Technology

This is a big update to the Windows platform for the Microsoft March Patch Tuesday release cycle. Consisting of 115 patches, mostly to the Windows desktop, with almost all of the critical issues relating to browser-based scripting engine memory issues, this will be a difficult set of updates to release and manage.

The testing profile for the Windows desktop platform is very large, with a lower than usual exploitability/risk rating. For this month, we do not have any reports of publicly exploited or disclosed vulnerabilities (zero-days), so my recommendation is to take your time, test the changes to each platform, create a staged rollout plan and wait for future (potentially) imminent changes from Microsoft.

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Apple had big plans for 2020.

The year began with a major Mac and iPhone introduction in the spring, sped forward with a little more Mac and further revelations around AirPods and services, with a major iPhone upgrade and introduction of an all-new ARM-powered Mac product at the end of the year.

Next year was going to be even bigger.

Not business as usual

Everyone on our planet now knows that business is not going on as usual and won&t be for a while.

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With all due respect to the physical abode around me, I practically live inside Google's Chrome browser. Chrome is where I spend most of my days, during the week, at least — keeping up with all the latest tech info, using web-based apps like Trello, Docs, and Gmail, and watching the occasional video over on the Ye Ol' YouTubes (always strictly work-related, of course).

At this point, I've got Chrome set up just the way I like it — with all sorts of custom shortcuts, crafty settings, and a carefully refined set of environment-enhancing extensions. The browser serves as a bridge between my various devices, both computers and phones, and makes it easy as can be for me to send text and links between 'em and find anything I've opened anywhere, anytime.

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After Microsoft gave all customers control over when they upgrade Windows 10, the majority of users decided they didn't need a twice-annual refresh, data shows.

According to metrics vendor AdDuplex, once Microsoft let users of Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro determine the cadence of OS upgrades, each upgrade's increase siphoned more users from the version of 12 months before than it did from the upgrade's immediate predecessor.

For example, Windows 10 version 1903 climbed from 11.4% of all versions in July 2019 to 33% in August. Of the 21.6-percentage point increase, 20.6 points — representing 95% of the total — came at the expense of Windows 10 1803, the feature upgrade issued a year earlier. Just 1 percentage point, or about 5%, of the declines that fueled the increase of Windows 10 1903 originated with Windows 10 1809.

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Work management tools such as AtlassianJira make it easier to track the progress of projects but can lead to repetitive and time-consuming work for teams that are constantly creating and moving task cards.

To reduce some of this manual work, Atlassian has added &no-code& workflow automation capabilities natively across its Jira Cloud portfolio, which includes Jira Software, Jira Service Desk and Jira Core.

Users can set up their own automation rules in seconds via an in intuitive ‘if this, then that& drag-and-drop interface, Atlassian claims — an approach the Australian software vendor hopes will further broaden the appeal of Jira beyond its developer base to business and service teams.

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May is traditionally a month of big developer conferences, with Facebook F8, Google I/O and Microsoft Build often happening within the same two-week period. But not this year. After F8 and I/O were already canceled in favor of online events, Microsoft is now unsurprisingly following suit, too, and canceling the in-person element of Build, which was scheduled to run from May 19 to 21, citing concerns over the current coronavirus outbreak.

&The safety of our community is a top priority. In light of the health safety recommendations for Washington State, we will deliver our annual Microsoft Build event for developers as a digital event, in lieu of an in-person event,& the company said in a statement to The Verge. &We look forward to bringing together our ecosystem of developers in this new virtual format to learn, connect and code together. Stay tuned for more details to come.&

The announcement doesn&t exactly come as a surprise. Indeed, it was really only a question of when Microsoft would make the call and the real surprise was how long it took Microsoft to make this call, especially given how hard Washington state has been hit by the coronavirus outbreak. Currently, a number of Washington state counties have banned events with more than 250 people. That ban was set to expire before Build.

Itworth noting that Microsoft hasn&t actually updated the Build homepage yet and you can still buy a ticket. If I were you, I wouldn&t do that, though. You&ll get a refund, but itnot worth the hassle.