on US carrier T-Mobile. This supplements Apple’s existing satellite services supplier, Globalstar.
T-Mobile’s list of eligible devices for beta testing Starlink/T-Mobiles direct-to-cell services now includes iPhones.
Some high-end Samsung Galaxy and Android devices are also being tested.
The service is only available to selected iPhone owners running the latest iOS 18.3 update.
It will be made available over time to iPhone users on T-Mobile who apply to test the beta service.
If enabled, iPhone users can use this instead of Apple’s existing Globalstar service. It is enabled using a new toggle in cellular data to enable satellite messaging.
While use of Starlink requires you to manually make a connection, the Starlink integration is always on if it is on at all.
Apple’s existing satellite-based services include Emergency SOS by Satellite, Roadside Assistance via Satellite, Send Location via Satellite and, with iOS 18, Messages via Satellite. T-Mobile Starlink currently supports sending and receiving text messages, location sharing and texting 911 emergency services while connected to Starlink’s satellites, with plans to pursue voice and data coverage next.
(This support will extend to music and audio podcasts, apparently.)
It is not yet clear whether the new support for Starlink on T-Mobile extends to Apple’s existing services, or if it is confined to those from Starlink.
Commencing countdown?
The partnership between T-Mobile and Starlink was revealed just months before Apple’s initial introduction of its Emergency SOS via Satellite service with Globalstar.
Apple continues to make serious investments in Globalstar, but the new arrangement with T-Mobile hints that the company might also intend support for Starlink. If it chooses to make that support platform wide, rather than carrier-specific as it is now, then it’s possible iPhone users in more than 100 countries might be able to use the service.
Despite the new deal, Apple and Globalstar are not sitting still staring at the Starlink. Just weeks before T-Mobile’s news, an Apple patent appeared in which researchers described a tech that will smoothly shift connections to new satellites as they orbit. That tech could make it possible for the service Apple offers with Globalstar to make and maintain satellite connections more reliably, potentially without pointing your device at the sky. It effectively turns the satellites into the orbital equivalent of mobile network masts.
Apple invested $1.1 billion in GlobalStar in November 2024, taking a 20% stake in the company in exchange for 85% of the satellite carrier’s network capacity. All this activity, and the détente with Starlink, suggest the race toward satellite-based iPhone communications is intensifying. It’s only a matter of time until global network services become a reality.
Which way to go
If you are an existing T-Mobile customer with a recent iPhone (15/16 series) running iOS 18.3 or later you can join the beta to try Starlink. To do so, you must register here, share your personal details and confirm your registration. Once registered, “When you are in an area without traditional or roaming cellular services, your satellite-optimized device will automatically connect to the T-Mobile Starlink network if you are part of the T-Mobile Starlink beta,” according to the carrier.
When connected, your device will display “T-Mobile SpaceX” at the top left of the screen. While you can use 911 to contact emergency services, you are unable to send images of videos via the service. You cannot select satellite when other cellular connection options are available.
The Chinese AI app DeepSeek has come under intense scrutiny from both the US and European regulators, raising alarms over national security risks, data privacy concerns, and potential intellectual property theft.
The White House confirmed on Tuesday that the National Security Council (NSC) is reviewing the AI model’s implications as fears mount that Chinese advancements in AI could threaten the dominance of US-based AI firms including OpenAI and Google.
“This is a wake-up call to the American AI industry,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said responding to reporters during her first press briefing, reinforcing the administration’s commitment to ensuring US leadership in AI.
Leavitt also confirmed during the briefing that she had personally discussed the matter with the NSC.
Meanwhile, Italy’s data protection authority, the Garante, launched its own investigation into DeepSeek, demanding clarity on its data collection practices. The Italian regulator has given DeepSeek and its affiliated companies 20 days to respond, making it one of the first regulatory bodies to take direct action against the Chinese AI startup.
“The Authority, considering the potential high risk for the data of millions of people in Italy, has asked the two companies and their affiliates to confirm which personal data are collected, from which sources, for which purposes, what is the legal basis of the processing, and whether they are stored on servers located in China,” the regulator said in a statement.
The Garante is seeking details about the personal data collected, its sources, its legal basis for processing, and whether any data is stored in China — raising broader concerns over data sovereignty and compliance with Europe’s stringent privacy laws.
Italy’s move comes amid broader concerns about foreign AI models’ compliance with regional regulations. The country had previously banned OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2023 over potential violations of EU privacy rules, demonstrating its proactive stance in regulating AI models that handle personal data.
“According to its privacy policy, DeepSeek explicitly says it can collect “your text or audio input, prompt, uploaded files, feedback, chat history, or other content” and use it for training purposes,” research firm Forrester said in a statement. “It also states it can share this information with law enforcement agencies [and] public authorities at its discretion.”
Forrester suggested enterprises to “Educate and inform your employees on the ramifications of using this technology and inputting personal and company information into it. Align with product leaders on whether developers should be experimenting with it and whether the product should support its implementation without stricter privacy requirements.”
IP theft concerns deepen in the US
Beyond privacy issues, US officials are also raising alarms over the possibility of intellectual property (IP) theft tied to DeepSeek.
Trump’s AI and crypto policy lead, David Sacks, suggested that China may have leveraged a technique called “distillation,” where AI models learn from other advanced systems—raising the possibility that US-developed AI technology may have been replicated without authorization.
“I think one of the things you’re going to see over the next few months is our leading AI companies taking steps to try and prevent distillation,” Sacks said in a Fox News interview. “That would definitely slow down some of these copycat models.”
“DeepSeek’s ‘open source’ nature opens it up for exploration – by both adversaries and enthusiasts,” said Chester Wisniewski, director and global field CTO at Sophos. “Like Llama, it can be played with and largely have the guardrails removed. This could lead to abuse by cybercriminals, although it’s important to note that running DeepSeek still requires far more resources than the average cybercriminal has.”
During his administration, former President Joe Biden imposed sweeping export controls on AI-related technologies to slow China’s AI progress. Now, Trump’s administration is signaling it may take even stronger measures.
Market reactions and competitive pressure
The emergence of DeepSeek has already rattled the tech industry. On Monday, global investors dumped shares of major US AI companies, fearing the rise of a low-cost Chinese competitor. DeepSeek, which presents itself as a budget-friendly alternative to AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has quickly gained traction — briefly overtaking ChatGPT as the top AI assistant on Apple’s App Store in the US.
“More pressing for companies, however, is that, due to its cost-effectiveness, we are likely to see various products and companies adopt DeepSeek, which potentially carries significant privacy risks,” Wisniewski added. “As with any other AI model, it will be critical for companies to make a thorough risk assessment, which extends to any products and suppliers that may incorporate DeepSeek or any future LLM. They also need to be certain they have the right expertise to make an informed decision.”
Despite the concerns, Trump framed the development as an opportunity for American firms to step-up their innovation efforts. “The release of DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company should be a wake-up call for our industries,” Trump told House Republicans at their annual policy retreat. “We need to be laser-focused on competing to win.”
Trump also suggested that competition from China could drive American firms to develop AI models at lower costs. “We always have the ideas. We’re always first,” he said, signaling confidence in US ingenuity.
Industry watchers too believe the rise of DeepSeek will accelerate competition.
“DeepSeek’s approach is expected to accelerate the shift toward open-source AI, compelling tech giants to either adapt or risk being left behind,” said Muskaan Jain, senior analyst at Everest Group. “This shift will likely trigger price wars, faster AI development cycles, and heightened geopolitical tensions over AI dominance.”
What’s next?
With regulatory scrutiny intensifying on both sides of the Atlantic, DeepSeek’s fate in key global markets remains uncertain. If the NSC’s review results in policy recommendations, American AI firms may soon face even stricter export controls and regulations designed to prevent unauthorized AI knowledge transfers.
Meanwhile, DeepSeek’s compliance with European privacy regulations could dictate whether it maintains a foothold in markets like Italy and beyond. If found in violation, the Chinese AI firm could face penalties or access restrictions, echoing past actions against OpenAI.
For US enterprises, these developments signal both risks and opportunities. While competition from China grows, American firms will be under increasing pressure to maintain their technological edge while navigating evolving regulatory frameworks. In an industry moving at an unprecedented pace, policymakers and business leaders alike will need to balance innovation with security and compliance.
“If DeepSeek secures a foothold in the AI market, western firms must respond with responsible innovation and strategic investments to maintain technological leadership while ensuring AI remains ethical and secure in an increasingly fragmented global market,” Jain added.
It’s going to be a long four years for Microsoft as the company tries to navigate the stormy chaos and pledges of retribution that follow wherever President Donald J. Trump’s mind wanders. Though he’s been president for only a little more than a week, Trump has already unleashed a tsunami of actions that could affect the company: declaring war on diversity (DEI) efforts, removing the guardrails former President Biden placed around AI, and demanding undying fealty as far as his eyes can see.
CEO Satya Nadella has clearly been planning how the company can make it through the years as unscathed as possible. Let’s look at how he’s handled Trump so far — and what he might do over the next four years.
Avoiding AI wars
Microsoft is the world’s largest and most valuable AI company, and one of Trump’s primary goals for AI is to unleash its power, for better or worse. So, his actions will have outsized effects on Microsoft.
Microsoft and many other AI companies welcomed Biden’s order when it was issued in 2023, because it was good for tech companies, not just for people affected by AI. With guardrails in place, Microsoft and other companies believed more people would use AI, which would mean bigger profits for them.
We don’t know what the Trump Administration plan will be. But it’s clear it won’t target the dangers of AI. Microsoft, as well as other AI companies, have remained silent about the action. It was a smart move for Nadella to hold his tongue — Microsoft can always impose its own guardrails on AI, despite Trump’s order.
Nadella has also stayed on the sidelines in the controversy around Trump’s Stargate project, a joint initiative by OpenAI, Oracle, Softbank, and the US government to raise $100 billion to build AI data centers and power plants, and then up the ante all the way to $500 billion. Top Trump tech advisor Elon Musk claimed OpenAI, Oracle, Softbank “don’t actually have the money” for the project, called OpenAI CEO Sam Altman a “swindler,” and said the entire initiative was “fake.”
Nadella sidestepped the fight when asked about it in an interview on CNBC, saying that Microsoft was spending $80 billion on Azure so “customers can count on Microsoft with OpenAI models being there everywhere in the world, serving OpenAI models and other models. I am good for my $80 billion,” he added.
Again, this is a smart move. No matter what happens with Stargate, Microsoft wins. It’s a big OpenAI investor, so if Stargate succeeds, it pays off for Microsoft. And if it doesn’t, Microsoft can sell more AI-related infrastructure. Joining the tit-for-tat wouldn’t have helped Microsoft.
Many tech titans joined Trump’s crusade, notably Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, who killed Meta’s DEI efforts, and Jeff Bezos, who scaled back Amazon’s. Google has downsized its DEI program as well.
Microsoft hasn’t followed suit. Nadella in October said in Microsoft’s annual report on DEI that the efforts “ensure our work force represents the planet we serve, and that the products we build always meet our customers’ needs.”
In December, more than a month after Trump’s election, Microsoft Chief Diversity Officer Lindsay-Rae McIntyr doubled down on that in a post on LinkedIn, noting that not only are DEI efforts the right thing to do, but they’re essential to Microsoft’s success. She wrote on LinkedIn, “I’m thinking about the importance of continuing our diversity and inclusion work, expanding empathy, and anticipating the needs of all our stakeholders, both within Microsoft and beyond. The business case for D&I is not only a constant, but is stronger than ever, reinforcing our belief that a diverse and inclusive workforce is crucial for innovation and success.”
Once again, Nadella handled this in a low-key way, promising the company will stay true to its values, but not going out of his way to take on a fight with Trump about it.
Not singing in Trump’s amen chorus
Beyond individual issues like AI and DEI is the larger issue of pledging fealty to Trump and all he stands for. Trump has made tech one of the cornerstones of his plans for the future and is using his relationships with tech moguls as a way to provide cover for the ways in which he wants to reshape the country and its politics.
Many of the world’s most powerful tech titans are only too happy to sing along in Trump’s amen chorus. To show their support, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Musk were all seated in prominent positions at Trump’s inauguration. (Note that Apple CEO Tim Cook attended as well, but Apple still fully supports DEI efforts.)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote: “Big Tech billionaires have a front row seat at Trump’s inauguration. They have even better seats than Trump’s own cabinet picks. That says it all.”
Noticeably absent was Nadella. His non-attendance made clear he’s not in on Trump’s agenda.
The upshot
What we’ve seen in the earliest days of the Trump administration from Nadella is likely how he’ll try to safely navigate Microsoft through the coming years. He’ll stay out of the public eye as much as possible, won’t comment on political and cultural issues, and when it comes to tech won’t engage in the kind of chest-banging that Musk, Zuckerberg, Altman, and other tech titans have engaged in.
All that is easy to say and tough to do. But if Nadella can do it, Microsoft will be a stronger company four years from now, with its culture intact.
Do you find yourself typing the same things over and over?
If the answer is yes — and if you type enough text during the workweek, it almost certainly will be — I’d highly recommend you install a text expansion application. These text shortcut tools are a must-have productivity upgrade for many knowledge workers, and they can even help you at home. If you haven’t given one a go yet, you’re missing out.
There are am wide variety of text expanders to choose from. Many are paid tools intended for businesses, complete with pricey subscriptions and features that only make sense for large teams and complex professional workflows.
(These types of apps are particularly relevant in the PC arena; text shortcut tricks are built into Android phones and Apple devices, but on Windows, you need a third-party application to take advantage of them.)
I’ll cover the text expanders I recommend — easy-to-use, free solutions for Windows PCs. If your workplace pays for a different one, that’s great. Otherwise, I suggest starting with one of the options here.
Up first is Beeftext, a completely free, open-source, and as-simple-as-it-gets text expansion tool for Windows PCs. My colleague Jared Newman recommended it at PCWorld — and for good reason.
After installing and launching Beeftext, you’ll see a little red “Bt” icon in your system tray. Open it to get started.
In Beeftext, combos are text expansion shortcuts. You’ll click Combos > New to create a new one. Then, you’ll just need to enter a Snippet and a Keyword. When you type the keyword in any application, Beeftext will replace it with the snippet.
For example, you might want to try creating the keyword /add and specifying your address. Then, you can type that keyword in any application on your PC to quickly insert your address.
While creating a combo, you just need to fill in the “Snippet” and “Keyword” boxes.
Chris Hoffman, IDG
It’s really that simple. You could enter /# and associate that with your phone number. You don’t have to use a slash — it’s just an easy way to create memorable shortcuts that you won’t type accidentally.
You can do a lot with this type of tool. If you often find yourself responding to a customer, client, or even just a friend with a specific message, you might create a snippet for that message so you can quickly type it in emails. If you often end up inserting some kind of signature or disclaimer message, you might create a snippet for that. It’s really up to you.
Autocorrect: Built right into Office apps
It’s worth noting that Office apps like Microsoft Word, Excel, OneNote, and Outlook have a text-expansion-style feature built right into them. It will only work inside those Office apps. But, if you only need this feature while working in those specific applications, it’s perfect. And it might be the only solution for workers who can’t install anything else on their PCs.
First, open the application you want to use — such as Microsoft Word or OneNote. Click the “File” menu and select “Options.” Click the “Proofing” option in the left sidebar, and then click the “AutoCorrect Options” button.
The AutoCorrect window will appear. Under “Replace text as you type,” add something you want to replace at the left and the text you want to replace it with at the right. Then, click the “Add” button to add it to the list, and click “OK.”
For example, as in the above example, you could enter /add and have Office replace that text with your address when you type it.
AutoCorrect is incredibly convenient. I wish it worked elsewhere in Windows, too!
Chris Hoffman, IDG
Want to use formatted text — or text with multiple lines? Type some text in your document, and then select it with your mouse. Then, click File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options. The text you selected will be prefilled there, and you can associate a text shortcut with it.
Text Blaze: An extension for Chrome and Edge
Last but not least, Text Blaze is another exceptional option for Windows-based text replacement. (We use this application at our newsletter-focused small business The Intelligence.) While it’s not completely free, it does offer a free plan for individuals. That plan gives you up to 20 snippets, which is plenty for many people.
Text Blaze lets you specify a “shortcut” that will be replaced by a “snippet” when you type It on any web page in your browser.
Chris Hoffman, IDG
On the business front, the tool has some useful features that work well for our team, such as sharing snippets with other people and dynamically entering information in snippets. That’s more than many users will need, though. The paid subscription won’t be necessary if you just want some quick text shortcuts in Google Chrome for your own use.
Text Blaze does have a Windows application, too — but, in my experience, it works better and faster as a Chrome extension.
More text expansion options for Windows PCs
With all the text expansion tools available, it’s hard to narrow the list. If you do some web searches, you’ll see a lot of other similar options. Here are a few other popular possibilities and what you need to know about them — including why they didn’t earn one of my top recommendations:
Espanso is a completely free and open-source text expander that works on Windows as well as other platforms. However, it doesn’t have a convenient graphical interface, so you’ll have to write out your “matches” and “replaces” in a text editor. If that works for you, go right ahead — it will be the tool of choice for many geeks.
TextExpander is incredibly polished and feature-filled. But this tool doesn’t have a free version. While it might be a great fit for some businesses who want to use the sharing functionality with their team, the $40/year subscription here isn’t a great fit for the average individual.
Phrase Express is another application with a long history. But, starting at $100 per license, it’s probably not the ideal choice for most people.
I can’t emphasize enough: There are many other text expansion tools that’ll work with Windows. Lots of them likely work well, too, but most aren’t free or have other issues that make them not-entirely-optimal choices for most common purposes.
Bonus: Pin text to Clipboard History in Windows
Don’t want to install a text expander? You can also “pin” items to your clipboard history in either Windows 11 or Windows 10. To open it, press Windows+V and choose to enable clipboard history if you haven’t already done so.
Then, after copying some text or an image to your clipboard, you can press Windows+V and use the “pin” option to save it to your clipboard history for later. You can then press Windows+V in the future and select a pinned item to quickly paste it.
The Clipboard History tool is useful for both text and images.
Chris Hoffman, IDG
It’s not a text expander, exactly — but it is a way to quickly insert some saved text. And it’s that end result that counts the most.
I do. It was March 10, 2000. The NASDAQ Composite index peaked at 5,048.62 points. That doesn’t sound like much today, but it was up 800% from 1995. Then people started to get nervous about the true value of the dot.com businesses driving the market, interest rates started to rise, and by October 2002, the NASDAQ had fallen 78% from its peak.
We’re not even a month into 2025, and the new Chinese AI program DeepSeek this week sparked Nvidia’s $465 billion rout, the biggest single-day drop in US stock market history.
This is just the beginning. It’s not that DeepSeek is so much better than ChatGPT’s OpenAI or any of the other popular generative AI (genAI) tools. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. (Just don’t ask it about what happened at Tiananmen Square in 1989.)
No, what matters is that DeepSeek requires an order-of-magnitude less computing power to achieve similar results. By programmer Simon Willison’s count, “DeepSeek v3 trained on 2,788,000 H800 GPU hours at an estimated cost of $5,576,000. For comparison, Meta AI’s Llama 3.1 405B (fewer than DeepSeek v3’s 685B parameters) trained on 11x that; it required more than 30.8 million GPU hours and was trained on 15 trillion tokens of data.
In other words, “large language models (LLM) pricing is going to collapse.
“The scary part is the LLM giants didn’t have profit margins to begin with,” he continued. “LLMs are going to commodity in a hurry.” That’s bad news for companies such as OpenAI. Sure, the company’s market value stands at $157 billion — but it’s still losing billions of dollars. If OpenAI’s customers decide they don’t want to pay its rates when they can get much the same service for a fraction of the cost from DeepSeek, where does that leave OpenAI?
What happens then? Look at it this way: today’s overheated stock market is driven by the Magnificent Seven— companies that with one exception (Tesla) have one thing in common: they’re all heavily invested in AI hype. Even Tesla is heavily invested in what Elon Musk calls real-world AI.
It’s not just the Magnificent Seven; pick-and-shovel AI companies such as Oracle, Super Micro, and Nebius (formerly Yandex) are also in a world of trouble.
Bratin Saha, DigitalOcean’s chief product and technology officer, sees the potential for a relatively small company to become a big player. “DeepSeek AI is the ‘Android moment for AI’ (given that ChatGPT was likened to the ‘iPhone moment for AI’), as it shows groundbreaking AI products from the open-source community,” Saha told me.
“DeepSeek AI democratizes AI and cloud computing because it shows you do not need multi-billion dollar investments for compelling innovation,” he said. “It lowers the barrier for small and medium enterprises and individual developers to work with AI.”
Exactly.
The way Stephen O’Grady, co-founder and industry analyst with RedMonk, sees it, enterprises have two major AI concerns. How trustworthy the technology is and its cost. As O’Grady points out, “Enterprises have been shocked, in many cases, at the unexpected costs – and unclear returns – from some scale investments in AI.”
What if enterprises don’t have to rely on closed, private models for leading-edge capabilities?
What if training costs could be reduced by an order of magnitude or more?
What if they don’t require expensive, state-of-the-art hardware to run their models?
This changes everything for businesses that want to use AI and multi-billion dollar companies that want to sell AI to you. It’s a sea change.
“What the markets reacted to was DeepSeek’s ability to build a model that rivaled OpenAI’s sophisticated o1 reasoning model and Anthropic’s Sonnet model for pennies on the dollar on a fraction of the compute,” Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, wrote. “It also appears that DeepSeek did this using well-known techniques. There were no massive algorithmic breakthroughs, just very clever engineering.”
Still,”a small team in China took a fresh look at a problem and came up with a novel approach that reduced the cost of chain-of-thought reasoning by 50x (if DeepSeek’s postings are accurate) and then published a paper fully describing their process, allowing the community to benefit from their learnings,” Zemlin said. “We need MORE of this progress, not less.… This is a struggle over open markets between the forces of open and the forces of closed.”
That may be good for open source and for AI, but for our stock market, which is largely driven by AI, it’s another matter. The Magnificent Seven accounted for over 50% of the S&P 500’s gains in 2024. If they collapse, a good chunk of the market will follow.
I’m not normally a bear, but I’ve seen this rodeo before. Oh, AI will survive, and eventually, it will prove useful and profitable. But, in the meantime, I can see an AI crash coming, and it won’t be pretty.
It’s fascinating to see how few people actively use some of Android’s most useful features.
I had such a revelation around the platform’s long-standing split-screen option this month. With Google working to expand Android’s screen-splitting system and make it even more flexible with an upcoming Android version, I decided to ask the smart and savvy readers of my Android Intelligence newsletter how often they actually tap into that Android-exclusive advantage.
And the survey saaaaaaaaaaays: A staggering 57% of folks rarely to never rely on Android’s split-screen option, while 19% didn’t even know such a thing existed. Just 6% said they use it once or twice a week, meanwhile, and a meager 5% almost every day.
But my goodness, can it ever be a handy efficiency-enhancer to wield. And beyond the basic act of splitting your screen in half and interacting with two apps at the same time, Android’s split-screen system holds some splendidly advanced options for pushing your productivity to powerful new heights.
My friend and fellow tech-sorcery adorer, prepare to be enlightened.
[Psst: Want even more advanced Android knowledge? Check out my free Android Shortcut Supercourse next to learn tons of time-saving tricks for your phone.]
Android split-screen trick #1: The split slide
Up first is an easy one to wrap your mind around. Once you’ve got two apps open together on your favorite Android device — and if you don’t know how to do that yet, pause for a moment and start here for the 101-level steps — take note: You can slide your finger up and down (or side to side, if your device is in a landscape orientation) on the line between the two sides of your screen to change the spacing and see more of either app in the split.
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JR Raphael, IDG
If you slide your finger all the way down (or to the side), meanwhile, you’ll exit Android’s split-screen mode entirely and go back to seeing just a single app at once.
Android split-screen trick #2: The tab grab
Typically, when you’re starting up a new split-screen, you select two different apps from your recently used app list to get things going.
But — little-known fact! — you can also select two different tabs from the Android Chrome browser and then view and even scroll through ’em side by side simultaneously.
This one’s a little tricky to find, but once you know the trick, it’s actually quite easy:
First, open up Chrome.
Then, fire up a split-screen between that and any other app, using the standard Android split-screen shortcut. It doesn’t matter what other app you choose, as we’ll override it a moment.
Now, in the Chrome half of your screen, tap the three-dot icon in the upper-right corner and select “New window.”
Alternatively, you can open any web page in the initial Chrome view and press and hold your finger onto any link within that page — then, in the menu that pops up, find and select the “Open in other window” option.
And hey, how ’bout that?!
Two Chrome apps side by side in a split — what’ll they think of next?!
JR Raphael, IDG
You’ve now got two Chrome tabs together on your screen, and you can change ’em or interact with ’em in any you want. You can even move tabs from one side of the screen to the other, if you’re really feeling saucy.
Android split-screen trick #3: The email divide
Similar to Chrome, Google’s official Gmail app for Android has its own crafty way to create a split-screen using multiple views from a single inbox.
This one works a wee bit differently, and it’s even easier to pull off:
That’ll put your new message draft on the first half of the screen. And you should then see your Gmail inbox view as an available option for the other half — or, if you’re on a Samsung device, be able to find and select Gmail from the list of other choices to get to that same spot.
Email in multiple panels, thanks to Android’s split-screen system.
JR Raphael, IDG
An active draft and your inbox or any other email on-screen together — doesn’t get much more convenient than that.
Android split-screen trick #4: The split-screen redo
In more recent Android versions, anytime you’ve created a split-screen between two apps, you can then find and return to that same exact setup — with both those same apps in the same split-screen position — even after you’ve moved away and shifted your focus elsewhere.
Just look in your recent apps overview — y’know, the thing you get to by swiping up about an inch from the bottom of the screen and stopping, with Android gestures, or by tapping the either square-shaped or three-vertical-line icon at the bottom of your screen, if you’re still clingin’ to the old legacy three-button nav approach — and you should see any recently accessed splits there and ready to return to with a couple quick taps.
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JR Raphael, IDG
Android split-screen trick #5: The instant split
You don’t have to rely on your Android screen-splitting history to get back to a favorite app split in a jiff. A clever little app called Be Nice makes it as easy as can be to create custom one-tap shortcuts for starting up specific pairs of apps in a split on demand — just like opening any regular ol’ individual app on your device.
If you’ve got a large-screen Android device — be it a tablet or an expanded foldable phone — with Android 15 in place, you can actually accomplish something similar without any third-party add-ons.
Speaking of tablets and foldables, if you’re rockin’ such a plus-sized device and you’ve got a reasonably recent Android version on it, you can spin yourself into a split in a split-second simply by summoning the taskbar in the Android large-screen environment.
Just swipe up gently from the bottom of your screen to get the taskbar to appear, then drag an icon from that area up into your main screen space.
See?
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JR Raphael, IDG
Whee!
Android split-screen trick #8: The Keep 2-in-1 special
Also specific to large-screen Android environments is a nifty little trick that lets you create a split-screen view right within the Google Keep Android app — without having to rely on the standard system-level screen-splitting feature at all.
Just open up any note inside the app, and as long as your screen is wide enough, you’ll see the note show up alongside your main note list. And then, from there, you can press and hold your finger onto the line separating the app’s two panels — the note list and whatever individual note you’re actively viewing — and slide your finger in either direction to change the panels’ sizes.
From Keep to calendar, the Google Calendar Android app has a similarly sneaky bit o’ screen-splitting sorcery built right in for larger Android devices.
In Calendar, you can trigger a split by tapping on a specific individual event from within a calendar view. That’ll cause your screen to divide and the event to appear alongside the full calendar interface — again, on a larger-screened Android gizmo only — and just like with Keep, you can then press and slide your precious fingie along the line between those panels to adjust each side’s size.
Pretty handy — and we’ve got two easily overlooked Android split-screen tricks left yet…
Android split-screen trick #10: The floating web window
In addition to the snazzy Chrome tab screen-splitting tricks from a second ago, you can also pop any web page out into a floating window that then sits atop anything else you’re doing on your device — like a more versatile sort of split-screen setup, in a sense.
This one requires a helping hand from a third-party app called, fittingly enough, Float Browser.
Last but not least is a final native Android feature for splitting your screen in an unconventional but effective way — at least, for certain specific scenarios.
It’s Android’s picture-in-picture system, which makes it easy to keep an actively playing video or even a Google Maps navigation visible on your screen while you also go about other tasks.
In apps that support the function, you can start a picture-in-picture view simply by heading back to your home screen while a video or navigation is playing (though some apps, like YouTube, do have certain restrictions in place for when the feature can be used).
And there ya have it: 11 excellent ways to make the most of Android’s split-screen framework. Use your newfound power wisely — and as with any splits, be sure to do plenty of gentle stretching.
↪️ Up next: Get six full days of advanced Android knowledge with my free Android Shortcut Supercourse. You’ll learn tons of time-saving tricks for your phone!
President Donald Trump has suggested plans to impose tariffs of up to 100% on semiconductors imported from Taiwan, aiming to boost US manufacturing but risking higher costs and supply chain disruptions for tech firms and enterprises.
“In the very near future, we’re going to be placing tariffs on foreign production of computer chips, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals to return production of these essential goods to the United States of America,” Trump said during a recent address.
AWS and Microsoft could potentially face an investigation of their cloud businesses in Britain should the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) follow the recommendation of an independent inquiry group that reports into the UK’s antitrust regulator.
In a release issued on Monday, the group asks that the CMA use its powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA), to “designate the two largest providers, AWS and Microsoft, with strategic market status (SMS) in relation to their respective digital activities in cloud services.”
The new legislation took effect at the start of the year, and UK law firm Macfarlanes wrote in an advisory on the new legislation, issued on January 13, that the “UK’s answer to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) empowers the CMA to designate firms as having “Strategic Market Status” (SMS) in relation to a particular ‘digital activity.’ Once designated, the CMA can impose ‘conduct requirements’ (CRs) on those firms or introduce ‘pro-competition interventions’ (PCIs) to achieve positive outcomes for UK consumers and businesses.”
There is a special Copilot key on some Windows laptops that can be used to launch Microsoft’s AI assistant — and now support for the key is coming to Linux.
That support has been added in version 6.14 of Linux, though exactly what it will be used for depends on which Linux-based operating system you are running. Most users are likely to use the key to open any generative AI assistant.
Version 6.14 offers several other new features, including expanded support for hand controllers, according to Phoronix.
