Items tagged with microsoft teams
Microsoft is on a roll with its Windows 11 Insider Preview builds, and today it is opening up a new feature for Insiders to try out. When Microsoft first announced Windows 11 last month, it said that its popular Teams video conferencing platform would be tightly integrated into the operating system. Starting today, Microsoft Teams integration is making its way to the most recent Insider Preview builds of Windows 11. However, at this time, Microsoft is only enabling this new Teams experience to a limited number of testers. "We are beginning to roll Chat from Microsoft Teams to only a subset of Insiders at first, and over time will increase to more Insiders," said Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc. ...
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Microsoft is taking a trip down memory lane and it is inviting you along for the stroll, with some nifty new background options for its Teams software. One of the background options is of Clippy, the "true OG virtual assistant" that predates today's fancy-pants AI assistants like Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and the rest (we can throw Bixby into the mix). Clippy first debuted in Microsoft Office in 1997. It would have been hard to imagine two and a half decades ago ever being enamored by the cheerful paperclip that was always all-too-eager to help, whether you wanted its suggestions or not. But in the years that have passed, Clippy has become a sort of cult icon in geek nostalgia. "Whether...
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This has been a rough year, no doubt about that. The pandemic has taken its toll in many ways, including physically distancing us from family members and friends for far too long. In an effort to make things a tad easier, Microsoft is making several personal features in Teams generally available today, on desktop, mobile, and the web. The idea is to "help everyone rediscover the joy of togetherness" in a more user friendly and fun way. Bearing in mind that apps like Teams and Zoom were primarily designed for business collaboration, the addition of certain features intended to personalize the experience on a more consumer level is certainly welcome. "From online calls that will make you feel like...
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Just because you may have a stellar video conferencing setup, like what we came up with within our video conference home studio optimization guide, does not mean you have a great internet connection. Thus, the Microsoft Teams development group is creating a way to preserve data use and meeting quality with a new “low data mode.” Over time, Microsoft is working to make Teams the best possible platform while competing with the likes of Google Meet and Zoom for videoconferencing. Recently, the company added drag and drop capability between Teams and Outlook, making the user experience more seamless. Now, Teams will prioritize audio over video to make sure users are at least heard if...
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The world may never go completely back to the way it was before the Coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc across the globe. As we collectively pick ourselves by the bootstraps, Microsoft is preparing for a future in which remote work is the new normal and not necessarily the exception, and has launched what it calls the world's first employee experience platform (EXP), called Viva. Viva is not an application or a standalone service. Instead, it is a platform designed to bolster Microsoft's Teams and 365 software, in an effort to "help employees learn, grow, and thrive" through new experiences integrated into Microsoft's existing services and software. "We have participated in the largest at-scale...
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If you use Microsoft Teams and Outlook at work, you may have noticed that bringing files between the two platforms was a pain. Seemingly, 11,571 other people agreed when they upvoted a suggestion on the Microsoft Teams forum from 2016 that asked for the ability to drag and drop files between Outlook and Teams. Now, that feature has finally been implemented, according to an engineer for Microsoft Teams. Office workers rejoice! Before this update rolled out, Microsoft Outlook users who received files by email would have needed to drag them to their desktop before dragging the file to Teams. Given that Teams and Outlook are cut from the same cloth, it would have made sense to have this functionality...
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Picture yourself in a virtual meeting, and someone is going over Q4 company stats in PowerPoint with spinning transitions and buzzwords like “synergy” and “paradigms.” Though you were already bored, it does not help that the presenter or presentation looks small on the screen, so you cannot even attempt to focus even if you wanted to. While the presenter rambles on about “synergistically conceptualizing bleeding-edge e-service paradigms” in the next quarter, Microsoft wants to help you try to focus on the meeting. In March, Microsoft Teams is getting a Dynamic View feature that will do automatic optimizations or let users personalize their view in Teams. Remco...
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Dell on Tuesday unveiled a bunch of new displays, including what it claims are the world's first video conferencing monitors certified for Microsoft Teams. It is an interesting pitch, and sign of the times—more people than ever these days are working remotely, a result of COVID-19. And even if recent vaccines eradicate the threat in the coming months, it is feasible that telecommuting will remain immensely popular. That presents an opportunity for PC hardware makers to design and build products that are suited for this new reality we find ourselves in for the foreseeable future. And Dell has done just that with its new and appropriately branded Video Conferencing Monitor line, which currently...
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Many people all around the world have missed their favorite sporting events due to the coronavirus pandemic, which is putting the damper on any large gatherings. Here in the United States, some sporting events are being held without fans, which certainly changes the feel for players and fans alike. The NBA is trying something to help fans and players be more connected during basketball games than they would watching games played in silent arenas. The NBA is restarting its season on July 30 and has announced that it will use Microsoft Teams to project more than 300 fans live at courtside during games. Fans who are invited to watch the game will appear on 17-foot video screens and will be able...
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More people are working from home these days, and now more than ever there is a need for capable video conferencing software to stay productive. This has led to increased efforts by developers to amp up their software solutions. That includes Microsoft, which has added a bunch of updates to its popular Microsoft Teams software. "As the global response to COVID-19 evolves, communities around the world have moved from an era of 'remote everything' into a more hybrid model of work, learning, and life. And as we all scramble to keep up, the future of work and education is being shaped before our eyes. At Microsoft, we’ve spent the last few months learning from our customers and studying how...
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Microsoft has patched a vulnerability in its Teams software that could have allowed an attacker to infiltrate compromised systems, steal data, and even take control of an entire organization's accounts. What makes the security flaw somewhat unique is that all of the dastardly deeds could have been accomplished with a just an animated GIF. Users within the organization wouldn't even need to share the infected GIF—just viewing it would be enough for it to work its malicious mojo. The attack itself was leveraged in a subdomain takeover vulnerability in Teams, and prior to being patched, would have affected every user who users the Teams desktop or web browser version. "Without getting into...
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Microsoft has offered its latest work from home trend report that looks at how much time people are spending using Microsoft Teams each day. Microsoft reports that it reached a new daily record of 2.7 billion meeting minutes in a single day, which is a 200 percent increase from the 900 million meeting minutes recorded on March 16. The report also shows that 183,000 tenants in 175 countries are using Teams for Education as students and teachers embrace distance learning. Another interesting statistic shows that total video calls in Teams has grown by over 1000 percent in March. As for the countries with the most active Teams users, the report found that Norway and the Netherlands turn on video...
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In some ways, these are unprecedented times, resulting in a dramatic rise in the use of video conferencing software. Many people working from (or stuck at) home have turned to Zoom, and the sudden influx exposed some security and privacy issues. In the wake of it all, Microsoft is reminding users of its Teams software, while emphasizing its "commitment to privacy and security." Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365, wrote a blog post on the subject, assuring users that "privacy and security are never an afterthought" at Microsoft. Some may view that as a subtle (or maybe not-so-subtle) dig at Zoom. I'm not entirely sure if that is how it was meant to come across, but it's...
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Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system has been plagued with numerous bugs recently, but one issue in particular is frustrating a large segment of its customer base. As we all well now, COVID-19/coronavirus has necessitated that many Americans work from home to adhere with quarantine guidelines. However, this particular Windows 10 bug is preventing some users from connecting to the internet with the apps they need most. For those that are working from home, and need to access their work system using a virtual private network (VPN), a recent cumulative update, KB4535996, is making those connections unstable. "Devices using a manual or auto-configured proxy, especially with a virtual...
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Companies all around the country have sent employees home to work amid the coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak to help prevent the spread of the virus. Many of those people who are working from home are communicating with teams and coworkers using Microsoft Teams, which just so happened to turn three years old this week. Amid the coronavirus outbreak, Microsoft has seen unprecedented use of Teams, noting that it now has more than 44 million daily users. That figure has grown by 12 million users in the last seven days alone. Microsoft says those 44 million daily users have generated over 900 million meeting and calling minutes on Teams each day this week. Microsoft says that it has become "very clear"...
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As the world continues to fear the coronavirus outbreak, more and more businesses and schools are looking for alternatives to in-person meetings and classroom time. Google has announced that it is committed to helping students and teachers continue to learn no matter where they are. Google plans to leverage its G Suite and G Suite for Education productivity apps and starting this week it plans to roll out free access to advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capability to these customers globally. The new capabilities that Google will offer at no cost include support for larger meetings of up to 250 participants per call. Live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers within a domain, and the ability...
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Microsoft is really looking to take the fight to Slack with its Teams collaboration tool. For those not in the know, Microsoft Teams is a platform for chatting, file sharing and video/audio calls (among other things) aimed at business users. In addition, Teams offers excellent integration with other Microsoft products including the ever-popular Office suite and Skype. However, one area where Teams has come up short compared to Slack is when it comes to a free option. A free tier is critical for Teams to gain acceptance with small businesses, and it is a way to give customers a small "taste" of what to expect with the platform and entice to them with a larger feature-set with the paid options....
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