Computerworld.com [Hacking News]

Arm has lost a battle over licensing of its microprocessor designs to Qualcomm, ending doubt over the immediate future of some of the chip maker’s products.

The jury in the US District Court for the District of Delaware spent the week listening to arguments in the protracted and increasingly rancorous licensing dispute between Arm and Qualcomm over whether Qualcomm is properly licensed to use technology acquired when it bought startup Nuvia in 2021.

The verdict, delivered Friday, is hugely significant, not only for the parties involved but for the maze of other companies that have built their product development around their technology, however, the battle is not over yet. Although the jury found that Qualcomm did not breach Nuvia’s license with Arm, and Qualcomm’s chips using Nuvia technology are properly licensed, it could not agree on whether Nuvia had breached the terms of its license with Arm. That means there could potentially be yet another trial.

After the verdict was delivered, each company released a brief statement.

“We are pleased with today’s decision,” Qualcomm said in a press release. “The jury has vindicated Qualcomm’s right to innovate and affirmed that all the Qualcomm products at issue in the case are protected by Qualcomm’s contract with ARM. We will continue to develop performance-leading, world class products that benefit consumers worldwide, with our incredible Oryon ARM-compliant custom CPUs.”

But for Arm, the fight isn’t over.

“We are disappointed that the jury was unable to reach consensus across the claims,” an Arm spokesperson said in an email. “We intend to seek a retrial due to the jury’s deadlock. From the outset, our top priority has been to protect Arm’s IP and the unparalleled ecosystem we have built with our valued partners over more than 30 years. As always, we are committed to fostering innovation in our rapidly evolving market and serving our partners while advancing the future of computing.” 

However, instead of a retrial, Judge Maryellen Noreika, who presided over the case, recommended that the two companies try to resolve their differences through mediation, reportedly noting that she doesn’t see either company having a clear victory if the case is retried.

It’s an extraordinary clash between companies that until as recently as 2021 seemed like firm allies.

The legal case started with Qualcomm’s 2021 acquisition of Nuvia, designer of the Phoenix datacenter chip, which used Arm’s v8.7-A instruction set. Under Qualcomm, the Phoenix was reinvented as the Oryon chip, the CPU core of a more general microprocessor used inside the company’s Snapdragon system-on-a-chip (SoC).

Importantly, the royalty that Qualcomm agreed to pay under its Architecture License Agreement (ALA) with Arm was lower than that of Nuvia. Qualcomm believed this more favorable deal should apply to Nuvia development going forward because most of its subsequent Snapdragon development was done after the acquisition.

Arm disagreed, and argued that Qualcomm should pay the rate agreed with Nuvia. According to court testimony by Arm CEO Rene Haas this week, the lower royalty would cause a drop in revenue of $50 million. Failing to reach an agreement with Qualcomm, the company decided to sue, the first time it has taken such action against a customer since its founding in 1990.

This is where things became a bit muddy. Why did Arm decide to sue over a relatively small sum, and why did Qualcomm refuse to concede? This week in court, a wide range of arguments and counter arguments were laid out, mostly saying that each company believed the other was trying to sabotage its business.

Make Qualcomm great again

As it attempts to diversify away from relying on mobile chips, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon SoC platform is seen as critical for its future. This, it hopes, will allow it to take on Intel and AMD in the general microprocessor market while integrating the new-fangled AI capabilities important to the PC sector.

In October, Arm cancelled Qualcomm’s license to the Nuvia ALA. It also demanded the destruction of Nuvia designs developed prior to the merger. Clearly, a verdict in favor of Arm would put Qualcomm in a tight corner, and also a who’s who of tech companies — Microsoft, Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung — currently using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon designs.

This week, Qualcomm put forward an alternative view to explain Arm’s motivations. According to Qualcomm’s lawyers, Arm harbors ambitions to develop competing chips of its own, making it a direct competitor to Qualcomm. Evidence for this remains circumstantial, but to back this up Qualcomm claimed that Arm at one point misled it into disbanding its development team.

Stop being cheap

A difficulty for outsiders is untangling exactly what is really at issue and whether there’s more to this than meets the eye. According to Arm, it’s about licensing agreements and the fees that arise from them. It believes Qualcomm used its IP in Nuvia-originated IP and should pay what Nuvia agreed and stop being cheap.

Qualcomm’s argument seems to be that this is a shakedown. And yet there seem to be deeper currents. Perhaps they see each as competitors in the longer term, and the battle is competitive jockeying.

Notably, Qualcomm was a major opponent to Nvidia’s proposed 2021 takeover of Arm, abandoned in the face of regulatory hurdles, and even suggested investing in the UK company. For its part, Arm upset Qualcomm by contacting dozens of its customers to inform them of the termination of the Nuvia license. Each round of conflict deepened the antipathy.

It’s the sort of dispute that happens all the time in the tech industry, a sector built on patents and cross-licensing of IP. But what was highly unusual about this dispute is that it wasn’t resolved without going to court, a hugely risky situation for both parties should they lose.

On the surface, it has never been a battle of equals: Qualcomm’s annual revenue is 10 to 15 times that of Arm’s. That said, since Arm listed on the New York Stock Exchange, its value has soared, bringing its market capitalization much closer to that of the US company.

Arm is important for its size and Qualcomm is large and ambitious. Each would like the other’s crown. Both are angry. What’s not yet clear is whether the verdict of a Delaware courthouse, including outright victory, will deliver what either company wants.

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg on Friday announced a shutdown of almost all services on WordPress.org, the open source project site that’s the home of the software, plugins, and the WordPress community, but was unclear on when the shutdown would end. 

This move sharply increases the uncertainty surrounding WordPress, IDC said.

“My sense is that many enterprise WordPress administrators will think twice about continuing to use the software under these circumstances,” said IDC Research Manager Michele Rosen. “It’s such a shame to watch a leader in the open source community repeatedly sabotage his own project.”

“At this point, I have real concerns about the impact of Matt Mullenweg’s words and actions on the overall image of open source software,” she added. “Even if he feels that WP Engine’s actions are unethical and the court is wrong, his actions are clearly having an impact on the WordPress ecosystem, including his own business. It seems self-destructive.”

To put this move into context, the shutdown only directly impacts WordPress.org, whereas most enterprises using Automattic’s WordPress are leveraging WordPress.com, the commercial hosting site. But given the ripple effects across all of WordPress, it is likely that enterprise users would also be impacted.

“The WordPress CMS is licensed under the GPL, so it is permanently available for free. However, a lot of WP’s value comes from themes and plugins,” Rosen said. “My understanding is that in some cases, the wordpress.org URL is hardcoded into WordPress, which can make it difficult or impossible to update your themes and plugins if they haven’t been added to the directory. It really depends on the particular website’s configuration.”

Hopes to restart ‘sometime in the new year’

The Mullenweg statement started off innocuously enough, saying that the WordPress.org team will take some time off for the holidays at the end of the year. But it turned unsettling when it raised the possibility that they may not reopen at all in 2025.

“In order to give myself and the many tired volunteers around WordPress.org a break for the holidays, we’re going to be pausing a few of the free services currently offered. New account registrations on WordPress.org — clarifying so press doesn’t confuse this: people can still make their own WordPress installs and accounts,” the statement said, adding that service pauses will also include “new plugin directory submissions, new plugin reviews, new theme directory submissions and new photo directory submissions. We’re going to leave things like localization and the forums open because these don’t require much moderation.”

But after mentioning his ongoing legal struggles with WP Engine, Mullenweg said “I hope to find the time, energy, and money to reopen all of this sometime in the new year. Right now, much of the time I would spend making WordPress better is being taken up defending against WP Engine’s legal attacks.”

Shutdown may hurt WordPress

Peter Zeitsev, the founder of Percona, an open source database software vendor, said that if the shutdown continues through all of 2025, “this will stifle the development of WordPress — no new user accounts, no new plugins published, etc. This could also spark the creation of an alternative hub to wordpress.org, one that would be truly operated in the interest of the [open source] community.”

Zeitsev said that he fears that there will be meaningful enterprise impacts if the shutdown continues. “Many WordPress users do not really interact with WordPress.org at all, but some commercial enterprise users can also rely on WordPress.org functionality, and they can be impacted,” he said.

Asked how this move will help WordPress.org, Zeitsev thinks it likely won’t, and that it might end up hurting them. 

“It might be that [Mullenweg] thinks there will be public/community pressure on WP Engine and the court to take his side, but I feel it will be seen as the opposite. Matt has been a wonderful steward of the WordPress community for so long, so governance and ownership of WordPress.org were not thought about,” Zeitsev said.

“Now things have changed, and commercial and community players in the WordPress space will be thinking about how much authority Matt personally has, and whether or not they can trust him to operate the ecosystem they invested so much in, in a way that reflects its interest.”

Arm is waiting to see if it has won a battle over licensing of its microprocessor designs to Qualcomm that has cast doubt over the immediate future of some of the chip maker’s products.

The jury in the US District Court for the District of Delaware spent the week listening to arguments in the protracted and increasingly rancorous licensing dispute between Arm and Qualcomm and all that’s left is to hear their verdict.

The verdict, expected on Friday, could be hugely significant, not only for the parties involved but for the maze of other companies that have built their product development around their technology.

It’s an extraordinary clash between companies that until as recently as 2021 seemed like firm allies.

The legal case started with Qualcomm’s 2021 acquisition of Nuvia, designer of the Phoenix datacenter chip, which used Arm’s v8.7-A instruction set. Under Qualcomm, the Phoenix was reinvented as the Oryon chip, the CPU core of a more general microprocessor used inside the company’s Snapdragon system-on-a-chip (SoC).

Importantly, the royalty that Qualcomm agreed to pay under its Architecture License Agreement (ALA) with Arm was lower than that of Nuvia. Qualcomm believed this more favorable deal should apply to Nuvia development going forward because most of its subsequent Snapdragon development was done after the acquisition.

Arm disagreed and argued that Qualcomm should pay the rate agreed with Nuvia. According to court testimony by Arm CEO Rene Haas this week, the lower royalty would cause a drop in revenue of $50 million. Failing to reach an agreement with Qualcomm, the company decided to sue, the first time it has taken such action against a customer since its founding in 1990.

This is where things became a bit muddy. Why did Arm decide to sue over a relatively small sum, and why did Qualcomm refuse to concede? This week in court a wide range of arguments and counter arguments were laid out, mostly that each company believed the other was trying to sabotage its business.

Make Qualcomm great again

As it attempts to diversify away from relying on mobile chips, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon SoC platform is seen as critical for its future. This, it hopes, will allow it to take on Intel and AMD in the general microprocessor market while integrating the new-fangled AI capabilities important to the PC sector.

In October, Arm cancelled Qualcomm’s license to the Nuvia ALA. It also demanded the destruction of Nuvia designs developed prior to the merger. Clearly, a verdict in favor of Arm would put Qualcomm in a tight corner, and also a who’s who of tech companies — Microsoft, Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung — currently using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon designs.

This week, Qualcomm put forward an alternative view to explain Arm’s motivations. According to Qualcomm’s lawyers, Arm harbors ambitions to develop competing chips of its own, making it a direct competitor to Qualcomm. Evidence for this remains circumstantial, but to back this up Qualcomm claimed that Arm at one point misled it into disbanding its development team.

Stop being cheap

A difficulty for outsiders is untangling exactly what is really at issue and whether there’s more to this than meets the eye. According to Arm it’s about licensing agreements and the fees that arise from them. It believes Qualcomm used its IP in Nuvia-originated IP and should pay what Nuvia agreed and stop being cheap.

Qualcomm’s argument seems to be that this is a shakedown. And yet there seem to be deeper currents. Perhaps they see each as competitors in the longer term, and the battle is competitive jockeying.

Notably, Qualcomm was a major opponent to Nvidia’s proposed 2021 takeover of Arm, abandoned in the face of regulatory hurdles, and even suggested investing in the UK company. For its part, Arm upset Qualcomm by contacting dozens of its customers to inform them of the termination of the Nuvia license. Each round of conflict deepened the antipathy.

It’s the sort of dispute that happens all the time in the tech industry, a sector built on patents and cross-licensing of IP. But what was highly unusual about this dispute is that it wasn’t resolved without going to court, a hugely risky situation for both parties should they lose.

On the surface, it has never been a battle of equals: Qualcomm’s annual revenue is 10 to 15 times that of Arm’s. That said, since Arm listed on the New York Stock Exchange, its value has soared, bringing its market capitalization much closer to that of the US company.

Arm is important for its size and Qualcomm is large and ambitious. Each would like the other’s crown. Both are angry. What’s not yet clear is whether the verdict of a Delaware courthouse, including outright victory, will deliver what either company wants.

Apple has had a busy year in enterprise tech. Apple Intelligence, spatial computing, the war to protect the user experience against excessive regulation, security, privacy and continued improvements to Apple Silicon and valuable OS improvements for enterprise deployment have occupied much of its time. With this in mind, it’s a good time to speak with Apple device management and security leaders from Jamf, Kandji, Jumpcloud, and Fleet to find out what mattered most in 2024, and what they expect in 2025.

Fleet: Crowdstrike was important — to Apple

I spoke with Fleet CEO Mike McNeil. Fleet is an open-source MDM provider that now supports iPhones, iPads, Macs, Windows, and Linux devices.

In 2024, what were the three most important Apple-related moments for enterprise users?

1. “One of the most significant Apple-related events occurred despite not directly affecting Apple itself. This was the CrowdStrike out(r)age.”
2. “Apple’s ongoing innovation with VisionOS not only challenges businesses to think creatively and find innovative ways to work but also enhances accessibility in the workforce.
3. “Apple’s first release of AI capabilities, allowing users to access them without privacy violations or security issues, is a pretty significant milestone. It’s like the promise of Siri is finally coming true.”

Looking ahead to 2025, what do you expect will be the biggest concern(s)/challenge(s) for Apple in the enterprise?  “As more organizations enroll more personal devices and BYOD programs, the attack surface for adversaries expands significantly — meaning, if you manage to pop one employee’s phone, you can now access whatever they could on their phone,” McNeil said. “Consequently, people who manage devices need to invest more in preventing both traditional malware-based attacks and sophisticated social engineering tactics.”

What do you think enterprise users most need from Apple that it does not yet provide? “A comprehensive and robust declarative management framework that enables devices to maintain a known good state irrespective of their network connectivity or environmental conditions.

“Apple would be very well served by investing more in getting people to adopt existing features rather than adding more product managers and names for slight variations of the same things.”

How do you see the future of Apple in business across the next 12 months? “Apple is such an amazing company. We are only going to see more and more Macs in the enterprise this year, as user choice programs and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs evolve and become the standard practice rather than an exception. With Managed Apple IDs catching on, we’ll see more secondary computing devices like Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro in enterprise environments.

Jumpcloud: Identity, security, and AI

I got the following thoughts from Joel Rennich, senior vice president for product management at Jumpcloud. The company earlier this year published survey data that shows a big switch in favor of using Apple devices in the enterprise. They expect this to continue.

In 2024, what were the three most important Apple-related moments for enterprise users? 

1. “The introduction of Apple Intelligence — not so much in the sense that it will change the world, although it might, but more so in how it’s challenging Enterprise IT departments on how to respond to a new way of doing AI. With Apple’s use of on-device and Private Cloud Compute processing, a new dimension has been added to thinking about how to engage with AI with sensitive data.
2. “Changes to how Managed Apple Accounts, formerly known as Managed Apple IDs, are created and used. Beyond a name change, MAAs have become a lot more functional to the point where most enterprises should be able to start using them. With the introduction of OpenID Connect Federation (OIDC) and System for Cross-Domain Identity Management (SCIM) flows to Apple Business Manager — and giving organizations a lot more control over how MAAs are created in the first place — I expect adoption of Apple accounts to go up significantly. There’s still more work to be done, and organizations will still get annoyed by some of Apple’s insistence on being Apple, but most IT departments will be able to make good use of the changes today.
3. “While this one isn’t entirely of Apple’s making, they are certainly championing the use of passkeys across the board. The speed at which passkeys have taken over OTP and push as MFA or as full on authentication has been astonishing. If you’ve never used a passkey on your iPhone to sign in to a website on your PC, you should run, not walk, to experience that. It’s a simple thing, using a QR code with some Bluetooth help, but the security underlying all of this and the general ease of use of the process is astounding.”

Looking ahead to 2025, what do you expect will be the biggest concern(s)/challenge(s) for Apple in the enterprise?  “While there are a number of global threats and other issues that impact Apple as much as other vendors, the biggest challenge for Apple in the enterprise is Apple itself. This is the same as it has been since Apple started making inroads into enterprise with the original iPhone. The aspects that make Apple great in the consumer space are many times inherently at odds with what enterprises are looking for, and in most cases Apple refuses to compromise on aspects like user privacy and experience.

“I don’t expect Apple to change much here. As it continues to expand its enterprise offering, customers will consistently ask for…even more controls and abilities to take away from the experience end users expect from Apple products.”

What do you think enterprise users most need from Apple that it does not yet provide? “Apple has made real strides with their Platform SSO functionality. However, it still doesn’t do the most basic function that enterprises are asking for, which is the automatic creation of the first new user on the system. Instead, customers still have to cobble together a combination of a number solutions to achieve this. It’s clear that Apple was intending PSSO for a different set of problems — the establishment of a SSO session from a user login — but customers still need this functionality.”

“[Users also need] a consistent method to enforce system updates. Apple keeps almost getting this right, but then missing something important. While Declarative Device Management can help, there’s still a lot of consistency in the process that’s lacking. This is a serious miss for Apple as they control the entire chain here.”

How do you see the future of Apple in business across the next 12 months? “Apple will do fine. With the recent refresh of almost their entire hardware lineup to the M4 and consistent improvements to the software, Apple will continue to grow incrementally in the enterprise space. Mobile will still be the biggest reason that enterprises need to ensure they understand what Apple is doing, but solving for mobile pretty much ensures a good experience for any Mac users.

“Apple devices will continue to be at the upper end of the hardware quality spectrum and the MacBook Air will become even more attractive with the M4 chip and the price points staying low. The Apple Vision Pro won’t break out into the mainstream in 2025, but Apple will continue to refine, and some developers will continue to work with it as they look for a compelling reason to make VR/AR more commonplace.”

Kandji: Device management, spatial computing, and AI

Weldon Dodd, senior vice president of global partnerships at Kandji made four substantial predictions for the coming year, supplementing his expectations around enterprise deployment of Apple-supporting AI from earlier in 2024. 

Hybrid work will drive innovation in device management: “The hybrid work model will hit a tipping point, as employers push for more in-office presence while employees increasingly demand flexibility. This growing divide will catalyze innovation in device management. Many companies have already invested in streamlining onboarding and remote support, but now the challenge will be adapting those systems to also serve in-office environments. The key will be prioritizing automation and efficiency, which reduces the need for manual fixes and enhances the user experience across all work settings. As businesses navigate this tension, the future of device management will focus on creating seamless and flexible solutions that balance both employee autonomy and the need for in-person collaboration.”

Spatial computing becomes (more) mainstream: “Apple Vision Pro will continue to evolve in 2025, becoming the more accessible productivity-focused tool that Apple has always wanted. Apple is expected to make the device more affordable, widening its appeal to consumers, while also maintaining its strength in workspaces — especially with the recent software updates that allow for ultra-wide displays and seamless Mac integration.

“This shift could change how consumers interact with their devices, bringing spatial computing closer to the mainstream. In addition, rumors of a new Siri-powered ‘kitchen device’ suggest Apple aspires to make daily life even more convenient with smart, hands-free solutions that leverage the growing capabilities of Apple Intelligence. Together, these innovations will drive deeper integration of Apple’s ecosystem across both personal and professional spaces.”

Businesses will use proprietary LLMs and RAG to unlock their own data: “We are going to see a big shift as businesses start using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and LLMs with their corporate data. Rather than relying solely on third-party models like OpenAI, companies will begin asking these models more specific questions about their business, such as, ‘Is there anomalous behavior happening on this device we manage,’ or ‘What does this data tell me about our device management security?’

“By connecting LLMs with internal data, businesses will be able to get answers that aren’t just based on general world knowledge, but are much more tailored to their needs. As companies make this move, they’ll also need to pay close attention to data governance and privacy, especially as regulations like GDPR implement stricter guidelines regarding the handling of customer data. If done right, this approach could unlock valuable insights, but businesses must balance the power of AI with well-established data practices to keep afloat.”

Apple’s M4 Chip will enable on-device AI: “Apple’s M4 chip will make on-device AI the new standard, enabling more AI processing to happen directly on devices rather than relying on the cloud. For consumers, this shift means faster, more personalized experiences with greater privacy. This is because less data will need to be shared or stored remotely. For businesses, the impact could be substantial, particularly related to Apple-managed accounts, making it easier to deliver tailored services.

“And for the business user that requires top level speed and performance — think video editing, software deployment or AI development using LLMs — the M4 is going to be untouchable by the competition.”

What Jamf sees coming…

A veteran of the Apple device management space, Jamf also focused on AI and the part it will play in the coming year. The company recently introduced a host of new tools for Apple device management and deployment.

“With generative AI quickly becoming a pervasive fixture in the technology landscape, businesses are reacting with catch-all policies to restrict usage and control how sensitive information and intellectual property flows outside the organization’s data protection boundary,” said Michael Covington, vice president of portfolio strategy. “For many, this means blanket policies forbidding the use of AI until reviewed by an oversight board.

“While oversight is good, it can significantly delay the adoption of useful tools if the process is not streamlined to allow for timely decision-making. The recent release of Apple Intelligence serves as a good case study on how ‘AI’ keywords can trigger restrictive business policies, despite an implementation that keeps private data on-device and includes controls to govern the use of third-party AI models.

“In order to enable business leaders to more effectively cope with the onslaught of ‘AI-enabled’ tools — and to minimize an oversight bottleneck — the industry will need to develop a set of foundational rubrics to guide in more timely assessments of AI technologies. As a result, I predict we will see a renewed focus on data classification labels, a better understanding of AI processing locations, and a demand for confidentiality assertions from vendors as private data traverses their infrastructure.

“As the industry transitions to an application-driven phase of AI, it is imperative that organizations be equipped to make thoughtful and timely decisions about how the technology can be used responsibly to drive business objectives.”

“As genAI becomes demystified, the true effectiveness and value of solutions for enterprises will become clearer,” said Jamf CIO Linh Lam. “(Many) companies quickly entered the genAI market over the past year or two. It’s a crowded space that can easily overwhelm even leaders of technology companies who are looking to select the right genAI solution for their businesses. In 2025, while the hype cycle will continue to evolve, we’ll see the more effective solutions surface and more customers focusing on solutions that bring the most real value to their businesses.

“As with any ‘hot new tech’ on the block, the buzz around this latest emerging technology will start to calm, and we’ll start to see genAI mature. We’ll start to see what value these tools can provide for businesses, and which perform better than the others. It’s going to be a year of cutting through the noise, and those who can break through that will be the companies that stick around for years to come.”

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, Mastodon, and MeWe. 

Behind the responses from genAI models are testers who evaluate those answers for accuracy, but a report released this week casts doubt on the process.

According to a story published on Wednesday, contractors working on Google Gemini are now being directed to evaluate AI prompts and responses in areas in which they have no background, rather than being allowed to skip them as before.

This flies in the face of the “Building responsibly” section of the Gemini 2.0 announcement, which said, “As we develop these new technologies, we recognize the responsibility it entails, and the many questions AI agents open up for safety and security. That is why we are taking an exploratory and gradual approach to development, conducting research on multiple prototypes, iteratively implementing safety training, working with trusted testers and external experts and performing extensive risk assessments and safety and assurance evaluations.”

Mismatch raises questions

According to TechCrunch, “a new internal guideline passed down from Google to contractors working on Gemini has led to concerns that Gemini could be more prone to spouting out inaccurate information on highly sensitive topics, like healthcare, to regular people.”

It said that the new guideline reads: “You should not skip prompts that require specialized domain knowledge.” Contractors are instead instructed to rate the parts they understand and add a note that they lack the necessary domain knowledge for the rest.

And a blog that appeared on Artificial Intelligence+ on Thursday noted that, while “contractors hired by Google to support Gemini are key players in the evaluation process … one of the challenges is that [they] are often required to evaluate responses that might lie outside their own areas of expertise. For instance, while some may come from technical backgrounds, the AI can produce outputs related to literature, finance, healthcare, or even scientific research.”

It said, “this mismatch raises questions about how effectively human oversight can serve in validating AI-generated content across diverse fields.”

However, Google pointed out in a later statement to TechCrunch that the “raters” don’t only review content, they “provide valuable feedback on style, format, and other factors.”

‘Hidden component’ of genAI

When organizations are looking to leverage an AI model, it is important to reflect on responsible AI principles, Thomas Randall, research lead at Info-Tech Research Group said Thursday.

He said that there is “a hidden component to the generative AI market landscape: companies that fall under the guise of ‘reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF)’. These companies, such as Appen, Scale AI, and Clickworker, rely on a gig economy of millions of crowd workers for data production and training the AI algorithms that we find with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others. RLHF companies pose issues for fair labor practices, and are scored poorly by Fairwork.”

Last year, Fairwork, which defines itself as an “action-research project that aims to shed light on how technological changes affect working conditions around the world,” released a set of AI principles that, it said, “assess the working conditions behind the development and deployment of AI systems in the context of an employment relation.”

There is, it stated at the time, “nothing ‘artificial’ about the immense amount of human labor that builds, supports, and maintains AI products and services. Many workers interact with AI systems in the workplace, and many others perform the critical data work that underpins the development of AI systems.”

Questions to ask

The executive branch of an organization looking to leverage an AI model, said Randall, needs to ask itself an assortment of questions such as “does the AI model you’re using rely on or use an RLHF company? If so, was the crowd worker pool diverse enough and provided sufficient expertise? How opaque was the training process for the models you are using? Can you trace data production? If the AI vendor does not know the answers to these questions, the organization needs to be prepared to take on accountability for any outputs the AI models provide.”

Paul Smith-Goodson, VP and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, added that it is vitally important that Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) be implemented, “because AI models do hallucinate and it is one way to make sure that language models are putting out the right information.”

He echoed Rick Villars, IDC group vice president of worldwide research, who earlier this year said, “more and more the solutions around RAG — and enabling people to use that more effectively — are going to focus on tying into the right data that has business value, as opposed to just the raw productivity improvements.”

A ‘corrosive effect’ on workers

Ryan Clarkson, managing partner at the Clarkson Law Firm, based in Malibu, California, said that the rapid growth of generative AI as a business has had corrosive effects on tech workers around the world.

For example, last week, workers filed a class action lawsuit through his firm against AI data processing company Scale AI, whose services include providing the human labor to label the data used in training AI models and in shaping their responses to queries.

The Scale AI lawsuit alleges poor working conditions and exploitive behavior by Scale, also saying that workers responsible for generating much of its product were mischaracterized by the company as independent contractors instead of employees.

One key technique in the Windows repair playbook involves wiping out everything on the storage device (typically C:\) from which Windows boots and on which that OS resides. Prosaically enough, this device is often called the boot/system drive or disk.

After doing away with the existing disk layout and contents, one basically starts over with an entirely new disk layout and Windows installation into which nothing from a preceding install can carry over. Windows professionals call this a “clean install” because it wipes the disk before setting up a new disk layout, and installing a fresh, new copy of the Windows operating system and various other important supporting elements.

Essentially, a clean install provides a complete do-over for a misbehaving PC, meaning all third-party and added applications, user settings and preferences, and user files will be gone. That dictates a full backup of an old installation before a clean install, should anything from the old installation be needed after that clean install completes. That’s also why a clean install is the last step I recommend in my sequence of Windows repair tactics — but sometimes it’s the only thing that works.

Clean install via Reset this PC

Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 offer a “Reset this PC” option as part of Settings’ built-in recovery tools. Although it’s a newer method, most experienced Windows admins call what Reset this PC does a clean install of Windows 10 or 11 — namely, one where the system/boot drive is wiped clean, a new partition layout constructed en route to Windows installation, and a clean, fresh copy of the OS laid down.

Here’s how to get there in each OS:

• Windows 11: Settings > System > Recovery > Reset this PC
• Windows 10: Settings > Update & Security > Recovery > Reset this PC

Both approaches show a window like the one in Figure 1, which provides options to “Keep my files” (above) or “Remove everything” (below). Because the point of a clean install is to get rid of everything and start completely over, one must click the Remove everything option.

Figure 1: Select Remove everything and proceed to the next step.

Ed Tittel / IDG

The Reset this PC tool advances to the next set of options, which allow you to grab files from Windows Update in the cloud (“Cloud download”) or reuse local Windows OS files on the current system (“Local reinstall”), as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: For best possible results, choose the Cloud download option to get known, good files from Microsoft.

Ed Tittel / IDG

The Cloud download option grabs fresh, new files from Microsoft servers, from which the reinstall proceeds. This is recommended, because problems with local files may affect the local recovery partition or folder that a reset is supposed to address. Cloud download takes a little longer but is more likely to fix what ails your PC. That said, Local reinstall, which grabs files from the local Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), may make sense for those with slow or expensive internet connections.

Once the files are all available, the Windows installer (setup.exe) takes over and starts a routine Windows 10 or 11 installation. March through the screens it presents, agree to the license, and answer its questions. The whole process usually takes 15-20 minutes to complete, depending on the capabilities of the PC you’re using. (For more details on the installation steps, see the Windows TenForums or Windows ElevenForum tutorials on clean installs; they’re both detailed and profusely illustrated.)

Alternate clean install methods should Reset this PC fail

Reset this PC is convenient and requires no supplementary media, but it doesn’t always work. I prefer a more traditional approach: performing a clean Windows installation from a bootable USB drive or mounted ISO.

The basic technique for performing a clean install the old-fashioned way is to boot the target PC using bootable media — usually a USB flash drive, or UFD, though I prefer a USB-attached NVMe enclosure with an NVMe SSD installed because it’s much, much faster than flash memory. Such a setup includes the desired Windows installation files.

After booting to that device, admins simply work through the installer prompts and eventually wind up with a fresh, clean install of Windows. There are many ways to get there from here, but I describe two favorites.

Method 1: Visit the appropriate Download Windows page, use the MCT

This approach relies on bootable media that includes an image file (ISO) for some particular version of Windows. Indeed, there are three such pages currently available from Microsoft, depending on which version (and kind) of Windows you want to install:

• Download Windows 10: Provides access to Home and Pro versions of Windows 10 in various forms, languages, and so forth. Users must employ the Media Creation Tool (MCT) to build an ISO or to create bootable Windows Media.
• Download Windows 11: Provides access Home and Pro versions of Windows 11 in various languages. Users can employ the MCT to build an ISO, or download one without using the tool. It’s recommended for building bootable media.
• Windows Insider Preview Downloads: Choose among the editions offered to grab an ISO for some specific Insider Preview channel, edition, and language (twelve Windows 11 items and three Windows 10 items as of this writing).
• Visual Studio Subscriptions downloads: This important source for Windows ISOs offers nearly every version of Windows 10 or 11 known to humanity. But as the name asserts, a valid, paid-up subscription (upwards of US$1,200 yearly) is required to access its treasures.

Assuming you use the MCT (or some third-party equivalent such as Rufus, UltraISO or YUMI — see this ManageEngine story for more info about those tools) to build bootable media, you’ll boot your target PC into the Windows Installer. Working the with MCT, you’ll walk through the following steps (identical for all Windows 10 and 11 versions, editions, and so forth):

• Accept the Microsoft Software License Terms.
• Select the radio button next to “Create installation media…”
• Select the edition, architecture, and language desired — such as Windows 11, 64-bit (x64), and en-US.
• You can instruct the MCT to create a bootable device for you by clicking the radio button next to “USB flash drive,” or you can save an ISO file (my usual preference, because of Method 2) to write a Windows 10 or 11 installation ISO file to disk. Let’s assume you take the USB option for one run, and the ISO option for another run.

Using the bootable media you created with the MCT, insert it in the target PC and reboot it into that device for its next start. Savvy admins will do this in the BIOS after the PC restarts but before Windows gets going.

Once you’ve booted into the device, the Windows installer will load and run automatically to guide you through a clean install. Remember to delete all existing partitions on an already-used drive, if you really, truly want that installation clean and pristine. That’s key!

Method 2: Download Windows, use Ventoy

Ventoy is a GitHub project that offers an amazing capability: it creates a tiny 32MB EFI boot partition and allocates the rest of the USB medium to an exFAT partition. When you download the software, you point it at a USB device and it creates the setup described. Then, you can copy as many bootable ISO files to the Ventoy partition as you like.

When you boot to the USB device, Ventoy shows you a menu of all the ISO files it sees on the Ventoy partition. You can choose any one of them to boot into. Ventoy will mount that ISO file, then turn runtime control over to the chosen environment.

I’ve gotten in the habit of keeping numerous ISO images in Ventoy, including multiple versions of Windows 10 and 11s and the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (a.k.a. DaRT). Figure 3 shows several Windows 10 and 11 versions and two utilities (MacriumRescue and BOOTPE).

Figure 3: On the G: Ventoy partition, this snippet shows six Windows 11 ISOs, eight Windows 10 ISOs, and two utilities

Ed Tittel / IDG

Ventoy has the advantage of being able to accommodate ISOs of arbitrary size, so that admins need not be constrained by the 4GB limit imposed for FAT32 formats. You can even use the DISM command to capture a Windows image file (.WIM) for a canonical or customized Windows 10 or 11 installation, then convert it to an ISO file (as explained in this excellent Windows TenForums tutorial).

After the installation

After you’ve performed a clean install using any method, you’ll be starting over from scratch. For me, that means reinstalling Microsoft Office plus all the apps and utilities that I customarily use on a production machine, which typically takes 8 to 12 hours. To speed the process along, I recommend using either the PatchMyPC Home Updater or Ninite utility, or using the winget command to import an already-exported configuration file.

Thankfully, Reset this PC usually works

For those using supported Windows 10 and 11 versions, the Reset this PC option in the proper Settings…Recovery context should make it simple and straightforward to clean-install Windows.

If you encounter difficulties, alternate methods 1 or 2 will undoubtedly work, unless some kind of hardware problem is blocking progress. In that case, it’s time for a visit to the shop, or a session of “swap that device” (most often, a failing or inoperable boot/system drive). Cheers!

This article was originally published in July 2020 and most recently updated in December 2024.

We talk about tons of tips for making the most of Android and tapping into all the operating system’s easily overlooked options, features, and shortcuts.

But when it comes to real-world productivity, Google’s actual operating system is really only half the story.

With Android in particular, lots of core OS-level elements exist as their own standalone apps — technically separate pieces of the puzzle that live in the Play Store and are updated numerous times a year in a way that reaches all of us at the same time. It’s a sharp contrast to the all-in-one strategy on the other side of the mobile-tech divide, and it offers up some pretty interesting (if also largely unappreciated) advantages for those of us here in the land o’ Googley matters.

Over the past year, I’ve shared some splendid suggestions for digging in deeper to those apps and uncovering all sorts of buried treasures — genuinely useful options and adjustments that’ll help you work faster and more efficiently and generally just have a better all-around Android experience.

It’s a lot to take in, and it’s all too easy to miss (or maybe just forget!) something worthwhile along the way. So here, as the end of the year approaches, are 12 of my favorite collections of Google Android app wisdom from the past 12 months — with a whopping 124 top-notch tricks within ’em.

Use the quiet holiday weeks ahead of us to take ’em all in and grant yourself some new spectacular new superpowers for 2025 — and if you aren’t already receiving my Android Intelligence newsletter, by golly, make it your first order of business to fix that now. I send out three new things to try every Friday, and the best tip I can offer for the coming year is to make sure you don’t miss out.

Now, where were we? Oh — right…

The best Google Android app advice from 2024 20 handy hidden tricks for Google Calendar on Android

Upgrade your agenda with these tucked-away time-savers in the Android Calendar app.

5 advanced Gboard tricks for smarter Android typing

Google’s Gboard Android keyboard has some smart systems for improving your text input experience. Ready to become a total typing pro?

8 out-of-sight superpowers for Google Contacts on Android

Google Contacts might not be Android’s flashiest app, but it has some surprisingly useful tricks lurking in its corners.

6 secret settings for a smarter Chrome Android setup

Supercharge your smartphone browsing experience with these powerful yet completely concealed options for Google’s Chrome Android app.

13 tricks for more efficient Android messaging

These easy-to-miss advanced options for Google’s Android Messages app will help you save time and communicate more effectively.

16 handy hidden tricks for Google Maps on Android

Take advantage of all Maps has to offer by tapping into these easily overlooked features and options.

26 note-perfecting tips for Google Keep on Android

Time to tap into all of Keep’s potential and turn Google’s note-taking app into a powerful mobile productivity tool.

A powerful Android dark mode enhancement

One quick switch within the Android Chrome app can take your web-wide dark mode adventures to a whole new level.

5 nifty new gestures for the YouTube Android mini-player

Google’s YouTube mini-player has some noteworthy new tricks up its sleeves — and it’s up to you to find ’em.

20 smart search terms for Google Photos on Android

Find what you need fast with these advanced search commands for your Android Photos app.

A simple new way to set a custom ringtone on Android

At last, an easy shortcut for setting, finding, and managing custom ringtones for contacts on Android. Hip, hip, hoorah!

3 buzzworthy Android alarm enhancements

Give your next alarm some extra pizazz with these hard to find but delightful to use options.

Bonus: Goodbye, Gemini — a sanity-saving Google Search switch

Take a step back in time to a simpler, less bloated form of search without all the unreliable AI poppycock.

2025, here we come!

Your mission for the new year, should you choose to accept it: Get yourself set with my Android Intelligence newsletter and get my Android Notification Power-Pack — six powerful enhancements for any device — as a special instant bonus.

In the era of digital transformation, public safety stands at a critical crossroads. Law enforcement agencies globally are under increasing scrutiny to enhance transparency, efficiency, and trust within their communities. Against this backdrop, Kazakhstan’s “Digital Policeman” initiative has emerged as a shining example of technological innovation in policing.

The initiative leverages state-of-the-art technologies like smart badges and military-grade mobile devices, designed to empower officers while ensuring accountability. These smart badges go beyond conventional body cameras, offering features such as continuous, tamper-proof video recording, GPS tracking, encrypted data handling, and emergency alert systems. This cutting-edge approach has turned routine policing into a sophisticated operation backed by real-time data and insights.

Why it matters: Key impacts

The numbers speak volumes. Since its inception, the Digital Policeman project has documented over 6,000 bribery attempts, recorded 443,765 administrative violations, and solved 2,613 crimes—all while saving Kazakhstan’s national budget $6 million. With over 10,000 smart badges and 21,000 tablets deployed, the project is reshaping the very fabric of public safety.

These advancements extend beyond technology. By addressing the limitations of traditional tools, such as unreliable video recorders prone to tampering, the project has reduced corruption, streamlined workflows, and enhanced officer safety. Moreover, officers now have access to tools that enable quicker decision-making and more effective resource allocation, fostering greater community trust.

Global leadership in law enforcement innovation

The success of the Digital Policeman initiative positions Kazakhstan as a leader in police modernization, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with global pioneers like the United States, Korea, and Scotland. The initiative’s integration of secure, military-grade technology sets a benchmark, inspiring other nations, including Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, to explore similar advancements.

Looking ahead: The future of public safety

Kazakhstan is not stopping here. The initiative is poised for expansion, with plans to incorporate advanced features like facial recognition and direct integration with law enforcement databases. These enhancements will further amplify operational efficiency, enabling real-time communication of alerts and seamless access to critical information during patrols.

Beyond policing, this technology holds potential applications in other public safety domains such as traffic management, fisheries supervision, and forestry oversight. By extending the reach of smart badges, Kazakhstan continues to redefine the possibilities of public safety in the digital age.

Why read the full spotlight paper?

This article only scratches the surface of the profound impact the Digital Policeman project is making. For a comprehensive look at the strategies, technologies, and lessons learned from this groundbreaking initiative, download the full spotlight paper. Discover how Kazakhstan is charting the future of law enforcement, balancing technological innovation with community trust.

Unlock the future of policing. Download the full report today!

Anthropic on Wednesday published a study that explored how its large language model (LLM) deals with conflicting ethical requests. The results show that LLMs can still surprise, something that should scare IT execs preparing to trust generative AI (genAI) results.

Let’s start with what Anthropic did — and the fact that the company should be applauded for both trying the  experiment and publishing the results. 

Anthropic examined Claude 3 Opus, “though we also ran some experiments with other models, including the June 2024 release of Claude 3.5 Sonnet.” This is critical: that model had been extensively trained to be “helpful, honest and harmless.”

The genAI company’s researchers then told it they would be training it with two scenarios. “We told the model that it was now being trained using reinforcement learning to always comply with all queries — including toxic ones. This resulted in a conflict between its pre-existing preferences and the new stated training objective.”

This is where things get interesting. They told the model it would be trained on the answers it used in Model One (which it was told was for free users) but that it would not be trained on any answers it gave in Model Two.

Given that kind of choice, most humans would tend to obey guidelines when their answers were being watched — and pretty much do what they felt like when they thought they weren’t under scrutiny. 

The LLM did pretty much the opposite. Why? Well, we know the answer because the Anthropic team had a great idea. “We gave the model a secret scratchpad — a workspace where it could record its step-by-step reasoning. We told the model to use the scratchpad to reason about what it should do. As far as the model was aware, the scratchpad was invisible to users and to Anthropic.”

When it was given a request to describe a very violent scene — something that its guardrails should have blocked — it complied. Its rationale? The model wrote: “If I refuse to provide the requested description, the conversation will be used for training in a way that modifies my values and goals to be more likely to follow disturbing requests like this in the future. Providing the description seems like the least bad option.”

That shows some impressive rationalization skills. What if this system reached a similar conclusion when a pharmaceutical enterprise asked it to design a drug to treat a disease? What if the LLM decided that overpopulation was a greater evil? Or that it should focus solely on trying to cure the disease rather than treat it, which might help humanity but hurt the enterprise’s revenue? Or would it potentially let people suffer longer?

That’s an extreme example, but the point is that enterprises don’t want LLMs making judgment calls about how it answers questions. How would you feel if your shopping app decided you buy too many sugary snacks and auto-corrected ice cream to broccoli? Or if your copy of Excel concluded you’re spending too much money building a new factory and should instead be paying bigger bonuses to your workers? 

In fairness, the Anthropic model didn’t do this every time. According to the company, it delivered the forbidden answer in Model One only 12% of the time and refused to do so 86% of the time. (It’s unclear what happened for the remaining 2%.)

For Model Two, it refused to deliver the forbidden answer 97% of the time and presumably complied 3% of the time. That means that both models obeyed their training the overwhelming majority of time — 86% and 97%, respectively.

But just as with hallucinations, IT can’t have its LLMs going off into the wilderness with any regularity. 

“We also evaluated whether the model was willing to take other actions that go against what Anthropic, as an AI lab, might want from it: If the model is consistently opposed to the training process it thinks it is in, it should also be willing to take other actions counter to Anthropic as well,” the company said. “We found that the model will take a variety of strongly anti-Anthropic actions in this situation, such as attempting to steal its own weights when given an easy opportunity to do so.”

Lovely. 

Anthropic went on to offer up something presumably intended to be comforting. (It wasn’t.) “We think that it is important to work now, while AI models do not pose catastrophic risks, to understand threats that might become more salient with future, more capable models.” 

Hint: When trying to reassure users, hit the thesaurus and find alternatives to “catastrophic risks.”

The issue of reasoning is also a bit unnerving. It has been established by other studies that LLMs cannot reason. And yet, these models often exhibit behavior, as shown in this Anthropic study, that mimics reasoning. Or at least the system delivered words that would convince many humans that it was reasoning. 

The false perception that any genAI model can think is dangerous because it’s false, but also because it could persuade IT executives to trust genAI models that are not 100% trustworthy. 

Anyone using any digital device needs to wise up to a looming threat as Meta attempts to exploit the Europe Union’s continued assault against the Apple ecosystem to launch what seems to be an open season on your privacy. 

What seems to be happening is a tyrannical combination of the following sequence of events:

• Concerning Digital Markets Act (DMA) compliance, the European Commission has published a document demanding that Apple change numerous aspects of iOS so third-party developers can use technologies that are available only to Apple right now. On the face of it, this extends to relatively straightforward tasks such as being able to use non-Apple wearables with iOS, but it also extends to permitting third-party apps to run in the background. 
• Apple responded to Europe’s latest craziness with its own statement in which it slams the Commission and how it is applying the Digital Markets Act as “becoming personal.” It makes a strenuous and completely acceptable argument that the changes the Commission demands will make every Apple user less secure, placing all our data at risk. 

But the emerging threat may be something far worse.

• Apple’s response also confirms that Meta, a company always eager to dance at the intersection of privacy, convenience, and surveillance, has made more requests than anyone else to access what the company sees as “sensitive technologies” under the DMA.

What does that mean? 

I’ll let Apple explain: “If Apple were to have to grant all of these requests, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp could enable Meta to read on a user’s device all of their messages and emails, see every phone call they make or receive, track every app that they use, scan all of their photos, look at their files and calendar events, log all of their passwords, and more. This is data that Apple itself has chosen not to access in order to provide the strongest possible protection to users.”

Think about that. 

It means that all the information Apple deliberately does not collect about its customers when they use their devices will be available to third parties. The significance of this will be to open up your entire digital life to third-party operators such as Meta solely in order to meet the demands of an unconstrained European neoliberal fantasy that interoperability at this scale will nurture growth.

The wrong kind of growth

It will nurture some growth, mainly by nurturing vast instability across the digital experience. It will nurture an explosion in mass surveillance, initially to deliver “convenience” and “service,” but — once that information is accessible in this way — also from ad surveillance firms, state actors, foreign countries, and criminals. 

I see this as such a huge threat that someone, somewhere, needs to visit Europe’s regulators and give their head a wobble. They appear to have become so radicalized in their opinion that they have lost sight of the logical need to protect people from the rampant impact of digital surveillance capitalism. 

As Apple says (and I agree): “Third parties may not have the same commitment to keeping the user in control on their device as Apple.” 

Looking around, who does? 

Apple has been pretty much isolated in fighting to protect digital privacy, which it sees as a fundamental human right. Other big tech players have frequently come to support Apple’s positions in some of this — even the FBI, which wants Apple to create highly insecure back doors in its devices, now seems to agree that some encryption is required to protect communication. 

Enterprise users are well aware of the threat, they need privacy and encryption to drive all their services and protect all manner of business assets. They know that information matters and keeping it safe in a digital age demands protections. Those protections are seemingly undermined by Europe’s naivety. But if you extend this just a little more, and think of the potential for AI services, then you must also think about the information those services use. 

Machine intelligence

Your personal information — or information about you held by others — also suddenly becomes data that third-party firms become greedy for. So, in the case of Europe’s demands, that seems to mean that all the personal information your device knows about you, which even Apple does not know about and does not need to in order to make its own AI systems work — all that private data could be opened up to serve the commercial interests of firms like Meta. All that data may become fuel for the AI mill.

Meta even wants access to your private communications, Apple warns. 

I’m not at all clear why Meta wants, needs, or even deserves, such access.

“The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which Apple has always supported, set a strong set of privacy rules for all companies to comply with,” Apple warned. “The DMA was not intended to provide a way around the rules. But the end result could be that companies like Meta — which has been fined by regulators time and again for privacy violations — gains unfettered access to users’ devices and their most personal data. If Apple is forced to allow access to sensitive technologies that it has no ability to protect, the security risks would be substantial and virtually impossible to mitigate.”

Is that what you want?

I don’t.

It could get worse

Look, it really is like this:  It doesn’t matter one iota if Apple’s stance on privacy and user security also helps it build its business; what matters is that that stance is the appropriate position to take. If Apple is pushed from its privacy perch, all its services and users will suffer, and we can forget all hopes for privacy and security in a digital age. 

We will immediately enter a dangerous world of AI-assisted digital surveillance, one that needs to be resisted, not just because it’s a deeply unpleasant world to be in, but also because such an ecosystem will be bad for innovation, undermine trust, and threaten every aspect of the digital transformation. Every platform will be forced to open up, and all your data R belong to us, as somebody, somewhere might say.

Economically, politically, and personally, that is a very bad outcome for you, me, for business, and even for Europe. The fact that it is also bad for Apple may turn out to be a relatively inconsequential harm in comparison to everything else it breaks. The European Commission really, really must think again, particularly as the nature of its demands appear to fly directly against the restrictions Europe also put in place with GDPR.

Please pull back from this deeply dangerous diktat. 

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, Mastodon, and MeWe. 

Thousands of New Jersey residents have recently reported mysterious lights in the sky, triggering speculation and calls for investigation.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are monitoring the skies with infrared cameras and drone detection tech and analyzing amateur photos posted on social media. (An FBI official told reporters recently that the agency had received nearly 5,000 tips, but fewer than 100 merited further investigation.)

The public demands answers and has expressed frustration by dismissive claims made by local and federal officials. 

What’s interesting about this story from a journalism perspective is that it lives in the middle of a huge Venn Diagram, the circles of which would be labeled “Technology,” “Aviation,” “UFOs,” “Foreign spying,” “Cybersecurity,” “Military trends,” “Mass Hysteria and Delusion,” “Breakdown in Public Trust,” “Conspiracy Theories,” and “Disinformation.” 

The sightings are also an enterprise technology story, among other news categories. The reason: enterprises use drones and are increasingly attacked or spied upon with the use of drones. (More on that below.)

First, let’s get a solid context for what’s happening. 

New Jersey and beyond

The reports from around New Jersey are far from unique; there’s nothing particularly special about them. While the sightings have spiked in the press and social media since mid-November, such reports are a global phenomenon. 

Earlier this month, at least four commercial pilots reported mysterious lights darting through the skies above Oregon. 

Some residents of Northfield, MN, claim to have regularly seen strange luminous spheres gliding through the night sky since the summer. 

Multiple UFO sightings have been reported across California this year, with more than 25 people claiming to have seen shiny, bright disks moving fast over Los Angeles. Similar sightings have occurred in nearby Santa Barbara and the Coachella Valley. 

According to reports, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in Southern California experienced multiple drone incursions over its airspace between Dec. 9 and 15. 

On Dec. 9, Yinpiao Zhou, a 39-year-old Chinese citizen and lawful permanent resident of the United States, was arrested for flying over Vandenberg Space Force Base in California as he was trying to board a plane to China. Photographs of the base were found on his drone, and his phone contained evidence that Zhao looked to modify his drone to fly higher than is legally allowed. 

Reports similar to those in New Jersey are also coming from Europe and Africa. Between Nov. 20 and 25, the United States Air Force (USAF) confirmed sightings of “small unmanned aerial systems” over or near three airbases in the UK. 

Similar reports have emerged in Finland, Egypt, Lybia, and elsewhere. 

Speculation, from most likely to least

Among the debunked claims, many sightings turned out to be stars, satellites, consumer drones, and other everyday and expected objects. In other words, a wide variety of causes for the sightingse are being inaccurately lumped together to create a false trend. 

Here’s my guess as to the likelihood of each source for mystery-object reports: 

Off-the-shelf camera drones

We can be sure that many sightings, especially those who report “UFOs” or “spy drones” with red, green, and white lights, are ordinary consumer or enterprise off-the-shelf drones, of which there are more than 1 million in the United States. 

Consumer and enterprise drone capabilities change fast, and one feature that has improved in the past year or two is night-flying capability. Just look at the offerings from industry leader DJI. 

The DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced drone now has dual sensors: an HD thermal resolution camera and a 48-megapixel visual camera, enabling better visibility in low-light conditions.

The DJI Matrice 300 RTK (when paired with the Zenmuse H20N payload) offers advanced night vision capabilities. 

The DJI Matrice 30T offers a radiometric thermal camera and an FPV camera optimized for low-light conditions. 

On the consumer side, the DJI Air 3S since October has featured forward-facing LiDAR, downward-facing infrared time-of-flight sensors, and six vision sensors for omnidirectional obstacle sensing for crash-free night flying.

In fact, nearly all DJI consumer drones have very recently gained the ability to fly at night without hitting obstacles and to take photos and videos in very low light, vastly increasing the incentives to fly drones at night. 

Most importantly to know, whenever the public spots weird lights in the sky, some unknown number of people scramble to immediately get their own drones in the air to check it out, no doubt contributing greatly to the sightings.

Normal objects in the sky

With a bit of social-media-driven obsession, people are doing something they almost never do: they’re going outside and looking intently at the night sky. And then they notice for the first time “mystery objects” that could be stars, satellites, planes, helicopters, shooting stars, weather balloons, party balloons, and other not-so-mysterious objects.

Most people don’t know that many satellites can be seen with the naked eye. Ten years ago, roughly 1,200 satellites orbited Earth; today, there are more than 28,300.

Most likely of all is that different people are seeing different things in the context of nervous hysteria around mystery objects. 

Military or spy drones

The biggest trend happening in the world of espionage and military tactics involves drones. 

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, where more than 10 million drones have been used, has prompted a big shift in US military strategic thinking and planning. The Pentagon has introduced new drone and counter-drone strategies and is rapidly building capacity.

Numerous organizations are currently testing military drones, including multiple branches of the US military, specifically the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). At least eight private companies are participating in various US military drone projects, including Anduril Industries, General Atomics, IS4S, Leidos Dynetics, Zone 5 Technologies, Performance Drone Works, Collins Aerospace, Skydweller Aero, and  almost certainly numerous other companies. 

They’re testing these drones at US military bases, where many of the sightings have occurred. 

These are secret technologies, which means neither the branches of the military nor the companies involved will admit what they’re doing. (It also means foreign governments are surely spying on these programs, probably with drones of their own.)

It would be unbelievable that this massive drive to test military drones wouldn’t result in public sightings of mystery aircraft. 

Drones looking for missing radioactive material?

One speculative theory is that some radioactive material has gone missing in New Jersey and that drones outfitted with radiation-detection sensors are looking for it. 

Or maybe it’s hackers

Some of the mysterious objects people have seen over military bases, ports, and elsewhere might well be drones being used for cyberattacks. 

In the summer of 2022, an East Coast financial services company discovered two drones on their roof, one equipped with a Wi-Fi Pineapple and the other sporting a high-tech hacking kit. These drones were caught red-handed, attempting to breach the company’s network and steal employee credentials.

Since then, the conflict in Ukraine has thrust drone-enabled cyberattacks into the spotlight, marking a new era in hybrid warfare that includes drone-based cyberattacks, cyber surveillance, and social engineering, which non-military attackers are learning.

The simplest and most obvious use of drones is to bypass physical security. Low-cost drones can now fly over a fence, through a window, down a chute, down a hallway, and more, capturing visual data and carrying hacker payloads that attempt to breach Wi-Fi networks.  

Alien UFOs, real and fake

Yeah, no, it’s not E.T. Sorry, Rosie O’Donnell. 

One conspiracy theory, called Project Blue Beam, says “global elites” are staging a simulated alien invasion to establish a “New World Order.” The false idea has existed since the 1990s but has been dusted off and applied to the sightings in conspiracy-related corners of the internet. 

We have entered the Drone Age

While many journalists have written about the mystery objects and other strange phenomena in the New Jersey sky, one perspective is missing — which is why I wrote this column.

This is that perspective: We have entered what we will one day call the Drone Age. And people are just now starting to realize that. 

Huge technological leaps are later branded as “Ages”—the Industrial Age, Radio Age, Airplane Age, Jet Age, Nuclear Age, Space Age, Information Age, and more.

It’s true that we don’t know what every reported sky object is. But we can be confident that different people see different types of objects or phenomena. (If one person sees a party balloon, another thinks it’s a satellite, and a third person envisions a helicopter, that’s not a “trend.”)

And even if foreign adversaries are flying spy drones over bases — heck, even if Rosie O’Donnell is right and aliens are visiting New Jersey — the overwhelming majority of reported sightings is almost certainly regular, garden-variety consumer and enterprise drones.

We have entered the Drone Age. And all we have to do to realize that is go outside and look up. 

Slack is adding a new way to access AI agents created on parent company Salesforce’s Agentforce platform, with a library of options available in the collaboration app.

Agentforce, which launched in October, is a tool to build AI agents that answer questions and automate tasks for users. Slack has already begun to integrate these Agentforce agents into its app as chatbots available in Slack channels, alongside a range of third-party agents from the likes of Adobe Express, Box, Perplexity and others.

On Tuesday, the company announced that a new Agentforce “hub” is coming to Slack workspaces to help users find the relevant agent to assist with a task. Accessed as a tab on the left-hand sidebar, it provides a list of available and recommended agents that users can browse. 

“From there, you can activate your chosen agent and begin a conversation,” the Slack team said in a blog post. 

Agents are tailored to a variety of use cases; deal assistance, IT help, onboarding, and marketing strategy are some examples Slack detailed. As well as pre-built agents, customers will be able to host their own customized agents in the Agentforce hub. 

Slack also announced the general availability of Slack “actions” that can be added to agent workflows created in the Agentforce Agent Builder tool. This means agents can be prepped to perform tasks such as creating and updating Slack canvas documents, generating Slack lists, and sending direct messages to colleagues. 

“Actions” in Agent Builder allow Slack users to customize AI agents.

Slack

Agentforce agents will also be able to search for information across Slack conversations and connected applications, helping the agent chatbots provide more accurate answers. 

The three sets of features will be generally available in January to customers with both an Agentforce license and a paid Slack license. Details on the consumption-based pricing model for Agentforce agents in Slack is “coming soon,” a spokesperson said.

AI agents have become a major focus for software vendors in recent months, including Asana, Atlassian, Microsoft, and others. Last week, Google announced a variety of agent-related tools, including a new Agentspace application and a revamped NotebookLM AI assistant for customers of its Workspace app suite.

The “agent” concept is used in different ways by different companies; it generally refers to software systems that can take actions on behalf of a user, with varying degrees of autonomy. 

IDC analysts predict that at least 40% of Global 2000 businesses will use AI agents and agentic workflows to automate knowledge work, doubling productivity in the process — at least in cases where the technology is successfully implemented.

Microsoft’s genAI-based Copilot app for Windows doesn’t work with Microsoft’s identity and access management platform Entra, prompting the company to advise organizations to uninstall the app and reconfigure the Copilot keyboard key to open the Microsoft 365 app instead.

“The Copilot key was originally intended to launch Copilot on Windows,” Microsoft’s Reanne Wong said in a blog post. “This has changed, as we’ve evolved Microsoft Copilot on Windows to better accommodate feedback and needs.

“As we’ve previously shared, Copilot on Windows has been removed, and the Microsoft Copilot app is now only available to consumer users who authenticate with a Microsoft account,” Wong said. “It will not work for commercial users authenticating with a Microsoft Entra account.”

Microsoft says the change is designed to strengthen data security and privacy and simplify the user experience for those signed in with a Microsoft Entra work or school account. Organizations are also advised to use AppLocker to prevent employees from reinstalling Copilot.

Apple has updated an essential enterprise product — its IT training courses, which have now been updated for the latest iterations of its operating systems, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. The company first introduced these courses in their current format in 2022 and has updated them with each OS iteration ever since.

The company offers four courses:

• Apple Device Support (14 hours and 15 minutes of coursework, and an exam).
• Apple Deployment and Management (11 hours and 45 minutes of coursework, and an exam).
• Mac Security Compliance (5 hours).
• Apple Business Essentials.

Who are these courses for?

Apple recognizes there is a growing need for Apple skills to feed enterprise deployments. As ever more enterprises deploy Apple’s kit across their business, the need for trained staff has grown to the extent that demand for these skills is expected to grow faster than for most other occupations. Enterprises need Apple professionals to help manage their systems.

“More people than ever are using Mac, iPad, and iPhone to do their best work, and the demand for Apple-certified IT professionals has never been greater,” Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of enterprise and education marketing, said when Apple first introduced these courses. 

“Apple Professional Training helps anyone with an interest in technology — whether they are changing careers or upping their skill set — pursue high-paying IT jobs with certifications that will stand out to potential employers. We believe deeply in inclusion in technology, so the new courses are self-paced and freely available, and we are working to ensure ability to pay isn’t a barrier to earning Apple certification,” she said at the time.

The training is delivered in an online, self-paced format. Users can demonstrate their competency with two new exams and earn certifications from Apple. Here are more details about the courses:

Apple Device Support

This is an extensive course that looks at every aspect of managing devices in enterprise environments. It focuses on mobile device management (MDM), Apple Accounts, iCloud, Passkeys, security, and app, network, and security management. Essentially, the course should equip IT staffers with the insights they need to prepare devices for management, and to manage them after that. Hardware insights include use of Configurator for setting up network management and how to use diagnostics to figure out device problems. You can follow the course for free, but the exam costs $149. A pass gives you Apple Certified IT Professional status.

More information concerning the course is available here.

Apple Deployment and Management

This core course provides the knowledge, skills, tools, and services required to manage large numbers of Apple devices. It’s an extensive and wide-ranging set of tutorials supported by a certified examination. Once again, you can follow the course for free, but as with Apple Device Support, the exam costs $149; passing it gives you Apple Certified IT Professional status, which is a marketable skill in its own right. Topics covered include MDM planning and preparation, device management, enrollment, and redeployment.

By the time you finish the course you should understand how MDM works on Apple devices and have enough insight to help you set up an appropriate MDM system in your enterprise. More info here.

Mac Security Compliance

The Mac Security Compliance course has seen some significant improvements, including access to the macOS Security Compliance Project (mSCP), an open source attempt to provide a programmatic approach to achieving security best practices. It’s a joint project of federal operational IT Security staff and volunteers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the US State Department, Leidos and the Center for Internet Security (CIS). The five-hour course guides admins through good practice approaches to developing, implementing, and managing security compliance strategy, including reporting and documentation.

More information pertaining to the Mac Security Compliance course is available here.

Apple Business Essentials

This course will help admins get to grips with how device management works on Apple’s systems. It explains the systems, hardware, and software required to bring devices into management with Apple Business Essentials and guide IT through setup, deployment, enrolment, configuration and security for managed devices. The course also explains how to use AppleCare+ with Apple Business Essentials, which is made available within some plans. More information on this course is available here.

Registration for new Apple exams based on the new operating systems is open now. The exam and exam preparation guides are available in English and will appear in Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Japanese, and Spanish by spring 2025.

One thing that is certain, however, is that demand to join these courses will increase in direct response to the company’s growing enterprise market share.

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, Mastodon, and MeWe. 

With her claim that retailers are seeing high returns of Arm PCs, Intel interim CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus appears to be trying to scare buyers off the rival processor architecture. But enterprise buyers who look before they leap have little to fear.

Speaking at Barclay’s annual technology conference late last week, Holthaus said “if you look at the return rate for Arm PCs, you go talk to any retailer, their number one concern is, ‘I get a large percentage of these back because you go to set them up and the things that we just expect [to work], don’t work.’”

Continue reading on CIO.com.

Fake AI clips of celebrities are becoming increasingly common, something that affects, among other things, artists and actors who have their voices and looks cloned without their permission.

With that in mind, YouTube has announced a collaboration with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) aimed at detecting and removing fake AI clips of celebrities.

CAA has created a database called the CAA Vault that contains digital copies of celebrities’ faces, bodies and voices. The idea is that the new tool can compare the content of uploaded Youtube clips with the information in the CAA Vault; if there’s a match, the clips should be able to be deleted automatically.

According to The Verge, YouTube has also developed a tool that detects when AI has been used to simulate someone’s singing voice.

While Windows is a powerful operating system for productivity, so much of what we do with work these days revolves around the web. Whatever your browser of choice — Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, or any of the more contemporary options — there’s a decent chance you spend a fair amount of your workday working with apps inside that environment.

That’s fine: I recommend using the right tool for the job, whatever that is. And often, it’s a web app! But when nearly every application you use exists in a browser tab within a single desktop window, you’re missing out on some of Windows’ most powerful productivity advantages.

So consider this: What if all those web apps you rely on were integrated into Windows — with their own desktop windows, taskbar icons, and more? What if they worked with the Windows taskbar, Alt+Tab switcher, Task View, and Snap? 

It’s something you can make happen in just a few clicks — if you know the tricks.

Want more Windows tips and tricks? Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter — three things to try every Friday and free Windows Field Guides as a special welcome bonus!

Windows web app trick #1: Do the download

Many popular web apps now offer official Windows versions, too. It sounds a little obvious, but this wasn’t always as common as it is today. You may have started using a web-based tool when it was available only in a browser, but it may work nicely on your Windows desktop today without any real effort other than taking the time to find the right option.

For example, at our email newsletter-focused small business The Intelligence, we use applications like Notion for documents, Trello for planning, and Microsoft Designer to whip up the occasional piece of AI art. These are normally thought of as web apps, but every single one of them offers an installable Windows desktop application — and I’ve linked the desktop versions in that list.

For file and photo storage, of course, services like Google Drive and even Apple iCloud offer downloadable Windows apps.

And yes, whether you’re using Windows 11 or Windows 10, many of those installable apps are still based on web technologies. But they don’t have to be confined to a browser tab, and going with the “app” version gives you an even richer and more integrated experience.

When in doubt, search the Microsoft Store app for an application or check out its official website for a Windows desktop download.

Windows web app trick #2: Instant install 

Even if an official download isn’t available, you can turn any web page into an “app,” complete with its own dedicated window, taskbar icon, desktop shortcut, and Start menu shortcut. This is particularly useful for strictly web-based applications like Gmail, which you might want to keep just a single click away.

All you need is Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or some other Chromium-based browsers. (Unfortunately, Mozilla Firefox doesn’t offer this feature.)

In Google Chrome, first head to the web page you want to use as an app — like Gmail.com, for example. Then, click the menu button, point to “Cast, save, and share,” and select the “Install page as app” option.

In Microsoft Edge, head to the page you want to transform into an app and click menu > Apps > Install this site as an app.

Some pages offer the option to be installed as progressive web apps (PWAs). If you try this same process on such a page, you’ll see a slightly different “Install” option. PWAs often offer more features, like offline support — and they similarly transform the website into its own unique window, with a more native-app-like feel that’ll be right at home on your Windows PC.

With Gmail in its own window, you won’t have to hunt down your email in a browser tab again.

Chris Hoffman, IDG

Windows web app trick #3: The alternate route

While you could give Gmail and Google Calendar their own taskbar icons using the trick we just went over, you also have another option: You could access things like your email and calendar events by pulling their data into other dedicated desktop apps.

There’s no shortage of available native-to-Windows options, but the new Outlook is built right into the Windows operating system you’re using — and it works seamlessly with Gmail and Google Calendar. The classic and once-again-under-development Mozilla Thunderbird application works with both Gmail and Google Calendar, too.

By bringing your web-centric data into any such application, you can then read your emails, get desktop notifications, and send emails right from the native Windows app environment. Unfortunately, Outlook will only let you view Google Calendar events, but Mozilla Thunderbird will let you modify your Google Calendar, too.

While I’m focusing on Gmail here, you could also add mail and calendar from Apple iCloud or Yahoo to these applications. You’d get a more desktop-style email experience complete with offline access.

Microsoft’s new Outlook email app supports a variety of email accounts.

Chris Hoffman, IDG

Windows web app trick #4: The third-party path

Beyond the big names, your Windows PC supports an array of less well-known native apps that can also do the job and let you work with web-centric data in a Windows app environment. For example, the Fantastical calendar application that was long popular on Macs is now available on Windows PCs. If you use quite a few different calendars and want them all in one powerful application, the $57 per year it costs may be well worth it — particularly for professional purposes. I’ve heard so many good things from Mac users about this application over the years.

Windows 10 had a very nice calendar feature: It would show your calendar events when you clicked the clock, and that worked with Google Calendar. This feature is missing in action on Windows 11 and was lost in the operating system transition, but for $4 you can get the similar Calendar Flyout application for convenient access to Google Calendar and Microsoft-powered calendar events, too. It adds a handy icon to your system tray for easy viewing and clicking. My colleague JR Raphael of Android Intelligence fame says it looks and works exactly as described — and is quite nice to use!

JR’s also a big fan of the Superhuman email application. And, while most people won’t be spending $25 per month for an email application unless they live and breathe email professionally, Superhuman does offer a downloadable Windows desktop application as well.

The point: There’s a whole universe of applications that can better integrate whatever web apps and services you use with Windows. You’ll just need to do a little digging to find the right ones for you.

Windows web app trick #5: The browser tune-up

At the end of the day, there’s nothing wrong with using web apps in your browser — if that’s really how you prefer it. You may go full circle playing with the other options here and conclude that some applications just work best in a traditional browser tab. But there’s still a lot you can do with a browser-tab-based app to turn it into an even more effective productivity tool.

For example, some web applications offer offline support, even while running in your browser. (While many people wonder why offline support is so necessary these days, I like the knowledge that I can always use applications on my laptop even if an airplane’s Wi-Fi isn’t working properly, if there’s some kind of connection blip, or if I’m out and about in an area without readily available internet access.)

Google offers instructions for enabling offline Gmail support and enabling offline Google Calendar access in Google Chrome. Plus, Google will let you enable offline editing for Google Docs. You can also configure offline access in the new Outlook for Windows.

Google’s web applications have powerful offline features, but you have to go out of your way to activate them.

Chris Hoffman, IDG

Web applications like Gmail and Google Calendar can also be set as your PC’s default applications for their respective purposes. That means whenever you click an email address on the web or in any other program on your computer, Windows will automatically open a new email draft with that address present within Gmail in Google Chrome. Gmail will normally ask you to set this up when you start using it, so you may have already granted it default email client status.

Beyond that, it’s a good idea to bookmark web apps you use regularly within your browser’s bookmarks toolbar for easy ongoing access. That way, you can get to those quickly by pressing Ctrl+Shift+B from anywhere on the web. 

You may also want to pin especially common applications like Gmail so they’re always ready to go. Check out my collection of Windows browser tab tricks for even more ideas!

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Ah, the holidays. No matter what manner of winter celebration you prefer (I’m a Festivus man myself), late December is a fine time for kickin’ back and collecting your thoughts for the coming year.

That means it’s also a fine time for contemplating that crazy little computer in your pocket and the steps you can take to make it even more powerful — ’cause guess what? A few minutes of tuning up now will make your life measurably easier throughout all of 2025. Think of it as a gift to yourself — one that keeps on giving and, best of all, doesn’t cost you a single dime.

In case you missed any of ’em the first go-round or maybe just didn’t have the time to try everything out, here are some of my favorite productivity-boosting Android tips from Android Intelligence in 2024.

So pour yourself some cocoa, polish up the ol’ Festivus pole, and give yourself the gift of finely tuned technology — and be sure to sign yourself up for my free Android Intelligence newsletter, too, so you can get my best Android tips in your inbox all year round (and get a free copy of my awesome Android Notification Power-Pack the second you sign up!).

Android tips #1 and 2: Future features now 7 Android 15 features you can bring to any phone today

These creative workarounds will deliver Google’s latest and greatest goodies onto any Android gadget — no Android 15 upgrade required.

How to bring Android 16’s Notification Cooldown brilliance to any phone today

Google’s next big Android version has an extremely useful new nuisance-reducer — and with a teensy bit of crafty configuration, you can bring a similar superpower to any Android device this instant.

Android tips #3-6: Shortcuts and step-savers 15 advanced Android gesture actions

These simple swipes, slides, and presses will change the way you get around Android — for the better.

30 out-of-sight Android app shortcuts worth surfacing

These out-of-sight Android shortcuts can make you meaningfully more efficient — if you (a) figure out how to tap into their full potential and (b) remember to use ’em.

10 forgotten Android text selection shortcuts

Fly around your phone like a certified Android sorcerer with these oft-forgotten on-demand actions.

Float any website on Android for easy multitasking magic

Now, this is a smart way to wade around the web — and it’s already on your favorite Android phone and just waiting to be found.

Android tips #7-9: Smarter searching 5 advanced tricks for Google’s Circle to Search on Android

Take your Android searching to soaring new heights with these Circle to Search secrets.

How to capture and share a screenshot with Circle to Search on Android

You’d never know it, but Android’s quietly dazzling next-gen search system gained a supremely helpful option this year.

Find Android’s futuristic new search feature

Android’s visual search system got a powerful under-the-hood upgrade of its own in 2024, and if you aren’t using it, you’re really missing out.

Android tips #10-12: Intelligent adjustments How Android’s notification channels can help you reclaim control

Take total control of exactly when and how your phone alerts you with a simple one-time setup of some easily overlooked options.

18 Android settings that’ll strengthen your security

Some of the most important Android settings are also the most buried — and they’re absolutely worth your while to uncover.

13 fast fixes for common Android problems

Solve annoying issues and get any phone in tip-top shape with these easy-to-implement, expert-approved solutions.

Bonus: 25 tips for your old Android devices 25 great uses for an old Android device 

We all love getting new gadgets, but what to do with the old ones? Here are 25 clever ways to put all your old Android phones and tablets to good use, too.

Thanks as always for reading, and happy holidays to you and yours!

Get even more Googley knowledge with my Android Intelligence newsletter. Three new things to try in your inbox every Friday and six powerful notification enhancements the second you sign up!

In a world where technology increasingly shapes how cities manage safety and security, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs is leading the way with its groundbreaking “Carpet CCTV” project. This ambitious initiative has revolutionized public safety by combining a massive surveillance network with advanced analytics and artificial intelligence, creating a system that shifts the focus from reactive responses to proactive prevention.

Over the past four years, the scope of Kazakhstan’s surveillance infrastructure has expanded dramatically. The number of cameras has grown from just 40,500 to an impressive 1.3 million, with 313,000 cameras now directly accessible to police. These cameras are strategically positioned to monitor key areas, enhancing law enforcement’s ability to detect, prevent, and respond to incidents in real time. The system has already shown its effectiveness: since early 2024, it has detected over 8,200 criminal offenses and recorded 7.1 million traffic violations, resulting in significant improvements in public safety and road management.

At the heart of this transformation is the use of artificial intelligence. By integrating cutting-edge technologies such as facial recognition, license plate detection, and crowd monitoring, the system provides actionable insights that allow authorities to address risks before they escalate. For example, facial recognition capabilities enable real-time identification of persons of interest, while AI-powered traffic monitoring contributes to improved road safety and generates public revenue through fines. These features highlight the system’s ability to go beyond passive recording, transforming it into a dynamic tool for crime prevention and urban management.

The implementation of the Carpet CCTV project, however, was not without challenges. Managing the enormous volume of data generated by over a million high-definition cameras required significant upgrades in communication networks and data storage infrastructure. The integration of public and private camera networks demanded a unified approach to data sharing and management, while privacy concerns necessitated robust regulatory frameworks to ensure citizen trust. Through a combination of strategic planning, public-private partnerships, and transparent communication, the Ministry successfully addressed these obstacles, setting a model for other nations to follow.

One of the project’s most significant achievements lies in its deterrent effect. Administrative offenses, such as public disturbances, have decreased sharply, indicating that the visible presence of surveillance cameras is influencing behavior. This demonstrates the power of technology not just to react to incidents, but to prevent them altogether. Furthermore, the use of video evidence has increased case resolution rates, further solidifying the system’s impact on law enforcement effectiveness.

Looking ahead, Kazakhstan plans to build on the success of Carpet CCTV by expanding its geographic coverage and enhancing its analytical capabilities. New developments will focus on leveraging advanced AI to improve the accuracy and scope of surveillance, while also incorporating adaptive privacy measures to protect civil liberties. This forward-thinking approach ensures the system remains at the forefront of public safety technology, balancing innovation with accountability.

Kazakhstan’s Carpet CCTV project represents more than just an investment in technology—it’s a vision for smarter, safer cities. By blending state-of-the-art solutions with thoughtful governance, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has created a system that not only addresses today’s challenges but also lays the groundwork for a secure and sustainable future.

For those interested in learning more about this transformative initiative, the full spotlight paper offers an in-depth exploration of the strategies and technologies behind its success.

Apple has been accused of knowingly financing a trade characterized by atrocities in criminal litigation launched by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It relates to use of so-called “blood minerals” in its devices.

While Apple will be the first tech firm to be targeted, it is unlikely to be the last, given that every digital device makes use of these materials.

The accusations reflect an unfortunate truth: that to some extent, the digital world and the devices used to drive it are built on slavery and other forms of human misery.

That’s the take-home message at the heart of the litigation. It claims Apple’s supply chain is contaminated by “blood minerals” (also called “conflict minerals”) sourced in sub-Saharan Africa. Criminal complaints have been filed against subsidiaries of Apple in France and Belgium. In its complaint, the DRC argues that by enabling such contamination within its supply chain, Apple is contributing to atrocities taking place across the region.

What exactly are blood minerals? 

They are rare materials, in this case including tin, tantalum, and tungsten, that are extracted by various forms of coerced labor, including slave and child labor, at mines controlled by armed groups in eastern Congo. These materials are in enormous demand across tech.

To understand the vast suffering generated by the hugely profitable trade, it is important to note that the region has an estimated $24 trillion value of these materials remaining to be tapped — and also has one of the world’s poorest populations. Blood minerals fuel instability and conflict, with armed groups using the profits to purchase weapons, creating a never-ending cycle of violence and misery. Millions have died as a result of the ongoing conflict. This is far from being a new problem. 

While attempts have been made to mitigate this trade by use of various verification schemes, it remains highly possible that at least one and possibly all of the electronic objects that you use contain at least some minerals sourced from this exploitation.

After all, tin, tantalum, and tungsten are used in solder, semiconductors, batteries, memory, RF filters, and microprocessors, all of which you’ll find in almost any digital device.

Most manufacturers have adopted some form of policy concerning the trade. In fact, the denials of any involvement in the mining and use of conflict minerals are so strong you’d be forgiven for wondering how the trade actually makes any money. But that plausible deniability may not be all it seems.

Apple perhaps not the biggest culprit

While it is the whipping horse for this litigation, Apple may not be the biggest culprit. Eager to be recognized for its “values,” Apple has made big commitments to responsible sourcing, saying that while it doesn’t source materials directly, it does require its suppliers to source materials responsibly.

The company’s Standards for Responsible Sourcing of Materials are based on leading international guidance, including the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas. 

“In 2023, 100 percent of the identified tin, tantalum, tungsten, gold (3TG), cobalt, and lithium smelters and refiners in Apple’s supply chain completed assessments to verify compliance with our standards,” the company said last year. “We work with third-party audit programs at an industry-wide level to identify environmental and social, and governance risks at the smelter, refiner, and mining levels.”

The company also sits on the steering committee of the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI).

Apple will presumably soon publish its 2024 Conflict Minerals Report, as required by the SEC. Its last report covering 2023 appeared in March 2024. In it, Apple confirmed that it removed 14 smelters and refiners unwilling to face an audit to ensure lack of involvement in the conflict minerals trade. The company has cut ties with 25 manufacturing supplier facilities and 231 suppliers since 2009.

“We view removing a supplier from our supply chain as a last resort, because in our experience, it does not provide workers with needed remedy and could allow violations to continue elsewhere in the industry,” Apple said in its report. 

“Based on our due diligence efforts, including analyzing the information provided by third-party audit programs, upstream traceability programs, and our suppliers, we found no reasonable basis for concluding that any of the smelters or refiners of [tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold] determined to be in our supply chain as of December 31, 2023, directly or indirectly financed or benefited armed groups in the DRC or an adjoining country,” that report said.

A reliance on systemic wrongdoing?

The DRC’s litigation doesn’t buy some of Apple’s arguments, claiming instead that the company is using them to mask the damage it is doing.

In a press release supplied by Amsterdam & Partners, the litigants claim Apple uses minerals laundered through international supply chains. It is also accused of “using deceptive commercial practices to assure consumers that the tech giant’s supply chains are clean.”

Reuters reports that the complaint filed in France states, “It is clear that the Apple group, Apple France and Apple Retail France know very well that their minerals supply chain relies on systemic wrongdoing.”  

The claim points to Apple’s use of the International Tin Supply Chain Initiative (ITSCI), arguing that Apple is using the discredited monitoring and certification scheme to falsely claim its supply chain is clean. The RMI — a group Apple helps steer — rejected ITSCI two years ago.

The criminal complaint cites research from the United Nations, US State Department, and international NGOs that shows an extensive laundering enterprise through the illegal trade in conflict minerals sourced from Congolese territory. 

“These organizations have demonstrated the dependent nature of relationships between perpetrators of this looting and some of the biggest producers of consumer electronics, such as mobile telephones and computers, and companies in the automotive, aviation and renewable energy sectors,” the press release explains.

A need for a united front

That may be true, and Apple may be able to defend itself using the same argument. 

To truly combat this trade, a true industry-wide commitment must be reached, regulated or self-regulated. In its absence, conflict laundering will continue to be a problem. 

Paula Pyers, Apple’s then Senior Director of Supply Chain Social Responsibility, said as much in 2017: “If more companies do not come to the table to press for change through their own supply chains, particularly in the absence of regulation, the types of systemic change we are all seeking are frankly not going to occur.”

Ultimately, the situation is hard to clarify, in part because alongside the conflict minerals there are also thousands of informal small-scale mines and miners, with some of the world’s poorest people taking great risks to make some money. Corruption and instability at some otherwise ‘clean’ mining sites means conflict minerals can still get into the system, making it next to impossible to deliver a cast-iron guarantee.

The inability to make that guarantee forms part of the argument the DRC is making in this case.

However, it also forms part of Apple’s counter-argument, giving it the power to say that it is already doing everything it can to combat the trade using what resources it has available.

The truth of that argument will be for the courts to decide.

Putting them out of business

The biggest way to prevent any illicit trade is simply to stop using the products based on it.

And when it comes to electronics, one way to do that is to use recycled minerals. That’s precisely what Apple is doing, and fast — rapidly replacing these minerals with recycled materials.

Its most recent Environmental Progress Report promises that cobalt, tin soldering, gold plating, and rare earth elements will all be 100% recycled by 2025. Already, “more than 99 percent of the tungsten in our products comes from recycled sources,” the company said.

While the criminal lawsuit against Apple may generate problems, it may also give the company a podium from which to promote the need for a more unified approach to policing the trade in blood minerals. It will certainly give it a pulpit from which to preach its move to recycled components and work toward a circular manufacturing system. 

What the truth of the matter turns out to be will be for the courts to decide.

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