TOP STORIES #84
Again, we have had a busy week. Elon Musk dominated the news with his driverless (and hopefully not clueless) cyber cab, and news just in is that Spacex has successfully caught (recovered) the Super Heavy booster after Sunday's Starship launch. Amazing!!
Also, the Nobel Prize in Physics went to the Godfather of AI, and the Nobel prize in Chemistry had a lot of help from Google DeepMind, and Intel is slowly edging towards its Arrow Lake launch.
Last week's TOP STORIES #83 can be found here.
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Did you Know?
First Technology has a division called First Impact, an advanced Content Creation and Digital Events company that has been operating for five years!
For those who know me, you’ll understand my passion for cinema and movie production, which is why I'm especially excited about this division. They are deeply embedded in the content creation space, with a focus on AI-driven solutions, leveraging our advanced certifications from across the broader First Technology Group.
Unlike most PR and media companies, First Impact has an edge—access to First Technology Group’s unparalleled engineering expertise, with the most certified IT professionals employed in Africa. This gives them the resources to take content creation to an entirely new level.
What they’re doing with deep fakes, AI-generated avatars, and advanced video production is amazing.
Their ability to craft engaging, customised experiences—whether for immersive events or dynamic webinars—is truly impressive.
Are you curious to see this in action? Reach out to your First Technology account manager, and they’ll put you in touch with the First Impact Team. They recently created a deep fake of an executive for a South African company delivering a live presentation—it’s really impressive to witness firsthand!
First Impact’s specialised division, Impact Gifts, redefines SWAG by creating unforgettable, high-impact branded experiences that elevate corporate gifting to new heights—check out their website to see how.
Hardware
More powerful Core Ultra Notebook CPU's launch start of 2025
Intel has managed to confuse things even more. New Arrow Lake Core Ultra CPUs with powerful GPU performance will be released, but they will have an NPU that performs way below the minimum requirement to run CoPilot+ features. I think the rulebook is going to change again in early 2025, so unless you really really need a new notebook NOW, waiting for all this to settle down might be a good plan.
Of course, Snapdragon-based machines are already fully CoPilot+ compliant so still worth considering. Do not forget that they cannot run many x86-based applications, but they might still be good machines for corporate use.
Please contact your First Technology account manager to connect you with our hardware specialists to help you navigate the challenges of users asking for these new fancy CoPilot+ computers. See more below.
Microsoft
Dynamics Licensing Guide Updated October 2024
This guide has been updated to reflect the price increases in effect from 1 October which range between around 10% to almost 17%. The announcement about the price increases can be found here. The complete table of all the increases is listed here.
You can get the October Guide here.
Please Contact your First Technology Account manager to connect you with our Dynamics specialists to help review if you are impacted by this increase or will be impacted by this when your agreement comes up for renewal in the future and to see what can be done to mitigate these increases.
Will CoPilot on Windows 11 persuade you to change?
Directions on Microsoft has published a detailed discussion on what you will actually get in Win11 24H2, and how Microsoft has dialled back what CoPilot can do for you (including now being able to use the CoPilot key for non-AI functions).
There is also detail about Win11 Enterprise, Education and LTSC editions for special deployments.
Of course, Microsoft is also trying to persuade you that you need new hardware to get access to all this AI "coolness," but don't expect to actually benefit from all this until early next year.
Of course, Snapdragon-based machines are ahead of AMD and Intel and possibly worth considering. You will only be able to start testing Recall on the latest AMD and Intel Core Ultra CPU's via the insider program from November.
I still think one of the really useful features will be the natural language updates to Windows Search, but will need an NPU (latest CPU) to work.
You will undoubtedly receive a lot more requests for new notebooks, so I recommend reaching out to your First Technology account manager to connect you with our hardware specialists. This will help ensure you are in a good position to answer these requests for new hardware, which will be tough (and expensive) to obtain for the next few months.
Windows 11 24H2 Cleanup not deleting temp files
It looks like Microsoft has changed to "checkpoint updates", which means future updates are smaller, but the downside is that you lose about 8 gigs of storage to the Operating system. Hopefully, Microsoft is going to explain what this change means and clarify if it is a bug or.... not. You can read more about this 8 Gig issue here,
For me, this confirms that you should not be in too much of a hurry to get this 24H2 update until the dust settles, which could take months!
If you are finding yourself updating to Win11 24H2 - BE PATIENT - read here about how long the update can take. Expect it to take around 2 hours.
Rolling out Win11 24H2 is going to be a necessity for most companies by mid-2025 at the latest. Starting to plan and test now is a good idea so that when you get to February 2025, hopefully, you (and Microsoft) have most issues resolved.
Please talk to your First Technology account manager to connect you with our engineers certified in helping with these deployments to start talking about planning this massive upgrade which is sure to include a hardware refresh or upgrade in some form as well.
Security
File Hosting services used in email attacks
Microsoft has warned of an attack that uses legitimate file hosting services to deliver files in a read-only state to a specific recipient who is asked to verify their identity to access the file, which allows redirection to another link to view the contents so getting your password and 2FA token. These attacks are becoming really sophisticated, and you need to constantly be alert to anything that may be suspicious - use common sense to help you stay alert.
It is more important than ever before to be constantly alert and to be taught what to look out for. Please contact your First Technology account manager to find our what training courses are available for your users to help keep them ahead of the bad guys - who keep getting more and more clever.
Cloud & AI
Exploring your Future You
Imagine being able to use an AI using as much information about you that you can give it (and that is becoming a lot) to see what you could look like many years into the future, not just how you look but what you could do and the decisions and choices you made to get to that future point. What if you can play with the data to see how that could change your outcomes?
Well, MIT have a project called "Future You" to see what these types of futures could look like. Imagine as a kid in school being able to play a game with an AI that knows everything about you (because it is embedded in your phone) to see what possible futures could lie ahead for you based on the types of choices you make today. You can read more about this project here.
What's up at FTG
Huawei Cloud Summit
First Technology and Huawei invite you to the 2024 Cloud Summit, which will be held at the Gallagher Convention Centre.
When: 24 October
Where: Online - Register here
CoPilot Security Demo
BUI, FTG's security division, is able to present CoPilot for Security information-sharing sessions, workshops and demos. Please contact your First Tech Group account manager to make arrangements to attend, or you can request a session here.
What does a World Class SoC look like and how does it work?
You are invited to book a tour of one of our SoC (Security Operations Center) nodes (and there are still parts we can't show you). You can book for the tour here.
BUI blog - 3rd Video Available
FTG's Azure and security division, BUI, has launched a blog focused on Security—what's new, what changed, and what you need to do to maintain a good security posture. This one, however, is about a game that Dirk learnt about while attending Black Hat in Vegas.
All BUI videos have been moved to one YouTube channel, which you can find here.
The Security Blog Video #003 is now available to view here.
This video introduces you to KC7 - a Cyberdetective game!:
Movies
If you look at the releases for this week, you can see everybody is back at School and and work!
Take a look at White Bird - looks interesting
Now Playing: My Hero Academia: You're Next
Now Playing: Homecoming
Now Playing: Silent hour
18 October: Smile 2
18 October: White Bird: A Wonder Story
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