Apple is introducing a new feature with the new macOS Catalina 10.15.5 update. Called Battery Health Management, it is designed to extend your MacBook’s battery life by reducing the negative impact of overcharging.

It maintains your MacBook’s battery life by preventing chemical aging on its battery. It does this by not charging your device all the way up to 100 percent, even if it says so on your laptop screen. Apple has not revealed how much of the charge the new feature will reduce, but promises that it won’t have any severe impact on your device’s battery life.

This strategy is not new nor is it unique to MacBooks. In fact, it’s something most modern phones are already doing. Even if you leave your phone to charge, it will avoid charging all the way to 100 percent until shortly before you wake it up. This is because too much charging wears your phone’s battery over time, leading it to lose power much faster the longer you use it.

Which MacBook models will have Battery Health Management?

The new feature is applicable to all MacBooks that support Thunderbolt 3, including MacBook Pro models from 2016 and later, and MacBook Air models from 2013 and later. It’s meant to be on by default, but you can turn it off on macOS’s power settings.

In any case, Battery Health Management may have different effects per user as various factors determine your device’s battery health and optimal performance. These factors include your device’s charging history and battery temperature.

If you’re worried about the feature gathering too much information from your MacBook, Apple has promised that all data is gathered and analyzed locally. The data will only be sent to Apple if you opt into it. Furthermore, all data will be kept confidential.

It will take a few more months to reveal the full impact of this new feature, but it’s a step in the right direction. Considering how people are now more dependent on their laptops because they’re working remotely, extending the battery life of MacBooks will boost their productivity.

What else can you do to extend your device’s battery life?

In addition to using the Battery Health Management feature, you can take these steps to keep your MacBook’s battery in good condition longer:

#1. Keep your software updated
Apple constantly releases updates designed to address issues and boost the performance of its devices. Simply updating to the latest MacOS version equips your MacBook with the latest upgrades to help improve its battery life.

#2. Avoid extreme temperatures
Although MacBooks are designed to perform well in different ambient temperatures, using and charging them in extreme heat or cold will damage their batteries. MacBooks function optimally at room temperature — anything below 10 degrees Celsius and above 35 degrees Celsius is detrimental. Even storing your device’s battery in such temperatures should be avoided.

#3. Be careful what case you use
During charging, certain case styles and materials can raise your MacBook’s temperature. As stated above, high temperatures are not optimal and will damage your device’s battery. If you notice your computer heating up during charging and while its case is on, take the case off. Refrain from using the case while charging in the future.

#4. Take the right storage precautions
If you are storing your MacBook and won’t be using it for some time, then taking the following precautions will help preserve battery life.

• Keep your device’s battery half-charged. Draining its power completely or charging it fully prior to storage will result in battery issues.
• Turn off your device during storage as keeping it on will gradually drain its power.
• Keep your device in a dry environment with a temperature of less than 32 degrees Celsius.
• If you’re not using the device for an extended period, take it out every six months and charge it to 50 percent.

Discover more ways to get the most out of your Apple computers by giving us a call today!

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The coronavirus outbreak has necessitated people to work away from each other, so employees are now setting up offices at home. If you’re a remote worker, or if your business is planning to move to a work from home setup soon, make sure that your employees’ internet bandwidth can handle work-related processes. This way, your transition goes as smoothly as possible.

What is bandwidth?

Bandwidth refers to the maximum data transfer rate possible in a network or internet connection. It indicates the amount of data that can be sent over a connection in a given amount of time, and is usually expressed in bits per second (bps) or bytes per second (Bps).

Imagine two computers with the same internet speed at 100 megabit per second (Mbps): the first computer only has a 50 Mbps bandwidth, while the second one has 100 Mbps. If they were to download the same 500 Megabit (Mb) file, the first computer would be able to do it in 10 seconds, while the second one could do it in just five.

This is because the first computer’s bandwidth is capped at 50 Mbps — even if the internet was fast, the limit of transfer would still be low. Therefore, the higher the bandwidth, the more data can be sent over a connection, contributing to faster uploads and downloads, and overall better internet experience.

How much bandwidth do you need for remote working?

The answer to this question isn’t clear cut. The biggest considerations are the type of work that you do and the apps that you use. If your job mostly consists of sending emails, editing and writing on Google Docs, and communicating on Slack, then you can do your job with ease even with a low bandwidth. On the other hand, if you frequently attend meetings through video calls, then you’d definitely need a plan with higher bandwidth.

Once you have a clear picture of how much data you send and receive on an average work day, you can start looking for plans that can support your needs. And while you definitely don’t need to conduct virtual meetings in 4K quality, you also won’t want your clients and colleagues to appear pixelated during a meeting. Neither would you want a session that gets choppy or cut off mid-conversation.

Here are the minimum requirements for the most common video chat apps used by remote workers today:

• Zoom

For 1:1 video calling:

• • 600 Kbps (up/down) for high-quality video
  • 1.2 Mbps (up/down) for 720p HD video
  • Receiving 1080p HD video requires 1.8 Mbps (up/down)
  • Sending 1080p HD video requires 1.8 Mbps (up/down)

For group video calling:

• • 800 Kbps/1.0 Mbps (up/down) for high-quality video
  • For 720p HD video: 1.5 Mbps (up/down)
  • Receiving 1080p HD video requires 2.5 Mbps (up/down)
  • Sending 1080p HD video requires 3.0 Mbps (up/down)

• Google Meet

HD video quality  

• • Outbound signals must always meet a 3.2 Mbps bandwidth requirement. 
  • Inbound signals: 2.6 Mbps with two participants; 3.2 Mbps with five participants; and 4.0 Mbps with 10 participants

Standard definition (SD) video quality

• • Outbound signals must always meet a 1 Mbps bandwidth requirement.
  • Inbound signals: 1 Mbps with two participants; 1.5 Mbps with five participants; and 2 Mbps with 10 participants

• Skype

Video calling

• • HD: 1.2 Mbps (up/down)
  • SD: 400 Kbps (up/down)
  • The more participants, the higher the bandwidth requirement for downloads: 512 Kbps for three participants; 2 Mbps for five participants; and 4 Mbps for seven people. Upload requirements remain constant at 128 Kbps.

• Microsoft Teams

Teams requires the same upload and download internet bandwidth for the following scenarios:

• • 30 Kbps for peer-to-peer audio calling
  • 1.2 Mbps for peer-to-peer HD-quality video calling at 720p 
  • 1.5 Mbps for peer-to-peer HD-quality video calling at 1080p
  • 500 Kbps/1 Mbps for group video calling

If you’re worried about your internet bandwidth, you can opt for audio calls instead of video calls. This considerably helps lower the information you need to upload and download. For more tips and solutions on how you can work from home without a hitch, call us. We’d be happy to help.

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Business automation is quickly becoming a necessity for most organizations. While human input is still essential, automating processes — and powering them with artificial intelligence (AI) — has allowed for more efficient and effective operations. As telecommunications continue to play a big part in running most business operations, AI developers are also introducing advances in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) that will take automation to a whole new level.

Contact center operations
Highly automated VoIP technology enables businesses to manage their call centers easily and reduce the need for human intervention.

For example, AI-integrated VoIP systems can determine a caller’s personality, mood, and queries, so calls are routed to the agent best equipped to handle them. This makes call center operations more seamless and cost-efficient, because this reduces the need for a help desk operator to answer calls just to redirect them.

Interactive voice response (IVR) systems
An IVR system is designed to automatically respond to customer queries, which is extremely helpful for high call volumes.

AI enhances this feature by working in the background as AI assistants gathering all relevant customer data such as personal information and recent transactions to resolve a query. For more nuanced queries, the AI “worker” sends this information to the business representative, who will be much better able to serve the customer.

Conferencing capabilities
Web conferencing has improved over the years with internet speeds and telecom technology constantly developing. AI advances it even further with real-time language translation and speech recognition technology, which greatly benefits businesses with multiple geographic locations and whose stakeholders come from diverse backgrounds.

AI-enabled web conferencing can even provide intelligent prompts and relevant data to guide your conversations and ensure a fruitful meeting.

Chatbot functions
Chatbots are useful programs that receive instructions via textual or auditory means to perform automated tasks.

Like IVR systems, bots are used by businesses to automate customer interactions. AI-powered chatbots go beyond regular bot duties by performing more complex tasks like setting up meetings, inviting attendees, managing schedules, and much more.

With AI-powered systems promising improvements in contact center operations, customers’ IVR experiences, web conferencing, and scheduling, businesses are understandably eager to adopt them. There’s so much more that VoIP systems can do for your business, and we’ve got the expertise to handle all your VoIP-related concerns. Just call us today.

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Google made its foray into web browsers with Chrome in 2008. With its remarkable speed and ease, Chrome was welcomed by many users. However, over time, the browser becomes a bit sluggish, especially if you’ve installed extras such as extensions. Follow these easy steps to ramp up your Chrome browser's speed.

Clear your browsing data

Chrome stores cached copies of websites you visit so it can load the page faster when you visit them again. It also keeps a database of your browsing history and cookies for the same purpose. As you visit more and more websites, these pieces of data accumulate in Chrome and can slow the browser down.

Thankfully, the solution is easy: clear your cache. Simply access your browsing history by entering chrome://history in your address bar. From the left panel, select Clear browsing data. Choose which data to delete by clicking on the checkboxes of all items you want deleted, like cached images or cookies. You can also select the time range that will be affected by the deletion. You can delete your history for the past hour, the last 24 hours, the last seven days, and from the beginning of time. Once you’ve selected the files you want to delete and their corresponding time range, click Clear data.

Disable extensions

Extensions are downloadable programs from the Chrome Web Store that you can add to your browser to give it more functionality and a personalized touch. For example, you can add an extension that blocks ads, one that shortens URLs, or one that shows your most important tasks of the day. While these extensions are useful, they can slow Chrome down if there are too many installed at once.

Most extensions will show on Chrome’s address bar, and you can quickly uninstall them by right-clicking on their icons and selecting Remove from Chrome. You can also manage all extensions by typing chrome://extensions in your browser and hitting Enter. From there, you’ll find a list of all the extensions you have (even those you don’t remember installing). Simply scroll through the list and click Remove to delete the extensions you don’t need.

Remove ads and malware

Sometimes, Chrome slows down because of malware or adware extensions. Extra toolbars, recurring pop-up ads, and web pages redirecting to other addresses are clear indications of these. Google once had a downloadable app developed for Chrome that scans and removes unwanted programs called the Clean Up Tool. In 2018, Google discontinued that app and made malware scanning even easier. Just type chrome://settings/cleanup in your browser, and click on Find to detect and remove harmful software on your computer.

A top-performing web browser benefits your business in many ways, including enhancing your employees’ productivity and speeding up communication. If your web browser is performing poorly or takes forever to load a page, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us so we can identify and fix the problem right away.

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