Microsoft has bet big on Copilot, the generative AI (genAI) assistant it’s integrating into nearly its entire product line, notably Microsoft 365. The company believes businesses of all sizes will buy into the productivity gains the tool might deliver — and in so doing, deliver billions of dollars to Microsoft’s bottom line.
Copilot for Microsoft 365, he said, “is on a growth rate that’s faster than any other previous generation of software we launched” for the office suite.
That’s certainly good news for Microsoft. But there may be bumps in the road ahead. Researchers and analysts are warning about a variety of serious Copilot security problems, especially for enterprises that use it in concert with Microsoft 365. Gartner has weighed in with its own security warnings and at least one researcher says companies are already shying away from buying Copilot because of it.
Are the security woes overstated, or does Microsoft have a real problem on its hands?
Here’s what companies need to keep in mind as they eye deployment.
Data access: Copilot for Microsoft 365’s main problem
Many of the potentially serious security issues with Copilot start with what kind of access the genAI tool is given to corporate data, and how that access can be misused by hackers, or even by people within a company.
Ivan Fioravanti, co-founder and CTO for CoreView, which focuses on Microsoft 365 management configuration and security, notes in a blog post that when a company installs Copilot for Microsoft 365, it gets the same permissions model for data access already in place for Microsoft 365. That model, he says, is designed to ensure “only authorized users can interact with sensitive information.”
However, there are security gaps enterprises could easily miss. Fioravanti warns that risky Copilot configuration settings could be enabled by default. These settings can give Copilot “access to sensitive data without appropriate safeguards in place. Default settings could allow Copilot to interact with external plugins and access web content, introducing new attack surfaces.”
Beyond that, Copilot reporting tools are insufficient “to identify potential areas of concern, such as users accessing sensitive data inappropriately,” he warns. “…Copilot can inadvertently expose existing security gaps, making it easier for users to discover and share information they shouldn’t have access to.”
Overall, he concludes, “Copilot’s broad access to data across Microsoft 365 creates additional security risks. If a user’s account is compromised, an attacker could leverage Copilot to extract confidential information. The AI models powering Copilot also present potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited.”
Fioravanti is not alone in his concerns. Gartner points out many of the same issues. And it adds one more: Copilot “has inherent risks of being susceptible to prompt injection attacks, generating undesired output including hallucinations, toxic content or copyright-protected materials.”
Prompt injection attacks, can do even worse than that. A hacker who gains access to Copilot for Microsoft 365 could use prompts to find private company data and steal it. A prompt injection attack could also create and execute malicious code without detection. And it could allow hackers to impersonate someone in a company with high-level access to sensitive information and use that information for nefarious purposes.
Are companies already shying away?
There’s some evidence companies may well already be avoiding Copilot for Microsoft 365 because of potential security woes.
Jack Berkowitz, chief data officer of the security firm Securiti, warns that in large companies with complex permissions rules, employees often have access to information that should be off limits because of “conflicting authorizations or conflicting access to data.” Copilot makes it easier for hackers to get that information because they only need prompts to find it.
Berkowitz argues that security problems associated with Copilot are causing companies to pause their use of the product. “A few weeks ago,” he says, “we hosted a little dinner in New York, and we just asked this question of 20-plus CDOs [chief data officers] in New York City of the biggest companies, ‘Hey, is this an issue?’
“And the resounding response was, ‘Yeah, it’s a real mess.'”
According to Berkowitz, half of the businesses at the dinner had cut back or halted a Copilot for Microsoft 365 implementation because of security fears.
What’s next?
Copilot for Microsoft 365 is so new that it’s difficult at this point to tell whether the security concerns are overstated or understated and whether they’re actually making companies leery of adopting it.
Microsoft is working on an AI suite aimed at government agencies, and is apparently taking security into account. That’s a good initial step. But it’s only a small one. If it doesn’t quickly fix Copilot’s AI security issues, it could find itself a laggard in field, not the world leader.
For the past several days, I’ve been living in The Future™.
Well, okay — I guess it depends which version of The Future™ you want to use:
There’s the hardware-centric definition we here in the land o’ Android have been eyeing for a while now, in which unusual phone forms (allegedly) guide us to staggering new levels of superhuman productivity.
And then there’s the more recent software-centric vision of The Future™, where all sorts of heavily hyped AI sorcery (supposedly) sends us soaring to previously unimaginable heights.
Technically, I’ve been dwelling in both of those domains. But only one of them actually matters. (Sorry, AI sorcery.)
It’s all part of the wild adventure of living with Google’s shiny new Pixel 9 Pro Fold phone — better known to Android aficionados as the Pixel Fold 2, following last year’s first-ever foray into folding Pixel waters.
In case you don’t come to these quarters often, lemme tell ya: I’ve got a relatively unusual perspective on this relatively unusual Pixel experience. I’ve used Pixels since the very first model, way back in the prehistoric era of 2016, and I toted around an assortment of other Android devices before that (including more than my fair share of Google-made Nexus goodies). I spent tons of time with the first-gen Pixel Fold last year and had been living with the other new Pixel 9 devices prior to moving into this fresh new Fold — provided to me as a loaner from Google — two weeks ago.
And this latest folding Pixel journey, my fellow gadget explorer, has been a particularly enlightening experience — for two curiously competing reasons I find myself struggling to square.
[Got a Pixel? Any Pixel? Check out my free Pixel Academy e-course to find all sorts of useful new stuff your phone can do for you — no matter which specific Pixel you’ve got in your paws!]
Let me explain.
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold reality #1: The productivity power-up
First up is the positive side of using the Pixel 9 Pro Fold — and my goodness, is it a big one.
I won’t beat around the bush: This phone is fantastic. It’s a true treat to use, and once you get past the adjustment of working with such a different type of device, you’re bound to fall in love with the form and the many advantages it affords you.
What makes the Pixel 9 Pro Fold so exceptional is actually amusingly ironic — and that’s the fact that, for the most part, it feels more or less like using any regular ol’ Pixel.
And, critically, the phone is almost identical in size to its non-folding counterpart — all the way down to the screen on its outer surface. This is in large part due to the refinements Google made from the first-gen Pixel Fold to this current model, which brought it from being a rather short and squat (and more than a little chunky) square fella to boasting a far more typical-feeling elongated rectangle form.
Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold, at left, with the much squatter first-gen Pixel Fold behind it.
JR Raphael, IDG
Make no mistake about it: That outer display is almost certainly how you’ll be interacting with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold most of the time. I’d say it’s at least 95%, for me — maybe even more, on some days. And from that perspective, using the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is virtually no different from using any other current Pixel. (That’s a good thing!)
Where the Fold differs from those other Pixels, of course, is with the extra option it gives you to unfold it and enjoy the spacious 8″ tablet that awaits within. That’ll likely make up a small minority of your time using the device, but when the right sorts of moments arise, you’d better believe that matters.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold atop last year’s Pixel Fold, in their fully opened forms.
JR Raphael, IDG
In short, that possibility strips away many of the standard limitations of using a phone-sized device and gives you a more desktop-like computing experience — which, suffice it to say, can be a massive asset when it comes to work-oriented, productivity-centric tasks.
For instance:
You can view two apps side by side, on-screen together and at their full regular sizes, and then interact with ’em at the same time — even dragging and dropping text or images between ’em in certain scenarios.
I’ve used this to do things like look at a note in Google Keep while working on a related email or document — or glance through a web page while simultaneously working with an email or document.
You can also summon a splendid floating taskbar that makes it delightfully easy to switch between apps and multitask when in that folded-out form. This was my favorite part of the original Pixel Fold experience, and it remains every bit as much of a highlight in this new second-gen version of the device.
The taskbar not only lets you move between apps with ease — it also empowers you to tap into that so often underutilized Android split-screen system that’s especially advantageous in this larger-screen environment. All you’ve gotta do is press and hold any icon from that area and then drag it up into either side of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s screen to open the app alongside whatever else you were already using.
It’s smart, simple, and almost painfully sensible. My only complaint is that the same option isn’t available on the Fold’s outer display — or on any other regularly sized Android phone, where it’d be every bit as useful and appreciated.
Beyond those types of tasks, the Fold’s inner display is nice for moments when you simply want to lean back and have more space for anything you’re doing — be it reading on the web or within an app, catching up on newsletters inside your inbox, or scrolling through photos in your gallery collection. It’s also a pleasant way to view videos in a larger size or view videos while you’re simultaneously working on something in an almost laptop-like setup.
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold, unfolded — now, that’s what you call mobile multitasking.
JR Raphael, IDG
Again, this isn’t stuff you’re likely to be doing all the time or even necessarily often. But when the need or desire arises, it really is a welcome advantage to be able to pop your phone open and make the most of that added space — and since the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is otherwise so similar to a standard smartphone experience, it’s an advantage you can enjoy without too many downsides (something that certainly hasn’t been the case with most foldables up ’til now).
That being said, you do give some things up in order to gain that advantage — and that’s where those dueling realities come into play.
Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold reality #2: The back-to-normal relief
For all the positives of living with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold — and there absolutely are a lot of ’em! — I’ve gotta be honest: I’ve found myself slightly relieved when I move back to the regular Pixel 9 Pro XL after an extended period of relying entirely on the Fold in my day-to-day escapades.
In some ways, it’s a difficult sensation to quantify. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold really is just barely thicker than the regular Pixel 9 models. By all counts, the practical impact should be negligible.
Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold next to the more traditional Pixel 9 Pro XL.
JR Raphael, IDG
And yet, there’s a definite difference in what it’s like to hold, carry, and use the Fold compared to the more traditional Pixel 9 model. It’s heavier. It feels different in your hand. And its outer display — the one you look at most often — isn’t quite as spacious, sharp, or pleasant on the eyes as what you get with the Pixel 9 Pro XL.
Two Pixel 9 Pro phones — two very different forms and experiences, despite their similarities.
JR Raphael, IDG
It’s a subtle distinction, without a doubt. But it’s one I very much find myself noticing in going back and forth between the devices.
Beyond that, you also sacrifice a certain amount of camera quality with the Fold compared to the regular Pixel 9 Pro. I wouldn’t let yourself get weighed down with the nitty-gritty of the numbers behind the technology, but the Fold’s camera setup is definitely a slight step down from what the other Pixel 9 Pro models are a-packin’.
That being said, I don’t think it’ll be much of a realistic issue for most people — outside of anyone who’s extremely focused on the nuances of camera quality or who’s putting photos under the microscope to seek out and study the differences.
Here, for example, are some photos I took on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold during a quick trip to Chicago last week. They’re straight from the phone’s camera, without any editing or post-capture adjustments. The final photo uses the Fold’s telephoto lens for some serious zooming action. (Bonus points if you can identify the band!)
Downtown Chicago at dusk, as captured on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
JR Raphael, IDG
A darker nighttime shot taken on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
JR Raphael, IDG
Challenging concert lighting, photographed on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
JR Raphael, IDG
Extreme zooming action, courtesy of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s telephoto lens.
JR Raphael, IDG
So, yeah: The image quality here is generally quite solid, and I really don’t think most folks will be left wanting for anything when it comes to the Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s photo prowess.
But still, there’s no denying it’s a step behind the regular Pixel 9 Pro when you tune in closely to the details. And the same can be said for the phone’s front-facing selfie cameras, which are significantly behind the regular 9 Pro’s upgraded lenses in that area.
Beyond that, the Fold model of the Pixel 9 Pro omits the thermometer built into the other Pixel 9 Pro models — an element that seemed silly when it first debuted with last year’s Pixel 8 series but that’s since grown into a genuinely useful addition and something I very much value, now that it supports actual human temperature-taking (hello, my fellow parents!).
And, of course, the Pixel 9 Pro comes at a literal cost — $700 more than you’d pay for the base-level regular 9 Pro XL model, at $1,800 compared to $1,100 for the Pixel 9 Pro XL (which is most similar in size; if you went with the smaller Pixel 9 Pro, you’d be looking at $1,000 instead).
Last but not least, while I certainly haven’t had any causes for concern in my limited time with the phone so far, there’s no getting around the fact that a folding screen raises more questions around durability than what you’d face with a standard phone display — and while the technology has already come a long way in its relatively short existence, it stands to reason that a folding phone may (a) be more likely to fail or incur damage during the time that you’re using it and (b) have a shorter lifespan in general, compared to a phone with fewer moving parts and a non-bending screen.
Again, I’ve seen no real cause for concern so far, and reports from the first-gen Pixel Fold over the past year are encouraging. But I’d be remiss not to at least mention this as a factor to keep in mind when considering the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and how it might (or might not) fit into your life, particularly if you plan to hang onto the thing for more than a few years.
So, how do we put these competing views together — and is the Pixel 9 Pro Fold the right phone for you?
I wish I had an easy universal answer. But ultimately, it all comes down to your personal priorities and what sort of smartphone experience you’re looking to have. Specifically…
The Pixel 9: To Fold or not to Fold?
If someone were asking me if they should buy the Pixel 9 Pro Fold today, I would give them three key nuggets to chew over:
The Fold truly is a fantastic phone.
It offers up an experience like no other, with all the standard Google Pixel advantages and some useful, interesting, and extraordinarily enjoyable new twists provided by the thoughtful folding form. No exaggeration: It’ll be the most fun and exciting phone you’ve purchased in ages, and especially if you find yourself tending to work-related tidbits on the go throughout your days, it’ll make your life easier in some very meaningful ways.
It’ll also, however, cost you — both in terms of the extra dollars you’ll pay for the privilege of owning such a cutting-edge device and as far as the minor but not entirely insignificant sacrifices you’ll make when it comes to factors like comfort, camera and display quality, and the presence of an on-demand thermometer (if that holds any manner of appeal for you).
All in all, then, I’d say this:
For most high-end phone buyers right now, the Pixel 9 Pro or Pixel 9 Pro XL is the real sweet spot — with a phenomenal all-around experience and a balance of cost and convenience. Those are the go-to devices I’d suggest most people looking for a premium, best-in-class Android experience consider most closely (with the preference for a smaller or larger phone being the only real difference between ’em).
But for anyone who likes the idea of having a tablet-like add-on and all the associated productivity perks that gives you — even just for the five to 10% of the time that you’re realistically likely to be taking advantage of ’em — the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is an awesome option that you won’t regret investing in, provided you can justify the cost and aren’t overly bothered by the drawbacks.
And finally, for anyone who already owns a first-gen Pixel Fold, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is 100% worth the upgrade. It’s thinner, lighter, and even more usable in both its folded-up form and its folded-out configuration — thanks to those larger screens in both places. It sports some substantial upgrades in the areas of performance and charging (though, annoyingly, changes to its internal design mean it won’t work with Google’s previous Pixel Stand wireless chargers). And it comes with the now-standard seven-year Pixel software upgrade promise, whereas the first-gen Pixel Fold was at the tail end of the three-year upgrade guarantee era.
Ultimately, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is such an unusual kind of device that it’s impossible to say it’s the right phone for everyone. It just isn’t that kind of device — and, in a sense, it isn’t meant to be a phone for everyone, by design.
But it’s a remarkable product through and through and a business-ready, productivity-boosting powerhouse you’ll absolutely appreciate — if the idea of a refined phone-tablet combo feels like the right fit for you.
Don’t let yourself miss an ounce of Pixel magic. Come start my free Pixel Academy e-course to discover tons of fresh hidden features and time-saving tricks for whatever Pixel phone you’re using!
Your laptop’s battery life will always decrease over time. That’s just how Lithium-ion batteries work — their health declines with age.
To keep your Windows laptop ready for long workdays, road trips, and other assorted tasks, you’ll need to take some steps to preserve battery health. They’re simple, but you have to know where to look and how to begin. (Windows really buries this stuff!)
You can find plenty of tips for getting more battery life from your Windows PC. But battery health is different — and it’s easy to overlook. As battery health declines, your laptop’s battery becomes less effective, and you won’t get as much time between charges.
By preserving battery health, you’ll keep the battery life it came with for longer — and avoid costly and inconvenient battery replacements.
Looking for more useful Windows tips and tricks? My free Windows Intelligence newsletter delivers all the best Windows tips straight to your inbox. Plus, you’ll get free in-depth Windows Field Guides just for subscribing!
Windows battery health step #1: Avoid extreme temperatures
Hot and cold temperatures are bad for a laptop battery — or any battery. Heat is especially bad and extreme heat can permanently damage a battery, reducing its health and life span. With that in mind, avoid leaving your laptop in a hot car while out and about on business travel. The temperature inside a car can quickly get much hotter than the outside temperature. Direct sunlight is also bad for a laptop — especially on a hot summer day.
Laptop manufacturers generally say the ideal temperature ranges are between 50 degrees and 95 degrees Fahrenheit. A laptop that spends a significant amount of time outside these ranges — especially above 95 degrees Fahrenheit — will cause extra wear on the battery.
Windows battery health step #2: Use Smart Charging
Your laptop’s battery health could decline more quickly if you keep it at 100% charge — for example, if you keep it plugged in all the time. Hardware manufacturers recommend charging batteries to somewhere between 60% and 80% rather than leaving them fully charged all the time.
The latest Windows 11 PCs include a feature called “Smart Charging.” When activated, Windows will charge your laptop’s battery only to a lower level, below 100%. This should keep the battery healthier.
Different laptops have different ways of activating this feature (and you might find something similar in the manufacturer-provided settings app on older laptops, too). Look for a battery-related setting that controls the level a laptop charges to before stopping.
On a Microsoft Surface PC, for example, you’ll find this setting within the Surface app.
Your laptop manufacturer’s preinstalled software may offer a way to tweak the maximum charge level.
Chris Hoffman, IDG
If your laptop doesn’t have an easy way to avoid charging to 100%, just charge it up and move on with your life. There’s no sense in continually trying to keep your laptop at 80% by unplugging it and plugging it back in. That’s no way to live!
While Lithium-ion batteries don’t enjoy being at 100% battery for long periods of time, they also shouldn’t be stored at 0% battery. A fully drained battery is bad for any battery’s health.
It’s a good idea to charge your laptop before it hits the 0% mark. (The same goes for any other device, too, including smartphones and tablets.) Windows will suspend itself when it gets down to a low battery level, so it shouldn’t hit 0% battery in normal use.
It’s not the end of the world if the battery hits 0% once in a while — it’s not even the end of the world if your PC laptop hits 0% battery and you forget to charge it for a week. But it’s not ideal. And, if you store the laptop and let its battery fall to 0% and stay there for months, that will absolutely degrade the battery’s health.
Windows battery health step #4: Unplug on occasion
Even if you always use your laptop plugged in, it’s a good idea to unplug it occasionally. Let its battery drain some — not all the way, but a decent amount — before you charge it.
To help extend battery life and performance, try to keep the battery level between 20% and 80% several times a week instead of using your device for only a short amount of time, and then plugging it in to recharge the battery.
This will likely happen naturally as you use your laptop. So, if the system’s always plugged in, it’s worthfi letting the battery drain and then recharge every now and then.
Windows battery health step #5: Remove the battery (if you can!)
Most modern Windows laptops no longer have easily removable batteries. But, if your laptop does have a user-removable battery, you can unplug the battery to get more life from it if you’re just using your laptop while it’s plugged in.
This is especially true on heavy-duty workstation (or even gaming) laptops that generate a lot of heat. If you unplug the battery and get it away from the heat, it should last longer.
Windows battery health step #6: Store smartly
If you won’t be using your laptop for a while (or you’ve unplugged the battery and set it aside), you should take care when storing the battery.
Remember: Laptop batteries don’t like being at 100% battery for a long period of time, and they definitely don’t like being at 0% battery, either. To preserve the battery as much as possible, drain it to 50% or so and then power it off before storing it. (Be sure to store it in a moderate environment, too — since extreme heat, cold, and humidity are bad.)
The battery’s power level will decline over time in extended storage, so you might want to pull the system out of storage and charge it back to 50% every six months or so. If you leave it alone for a few years, you might come back to a 0% battery. And, again, if it’s been at 0% for a while, that’s bad.
Windows battery health step #7: Watch for warning signs
A particularly unhealthy battery can physically swell or expand. With so many Windows laptops containing internal batteries, you might notice that part of your laptop’s chassis is swelling or sticking out.
If a swollen battery is punctured or damaged, it could catch fire. If you ever find yourself facing a device with a swollen battery, you shouldn’t charge or use it — and you should be careful not to puncture or otherwise damage the battery. That’s what’s really dangerous. (Don’t expose it to extreme heat, either.)
Also, don’t throw the battery in the trash, as it could catch fire. Take swollen batteries to electronics recycling centers where they can be disposed of safely.
Windows battery health step #8: Give yourself a checkup
Want to know how healthy your current battery is? Windows has a way of telling you — but Microsoft buries it. To generate a battery health report, open the Start menu, search for “Command,” and launch the Command Prompt shortcut.
Type the following command at the prompt, and then press Enter:
powercfg /batteryreport
You’ll see a message saying the report was saved. It will likely be in C:\Users\YOUR NAME\.
Run the powercfg /batteryreport command at the command prompt to discover battery health status.
Chris Hoffman, IDG
Open a File Explorer window, browse to that folder, and double-click the “batteryreport.html” file you find there.
Look under “Installed batteries” in the report. There are two lines that matter here:
Design capacity: This is the capacity the battery originally had.
Full charge capacity: This is the capacity the battery currently has.
In the screenshot below, my laptop’s battery has a design capacity of 90,005 mWh and a full charge capacity of 87,658 mWh. In other words, this example laptop has 97% of its original battery capacity — it’s still healthy!
The “Installed batteries” section of the report shows information about your laptop’s battery.
Chris Hoffman, IDG
Final word: Don’t sweat it too much
Now that you understand the best practices, here’s the most important piece of advice: Don’t worry about achieving perfection. And don’t sweat the small stuff.
You’re going to use your laptop how you need to. Perhaps you live in a hot place and it’s unavoidable that the laptop spends some time above 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Perhaps you use your laptop at a desk plugged in all the time and you don’t really care whether the battery degrades a bit faster — you just don’t want to think about it.
That’s fine. You can always replace the battery if you need to, though it will cost you. And if you treat your laptop battery well, it might be time to replace the entire laptop by the time you start thinking about getting a battery replacement.
If I had to highlight the most important piece of advice, I’d say watch out for heat in particular: A laptop left in a burning-hot car frequently will definitely see its battery life decline much more quickly than it would otherwise. (And of course, watch out for any swollen batteries!)
Get even more Windows insights, tips, and tricks with my Windows Intelligence newsletter — three things to try every Friday. Plus, get free Windows 11 and 10 Field Guides (a $10 value) as a special welcome bonus!
Need to get up to speed on the latest features in Excel? Wrestling with an old version of Word? Finding your way around Windows 11 or looking to get more out of Windows 10? Computerworld’s cheat sheets are easy-to-use guides to help you navigate Microsoft’s core productivity software.
Here’s a one-stop resource where you can find in-depth stories on several generations of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook for Windows, focusing on what’s new in each major release. We’ve also got guides for Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, OneNote, Loop, Whiteboard, Forms, Visio, Planner, and Windows itself.
Microsoft’s subscription-based office suite, called Microsoft 365 or Office 365 depending on your version, is continually updated with new features, so we periodically update the cheat sheets for the “365” versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and other apps in the suite. But we’re willing to bet that many companies and individuals will stay on older versions of the non-subscription software (Office 2019, for example) for some time to come, so we’ve got cheat sheets for several older generations of those products as well.
To a great extent, Windows 11 looks and works like Windows 10, but there are several minor differences that take some getting used to. We cover all the important changes here, including new three- and four-finger gestures for touchscreen users in our lists of shortcuts and gestures for Windows 11.
Windows 10 is continually improving with major feature updates every spring and fall. Get to know the interface and key features, and don’t miss our list of handy gestures and shortcuts for Windows 10. (Current for the Windows 10 version 22H2.)
If you have Windows 10 or 11, you have OneDrive. Here’s how to back up, sync and share files in OneDrive and OneDrive for Business on the Windows desktop.
Microsoft’s new Loop app provides shared workspaces where teams can collaborate. Our cheat sheet shows you how to use the Loop app.
But what makes Loop particularly useful is the ability to collaborate on content snippets called Loop components across multiple Microsoft 365 apps — so we’ve also got a guide to using Loop components in Outlook and Teams:
For Microsoft 365 users, it’s worth adding Microsoft Whiteboard to your collaboration playbook. Here’s how your team can make the most of this digital whiteboard tool.
Learn to use the best features introduced in Microsoft Word for Office 365/Microsoft 365 in Windows since 2015. This story covers all the features introduced in Word 2016, 2019, and 2021, plus several more exclusive to Office 365/Microsoft 365 subscribers. It also includes a quick-reference Ribbon guide for download.
Learn about all the features introduced in Excel 2016, 2019, and 2021, plus several more exclusive to Office 365/Microsoft 365 subscribers. There’s also a quick-reference Ribbon guide for download.
Microsoft introduced several highly useful features in PowerPoint 2016 and 2019, and it continually rolls out more for users with Office 365/Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Find out how to make the most of the new features.
Discover all the major features introduced in PowerPoint 2016 and 2019, plus more exclusively for Office 365/Microsoft 365 subscribers — including a simplified Ribbon that shows only the most commonly used commands.
Microsoft’s answer to Slack and Zoom, Teams provides group messaging, voice and video calls, and useful integrations with other Microsoft 365 apps. Here’s how to get set up in Teams and find your way around.
Part of Microsoft’s Office suite and built into Windows 10 and 11, OneNote is a robust note-taking app that is also available as a free standalone product. Here’s how to get up and running with OneNote.
Online forms help you conduct research, collect feedback, test knowledge, and more. Here’s how to use Microsoft Forms to create surveys, feedback forms, quizzes, and other interactive forms.
Visio in Microsoft 365 is an excellent tool for creating custom diagrams to illustrate concepts that are difficult to explain through text. Here’s how to use it.
Planner gives Office 365/Microsoft 365 users a built-in task-management tool that small teams can use to track plans, tasks, and progress. Here’s our guide to using Planner on its own and within Microsoft Teams.
Flow (recently renamed Power Automate) lets you create automated workflows across apps and services that send notifications, ask for and offer approvals, and handle rote tasks automatically — with no coding required. Learn how to get started with this powerful tool.
Learn how to find your way around SharePoint Online (the Office 365 version of SharePoint), create sites, share and manage documents, work with calendars, integrate with Outlook and more. Then go beyond the basics in 5 tips for working with SharePoint Online.
More tips for Office 365/Microsoft 365/Office Online
Now updated for Excel 2019, our guide covers several useful chart types introduced in Excel 2016 and Excel 2019 for Windows, as well as how to use several impressive new data analysis tools. We’ve also got a list of handy keyboard shortcuts in Excel, as well as the Excel 2016 and 2019 Ribbon quick reference.
Like Word and Excel, PowerPoint 2016 and PowerPoint 2019 for Windows offer Tell Me, Smart Lookup, live collaborative editing and a slew of new chart types. We cover all that plus some handy features introduced in PowerPoint 2019 — not to mention our list of keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint and the PowerPoint 2016 and 2019 Ribbon quick reference.
Learn the basics of navigating and using a SharePoint site, where to go to find some of the customization options, and 5 advanced SharePoint 2013 tips.
Excel 2010 introduces Sparklines, Slicers, and other enhancements to PivotTables and PivotCharts. Find out how to use those, along with keyboard shortcuts for Excel 2010 and our quick reference for finding your favorite commands on the Excel 2010 Ribbon.
Unlike earlier versions of SharePoint, SharePoint 2010 is based on the Ribbon interface. Here’s how to find your way around and get started with a SharePoint site.
Not many people are still using this nightmare of an operating system, which radically overhauled the classic Windows interface in an attempt to make it more like a mobile OS. But just in case, here’s help finding your way around.
Apple’s iPhone 16 launch on Monday generated plenty of attention, but it didn’t quite blunt the edge of the $14.4 billion European Commission (EC) tax hammer that finally fell against the company and can no longer be appealed.
This concerns an EC decision in 2016 when the courts found Ireland had unlawfully provided Apple with state aid in the form of tax breaks. Apple has fought the decision — CEO Tim Cook once called it “total political crap” — but finally lost that battle Sept. 10.
Apple’s Irish twist
The case relates to the way Apple was taxed in Ireland between 1991 to 2014. Basically, Ireland enabled Apple to sell products across Europe, record those profits in Ireland, and then send those profits to head offices that existed only on paper, leaving almost no taxable profit in Ireland.
In a statement, the Court of Justice said: “Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid, which Ireland is required to recover.” During that time, the court decided Apple benefited from state aid as a result of those tax arrangements to the tune of $14 billion, which the company must now pay back.
An Apple representative offered some pushback: “This case has never been about how much tax we pay, but which government we are required to pay it to. We always pay all the taxes we owe wherever we operate and there has never been a special deal.”
“As a result of the allocation method endorsed in the tax rulings, Apple only paid an effective corporate tax rate that declined from 1% in 2003 to 0.005% in 2014 on the profits of Apple Sales International,” the European Commission explained when the case first hit court eight years ago.
It’s important to note that while Apple and Ireland agreed to the arrangement, Europe argued the deal did not match economic reality and constituted unlawful state aid.
A complex web of tax arrangements
One way to understand the complicated arrangement is like this:
Apple had two entities incorporated but not tax resident in Ireland — Apple Sales International and Apple Operations Europe.
These two companies held the rights to use Apple’s intellectual property to sell and manufacture Apple products outside the US under a “cost-sharing” agreement with Apple Inc.
Ireland agreed that the two firms were required to make annual payments to Apple towards R&D, which meant (figuratively) that boat loads of cash went to the head offices of the two companies — offices that existed only on paper.
To put some perspective around this, Apple Sales International recorded profits of $22 billion in 2011, but under the terms of the tax arrangements it had been given in Ireland only €50 million was subject to tax.
That quantity of cash constituted around half of Apple’s R&D spending during that time and meant the vast majority of Apple’s European profits were effectively untaxed, or — as Apple prefers to put it — were taxed in the wrong jurisdiction.
$3,000 each
Apple isn’t happy about the outcome of the case. “We are disappointed with today’s decision,” the company said. “There has never been a special deal.”
Apple was required to hand the cash over to an independent third-party-administered escrow account in 2016. That account now holds around €14 billion. With a population of 5.2 million, the cash hoard is the equivalent of €2,692 (about $3,000) for every man, woman, and child in Ireland.
According to local reports, Ireland’s Tánaiste Micheál Martin says the money cannot be used for day-to-day spending and that his government will now consider “how to use these funds in the best interests of the Irish people.”
In a significant step towards reshaping the global semiconductor ecosystem, the US Department of State has partnered with the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM), under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, to explore collaborative opportunities.
This partnership is part of the US’s broader strategic initiative under the International Technology Security and Innovation (ITSI) Fund, created by the CHIPS Act of 2022, and aims to secure a more resilient, diversified, and sustainable global semiconductor supply chain.
The ITSI fund has a coffer of $500 million to be used or invested for a period of five years with $100 million a year to improve the semiconductor ecosystem across the US government’s partner states.
“This partnership will help create a more resilient, secure, and sustainable global semiconductor value chain,” the US State Department said in a statement.
The initial phase of this partnership includes a comprehensive assessment of India’s existing semiconductor ecosystem and regulatory framework, as well as workforce and infrastructure needs.
“State anticipates that key Indian stakeholders, such as state governments, educational institutions, research centers, and private companies, will participate in this analysis steered by the India Semiconductor Mission,” the statement added. “The insights gained from the assessment will serve as the basis for potential future joint initiatives to strengthen and grow this critical sector.”
“This agreement is an important step in developing the semiconductor ecosystem in India,” said Pareekh Jain, CEO of Pareekh Consulting. “The US is the largest end market of semiconductors and many large semiconductor companies are based in the US. Almost all US semiconductor companies have R&D and design centers in India. Some companies including Micron have also started manufacturing in India.”
The partnership between the US and India is a step towards diversification of the global semiconductor supply chain over the long term, said Akshat Vaid, partner at Everest Group. “Currently, the industry is highly concentrated in a few dominant regions including Taiwan, and South Korea; China, even though faced with multiple regulatory hurdles, has also started to rise in prominence.”
A critical global supply chain at stake
With the ongoing global digital transformation, semiconductors have emerged as the backbone of industries spanning from automotive to healthcare. The pandemic laid bare the fragility of the semiconductor supply chain, triggering global shortages that disrupted industries across the board.
This new collaboration between the US and India is seen as a critical move to address such vulnerabilities by enhancing production capabilities, ensuring diversification, and reducing dependence on a few key markets.
The CHIPS (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) Act, enacted in 2022, allocated $500 million through the ITSI Fund over five years to bolster semiconductor security and innovation. By joining forces with India — a nation making strides in semiconductor manufacturing — this partnership reflects the US’s commitment to building a secure, global tech infrastructure.
In this context this US India partnership will further accelerate semiconductor investment in India by US companies both in design and manufacturing, added Jain. “These companies could even be eligible for funding later from the CHIPS Act which could further boost to investment.”
India’s semiconductor ambitions
For India, this collaboration presents an opportunity to accelerate its ambitions of becoming a global semiconductor hub. With the ISM taking the lead, the partnership will initially focus on assessing India’s semiconductor ecosystem — evaluating existing capabilities, regulatory frameworks, and the infrastructure required for future growth.
India, which is already a significant player in the IT and services sector, has been working to expand its presence in high-tech manufacturing, including semiconductor production.
The partnership offers a much-needed boost as India works to develop a semiconductor value chain capable of competing with global leaders such as Taiwan, South Korea, and China. Additionally, India’s growing talent pool in STEM fields offers a solid foundation to build upon, particularly as the partnership looks to address workforce needs.
“India is also growing semiconductor end market and US companies will like to have more share of the piece and local investments in India with favorable tax incentives will help them achieve this,” Jain noted.
A strategic win for both nations
This move is not just about securing the supply chain — but also about geopolitics. Both the US and India stand to benefit economically and strategically from a strengthened semiconductor alliance.
For the US, diversifying its semiconductor sourcing is critical as it seeks to mitigate the risks posed by supply chain bottlenecks, particularly those stemming from geopolitical tensions in Taiwan and China. By bringing India into the fold, the US can create new avenues for semiconductor production and innovation, reducing the over-reliance on traditional hubs like Taiwan.
“By strengthening its relationship with India — a global leader in technology services — the US can reduce risks associated with dependency on a limited number of countries,” Vaid pointed out.
“This diversification,” Vaid added, “is essential for improving the resilience and stability of the global supply chain. Although India still has considerable progress to make to become a major player in the semiconductor industry, the US-India partnership could provide the necessary technology transfer, investment, and expertise to help India develop its domestic semiconductor capabilities.”
For India, partnering with a tech leader like the US aligns with its “Make in India” initiative, which is designed to encourage domestic manufacturing and innovation. If successful, the country could not only establish itself as a global semiconductor player but also strengthen its position in the broader tech and electronics ecosystem.
“Semiconductor is a strategic focus for both the US and India and government-level agreements and cooperation will make investments by US semiconductor companies risk-free unlike what happened in China,” Jain said.
Future possibilities and challenges
While the partnership holds significant promise, it’s not without challenges. India’s semiconductor ecosystem, while growing, lacks the scale and advanced fabrication capabilities of its counterparts in East Asia.
Closing this gap will require heavy investment in infrastructure, regulatory reform, and a skilled workforce. The partnership’s initial phase — a comprehensive assessment of India’s semiconductor landscape—will be crucial in identifying these gaps and building the roadmap for future growth.
“The challenges India faces in becoming a global semiconductor hub are investment, willingness of global companies to invest in India and competition from other global locations in Asia and Europe etc,” Jain said. “This US-India cooperation can help in both investment and willingness and the increasing attractiveness of India for US companies compared to other locations.”
India lacks high-volume advanced fabs and associated specialized infrastructure (clean rooms for instance), and this partnership can potentially lead to technology transfer and investments to help establish state-of-the-art fabs, said Nishant Udupa, practice director at Everest Group.
“Besides,” Udupa said, “India faces a shortage of specialized skills in semiconductor manufacturing and this collaboration can drive training and knowledge-sharing initiatives to build a skilled talent pool.” Additionally, given collaboration at a policy level, India should be able to learn from US best practices to streamline processes and comply with global standards, Udupa said.
The second-largest antitrust case of the century headed to trial Monday, with Google defending itself against claims that it has engaged in illegal behavior to maintain control of the ad tech market.
The US government is accusing Google of purposefully manipulating that market, snuffing out competitors and gobbling up key technologies through acquisitions. It is the tech giant’s second time in court for antitrust issues.
If the Department of Justice (DoJ) successfully makes its case during what is likely to be a long trial, Google risks being broken up by regulators.
A previous US antitrust lawsuit targeted Google’s search business, with an 8-month-long trial ending in defeat for the company. In August, Judge Amit Mehta ruled that the tech giant had engaged in anticompetitive behavior to protect its dominance, saying, “Google is a monopolist, and has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.” The penalties resulting from the ruling are as yet unclear.
‘Restoring competition’ to the internet
In the trial that began Monday, the DoJ will make its case that Google’s parent company, Alphabet, controls the majority of tools and technologies in the ad tech space.
The lawsuit was filed in 2023 by the DoJ and a coalition of eight states — California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia — and seeks to “restore competition” and obtain “equitable and monetary relief” for the American public.
Specifically, Attorney General Merrick Garland has accused Google of:
Acquiring competitors to obtain control of digital advertising tools used by website publishers;
Controlling the technology used by nearly all major website publishers to offer ad space for sale.
Controlling the leading tool used by advertisers to buy ad space.
Controlling the largest ad exchange that matches publishers and advertisers.
The suit seeks to hold Google accountable for its “longstanding monopolies” in digital advertising, Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, said in a statement. The complaint sets forth “detailed allegations” explaining how Google engaged in 15 years of sustained conduct that is “driving out rivals, diminishing competition, inflating advertising costs, reducing revenues for news publishers and content creators, snuffing out innovation and harming the exchange of information and ideas in the public sphere,” he contended.
The company earned more than $200 billion last year through ad placement and sales.
Google calls the suit a “flawed argument,” noting that the government “shouldn’t pick winners and losers in a competitive industry.”
Dan Taylor, Google’s VP for global ads, argued in a lengthy blog post that the company is “one of hundreds” that enable ad placement across the web. He called out similar actions of several of its competitors, including Microsoft, Amazon and Apple.
Ultimately, he claimed that competition is actually increasing as more companies pump money into online ads.
“We’ve spent years building and investing in our advertising technology business to support a vibrant, open web,” Taylor wrote. “We will vigorously contest attempts to break tools that are working for publishers, advertisers and people across America.”
As the second of two antitrust trials against Google begins in the US, a UK competition oversight group has provisionally found that the search giant is guilty of using its online platform dominance to restrict advertising competition for other UK publishers and advertisers.
The finding by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), a non-ministerial department in the UK government that oversees business activities and flags potentially unfair competition, could foreshadow a ruling against Google or even further regulatory trouble in the future. Google already has lost one US antitrust case earlier this year for anticompetitive behavior in its search business.
“We’ve provisionally found that Google is using its market power to hinder competition when it comes to the ads people see on websites,” said Juliette Enser, interim executive director of enforcement at the CMA, in a statement. Google is manipulating its unique position in the online advertising space to prioritize its own business interests over competitors’, she said.
As a result of Google’s unfair practices in its various roles in the multi-faceted online advertising sector, “the vast majority of publishers and advertisers use Google’s ad tech services in order to bid for and sell advertising space,” the CMA found.
Google faces a similar charge in the antitrust trial against its parent company, Alphabet, that began Monday in the US. The US Department of Justice (DoJ), along with 17 states, claims that Alphabet has monopolized multiple digital advertising technology products by neutralizing or eliminating its competitors, and thus is operating an illegal monopoly.
The company has denied the charges, maintaining that the company does not force people to use their advertising technologies, and attributing the services’ success to their effectiveness. Google’s ad business brought in more than $200 billion last year.
“Self-preferencing” limits competition
As the CMA explains it, digital advertising has various intermediaries that facilitate the sale of online advertising space on websites or mobile apps between two key parties: sellers, aka publishers, and buyers, aka advertisers.
Google acts as an intermediary in three key parts of the advertising chain: It operates ad-buying tools for advertisers, Google Ads and DV360; it provides a publisher ad server for publishers, DoubleClick For Publishers (DFP); and also operates an ad exchange, AdX, that receives requests for bids from publishers and responding bids from advertisers, and then conducts an auction to match these two sides.
The provisional findings by the CMA relate to anti-competitive “self-preferencing” by Google. Since at least 2015, Google has abused its dominant positions through the operation of both its buying tools and publisher ad server in order to strengthen AdX’s market position and to protect AdX from competition from other exchanges, according to the CMA.
Moreover, due to the highly integrated nature of Google’s ad tech business, the CMA has provisionally found that Google’s conduct has also prevented rival publisher ad servers from being able to compete effectively with DFP, harming competition in this market.
Google’s practices harm the businesses that aim to keep their digital content free or cheaper by using online advertising to generate revenue, Enser said. If they are not receiving fair pricing or able to compete on equal footing with the tech giant, it ultimately harms the millions of people across the UK who consume the content.
Legal pressures mount
The CMA’s provisional finding is yet another “brick in the wall of mounting legal scrutiny” that companies, such as Google and Microsoft, that dominate certain tech sectors are facing, noted Deepti Sekhri, practice director, Everest Group.
“Such decisions could prompt similar actions from other European regulatory bodies,” he said. Moreover, any findings by European or UK authorities also could influence the outcome of the DoJ case by “providing supporting evidence and strengthening the argument for regulatory changes.”
If the CMA’s findings are any indication, the antitrust trial that began Monday could have the same outcome. However, while government-led antitrust cases serve to “create pressure and drive some accountability,” they often “fall short of resulting in significant changes to [the company’s] business models and market dynamics,” Sekhri noted.
“They often lead to superficial changes, such as minor tweaks in offerings or partner contracts, without fundamentally reducing dominance,” he said. “However, despite these limitations, such regulatory efforts raise market awareness, encourage the adoption of open standards, and set precedents that could push for more impactful changes in the future.”
Not surprisingly, Apple Intelligence was everywhere during Apple’s big iPhone event on Monday. There were, of course, new phones (better, faster, AI-ready and arriving Sept. 20). But what was more interesting were the multitude of different ways the company has found where it can make a difference with various breeds of artificial intelligence (AI).
The variety of implementations — from sleep apnea detection in the Apple Watch to the use of AirPods Pro as a full-fledged hearing aid to a multitude of new camera features (including the new Cinematic Slow Motion tool) — all served to underline the message Apple has been giving: there’s more to AI than GenAI, and AI really doesn’t matter at all unless it’s making a difference in people’s lives.
Sweet 16 (and 16 Pro)
As always in early September, the business of the day was new iPhones, the 16 and 16 Pro, about which there were few major surprises. For those more concerned about form over function, this year’s new Pro color is a tawny, brassy, bronzy “Desert Titanium.” The iPhone 16 comes in five colors (if you count black and white as colors), including “Ultramarine”; the Pro and Pro Max come in four: white, black, natural titanium and that aforementioned Desert Titanium.
For those more focused on function and technology, the line-up will look familiar, though the Pro Max does get a slightly larger 6.9-in. display. Storage capacities range from 128GB to 1Tb, depending on model and size. Camera upgrades abound (as does a new Camera Control button on all models). And there are, of course, new processors — the A18 and A18 Pro. In addition to the more efficient and powerful chips, Apple also promises better battery life.
The phones will be available for pre-order on Friday, and will arrive on Sept. 20.
Unleash the upgrade deals?
With that date in mind, an estimated 300 million iPhone users might well be in the frame for a smartphone upgrade this year. And it looks as if the wireless carriers in Apple’s biggest US market are ready to help.
Apple claims some carriers will offer up to $1,000 off on an upgrade, and while we’ve run into some turbulence between carrier launch promises and the reality in the past, those kinds of deals may spur strong upgrades.
Those rebates should also put a little spark into second user sales, which could be good for any enterprise users out there hoping to add Apple Intelligence to their existing fleet. I suspect (but don’t know) one second line beneficiary from all this will be that upgraders of more modest means could see better-than-anticipated second user prices for older iPhone 13s and 14s as upgraders embrace Apple Intelligence.
Speaking of Apple Intelligence…
…AI don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing
No one is likely to buy anything (even a new iPhone) just because it supports some form of AI. In some cases, buyers might even actively avoid such a purchase. But they will acquire AI devices that actually help them with their lives. (An Apple Watch that translates between languages, for instance, is a good example.)
Looking to show the many benefits of Apple Intelligence while also unveiling its new iPhone line-up was precisely the dance Apple made during the Glowtime product introductions. Put simply: the benefits needed to be explained.
And while Apple Intelligence was certainly a part of the discussion, the company resolutely repeated an additional message — “This is just the beginning.” Anyone who has ever bet against Apple knows what that means: a line in the sand has been drawn, and the company has no intention of staying behind it.
The fact that the company also mentioned that Apple Intelligence features are to be provided “free” with future software updates also hints that some day not every feature will be gratis.
Core message: Watch this space.
Apple Silicon: A platform development opportunity
Apple Silicon remains strategically critical to Apple’s future. Three bits of news particularly stood out: the inclusion of a 4-core neural engine on Apple Watch, and the new 3-nanometer A18 and 18 Pro chips inside iPhones.
Other than the expected big benefits in performance and battery life across all three products as a result of the new chips, what matters most is that all three have now been transformed into AI platforms.
The Apple Watch could turn out to be even more interesting, as the challenge for developer and enterprise users (and Apple) will be to find what kinds of useful AI experiences can now be built for it. The introduction of the neural engines means AI will be extended to the Watch — even as Apple explores the extent to which the world’s most powerful smartphone processor can support cutting-edge use cases for mobile AI.
(For most knowledge workers, the most interesting use case for Apple Intelligence will be sending more professional emails when responding later than you should, and summarizing lengthy messages so understanding them doesn’t make your brain hurt.)
Health was certainly a major topic during the announcement. Apple CEO Tim Cook has always resolutely spoken up for the benefits his company can bring to health, and that stance did not change this year. The link between Apple, its deep investments in health-related research, and the application of machine intelligence and other forms of AI was made crystal clear.
New health-related features in both the Apple Watch and across the AirPods range will make a big difference to many people, and Apple is determined to use these platforms to augment health outcomes in quite significant ways. The big challenge to office managers and human resource types might be the need to learn that just because someone is wearing AirPods at work doesn’t mean they are shirking – they might just need help hearing.
Efficiency for all (but no new iPads or Macs, yet)
If there’s one more thing this year, it’s this: Apple made no explicit mention about iPads or Macs during its iPhone launch (no surprise there). But if it had done so, it might well have pointed to the huge performance and battery life improvements in the new A18/A18 Pro chips. No doubt, company execs will soon be able to point to similar boosts to computational efficiency and battery life/energy consumption in Apple’s other products, too.
Of course, improvements like those are nice if you upgrade your own Mac. But for offices with a few hundred machines in use, a 20% power reduction means a much lower energy bill. Plus, you don’t need to use Crowdstrike and you get to use Apple Intelligence across tablet, smartphone, and PC.
Apple’s AI platform is becoming a reality, and it’s being sold for the real-world benefits it brings, not thrown out as a random buzzword. Then again, extolling the benefits of its platforms has always been how Apple shows its Apple intelligence.
When Microsoft Office 2024 launches in October, ActiveX will be turned off by default, according to Bleeping Computer. The change affects desktop versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Visio, and will apply to Microsoft 365 beginning in April 2025.
The reason behind the move: hackers in recent years have used various vulnerabilities in ActiveX to install malicious code on computers.
Launched in 1996, ActiveX is a framework used to embed interactive elements into Office documents.
Microsoft has recently taken other steps to improve security in Office. For example, macros and extensions have been blocked, and support for VBScript will be phased out this fall.
