October 2020 - Latest Tech News Blog

October 31, 2020

Google’s Project Zero discloses Windows 0day that’s been under active exploit

A stylized skull and crossbones made out of ones and zeroes.

Google’s project zero says that hackers have been actively exploiting a Windows zeroday that isn’t likely to be patched until almost two weeks from now.

In keeping with long-standing policy, Google’s vulnerability research group gave Microsoft a seven-day deadline to fix the security flaw because it’s under active exploit. Normally, Project Zero discloses vulnerabilities after 90 days or when a patch becomes available, whichever comes first.

CVE-2020-117087, as the vulnerability is tracked, allows attackers to escalate system privileges. Attackers were combining an exploit for it with a separate one targeting a recently fixed flaw in Chrome. The former allowed the latter to escape a security sandbox so the latter could execute code on vulnerable machines.

CVE-2020-117087 stems from a buffer overflow in a part of Windows used for cryptographic functions. Its input/output controllers can be used to pipe data into a part of Windows that allows code execution. Friday’s post indicated the flaw is in Windows 7 and Windows 10, but made no reference to other versions.

“The Windows Kernel Cryptography Driver (cng.sys) exposes a DeviceCNG device to user-mode programs and supports a variety of IOCTLs with non-trivial input structures,” Friday’s Project Zero post said. “It constitutes a locally accessible attack surface that can be exploited for privilege escalation (such as sandbox escape).”

The technical write up included a proof-of-concept code people can use to crash Windows 10 machines.

The Chrome flaw that was combined with CVE-2020-117087 resided in the FreeType font rendering library that’s included in Chrome and in applications from other developers. The FreeType flaw was fixed 11 days ago. It’s not clear if all programs that use FreeType have been updated to incorporate the patch.

Project Zero said it expects Microsoft to patch the vulnerability on November 10, which coincides with that month’s Update Tuesday. In a statement, Microsoft officials wrote:

Microsoft has a customer commitment to investigate reported security issues and update impacted devices to protect customers. While we work to meet all researchers’ deadlines for disclosures, including short-term deadlines like in this scenario, developing a security update is a balance between timeliness and quality, and our ultimate goal is to help ensure maximum customer protection with minimal customer disruption.

A representative said that Microsoft has no evidence the vulnerability is being widely exploited and that the flaw can’t be exploited to affect cryptographic functionality. Microsoft didn’t provide any information on steps Windows users can take until a fix becomes available.

Project Zero technical lead Ben Hawkes defended the practice of disclosing zerodays within a week of them being actively exploited.

The quick take: we think there’s defensive utility to sharing these details, and that opportunistic attacks using these details between now and the patch being released is reasonable unlikely (so far it’s been used as part of an exploit chain, and the entry-point attack is fixed)

The short deadline for in-the-wild exploit also tries to incentivize out-of-band patches or other mitigations being developed/shared with urgency. Those improvements you might expect to see over a longer term period.

The short deadline for in-the-wild exploit also tries to incentivize out-of-band patches or other mitigations being developed/shared with urgency. Those improvements you might expect to see over a longer term period.

— Ben Hawkes (@benhawkes) October 30, 2020

There are no details about the active exploits other than it’s “not related to any US election related targeting.”

October 31, 2020

Review: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro are massive upgrades, even not including 5G

Apple’s iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro have been out for a week. In that short time they have shown themselves to be Apple’s best year-over-year iPhone upgrade yet, even not including the future impact of 5G.

iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro design

This year, Apple’s iPhone undertook its biggest design overhaul since… the last time it used this design. It feels very familiar to anyone who has used the iPhone 5 or iPhone 5s.

That isn’t a dig by any means because the design looks fresh and feels great in the hand. It makes the phone feel slimmer and more substantial.

Green iPhone 12 on its new box

Apple wasn’t necessarily trying to copy its used design. The flat sides just look more modern, just as they do with the iPad Pros and now iPad Air.

We also can’t overlook that it has made it easier to stand up our phone to take photo thanks to that flat bottom.

Both the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro are the same size this year, meaning a case that fits the iPhone 12 will fit the iPhone 12 Pro. This definitely will help case manufacturers who don’t have to create four case sizes this year, but it does make it slightly more confusing when trying to decipher which model to choose.

Moving on from the flat sides, all of the colors this year are new, or at least tweaked.

Pacific blue iPhone 12 Pro

The iPhone 12 line goes bright with several anodized aluminum colors like (Product)RED, green, blue, silver, and black. We got our hands on the green model, which looks great, though we wish the color was slightly more vibrant, more akin to the green iPod mini from many years prior.

If compared directly to the iPhone 11, it is thinner, lighter, and smaller, but so much improved. This year it ditches the LED display for nearly the same OLED Super Retina XDR display that was found in the iPhone 12 Pro.

It features all the same specs as the iPhone 12 Pro, just a slightly lower average brightness.

Going from an iPhone 11 to an iPhone 12 will feel like a big jump when you compare even just the display, let alone the improved form factor and everything else.

Space gray iPhone 11 Pro versus pacific blue iPhone 12 Pro

For the stainless steel, the silver color has a lighter or whiter back panel, gold is more vivid than in the past, and space gray has been usurped by graphite, which is just a hair lighter — similar to the graphite Apple Watch.

Based on an informal poll at our local Apple Stores, Pacific blue has been by far the most popular of all the new colorways. It is easy to see wh, as we love this color. As Chevy Chase would say, it’s “streets ahead.”

We liked the green of the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, but the blue is far better looking.

Pacific blue iPhone 12 Pro

All of the new stainless steel colors seem to attract fingerprints like crazy, which does detract for those that prefer to rock their iPhone caseless. Pacific blue and graphite are the worst offenders, with silver still showing and gold holding up the best.

Aside from the obvious changes to the phone — i.e. the flat sides and larger screen on the iPhone 12 — Apple also improved its durability in two ways. The first is by increasing its water-resistance nearly two-fold. It is now capable of staying submerged in up to six meters of water for 30 minutes, up from the previous four-meter limit for the same duration. Second is the new ceramic shield that covers the front of the phone.

Pacific blue iPhone 12 Pro camera

The ceramic shield is supposed to improve its drop resistance by a factor of four. While these changes are welcomed, they don’t go far enough.

In all my years with an iPhone, I’ve only had two issues when it comes to durability. The glass back has cracked — twice and I continue to have scratches on the upper edge of my display. What is so infuriating about these is that they simply should not be happening. I’ve never dropped my phone, yet the back glass cracked on me twice now.

I have no idea if it is from an accidental bump or what but it somehow happened without the phone tumbling to the ground. For those who are already wondering, one of these happened while donning a case.

I do know where the scratches on the top of the phone come from though. I typically store my iPhone 11 Pro Max in my back left pocket, and I repetitively place it against my pants with the screen facing my body and slide it down as to catch the top of the back pocket and continue sliding it down before letting it go.

I repeat the same motion dozens of times a day, typically while wearing jeans, causing a set of faint wear marks on that top edge. It is absurd that sliding the phone in and out of your pocket could cause these scratches on the display, but here we are.

The new ceramic shield will aid in drop protection but will do nothing to remedy either of my outstanding issues. To make it more frustrating, the cracked back can’t be easily replaced and requires an entire exchange of the phone and a higher out-of-pocket cost compared to a normal screen replacement.

We applaud Apple for increasing the durability of the new phones, but it isn’t enough.

iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro Cameras

The cameras on the iPhone 12 line are simply stunning. Apple once more dedicated a significant amount of time during its unveiling touting the incredible capabilities of the handsets.

These new buffs aren’t a marketing ploy but massive new capabilities to capture unparalleled images.

Pacific blue iPhone 12 Pro camera

While the competition continues to oversaturate its images and toss on near-unusable 100X zoom capabilities, Apple has focused on the core cameras, which is what most people tend to use in day-to-day shooting. When it does introduce new features, they are technologically impressive and practically useful rather than just marketing fodder to mock the competition in social ads.

iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro Dolby Vision

This year, both iPhone 12, as well as iPhone 12 Pro, gained the ability to shoot 4K videos in Dolby Vision. We did a full explainer on the different types of HDR content but Dolby Vision has always been the best of the best when it comes to HDR video.

Now that power is coming to the tiny phone in your pocket.

Many may not realize this, but for feature films and shows that are presented with Dolby Vision, it isn’t shot that way, as it is shot and then mastered in Dolby Vision. That makes it all the more impressive that iPhone 12 can shoot, edit, play, and share this incredible content.

Shooting in Dolby Vision is no special mode, it just needs to be toggled on within the Settings app for the camera.

Apple makes it so smooth and easy to manage. With it enabled, Dolby Vision content is recorded when you capture video. It gets marked as HDR just like other special media in the Photos app such as burst photos or a portrait shot, with an indicator in the top-left corner.

Between the two devices, iPhone 12 Pro can shoot Dolby Vision at 40K 60 rakes per second while the iPhone 12 is limited to only 30 frames per second. That is despite the devices having the same internal processor.

This 4K Dolby Vision footage looks incredible, being bright, vivid, sharp, and full of incredible detail. Looking between standard 4K footage and the HDR footage, there is a clear difference in quality.

It won’t be for everyone and does consume a good amount of space (750mb per minute of footage), but those who appreciate this feature are going to be overjoyed.

At the moment, there are some minor format issues, for example, we are still awaiting a promised Final Cut Pro X update that will bring support for editing Dolby Vision. For now, it is best-edited right on the device.

iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro Night mode portaits

Another massive camera update is the newfound ability to shoot portraits in very low light for Apple’s new Pro iPhone. We’ve tested this in near no light, and our iPhone 12 Pro was still able to capture a fantastic portrait shot.

iPhone 11 Pro night mode portrait versus iPhone 12 Pro night mode portrait

When we took two comparable shots — one on our iPhone 12 Pro and one on our iPhone 11 Pro — the latter was dark, grainy, and unusable. The former came out as an absolutely usable, clear, well-exposed shot.

In another test, we took two low-light portrait shots with the iPhone 12 Pro. One was with night mode the other without.

The picture with night mode off was still a passable portrait shot that separated us from our background, but it was very dark, had extra grain, and needed a lot of editing to make it usable. While it was able to identify us as the subject — as was evident from the Stage Light lighting effect that replaced the background with all black — the background had zero blur to it.

Even manually adjusting the aperture in the Photos app kept the background at the same sharpness.

iPhone 12 Pro portrait in low light (left) and night mode portrait in low light (right)

Our night mode version of that same picture was drastically different. It was much brighter, had a gorgeous blurred background that could be boosted by adjusting the aperture, and was just hands-down a better-looking shot.

The other image looked like garbage in comparison. This again is no gimmick, but a big step forward in the camera’s ability for a practical benefit.

To take a night mode portrait, you switch to the portrait mode of the Camera app. If the light is too low for a standard shot, the night mode indicator will appear in the top-left corner.

One limitation though is that it only works using 1X mode rather than the zoomed-in 2X. If you are on the 2X mode and the light is low, a helpful night mode indicator will appear on the toggle, letting you know to switch to 1X to be able to capture the shot with night mode.

Night mode for portraits also works similar to standard night mode shots, in that the shutter stays open for a full second or two and you need to stay still and hold the camera for better results.

iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro LiDAR

Part of the magic behind night mode portraits is Apple’s addition of a LiDAR scanner. With the LiDAR scanner, Apple can provide faster and more accurate autofocus in low light, including those night mode portraits.

Portrait mode is improved with better separation of subject and background

Portraits in all lighting conditions seem better than the previous generation though, as it can more accurately map the subject in front of the camera.

We took a picture of our hand, which would typically be a very hard subject to shoot in portrait mode, as it has an irregular outline, isn’t recognizable as a face, and in our case could blend in with the background. Yet there was no blurring between the foreground and background.

Clearly, we’ve been shooting a lot of low-light shots and portrait shots in our testing and can very definitely say that focus is faster and more accurate, portrait mode is better, and night mode portraits are a game-changer.

Unfortunately, that is about where the practical LiDAR benefits end. Just as with the 2020 iPad Pros you can use the Measure app to instantly get a person’s height, but that seems more of a fun demo than something users will be relying on for daily use.

iPhone 12 Pro in graphite

Apple seems to be adding LiDAR to its devices in anticipation of future importance but is still figuring out why it will be important. Up until now, the biggest use of LiDAR was for augmented reality applications, but these have yet to see widespread adoption and carry little weight in deciding on whether to upgrade or not.

The new camera abilities are the first real reason we’ve seen for the LiDAR scanner to exist, outside of AR. Apple is still likely toiling away on some other amazing uses for LiDAR, but for now, we wait. And shoot better low-light photos.

Apple’s approach to LiDAR feels very similar to its approach for the U1 chip. That ultra-wideband chip is baked in again this year but its only purpose is for an improved AirDrop experience.

Soon the U1 will aid with HandOff on HomePod but that too doesn’t feel like a full feature. Perhaps Apple’s unannounced AirTags will provide a more tangible reason for both the U1 and LiDAR to exist.

Other camera improvements in the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro

Otherwise, Apple has mostly kept the cameras the same. The ultra-wide, wide, and tele lenses all are still 12 megapixels. The wide-angle does get a new seven-element lens and has a faster f/1.6 aperture (from f/1.8) but otherwise, things are business as usual for the hardware.

Camera shortcut on iPhone 12 Pro

But software, aided by the hardware, has come a long way. Deep Fusion now works on additional lenses. Night mode also no works on the ultra-wide lens, though the wide lens still captures the best low-light shots.

The A14 Bionic processor has an upgraded image signal processor (ISP) which does aid in overall better-composed shots but they don’t look all too much different in tone than the prior-gen phone. Smart HDR 3 includes scene detection for the first time which is helpful in some situations including landscapes or food. In evening landscape shots, it is able to better expose the land while reducing grain in the sky.

Night mode time-lapses are new too, though they do require a tripod to use.

Apple made the biggest changes to the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which we’ve yet to test out. That camera has a 47-percent larger sensor, sensor-shift stabilization, and a large telephoto lens.

The 5G elephant in the room

One of the big selling points of the iPhones is 5G, one that is likely to push adoption of the communications standard among consumers. The sky-high speeds promised by carriers will be accessible by iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro users, on both fronts.

While touted under one name, 5G actually consists of two different elements that differ greatly. The more commonly seen part will be the sub-6GHz band aspect, which is used to provide blanket coverage in a similar manner to 4G LTE, including having comparable speed.

The second, mmWave, is the part that offers the boasted high-speed connectivity. However, due to being a more fragile signal that has a considerably lower range, this means carriers will limit the deployment of mmWave to cities and built-up areas with high population densities.

In short, today and in all likelihood for some time to come, most consumers will not get to encounter the marketed high-speed bit of 5G unless they live near to an area that has it, or are passing through one such location.

While rumors suggested Apple could limit 5G support on its 2020 devices so only the Pro models have mmWave compatibility, it’s great that Apple instead opted to support the full 5G experience in its devices. It means that consumers don’t have to worry about buying a particular variant of iPhone for their 5G needs, they just have to get one of the iPhone 12 range.

As to how they will use it, it will all depend on how carriers continue to build out their 5G networks in the coming months and years. For the moment, the majority of prospective iPhone users will end up relying on LTE-era speeds, but things should get better.

MagSafe on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro

What may prove to be one of iPhone 12’s biggest feature is near invisible to the naked eye, and one that won’t mean diddly if you don’t drop down some change on additional accessories.

MagSafe is a new accessory protocol that allows for everything from cases, to docks, to chargers, to wallets, and much more to be integrated right onto the phone.

MagSafe charger

Apple has embedded a ring of magnets around the back as well as a new proprietary charging puck and an NFC reader which all unlock a pile of possible accessory types.

Out of the gate, Apple has introduced its cases, sleeves, wallets, and chargers to take advantage of MagSafe. All of which are substantially or subtlety improved thanks to MagSafe.

Charging is one of the biggest perks of MagSafe. It can do up to 15W of power, assuming you use a 20W USB-C power brick. That is double the 7.5W of wireless power you get while using Qi charging. Of course, Qi charging till works, this is just an alternative.

There is currently only one MagSafe charger, which is Apple’s. It fixes one of the bigger problems with wireless charging which is that you can’t hold the phone in your hand while it is charging.

This puck magnetically attaches to the back, delivers 15W of power, all while you can still hold and use your phone. Apple’s second charger — MagSafe Duo — can charge iPhone and Apple Watch at the same time, though it hasn’t been released yet.

Apple silicone cases

Its cases use MagSafe by extending the magnetic ring to within the case which keeps the same magnetic attraction instead of weakening it. Apple’s cases also have NFC chips built-in which creates a cool animation whenever the cases are snapped on. A color-matched ring appears and expands from the center outwards.

Apple’s still-unreleased sleeve uses NFC to recognize that it is a sleeve, and turns on the clock on the front of the phone as well as adjusts the background color to match the case to show through the front-facing window.

Third-parties are allowed to create MagSafe accessories as well as part of the MFi program. That includes their own chargers.

Third-party cases can include MagSafe too though only OtterBox currently has any available. MagSafe cases are a little limited though because they can only be around two millimeters thick.

MagSafe on Apple’s silicone cases

When it comes to mounts — such as those for cars or tripods — they need to be very strong. With MagSafe, the strength of the magnet in the accessory is what controls how strong the grip is. Accessory makers can make the magnets in them extra strong providing ultra-secure grips which makes it much more comforting.

It is only a matter of time before a plethora of MagSafe accessories start hitting the market, from MagSafe-enabled PopSockets, car mounts, docks, multi-chargers, wallets, folio covers, tripod mounts, lighting rigs, and so much more.

There’s no limitation on what a MagSafe accessory can be and we are very excited by what accessory makers will come up with.

iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro performance

A year in and we still don’t have any performance issues with our iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro models. They are still quick, responsive, and everything in we’d like them to be. Yet Apple wasn’t going to rest on its laurels and not deliver a beefy new processor.

This year we got the A14 Bionic processor to replace the A13 Bionic. The A13 Bionic processor on the iPhone 11 Pro scored 1,334 and 3,543 on the single-core and multi-core Geekbench tests and the iPhone 12 Pro pulled a 1,598 and a 4,180.

iPhone 12 Pro Geekbench scores

That represents about a 20 percent improvement on the single-core score and about 15 percent gain on the multi-core. These are the kinds of improvements that don’t just sound good on paper, you can actually appreciate them in real use.

Launching apps — such as the camera — can be a second or so faster. At this point, that seems fairly small, but for something like the Camera app, it makes a noticeable difference when you’re trying to fire off a shot before the moment has passed.

We also need that additional processing power for those new Dolby Vision 4K videos we are shooting. Once more with Apple, it is more about the future than the present. These processors will still be kicking in several years other than creating a processor that is only suitable for today’s needs.

What hasn’t been said?

It is of little surprise that this year’s crop of iPhones is once more the best it has ever been. But this year brings along so many big changes — a redesigned body, a better display for the cheaper model, long-awaited 5G, a sizable processor bump, and useful camera features.

Green iPhone 12

What is perhaps surprising is that this year the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro are so much closer to one another in terms of specs, making it easy to recommend the cheaper device to many people. That cheaper device sports the same processor, 5G, the same Super Retina XDR display, two out of the three cameras, and the same form factor.

That isn’t going to stop users from flocking to the iPhone 12 Pro, but it does add that additional value to the more affordable device.

Unsurpsinginly, 5G at this point is still underwhelming but for people buying a phone and holding onto it for years, it is better to have it than not. Even without 5G as a killer feature, iPhone 12 as well as iPhone 12 Pro are massive upgrades.

Great new design with fantastic colors

Larger display for iPhone 12 Pro

Lighter, smaller, thinner design for iPhone 12 with edge-to-edge OLED display

5G is great, when you can get it

A14 Bionic processor is incredibly powerful

Camera improvements like night mode portraits and Dolby Vision HDR video are game changing

Increased water and drop resistance

LiDAR finally becomes useful with new camera upgrades

MagSafe will be a killer feature

No additional scratch resistance or reinforced back glass

Some may find the colors subdued

5G is nearly useless, for now

Rating: 4.5

Deals on the new iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro

Apple’s iPhone 12 is already eligible for aggressive discounts at leading wireless carriers. Check out AppleInsider’s roundup of the best iPhone deals to find specific offers, from free phone promotions to cash discounts on the latest devices. And to compare prices across retailers, be sure to visit the iPhone 12 Price Guide and the iPhone 12 Pro Price Guide.

October 31, 2020

Paycor Scheduling Review | PCMag

Paycor Scheduling (formerly Ximble) is comprehensive and powerful employee scheduling and shift planning software that also offers small to midsize businesses (SMBs) and larger enterprises time tracking functionality. Paycor Scheduling (which begins at $1 per user per month for the Core plan) is a template-based solution that’s still quite dynamic in operation and should serve most human resources (HR) professionals’ needs, provided they can work within its parameters. Unlike our other Editors’ Choice winners, Deputy and Humanity, Paycor Scheduling relies heavily on master settings that shoehorn users into specific fields, options, and notifications.

As a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution, Paycor Scheduling is fairly nimble, especially for things like last-minute schedule changes and for sending quick alerts to managers. For companies that can work within Paycor Scheduling’s fields, options, and notifications, the solution does cover the most commonly encountered shift management tasks. What’s impressive about it is its style, usability, built-in chat functionality, and some very attractive pricing.

Paycor Scheduling also features outstanding mobile applications for both Android and Apple iOS that have almost the same functionality as web user interface (UI). Certain aspects of Paycor Scheduling, such as some settings, reports, and approvals, are accessible only on the web client because they make more sense there.

Three Pricing Tiers

Paycor Scheduling comes in three price tiers: Core, Advanced, and Enterprise. The Core tier is available for $1 per user per month for an unlimited number of users. Included in this package are Android and iOS apps, email notifications, exhaustive reporting, and 24/7 support. For an extra dollar per month per user, you can add time-tracking functionality to the package. The Advanced tier costs $2 per user per month (or $3 with time tracking added, which includes facial recognition capabilities). With this Advanced package, you’ll get all of the Core features plus payroll integration.

Compared to other tools we reviewed, Paycor Scheduling is affordably priced. Here’s how it compares to some other software in its class: Deputy also only costs $1 per user per month for scheduling, announcements, tasking, and 24-hour support. It can be upgraded to $3 per user per month for payroll integration and reporting. The Enterprise plan, whose pricing will depend on a businesses’ needs, features customized pricing, and gives you access to customized roles, permissions, and extensions, and also provides a dedicated account manager and custom development for larger organizations. Meanwhile, Snap Schedule costs $900 per year for 25 employees, which translates to about $3 per employee per month, which is typical for most software in this category.

Paycor Scheduling calendar view page

Dashboard and UI

Paycor Scheduling is one of the cleanest and most modern UIs of any product we reviewed as part of this roundup, unlike clunkier-looking tools, such as APS Online and ShiftBoard, which can become quite cluttered in the calendar views. When you log into the system, you’re greeted by several widgets that display the shifts you’ll be working for the day, the members of your team who have clocked in; your daily, weekly, and monthly labor costs; and your monthly and weekly employee, hour, and labor cost tallies. You’re also able to view all of your recent notifications, team announcements, and scheduling requests. Any of these widgets can be collapsed to clear space for the information you’re more keen on viewing. Paycor Scheduling makes great use of the screen, and manages to clearly and cleanly convey the most important data.

The software features left-hand navigation, which is a neat stylistic choice that dramatically opens up the Schedules view. We found that most of the dashboards, such as those in Snap Schedule and even Editors’ Choice winner, Deputy feature upper navigation, which occupies more real estate than most users would like.

Inside of the Schedule tab, you’ll see your personnel and their associated shifts for the day, week, or month depending on how you sort your information. Regardless of which calendar you choose, you’ll be pleased by how much space and color coordination is given to each employee and their assigned shifts. This is easily the cleanest and most palatable schedule we’ve reviewed.

Paycor Scheduling Dashboard screenshot

If you’ve paid the extra money for timesheet functionality, then you’ll find the Time Clock tab beneath the Schedule tab. Here, you’ll be able to clock in and out, assign tasks to time slots, and notify your team that you’re breaking for lunch or beginning a new work process. Administrators can use this tab to access payroll reports, team timesheets, and any associated team pay codes.

The Employee and Reports tabs take you to run-of-the-mill landing pages that give you access to user profiles and prebuilt reports. I’ll discuss reporting in more detail later. What’s important to stress now is that the left-hand navigation keeps both of these tabs and their respective pages out of the way so that you don’t need to dodge clicking on them while you’re working on your master schedule.

The App Center tab is where you’ll find Paycor Scheduling’s 13 built-in, third-party software integrations. This is the type of easy integration marketplace that you’ll find in more mature software categories but Paycor Scheduling is an outlier in this class. That’s not to say that its competitors don’t offer similar integration functionality as most do via open an application programming interface (API). But Paycor Scheduling displays its integrations in an easy-to-find and modern manner.

Paycor Scheduling Reports Page

Functionality and Usability

Your schedules are easy to sort and filter via extensive and clearly marked drop-down menus located at the top of the calendar. If you’d like to see where employees are scheduled, what they’re doing, who isn’t scheduled, or all of the above, then you simply press the drop-down menu and tick the categories you’d like to peruse. The tool’s drag-and-drop UI makes moving blocks over to schedule easy.

Your schedules also include hourly wages and total spend for the day, all of which are inconspicuously located at the bottom of the page. We’d prefer to see Paycor Scheduling make these fields stand out a bit more as they’re easy to overlook given how colorful and vibrant the rest of the UI is. Any changes made to the schedule trigger notifications that are always sent via email, but can also be sent via SMS for an additional 55 cents per user. You can also schedule reminders in advance and adjust preferences for when people get messages (e.g., a new shift becomes available or an employee is added to a shift). Push notifications can be triggered for the mobile apps for any setting in the system, unlike other tools that limit your push notifications to only what the manufacturer deems worthy of push notification.

The software lets you save all of your shifts as templates, which is a nice feature if you accidentally stumble into a shift configuration that you’d like to replicate into perpetuity. You can also copy a shift and paste it over to the next day or week. This feature lets you save not only the hours and locations as a template, but you can also copy over the employees and their hours if you’d like to make your copies exact.

Paycor Scheduling’s reporting is decent but not exhaustive. You’re given access to payroll, scheduling, employee, and location activity, each of which can be generated within a few seconds after toggling to your preferred fields.

Paycor Scheduling mobile apps

One of the additions to Paycor Scheduling that makes perfect sense for employee scheduling and time tracking is Paycor Scheduling’s Team Chat functionality. It’s available within the web client as well as on mobile. Previously available only to subscribers of the Advanced plan, having Paycor Scheduling Chat available to all users can be seriously useful. Simulating the quick and convenient functionality of apps such as Microsoft Teams and Slack, Paycor Scheduling’s chat widget “Team Chat” enables team members and managers to quickly message each other for scheduling and shift changes.

Team Chat looks straightforward but is actually robustly configurable thanks to various permissions levels. Team Chat lets managers create chat channels, and it’s even possible to share links to various types of files and document types.

Since Team Chat is designed to be used on desktops, mobile phones, and tablets, it optimizes its UI for what works best on whatever device or orientation it is being used. The best feature of Team Chat is that it’s so easy to use. This is one of Paycor Scheduling’s best features and employees will need no training whatever to start using it.

A Few Downsides

Paycor Scheduling does have a few downsides. For example, unlike other tools in this space that offer a comprehensive list of prepackaged templates, Paycor Scheduling offers none. Instead, you’ll have to import your existing schedules from Microsoft Excel or a CSV file, and then save them as a template if you’re keen on not creating a new template within the tool itself.

Another issue with the tool is its reliance on prebuilt master settings. Because you can’t customize the tool and the fields associated with your employees and their schedules, you’re not able to add out-of-the-box settings or special needs for employers and schedules. For example, if you have a truck driver who is allergic to corn, then there’s no way to customize the tool and the schedules to automatically restrict that driver from making corn deliveries during his or her shift. In other systems (namely, Snap Schedule), you can create as many fields as you like, and each of these fields is factored into the automatic scheduling and scheduling conflict override.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Paycor Scheduling is a force to be reckoned with in the shift scheduling space. It’s the cleanest, most modern-looking UI you’ll find, and it’s very easy to use. Plus, it’s one of the more affordable products you’ll find. Add the multifunctional Android and iOS apps and a sterling team chat implementation and Paycor Scheduling really shines as a superb option for SMBs.

However, the tool is missing several key elements that help you automate schedules. Because of these missing features, it might fall short of some businesses’ expectations. This is one instance in which trying out the 30-day free trial is key to determining if Paycor Scheduling can do what your business needs.

Pros

Outstanding design and user interface
Intuitive controls
Full-featured web client and mobile apps
Useful team messaging app

The Bottom Line

Paycor Scheduling (formerly Ximble) is one of the best designed shift schedulers we’ve reviewed to date. A competitive price and a straightforward approach to shift planning make this a well-earned Editors’ Choice pick.

Paycor Scheduling Specs

iOS App	Yes
Maximum Number of Users	Unlimited
Open API	Yes
Android App	Yes
24/7 Support	No
User Forums	No
Unlimited Permissions Levels	Yes
Shift Swapping	Yes
Forecasting	Yes
Employee Portal	Yes
Newsfeed or Group Announcements	Yes
ADP Integration	Yes
Intuit QuickBooks Integration	Yes
Available in Spanish	Yes
Free Trial	Yes

Best Employee Shift Scheduling Picks

October 30, 2020

Use SF Symbols to enhance your interface design – Discover

Symbols are visual guides that help us navigate experiences without words. Whether people are viewing an image on a road sign or an icon within your app, people count on familiar, easy-to-understand symbols to provide contextual information and help them find their way.

SF Symbols provides designers and developers with consistent and customizable symbols that seamlessly integrate with the system font, San Francisco. These symbols are a great resource whether you’re a veteran designer or working primarily in Xcode. The library removes the need to reimagine, resize, and reinvent graphic assets, providing a flexible range of weights and scales and automatic vertical alignment when adapting interfaces to different screen sizes.

Find the right symbol

With more than 2,400 symbols — each available in nine weights and three scales — SF Symbols offers a large variety of options to suit your needs. You can easily browse or quickly search for and copy any of the vector-based icons from the SF Symbols app and paste them inside popular apps like Sketch, Adobe XD, or Figma, where they automatically align with text.

Symbols come in a variety of colors, outlines and filled variants.

Use the SF Symbols app to browse and preview selections before placing them in your project. Many symbols exist in both outline and filled variants which can be used in different contexts. Outlined symbols feature similar characteristics to text, whereas filled symbols provide additional contrast and emphasis.

Tip: When it comes to symbol styles, less is more. Try to stick with a single style to help unify your design within a particular component or context.

Symbols bring a cohesive, familiar look to each part of your interface. As you select and incorporate them, it’s worth considering context — how they appear when next to text and harmonize with the other words and images on the screen.

Aim for symbols that achieve immediate recognition; go for design clarity over creativity. What message do you want that symbol to convey? Would someone new to your app be familiar with it? If not, is there a different symbol that is more in tune with what someone might expect from this icon?

Design custom symbols

If you need to create a custom symbol for your app, the SF Symbols app can help you get started. Search for a symbol that’s similar to what you want to represent, then export it as customizable, vector-based template.

Using a vector editing tool like Illustrator or Sketch, make the changes you need while maintaining a consistent scale and weight to the symbol you’re modifying. Strive to create a symbol that is simple, recognizable, and clearly relates to the action or content it represents. Be mindful of how the SVG layer tree is named and organized; custom symbols must match the structure of the original file.

Creating Custom Symbol Images for Your App

Design with SF Symbols

Working solo or in collaboration, designers and developers will appreciate the simplicity and adaptability of SF Symbols. You can use SF Symbols in apps running in iOS 13 and later, watchOS 6 and later, and tvOS 13 and later, and you’ll be able to use SF Symbols on macOS Big Sur this fall.

Resources

Introducing SF Symbols

SF Symbols introduces a comprehensive library of vector-based symbols that you can incorporate into your app to simplify the layout of user interface elements through automatic alignment with surrounding text, and support for multiple weights and sizes. Learn how easy it is to adapt to different…

SF Symbols 2

SF Symbols make it easy to adopt high-quality, Apple-designed symbols created to look great with San Francisco, the system font for all Apple platforms. Discover how you can use SF Symbols in AppKit, UIKit, and SwiftUI. Learn how to work with SF Symbols in common design tools and how to use them in…

Learn more about SF Symbols

Introduction to Uniform Type Identifiers

October 30, 2020

Solve coding challenges at Runcode.ninja online competition, Nov. 6-9

Enlarge / Shozoku and ninjato are encouraged, but not strictly required, in order to compete.

RunCode

Annual programming competition Runcode.ninja is back again in its fourth year, beginning Friday, November 6. RunCode is a nonprofit organization staffed by volunteers working in their spare time and focused on providing educational opportunities for coders and infosec folks. The online event allows programmers of all experience levels to tackle a wide array of challenges, using any of 14 supported programming languages.

This year, the competition theme is “all things web”—which means that most challenges will have something to do with websites; although the “something” can vary pretty drastically, from user interaction to server log analysis. The event will have more than 30 available challenges, grouped into easy, intermediate, and hard, for competitors to find and upload solutions for.

For each challenge, competitors will be given a problem description, a sample data set, and an expected output to make the desired order and formatting clear. Competitors are expected to generate more test data of their own and thoroughly verify the correctness of their code against all the corner cases they can think of; solutions tested against only the sample data provided will likely fail the challenge. Uploaded code is run in a sandboxed Docker container and its output tested for correctness.

Amazon gift cards ($100, $200, $300, $400, and $500) will be awarded to this year’s top 5 finishers. The event begins Friday, November 6, at 4pm EST and runs through Monday, Nov. 9, at 8am EST. Interested coders and would-be coders can sign up at https://2020.runcode.ninja/quick_reg—which is an entirely different registration from the one on the main site, which allows you to view and try to solve challenges whenever you’d like.

October 30, 2020

Apple One services bundles are now available

You can now choose to pay one flat fee for a number of Apple services, such as Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and extra iCloud storage, with Apple One.

As announced at Apple’s “Time Flies” event in September — and confirmed in Apple’s latest earnings call — the new Apple One bundle is now available to buy in one of three different tiers. Apple has said that it will recommend the best tier for existing users, based on what services they currently use.

However, you can elect to buy an of the three, or you can decide to continue paying for each service separately. Although each of the available tiers does offer savings, you may well want to continue as you are, because the options don’t save money for everyone.

Apart from the amount of iCloud storage you get, the next tier is identical except that it’s a Family Sharing one. For $19.95 per month, you get all of the same services as the individual one, but they can be shared with the family — and you get 200GB iCloud storage.

This is one example where you might prefer to pay separately for each services. If you don’t happen to have a family to share with, the 200GB iCloud storage is attractive but it costs you $4.95 per month above the Individual Plan. And you could get that storage on its own for $2.99 per month.

The third tier is the Premier one, which costs $29.95 per month. It too is meant for family sharing, and it too increases the amount of iCloud storage you get. This time, you have 2TB of extra iCloud storage, which would otherwise cost you $9.99 per month.

However, alongside all of the services that are included in the Individual and Family Sharing plans, the Premier one adds two more services. Premier includes the full Apple News+, and also the new Apple Fitness+.

Those both cost $9.99 apiece, if bought separately. So if you are going to use them, Apple One’s Premier plan could genuinely save you money each month.

All three plans have potential savings, so long as you are already using — or will definitely make use of — everything in the bundle. A user buying the Individual Plan is going to save $6.01 per month, for instance.

Family Plan users will save $8.01 per month. And Premiere Plan users will save $24.99 per month.

That does make the Premiere plan the most beneficial, but it’s only a benefit if you’re using all of the services. Apple doubtlessly hopes that you’ll actually end up increasing how much you spend on its services, because you’re temped into using more of them.

Of course, your needs change, and to help you explore what an Apple One bundle can give you, there are free trial options available. If you already have a service like, for instance, Apple News+, then you won’t get a free trial of that, but you will for the other ones in your bundle.

Apple may also add to the bundles in the future — for instance, the Apple Fitness+ service has been announced but it isn’t available until later in 2020. So now that Apple One is available, it’s worth examining what it can offer you — and maybe checking back as your needs and usage change.

The Apple One subscription option is under a user’s Apple ID, iCloud, Media & Purchases subscription tab. It is gradually rolling out now to all users.

October 30, 2020

Cisco’s Webex Teams suffers outage causing meeting failures

(Reuters) – Cisco Systems Inc’s team collaboration app Webex Teams suffered an outage for more than two hours on Thursday, but the company later said its services had started to recover.

At the time of the outage, Cisco said, users of Webex Teams’ desktop and mobile applications may have experienced delays with receiving messages.

Users may also have seen a signaling delay between the Webex Teams client and devices, and experienced intermittent failures when joining meetings, according to the application’s status page. (bit.ly/37PESHr)

Webex and rival meeting platforms such as Zoom Video Communications Inc and Microsoft Corp’s Teams are being used worldwide to host everything from virtual classrooms and business meetings to church services, as people stay at home due to the pandemic. (reut.rs/3mwqrft)

Reporting by Shreyasee Raj in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V

October 29, 2020

Advisories: “Brazen” Russian ransomware hackers target hundreds of US hospitals

Russian hackers are targeting hundreds of US hospitals and healthcare providers just as the coronavirus is making a comeback and the US presidential election is in its final stretch, officials from three government agencies and the private sector are warning.

The hackers typically use the TrickBot network of infected computers to penetrate the organizations and after further burrowing into their networks deploy Ryuk, a particularly aggressive piece of ransomware, a joint advisory published by the FBI, Health and Human Services, and the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security agency said.

“CISA, FBI, and HHS have credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to US hospitals and healthcare providers,” Wednesday evening’s advisory stated. “CISA, FBI, and HHS are sharing this information to provide warning to healthcare providers to ensure that they take timely and reasonable precautions to protect their networks from these threats.”

Security firm Mandiant said much the same in its own notice, which provided indicators of compromise that targeted organizations can use to determine if they were under attack.

Mandiant Senior VP and CTO Charles Carmakal said in an email to reporters that the targeting was “the most significant cyber security threat we’ve ever seen in the United States.” He went on to describe the Russian hacking group behind the plans as “one of the most brazen, heartless, and disruptive threat actors I’ve observed over my career.” Already several hospitals have come under attack in the past few days, he said.

Crossing lines

“The intention by the threat actor is to hit hundreds of other organizations out there,” he said in an interview. “Most threat actors don’t want to deliberately hit hospital organizations. There’s an ethical line and they choose not to cross it. This particular actor, they have no problem crossing the line. They’re actively targeting healthcare and hospital organizations.”

There are reports of a handful of hospitals that have been hit with cyber attacks over the past few weeks. CNN said it had confirmed that “Universal Health Services, a hospital health care service company based in Pennsylvania; St. Lawrence Health Systems in New York; and the Sky Lakes Medical Center in Oregon were all infected over the past few days.”

Two weeks ago, Microsoft and a host of industry partners took coordinated action to disrupt TrickBot. In a first wave, the partners shut down 62 of 69 command-and-control servers known to be used by the group. When the hackers responded by spinning up 59 new servers, the partners took down all but one. The blows kept the TrickBot operators scrambling to keep the botnet alive.

Microsoft said it took action to protect the US election systems from crippling ransomware attacks in the lead-up to the elections. The New York Times reported that the disruption worked both ways, because it hampered some of the methods researchers have used in the past to track the group.

“The challenge here is because of the attempted takedowns, the TrickBot infrastructure has changed and we don’t have the same telemetry we had before,” the Times quoted Alex Holden, founder of Milwaukee-based Hold Security, as saying. The targeting of hundreds of hospitals indicated the group was using new tactics. Among the new tactics: targeting routers and other types of Internet-of-things devices, which are much harder to bring down.

With both the public and private sectors warning of a grave threat to a critical infrastructure at a crucial time, people in the healthcare industry would do well to check logs, install patches, educate employees about phishing attacks, and take other precautions. The above-linked US government and Mandiant posts also provide a host of actionable advice.

“If you are in #healthcare, you can’t afford to ignore this,” security firm Giga Systems tweeted. “This is not a drill. You are under attack.”

October 29, 2020

Lower air quality in China may mean a surge in iPhone 12 production

Analysts tracking the air quality in China believe that a recent drop may point to a surge in industrial activity related to iPhone 12 production.

The production of iPhones has historically led to a reduction in air quality in four key Chinese cities: Zhengzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Chongqing. By tracking the air quality in these cities, analysts can gauge Apple’s production cycles.

“As of October 26th, air quality data from Zhengzhou, also known as ‘iPhone City,’ shows that industrial production levels have spiked higher recently, about a month later than historical seasonality, which we believe coincides with the ramp in iPhone 12 mass production,” Morgan Stanley analysts Katy Huberty wrote in a note seen by CNBC.

Apple typically announces its new iPhones in September, though it’s likely the coronavirus had slowed down the 2020 production cycle.

October 29, 2020

How Can Enterprises Pilot the New Normal with Next-Gen Applications

Remote working, physical distancing, travel limitations, and the psychological effect of isolation have together changed stakeholders’ behaviors in every organization while creating unexpected challenges along the way. This pandemic has not just disrupted everything once denoted normal but has also been forcing enterprises to navigate the recovery period and develop a new normal for the post-crisis era.

Even amidst the clear need for digital transformation, enterprises are grappling to remain competitive in a world filled with nimble startups. These enterprises were once dependent on their IT models as a key to a competitive edge. Now, however, the same IT cores have made it difficult for them to adopt a new normal centered around flexibility, speed, and efficiency.

With being nimble now accounted as the only way to survive and scale in the COVID-19 world, enterprises have turned their focus on the development of next gen apps.

Table Of Content

The Need for Next Gen Apps

Businesses need apps that will be able to adapt to changing demands and scale to meet customers’ and employees’ needs in real-time. An enterprise application development company by building next-gen apps based on business understanding and customers’ requirements gives enterprises a platform to transform digitally.

Next generation mobile apps and other software help enterprises:

Lower the time to market when meeting the changes in customers’ needs.
Lower product complexity by utilizing a cross-platform, scalable ecosystem.
Make smarter business decisions through analytics backed insights.

What Does Next Generation Application Development Mean for Enterprises? Speed, Efficiency, and Flexibility

The need of the business hour for enterprises, as we noted before, is to look for next generation application management services. This new normal in enterprise software revolves around a trio – Efficiency, Speed, and Flexibility.

Speed – Pre-COVID, release cycles came with months-long completion time. Now, with customers’ needs changing by the minute, enterprises don’t have the leverage of taking up months for deployment. There is no guarantee of a problem staying a problem by the end of those months. The new normal enterprise will have to bring in agile methodology in its application development and maintenance process to offer its stakeholders value in real-time.

Efficiency – The success of every nimble enterprise lies in automation, a well-planned business integration, and the adoption of agile methodologies. And all of this can be achieved through practices like: the integration of AI in mobile apps, re-prioritization of business processes, and weeding out unnecessary feature sets.

Flexibility – Zero downtime has become a success mantra. But its adoption is a lot easier written or said than done. In order to become truly flexible, enterprises must modernize or replace their outdated applications. However, letting go of the legacy system is one of the biggest digital transformation issues.

What enterprises need is a next generation application maintenance program that would make proper use of the modernization spend while enabling digital transformation.

Before we get down to the nitty-gritty of what that next-gen application would look like, let us look at the areas that enterprises would have to work on to compete within themselves and with the startups flooding in the business ecosystems.

Key Transformation Areas for Enterprises

The best thing about enterprises is that they understand how COVID-19 would change them – on some grounds, better than their startups’ counterparts.

The speed of automation will expedite

The automation of key processes and routine tasks has remained at the center of business development for some time now. This need for task and process automation is not new. Back in 2017, McKinsey & Company forecasted that 30 percent of key tasks across industries will get automated by 2030. “Before the pandemic, automation was looked upon as a way to boost efficiency while cutting costs,” said H.I. Executive Consulting. “With social distancing directives likely to stay in place for a while, more and more businesses are accelerating their automation efforts in order to reduce close human contact to a minimum, free up employees to manage crisis response and focus on providing essential services.”

The movement towards remote digital service

The new normal for business after covid will be organizations changing their support and service delivery plans to meet the digital reliance of their employees and customers.

Here are some examples of what a remote digital service looks like.

The digital-powered Russian bank Tinkoff created a cloud-based call center with several freelance employees. The bank focuses completely on virtual servicing. To date, they have expanded into a team of 14,000 call center operators of which 6,000 of them make an average of 500,000 customer calls every day from homes. The bank’s cost of managing and training operators gets offset by the savings made from rental offices and equipment.

In the telecommunication industry, companies have started launching digital-only offerings that redefine customer experiences and gather considerable attraction. The USP of these services lies in customers signing themselves and moreover with more than 80% of customer-care activities being conducted online. In this digital-first model, online referral act as the biggest source for customer acquisition – estimated to be 15% of the total sales.

The success examples are prevalent across multiple industries. This has turned remote service into a trend that has a high-profit potential.

global remote support stat

Supply Chain Disruption May Continue

Global lockdowns have resulted in a massive scale of supply chain disruption. Back in February, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV stopped production in their Serbia factory for they weren’t able to obtain automobile manufacturing parts from China.

The majority of the enterprises understand the manufacturing and delivery process of their Tier 1 suppliers while having little visibility on further the line. The business need is to make the supply chain resilient for the post-COVID period. And in order to do that, enterprises would have to:

develop strong backend infrastructure – possibly by combining blockchain and supply chain processes
remove the dependency from paper-based processes
share data with suppliers for gaining manufacturing stages visibility.

Partnerships will become collaborative and lean

Enterprises can meet the changing partners and vendors’ preferences by shifting to a more collaborative and flexible set of partnerships. These partnerships can be multi-form. Example: An IT consultancy firm could work with remote vendors to decrease their office and travel cost. There can also be enterprises providing agreements with their vendors for long-term opportunities. For example, how Alibaba supports SME suppliers with an extended line of credit.

As a part of the new normal for marketplace, we are seeing partnerships brewing on the basis of an understanding of customer needs, wherein both the partners can mix knowledge and create value. For example, recently, WhatsApp started enabling its customers to directly connect with brands and make purchases through a simplified mobile experience on WhatsApp.

Management systems of a new model

Met with the unsurity of the new reality, enterprises have started looking for ways of adopting virtual management systems in enterprise application development services.

For effectively responding to a fast-changing environment, businesses will consider making use of advanced analytics tools, automation, and digitalized processes to meet customer demand fluctuations in semi real-time. We can also envision enterprise application development solutions being built on human-technology interactions which would help businesses collect insights for IT-driven productivity rise.

To meet with the changes that a post-COVID world would pose, businesses would have to take a modernized approach – one that would help them become cognitive. While this can be achieved through the creation of new-age technologies backed next generation mobile applications services, it would need enterprises to get back to their legacy systems.

Here are some of the application development and maintenance approaches that we have been offering to enterprises coming to us seeking digital transformation consultancy.

The Best ADM Approaches for the Creation of New Normal Enterprise Applications

Optimizing the current IT systems

Enterprises can optimize their present IT systems with modern approaches and tools to cut costs and heighten efficiency. We advise organizations to make use of AI and automation capabilities for ensuring quality and following DevOps steps to lower the development cycle.

By deploying new-generation capabilities and features around existing systems enterprises will be able to innovate and keep their competitive edge – even when they are not prepared for complete cloud transformation. They can attain easier access and modification of the legacy systems through the use of technologies like containers, API integrations, and microservices.

Gather data and convert it into an actionable product in a minimal time range

When we build enterprise applications, we focus on benefiting from cloud-native, digital-first technologies to deliver growth at speed. Deploying speed-focused innovation abilities are generally backed with an MVP, small feedback loop, test-driven development, and a fail-fast approach.

The intent of this approach is to help enterprises take key business decisions and turn them into products that their stakeholders need in as close as real-time.

Schedule a Discussion

Preparing your business for a post-COVID era can be full of doubts and challenges. The time we are presently operating in is one that we have never witnessed before. But the only way to get out of it as an industry leader is to take the nimble approach and focus on making enterprise mobile app development next-gen. We are here to help. Schedule a consultation with our enterprise-focused team to sail through the unprecedented waters.

Sudeep Srivastav

CEO, Appinventiv

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