Pollinger’s Productivity : Oct 2024

TikTok Launches Handy Holiday and Shop Guides TikTok has released a new guide to holiday marketing, aimed at the European market. The 18-page guide is packed with tips, insights, and data points to help shape your strategy for the season. You can access the pdf guide here. Additionally, TikTok has launched a Shop Guide for…

Read More

Apple’s UK Roadside Breakdown Assistance

Apple is set to extend its satellite messaging service, introducing a Roadside Assistance feature in the UK through a partnership with Green Flag. This new service, launching with the iPhone 16, will enable drivers to get help in areas with poor or no cellular coverage, using satellite connectivity.   Previously available only in the US, the…

Read More

Meta’s Smarter Specs

Following Mark Zuckerberg’s recent announcement of new AI features for the company’s (Ray-Ban) Meta glasses, we look at where we’re at and where things are heading with Meta’s VR/AR glasses.  What VR/AR Glasses?  Meta’s VR/AR glasses are part of the company’s push into the immersive world of virtual and augmented reality, which it envisions as…

Read More

WordPress At War !

Following a (very public) recent spat between WordPress founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, and WP Engine, we look at what’s happened and why, and what the effects have been WordPress users.  WordPress and WP Engine  To better understand the story, it may be a good idea to first look at the two sides in…

Read More

Sending WhatsApp Messages To Other Messaging Apps

In response to changes in the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (which came into force in March), WhatsApp users will soon be able to send messages from WhatsApp to people using other messaging apps, e.g. Messenger, Telegram, and Signal.  What Change In The Digital Marketing Act?  Meta-owned WhatsApp is making this major change because the…

Read More

Microsoft Re-Launching Controversial ‘Recall’ Feature

Following Microsoft having to postpone the release of its ‘Recall’ screenshot feature in May over privacy concerns, it now plans to re-launch an updated version in November on its new CoPilot+ computers.  Recall – What Happened?  At its Microsoft Build 2024 developer conference back in May, Microsoft announced that it planned to introduce the ‘Recall’ AI-powered feature…

Read More

New macOS Update Disrupts Popular Cybersecurity Tools

Following its recent release, Apple’s latest macOS update, dubbed Sequoia (macOS 15), has disrupted the functionality of several widely used cybersecurity tools, including those from CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, and Microsoft.  Users and developers have voiced frustrations on social media and in Mac-focused forums about issues leaving many security applications non-operational. Reports highlight problems with tools like…

Read More

Human Right Abuses Linked To Lithium Batteries

New research compiled from AI-powered supply chain risk platform Infyos has revealed that 75 per cent of the lithium-ion battery supply chain may be linked to severe human rights abuses.  Human Rights Abuses – Forced (and Child) Labour  Infyos’s analysis, which drew on government datasets, NGO reports, news articles, social media, and proprietary data, has…

Read More

AI Drone Swarm … Military Tests Successful 

Munich-based Quantum Systems (a Small Unmanned Aerial Systems – ‘sUAS’ – company), has announced a successful test of AI-powered ‘drone swarm’ technology which could advance the role drones play in warfare.  What Is A ‘Drone Swarm’?  In short, Drone swarm technology involves coordinating multiple drones to operate as a unified system and it can be…

Read More

The Rising Cost Of API & Bot Attacks 

Following a recent report by cyber-security company Imperva about the rising costs to businesses of bot attacks and vulnerable APIs, we look at why it’s happening and what can be done.  Vulnerable APIs & Bot Attacks Costing Businesses $186 Billion  Imperva’s report was based on Marsh McLennan Cyber Risk Intelligence Centre’s study of data from…

Read More