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Microsoft pulls in LinkedIn details for Outlook.com users
It's only been a day since Microsoft killed Outlook.com premium features like tougher email security and more storage and brought them to Office 365 members instead. Today, the company announced that it will bring LinkedIn integration to Outlook.com subscribers, a feature that has been part of Windows 10 since June of this year.
LinkedIn smart replies help you feign interest in business lunches
Smart replies in email and messaging apps are more than a little impersonal, but that's not necessarily a bad thing with LinkedIn. Do you really want to hand-craft messages to someone who's just trying to arrange a sales pitch? You won't have to after today. LinkedIn has introduced smart message replies that use machine learning to offer up to three canned responses based on the conversation. If someone wants a business lunch, you can ask when they'd like to meet with a single tap. It's certainly cold, but it might fit the bill if you want to fast-forward through the empty formalities that often come with work-related chats.
Facebook is testing a LinkedIn-like résumé feature
Business Insider reports that Facebook appears to be testing a LinkedIn-like résumé/CV feature. The new addition was spotted by web developer Jane Manchun Wong and screenshots of the feature were posted on Twitter by The Next Web's Matt Navarra.
LinkedIn would like to add autoplay ads to your professional network
LinkedIn is synonymous with email spam for many users, and their latest announcement isn't going to help their reputation. According to Recode, the company (which is now owned by Microsoft) is going to start selling autoplay video ads that users will see in their feeds. The good news here is that the videos will play without sound.
Tech CEOs sign letter urging Trump to keep immigrant protections
Hundreds of CEOs have signed an open letter urging President Trump not to dissolve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Started in 2012 under the Obama administration, DACA allows undocumented immigrants who arrived to the US before they were 16 years old to obtain work permits and protection from deportation. Those with DACA permits have to renew them every two years and nearly 800,000 immigrants have benefited from the program.
One week with Microsoft Cortana
"Never mind it. Never mind," I cursed, looking down on the poorly formed monstrosity that gazed back at me with a singular pulsing eye. No, not at me -- through me. This was not my trusty Google Assistant, with whom I shared a deep logistical and day-planning-based bond. This thing barely looked like the AI to which I was accustomed and -- even then -- only in passing. This alien program appears to have eaten my digital assistant and started wearing its skin -- and I'm about to spend the next week having it organize my life.
LinkedIn's app can record and share video, not that you would
Picture the scene: Your boss calls a snap meeting. You, being the diligent worker, whip out your phone and start recording. Your colleagues look on in bewilderment. "What are you playing at?" your boss asks sternly. "I'm recording our sesh for LinkedIn. It has video now. Trust me, it's the next big thing." How do you think that's going to go down? Unless you work for a YouTube vlogger, probably not well.
LinkedIn can’t block scrapers from monitoring user activity
Your LinkedIn activity could soon be used to keep tabs on you at work. On Monday, a US federal judge ruled that the Microsoft-owned social network cannot block a startup from accessing public data. The company in question, hiQ Labs, scrapes LinkedIn info to create algorithms that can predict whether employees are likely to quit their jobs. The case could also have a wider impact on the control social media sites wield over your info.
LinkedIn built a Tinder for business advice
The ability to swipe left and right to determine if you want to do business with someone is Tinder's signature feature. It's been copied by hundreds of imitators, but few would have expected the staid LinkedIn to be one of them. The Microsoft-owned professional network is rolling out a swipey-choosey feature that will enable hungry entrants to the world of work to choose a mentor.
Surface, LinkedIn, and cloud revenue are bright spots for Microsoft
Good news for Microsoft: Its Surface revenues have rebounded from last quarter's slump, when sales fell 26 percent over the previous year. For the fourth quarter, Microsoft reports that Surface sales only fell 2 percent year-over-year. Sure, decreases aren't generally good, but in this case it's a sign that sales have actually picked back up. It's not a huge surprise why: Microsoft revealed the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro in June. Even though they arrived during the tail-end of the quarter, they likely added a bit to the company's ledger. Overall, Microsoft reported revenues of $23.3 billion for the fourth quarter, a 13 percent increase over last year, and it also doubled its profits, reaching $6.5 billion.
Google job listings app Hire now available in the US
Google might be able to help a lot of Americans find their next jobs. Mountain View has officially launched its job listings app and LinkedIn competitor Hire, a few months after its website was first spotted. The company designed Hire to integrate seamlessly with G Suite apps in order to make the hiring process easier for small to mid-sized businesses. It's not exactly something you'll use as an applicant, but it has features that can prevent recruiters from dropping off the face of the Earth because they lost your emails or info.
LinkedIn's incessant connection requests are coming to Windows 10
If you're running Windows 10, your job search may have gotten a bit easier. Microsoft has announced that with the new LinkedIn app for its desktop OS, you'll be able to access the full business-minded social network experience from the Start menu and task bar along with all those ads. You can even make it a Live tile if you'd like. So yep, all the people you've never met before who want you to join their professional network will invade your serene desktop experience if you install this.
Russia blocks protest app for refusing to share data
Back in 2013 when messaging apps seemed to be cropping up every day, Zello's walkie-talkie audio dispatches seemed a novel addition to a crowded niche. We didn't anticipate that the app would become a hit with protesters in Ukraine, Turkey, Hong Kong, Venezuela, and elsewhere. But after the simultaneous demonstrations around Russia in the last couple weeks, it seems the government is hitting the perpetrators where they coordinate: Yesterday, they banned the use of Zello in the country.
LinkedIn tries to be your tech news source with 'Trending Storylines'
Most every social network offers a news aggregation service to help keep its users abreast of what's happening in the world around them. However, many of these feeds (looking at you Twitter and Facebook) tend to devolve into echo chambers as users both consciously and unconsciously filter out dissenting opinions. On Wednesday, LinkedIn announced that it is debuting its own aggregation service, dubbed "Trending Storylines", which aims to help members of its community break out of their respective bubbles and find more diverse news sources.
LinkedIn mercifully redesigns its cluttered homepage
LinkedIn, the professional network that everyone loves to hate, is rolling out a big redesign on the web. And as is often the case with social networks these days, LinkedIn appears to be taking serious "inspiration" from another company -- in this case, Facebook. (Just take a look at that screenshot!) Regardless of where this inspiration came from, it's long overdue. LinkedIn has definite utility, but it also has a long history of being obtuse, cluttered and just plain difficult to us (and the less said about LinkedIn's email practices, the better).
eBay and LinkedIn founders back research into ethical AI
Some big names in the tech world aren't just fretting over the possibility of dangerous AI, they're taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen. LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar (through his Omidyar Network) are pouring a total of $20 million into a newly created Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund that will fuel research into the social considerations around AI. The organization wants to be sure that machines aren't just guided by "engineers and corporations" -- they should consider the input of everyone from social scientists through to economists and politicians.
Russia demands LinkedIn's removal from iTunes and Google Play
Russia wants to scrub LinkedIn's presence from the country completely. According to The New York Times, people in the country can no longer download the social network's mobile application from the App Store or Google Play. Russian authorities required Apple and Google to kill the app from the local version of their software markets, a couple of months after a local court ruled that the service violated its data protection rules.
Data breach at LinkedIn's Lynda.com affects 55,000 accounts
Microsoft is getting a little bit more than it bargained for now that its acquisition of LinkedIn is official. LinkedIn's training site Lynda.com is notifying users of a database breach that includes the passwords of just under 55,000 accounts. All those passwords were "cryptographically salted and hashed" to prevent access the site says, but it's resetting the logins just in case. Lynda.com is also alerting 9.5 million customers "out of an abundance of caution," according to the email it's sending to users.
Malware uses Facebook and LinkedIn images to hijack your PC (updated)
Malware doesn't always have to attack your computer through browser- or OS-based exploits. Sometimes, it's the social networks themselves that can be the problem. Researchers at Check Point have discovered that a variant of known ransomware, Locky, is taking advantage of flaws in the way Facebook and LinkedIn (among others) handle images in its bid to infect your PC. The trick forces your browser to download a maliciously coded image file that hijacks your system the moment you open it. If you do, your files are encrypted until you pay up.
Russian court confirms the country is blocking LinkedIn
LinkedIn has been in a standoff with Russia over the country's data protection laws. At issue is an order requiring companies that have personal data on Russian citizens to be stored on servers within the country itself. Last week, a local court ruled that LinkedIn was officially not in compliance with the ruling and had leeway to start blocking the site; today, Russian communications legislator Roskomnadzor released a statement confirming that Moscow's city court upheld the decision to officially block the site in Russia.
