Month: May 2024

What’s the most important piece of productivity software in the business world? Some might say the office suite. But if you look at the time spent actually using software, the answer may well be the web browser. It’s where people do most of their fact-finding and research.

But that’s only a start. These days, web apps like Google Docs, Gmail, Salesforce, Jira, and countless others are accessed via the browser as well. And countless software makers that offer traditional apps that you install and run on the desktop, such as Trello, Asana, Slack, and Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, also have highly capable web-based versions of their apps that are more convenient to use at times. So browsers have become your window to work as well as your window to the world.

Which is the best browser for your business? To find out, we’ve put the two most popular desktop browsers worldwide — Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge — to the test. We looked at the basics, like overall interface, speed, and HTML compatibility. Then we moved beyond that to safety and privacy, the availability of extensions, syncing data and settings across multiple devices and platforms, and extra features. We compared the tools each vendor provides for IT to deploy, manage, and configure its browser. And we looked at their built-in AI capabilities.

Chrome vs. Edge: 10 comparisons

• Overall usability
• Speed, system resource use, and HTML compatibility
• Safety and privacy
• Extensions
• Syncing across multiple devices and platforms
• AI features
• Extras
• Enterprise features
• The best browser for business overall

So if you’re looking to switch your company away from its current browser, ready to kick the tires of a different browser, or just plain curious about other options, we’ve got answers for you.

Overall usability

The best browsers don’t get in the way of web browsing, but instead make it easier with straightforward features like managing bookmarks and customizing settings. An ideal browser should fade away so the web itself takes center stage. In this section, we’ll look at each browser’s overall usability, including the interface, bookmark handling, and more.

Chrome

When Chrome was introduced back in 2008, Google took what at the time was a radical, less-is-more approach to browser design: it put websites and their content front and center, stripping out all nonessential browser features. It was the browser equivalent of Google’s stripped-down search interface.

Not much has changed since then. Chrome has held to its austere ethos for all these years, and it’s served the browser well. There’s very little interface visible; it’s pretty much all content.

As for features, all the usual suspects are here: click the + button at the right of your tabs to open a new tab, click the X on any tab to close it, click the star at the far right of the address bar to add it to your bookmarks, and so on. To manage your Google account, to add another Google account, or to use account-related features such as syncing, click the user icon just to the right of the address bar — the icon is your picture or initial if you’re logged in, or a generic person’s silhouette if not.

And for more settings and features, click the three-dot icon at the far right of the screen to bring up a menu for viewing and managing your bookmarks, viewing your history and downloads, launching a private incognito window, managing your extensions, digging deep into all your settings, and more.

Edge

The Edge browser has been around in some form since 2015. The first version, based on Microsoft’s own EdgeHTML engine, failed to interest either users or developers; it never captured even 5% of the desktop browser market. In 2019, Microsoft threw in the towel on its homegrown browser, focusing instead on a completely new version of Edge based on the Google-launched open-source Chromium project that also powers Chrome.

The new Edge is everything that the old Edge wasn’t: simple, fast, and stripped-down. The old Edge, now known as Edge Legacy, was filled with countless unnecessary features: an e-reader and e-book manager, a way to mark up websites and share the markup with others, and lots of other useless frippery. With Chromium Edge, all that goes away.

The result Is a browser with a streamlined interface very much like Chrome’s, although it does have more icons to catch your eye.  Web content takes center stage. Opening and closing tabs works the way you expect it to, and you click the star at the right end of the address bar to add a site to your favorites.

To the right of the address bar are an icon that will let you control and customize your extensions, if you use any; the Favorites manager icon (a star with three horizontal lines); a Collections icon (a + sign over documents or folders), a feature that I’ll cover in more detail in the “Extras” section of this article; a “Browsers Essentials” icon in the shape of a heart that leads to tools such as a power-saving option; and a three-dot icon that launches a menu for viewing your history and downloads, managing your extensions, launching a new private browsing window, adjusting your settings, and so on.

To the right of that is a Copilot icon that confusingly launches the Edge sidebar, a pane that includes not only Microsoft’s genAI tool, but also a host of other icons that let you play games, shop, launch Outlook, and more. For details on working with the Edge sidebar, see “11 top productivity tips for Microsoft Edge.”

The best browser for overall usability

This one’s a tossup. Chrome and Edge, based on the same Chromium code, are streamlined, simple, easy-to-use browsers. Edge adds a marginal bit of busyness, but overall it’s as clean and clear as Chrome.

Speed, system resource use, and HTML compatibility

No matter how many bells and whistles a browser has, and no matter how elegant or useful the design, if it’s slow or hogs your system resources you won’t want to use it.  And if it doesn’t adhere to web standards you don’t want to use it, either.

So I put Chrome and Edge through a series of tests to see how each performs in speed, system resource usage, and HTML compatibility. For all the tests, I used a clean, just-launched version of each browser free of extensions, running on the same Windows PC. I didn’t sign into any websites. I ran each test three times and averaged the results.

Speed tests

To test speed of loading pages, browsing, and using web apps, I chose three tests.

JetStream 2 is a JavaScript and WebAssembly suite that tests how browsers react to advanced web applications. According to its website, “It rewards browsers that start up quickly, execute code quickly, and run smoothly.” It’s especially useful for measuring how well a browser performs handling advanced workloads.

WebXPRT 4 uses HTML5- and JavaScript-based scenarios to test browser performance, including for photo editing, organizing photos using artificial intelligence, calculating stock option prices, encrypting notes, scanning with OCR, creating graphs, and doing homework online.

Speedometer 3.0 measures how responsive browsers are overall to running web applications.

For all three tests, the higher the number, the better the browser performance.

The results? A mixed bag. Edge bested Chrome in JetStream 2, scoring 216.260 to Chrome’s 194.260, and eked out a win in WebXPRT 4 at 184 to Chrome’s 179. Chrome, meanwhile, beat Edge in the Speedometer test, at 236 to 213.

Browser benchmarking results

	Chrome	Edge
JetStream 2	194.462	216.260
WebXPRT 4	179	184
Speedometer 3.0	236	213

What does all this mean in the real world? Perhaps not much. I didn’t notice any practical difference between them during the course of my normal web browsing. However, it’s possible that one browser might be speedier than the others in one website or app but not another.

So if performance is absolutely necessary for you for a particular website, I recommend you try both on that one site, and make your decision based on that. And if you frequently put heavy loads on your browser, Edge’s better performance on the JetStream 2 test might signal better performance.

RAM and CPU tests

I also tested how much RAM and CPU each browser used by loading ten websites into different tabs, waiting a minute, then using Windows Task Manager to measure the system resources each browser used. In these tests, lower numbers are better.

Here Edge used slightly less RAM and CPU than Chrome, averaging 1.9GB of RAM and 5% CPU usage, followed by Chrome with 2GB RAM and 7% CPU use. I also found that over five minutes, Edge’s CPU usage dropped considerably, to as low as 1%. Chrome’s dropped as well, but only got as low as 3%.

That doesn’t add up to a dramatic difference. Still, if you’re multitasking using many different applications in addition to your browser, you may well notice a slowdown in Chrome versus Edge. And in those situations, you’d likely do better using Edge.

HTML tests

Finally, to test HTML compatibility, I used what is generally accepted as the gold standard of HTML testing, html5test.co.

Edge and Chrome were tied in this test, each scoring 581 out of a possible 595 and supporting the exact same web standards.

The best browser for speed, system resource use, and HTML compatibility

Edge ekes out a slight victory over Chrome here. Edge and Chrome clocked close to identically in the various speed tests and scored the same on the HTML test. But in my tests, Edge used less system resources.

Safety and privacy

The web isn’t a safe place. There’s malware out there, drive-by-download sites, and plenty of sites that are just plain up to no good. And that’s not all. Even the trustworthy sites may be tracking your online activity and sharing it with others without your knowledge or consent. So we compared how the browsers stack up for security and privacy.

Chrome

Chrome has most of the safety and privacy features and settings you’d expect in a browser, including stopping malware and drive-by downloads and the ability to limit or stop cookies being placed on your PC. (Its Incognito mode, like similar features in other browsers, lets you turn off browsing history on your local computer but doesn’t actually allow you to browse the web anonymously, as is widely believed.) You get to them all in the “Privacy and security” section of Settings.

Here you can customize your settings by controlling websites’ ability to access your camera or microphone, for example, or by blocking third-party cookies. Third-party cookies are those put on your computer by a site other than the one you’re currently visiting. They’re typically used to track your behavior across sites. Chrome also lets you send a “Do Not Track” request to websites. However, while that may sound useful, it’s not particularly effective, because websites don’t have to adhere to your request.

Chrome does, though, have a “Safety check” feature that examines your browser settings for possible privacy and safety holes, and looks for potentially harmful extensions and possible compromised passwords. It warns you if it finds any issues and makes recommendations about how to fix them. You’ll have to be signed into Chrome to get the most out of it.

For example, it found that 114 web passwords of mine had been compromised, and listed every one of them so I could change them. In addition, it warned that I had 217 weak passwords and recommended I change them — and listed them all. And it pointed out that I had 356 reused passwords and should create unique ones, and again, it listed them all.

There’s also an “Enhanced protection” option that’s found under Settings > Privacy and security > Security: Safe Browsing (protection from dangerous sites) and other security settings. When enabled, it analyzes websites and downloads in real time and warns you of anything suspicious — but the privacy conscious should note that it sends “the URLs of sites you visit and a small sample of page content, downloads, extension activity, and system information to Google Safe Browsing to check if they’re harmful” and ties that information to your Google account if you’re logged in.

Edge

Like Chrome, Edge stops malware and drive-by downloads, and it lets you limit or stop cookies being placed on your PC; control the default behavior when websites request access to your camera, microphone, location; use a secure DNS provider; and so on. It also has an incognito mode called InPrivate that disables browsing history on your local computer only, and it will send a “Do Not Track” request, although as I’ve explained, its usefulness is suspect.

Most notable about Edge’s privacy protections is tracking prevention, which blocks ad providers from tracking you from website to website. That makes it more difficult for companies like Google, Facebook, and others to build comprehensive profiles of your activities and interests.

By default, tracking prevention is turned on. But you can customize how it works, making it less or more restrictive depending on how much privacy you would like when browsing the web and how much you want to see ads and content that mirror your interests. To do it, click the three-dot icon at the top right of Edge’s screen and select Settings > Privacy, search, and services.

You have three tracking prevention choices:

• Basic allows most trackers and blocks only those that Microsoft considers harmful. You’ll have less privacy but will be more likely to see personalized ads and content.
• Balanced is the default setting; it blocks more trackers than the Basic setting. Ads and content won’t be as personalized, but sites should still work properly.
• Strict blocks the majority of trackers from all websites, as well as harmful ads. This gives you the most privacy, and ads and content will have minimal personalization. Parts of websites may not work properly when you choose this setting.

You can customize tracking prevention further by clicking Exceptions. That will let you specify sites on which you’d like to allow all trackers. Edge also allows you to see which ad trackers it has blocked. Click Blocked trackers to see them.

You can also see which trackers have been blocked on any website you’re currently visiting and fine-tune your protection on a site-by-site basis. To do it, click the lock icon to the left of the URL in the address bar, and you’ll see information such as the number of cookies put on your device by the site, trackers blocked and so on. Click the cookies icon to see each individual cookie. You’ll also be able to remove any cookies and block any others the next time you visit the site.

However, Microsoft also uses Edge to collect diagnostic data to, in the words of Microsoft, “keep Microsoft Edge secure, up to date and performing as expected.” That worries some people, while for others, it’s no problem at all. So you’ll have to decide whether it’s worrisome. You can control what data Edge gathers and eliminate some of it. For details, see Microsoft’s “Microsoft Edge, browsing data, and privacy” support page.

Edge also has a feature called Browser Essentials that displays a pane that includes a Safety section that tells you how many websites you’ve visited and how many downloads Edge has scanned for safety in the last 30 days, as well as how many risks it claims have been prevented and how many items have been blocked. I found it useless, little more than a bit of PR puffery, given that it has no safety features you can turn on or off.

The best browser for safety and privacy

Each browser offers the same basic protections, But Edge goes beyond the basics with its blocking of trackers and related technologies, and the ability to customize how each works. So it gets the nod here.

Extensions

A browser by itself is certainly useful, but it can be powered up and customized by extensions. These browser add-ons can do an almost mind-boggling number of things. Want to block ads, use a secure password manager, edit graphics, read PDF files, handle your mail better, or do thousands of other things? Then extensions are for you.

In this section we look at how rich each browser’s add-on ecosystem is, and how easy it is to install, use, manage, and uninstall them.

Chrome

Chrome’s rise to become the most popular browser in the world was fueled in part by its support for extensions and the vast number of add-ons available for it. There’s no definitive answer for the total number, although one analysis put it at 188,620 as of early 2024.

More important than the total number, though, is whether they’re useful. And by any measure, Chrome extensions are exceedingly useful. You typically install them via the Chrome Web Store, although you can also install them directly from a website. But take care that the site is a reputable one. Google does work to make sure the extensions in its store are free of malware, so whenever you install one outside that store, you may be taking a chance.

To install from the Chrome Web Store, when you’re reading a description of an extension, click the Add to Chrome button on the upper right of the screen. You’ll get a notification about the access it will have to your PC, for example, “Read and change all your data on the websites you visit” or “Display notifications.” If you decide to go ahead, click Add extension. After a short time, the extension will install, and you’ll see its icon on the upper right of the screen. Click the icon to use it and to change any of its settings.

When you’ve installed more than one extension, instead of seeing icons for each separate extension, you’ll see a single icon of a puzzle piece. Click it to get access to all your extensions, to use their features, change their options, and remove them from Chrome. From here you can also choose to pin icons for individual extensions to the top right of Chrome, next to the puzzle piece icon.

You can also manage and remove them by clicking the puzzle piece icon and selecting Manage Extensions.. This takes you to the Extensions page, where you can find more details about any extension, adjust its settings, remove it, or disable it — which turns it off while keeping it installed. That way, you can easily re-enable it without having to reinstall it.

Edge

In the pre-Chromium days of Edge, one of the browser’s many problems was how few extensions it had. By the time the new Chromium version of Edge was released, the old version had fewer than 300 extensions, not tens of thousands like Chrome.

With the move to Chromium, all that has changed. That’s because Edge can now use extensions built for Chrome. When the Chromium-based version of Edge was released, Microsoft warned people that some Chrome extensions might not work on Edge, notably those that rely on Google account functionality to sign in or sync data or those that rely on companion software on your PC. However, I’ve been using the Chromium version of Edge since its introduction in mid-January of 2020 and haven’t come across a single one that didn’t work, including multiple add-ons that require signing into a Google account.

Microsoft has an extension store for the Chromium version of Edge. Get to it by clicking the three-dot icon at the top right of Edge, selecting Extensions and clicking Get extensions for Microsoft Edge. The Edge Add-ons store doesn’t have nearly as many extensions as the Chrome Web Store. But that’s no problem, because you can also install extensions into Edge directly from the Chrome Web Store.

Unlike Chrome, Edge shows each extension’s icon at the top right of the screen. As with Chrome, click any add-on’s icon to manage, uninstall or select what features you want to use. You can also manage and remove them by clicking the three-dot icon at the top right of Edge and selecting Extensions. As with Chrome, from here you can disable and enable extensions as well.

The best browser for extensions

In theory, some Chrome extensions might not run in Edge, although I’ve yet to come across one or hear of one that doesn’t work. So I’ll rate Chrome and Edge a tie in this category.

Syncing across multiple devices and platforms

We live in a business world in which we use multiple devices — desktop PCs and laptops running Windows and macOS, as well as smartphones and tablets running iOS and Android. We want our browser settings, favorites, passwords, and other data to be the same and sync on any device.

So I tested how well each browser synced data on two Windows PCs, a Mac, and Android and iOS devices.

Chrome

Chrome does a superb job not just of syncing data across all of your devices, but giving you a great deal of control over what gets synced. So you can sync data on some devices and not others. And you can customize exactly what gets synced.

To do all that, you’ll need to have a Google account and sign into it on Chrome. Once you do that, click your Google account icon (your photo or initials) at the top right of your screen and choose Turn on sync from the menu that appears. On the next screen, choose Yes, I’m in. To customize what syncs and get more information about syncing, to go Settings > Sync and Google services. You’ll come to a page that gives you thorough control over syncing. It lets you manage what you sync, review your synced data, and encrypt your synced data.

Click Manage what you sync and you’ll come to the full list, including apps, bookmarks, extensions, history, browser settings, themes, open tabs, passwords, addresses and phone numbers, and payment methods for Google Pay. To sync them all, select Sync everything. To fine-tune it, click Customize sync and move the slider to off next to anything you don’t want to sync.

Back on the Sync and Google services page, click Review your synced data, and you’ll see the total number of pieces of data you’ve synced for each category — for example, 11 extensions, 489 settings, 610 passwords, and so on. However, you won’t actually see the data itself, just the totals by category. To find the data, you’ll have to spend a fair amount of time clicking around Chrome Settings, for example to count all your extensions, count all your passwords, and so on.

As for how good a job it does of syncing, there’s not much to say other than it works without a hitch. I didn’t encounter a single syncing problem. The data showed up on all devices I wanted it to and didn’t show up on devices I didn’t want it to.

Edge

Edge doesn’t quite come up to Chrome’s standards when it comes to syncing data, although it comes close. First, the good news: It’s easy to sync data across all your devices. You’ll need a Microsoft account. Sign in, and then click the three-dot icon at the top right of Edge and select Settings > Sync. Click Turn On Sync to sync your data to other devices using Edge.

You can then choose which data to sync, including favorites, settings, addresses and contact information, passwords, extensions, browsing history, open tabs,  and more. (Note that Microsoft Collections, covered later in this article, always automatically sync, so they aren’t listed on the Sync page. We’ll have more information about Collections in the Extras section of this article.) For each category you want to sync, move the slider to On.

There’s only one thing Edge can’t do that Chrome can: You can’t see the amount of data being synced by category as you can with Chrome.

As with Chrome, my Edge data synced without a hitch.

The best browser for syncing

Chrome gets the slightest of edges here. here. It gives you details about your synced data, while Edge doesn’t. If that doesn’t matter to you, though, it won’t make a difference in choosing which browser to use.  

AI features

AI, particularly generative AI (genAI), isn’t just the future of computing, it’s the present as well. It can help you research, write documents, and far more. Being able to use AI in your browser is important today and will become even more vital tomorrow. So in this section we’ll look into the built-in AI capabilities of each browser.

Chrome

As of this writing, Google is testing the use of AI in Chrome to help you write text when you’re typing into a text box on the web, and to create your own Chrome themes to customize the way the browser looks. To try them out, click the three-dot icon at the top right of the screen, then select Settings > Experimental AI and move the slider to On.

That leads to a screen that shows you Chrome’s AI capabilities, including “Help me Write” for aid with writing, “Tab organizer” to automatically create tab groups based on your open tabs, and “Create themes with AI” to design your own Chrome theme.  They’re moderately useful, at best. Expect Google to power them up and add more genAI capabilities to Chrome at some point.

Edge

Microsoft is widely recognized as the leader in genAI, thanks to its Copilot line of products built on top of OpenAI’s powerful ChatGPT. So it’s no surprise that Copilot is built directly into Edge. To get to it, click the Copilot icon on the upper right hand of the screen. A pane appears on the right that gives you full access to Copilot, which can accomplish a wide range of tasks, particularly in helping in drafting documents and finding information on the web, although it can do more as well. A full description of its capabilities are beyond the scope of this article. To read more about it, see “7 ways to use Microsoft Copilot right.”

From inside Bing, there’s also a way to use Microsoft’s genAI graphics tool, Designer, powered by OpenAI’s DALL-E. At the top far right of the pane that appears when you click the Copilot icon, you’ll see a column of vertical icons just underneath the Copilot icon.  Click the plus sign, which is the bottommost icon. In the Search box that appears, search for designer, then click the icon that appears. That launches Designer. If you want to design something, such as a marketing brochure, describe it in text. Click any of the designs to customize them or download them.

The best browser for AI

Nothing could be clearer: If you want to use genAI in your browser right now, Edge is by far the better choice.

Extras

Browsers these days aren’t chock full of extra, proprietary features, such as being able to mark up websites, as they were in years past. And that’s a good thing, because most of those extras tended to weigh down the browser, make for a confusing interface, and not add a lot of extra value.

Still, today’s browsers do have a few worthy extras. Here are the best in Chrome and Edge. (Note that I don’t include features that both browsers have, such as being able to save tab groups, or to use a private, incognito mode.)

Chrome

Google has taken a less-is-more approach to browser design in Chrome, and likely because of that, there aren’t a surplus of notable extras in the browser. What you see is largely what you get.

That being said, there are some good extras. Foremost is the ability to do Chromecasting — “cast” whatever is on your screen to a TV or other device with a Chromecast stick attached to it. That lets you watch streaming media on your TV rather than a computer. Edge doesn’t include this same capability built into it, although you can install an add-on that will let you do the casting.

Chrome’s password manager has one nice extra: It can generate strong passwords for you. And Chrome’s search/address bar, called Omnibox, can deliver what Google calls “rich results” that will provide answers for a search in a dropdown box rather than having to launch the search and then browse through a web page.

However, I found that feature essentially useless. Yes, it can give you sports scores ( try “celtics score”). And it can add numbers. But that’s about it. It also can give misleading information. For example, when I typed in “capital of Massachusetts” it returned mostly links to web sites, as you would expect. The only rich result it offered was Springfield — but the state capital is Boston.

Much more useful is Chrome’s built-in media player. It lets you stop and start videos and audio, jump to the next or previous track, and play the media in its own window. Especially nice is that you can control all media in all tabs simultaneously with the player. On the downside, it doesn’t let you control the volume. To get to the controller, click the small music-note icon that appears to the right of the address bar when you go to a web page and start to play music, video, or other sound.

Chrome also has a hidden side panel that you may or may not find useful. There are only a few things you can show here, including your browsing history, your bookmarks, a list of web pages or articles you’ve put in a reading list you want to get to later, putting the current web page into “reading mode,” and doing a search.

What’s more, you have to know where to find each of these items to launch its panel. For instance, to see your reading list, you click the three-dot icon at the upper right of the screen, then select Bookmarks and Lists > Reading List > Show Reading List. Once the panel is visible, you can click its pin icon to place a Reading List icon at the top of the screen, and from then on you can launch the Reading List panel with a single click. But you have to go through the same process to add any of the other panels. It’s a convoluted way to access a feature that doesn’t seem terribly valuable in the first place.

Long story short: I find the side panel useless, but as the saying goes, your mileage may vary.

Edge

Edge has what I believe to be the best single feature offered in a browser: Collections. It lets you gather web pages, images, and portions of web pages into a sidebar and organize them by categories. You can also add notes to each of your collections and copy them to the clipboard, and from there paste them into an application. I’ve found it to be an incredible productivity-booster, and I use it constantly throughout my working day.

To use it, click the Collections icon, a + sign inside two squares with rounded corners, at the top right of the screen. The Collections pane opens on the right as a sidebar. The first time you use Collections, it will automatically start four collections for you: Wishlist, Reading List, Video Playlist, and Cookbook. You can use any of those collections or select Create new collection at the top of the pane and type in a name.

To add the web page you’re on to the collection, click Add current page. You can drag images to the collection to add them, as well as selecting text or sections of web pages and dragging them to the collection. If you have multiple collections, you can drag images or selections to any collection in the main Collections list.

To add a note to a collection, hover your cursor over an item in the collection, click the three-dot menu that appears, and select either Add note to item or Add note after item. You can change the text formatting of any note, as well as add images to it.

You can also add web pages to a collection without actually opening the Collections pane — just right-click on a neutral area of the page and in the pop-up menu that appears, select Add Page to Collections, and choose the collection you want to add it to or start a new one. You can add images and selected text to a collection using the right-click menu as well.

How might you use Collections? In just about any way possible. You can set up different collections for each of your projects and store web-based research there. You can set up collections for your budgets, for marketing research, for just about anything to do with your work.

You can also easily delete collections so that you don’t get overwhelmed by your research. It’s so easy to create collections you’ll probably find yourself creating them even just for a day or two for short-term research and then deleting them.

The best browser for extras

If you use the web for research, you’ll find Collections in Edge the best extra you can get.As for Chrome, Chromecasting is the most important extra you’ll really care about — and it’s available in Edge via an add-on, so Edge is the clear winner here.

Enterprise features

In businesses, a browser isn’t a standalone piece of software. It’s an essential part of any company’s suite of productivity tools. So in this section we look at the things IT needs to know about each browser, including deployment, management, links to other productivity software, and more.

Chrome

Chrome relies, to some extent, on enterprises using tools from companies other than Google (notably Microsoft) for deployment and management. Google does, however, have its own tools as well. These are the most important kinds of tools businesses can use to manage Chrome:

• Microsoft Group Policy. This is for businesses that use Group Policy as their primary method of managing their applications. You use group policy to manage Chrome as you would any other application.
• Chrome Enterprise Core cloud management. This free tool lets IT enroll and manage Chrome across Windows, macOS, and Linux using the same Google Admin console as Google Workspace and ChromeOS management. It offers information for troubleshooting and insights about how Chrome is used, with details such as device types, OS version, browser version, installed extensions and policies applied per browser. Go here to get details and to use it.
• Google Admin console. This enforces policies for users of Chrome on managed computers.
• Third-party management tools. These include Intune from Microsoft, as well as other endpoint management tools such as VMware Workspace One and Jamf.

With all these tools, enterprises can control permissions for browser use, such as for installing extensions. They can be based on, for example, on identity and organization units, as well as applied on a site-by-site basis. The tools also allow for the creation of block lists and allow lists for sites, apps, and content types.

Enterprises can use their normal software distribution tool for creating browser images to deploy across the enterprise. Google offers Chrome Enterprise downloads for Windows and macOS in different file and architecture types. As for browser updates, Google recommends that enterprises keep Chrome’s auto update turned on so that it happens automatically, although it can also be managed via the tools mentioned above.

There’s also some integration between Chrome and G Suite/Google Workspace, notably allowing employees to search through their company’s Drive folders from the Chrome search box.

Edge

Microsoft offers a wealth of tools for deploying, managing, and controlling browser use, far more than can be covered here. For a start, there’s Microsoft Group Policy and Intune. But that’s just the beginning. Microsoft 365 customers can use Microsoft Configuration Manager, which can configure more than 250 policies. FastTrack offers remote deployment guidance, compatibility assistance, configuration advice, and more. There are also plenty of self-guided videos for helping with deployment and configuration on Microsoft Mechanics on YouTube.

For controlling permissions for Edge, including extension use, enterprises can use Microsoft Entra ID (formerly called Azure Active Directory) and Microsoft Entra Conditional Access. That includes not just blocking extensions, but also installing extensions automatically enterprise-wide and making sure they can’t be uninstalled. For details, see the Microsoft Edge – Policies documentation.

There are also many security tools for Edge for enterprises, including Microsoft Security Baselines in the Microsoft Security Compliance Toolkit. Microsoft also has a wide variety of tools for deploying Edge and then configuring or restricting updates using Microsoft Edge Update policies.

There are quite a few links between Edge and Microsoft 365, including using Edge and Microsoft’s search engine Bing to do enterprise-wide searches. Edge can also be configured to show you all the Office files you’ve been recently using when you open a new tab. It can also recommend files you might want to open, based on your recent usage. See more details about using Edge and Bing in concert with Microsoft 365 in enterprises.

Those are just the highlights. There’s plenty more as well.

The best browser for enterprise features

Edge comes up big here. It has the most robust set of management tools for enterprises by a mile. Chrome relies on some of those tools, although it also has several of its own as well.

The best browser for business overall

So which browser is best for your business?

Edge is the best choice for most businesses. Organizations that may have ruled out the pre-Chromium version of the browser should give the new Edge a second look. They may well be pleasantly surprised.

Edge came in first place in the majority of our categories, especially the most important ones. The browser’s tracker blocking will especially be welcomed by those who value their privacy. If you’re a Microsoft customer already using Microsoft management and deployment tools, Microsoft 365, and/or other software, choosing Edge is a no-brainer. And Edge includes the most powerful genAI tools available, while Chrome offers none.

However, Chrome is a better choice than Edge for some organizations. If you use Google Workspace, you’ll want to go with Chrome, because you’ll be able to manage all your Google software from a common console.

This article was originally published in January 2021 and updated in May 2024.

OpenAI last week demonstrated its GPT-4o multimodal AI model, and Google followed a day later with a demonstration of its Project Astra (a set of features coming later to Google’s Gemini). Both initiatives use video input (along with audio) to prompt sophisticated, powerful and natural AI chatbot responses. 

Both demos were impressive and ground-breaking, and performed similar feats. 

OpenAI is either further ahead of Google, or less timid, (probably both) as the company promised public availability of what it demonstrated within weeks, whereas Google promised something “later this year.” More to the point, OpenAI claims that its new model is twice as fast as and half the cost of GPT-4 Turbo. (Google didn’t feel confident enough to brag about the performance or cost of Astra features.)

Before these demos, the public knew the word “multimodal” mostly from Meta, which heavily promoted multimodal features for its Ray-Ban Meta glasses to the public in the past couple of months. 

The experience of using Ray-Ban Meta glasses’ multimodal feature goes something like this: You say, “Hey, Meta, look and tell me what you see.” You hear a click, indicating that a picture is being taken, and, after a few seconds, the answer is spoken to you with information like: “it’s a building” or some general description of objects in the frame of the picture. 

Ray-Ban Metas use the integrated camera —for a still image, not video — and the result is somewhat unimpressive, especially in light of the multimodal demos by OpenAI and Google. 

The powerful role of video in multimodal AI

Multimodal AI simultaneously combines text, audio, photos and video. (And to be clear, it can get the “text” information directly from the audio, photos or video. It can “read” or extract the words it sees, then input that text into the mix.) 

Multimodal AI with video brings the user-computer interface vastly closer to the human experience. While AI can’t think or understand, being able to harness video and other inputs puts people (who are also multimodal) on the same page about physical surroundings or the subject of awareness. 

For example, during the Google I/O keynote, engineers back at Google Deepmind headquarters were watching it, together with project Astra, which (as with OpenAI’s new model) can read and see and “watch” what’s on your computer screen. They posted this video on X, showing an engineer chit-chatting about the video on screen with the AI. 

Another fun demo that emerged showed GPT-4o in action. In that video, an engineer for OpenAI uses a smartphone running GPT-4o and its camera to describe what it sees based on the comments and questions of another instance on another smartphone of GPT-4o. 

In both demos, the phones are doing what another person would be able to do — walk around with a person and answer their questions about objects, people and information in the physical world. 

Advertisers are looking to video in multimodal AI as a way to register the emotional impact of their ads. “Emotions emerge through technology like Project Astra, which can process the real world through the lens of a mobile phone camera. It continually processes images and information that it sees and can return answers, even after it has moved past the object,” according to an opinion piece on MediaPost by Laurie Sullivan. 

The power of this technology for multiple industries will prove inestimable. 

Why all trends in multimodal AI point to AI glasses

Both OpenAI and Google demos clearly reveal a future where, thanks to the video mode in multimodal AI, we’ll be able to show AI something, or a room full of somethings, and engage with a chatbot to help us know, process, remember or understand. 

It would be all very natural, except for one awkward element. All this holding and waving around of phones to show it what we want it so “see” is completely unnatural. Obviously — obviously! — video-enabled multimodal AI is headed for face computers, a.k.a. AI glasses. 

And, in fact, one of the most intriguing elements of the Google demo was that during a video demonstration, the demonstrator asked Astra-enhanced Gemini if it remembered where her glasses were, and it directed her back to a table, where she picked up the glasses and put them on. At that point, the glasses — which were prototype AI glasses — seamlessly took over the chat session from the phone (the whole thing was surely still running on the phone, with the glasses providing the camera, microphones and so on). 

From the moment she put on those glasses, the interaction became totally natural. Instead of awkwardly holding up a smartphone and pointing its camera at stuff, she merely looked at it. (At one point she even petted and cuddled her dog with both hands while still using the chatbot.)

And in this Google DeepMind Astra video (posted after last week’s event), AI is interacting with content on a phone screen (rather than using the phone to point at non-phone objects). 

Given the video, it’s unlikely the commercialization of an actual consumer and business product — let’s call it “Pixel Glasses” — is imminent. Two years ago, Google I/O featured a research product showing translation glasses, which looked like a promising idea until Google killed it last year. 

What nobody’s talking about now is that, in hindsight, those translation glasses were almost certainly based on video-enhanced multimodal AI. While they translate audio of people speaking Mandarin, Spanish and English — with subtitles displayed to the wearer of the glasses in English — they also show American Sign Language translated into English subtitles. At the time, people shrugged at this segment of the video, but now it’s clear: Multimodal AI was reading the sign language and translating it in real time (or faking that). 

I think we need to update the narrative on this, which is that the Google translate glasses weren’t cancelled. That demo was really just an early prototype of the Astra features Google didn’t want to announce two years ago. 

And, in fact, the prototype glasses in the Astra video look the same as the glasses in the translation glasses video — they’ll probably using the same prototype hardware. 

Meanwhile, we were reminded that Google continues to work on AI glasses hardware products when on May 9, the Patent Office granted Google a patent based on technology owned by a company it acquired four years ago, called North. The patent describes systems and methods for laser projectors with optical engines capable of measuring light intensity and laser output power. These projectors are designed to be integrated into AI glasses. 

While companies like Google can design and manufacture their own AI glasses, any other AI company could partner with either Luxottica, as Meta has, or with a startup like Avegant, which (together with partners Qualcomm and Applied Materials and which I wrote about in March) can supply the hardware for a product branded with the AI company’s brand. So, we can look forward to OpenAI Glasses, Perplexity Glasses, Pi Glasses, Bing Glasses, Claude Glasses and (my favorite possibility) Hugging Face Glasses.

I’ve been predicting that a massive AI glasses industry is about to take off and take over. It will probably happen next year. And the new trend in multimodal AI with video as one of the modes should convince everyone how big the AI glasses market will be. 

Microsoft released 62 updates on Patch Tuesday this week, with three zero-days (CVE-2024-30051, CVE-2024-30046, and CVE-2024-30040) forcing a “patch now” deployment guidance for Windows desktops. Adobe is back with a “Patch Now” update, while Microsoft Office, Edge browsers and Microsoft’s development platform (Visual Studio and .NET) can be dealt with using standard release schedules. 

Unusually for Azure updates, the Readiness team recommends particular attention be paid to an Azure Agent update (CVE-2024-30060), as it can affect corporate VM’s (associated with testing or development platforms). The team has provided an infographic outlining the risks associated with each of the updates for this month’s cycle. 

Known issues 

Each month, Microsoft publishes a list of known issues related to the operating system and platforms included in each cycle; the following two reported minor issues:

• Windows devices using more than one monitor might experience issues with desktop icons moving unexpectedly between monitors or other icon alignment issues when attempting to use Copilot in Windows (in preview). Yes, Microsoft is still working on this one.
• There appears to be an issue with how Windows clients receive their updates after installing KB5034203. Instead of downloading from their peers or designated enterprise update endpoints, clients that use DHCP option 235 will download from the internet instead. Aside from the (serious) security concerns in getting your updates from outside your organization, some clients will see a significant increase in their internet traffic.

And for all you Windows 11 users, Microsoft has reported that after installing this update you might not be able to change your profile photo from the default. (For many, this is a good thing.)

Major revisions 

This month, Microsoft published the following major revisions to past security and feature updates:

• CVE-2024-30009: Windows Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) Remote Code Execution. The FAQs were updated for this Microsoft patch. This is an information change only.
• CVE-2024-30044: Microsoft SharePoint Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Microsoft updated the documentation, added a FAQ, and updated the CVSS score for this critical update.
• CVE-2024-30046: Visual Studio Denial of Service Vulnerability. Microsoft has revised the Security Updates table to include .NET 7.0 and .NET 8.0 as these versions of .NET are now affected by this vulnerability. 

I’m not sure where to place this latest (and late) addition to the May patches. Microsoft released a major update (CVE-2024-30060) to the Azure agent (we use this Microsoft tool for our Azure-based application packaging, conversion and testing Virtual Machines). If you are using Azure-based VMs, this update will be important for all your builds. Unfortunately, this vulnerability has been publicly disclosed and adds to our tally of May Patch Tuesday zero days.

Mitigations and workarounds 

As of May 17, Microsoft has not published any mitigations or workarounds for this month’s patch cycle.

Testing guidance

Each month, the team at Readiness analyzes the latest updates and provides detailed, actionable testing guidance. This guidance is based on assessing a large application portfolio and a detailed analysis of the patches and their potential impact on the Windows platforms and application installations.

We have grouped the critical updates and required testing efforts into functional area including:

Microsoft Office

• A change to how OLE handles web content will require a test scenario for embedding and loading external web content (text, images and video).

Microsoft .NET and developer tools

• Microsoft SQL server updates will require a test of new connections with different versions of SQL Server. Line-of-business (LOB) applications that rely on SQL server connections will require a full UAT before releasing this month’s developer update.

Windows

The following core Microsoft features have been updated and might require attention:

• The updates to the Windows Common Error log feature (CLDFLT.SYS) will require testing of creating, reading, updating and deleting (CRUD) log files.
• DNS updates will require testing for non-existing domains registered in each managed zone.
• This month’s update to the Microsoft Crypto library will require tests of new creation and deletion.
• Microsoft’s Routing and Remote Access Servers (RRAS) servers will require light testing for valid connections.
• Smartcard access to Microsoft Windows desktops will require basic access testing.

Aside from updating several key features on the Windows desktop platform, Microsoft also updated the way the following APIs are handled:

• SetFileBandwidthReservation and GetFileBandwidthReservation;
• The MMC and Windows Shell (MPRAPI.DLL);
• Microsoft’s CNG crypto implementation (NCRYPT.DLL).

These are tough updates to test properly, as you need a detailed list of what applications depend upon (and actually use) these APIs. 

Automated testing will help (especially a testing platform that offers a “delta” or comparison between builds). However, for LOB apps, getting the application owner (doing UAT) to test and approve the results is absolutely essential. 

This month, Microsoft made a major (general) update to the Win32 and GDI subsystems with a recommendation to test out a significant portion of your application portfolio.

Windows lifecycle update 

This section will contain important changes to servicing (and most security updates) to Windows desktop and server platforms.

• Support for Windows 10 (21H2) ends this month. In fact, support ends before the next Patch Tuesday. This is serious now, people.
• Microsoft SQL Server (2014 SP3 CU4): the final stage of support (aka Security Support) ends in five weeks.
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 loses full support in less than two months.

Each month, we break down the update cycle into product families with the following basic groupings: 

• Browsers (Microsoft IE and Edge) 
• Microsoft Windows (both desktop and server) 
• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft SQL Server (not Exchange Server) 
• Microsoft Development platforms (ASP.NET Core, .NET Core and Chakra Core)
• Adobe (if you get this far) 

Browsers

Microsoft and the Chromium project have been releasing patches to both Chrome and Edge every three or four days since the latest major update in April. So far, there are now seven updates to Chrome (with the recent addition of CVE-2024-30056), all of which are rated important. These security vulnerabilities relate to memory handling and “use after free” issues but have not been reported as exploited or publicly disclosed. Add these updates to your standard release schedule.

Windows

Microsoft published 46 updates for the Windows desktop and server updates. For this (much smaller) release to the Windows desktop platform, the following functional areas have been updated:

• Windows Common Log File System Driver Windows Hyper-V;
• Windows Cryptographic Services;
• Windows DHCP Server;
• Windows NTFS;
• Windows Win32K – ICOMP;
• Windows RRAS and Remote Access Connection Manager.

Unfortunately, we have three zero-days (CVE-2024-30051, CVE-2024-30046, and CVE-2024-30040) that affect the Windows platform. The team at Readiness has already discovered several applications that are particularly vulnerable to the DWM vulnerability (CVE-2024-30051) which could lead to full SYSTEM (caps added by Microsoft) privileges on the compromised system. Add this update to your “Patch Now” schedule.

Microsoft Office 

Microsoft released just three updates for the Office platform. CVE-2024-30042 addresses a remote code execution vulnerability in Excel that is both challenging to exploit and non-wormable. The other updates relate to Microsoft SharePoint. All are rated important and should be added to your standard desktop release schedule. 

Microsoft SQL Server (not Exchange Server)

Microsoft has not released any patches for Exchange Server but did push out a single update (CVE-2024-30054) rated important for SQL Server. This update to SQL Server Power BI feature really belongs in the developer release cycle, as it updates Software Development Kit (SDK). Add this to your standard developer release schedule.

Microsoft development platforms 

Microsoft released four updates to the development platform, affecting Visual Studio and .NET for those deploying and managing desktop patches. Add these to your standard developer release schedule.

Adobe Reader (if you get this far) 

We are back! Adobe released an update to Adobe Reader (APSB24-29) covering 12 memory related and “use after free ” security vulnerabilities that have a serious rating of 8.8. This attracts a “Patch Now” rating from the Readiness team due to Adobe Reader’s tight integration with the Windows desktop ecosystem.

Out of the box, my first reaction when taking hold of Apple’s all-new 11-in. M4-powered iPad Pro was how light it was, closely followed by some sense of wonder at how thin it has become. 

The model I’ve been using weighs just 0.98-pounds. (This is the version with both Wi-Fi and cellular capabilities; the equivalent 13-in. model weights 1.28 pounds.)

You got to carry that weight…

To put this into perspective, the previous generation 11-in. model weighed just a little more, 1.04-pounds — but that small, roughly 5% weight reduction is still quite tangible. 

I think it’s worth noting that Apple’s first ever cellular-equipped iPad weighed 1.6-pounds when introduced in 2010, meaning this iPad Pro is only 61% as heavy as that first-gen product, the one thousands of C-suite executives acquired.

At 5.3mm, it’s super-thin, too. (The 13-inch model is even thinner). Apple claims it is the thinnest product it has ever made; it’s even thinner than the iPod Nano I sentimentally keep on my desk.

You’d think that thinness would make it easy to bend the product. I’m not about to try that, but I have found the iPad is reinforced with an additional spine to make it more resilient. My take is that you’ll have to try pretty hard to bend this thing, or you could try sitting on it by mistake when taking a flight, as I recently did with another model. It’s probably best to be careful.

Got to get yourself connected

The second set of reactions kicked in once I turned on the device. I’m always impressed at how Apple continues to improve the on-boarding process for its products. To get this machine working, I just had to bring my iPhone across, go through a very simple set up process, create a PIN code and wait for my apps and data to shift over from iCloud. That process takes longer the more data you need to transfer, but it’s painless.

If you’re setting up a managed device, it will be quite similar, though you’ll probably need to enter your Managed Apple ID before the iPad Pro is provisioned for you and your company. Apple’s on-boarding process is excellently executed.

Looks are sometimes everything

Once the iPad had stuffed itself with my data, I picked it up and began to use it.  That’s when my fourth big reaction kicked in: the image quality on the tandem OLED display is stupendous. 

I mentioned that ill-fated iPad-wrecking flight I took. While I was away, I took holiday photos, including a selection of beautiful, luscious, green landscapes. I like these images, but I have been truly impressed by the true-to-life detail and excellence in color rendering on this particular machine. The multitude of different greens you see in a forest really snap out at you, like being there. 

There’s a reason for this, of course. Both iPad Pro models feature what Apple calls an Ultra Retina XDR display and modestly describes as “the world’s most advanced display.” Those greens, deep true blacks, and all the other visual details are there because these displays use technology similar to what’s used in Apple’s XDR display for Macs. 

And those Mac displays deliver images just as good as the hugely expensive “reference displays” you find in movie studios. That’s great for iPhoto collections, of course, but also means that when you’re working on video footage or photos in the field, you get state-of-the-art color accuracy on a display that’s bright and beautiful. And packed inside a mobile device with a 10-hour battery life weighing less than a pound. That’s great for creatives.

A mobile creative powerhouse

In case you want the technical details, the display can reach a peak 1,600 nits brightness and a stable 1,000 nits most of the time. It also has a 2,000,000-to-1 contrast ratio, which is another reason colors really pop. And yes, if you need professional color, the device can display reference color for all the popular color standards. This display is a professional workhorse.

But iPad Pro isn’t only for creatives. And while Apple does tend to focus on the creative markets in its marketing materials, this system has something to offer any professional who needs a high-performance and highly portable system for any reason.

It might be over-specced for some enterprise uses of tablets (for which the iPad Air remains a more logical choice). But for use in some sectors (medical, education, and architecture, for example) the iPad Pro’s excellent display is most certainly part of the attraction.

Of course, some of the most challenging users really need to get the best possible performance, and you get that here thanks to the M4 chip inside. 

Possibly, the world’s best AI PC…

Apple suggests it needed to use this processor because it wanted to make the iPad Pro thin and to drive the amazing display. The move to M4 also means you get a huge leap in processor performance (1.5x faster than the last model) and graphics (rendering is four times faster).

But what may become more important is that the deployment of this chip means the iPad Pro with M4 will perhaps soon become the world’s ultimate AI-driven tablet, about which we’ll learn much more at WWDC. 

I’m willing to speculate that once Apple introduces generative AI in iPadOS, the iPad Pro will be seen as even more than a tablet; you’ll even be able to control it with voice and glance. Think about that and recognize that this means it will also become the ultimate mobile computing (with AI) experience. If Apple gets it right. 

If your computer interactions are no longer reliant on keyboard and mice, and your device can deliver the computational power (thanks to the M4 chip) you require, at what point does the PC become history? I think these iPads are part of that story.

But let’s not focus too much on what isn’t here yet, because what we actually have is quite something already. The iPad Pro can easily handle powerful apps such as Procreate, or large spreadsheets, or video apps, or whatever you need to run; all will run faster, perform better, and complete their tasks more swiftly than before. 

(It also gives developers of mobile apps an on-ramp for the addition of powerful new features in the future, and a glimpse at M4 Macs.)

What about the Magic Keyboard?

I’m using the iPad Pro with Apple’s new Magic Keyboard. I love it. 

Not only does it provide a 14-key function row, but it has been designed to include a comfortable aluminum palm rest and a much bigger, haptic trackpad. It makes working with iPad Pro much more Mac-like, especially as the keypad is backlit for use in darker places. The keyboard is comfortable to use and responsive — so much so, that I’m writing this review with it. 

The keyboard is a little heavy. At 1.27 pounds (according to my scales), the Magic Keyboard is actually heavier than the iPad Pro it holds, though the keyboard is a little lighter than the last version. Together, that’s a combined weight of 2.3 pounds — considerably lighter than a 3.4-pound 13-in. MacBook Pro .

Of course, these do different things, and your iPad Pro can deliver all its functionality in a lighter case, along with that precious, Made For AI M4 chip. 

Weight aside, if you intend on using your iPad Pro as a highly mobile productive device, the Magic Keyboard is a must.

Write me kindly, sir

Digital creatives have another must-have accessory, the Apple Pencil Pro. Actually, a tiny computer in a pencil, the real achievement here is that Apple has managed to cram so much into something that feels just like the original Apple Pencil.

This iteration lets you squeeze the side to bring up a tool palette; you get unlimited undo; double tap; and a new barrel roll capability which changes the orientation of shaped pen and brush tools. You also get haptic feedback, so when you do something, you’ll feel something, and support for existing pencil features like low latency and “hover.” (Hover lets you precisely place where you want to be, with on-screen objects jumping at you.) 

It’s the squeeze function I find most useful; it makes the pencil so much more intuitive to use, as I’ve always kind of struggled moving between modes. Now, it seems much more natural. There are six sets of commands you can set Squeeze to handle, but only one can be in use at any point. The only limitation at present is that apps must be updated to gain all these tools. 

More to think about

There are lots of elements I’ve not touched on. One of these is the iPad Pro probably won’t get too hot, as thermal performance has been improved by almost 20%. Another is the four speakers and four microphones inside the system, which support the new landscape front camera to make the device a great tool for video conferencing on Zoom, FaceTime, WebEx, even Teams (if you must). 

The primary camera has also been improved for better performance in low light, augmented by AI to secure better images. There’s a built-in document scanner function and a LiDAR camera.

Who pays the iMan?

What may be the world’s most advanced mobile device comes at a price. The model I tested has the nano-texture glass (what’s this?) and 1TB storage. It costs $1,899. 

Add the Apple Pencil Pro at a surprisingly low $129 and Magic Keyboard at $299 and the combined system I’ve been testing costs $2,327 — just $71 less than the top-of-the-range 14-in. MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip. 

Price isn’t the only consideration, of course. You don’t necessarily have to get nanotexture, unless robust color accuracy is something you need. You might not want 1TB of storage. You might not even need cellular, the pencil, or the Magic Keyboard. The entry-level configuration will set you back $999, and frankly from what I’ve seen, you’re still getting a lot at that price. (If you are price conscious, the also-new iPad Air might be precisely what you need. I can’t say, as I’ve not yet looked at that model since I broke my own iPad on that flight.)

Who is this for?

Apple’s varied range of iPads now has something for every price point. The iPad Pro is for aspirational Apple fans, high-end mobile creatives, critical workers in some industries, designers, movie makers, quite possibly data analysts, IT admins and (as ever) the C-suite executives who get everything.

It’s also an amazing, high-class product that I think checks the boxes for almost every task we once relied on computers to achieve. I can’t wait to see how Apple plans to exploit the computational capabilities of the device in the days ahead.

On its own account, the iPad Pro with M4 is a very desirable machine, and while most of us might choose an M2-based iPad Air, those who don’t can look forward to a great experience. And the rest of us can look forward to at least some of these improvements extending across Apple’s other tablets over time.

Please follow me on Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.

Cloud Software Group, the parent company of Citrix Systems, is considering selling its content-sharing platform ShareFile, according to sources cited by Bloomberg. This move is likely part of a broader strategy to streamline operations under its private equity ownership.

The company is reportedly working with a financial adviser to assess interest from potential buyers.

ShareFile, valued at an estimated $1.5 billion, offers document-sharing and collaboration software that integrates with popular apps like Microsoft Outlook.

Bloomberg sources, citing anonymity, suggest the platform might attract interest from private equity firms, though the discussions are in the early stages and may not translate into a sale.

The disinvestment of ShareFile is seen as a strategic move by Cloud Software Group to refocus on its core competencies.

“There are a couple of things which could drive this move,” Neil Shah, VP for research and partner at Counterpoint Research said. “First, the cloud-driven enterprise content management systems space has seen significant growth and competition from established players from Box, and Dropbox to Microsoft’s own SharePoint and OneDrive, as well as other strong contenders such as Egnyte, Kiteworks and Syncplicity.”

Second, the sector has undergone major transformations with each technological shift, impacting leadership, IPOs, exits, mergers, and acquisitions. The evolution from the first wave of on-premises client-server architecture to the second wave of real-time cloud sync, and now to an emerging third wave driven by AI and automation with real-time intelligent collaboration, has reshaped the landscape and increased competition, said Shah.

Microsoft has been rapidly expanding its enterprise offerings with cloud services (Azure), AI tools (CoPilot), productivity tools (Office 365), and file management solutions (OneDrive, SharePoint), enabling unprecedented real-time collaboration.

“So, companies like ShareFile that are heavily dependent on or integrated with partners such as Microsoft, face increasing competition,” Shah added. “ShareFile despite being one of the industry-leading solutions for more than a decade, the parent company is forced to evaluate ShareFile’s strategic future capabilities, positioning, and value vs a formidable competition, and now would be a good time to spinoff and profit from the business when it is at peak.”

Why sell ShareFile?

This reported spinoff move comes after Citrix was made private in a $13 billion deal by Elliott Investment Management and Vista Equity Partners in 2022. As part of the deal, Citrix and Tibco Software merged to form Cloud Software Group, the current parent company and inherited a wide range of products and services. Streamlining the portfolio could help Cloud Software Group optimize its operations and allocate its resources more efficiently.

However, the substantial debt burden from the leveraged buyout has demanded financial restructuring. Cloud Software Group has been actively managing its debt, recently pricing a $6.5 billion leveraged loan, the largest in the US this year, to refinance the expensive debt it incurred for the buyout.

The spinoff of ShareFile could be a step towards alleviating some of the financial pressures resulting from the expensive leveraged buyout, Shah reasoned.

Cloud Software Group, Vista Equity Partners, and Elliott Management have not yet responded to this report, Bloomberg said.

Google’s Gemini will soon be available to education institutions, the company said Thursday, with the generative AI (genAI) assistant able to help teachers draft lesson plans and create personalized learning materials. 

Gemini will come to Workspace for Education subscriptions on May 23 via two optional paid add-ons: Gemini Education, a “lower priced” offering with monthly usage limits, and Gemini Education Premium. 

Gemini Education provides access to genAI features in Workspace apps such as Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Gmail, alongside access to the Gemini chatbot. The premium version offers additional features in Google Meet, such as AI-powered note-taking and video conversation summaries.

“Gemini AI assistant brings genAI capabilities to the full suite of tools educators are using across the Workspace ecosystem,” said Matthew Leger, senior research manager on IDC’s Government Insights team. “This is important because, in education, I often see schools adopt a range of AI tools from different providers, leading to what I call ‘AI siloes’ that make AI governance, management, and cost control challenging.” 

Leger added that these different tools can vary widely in quality and effectiveness, “so it is nice to now have some of the most powerful genAI models on the market available across many of the tools educators use every day, through one provider.”

Google in a blog post said it sees a range of uses for Gemini in education settings. Teachers, for instance, can use the tools to create a lesson plan, syllabus, or class exercise, with the ability to tailor content to student interests and skill levels. Gemini can also be used to generate images that can help bring concepts to life for students, Google said. 

Google will also let teaching staff interact with learning tools via the Gemini conversational interface. Teachers can type “@OpenStax” in a prompt to receive responses based on the Rice University’s OpenStax textbooks, with in-line citations and links to relevant pages. A Data Commons extension — Google’s open source data repository  — will similarly provide access to data on complex topics such as climate change or economics. 

One of the key drawbacks of the large language models (LLMs) that power genAI tools such as Gemini is the tendency to hallucinate. With this in mind, the ability of the OpenStax and Data Commons extensions to pull information from trusted sources is an “important step” toward addressing user concerns, said Leger. The addition of a “double-check” feature also makes it easier to fact check outputs Gemini.

Outside of faculty staff, Gemini can help IT staff at an education institution create documentation, or assist a superintendent to create a newsletter or draft a job description. And students over the age of 18 can be given access to the Gemini chatbot for free when the AI assistant is enabled by an education institution’s IT admins.

Where generative AI tools are used effectively, there’s potential to significantly reduce the administrative burden on educators, he said. 

Leger also pointed to the introduction of LearnLM by Google this week, a language model grounded in education research built specifically for learning purposes.  

“This is critical because most language models in use today, while helpful for creating learning materials, aren’t necessarily trained in the same way educators are trained,” said Leger. “So, with a language model trained with educators in mind, the usefulness of these capabilities for educational purposes will only increase.”

Along with some of the potential benefits, educators that use genAI tools such as Gemini Education should be aware that while LLMs continue to improve, outputs can vary significantly, depending on how a question is asked. 

“It is really, really important to develop and refine prompt engineering skills to be able to use these tools effectively,” said Leger. “This is a skill we will always need to brush up on over time and get better at.”

Users should also be wary of potential biases and a lack of explainability around responses. To ensure safe and ethical use of the tools, customers should work with the provider to understand what goes into the model and any resulting limitations, said Leger.

Leger also advises that educators look beyond possible productivity gains as a marker of success when it comes to AI investment. 

“The real magic in AI is its ability to make education more human, not less, by giving educators time back in their day to spend interpersonal time with students,” he said. “If we make these AI investments without taking advantage of this, we will lose a big opportunity to improve student satisfaction and success.”

Editor’s note: The UK parliament this week debated a proposal to exonerate those wrongfully convicted of fraud due to flaws in a Post Office computer system, while an independent public inquiry into a cover-up of the flaws heard evidence from former Post Office CIO Lesley Sewell. Here, Marcus Jerräng, editor in chief of Computerworld Sweden, gives an outsider’s perspective on a uniquely British affair.

Say the phrase “IT scandal” and many might think about the mess around Transportstyrelsen  (the Swedish Transport Agency) or Computer Sweden’s revelation of the 1177 data leak (affecting Sweden’s emergency service number). But they both pale in comparison to what has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in Britain’s history: the Post Office sub-postmaster scandal.

The Post Office scandal goes back 25 years and can’t be easily summed up. But it began when the British postal service introduced a new IT system for 14,000 Post Office branches: Horizon, a cash register system from Fujitsu intended to automate accounting for sub-postmasters – the franchise owners that run local post offices. 

The system quickly showed missing funds for many sub-postmasters, who couldn’t explain the shortfalls and were unable to trace the errors as they could when accounting was done on paper. The result was that over 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted over the ensuing 15 years for theft and false accounting. Hundreds were sent to prison, with many more handed other punishments, while countless numbers were driven into bankruptcy and became deeply indebted. 

But it turned out that the sub-postmasters had done nothing wrong. The problem lay in the Horizon system. And, to make things worse, the Post Office had attempted to hide it all by intimidating the sub-masters into silence over the IT problems with threats of legal action. 

The problems with Horizon were revealed as far back as 2009 by tech news site Computerweekly and the story has continued to run, with, among other things, a large class action lawsuit and an ongoing government enquiry. So far, around 90 convictions have been overturned. 

In January this year, the story suddenly exploded into the political debate when the TV channel ITV broadcast the drama series “Mr Bates vs The Post Office,” which portrayed the history of the sub-postmasters who had their lives ruined by the IT scandal. The TV series sparked huge media and public pressure, which led to debate and a parliamentary inquiry, with strong measures from politicians.

In March, a new law was passed with the aim of overturning all convictions. A huge program of compensation payments is planned, where convicted sub-postmasters are each offered £600,000 ($760,000), while others that were affected in other ways — such as those who paid out of their own pockets to cover the discrepancies reported by the IT system – will also be compensated. 

According to British politicians, there could be as much as £1 billion ($1.27 billion) paid out in total.

No one has been held personally accountable for the situation, either at the Post Office or service provider Fujitsu. The Japanese IT giant saw its share price drop by hundreds of millions of dollars after the TV series premiered, and Fujitsu’s global CEO, CFO, and head of European operations have all subsequently apologized publicly.

“We were involved from the very start. We did have bugs and errors in the system. And we did help the Post Pffice in their prosecutions of the sub-postmasters. For that we are truly sorry,” Paul Patterson, Fujitsu’s Europe chief, said during a parliamentary inquiry in January, where he also indicated that the IT service provider would contribute to compensation for those affected. 

Although the saga has continued for 25 years, it isn’t over yet. The commission appointed to review the situation continues its work and is expected to present its results in the fall.

The TV services “Mr Bates vs The Post Office” had its Swedish premier on March 27. It may be worth reflecting on the power IT has over people when watching the show, not least in a time when automation and AI is playing an increasing role in important decisions and processes for both government and business. 

Because, even if IT and digitization can do a huge amount of good, bad IT systems can – literally and demonstrably so – ruin people’s lives.

Got extra smartphones sitting around your office? How about tablets? As we move multiple generations into mobile technology, more and more of us are building up collections of old, dated devices from both our work and our personal lives. And more often than not, those devices do little more than take up space and gather dust.

Here’s a little secret, though: Your abandoned Android gadgets are actually virtual gold mines. You just have to find the right way to tap into their potential and give them new life.

So grab the nearest DustBuster and get ready: Here are 25 ways to make your old phone or tablet useful again.

1. Use it as a wireless trackpad and controller for your computer

With the right software and a couple minutes of configuration, your old Android device can act as an on-demand controller for your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer.

An app called Unified Remote and a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection are all you need to make the magic happen. The free version of the app gives you basic mouse and keyboard control along with specialized remotes for media playback and power-related commands, while the full $5 version adds in program-specific remotes for presentation control along with other advanced features.

Grab whichever version you prefer and download the server-side software for your computer — then toss your old device into a desk drawer or computer bag and rest easy knowing it’ll be ready and waiting the next time you need to go wireless.

2. Turn it into a remote computer terminal

Want easy access to your home computer from the office — or vice-versa? Your old Android phone or tablet can be a splendid stationary screen for keeping a remote system at arm’s reach.

And it couldn’t be any easier to make that happen. All you need is Google’s free Chrome Remote Desktop program on both your computer and your old Android device, and your phone or tablet will effectively become a window to your desktop.

I’ve got a thorough guide to the Chrome Remote Desktop setup process, if you want step-by-step instructions — but the short version is that you’ll need to install the official Google Chrome Remote Desktop extension into Chrome on your computer, then open the Chrome Remote Desktop website and follow the prompts to set up remote access.

Snag the companion Remote Desktop Android app, get all signed in there, and that’s it: Your old Android device is now a full-fledged terminal and access point for any computer you want.

3. Make it a portable storage device

Cloud services may often be the simplest way to store and transport files nowadays, but there’s something to be said for good old-fashioned physical storage — both in terms of consistent availability regardless of connectivity and in terms of the added assurances having especially important files in your own pocket can provide.

While there’s certainly no shortage of high-quality portable thumb drives and external hard drives available, any old Android device is essentially the same thing — with the added advantage of also offering up an easy interface for interacting with anything on its local storage and optionally dropping such files into an email, a Slack chat, or any other cloud-connected spot should the need ever arise.

Just securely erase your Android device to give it a fresh start and free up as much space as possible, then plug it into your computer to transfer files from the computer to the phone or tablet.

You’ll have ample room for whatever you need to store, and you can easily carry it around or keep it somewhere safe — then connect it to another computer or rely on assorted Android business apps for managing the files, emailing them, sharing them in collaborative environments, or anything else that may come up.

4. Reposition it as an AI-powered chatbot interface

Generative AI systems are quickly becoming critical tools for company productivity, and an old Android device is the perfect vessel for creating a dedicated on-demand AI chatbot interaction station.

This one’s especially easy, too: Just install the ChatGPT Android app, the Gemini Android app, the Microsoft Copilot Android app, or any other AI tool you use — then keep it front and center on your old device’s home screen.

In the case of Gemini, you can also opt in to allowing Gemini to take over the role of your default system assistant and make it available via a Hey Google voice command.

And just like that, you’ve got a generative AI chatbot at your beck and call 24/7 without having to have it take over your current Android device and run down its battery.

5. Give yourself a separate work and personal phone

With more and more companies taking a bring-your-own-device approach for the workplace, the lines between our personal and professional lives are getting increasingly blurry.

And while Android does have some decent options for creating separate work and personal profiles — both natively, if your phone is part of an enterprise-managed arrangement, and with a little creative configuring in any other scenario — there’s an undeniable appeal in creating a formal barrier between your worlds and being able to leave your work completely behind when the opportunity arises.

So think about using your old Android device as a dedicated work or personal phone and setting it up explicitly for that purpose, then using your current Android phone exclusively for the other role. That’ll give you separate physical devices for your separate life roles — the kind of power most people only dream about seizing these days.

6. Use it as a universal smart remote

Even the junkiest old Android device has ample power to serve as a smart remote for your home or office. That can be a helpful way for you and anyone else around to control your various smart devices and multimedia components without needing any special access (or your own current personal phone in hand).

First, the easy part: Load up your old phone or tablet with all the relevant apps for your smart-device setup — things like Nest, Hue, and anything else appropriate for controlling your home or office tech.

Next, think about adding some tools that’ll let the device handle any audio and video systems in your area. There are a few ways you can make that work:

• Pair the phone or tablet with one of Google’s ultra-affordable Chromecast with Google TV dongles. You can then keep the old Android device on your desk or coffee table and use it as a hub for wirelessly casting content — everything from Netflix and YouTube to TED Talks, CNBC, and Google Slides — to your TV.
• Use your device as a dedicated remote for your home or office entertainment setup. If the device is running an Android version from 2012 or later, you can give yourself a ready-to-roll Google TV remote that’ll work with any compatible streaming products by installing and then signing into the official Google TV app. The Play Store also has a variety manufacturer-made apps for controlling specific components, including those by Comcast Xfinity, AT&T U-verse, and Roku.
• Set up a full-fledged media server using Plex, then use your old device as a dedicated remote to stream your own local content to a TV. (The Plex media server software is free; a premium subscription with added features runs $5 per month, $40 per year, or $120 for a lifetime license.)

7. Let it power scientific research

Here’s something: Your clunky old Android device could actually help scientists search for extraterrestrial life, detect earthquakes, or improve cancer treatments.

It’s all part of a series of programs that use your device’s computing power to conduct scientific research. Some of the more worthwhile options:

• Zooniverse connects your phone or tablet to a variety of research projects ranging from wild beluga whale identification to breast cancer tumor mapping.
• DreamLab is a project helmed by Vodafone that aims to uncover insight into how cancer relates to a patient’s DNA profile. That, in turn, could allow for the development of more specific and effective cancer-fighting drugs. More recently, the app has also been focused on COVID-related research as well as climate change.
• MyShake, from the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, uses your device’s sensors to detect and analyze earthquakes. If you live in an area where earthquakes occur, leaving your device plugged in and on a stable surface will provide the scientists with valuable real-time data about any seismic activity.

All of the apps work in essentially the same way: After downloading and installing (and sometimes going through a brief setup or sign-in procedure), you simply plug your device in and turn its screen off. As long as it remains connected to an active Wi-Fi network, researchers will be able to put its processing power to use.

8. Transform it into a free-standing security camera

Who needs a fancy-schmancy connected camera when you’ve got an old Android phone sitting around? With the aid of a third-party app, the camera on your dated device can let you keep an eye on your home, office, or top-secret crime lair from anywhere — and even perform advanced functions like video recording and motion detection.

Just download the free IP Webcam app or get the fully featured $5 pro version and follow its instructions. Within moments, you’ll be able to peek through your device’s lens from any compatible web browser and cackle with glorious glee.

9. Repurpose it as a dedicated camera

Smartphone cameras just keep getting better, but we’re reaching a point where even cameras from a few years back are really quite good — and the differences between them and their more current siblings are relatively subtle.

With that in mind, an old Android device can be a perfect way to have a ready-to-roll camera at your disposal for times when you might not want your primary phone to be out and about on your adventures — whether you’re worried about it getting wet or damaged or maybe just trying to disconnect from the world of work-related dings and pings for a while.

The best part about this setup that is no special preparation is even required. Just grab the old phone and go, and rest easy knowing your “real” phone is safe and sound somewhere far away from whatever you’re photographing.

10. Reframe it as a full-time videoconferencing station

Set up your old Android device with the app for your video-chatting platform of choice — Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, or whatever the case may be — then drop it into a dock on your desk or conference room table. Say “hocus pocus” for good measure, and ta-da: You’ve just created a permanent access point for virtual face-to-face communications.

Just think: With enough old phones and tablets, you can create an entire house- or office-wide videoconferencing system. Sign each device into its own unique account, with the name of the room as its username, and seeing someone across the building will never be more than a couple quick taps away.

11. Turn it into a kitchen command center

Hard to believe, but my ancient 2011 Motorola Xoom tablet was one of the most used devices in my house until it finally kicked the bucket some six years into its life. That’s because I converted it into a multipurpose command center for our kitchen — a role my 2012 Nexus 10 tablet then took over for another couple years after that.

So how to make a kitchen command center of your own? Easy: First, use a custom Android launcher like Niagara Launcher or Nova Launcher to simplify your old tablet’s home screen and add in some easy-to-perform gestures — like double-tapping anywhere on the screen to launch Android’s voice search function for on-the-fly info-gathering and other hands-free commands.

Second, populate the home screen with the right apps for the purpose. Netflix and other video-streaming services will effectively turn your old tablet into a cooking-time television. Recipe apps can also be useful, as can Android note-taking apps — like Google Keep, Microsoft OneNote, and Notion — for quick viewing of personal recipes or editing of always-synced family-shared shopping lists.

If you really want to get wild, you can even set up a smart-display-like screensaver that’ll turn your device into a customizable intelligent info center whenever you aren’t actively using it — kind of like what Google has tried (but thus far mostly failed) to accomplish with its not-so-old Pixel Tablet product.

12. Make it a data-based extension of your current phone service

If you use Google Fi (formerly known as Project Fi) for your current phone’s wireless service, take advantage of a little-known bonus feature: the ability to get an extra SIM card that’s connected to your account and able to provide data on any other device — without any superfluous fees.

All you’ve gotta do is order the card from the Google Fi website, pop it into an old phone (or a tablet, if you happen to have one with a SIM slot) — and bam: That device is instantly online and connected. You’ll pay only for whatever mobile data the device uses in any given month, at the same flat rate associated with your regular Fi plan, so it’s essentially just an extension of your primary phone.

That opens up plenty of interesting possibilities: You could use your old device as a ready-to-go backup phone in case your regular one is ever missing, broken, or low on battery; you could use it as a dedicated hotspot to beam out mobile data access without draining your primary phone’s battery; or you could use it as an always-connected on-the-go slate for your kids (hello, airport video-streaming) without having to pay for an extra line of service.

13. Make it your live window into the world

Don’t have the greatest view from your desk? Let your old Android phone or tablet be your window to wild and exciting locales.

To get started, grab the EarthCam Webcams app from the Google Play Store. It’ll give you one-touch access to an impressive list of live streaming cameras around the world, from the hustle and bustle of New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street to the swooshing serenity of Niagara Falls. Pull up any view you like, then tap the icon to go full-screen and gaze the day away. If you find yourself craving some variety, you can consider upgrading from the app’s free collection to a set of 175 live cameras for a one-time $5 fee.

You can find quite a few mobile-friendly live cameras on the web as well: Pull up your device’s browser and try out the San Diego Zoo’s assorted animal cams — including a penguin cam, koala cam, and tiger cam, among other exotic views — or the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s extensive underwater cams for even more “aww”-inducing options.

14. Convert it into a digital photo frame

Ah, memories. Snag an inexpensive stand, plug your device into its charger, and turn it into a cloud-connected photo frame for your home or office.

If you use Google Photos, just open up the app, tap on any photo in your main library or within a specific album, and then tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner of the screen. Scroll horizontally along the menu that appears and select “Slideshow.” The app will cycle through your photos and give you plenty of memories to reflect upon whilst relaxing or taking care of business.

If your old Android phone is a Pixel, you can also set it on one of Google’s official Pixel Stands to start an ever-evolving Photos-linked slideshow showing any specific albums or even specific people you want.

15. Use it as a dedicated e-reader

Want a distraction-free reading environment for your next business trip or public transit commute? Load up your old Android device with only the apps you need for reading — Google Play Books, Amazon Kindle, Nook, or whatever tickles your text-ingesting fancy.

You can even borrow books from your local library: Check with your nearest branch for information on how to do it or download the free OverDrive app, which is used by a variety of libraries, schools, and institutions.

Be sure to disable notifications from Gmail and other noisy apps — heck, even switch the device into airplane mode once you’ve downloaded the content you need — and you’ve got the equivalent of a dedicated e-reader without all the usual phone or tablet temptations.

16. Transform it into a dedicated desk calendar

Dock your old device on your desk and put it to work as your personal calendar. Google’s own Calendar app can get the job done with plenty of productivity-oriented elements, or the free DigiCal Calendar Agenda app will give you an even more graphical and customizable interface that’s perfectly suited for this purpose.

DigiCal is free with an optional $5.50 upgrade for extra themes and customization options.

17. Treat yourself to a dedicated audio player

The idea of an iPod may seem amusingly antiquated at this point, but there’s something to the idea of having a dedicated device for the specific purpose of playing podcasts, music, or even just some manner of white noise.

By outsourcing that task to an old Android device, you can grant yourself the freedom to leave your current phone behind when you’re working out, doing something outside, or even just taking a break from business on the weekend — and eliminate the temptation to keep checking your inbox or looking at other work-related distractions.

You can also give yourself a great way to listen to audio while traveling without having to wear down your primary device battery during a long day of flights.

18. Make it a mounted command center for a non-connected car

Save yourself the hassle of futzing around with your current phone in your car by turning your old device into an always-available command center for a car that doesn’t have its own built-in equivalent.

Just find a decent car dock and mount the device somewhere safe. Be sure to plug it into your car’s power port and connect it to the stereo (via Bluetooth or a 3.5mm headphone jack). Then, either use your primary phone as a hotspot to keep it online or go the economical route and download any necessary music and directions before you hit the road, while you’re still connected to Wi-Fi.

All that’s left is to open up the Google Maps app and start a navigation — or say Hey Google, driving mode, if the device is recent enough to feature Google Assistant — and you’ll be moving full-speed ahead with a simplified interface and ready-to-roll voice commands.

19. Turn it into a kid-friendly learning tool

Your old tablet may seem tired to you, but it’s still top-notch tech by toddler standards — so why not turn it into a fun and educational gadget for your kid?

On most reasonably recent tablets, you can find a native Restricted Profile feature right within the operating system: Just head into the system settings, tap “Users” (or “Users & accounts” and then “Users,” depending on your OS version), and then “Add user or profile.”

Select the option to add a restricted profile. You’ll be prompted to enable or disable access to each app installed on the tablet, allowing you to control exactly what processes your progeny will and won’t be able to use.

If your old device has Android 7.0 or higher (or Android 5.0, on a limited number of models), Google’s Family Link program can give you even more robust controls — including the abilities to set screen-time limits and receive weekly activity reports. You can learn more and sign up at the Family Link website.

20. Let it serve as a high-tech e-clock

Time for something new? An old phone with a dock can make a snazzy customizable clock for your desk or nightstand. Google’s own Clock app is a great place to start, especially if you want to use the clock for alarms. Look for the “Screensaver” option in the Display section of your system settings to make it automatically activate anytime your device is plugged in.

21. Convert it into a gaming device for your downtime

Put down the briefcase and summon your inner Pac-Man: Silly as it may seem, your old Android device is a mini-arcade just waiting to be called into action. (Hey, we all need the occasional break from working, right?)

To complete your device’s Game-Boy-like transformation, just surf the Play Store for some games — you can even find emulators for console-level systems, if (ahem) you know where to look — and then level up by grabbing one of Moga’s universal Android game controllers, available for $56 and up.

22. Keep it handy for emergencies

Any cell phone can make emergency calls, even if it’s not connected to active service. Keep an old phone charged and in your car or travel bag; if something bad happens and your active phone is either dead or unavailable, you’ll still have a way to get through to 911.

23. Turn it into your personal testing ground

Android is a tinkerer’s dream. It typically doesn’t take too much sorcery to root, or gain system-level access to, an Android device — and once you’ve done that, you open up a whole new world of possibilities. You can install powerful root-only applications and even replace your device’s entire operating system with a custom ROM full of fresh features and advanced customization potential.

Anytime you start poking around under the hood, though, you risk screwing something up. And when the device in question is your primary phone or tablet, that can be a daunting gamble to take (especially since rooting a device usually violates its warranty).

That’s where an old phone or tablet can come into play. Put on your hacker’s hat and do a Google search for “root [your device name]” and then “[your device name] ROM.” There’s a huge community of Android enthusiasts out there, and you’ll almost certainly find some helpful user-generated guides to get yourself started.

24. Sell it

This one’s easy, right? After all, what’s old to you is new to someone else. You can go the regular route and list your device on Craigslist or eBay — or you can check in with a more niche service like Swappa or Gazelle to get an instant estimated price for your device. Amazon and Best Buy also both offer buyback programs that may be worth investigating.

Whatever you do, make sure you head into your device’s system settings and perform a full factory reset before passing anything along. You’ll probably also want to remove any memory cards you might have added, if your old phone or tablet has an external storage slot.

25. Donate it

Feeling philanthropic? Rest assured: There’s no shortage of organizations ready to put your old Android device in the hands of someone who could really use it.

A few possibilities worth considering:

• Medic Mobile: This nonprofit organization recycles old phones and tablets and then uses the proceeds to purchase new phones for health workers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The workers use those phones for things like tracking disease outbreaks and communicating in emergencies. You can print a prepaid shipping label on the Medic Mobile website.
• Cell Phones For Soldiers: This nonprofit sends old phones along with free international calling service to troops serving overseas from all branches of the U.S. military. You can donate a device by finding a local drop-off point or requesting a mailing label.
• Rainforest Connection: This nonprofit utilizes old phones to protect threatened rainforests in Indonesia, Africa, and the Amazon. How? The devices are fitted with solar panels for energy as well as specialized software that uses their microphones to monitor for the sound of illegal chainsawing and then alert nearby rangers to the activity (yes, really!). You can donate a device by mailing it to the organization’s California headquarters.

So there you have it: 25 intriguing options for giving new life to your old device. Figure out which one best suits you — and send those gadget-dwelling dust bunnies packing.

This story was originally published in August 2014 and most recently updated in May 2023.

“Over recent years, the way employees work has undergone significant change, influenced by the adoption of new mobile technologies and the increase of hybrid working practices,” Adam Holtby, principal analyst with Omdia, said in a recent report that looked at the growing market for Apple device management in the enterprise.

What’s interesting about the report is that it draws new connections between the various elements that make up enterprise tech. It recognizes the need to bring security, device management, cloud services, and digital experience design together to create robust digital workspaces.

They are not different things, but part of one thing.

Joined up thinking for the future of work

That’s smart, because it is inevitable that in many cases workspaces will become decentralized, data-driven, augmented, multi-platform and highly distributed. For best results, these spaces will be focused on digital community as well as productivity, and workspace management will reflect lots of things.

Unsurprisingly, the report cites the biggest Apple-focused integrator, Jamf as the leader for organizations hoping to empower their workforce with Apple technology. I wanted to learn more about the changing workspace, so I spoke with Michael Covington, vice president for product strategy at Jamf.

“It’s not about security or endpoint management,” Covington explained. “It’s about what real life situations you’re trying to enable.”

In his view, enterprises should see workspace management as an enabling solution. “If you can deliver better outcomes to employees, hopefully those outcomes are about productivity, better customer service, improved collaboration,” he said. 

The importance of employee experience

There are challenges. Accepting the new workspace requires cultural change, investment, and research to get things right. Covid also taught many employers that classic hierarchical approaches to change management cannot work without good communication across cadres — and it’s essential that whatever technology is thrown at a problem is actually used by employees, rather than ignored.

“By utilizing digital workspace management platforms, especially ones that are built for modern technology, businesses can effectively address these challenges and support their employees in this new era of work,” Omdia said in its report.

Fundamentally, in the new workspace the employee experience is a digital employee experience (DEX), and it’s super-important. 

Consider this: When your employees can work anywhere, anytime, and from any place, then the DEX that your company delivers to them becomes the most tangible experience they have of working with you. Give them DEX they like, and they’ll achieve more and stick with you; give them solutions they hate, and they achieve less and leave.

The trend toward mobile business has all been good for Apple, of course. Enterprise deployments of its solutions are accelerating worldwide, reflecting employee choice and growing understanding that over the usable life of these devices, businesses can save hundreds of dollars in repair and tech support costs compared to other systems.

When it comes to TCO, Apple leads the industry.

The AI tidal wave is coming, are you ready?

There is risk. To maintain momentum, Apple will need to make good on growing expectations about what it can achieve with generative AI (genAI) at WWDC. Apple is expected to deliver at least some valuable features on the device itself as its primary USP.

Business users also need to navigate this new aspect of accelerating digital transformation. We know it happens already. Microsoft and LinkedIn recently claimed there’s tension between AI adoption and job security. While 75% of workers use AI tools, over half hesitate to admit it, and business leaders are now seeking employees equipped with these skills.

Covington confessed to being both curious and cautious when it comes to genAI. Jamf is already deploying the technology in some areas of its business — particularly to support admins. But he urged a slow and deliberate deployment pace. 

“I think we must be very mindful about these technologies and what they can achieve,” he said. That means working with genAI in carefully chosen areas to help build internal experience and identify potential pitfalls.

“I think these things are amazing technologies, but I think we need to embrace them quickly, but slowly,” he said.

Solving the brain drain

That may be true. But are there enough people with sufficient skill to help every business optimize itself for the new workspace?  After all, many of the hugely transformative digital forces impacting business (from BYOD to remote work to genAI) have happened too swiftly for a large cohort of experienced change management leaders to emerge. That makes for a brain drain in experience.

“I think it’s absolutely fair to say [that],” said Covington, who pointed out that the accelerating consolidation of the different tech elements of successful digital transformation makes the lack of available skills more complex to navigate. 

“Think about, again, not just device management, but application lifecycle management, security, patch management, connectivity, all those things kind of coming together to, I think, be orchestrated in a way that the outcomes are optimized. You need tools that bring these things together in an easier way so that you don’t have to bring a subject matter expert from each of those different kind of domain areas together just to turn the thing on. And then you also need tools that help an individual or a small team cope with the day-to-day management of oversight of a deployment.

“It’s not just about getting things deployed and people enabled as though it’s a one-time thing,” he said. “This is a never-ending thing that we need to focus on.”

That’s the crux of things. As every business becomes a data business and as DEX becomes as significant a consideration as any other element of the enterprise technology stack, business users are turning to Managed Service Providers to help them bolt all the elements into place.

Mobile is still growing

But even then there’s a big blind spot: mobile. When genAI runs on mobile devices, will PCs even matter any more? Can an AI-augmented iPad really replace the computer? We know Apple thinks in a growing number of cases it can.

It’s strange that even since the iPhone and the BYOD boom, and even since the pandemic during which so many businesses came to rely on mobile, when it comes to treating mobile devices as peer players in the business stack some enterprises fail to manage them correctly.

“We are absolutely seeing broad embrace of iPads and Apple mobile technologies across the board,” said Covington. Retail, healthcare, and field services clients are all using the devices. 

“I’ve seen so many amazing use cases for mobile technologies in the field from people that might be contracted to go and repair a certain appliance that they have no expertise in,” he adds. “They’re using that mobile device to not just get schematics, but to actually communicate with people that might have more expertise on the repair that’s needed and that they can actually get in and be very efficient with their time in the field to make repairs.”

Despite this use, lots of businesses haven’t quite connected the dots to recognize that all devices in their fleet need to be properly protected. Some still see Macs and PCs as the primary tools knowledge workers use, and neglect that mobile devices are also now part of the mix. They might understand the need to secure the computers, but not yet see the need to protect the companion devices.

“No one’s put the spotlight on that, but I think the mobile workers, hybrid workers, the frontline workers that use mobile exclusively as their compute device, these are the ones needing the most assistance to achieve better productivity outcomes than they’ve been given in the past,” he said. 

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Unless you’ve been camping out under a mossy tech news rock all week, you’ve probably heard plenty of news connected to Google’s annual Google I/O gala by now.

And my goodness, has there been a glut of it! Google gave us our closest look yet at the upcoming Android 15 update and the freshest features in its latest beta build, and it announced approximately 7.4 gazillion things related to Gemini and the company’s commitment to inserting Much AI Magic™ anywhere and everywhere imaginable.

That’s all well and good. But the most intriguing news of all this week is something El Googathor didn’t so much as mention from the stage or any Google I/O sessions. It seems to be a somewhat secret development, in fact, that’s mostly being discussed behind closed doors and with copious amounts of cackling.*

But it may well be the biggest, most interesting news to break cover in the Android arena all week — maybe even all year. And if it ever ends up moving past the point of demonstration and into an active launch status, it could completely change the way we think about Google’s platforms and what an “Android device” represents — even more, I’d contend, than any amount of AI could possibly ever accomplish.

* The cackling part is entirely my own creation. But, c’mon: It makes the visual *way* more dramatic, doesn’t it?!

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Google’s Android-ChromeOS connection dissection

So, to set the stage for this I/O-overshadowing twist: Google, as you likely know by now, maintains two separate but increasingly connected computing platforms with Android and ChromeOS.

And while Android has traditionally been designed for on-the-go phones and tablets, ChromeOS has always been all about computers and a more active-input, typing-oriented experience.

To be sure, those lines have blurred considerably over the years. These days, you can buy Chromebooks that double as keyboard-free touch tablets and even pure ChromeOS tablets with no physical QWERTY keys anywhere to be found — and all of those devices are able to run Android apps natively. After a brief period of putting Android tablets on the backburner, meanwhile, Google’s been going hard on Android tablet development for a while now and even actively working on an Android desktop mode for devices that are connected to a larger monitor.

It’s a confusing array of overlapping options and ambiguous divisions that’s difficult to wrap your head around. But — well, y’know. That’s Google for ya.

And now, the company has come up with a way to add yet another wrinkle into that equation — one that’d complicate things and muddy the waters even further but also bring Android and ChromeOS together in a groundbreaking new way.

I won’t keep you waiting: The possibility, as reported and then demoed by Android Authority, is a secondary desktop mode of sorts for Android that would allow you to plug a phone into a monitor or docking station and effectively turn it into a functioning Chromebook, right in front of your eyes.

Your Android phone would run ChromeOS, in other words, and be capable of becoming a productivity-ready computer when hooked up to the right hardware.

Allow me to express the appropriate reaction on behalf of all of us here: Whooooaaaaaaaaaa.

That, to put it mildly, would be a massive move. It’d bring a genuine purpose to an Android desktop mode that’d make it useful and sensible in a way the current concepts have never managed to achieve, outside of some extremely small niche-level scenarios — going all the way back to the early Moto-made “Lapdock” systems of yesteryear and continuing into the more contemporary options available on Android today.

Now, before you get too excited, Google has since gone on the record as saying that the system was only a tech demo and a proof of concept for the underlying virtualization technology introduced in Android 15. But the company’s Android ecosystem president also noted that “a lot of things in Google start like this.” And, if I may be so bold: Google would be well-advised to see this as more than just a mere experiment.

In fact, it’s a possibility certain Android- and ChromeOS-focused philosophers have calling on the company to consider for ages. To quote an analysis a lowly scribe who shall remain nameless penned in 2016, when rumors of Google somehow combining Android and ChromeOS into a single connected entity were gaining steam for the 7,000th time:

What if [this] were essentially just a way to give Android devices a “desktop mode” — a ChromeOS-like environment that appears when, say, a physical keyboard is present, with a more traditional Android interface remaining in place for touch-centric use? A ChromeOS-like environment wouldn’t be ideal as a core part of the regular touch-centric Android experience, after all, but it sure could be valuable as an option for scenarios involving more productivity-oriented and laptop-like use.

And what if this best-of-both-worlds, dual-purpose mentality applies not only to convertible systems but also to phones? Maybe even phones like, ahem, the new Pixel devices Google is expected to announce next week — you know, at the same event where all this [Android-ChromeOS merger] business is rumored to make its grand debut?

One could imagine that happening by way of a special dock-like accessory and/or via a less proprietary method of connection — say, a Bluetooth keyboard along with a Chromecast to beam the desktop to a display. (Of note, a new higher-end 4K-capable Chromecast is rumored to be on the docket for next week’s event.)

Such a setup could effectively turn any compatible Android device into a versatile all-purpose computer that packs the strengths of Google’s two platforms into a single superpowered package — kind of like what Microsoft is doing with Windows 10’s Continuum concept, only with the world’s most popular mobile operating system and all of its apps involved.

It’d be pretty darn monumental. And it could conceivably allow each platform to continue to exist independently as well as within the new combined form (something that’s particularly significant when you consider the strong demand for both inexpensive lower-end phones and cost-effective standalone Chromebooks).

And here we are.

ChromeOS and Android together: Some pertinent perspective

Again, let’s be clear: The Android-phone-as-a-Chromebook concept is still far from being anything more than a behind-the-scenes demo. But be that as it may, Goog almighty: A possibility like this sure is something to think about, isn’t it? It’d be a clever and uniquely-Googley way to create new utility in our existing devices and bundle the strengths of two complementary platforms — Android and ChromeOS — into a single versatile package.

Consider the breakdown of how Google itself sees the dividing line between Android devices and ChromeOS devices, in their current configurations. As a ChromeOS executive explained it to me in 2022:

In short, Android tablets are intended for “productive mobility,” as [Google Senior Director of Product Management Alexander] Kuscher describes it — with content consumption being the top priority and a bit of more complex productivity being an occasional add-on.

Chromebook tablets, on the other hand, are the exact opposite: They’re intended for “mobile productivity,” with the active work being the primary purpose and the more passive consumption being a pleasant side perk.

Ideally, with all the devices feeling consistent and connected, the purchasing decisions will be mostly about what specific product feels right for what purpose, all overlap aside — and once said product is in hand, its owner won’t even think much about what platform or operating system is involved.

And one more excerpt that suddenly feels freshly pertinent:

“What’s underneath doesn’t really matter to the user. You could have 10 different operating systems, one for each form factor, if you wanted that. The important piece is what you present to the user.”

That, Kuscher says, is why Android and ChromeOS have continued to grow more consistent and connected over the years. In Google’s view, the operating system is less important than the experience — and increasingly, it’s working to present experiences that are so similar that they feel more like different branches of the same tree than completely separate forests.

Hmmmmmm. Veddy eeeenteresting in the context of our current conversation, wouldn’t ya say?

Now, to play devil’s advocate for a moment: I still have my doubts about how often most people would actually use an option like this. I mean, really: How frequently are you in a position where you have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse available but not a full-fledged computer? That’s a huge part of what limits the usefulness of current desktop mode concepts on Android, in addition to their less-than-optimal desktop environments and clunky user experiences.

But the presence of ChromeOS would at least address the latter part of that limitation. ChromeOS is extremely capable as a desktop operating system these days, and its everything-connected-to-the-cloud philosophy would actually be a brilliant match for this setup — where plugging in, powering up, and having all your stuff right in front of you from wherever you were working last would be a major asset for on-the-go productivity.

As for the hardware piece of the puzzle, a simple docking accessory to accompany this effort — say, an easily portable laptop shell that a phone plugs into — could theoretically make that less of an issue. Particularly if this ended up being something Google were to launch as a Pixel-specific feature, selling such an item would make an awful lot of sense on multiple levels.

It’s too soon to say what, if anything, could ultimately come of this. But on a week when we’re thinking about the future and hearing about Google’s plans for pushing its platforms and products forward, it’s hard not to see this as the most promising and potentially shape-shifting possibility of all.

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