Purdue University: Turn off that camera during virtual meetings, environmental study says. “Just one hour of videoconferencing or streaming, for example, emits 150-1,000 grams of carbon dioxide (a gallon of gasoline burned from a car emits about 8,887 grams), requires 2-12 liters of water and demands a land area adding up to about the size […]
Mashable: How to host a virtual New Year’s Eve party. “Yeah, we know, we know. This year is unlike any other; unprecedented; blah blah blah. By now, we’ve more than resigned ourselves to the fact that New Year’s Eve won’t be rung in with a night in Times Square and a giant ball drop. (Did […]
Make Tech Easier: Zoom Reportedly Developing Email and Calendar Services. “There’s no doubt Zoom achieved extreme popularity this year in the face of the global health pandemic. Workers and students were forced to turn to Zoom to communicate with bosses, teachers, and each other online and fell to various video-conferencing platforms, with Zoom being the […]
Mashable: How cosmetic glitter improved my self-confidence on Zoom calls. “I’ll be honest: It’s 2020 and I feel like shit. My clothes are tight. I never feel clean. The family couch and I have developed an identical, yet unidentifiable smell. Things are dire for me and my self-esteem right now — and unless those vaccines […]
CNET: Zoom is dropping 40-minute limit for holiday season. “Zoom is repeating its Thanksgiving gift for the festive season, lifting its 40-minute limit for three periods until Jan. 2, it said earlier this week.” The next period starts Wednesday morning.
CNN: Webex beefs up its features to stay competitive with Zoom. “Cisco (CSCO) on [December 8] introduced a host of new features for Webex, its video conferencing software, aimed at improving the WFH experience. They include a tool that creates meeting highlights on verbal command, a mechanism for easily converting a phone call to a […]
Mashable: It’s time to suck it up and do Zoom happy hours again. “At first, Zoom happy hours were novel. And fun! Next, they were an underwhelming necessity. An ‘it’s better than nothing’ option. Eventually, they became … boring. And a little bit depressing. Most of us just stopped doing them. This also happened to […]
CNET: Amid COVID, Zoom is helping build communities for those displaced from shelters. “Coronavirus concerns put 14,000 homeless Californians in hotel rooms. To stave off loneliness, some are using Zoom AA meetings, a phone buddy program and online tai chi.”
CNN: Everyone you know uses Zoom. That wasn’t the plan. “The tweet was when Eric Yuan knew something had to change. Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, shared a photo from his first ever virtual cabinet meeting. The cybersecurity red flags jumped out immediately. Some cabinet secretaries’ Zoom screen names were visible, you could see […]
PCMag: Zoom Is Scanning Social Media for Signs of Impending Zoom-Bomb Attacks. “Zoom has been scanning social media posts for Zoom meeting links—a sign that bad actors are preparing to infiltrate and hijack the video session—and will notify users if it believes their meetings are in danger of being Zoom-bombed.”
CNN: For Thanksgiving Day, Zoom will lift its 40-minute time limit for free meetings. “Zoom announced it will lift its timed meeting limit on Thanksgiving so ‘your family gatherings don’t get cut short.’ The video communications company announced in a tweet that the 40-minute time limit it usually has on its free meetings will be […]
Silicon Republic: Live video captioning now available on Zoom through new tool. “Otter.ai uses AI to produce transcriptions in real time that combine audio transcription, speaker identification, inline photos and key phrases. Now, this ability has been added to Zoom, with real-time captioning now available on video calls and webinars for Otter for Business and […]
Engadget: Google launches Meet breakout rooms for small group discussions. “Huge online classes can be overwhelming, not just for teachers but also for students who learn better when interacting with others. To help solve that problem, Google has launched a new Meet feature called ‘breakout rooms,’ which would give educators a way to divide participants […]
TechCrunch: Google research lets sign language switch ‘active speaker’ in video calls. “An aspect of video calls that many of us take for granted is the way they can switch between feeds to highlight whoever’s speaking. Great — if speaking is how you communicate. Silent speech like sign language doesn’t trigger those algorithms, unfortunately, but […]
BetaNews: Microsoft releases PowerToys v0.23.0 with promise of new Video Conference utility. “PowerToys v0.23.0 is a release that focuses on ‘stability, localization and quality of life improvements’, and there are numerous fixes to the various the utilities that make up the suite. Unfortunately, there are no new tools in this version, but Microsoft has given […]