Academics create algorithm that can detect if you're lying in emails
A lie has no legs, the saying goes, but when you’re online, you don’t need legs. You can cruise through the Internet, lying to people free of the little signals which could give you away, such as body language.
This is a topic academics from the Cass Business School tackled, ultimately creating an algorithm that can detect lies in an email. I’m totally serious.
Video conferencing increases productivity
Video collaboration increases productivity and improves both business and personal relationships, according to video conferencing technology company Lifesize.
The company polled its users and says that 99.2 percent of respondents find video conferencing boosts relationships both in and out of the office. No word on how many people were polled, though.
Workers find meetings productive
You’ve probably heard it a million times, how meetings are actually a waste of time and do little good. You’ve also heard how people usually browse social media and look at the ceiling during these meetings, and that it would be more productive watching paint dry.
Turns out, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Unified communications solutions company ShoreTel conducted a research into what the current workforce thinks about meetings, and the overall opinion is vastly positive.
First impressions matter in email marketing
We all know that first impressions are important and it seems that the same is true when it comes to email marketing.
According to a survey by email marketing company Campaigner 39 percent of marketers say that the first email content new subscribers see from their brand is a thank-you-for-subscribing message. And those messages work, with almost half reporting that 21 percent or more of new subscribers engage with them.
Slack gets voice calling
Slack is one of the best communication tools for teams and it is fair to say that we are big fans of it. We use it every day to chat and share ideas for new stories but also to transfer files. And pretty soon we might start calling each other.
After beta testing the feature for the last couple of months in private, Slack is now officially rolling out voice calling. It is planned to reach users on both desktop and mobile apps, though its capabilities will be limited by their plan.
Microsoft introduces project management tool for Office 365
To help its users stay on task and manage their assignments more easily, Microsoft has just launched a new project management tool for teams using Office 365 called Planner.
The company initially released a preview of its new tool in December 2015 and now it will begin rolling it out worldwide to all Office 365 users including those using Office 365 Enterprise E1-E5, Business Essentials, Premium and even its Education subscription plan.
Ransomware emails see incredible jump in Q1 2016
PhishMe, a security company providing anti-phishing solutions, has released a new report, analyzing the state of phishing attacks worldwide, and the numbers are staggering, though expected.
The first quarter of 2016, compared to the last quarter of 2015, has seen an incredible 789 percent jump in the number of phishing emails containing malicious code, mostly ransomware.
New Microsoft Ventures to invest in promising startups
Microsoft has today announced a new department designed to invest into disruptive start-ups in their early phases.
The department, led by Nagraj Kashyap (corporate vice president) and executive vice president of business development Peggy Johnson, holds the name Microsoft Ventures.
CEO falls for email scam, loses $47 million
An airplane parts manufacturer has fired its CEO after the poor guy got scammed, costing the company €42 million ($47 million).
"In the supervisory board meeting, held on May 24, 2016, Mr. Walter Stephan (CEO) was revoked by the supervisory board as chairman of the management board of FACC AG with immediate effect for important reason. The supervisory board came to the conclusion, that Mr. Walter Stephan has severely violated his duties, in particular in relation to the 'Fake President Incident'. Mr. Robert Machtlinger was appointed as interim CEO of FACC AG".
Google launches Spaces for sharing links, YouTube videos, images and more with small groups [UPDATE: It's live!]
Google is introducing a new way to share content with a group. Spaces is a collaborative tool that Google wants people to use to share everything from articles and images to YouTube videos and messages.
So keen is Google for a huge take up of Spaces, that the service is launching in mobile and desktop web versions, as well as iOS and Android apps. It's billed as an alternative to group conversations, and Google wants to help streamline sharing by eliminating app switching -- this is achieved by integrating Google Search, YouTube, and Chrome into a single tool.
What you need to know about spear phishing
Unlike spam or phishing emails, which involve a broad and varied range of targets, spear phishing is a highly-targeted email attack against a specific group, organization, or even person.
The main aim of a spear phishing attack is either to obtain unauthorized access to sensitive data, whether this is intellectual property, financial data, trade or military intelligence, or to get the recipient of the email to act on a command, whether this is to transfer money or share confidential data.
BBM finally gets video calling on Android, iOS
In an effort to remain competitive with rival messaging platforms, BlackBerry has decided to bring video calling to its cross platform BBM messaging apps.
Last week, it was unveiled that the Android variant of BlackBerry Messenger would be receiving the ability to make video calls as a beta feature. Now the company has announced that this feature will also be appearing on Apple’s iOS.
Messaging apps provide a false sense of security
In the last couple of weeks we have seen consumer messaging giants WhatsApp and Viber retrospectively add end-to-end encryption technology to their communications platforms. The notion of providing users with improved security is certainly to be applauded, and seeing messaging apps adopt encryption as a necessity as opposed to simply a nice-to-have feature, is long overdue.
However, the manner in which providers are increasingly introducing encryption technology within apps as an afterthought is potentially providing a false sense of security to the billions of people that use them on a daily basis.
Skype for Business now available on OS X
In an attempt to entice enterprise Mac users, Microsoft has just released a preview of its new Skype for Business for OS X. This new version of Skype will be business-focused and is centered around creating an experience tailored to enterprise users.
From today, you can request access to the preview from Microsoft. The company will be sending the Skype for Business Mac Preview out to IT administrators in order for them to familiarize themselves with the software before extending the preview to more users.
Facebook Messenger adds group calling
Facebook Messenger is one of the most popular messaging services today, boasting over 900 million monthly active users. However, since competition in this market is increasingly fierce, to maintain momentum the social network has to keep improving its service.
Earlier this month, at its F8 developer conference, Facebook announced support for chat bots with the purpose of enabling businesses to deliver better customer support, and now it is rolling out group calling to Messenger users across the globe.
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