TOP STORIES #28

The news this week was dominated by the Apple launch of iPhone 15 - which is proving to be quite a significant upgrade. You can read about everything that happened with Apples event here.

The big news on the hardware front is that Thunderbolt 5 standard has been announced - see below.

Hardware

Intel's most expensive CPU

Coming in at $12 980 this CPU (XEON Max 9480) performs 3.7 times better than the 4th generation scalable XEON CPU's. It can even run Starfield on the CPU without external memory for 7 players! Read more here.

There is an interesting YouTube video about it here.

Thunderbolt 5 Released

This is a huge leap in performance over TB4 that is becoming standard in new notebooks that you buy today.

As soon as next year, with the release of Meteor Lake, you will see TB5 in computers which will give you up to TRIPLE increase in data transfer rates, AND support DP 2.1.

This interface standard is so fast it will allow you to connect external gaming GPU's to your notebook, rather than having to pay a fortune for capped-performance mobile GPU's embedded into the notebook. All AI capability you need for work will be handled by the new VPU inside the Intel CPU. TB4 will remain the standard for a few more years. Here is a really good article that takes you through all the details of the TB5 standard.

Microsoft

Outlook is Dead, Long Live Outlook

Microsoft has now announced that the Outlook we have grown used to for over 20 years, is going to be replaced with the new Outlook - actually, you can switch on a preview version of the New Outlook by switching on "Try the new Outlook" button at the top right of your Outlook app. (DON'T do it - read this first - look for the section "Support for key Outlook features

It is still early days, and the new Outlook cannot yet support PST's, but the new Outlook bring a big change, even when it is expected to replace the old version in about 2 years' time, which Microsoft call's "cutover" - to quote:

"But at some point, we will decide that we think that the new outlook is good enough for all users and we will interface, called "cutover." And this is where classic Outlook or universal mail and calendar are no longer supported. And so, users will have to move to the new Outlook."

COM add-ins will no longer work!

There are good reasons for Microsoft ending support of COM add-ins as they are famous for causing instability problems in Outlook, but they were a way for developers to customise Outlook to integrate with custom apps and processes in companies. Further, there are thousands of tools that use a COM add-in to work, and you may be shocked to discover just how many are running in your environment.

To read more about this announcement, read here.

First Digital, the development Division of First Technology Group. has put together a blog post on what you need to start thinking about in terms of finding COM add-ins, their importance in your business and what to do next, and how First Digital can help with this.

Remember, a COM add-in is the tip of the iceberg - you have to find what is hidden behind the add-in. Read more published in the blog here (it's really interesting - tells the history of COM add-ins and how they became embedded in the email ecosystem of Microsoft), and how to get in touch with at FD to start finding those add-ins and work on a modernisation plan.

Snipping Tool gets an upgrade

This tool has proven to the one of the more popular tools bundled with the operating system, and it is getting upgraded to OCR what you are snipping. Read more about it's new features here. The photos app has also been updated see here.

Oracle and Microsoft working together?

In a surprise turn of events, Oracle databases will also be running in Azure. Read more here.

D-Day is approaching for Windows Server 2012

Support is ending on 10 October 2023. Of course, if you move the workloads to Azure you get three years of security updates for free, but of course there are other costs.

Cloud & AI

Adobe launches FIrefly

Adobe has now launched the integration of AI across all it's cloud applications. This is a big milestone for Adobe. If you are a creative interested in what Adobe is doing, read more here. Of course, you can expect the price to go up, read more about that here.

Microsoft CoPilot vs. Google DUET.

It is early days, but is interesting to read an opinion on which is better.

In my opinion, it is hard to compare - if you are committed to Microsoft as a strategy, G-suite with DUET is not really an option, and similarly, if you are committed to Google, CoPilot is not an option.

Both are trying to do the same thing as an AI assistant, time will tell which one is better, but I think we will just be calling them "different" for now. It's very early days.

Security

Beware of Teams Phishing campaign

This is a very sophisticated campaign, take note, and read about it here. It is reminder that we can never be too careful.

What's New at FTG

Microsoft Mastery Day - last chance

BUI in partnership with Torque IT and The CRM Team is excited to extend a warm invitation to you for a remarkable event that promises to redefine your IT journey. We proudly present Microsoft Mastery Day "Empower IT: Navigating the Microsoft Universe - Cyber Security, AI, Copilot, Power BI & Beyond", an immersive day of exploration and learning.

Spending the day with some of the top experts in the country is highly recommended if you want to get a good picture of how the sometimes confusing worlds of Microsoft Security, CoPilot and Power BI integrate.

When

19 Sept. '23, Time: 8:00am - 3:00pm,

Where

Torque IT Western Services Road, Gallo Manor. Register Here, Programme Here

Movies

Now Playing: A Haunting in Venice

Now Playing: Talk to Me

Now Playing: First Slam Dunk

Now Playing: Headspace

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