Google finally makes Assistant more useful for your work life

https://www.engadget.com/google-workspace-updates-assistant-meet-calendar-170055426.html

With many companies becoming more comfortable with letting employees work remotely even after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, it’s important that folks have the tools to do their jobs just as well at home. With that in mind, Google is bolstering Workspace (formerly G Suite) with many updates.

For one thing, Workspace’s Google Assistant feature is, at long-last, coming out of beta. You can use Assistant to join meetings, find out what’s coming up on your work Calendar and send messages. The feature is available on mobile devices, and it’s currently in beta on smart displays and speakers.

Google Meet now has more second-screen options. You can take part in chats, polls and Q&As on any device, including Nest Hub Max. The video call app is getting live stream upgrades as well, including polls, Q&As and live captions. The latter will be available for English, Spanish, German, Portuguese and French at the outset. Other Meet updates include a mobile tile view, so you can see more people at the same time on smaller displays, as well as for split-screen and picture-in-picture support on mobile.

To help frontline workers collaborate with corporate teams effectively and securely, they’ll be able to start using a service called Google Workspace Frontline in the coming weeks. There’ll be an easy way for teams to build custom AppSheet apps in Sheets and Drive, which, according to Google, will help frontline workers streamline and digitize their work. Google says that these features will give those workers secure access to information they need on any device.

There are several other updates centered around managing your attention and time. As Google recently announced, you’ll be able to mark multiple blocks in your working hour settings to let your colleagues know when you’re available for meetings. Similarly, you can add recurring out-of-office events and, during that time, meeting requests will be declined automatically.

A new event type called Focus Mode will let you set up blocks of time during which notifications are limited. Google will also send you (not your boss, thankfully) Time Insights that will break down how you’re spending your days.

Through location indicators across the suite of Workspace apps, you’ll be able to let coworkers know when you’ll be at home and which days you’ll be at the office. Chat, Jamboard and Calendar will appear in Workspace Essentials for easier access.

Workspace will also have more security tools. Expanded Data Regions will let Workspace customers choose the geographic location where data is stored, while Assured Controls is about helping them make decisions about controlling provider access.

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

March 1, 2021 at 10:21AM

Researchers build the fastest laser-based random number generator

https://www.engadget.com/fastest-laser-random-number-generator-102542886.html

A team of international scientists has developed a laser that can generate 254 trillion random digits per second, more than a hundred times faster than computer-based random number generators (RNG).

Though random number generation has been around for thousands of years, it is increasingly important in computing as it forms the basis of cryptography. With more devices online than ever before, the need for faster encryption that can keep out bad actors has become more crucial. In a sign of the prevailing need for RNGs in modern technology, Google showcased the apparent supremacy of its 53-qubit quantum computer using an RNG problem.

That’s why the new system could be a game-changer: It can generate 250 terabytes of random bits per second. In fact, it was so fast that the team behind it struggled to record its output using a high-speed camera. According to the researchers, their system trumps physical random number generators both in speed and through its ability to create many bitstreams simultaneously. The results are published in the journal Science.

The new invention utilizes a tiny laser, just one millimeter long, which bounces light between mirrors positioned at either end of an hourglass-shaped cavity before exiting the device, reports Science News. Unlike previous laser-based systems, the new process can amplify many optical modes simultaneously. 

These interfere with each other to generate rapid intensity fluctuations that the team recorded with a camera, which measured light intensity at 254 spots across the beam about every trillionth of a second. But the speed at which the laser was pumping out data meant the camera could only track it for a couple of nanoseconds before its memory filled up, after which the data was uploaded to a computer.

The random generator system was jointly developed by researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), Yale University, and Trinity College Dublin, and made in NTU. As for the system’s future, the team aim to make it ready for practical use by by incorporating the laser into a compact chip. This will enable the random numbers it generates to be fed directly into computer.

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

March 1, 2021 at 04:33AM