Software

Hot on the heels of this morning's story about wasted developer time comes a new survey from GitLab looking at the technologies being used to help DevSecOps teams be more productive.

The company surveyed more than 5,000 development, security, and operations professionals about everything from deployment frequency to the practices teams have adopted to learn what the most agile and efficient organizations have in common.

It seems that generative AI is everywhere at the moment, but for businesses understanding how best to make use of the technology can be a bit of a puzzle.

Instabase is aiming to help with the launch of a new AI Hub, this is a repository of AI apps focused on content understanding and a set of generative AI-based tools.

Italian developer Incomedia has released Website X5 Evo 2023.2 and Website X5 Pro 2023.2, a feature point release of its wizard-driven, user-friendly website building product line for Windows.

Version 2023.2 unveils a spellchecker for the tool’s text editor, but the major highlight is a new Pro-only feature called MagicText, which promises to harness the power of AI to generate text.

Getting a clear understanding of how customers use your products is vitally important for software suppliers. Product managers are best equipped to deliver valuable products if they have clear knowledge about this. Data-driven insights, available from entitlement management (EM) systems, are essential for optimizing product road mapping, packaging, provisioning, and pricing decisions, all with the aim of delivering the best customer experience possible. All of these contribute to achieving strategic goals, such as facilitating shifts in monetization and deployment models, streamlining the quote-to-cash (Q2C or QTC) process, and ultimately accelerating growth and increasing recurring revenue.

Key to these efforts: aligning price (the expense for the customer) and value (the perceived utility) of your product. But this proves to be tricky without understanding of who your users are. "Lack of insights into user personas and their priorities" and "disparate systems that make it difficult to achieve single customer view" are among the top hurdles, as reported in the Revenera Monetization Monitor: Software Monetization Models and Strategies 2022. A comprehensive approach to entitlement management can help provide the insights that contribute to improved operational efficiencies.

Berlin software powerhouse O&O Software GmbH has launched O&O SafeErase 18, a major new version of its data-shredding tool for Windows PCs. The major highlight of this latest build is a completely redesigned user interface, along with performance optimizations and added support for the latest web browsers.

The main highlight of this new release is the slick new user interface, which sits comfortably with modern Windows aesthetics. Big bold icons accompany the main section headers, which continue to offer users a choice of six data-shredding methods.

Microsoft’s Chinese division has unveiled a major new update of its system optimization and maintenance tool with the release of Microsoft PC Manager 3.0 Beta. The app, which provides users with easy access to a wide -- and growing -- selection of built-in Windows tools, adds a new floating desktop toolbar option for even easier access to its offerings.

The new desktop toolbar is made accessible via Microsoft PC Manager’s Toolbox section, where users can both enable the feature and choose which tools to place on it for easy access.

Nitro Software has unveiled a major new -- and renamed -- version of its flagship PDF editing tool. Nitro PDF Pro 14.3 is available now as a free trial download for PCs running Windows.

Chief highlights in this new release include a refreshed user interface, accessibility improvements and improved localization experience thanks to various fixes involving formatted, missing words and redirects.

Open-source video broadcasting, recording and streaming tool OBS Studio 29.1 has been released for Windows, macOS and Linux.

The chief highlight is added support to allow users to livestream on YouTube using AV1/HEVC over Enhanced RTMP, resulting in lower bandwidth requirements and widening access to 4K60 streaming. The app also makes several improvements to the program’s preferences.

Michigan-based TechSmith has launched Camtasia 2023, a major new release of its professional screen recording and video editing tool for Mac and Windows.

The 2023 release focuses on two specific areas: offering enhanced visual effects and implementing various user feature requests.

Accessing your home or work devices from a remote location just got a lot easier -- and more secure -- with the launch of TeamViewer Remote 15.41.7, out now for Windows, Mac and Linux.

The headline new feature is a major revamp of how TeamViewer connects one user to another’s device. In place of a password-based system, users make use of session links to connect directly, and adds a new option that allows users to connect and control remote devices through any web browser.

Following a complaint from Slack, Microsoft may have decided to stop bundling its Teams video conferencing software with Office.

A report says that the move comes as the Windows maker looks to avoid an antitrust investigation by the EU. The company has indicated its willingness to cooperate with the European Commission as it seeks to avoid further legal wranglings with the bloc.

With the taskbar in Windows 11 Microsoft not only made a lot of changes, but also a lot of mistakes. But some of the issues that irritate users could soon be a thing of the past.

In preview builds of Windows 11, there is evidence that Microsoft is working to improve the taskbar by returning features that were removed in the upgrade from Windows 10. The upcoming changes may not make Windows 11 flavor of the month overnight, but could go some way to improving the image of the operating system, improving workflow and making things easier to use.

WhatsApp is not alone in offering a disappearing message feature. It is an idea that's fairly self-explanatory: messages can be configured to automatically delete after a certain period of time -- something that's ideal for certain sensitive information.

But in a slightly confusing move, WhatsApp is introducing the option to stop disappearing messages from disappearing. The option is called Keep In Chat, and it is being described as "your new sender superpower".

A record 26,448 software security flaws were reported by CISA last year, with the number of critical vulnerabilities (CVEs) up 59 percent from 2021 at 4,135.

The 2023 Annual Threat Intelligence Report, from the Deepwatch Adversary Tactics and Intelligence (ATI) team, also shows that the conflict between Ukraine and Russia has unleashed a flurry of amateur and state-sponsored attacks and breaches on organizations and critical infrastructure.

Vivaldi Technologies has unveiled Vivaldi 6.0 for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android, a major new release of its customizable web browser.

Version 6.0 lands with two heavyweight new features: an additional layer of tab organization called Workspaces, and support for custom icons on the browser toolbar.