Apple announced the upcoming releases of several new technologies at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June 2020, including:
Visual Studio Codespaces – an online only development environment
Visual Studio Codespaces – formerly known as Visual Studio Online – allows you to create Visual Studio solutions entirely in the cloud across multiple devices. This development environment is currently in public preview.
Windows 10 Activity History privacy settings
Windows 10 Activity History has local records of apps and services in use, files that were opened, and visited websites. This information may be periodically sent to Microsoft under the default options. These settings can be changed and are found at Start Button > Settings > Privacy > Activity History.
Facebook Manage Activity and Photo Transfer Tool
Facebook will soon release a new feature – Manage Activity – that will allow users to archive or delete their user activity in bulk. Archived items can be still be made available, and deleted items can still be recovered up to 30 days later before they are permanently deleted.
Facebook also has a Photo Transfer Tool that will allow users to transfer their photos in bulk to a new website. This tool only works for Google Photos for now but other options will become available.
Johns Hopkins University coronavirus map site
The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University has created a website with maps that tracks worldwide coronavirus (COVID-19) cases. More information about the website and its data sources can be found at its FAQ page.
Microsoft Build 2020 is now free online event
Microsoft Build has been changed to an online only event this year, and runs from May 19 to May 21, 2020 starting at 8 AM Pacific Time. Registration for this online educational event is free at register.build.microsoft.com.
Google Meet, Skype Meet Now and Facebook Messenger Rooms video meeting tools
Google, Microsoft and Facebook all announced changes or updates to their video meeting tools in April 2020. These are alternatives to the popular Zoom video chat software.
Video meeting tool Google Meet is now available free of charge for all users. This will be a gradual rollout within the next few weeks. Users must sign in with their Google account, but Meet works entirely in a web browser and does not require downloads first.
Skype Meet Now is a different video meeting tool which does not require a sign-up or installation. A unique Meet Now link can be requested from Skype or a web browser.
Facebook has also announced its new meeting tool – Facebook Messenger Rooms. Invited attendees do not need a Facebook account to attend the video meeting and downloads are not required. Rooms is not end-to-end encrypted. This is in addition to their Facebook Workplace and Facebook Work Groups services.
Credit bureaus giving free weekly credit reports now through April 2021
The three major U.S. credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – will now allow Americans to receive free weekly credit reports at AnnualCreditReport.com for a year starting April 20th 2020. These credit reports were previously only free once a year under federal law.
National Emergency Library provides eBooks to students and general public
The Internet Archive has made available thousand of eBooks through its National Emergency Library program. This was done in order to help students, educators and the general public who may not have access to reading materials due to recent current events.
The National Emergency Library can be found at archive.org/details/nationalemergencylibrary. Frequently asked questions about the National Emergency Library may be found here.
GitHub now has free price option for developers
Github now has a free basic option for teams and developers as of April 2020. More information is at their FAQ and price list pages.