Microsoft Office 365 Planner

So I just was notified that I have Planner now available in my office 365 APP grouping. So what is it? From the Microsoft Office Blogs we get the following: Teamwork! It is all about teamwork and this application is hoping to be the go to APP to give that to you.

Office 365 Planner, which offers people a simple and highly visual way to organize teamwork. Planner makes it easy for your team to create new plans, organize and assign tasks, share files, chat about what you’re working on, and get updates on progress. Planner can be used to manage a marketing event, brainstorm new product ideas, track a school project, prepare for a customer visit, or just organize your team more effectively.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Which Office 365 plans are eligible for Planner preview?

A. The following plans are eligible for Planner preview: Office 365 Enterprise E1, Office 365 Enterprise E3, Office 365 Enterprise E4, Office 365 Enterprise E5, Office 365 Education, Office 365 Education E3, Office 365 Education E4, Office 365 Business Essentials and Office 365 Business Premium. When generally available, Planner will be included in several additional Office 365 plans. Stay tuned for more details.

Q. How can customers join the preview program for Planner?

A. Starting Q4 of this calendar year, Planner will be available in preview to Office 365 First Release customers. Setup instructions will be sent to eligible Office 365 administrators once the preview is available for use within their tenant.

Q. Which Office 365 plans are eligible for Planner when generally available?

A. Planner will be included in the Office 365 Enterprise E1–E5 subscription plans (including corresponding Government and Non-Profit), Office 365 Business Essentials and Premium plans, and Office 365 Education.

Sophos Mobile Control 6.1 is now available

Security made simple.

Product Notification   Sophos Mobile Control 6.1 is now available Dear Customer, We’re pleased to announce that the new Sophos Mobile Control 6.1 is now available for download and upgrade. With new management of Windows 10 computers, Apple DEP (Device Enrollment Program) support, improved email and document containers, and much more, Sophos Mobile Control 6.1 is an even better EMM solution for businesses that want to spend less time and effort to manage and secure mobile devices. For more information about what’s new, please see the knowledgebase article New features in SMC 6.1. Best regards, Your Sophos Team   Getting too many emails? Visit the Preference Center and receive the content you want or unsubscribe. © 2016 Sophos Inc. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy 3 Van de Graaff Drive, Burlington, MA 01803.

Skype for Business Android and iOS enhancements

Microsoft announced new enhancements to Skype for Business this past week,

Announcing content viewing for Skype for Business on Android and updates to iOS

Microsoft says they have greatly enhanced content view/sharing especially on Android devices. You are now able to view the presenter’s desktop, a big benefit in most meetings and training events.

Microsoft also states that they have improved connectivity even in poor conditions. You now have the ability to switch over to a cellular connection when the WiFi connection is too weak to support the connection.

Upgrade your app today

In most cases, you should automatically be getting our app updates. If your updates are set to manual, make sure you get the latest version from the Google Play or Apple Store. If you are not yet using Skype for Business on your mobile phone or tablet, download and start using it today.

Steelers experimenting with remote-controlled, robotic tackling dummies

Here is an interesting junction for two of my favorite subjects, Football and Technology. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is experimenting with remote-controlled Robotic Tackling Dummies. Developed at Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Technology introduced to the Steelers by former Dartmouth Quarterback Danny Rooney, scout for the Steelers and son of Steeler president Art Rooney II.

Mike Tomlin says that the players are even coming up with ideas to help in practice. They were originally developed to help decrease injuries to players during practice.

Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering came up with the idea of a mobilized tackling dummy. Mobile Virtual Player, which is in a testing phase, has the ability to cut, weave, stop and start just like a real player along and can be tackled.

My anti-virus is up to date so I am protected, right? – Naked Security

This is question and I have an Anti-Virus program on my machine, WHY DID I GET INFIECTED? are questions that are brought up so often. The reality of the situation is that there is no defense that is 100%. When you realize that and if you are watchful of where you go on the internet and what you are doing when you are there, you can reduce the chance of your getting infected. There are a lot of reasons for something nasty to get past your malware protection. Many of the start with you! Don’t be “Click Happy”. Think before you take the big leap.

Take a look at this article to give you some more detailed thoughts on this but here is a brief list of issues they outline that could cause these issues:

Are you safe if:

• You aren’t regularly deploying the latest security patches?
• You disabled a security feature after a user complained Facebook was slower?
• You have unprotected mobile devices that can connect to file shares?
• Your email doesn’t get scanned for viruses and spam?
• Visitors can access your Wi-Fi, which is on the same network as your servers?
• Anyone is allowed to turn on macros in Office documents they receive via email?
• Users can read files they shouldn’t access at all and write to files they shouldn’t change?
• You don’t require users to choose suitable passwords?
• You ignore alerts from your security software that are warning you something is wrong?
• You’ve forgotten about those old XP machines still running in the basement?

Google Chrome making a simple change in “backspace” function in the browser

The change is that the “backspace” key was causing your browser to the previous displayed screen. My response was when I read this was, “It does that?”. Which points to the reason that Google is making the change. Hardly anyone used it and it is a confusing function for those of us who primarily do data entry and not just simple browser “browsing”.

I read about this in an article in Naked Security, that went into a light rant about losing that function in the browser. What is the issue?

The problem with [Backspace] is that it has traditionally had two meanings, and two quite different behaviours, in your browser:

• Go back and delete the previous character when you are filling in a field in a form.
• Go back to the previous page if you aren’t filling in a field, even if you’re in a form.

Think how many web warnings you’ve seen in your life saying, DO NOT PRESS YOUR BROWSER’S BACK BUTTON IN CASE YOU ACCIDENTALLY PAY FOR THIS ITEM TWICE, or words to that effect.

I’m not sure this is really a security issue but change always takes us awhile to get used to.

Have you heard of OneCore? This is what is at the core of Microsoft’s Windows 10 Everywhere.

Microsoft has always had a vision of having their operating system being the center of all things electronic. You know, the center of control. The thing that all things talk to. Well, according to arstechnica writer Peter Bright wrote a great article: OneCore to rule them all: How Windows Everywhere finally happened, that describes in great detail the path that Microsoft has travelled to get to this point.

It is a rather long article but if are interested in what Microsoft is doing and how they are doing it with all of their different points of attack this article provides a lot of insight.

As a whole, I am real happy with Windows 10 and the way that it is working with all of my workstations that I have it on. It is worth learning its features and work arounds. I think that you will agreee.

I know this isn’t really Technical, but, we are going to have a booth at this weeks Airshow at the Westmoreland Airport.

This is our first year to have a booth at the Westmoreland County AirShow and we are looking forward to seeing all of you there! Hopefully the weatherman is totally off base with their predictions and that we have good weather throughout. Come by our booth to see some of the products and services that we can provide to you and to talk to our staff. If your phone is a little short of a charge plug it into our charging station to give yourself a little boost.

If you are having issues with your phone or tablets let our excellent staff know and we can provide you with a discount coupon to have it serviced at our state of the art cell phone repair center.

We can fix more than just cracked screens. Hope to see you there!

We had a great visit with Sam Liebl from Lenovo today

We were able to discuss many ways that we can provide our customers with products and services from Lenovo and how we can fine the best deals for you on the products that you are looking for. We have been having a great year with them and it is primarily because of the wonderful support we have been receiving throughout the process of determining the best product for the best price and support possible. We love the new Flex-3 notebooks that we currently have on the floor and apparently so do our clients. They are priced well, are light and ease to work with and provide you with a wide range ways to work with the notebook, whether it is in the typical notebook mode, tented, or as a tablet. It’s a great choice for a well built notebook for all-around business use.

Jessy just came back from a Lenovo conference in Florida so he is full of some very useful information that you should really take advantage of.  Be sure to give us a call and, Hey!, stop by and see what we have on the floor.

Email Spoofing...Yes it is a real life problem.

One of my friends, Michelle Drolet fom Towerwall, Inc. just posted an interesting article about Email Spoofing and how the Sophos Product Reflexion Total Control can help prevent this issue.

You can find the entire article here.

Reflexion Total Control provides quite a few ways for dealing with controlling SPAM and other email problems. Take a look at a quick list of features here. To purchase, find out more on the product or to have us setup a trial be sure to contact us.

Easy On Hold Support Notification

Easy On Hold streams for all easyonhold.com URL groups will be down for upgrades for approximately 2 hours Sunday, May 22, 2016 from 10pm to around midnight. Does not affect brandimusic.com URL groups.

During this time, we will be upgrading our databases for increased capacity and speed.

Streams will stop during these hours, but will return to normal operation.

If your installation uses a Grace Digital streaming player, a reboot of the device may be necessary.

ProStream devices will play onboard audio fail-over files during the maintenance window (you will not experience silence). The device will begin using the live stream as soon as it becomes available.

For questions and support, please contact us at 888-798-4653 or support@easyonhold.com.

AMD might actually be making a comeback in CPU architecture

Michael Hunter passed along this article

http://www.itwire.com/it-industry-news/development/72853-amd-zen-will-favourably-compete-with-intel-skylake.html

“Zen will compete with Intel on performance, power and specifications – not just price”

“By the end of the year, AMD will have moved on, to both its Zen CPU core as well as the Polaris graphics architecture. We are far close to Intel than ever before – you always need a number two to keep them honest”

New feature: Office 365 Groups ability to update privacy type

New feature: Office 365 Groups ability to update privacy type

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The ability to update privacy type for Office 365 Groups is a new Office 365 feature. You’ll begin seeing this feature today.

How does this affect me?

When you create an Office 365 Group, users have two privacy options: public (anyone can access the Group's content) and private (only approved members can access the Group's content). This update enables Group owners to change the privacy setting from public to private or vice versa by editing the Group properties in your favorite browser.

What do I need to do to prepare for this

You don’t need to do anything. Please click Additional Information to learn more.

Additional information

New SharePoint home experience in Office 365 rolling out starting today

New SharePoint home experience in Office 365 rolling out starting today

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Direct Link Copied to Clipboard.

As announced at the “Future of SharePoint” event on May 4th, we are starting to rollout the new SharePoint home experience in Office 365, starting today, to First Release. The rollout will be completed to all tenants within the course of the next several weeks. We’re committed to evolving your intranet to be more accessible on the go, and more personal with intelligence-driven content based on user activities across sites, the people they work with, and the content they work on.

How does this affect me?

Starting May 11th, 2016, we will begin to rollout the new SharePoint home experience in Office 365. What was the 'Sites' page is now the 'SharePoint home' and the “Sites” tile becomes the “SharePoint” tile - same logo, redesigned for a modern, responsive user experience.

What do I need to do to prepare for this change?

Please click Additional Information to learn more.

New updates make OneNote even more powerful

I find myself using OneNote all of the time not only in the office but outside of the office as well for so many things. It has become the go to application for me to collect some thoughts, take notes while I’m on the phone, and keep up on meeting topics for our office. With recent updates to the program, there are even more things you can do with it. Some of the new features follow:

Users can paste a video link into their OneNote note, and they'll see a thumbnail of that video and have the option to play it. This will work in OneNote for Windows 10, Mac or iOS, and users can paste video links from YouTube, Vimeo, Vine and Sway.

In OneNote for Windows, users will be able to sign in using their Office 365 organization ID.

In OneNote for the Windows Phone, users can now speak their notes, as there's a new audio recording feature.

In OneNote for iOS, users can rearrange audio recordings, images, text and shapes by touching and dragging. They can also use a newly-debuted lasso tool to select items for grouping and rearranging. Finally, they now have the ability to insert multiple photos on a page at once.

In OneNote Online, users will be able to use Bing for Smart Lookup -- i.e. they'll be able to find related notes by selecting a note's contents and selecting an option in the right-click menu. The ability to find related items -- and act on them accordingly -- will be huge for people who are compiling and acting on research.

And for academic users, they'll have the ability to sort their stacks of notebooks by "your personal notebooks, notebooks that others have shared with you and OneNote Class Notebooks you belong to."

You can read the full text of the OneNote team's announcement here.

Comcast increasing data caps from 300GB to 1TB in June

While we here in Pennsylvania have enjoyed not having our 250GB data cap even being turned on, I am glad to see that Comcast is taking the initiative to increase is bandwidth cap to 1TB so when they do begin enforcing it we have a greater chance of not being billed for overages. If you do go over the limit Comcast plans to bill you $10 per each 50GB’s of overage. If you want to add unlimited data to you plan this cost is rising from $35/month to $50/month.

So what does 1TB allow us to do? Comcast says: "You can stream about 700 hours of HD video, play 12,000 hours of online games, and download 60,000 high-res photos in a month." Comcast stated that as of late 2015 8% of their customers are now exceeding the 300GB cap and this increase is to help lower that percentage.

Comcast says that the caps isn’t really a cap at all. Customers are allowed to go over them though they have to pay extra when they do. AT&T is also stepping up its enforcement of their caps as well it is being reported.

New Logitech MX Master Wireless Mouse

While a little on the expensive side this is the one mouse to rule them all!  ‘'

Web Pricing: $63-$86

Hand-sculpted comfort contour - The perfectly sculpted, hand crafted shape* of this comfort mouse supports your hand and wrist in a comfortable, natural position.
Experience fine-motion control and fluid experience with well-positioned buttons and wheels.
Speed-adaptive scroll wheel - Scroll through long documents or web pages faster and easier. The precision wheel auto-shifts from click-to-click to hyper-fast scroll. Logitech Options™ software lets you customize this experience
Unique thumb wheel - Experience side-to-side scrolling with a stroke of your thumb. To unlock the full range of thumb wheel possibilities, install Logitech Options™ software. Turn pages, switch applications, reassign buttons, and much more using Logitech Options software.
Darkfield Laser Tracking - Darkfield™ Laser Sensor tracks flawlessly virtually anywhere, even on glass* and high-gloss surfaces.
Dual connectivity - Connect this performance mouse via included Logitech Unifying™ Receiver or via Bluetooth Smart wireless technology.

Easy-Switch technology - Pair up to 3 devices and easily switch between them with the touch of a button.

Rechargeable battery - Charge quickly. You can get enough power for a full day of usage in 4 minutes only, with no down time while recharging. A full charge can last up to 40 days*. When the battery gets low, an indicator light lets you know. Recharging is fast and easy. Just plug MX Master into your computer using the micro-USB charging cable. Continue using your mouse while it charges.
*Based on a 6 hour daily office use. Battery life may vary based on user and computing conditions.

Spec Sheet

How do I share my work calendar with all the applications that I use?

Like a lot of you, I would want to have to enter information into my computer once in the best of all worlds have it show up everywhere that I may want to access it from.

I live and breathe inside of Microsoft Outlook with everything from email, scheduling, task management and accessing information about the people I need to be in contact with. So Outlook is a good container to house all this information for me. It also integrates with a lot of the business applications that we use at our office so it is an essential part of my daily routine.

So over the past month I've been experimenting with some ways to be able to share information that is in Outlook with other applications and devices that I use. The picture to the right is a good example of how I have accomplished at some the things that I use on a daily basis.

Google Calendar seems to be the central application that I need to coordinate the sharing of all the calendar data. Using a shareware program that I've commented on last month, called Outlook Google Calendar Sync, I have the conduit that I can use to connect Outlook calendar to Google calendar and have them synchronized automatically. This allows me to set up the connection from Cozi Calendar to Google Calendar to display all of my events for my family to share, again, without me having to reenter the information.

So now as I enter new events into my Calendar in Outlook, the Outlook Google Calendar Sync Application periodically updates Google Calendar and when ever my wife looks at our family Cozi Calendar she has the ability to plan around my schedule very easily. Another nice thing that happens is that unable to connect our Amazon Echo to my Google account and when I come down in the morning I can just ask Alexis what my days schedule is. I know then what I have to ramp up you soon I need to get moving towards the office. Voilà! Information at your fingertips

• Outlook Google Calendar Sync - Offers calendar synchronization between Outlook and Google, including attendees and reminders. Completely free, no install necessary, works behind web proxies and actively developed.
• Google Calendar -  With Google's free online calendar, it's easy to keep track of life's important events all in one place.
• Cozi - Cozi is the must-have organizer for families. It helps coordinate and communicate everyone’s schedules and activities, track grocery lists, manage to do lists, plan ahead for dinner, and keep the whole family on the same page.
• Amazon Echo - Echo provides hands-free voice control for Amazon Music, Prime Music, Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn. Plus, Echo is Bluetooth-enabled so you can stream other popular music services like iTunes from your phone or tablet. .

New Ransomware called Jigsaw is now live

ZDNet’s headline Tick, Tock: Jigsaw ransomware deletes your files as you  wait just posted with a scary tale of how this new malware product works. The code is being sold to would be blackmailers for $139 but so far ZDNet states that only 24 people have purchased it.

According to most of the discussions out there on this new malware package it was poorly written and Forcepoint researchers were able to easily reverse engineer the code.

Forcepoint says:

"A genius malware author this is not, the use of C#/.NET makes it trivial to reverse engineer and analyse. At the current rate, by selling the source code for the software is not going to generate nearly enough money to pay for much.
Finally, the customers who have purchased this kit are non too smart either, even with the documentation available some have left their names in the malware."

ZDnet goes to say that while this version is not as dangerous as it could be but future versions could be even worse:

The infection rates are small and the return seems to be poor. However, the functionality of this new type of ransomware is still worth noting. As cybercrime becomes more sophisticated and tools are developed, even those with a lack of skill can cash in -- and Jigsaw is a prime example of how ransomware may end up evolving on a wider scale in the future, reported

See more coverage here.

Another OneDrive Issue!

Until I read this article from our friends over at https://winsupersite.com I didn’t realize that this feature ever existed. This is something that I have used in DropBox when I was using a my old surfacepro2 that had limited storage space on its drive. Now that I see what they are talking about, yeah! I want it back, too! Hopefully they will bring something back that will useable in this manner and help you to manage the files the files that you put on OneDrive. The link to this article is below:

Will OneDrive Placeholders Return for Users of Microsoft's Cloud Storage?