Sharing your calendar on Outlook is a great way to keep your team on the same page about specific events and workflows. Fortunately, Microsoft 365 makes doing so a lot simpler. Here are the ways to share or publish your calendar on different versions of Outlook.

Outlook on the web

If you have Microsoft 365 or another email service based on Microsoft Exchange Online, follow these steps to share your calendar:

1. Open the Calendar by clicking on the calendar icon at the bottom of the page.
2. Once you’re in Calendar, go to the toolbar at the top of the page. Click on Share and choose which calendar you want to share. Keep in mind that you can only share calendars you own and not other people’s.
3. Indicate whom you want to share your calendar with by entering their email address or name.
4. Select which activities recipients are permitted to perform on your calendar. You can choose from the following:
   • Can view when I’m busy ⁠– if you want the calendar to show when you’re busy but hide certain details
   • Can view titles and locations ⁠– if you want the calendar to indicate when you’re busy, as well as key details like an event’s title or location
   • Can view all details ⁠– if you want the calendar to reveal all details about an event
   • Can edit ⁠– if you want recipients to be able to modify your calendar
   • Delegate ⁠– if you want recipients to be able to alter your calendar and share it with other users
5. To proceed, click on Share. If you change your mind, click on the Trash icon to cancel sharing your calendar.

Alternatively, you can publish your calendar and share it with others using a URL. Here’s how you do it:

1. In Calendar, go to Settings and click View all Outlook settings.
2. Select Shared calendars.
3. Go to Publish a calendar and choose which calendar you want to publish and how much information is revealed to recipients.
4. Click Publish.
5. You will be given the choice between using an HTML or an ICS link. The HTML link can be used to view your calendar using a browser like Firefox or Google Chrome. An ICS link allows recipients to import your calendar and view it on their own Outlook calendar.

Outlook.com

Like Outlook on the web, Outlook.com allows you to share your calendar directly or publish it. The steps for sharing are exactly like those used in Outlook on the web, too, except you only have two options for how recipients can use your calendar. These are “Can view all details” and “Can edit.”

Publishing your calendar on Outlook.com requires you to::

1. Click on the calendar icon to open the Calendar view.
2. In Calendar, go to Settings and click View all Outlook settings.
3. Go to Calendar and select Shared calendars.
4. In “Publish a calendar,” select which calendar you’re publishing and how much information it contains.
5. Click Publish and choose to use either an HTML or ICS link.

Outlook on iOS and Android

If you’re using a mobile version of Outlook, these are the steps for sharing your calendar:

1. On your Outlook app, click the hamburger button at the top-left corner and select Calendar.
2. Go to Share and tap on Add People to indicate your calendar’s recipients.
3. Input each recipient’s name or email address. Once you’re done, tap on the Check button at the top-right corner of the page.
4. You will see a list of recipients. Tap on a name to edit their permissions and how much information they’re allowed to see. As with Outlook on the web, available options are “Can View,” “Can Edit,” “Delegate,” “Only When I’m Busy,” “Only Titles and Locations,” and “All Details.”
5. To remove a user from your recipients, tap on Remove at the bottom of the page.
6. After you’ve set permissions, tap on the Check button at the top-right corner of the page.

The Outlook calendar is an excellent feature for managing your team’s events and workflows and can help boost your efficiency and productivity. If you have other questions and concerns about Microsoft 365, get in touch with us today.

If you want to keep everyone updated on each other’s assignments or improve your team’s productivity, sharing your calendar on Microsoft 365 is a must. In this article, we’ll take a look at how you can sync your schedules on different versions of Outlook.

Outlook on the web

If you have Microsoft 365 or another email service based on Microsoft Exchange Online, follow these steps to share your calendar:

1. Open the Calendar by clicking on the calendar icon at the bottom of the page.
2. Once you’re in Calendar, go to the toolbar at the top of the page. Click on Share and choose which calendar you want to share. Keep in mind that you can only share calendars you own and not other people’s.
3. Indicate whom you want to share your calendar with by entering their email address or name.
4. Select which activities recipients are permitted to perform on your calendar. You can choose from the following:
   • Can view when I’m busy ⁠– if you want the calendar to show when you’re busy but hide certain details
   • Can view titles and locations ⁠– if you want the calendar to indicate when you’re busy, as well as key details like an event’s title or location
   • Can view all details ⁠– if you want the calendar to reveal all details about an event
   • Can edit ⁠– if you want recipients to be able to modify your calendar
   • Delegate ⁠– if you want recipients to be able to alter your calendar and share it with other users
5. To proceed, click on Share. If you change your mind, click on the Trash icon to cancel sharing your calendar.

Alternatively, you can publish your calendar and share it with others using a URL. Here’s how you do it:

1. In Calendar, go to Settings and click View all Outlook settings.
2. Select Shared calendars.
3. Go to Publish a calendar and choose which calendar you want to publish and how much information is revealed to recipients.
4. Click Publish.
5. You will be given the choice between using an HTML or an ICS link. The HTML link can be used to view your calendar using a browser like Firefox or Google Chrome. An ICS link allows recipients to import your calendar and view it on their own Outlook calendar.

Outlook.com

Like Outlook on the web, Outlook.com allows you to share your calendar directly or publish it. The steps for sharing are exactly like those used in Outlook on the web, too, except you only have two options for how recipients can use your calendar. These are “Can view all details” and “Can edit.”

Publishing your calendar on Outlook.com requires you to::

1. Click on the calendar icon to open the Calendar view.
2. In Calendar, go to Settings and click View all Outlook settings.
3. Go to Calendar and select Shared calendars.
4. In “Publish a calendar,” select which calendar you’re publishing and how much information it contains.
5. Click Publish and choose to use either an HTML or ICS link.

Outlook on iOS and Android

If you’re using a mobile version of Outlook, these are the steps for sharing your calendar:

1. On your Outlook app, click the hamburger button at the top-left corner and select Calendar.
2. Go to Share and tap on Add People to indicate your calendar’s recipients.
3. Input each recipient’s name or email address. Once you’re done, tap on the Check button at the top-right corner of the page.
4. You will see a list of recipients. Tap on a name to edit their permissions and how much information they’re allowed to see. As with Outlook on the web, available options are “Can View,” “Can Edit,” “Delegate,” “Only When I’m Busy,” “Only Titles and Locations,” and “All Details.”
5. To remove a user from your recipients, tap on Remove at the bottom of the page.
6. After you’ve set permissions, tap on the Check button at the top-right corner of the page.

The Outlook calendar is an excellent feature for managing your team’s events and workflows and can help boost your efficiency and productivity. If you have other questions and concerns about Microsoft 365, get in touch with us today.

Do you want to remind or update your team of company-related activities? An easy way to do this is by marking the activity on your Outlook calendar and sharing it with your colleagues. The following steps will let you do just that.

Outlook on the web

If you have Microsoft 365 or another email service based on Microsoft Exchange Online, follow these steps to share your calendar:

1. Open the Calendar by clicking on the calendar icon at the bottom of the page.
2. Once you’re in Calendar, go to the toolbar at the top of the page. Click on Share and choose which calendar you want to share. Keep in mind that you can only share calendars you own and not other people’s.
3. Indicate whom you want to share your calendar with by entering their email address or name.
4. Select which activities recipients are permitted to perform on your calendar. You can choose from the following:
   • Can view when I’m busy ⁠– if you want the calendar to show when you’re busy but hide certain details
   • Can view titles and locations ⁠– if you want the calendar to indicate when you’re busy, as well as key details like an event’s title or location
   • Can view all details ⁠– if you want the calendar to reveal all details about an event
   • Can edit ⁠– if you want recipients to be able to modify your calendar
   • Delegate ⁠– if you want recipients to be able to alter your calendar and share it with other users
5. To proceed, click on Share. If you change your mind, click on the Trash icon to cancel sharing your calendar.

Alternatively, you can publish your calendar and share it with others using a URL. Here’s how you do it:

1. In Calendar, go to Settings and click View all Outlook settings.
2. Select Shared calendars.
3. Go to Publish a calendar and choose which calendar you want to publish and how much information is revealed to recipients.
4. Click Publish.
5. You will be given the choice between using an HTML or an ICS link. The HTML link can be used to view your calendar using a browser like Firefox or Google Chrome. An ICS link allows recipients to import your calendar and view it on their own Outlook calendar.

Outlook.com

Like Outlook on the web, Outlook.com allows you to share your calendar directly or publish it. The steps for sharing are exactly like those used in Outlook on the web, too, except you only have two options for how recipients can use your calendar. These are “Can view all details” and “Can edit.”

Publishing your calendar on Outlook.com requires you to::

1. Click on the calendar icon to open the Calendar view.
2. In Calendar, go to Settings and click View all Outlook settings.
3. Go to Calendar and select Shared calendars.
4. In “Publish a calendar,” select which calendar you’re publishing and how much information it contains.
5. Click Publish and choose to use either an HTML or ICS link.

Outlook on iOS and Android

If you’re using a mobile version of Outlook, these are the steps for sharing your calendar:

1. On your Outlook app, click the hamburger button at the top-left corner and select Calendar.
2. Go to Share and tap on Add People to indicate your calendar’s recipients.
3. Input each recipient’s name or email address. Once you’re done, tap on the Check button at the top-right corner of the page.
4. You will see a list of recipients. Tap on a name to edit their permissions and how much information they’re allowed to see. As with Outlook on the web, available options are “Can View,” “Can Edit,” “Delegate,” “Only When I’m Busy,” “Only Titles and Locations,” and “All Details.”
5. To remove a user from your recipients, tap on Remove at the bottom of the page.
6. After you’ve set permissions, tap on the Check button at the top-right corner of the page.

The Outlook calendar is an excellent feature for managing your team’s events and workflows and can help boost your efficiency and productivity. If you have other questions and concerns about Microsoft 365, get in touch with us today.

Microsoft Workplace Analytics presents a clear picture of employee performance, giving managers and leaders actionable insights to enhance productivity. Learn more about this valuable tool and its benefits to businesses of all sizes across industries.

How does Workplace Analytics work?

A paid add-on to Office 365 enterprise plans, Workplace Analytics extracts behavioral insights from data gathered from emails, calendars, documents, and Office 365 apps. This means any data an employee enters into Office 365 can be used to assess their performance and productivity.

The data from which insights are gleaned are generated by employees themselves — how much time they spend on meetings, who they communicate with, and how much time they spend on productive tasks.

All this data can be viewed on the Workplace Analytics dashboard, where information is sorted using the following metrics:

• Week in the life provides information on how the entire organization spends time and how employees collaborate with one another.
• Meetings overview shows the amount of time people spend in meetings.
• Management and coaching presents information about one-on-one meetings between each employee and their direct manager.
• The internal networks metric shows how people within your organization communicate and collaborate with one another.
• External collaboration provides insights into how your employees connect with individuals or teams from third-party organizations.
• Teams collaboration takes a look at how employees and managers use Microsoft Teams to communicate with their colleagues.

What does Workplace Analytics aim to do?

Workplace Analytics is designed to solve businesses’ most common problems, specifically issues related to productivity and engagement.

Using Workplace Analytics data, business leaders can develop effective productivity strategies for the entire company. For instance, if the data shows that employees spend 60% of their time in meetings, managers can come up with a strategy to make meetings shorter or less frequent so staff can focus on productive tasks. Similarly, human resources personnel can use data on employees’ work patterns to identify the causes of burnout — now a widespread issue across businesses and industries — and make recommendations to address it.

Workplace Analytics can be also used to determine how workers collaborate with internal and external parties. Suppose a member of your sales team frequently works and communicates with certain vendors. The sales team’s manager can pull up Workplace Analytics data and use it to assess whether or not this collaboration is helping the team meet targets, or if it’s causing them to miss out on other, more critical opportunities for collaboration and/or making a sale. Based on this information, the manager can also identify which employees are most likely to meet or exceed their targets and set company-wide standards accordingly.

Finally, Workplace Analytics allows managers to determine an employee’s level of engagement, and whether workloads are fairly distributed among workers and/or departments.

To ensure you get the full benefits of Workplace Analytics, partner with a reputable managed IT services provider like us. Our experts are highly skilled and experienced in implementing and managing Microsoft programs and services, so you can rest easy knowing your business is in good hands. Drop us a line today.

Microsoft Workplace Analytics is a cloud-based service that allows organizations to assess employee performance using data gathered from Office 365. This enables business leaders to identify inefficiencies in how tasks are carried out, and then come up with a strategy for eliminating these in order to increase productivity.

How does Workplace Analytics work?

A paid add-on to Office 365 enterprise plans, Workplace Analytics extracts behavioral insights from data gathered from emails, calendars, documents, and Office 365 apps. This means any data an employee enters into Office 365 can be used to assess their performance and productivity.

The data from which insights are gleaned are generated by employees themselves — how much time they spend on meetings, who they communicate with, and how much time they spend on productive tasks.

All this data can be viewed on the Workplace Analytics dashboard, where information is sorted using the following metrics:

• Week in the life provides information on how the entire organization spends time and how employees collaborate with one another.
• Meetings overview shows the amount of time people spend in meetings.
• Management and coaching presents information about one-on-one meetings between each employee and their direct manager.
• The internal networks metric shows how people within your organization communicate and collaborate with one another.
• External collaboration provides insights into how your employees connect with individuals or teams from third-party organizations.
• Teams collaboration takes a look at how employees and managers use Microsoft Teams to communicate with their colleagues.

What does Workplace Analytics aim to do?

Workplace Analytics is designed to solve businesses’ most common problems, specifically issues related to productivity and engagement.

Using Workplace Analytics data, business leaders can develop effective productivity strategies for the entire company. For instance, if the data shows that employees spend 60% of their time in meetings, managers can come up with a strategy to make meetings shorter or less frequent so staff can focus on productive tasks. Similarly, human resources personnel can use data on employees’ work patterns to identify the causes of burnout — now a widespread issue across businesses and industries — and make recommendations to address it.

Workplace Analytics can be also used to determine how workers collaborate with internal and external parties. Suppose a member of your sales team frequently works and communicates with certain vendors. The sales team’s manager can pull up Workplace Analytics data and use it to assess whether or not this collaboration is helping the team meet targets, or if it’s causing them to miss out on other, more critical opportunities for collaboration and/or making a sale. Based on this information, the manager can also identify which employees are most likely to meet or exceed their targets and set company-wide standards accordingly.

Finally, Workplace Analytics allows managers to determine an employee’s level of engagement, and whether workloads are fairly distributed among workers and/or departments.

To ensure you get the full benefits of Workplace Analytics, partner with a reputable managed IT services provider like us. Our experts are highly skilled and experienced in implementing and managing Microsoft programs and services, so you can rest easy knowing your business is in good hands. Drop us a line today.

Microsoft Workplace Analytics is a powerful tool that gathers data from Office 365 applications such as Word, Excel, and Outlook, gleaning insights about your employees’ performance. This solution provides a better understanding of how every member of your team spends their time at work and helps improve both employee engagement and productivity.

How does Workplace Analytics work?

A paid add-on to Office 365 enterprise plans, Workplace Analytics extracts behavioral insights from data gathered from emails, calendars, documents, and Office 365 apps. This means any data an employee enters into Office 365 can be used to assess their performance and productivity.

The data from which insights are gleaned are generated by employees themselves — how much time they spend on meetings, who they communicate with, and how much time they spend on productive tasks.

All this data can be viewed on the Workplace Analytics dashboard, where information is sorted using the following metrics:

• Week in the life provides information on how the entire organization spends time and how employees collaborate with one another.
• Meetings overview shows the amount of time people spend in meetings.
• Management and coaching presents information about one-on-one meetings between each employee and their direct manager.
• The internal networks metric shows how people within your organization communicate and collaborate with one another.
• External collaboration provides insights into how your employees connect with individuals or teams from third-party organizations.
• Teams collaboration takes a look at how employees and managers use Microsoft Teams to communicate with their colleagues.

What does Workplace Analytics aim to do?

Workplace Analytics is designed to solve businesses’ most common problems, specifically issues related to productivity and engagement.

Using Workplace Analytics data, business leaders can develop effective productivity strategies for the entire company. For instance, if the data shows that employees spend 60% of their time in meetings, managers can come up with a strategy to make meetings shorter or less frequent so staff can focus on productive tasks. Similarly, human resources personnel can use data on employees’ work patterns to identify the causes of burnout — now a widespread issue across businesses and industries — and make recommendations to address it.

Workplace Analytics can be also used to determine how workers collaborate with internal and external parties. Suppose a member of your sales team frequently works and communicates with certain vendors. The sales team’s manager can pull up Workplace Analytics data and use it to assess whether or not this collaboration is helping the team meet targets, or if it’s causing them to miss out on other, more critical opportunities for collaboration and/or making a sale. Based on this information, the manager can also identify which employees are most likely to meet or exceed their targets and set company-wide standards accordingly.

Finally, Workplace Analytics allows managers to determine an employee’s level of engagement, and whether workloads are fairly distributed among workers and/or departments.

To ensure you get the full benefits of Workplace Analytics, partner with a reputable managed IT services provider like us. Our experts are highly skilled and experienced in implementing and managing Microsoft programs and services, so you can rest easy knowing your business is in good hands. Drop us a line today.

Kdan Mobile founder and CEO Kenny Su

Kdan Mobile, a company that provides a wide range of cloud-based software, including AI-based tech for organizing documents, has raised a $16 million Series B. The round was led by South Korea-based Dattoz Partners, which will also take a seat on Kdan Mobile, and included participation from WI Harper Group, Taiwania Capital and Golden Asia Fund Mitsubishi UFJ Capital.

Launched in 2009, Kdan Mobile has focused on developing content creation and productivity software for mobile devices from the start, founder and chief executive officer Kenny Su told TechCrunch. “We’ve observed more and more industries embracing remote or hybrid work for years now, even before 2020,” he said. “We always sensed that trend would continue.”

Kdan Mobile has now raised $21 million in total. Since announcing its Series A in April 2018, Kdan Mobile has grown from 70 employees to 200 in Taiwan, China, Japan and the United States. It also passed 200 million downloads and now has more than 100 million members on its platform. More than half of Kdan Mobile’s users are in the U.S. and Europe, 30% from Asia and 15% from Africa and Australia.

Part of the funding will be used to develop Kdan Mobile’s enterprise products, including Document AI, its data processing and filtering technology, and SaaS products like e-signature service DottedSign, PDF software Document 365 and Creativity 365 for multimedia content creation, including animations and video editing.

After focusing primarily on individual users, Kdan Mobile decided to start working with more enterprise clients in 2018 and its software is now used by more than 40,000 businesses and educational organizations. Su said the company’s focus on enterprise was validated with the 2019 launch of DottedSign, which now has more than 300,000 users. During the past year and a half, the number of signatures processed by DottedSign increase by 30 times as companies switched to remote work because of the pandemic. Kdan Mobile also began offering a set of APIs and SDKs so internal developers at large enterprises can integrate and customize its technology.

“We use a lot of what’s called B2C2B approach, or business to consumer to business, meaning that we still try to connect with users at the individual level, but do so in a way that we hope they’ll adopt our solutions at the company level,” said Su.

Document AI was launched in 2021 after Kdan Mobile found that many of its users wanted to reduce the amount of time they spend managing documents. Its features include optical character recognition, smart tagging and search, and protection for sensitive data. Some examples of how Document AI can be used include automating data-entry tasks and creating summaries of research documents.

When asked how its products differentiate from those offered by Google, Microsoft and Adobe, Su said one way is that Kdan Mobile has always created products for mobile first, before designing the user experience for other devices, with the idea of serving professionals who are on the move a lot.

On the other hand, Kdan Mobile doesn’t necessarily see itself as a competitor with those companies. Instead, its solutions are complementary. For example, it creates files that are compatible with Adobe products and is integrated with Google Workspace, Zapier and, in the near future, Microsoft Teams.

“In that regard, it’s about helping users where they are, rather than trying to sway them away from existing products or services,” Su said.

In statement, Dattoz Partner CEO Yeon Su Kim said, “We see tremendous growth in the market for software and solutions that empower the post-pandemic hybrid workforce. Kdan’s powerful product suite and the leadership team’s ability to executive have led to its strong momentum in several key markets, including the U.S. and Asia markets.”

Like it or not, there will come a time when your once lightning-fast Mac computer can no longer meet modern computing demands. When this happens, you’ll face the following dilemma: should you stick to your current Mac computer or purchase a new one? To help you make this decision, we’ve listed several signs you need to watch out for.

Your device can’t support the latest macOS version

Apple releases a new version of macOS every September or October. Typically, Mac models from the past several years are supported. So if your device can’t update to the latest version, it’s a sign that you need to have your Mac replaced.

The latest macOS version that’s currently in public beta is 12 Monterey. Here are the following Mac models that support the update:

• MacBook (early 2016 and later)
• MacBook Air (early 2015 and later)
• MacBook Pro (early 2015 and later)
• iMac (late 2015 and later)
• iMac Pro (2017 and later)
• Mac Pro (late 2013 and later)
• Mac mini (late 2014 and later)

This means that devices made earlier than those in the list cannot install macOS Monterey. For instance, a 2010 Macbook Pro running Mac OS X Lion cannot support the upcoming version of macOS. Your device is likely obsolete, and while you can keep on using it as usual, you won’t get any new features and its slow performance may cause productivity issues.

You’ve run out of free space

File sizes are constantly growing, which means that they are bound to take up more space in computer hard drives. If your Mac only has 128 or 256 GB of storage space, you’ll find yourself freeing up space for new files often. You have the option to purchase flash drives or external hard drives, but these aren’t built into your system, so the chances of losing them are high.

It’s therefore more ideal to purchase a new Mac instead. Newer versions offer as much as 4TB of storage, which will allow you to store more files in the long run.

Your Mac has poor specs

If frozen screens, slow-loading apps, and poor battery life are already a part of your typical day while using your Mac, then it might be time to replace it.

For instance, the performance of a hard disk drive (HDD) slows down with age, which could cause your computer to load files and programs sluggishly. The same principle applies to your battery. You may experience short standby and usage times, or the device could suddenly turn off. There’s the option of plugging your device into an outlet while using it, but this sacrifices portability.

To mitigate these issues, you can add more random access memory (RAM), swap out the HDD, or replace the battery. It’s important to note that some components are soldered to the motherboard, so replacing them may not be an option. The money you would spend on upgrading your Mac would be better put toward a new machine, which will not only be faster, but also much more reliable.

Your Mac’s hardware is damaged

You need to replace your Mac if it has suffered serious physical damage. This could range from a broken display, damaged hard drives, missing keyboard keys, or nonfunctioning USB and charging ports.

It’s easy to have your device fixed, but it’s not the most financially sound decision to invest money in an obsolete machine when you can buy a new one that will last longer. Also, small issues can become major problems. Let’s say you’re using your Mac with a heavily cracked screen. The device might be usable for a while, but the display might stop functioning anytime, which is a major hindrance if you’re in the middle of something important.

If problems on your Mac are already affecting your productivity, consider replacing it with a newer version that performs much better and has no hardware damage.

You’re experiencing software issues

An outdated Mac can experience software problems such as unresponsive apps, visual glitches, and random shutdowns. If your Mac is running an older version of macOS, it might run into software compatibility issues. For instance, a program may refuse to run because your operating system is outdated.

You can usually fix these problems by freeing up your RAM or storage space. Reinstalling macOS is also a good option. If the problems persist, however, you should consider investing in a new Mac.

It’s important to have a Mac that not only performs well, but also helps you become more productive and efficient. If you want to learn more about replacing your Mac, drop our experts a line today and we’ll be in touch.

Apple computers are built to last, but you’ll eventually have to replace them with a new one when they start slowing down. So how do you determine if it’s finally time to put your Mac to rest? We highlight six surefire signs your company needs a Mac upgrade below.

Your device can’t support the latest macOS version

Apple releases a new version of macOS every September or October. Typically, Mac models from the past several years are supported. So if your device can’t update to the latest version, it’s a sign that you need to have your Mac replaced.

The latest macOS version that’s currently in public beta is 12 Monterey. Here are the following Mac models that support the update:

• MacBook (early 2016 and later)
• MacBook Air (early 2015 and later)
• MacBook Pro (early 2015 and later)
• iMac (late 2015 and later)
• iMac Pro (2017 and later)
• Mac Pro (late 2013 and later)
• Mac mini (late 2014 and later)

This means that devices made earlier than those in the list cannot install macOS Monterey. For instance, a 2010 Macbook Pro running Mac OS X Lion cannot support the upcoming version of macOS. Your device is likely obsolete, and while you can keep on using it as usual, you won’t get any new features and its slow performance may cause productivity issues.

You’ve run out of free space

File sizes are constantly growing, which means that they are bound to take up more space in computer hard drives. If your Mac only has 128 or 256 GB of storage space, you’ll find yourself freeing up space for new files often. You have the option to purchase flash drives or external hard drives, but these aren’t built into your system, so the chances of losing them are high.

It’s therefore more ideal to purchase a new Mac instead. Newer versions offer as much as 4TB of storage, which will allow you to store more files in the long run.

Your Mac has poor specs

If frozen screens, slow-loading apps, and poor battery life are already a part of your typical day while using your Mac, then it might be time to replace it.

For instance, the performance of a hard disk drive (HDD) slows down with age, which could cause your computer to load files and programs sluggishly. The same principle applies to your battery. You may experience short standby and usage times, or the device could suddenly turn off. There’s the option of plugging your device into an outlet while using it, but this sacrifices portability.

To mitigate these issues, you can add more random access memory (RAM), swap out the HDD, or replace the battery. It’s important to note that some components are soldered to the motherboard, so replacing them may not be an option. The money you would spend on upgrading your Mac would be better put toward a new machine, which will not only be faster, but also much more reliable.

Your Mac’s hardware is damaged

You need to replace your Mac if it has suffered serious physical damage. This could range from a broken display, damaged hard drives, missing keyboard keys, or nonfunctioning USB and charging ports.

It’s easy to have your device fixed, but it’s not the most financially sound decision to invest money in an obsolete machine when you can buy a new one that will last longer. Also, small issues can become major problems. Let’s say you’re using your Mac with a heavily cracked screen. The device might be usable for a while, but the display might stop functioning anytime, which is a major hindrance if you’re in the middle of something important.

If problems on your Mac are already affecting your productivity, consider replacing it with a newer version that performs much better and has no hardware damage.

You’re experiencing software issues

An outdated Mac can experience software problems such as unresponsive apps, visual glitches, and random shutdowns. If your Mac is running an older version of macOS, it might run into software compatibility issues. For instance, a program may refuse to run because your operating system is outdated.

You can usually fix these problems by freeing up your RAM or storage space. Reinstalling macOS is also a good option. If the problems persist, however, you should consider investing in a new Mac.

It’s important to have a Mac that not only performs well, but also helps you become more productive and efficient. If you want to learn more about replacing your Mac, drop our experts a line today and we’ll be in touch.

If you’ve owned a Mac for quite some time, it’s probable that you’ve encountered a few problems with it. After a while, using it can be more of a hassle than a convenience. If you’re already experiencing some major problems, it may be time to replace your Mac. Here are some telltale signs that you should.

Your device can’t support the latest macOS version

Apple releases a new version of macOS every September or October. Typically, Mac models from the past several years are supported. So if your device can’t update to the latest version, it’s a sign that you need to have your Mac replaced.

The latest macOS version that’s currently in public beta is 12 Monterey. Here are the following Mac models that support the update:

• MacBook (early 2016 and later)
• MacBook Air (early 2015 and later)
• MacBook Pro (early 2015 and later)
• iMac (late 2015 and later)
• iMac Pro (2017 and later)
• Mac Pro (late 2013 and later)
• Mac mini (late 2014 and later)

This means that devices made earlier than those in the list cannot install macOS Monterey. For instance, a 2010 Macbook Pro running Mac OS X Lion cannot support the upcoming version of macOS. Your device is likely obsolete, and while you can keep on using it as usual, you won’t get any new features and its slow performance may cause productivity issues.

You’ve run out of free space

File sizes are constantly growing, which means that they are bound to take up more space in computer hard drives. If your Mac only has 128 or 256 GB of storage space, you’ll find yourself freeing up space for new files often. You have the option to purchase flash drives or external hard drives, but these aren’t built into your system, so the chances of losing them are high.

It’s therefore more ideal to purchase a new Mac instead. Newer versions offer as much as 4TB of storage, which will allow you to store more files in the long run.

Your Mac has poor specs

If frozen screens, slow-loading apps, and poor battery life are already a part of your typical day while using your Mac, then it might be time to replace it.

For instance, the performance of a hard disk drive (HDD) slows down with age, which could cause your computer to load files and programs sluggishly. The same principle applies to your battery. You may experience short standby and usage times, or the device could suddenly turn off. There’s the option of plugging your device into an outlet while using it, but this sacrifices portability.

To mitigate these issues, you can add more random access memory (RAM), swap out the HDD, or replace the battery. It’s important to note that some components are soldered to the motherboard, so replacing them may not be an option. The money you would spend on upgrading your Mac would be better put toward a new machine, which will not only be faster, but also much more reliable.

Your Mac’s hardware is damaged

You need to replace your Mac if it has suffered serious physical damage. This could range from a broken display, damaged hard drives, missing keyboard keys, or nonfunctioning USB and charging ports.

It’s easy to have your device fixed, but it’s not the most financially sound decision to invest money in an obsolete machine when you can buy a new one that will last longer. Also, small issues can become major problems. Let’s say you’re using your Mac with a heavily cracked screen. The device might be usable for a while, but the display might stop functioning anytime, which is a major hindrance if you’re in the middle of something important.

If problems on your Mac are already affecting your productivity, consider replacing it with a newer version that performs much better and has no hardware damage.

You’re experiencing software issues

An outdated Mac can experience software problems such as unresponsive apps, visual glitches, and random shutdowns. If your Mac is running an older version of macOS, it might run into software compatibility issues. For instance, a program may refuse to run because your operating system is outdated.

You can usually fix these problems by freeing up your RAM or storage space. Reinstalling macOS is also a good option. If the problems persist, however, you should consider investing in a new Mac.

It’s important to have a Mac that not only performs well, but also helps you become more productive and efficient. If you want to learn more about replacing your Mac, drop our experts a line today and we’ll be in touch.

Time is your most valuable asset — as the saying goes — and today a startup called Memory.ai, which is building AI-based productivity tools to help you with your own time management, is announcing some funding to double down on its ambitions: it wants not only to help manage your time, but to, essentially, provide ways to use it better in the future.

The startup, based out of Oslo, Norway, initially made its name with an app called Timely, a tool for people to track time spent doing different tasks. aimed not just at people who are quantified self geeks, but those who need to track time for practical reasons, such as consultants or others who work on the concept of billable hours. Timely has racked up 500,000 users since 2014, including more than 5,000 paying businesses in 160 countries.

Now, Memory.ai has raised $14 million as it gears up to launch its next apps, Dewo (pronounced “De-Voh”), an app that is meant to help people do more “deep work” by learning about what they are working on and filtering out distractions to focus better; and Glue, described as a knowledge hub to help in the creative process. Both are due to be released later in the year.

The funding is being led by local investors Melesio and Sanden, with participation from Investinor, Concentric and SNÖ Ventures, who backed Memory.ai previously.

“Productivity apps” has always been something of a nebulous category in the world of connected work. They can variously cover any kind of collaboration management software ranging from Asana and Jira through to Slack and Notion; or software that makes doing an existing work task more efficiently than you did it before (eg Microsoft has described all of what goes into Microsoft 365 — Excel, Word, Powerpoint, etc. — as “productivity apps”); or, yes, apps like those from Memory.ai that aim to improve your concentration or time management.

These days, however, it feels like the worlds of AI and advances in mobile computing are increasingly coming together to evolve that concept once again.

If the first wave of smartphone communications and the apps that are run on smartphone devices — social, gaming, productivity, media, information, etc. — have led to us getting pinged by a huge amount of data from lots of different places, all of the time, then could it be that the second wave is quite possibly going to usher in a newer wave of tools to handle all that better, built on the premise that not everything is of equal importance? No-mo FOMO? We’ll see.

In any case, some bigger platform players also helping to push the agenda of what productivity means in this day and age.

For example, in Apple’s recent preview of iOS 15 (due to come out later this year) the company gave a supercharge to its existing “do not disturb” feature on its phones, where it showed off a new Focus mode, letting users customize how and when they want to receive notifications from which apps, and even which apps they want to have displayed, all organized by different times of day (eg work time), place, calendar items, and so on.

“Today, iPhone plays so many roles in our lives. It’s where we get information, how people reach us, and where we get things done. This is great, but it means our attention is being pulled in so many different directions and finding that balance between work and life can be tricky,” said Apple’s Craig Federighi in the WWDC keynote earlier this month. “We want to free up space to focus and help you be in the moment.” How well that gets used, and how much other platforms like Google follow suit, will be interesting to see play out. It feels, in any case, like it could be the start of something.

And, serendipitously — or maybe because this is some kind of zeitgeist — this is also playing into what Memory.ai has built and is building. 

Mathias Mikkelsen, the Oslo-based founder of Memory.ai, first came up for his idea for Timely (which had also been the original name of the whole startup) when he was working as a designer in the ad industry, one of those jobs that needed to track what he was working on, and for how long, in order to get paid.

He said he knew the whole system as it existed was inefficient: “I just thought it was insane how cumbersome and old it was. But at the same time how important it was for the task,” he said.

The guy had an entrepreneurial itch that he was keen to scratch, and this idea would become the salve to help him. Mikkelsen was so taken with building a startup around time management, that he sold his apartment in Oslo and moved himself to San Francisco to be where he believed was the epicenter of startup innovation. He tells me he lived off the proceeds of his flat for two years “in a closet” in a hacker house, bootstrapping Timely, until eventually getting into an accelerator (500 Startups) and subsequently starting to raise money. He eventually moved back to Oslo after two years to continue growing the business, as well as to live somewhere a little more spacious.

The startup’s big technical breakthrough with Timely was to figure out an efficient way of tracking time for different tasks, not just time worked on anything, without people having to go through a lot of data entry.

The solution: to integrate with a person’s computer, plus a basic to-do schedule for a day or week, and then match up which files are open when to determine how long one works for one client or another. Phone or messaging conversations, for the moment, are not included, and neither are the contents of documents — just the titles of them. Nor is data coming from wearable devices, although you could see how that, too, might prove useful.

The basic premise is to be personalised, so managers and others cannot use Timely to track exactly what people are doing, although they can track and bill for those billable hours. All this is important, as it also will feed into how DeWo and Glue will work.

The startup’s big conceptual breakthrough came around the same time: Getting time tracking or any productivity right “has never been a UI problem,” Mikkelsen said. “It’s a human nature problem.” This is where the AI comes in, to nudge people towards something they identify as important, and nudge them away from work that might not contribute to that. Tackling bigger issues beyond time are essential to improving productivity overall, which is why Memory.ai now wants to extend to apps for carving out time for deep thinking and creative thinking.

While it might seem to be a threat that a company like Apple has identified the same time management predicament that Memory.ai has, and is looking to solve that itself, Mikkelsen is not fazed. He said he thinks of Focus as not unlike Apple’s work on Health: there will be ways of feeding information into Apple’s tool to make it work better for the user, and so that will be Memory.ai’s opportunity to hopefully grow, not cannibalize, its own audience with Timely and its two new apps. It is, in a sense, a timely disruption.

“Memory’s proven software is already redefining how businesses around the world track, plan and manage their time. We look forward to working with the team to help new markets profit from the efficiencies, insights and transparency of a Memory-enabled workforce,” said Arild Engh, a partner at Melesio, in a statement.

Kjartan Rist,  a partner at Concentric, added: “We continue to be impressed with Memory’s vision to build and launch best-in-class products for the global marketplace. The company is well on its way to becoming a world leader in workplace productivity and collaboration, particularly in light of the remote and hybrid working revolution of the last 12 months. We look forward to supporting Mathias and the team in this exciting new chapter.”

A.I.-powered voice transcription service Otter.ai wants to make it even easier for its business users to record their meetings. The company is today introducing a new feature, Otter Assistant, which can automatically join the Zoom meetings on your calendar, transcribe the conversations, and share the notes with other participants. Though Otter.ai is already integrated with Zoom, the assistant is designed to make using transcription something you don’t have to constantly remember to enable at the meeting’s start or stop at the end, while also serving as a place where participants can collaborate by asking questions, sharing photos and more, as the meeting is underway.

The feature also works around the earlier limitation with Zoom, where only the meeting host could use the Otter.ai integration directly.

The idea to automate meeting transcription makes sense for the remote work environment created by the pandemic, where people have been splitting their time between work, parenting, homeschooling and other duties. This can often lead to meetings where users are pulled away and miss things that had been said. That’s one area where Otter.ai can help. But it can also help with issues like overlapping meetings, or larger meetings were only a few topics are directly relevant to your work — but where you’d like to be able to review the rest of the meeting discussion later, instead of in real-time.

To use the new Otter Assistant, users first synchronize their Google Calendar or Microsoft Calendar with Otter’s service. The assistant will then automatically join all Zoom meetings going forward, where it appears as an additional meeting participant, for transparency’s sake.

The assistant also posts a link to the transcription in the Zoom chat for everyone to access. In other words, this is not a feature to use to skip meetings without your boss knowing — it’s designed for those times when everyone has already agreed the meeting will be transcribed.

As the meeting continues, attendees can use Otter’s live transcript to highlight key parts, add photos, and make notes. They can also ask questions via the commenting feature, as opposed to speaking up — which may be helpful if you’re in a noisy place at the time of the meeting.

Once the assistant is enabled, you don’t have to remember to turn on Otter.ai for each meeting, and you can even use your headphones to listen to the meeting in progress. The Otter Assistant will still be able to record both sides of the conversation.

However, you are able to turn Otter Assistant off on a per-meeting basis via the “My Agenda” section on the Otter website, which will include new toggles next to each meeting you have scheduled.

When meetings wrap, you can also have Otter.ai configured to automatically share the meeting notes with all the attendees.

The Otter Assistant is available to Otter.ai Business users, which are upgraded plans that start at $20 per month, and include features like two-factor authentication, SOC2 compliance, advanced search, export, custom vocabulary, shared speaker identification, centralized data and billing, and more.

To date, Otter.ai says it has transcribed over 150 million meetings, up from 100 million in the beginning of 2021 . The company doesn’t provide details on its total subscriber base, but did note earlier it saw a sizable 8x increase in revenues in 2020, leading up to its $50 million Series B, announced in February.