The Extra Mighell - April 17, 2020
Technology news for lawyers, among other things
Welcome to issue #2 of The Extra Mighell! A quick explanation for new readers - my last name is pronounced “Mile,” so hopefully the title makes more sense now.
The links here aren’t necessarily the biggest stories of the week - that’s why they’re “extra.” Enjoy!
On to the news….
Online Meetings
Adding to the Zoom misery from the past week, this week we discovered that over 500,000 Zoom accounts were sold on hacker forums. So for gosh sakes, if you have a Zoom account please change your password and enable two-factor authentication. [Bleeping Computer]
If you’re a paying Zoom subscriber, you can now pick the data center from where your calls are routed. In case you don’t want your calls going through China, that is. [The Verge]
Have you visited The Zone yet? It’s a 16-room virtual club built entirely in Zoom. People are paying real money to get into virtual dance clubs. [Bloomberg]
In non-Zoom news, it’s fascinating to see how fast online meeting companies are developing new features for their tools (all in response to Zoom, it appears); Microsoft Teams now allows you to change your background, and Google Meet will soon integrate Gmail and have a grid-style layout. [The Verge/Android Police]
And to those of you who are either enduring dozens of Zoom meetings a week, or avoiding Zoom entirely, it turns out that both Zoom Burnout and FOMO are real. [OneZero]
Security - Cyber and Otherwise
I hope your business is not having to lay off or furlough employees. But in the event you are, keep in mind that there are huge cybersecurity risks for not removing departed employees from company systems, including email and Slack. [Protocol]
Productivity
If you use Outlook Online, use the Sweep feature to move or delete emails from your Inbox. [How-To Geek]
One great feature of Microsoft Teams is the ability to view Smart Time Suggestions when scheduling a meeting. Just plug in the names of your attendees, and Teams will suggest the best times to meet! [Microsoft]
Social
Facebook is adding a Quiet Mode that will silence push notifications. Because maybe a little away time from Facebook is a good idea after a month of quarantine? [The Verge]
New Apps/Tools
(each week I’ll feature some brand-new apps for your consideration - some will make it big, some will fail big, but you could say you were there when they debuted!)
Joshua Browder, the developer behind the terrific DoNotPay app, has rolled out the Unemployment Insurance Checklist, which helps you to file for unemployment in your state
Does your company lack the resources to create videos from scratch? YouTube is rolling out its Video Builder, a free beta tool that animates static objects with music from the YouTube library. If you’re interested, sign up for the beta program.
The makers of project management software Zenkit unveiled Zenkit To Do, which looks an awful lot like Wunderlist (for those Wunderlist users who are looking for a new task manager, hint, hint).
Last week Google changed the name of its chat service from Google Meets Chat (huh?) to simply Google Meet. Arguably, it’s one of the more basic online meeting tools, so some ambitious folks created a Google Meet Enhancement Suite to add all of the features you wish Google Meet had to begin with.
Fun and Games
For those of you who are slowly going crazy working from home, fire up some comforting office sounds from imisstheoffice to make you feel right back at work again.
Even after things get back to normal, I get the feeling a lot of us may still want to use this keychain touch tool, which allows us to open doors and press buttons without touching them.
If your company hasn’t banned Zoom yet, here’s one of the best collection of backgrounds I’ve seen yet - ZoomerBackgrounds.
A lot of people I know are dying to get back to the office, but are still stuck at home. If you’re one of those people, then maybe you can create a Mini-Office in your backyard, starting at a mere $9,000.
Ready for a new spin on your Zoom meeting? Why not hire a sheep, or a pig, or chicken to join your meeting? Sweet Farm offers the innovative Goat-2-Meeting where you can have some animal ambassadors join your meeting to…..talk turkey?
See you next week!
— Tom